stevkrause

yea, his voice is a little rough to listen to, so if he's going to be a permanent radio guy, he'll definitely need to start drinking something to smooth that out, but his personality is good... he'll get better with the timing too as things go...

I'm not saying it means hell be back, but that's basically how post concussion syndrome works... out of the blue

Helm is a perfect example, he's got all the hockey smarts in the world but is dumb as a rock, haha

Until there is ANY consistency in this league, it will continue to be a fringe league at best and viewed as such... The league should pay Paul Tagliabue(former NFL commissioner) to be a consultant for league operations and hire an actual commissioner who knows the game for the game aspect.... *cough* Ken Dryden *cough*... then put another deputy commissioner who had final say over all discipline and rule aspects who was a smart guy and knew the game from a player perspective *cough* Brendan Shanahan *cough* such a novel concept... I guarantee if you made Dryden the commissioner, kept Campbell as one deputy commissioner, then split the duties and made Shanahan another deputy commissioner in charge of discipline and payed Tagliabue to consult from a business/operations standpoint, the NHL would be the #2 sport in America within 10 years... no doubt.

exactly.

and most of that list includes guys that never got a second chance in a positive environment and were expected to be the savior of the organization right out of the gate... not everyone is an Ovechkin, some players NEED development...

Patrick Eaves

There'd be a HUGE difference of him being a bottom paired D and expected to be a top 2 right out of the gate, on a defensively weak LA - I'd welcome him here with open arms and it'd be a steal.... I guarantee those numbers would drastically improve here and maybe he'd have a chance to actually grow into that hype....

this. I can't believe they don't ban him from the pressers...

I wasn't really referring to it being low, I think the minutes should be balanced more, sometimes switching up pairings depending on matchups, but generally going with those 3 and balancing them, where each pair gets about 20 mins...

no one's saying replace, rather fill a hole... as well as possible... I think Lidstrom is the best defenseman to ever play the game and I think that's above Orr, Potvin, Bourque, Coffey, etc... he played the most overall complete game and there has never been a smarter player to lace them up...

trust me, it's not ideal, I'd rather it be Ericsson-Lilja, then Ericsson-Janik and would REALLY prefer it to be Lilja-Lidstrom, but that wouldn't give Lidstrom any rest... he's starting to break down and we need to preserve him a little.... Also, as long as Miller stays up and we have such solid PK forwards... Meech hasn't looked terribly out of place on the PK while Kronwall and then Ericsson were out... our PK was quite strong as a matter of fact... I think Meech is serviceable when he simplifies his game - chase the puck, dump the puck.

http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=62461

Leino should in no way, shape or form replace Miller...

Miller, hands down - very defensively reliable and showing he can score from time to time... GREAT PK guy...

Meech has outplayed Lebda HANDS down and has been serviceable with Stuart, but is still too much of an Off D-man to be with E... Once Kronwall is back, I'd really like to see these pairings - I'd really like to see 1. Lidstrom-Ericsson 1a. Kronwall-Rafalski 1b. Stuart-Meech spilt time up, get Lidstom some rest and focus him on PP time PP pairings: Lidstrom-Rafalski Kronwall-Stuart PK Pairings: Kronwall-Stuart Ericsson-Meech

Can we wait until we know what our team will look like after retirement before we worry about possible FA's?

Are you high? There is nothing of merit to ANY of your points... you're spot on with most of this, except I think he could easily be top 2... Stuart with Kronwall is a LOT different than Stuart with Meech...

I still get weary about the synthetic ice and the impact it will have on my blades... they had one of these at my home rink back when I played travel hockey, but I never used it... always weirded me out... then again, this was 12 years ago, so the technology has probably greatly improves... still weirds me out though...

Holland is too classy to do so, but I wouldn't mind him throwing an offer sheet at Erik Johnson in STL or Kris Letang from PIT(be an extra nice jab to take one of their young players)I F the unthinkable happens(don't want to actually say it, but it involves a very talented Swede with a big cap hit and retirement) Of the UFA's, the only ones I'd want to take a flier on would be Volchenkov or Seidenberg Otherwise, I'd stand pat - no reason to take up more cap space with a bottom 3 pairing D - just re-sign and bring up Janik fulltime, let Lebda walk and re-sign/keep Meech as the number 7 for league min...

Lidstrom-Rafalski Kronwall-Stuart Ericsson-Janik now THAT would be ideal

without a doubt... Meech has outplayed him hands down... and that doesn't say a whole lot

We didn't say we agreed... we said that's where the consensus is... and sadly, it is... My personal rank is: 1. NHL 2. NFL . . . . . 3. MLB 4. NCAA FB 5. UFC 6. everything else... except Nascar... it's not a sport...

Unfortunately, I think right now it's - 1. NFL 2. NCAA Football 3. MLB 4. NCAA Basketball 5. Nascar 6. NBA 7. UFC 8. NHL

Fair enough - at bare minimum, it could far supplant the NBA and be damn close to MLB in the US and as an overall league in North America (between Canada AND US) be the #2 sport... Like someone else said, the main thing holding it back, is it's accessibility and representation in schools - this is also something that would need to be changed, but I don't think it's crazy to suggest it... will it happen, almost definitely not, but COULD it happen? Without a doubt given the proper leadership and direction... That's all I'm driving at...