stevkrause

For an otherwise stellar program as far as handling players and the class of the organization overall, there was not a single situation handled worse than the Curtis Joseph fiasco and it still bothers me to this day how it went down... It still infuriates me how Curtis Joseph was treated here and how raw of a deal he got... he was flat out STELLAR in the playoffs both years (especially in 03-04) and was made a scapegoat for an offense that couldn't score and a coaching staff that couldn't adjust to life without Scotty and a head coach in Dave Lewis that wasn't ready to be an NHL head coach... Curtis Joseph's Playoff Stats here in Detroit: Year Team League GP W L OT Min. GA SA GAA PCT SO 2003-04 Detroit NHL 9 4 4 - 518 12 197 1.39 .939 1 2002-03 Detroit NHL 4 0 4 - 289 10 120 2.08 .917 0 Regular Season: Year Team League GP W L OT Min. GA SA GAA PCT SO 2003-04 Detroit NHL 31 16 10 - 1708 68 744 2.39 .909 2 2002-03 Detroit NHL 61 34 19 - 3566 148 1676 2.49 .912 5 If you watched ANY of the '04 playoffs, the poor guy stood on his head and lost games 1-0 or 2-1 and his offense gave him NO scoring support, only to be basically ousted in the off-season for an injury plagued Dominik Hasek that was not in physical condition at the time to justify the move(who had already retired and was a year removed from hockey, let alone NHL hockey) and never got the shot at the cup that he so badly deserved...

if he can stay healthy and the Collitis doesn't flare up, that's one hell of a bargain signing and could be a steal... this is a pretty damn good risk/reward signing, because if he's healthy, he's a border line top 6 guy and a great team guy from what I've read, but if he doesn't, they can IR him and it frees up the every penny of cap space they need and it's a league min contract anyways... pretty savvy signing actually imho

He was just good in '03, he WAS stellar in '04 - losing the last 2 games of the series 1-0 is all that needs to be said and he let in MAYBE 2 bad goals in BOTH playoff runs combined, that is no excuse at all... he was never even part of the problem and a goalie can't be part of the solution, when the solution is goal scoring...

Legace collapsed under the pressure of being a #1 goalie and Fedorov spit in the organization's face for a paycheck and an ego problem - both of these are HORRIBLE examples...

As he shouldn't - he was a consummate professional here and was a whipping boy for a team that was looking for an identity after the loss of the most iconic coach in NHL history and coming off of a Stanley Cup, with a Stanley Cup hangover... he basically walked into the perfect storm.... Unfortunately, the front office gave the team to the wrong coach... I still think to this day that Barry Smith would have done a 1000x better job in that role, as he simply commanded more respect than Dave Lewis did... in the end... CuJo suffered for a situation he had nothing to do with... Agreed, the CuJo mask looked amazing in red... I gotta say though, I really love Jimmy's mask and the spin they put on it with the odometer and the retired numbers...

From May - http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2010/05/mike_ilitch_on_wxyt_red_wings.html They will be there for at least the 2010-2011 season...

yea, no kidding, the beginning of NHL 2010 is ridiculous... I really hope they change this for 2011...

he really did have an exceptional playoff, for sure! Dom was OUTSTANDING in 02 as well...

I didn't say Fleury was a great playoff goalie, I said in his SC run, he played well in the finals... please do not put words in my mouth... Also, a CAREER .911 SV% is actually pretty good, so where are you going with this? Also, Fleury has a much larger sample size than Niemi, so Niemi's #'s could still go up or down - I was MERELY comparing the 2 SCF RUNS... I personally think in today's NHL that you don't build around a goalie anyways, so I think that neither should be highly paid, I was just putting things in perspective... Also, if you average it out, it actually makes Fleury's run a very good SCF performance... hardly mediocre... I did the actual math and the numbers say it all: Fleurys 2009 SCF: SA - 195 GA - 178 SV% - .913 Niemi's 2010 SCF: SA - 178 GA - 157 SV% - .882 That is hardly the same...

also factor in that Niemi's numbers were boosted by the generally low scores and shots on net by Vancouver and San Jose... his numbers were pretty poor in the SCF actually, whereas (and trust me, it hurts me to say this, as I hate saying anything positive about any player of the Penguins) Fleury pretty much stood on his head for their cup in '09 against Detroit in the Finals... just something to keep in mind - big time players, play big in big games... Fleury's SCF numbers - look at just the SCF series: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/3341/gamelog;_ylt=AqrjM3hlPa8CVRFke_ghdJ5ivLYF?year=2008 Niemi's SCF numbers - look at just the SCF series: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/4432/gamelog;_ylt=AmM208uL1C6Nir_TQIzqkxdivLYF

haha, I'm going to go on a limb and guess this wasn't his place... back to the topic at hand though, I don't think it's really the same, because he was part of a Stanley Cup winning team and that was his day with the cup, his attire doesn't really make a difference... I just think it's just a nice little shot at his former club by wearing his new team's jersey and in a way, showing the fans of Atlanta that he's "all in" as a Thrasher... he still prob could have worn an Atlanta Braves shirt or something and sent the same message though and this was probably a less than stellar decision on his part, but I don't think it's that big of a deal... however, I do agree that this would be the end of the world, had Versteeg pulled such a move... you don't mess with Leaf nation, those SOB's are insane, haha

I think you were replying as I was editing... look at the time stamps, haha, I went back and edited it as soon as I posted it

You mean 6 plus Jeff Finger and a pylon... I mean, Brett Lebda That's actually a pretty damn good top 5 and Gunnarsson isn't a slouch either and is still developing... I still can't believe they signed Lebda and for that price, that was EASILY one of the worst signings of the off-season and they will regret it BIG time when he's in the press box, eating up cap...

The Swiss and the Norwegian programs are actually really starting to develop(Swiss moreso)... I wouldn't be surprised at all to start seeing more of those country's players work their way into the NHL over the next 10-15 years...

Bure was not THAT great of a stick handler, not even in the same class as Kovalev or esepcially Datsyuk... don't get me wrong, he was no schlub when it came to hands, but it was his speed that made him so dangerous, not necessarily his hands... like I already said, Kovalev is the ONLY one that even comes close to Datsyuk and I still have to give the edge to Pasha - Kovalev makes some pretty moves and has AMAZING hands but Datsyuk's CONTROL and strength on the puck WITH those hands, is what gives him the edge over Kovalev...

no, no, no, no no... it was towards T. Low as well, I was agreeing with you!

I think Winnipeg could DEFINITELY handle another NHL team - their economy has done a 180 since they lost the Jets and Manitoba (which is further north) is consistently in the highest attendance in the AHL... another market I think would flourish, that no one even looks at, is Wisconsin... they have a TON of hockey fans there and their college team is always pretty successful... with that said, I think, if anything, the NHL should relocate 2 of Phoenix, Atlanta or Florida to these markets however though, rather than expanding... also, I think another team in the Toronto area is a bad idea as well...

perfect! I don't understand why people feel the need to even post when they're adding absolutely no substance to a thread... even if it's just a light-hearted, silly thread, such as this... if someone just wants to join a thread to be an ass, take it to another board...

he fakes left... wait, he FAKES about faking left... WAIT, he fakes, FAKING, no he THINKS about faking, faking... I need to sit down...

If anything it's based off of NOT solely watching one player... I've watched a ton of hockey from a ton of leagues - NHL, SEL, FEL, KHL and anything else I can stream online... and Kovalev is the only one that's EVER even comes CLOSE to Datsyuk, the more hockey you watch, the more it just proves how superior his hands are to everyone else...

It's definitely mid-August on LGW this is a pretty cool stat just for gits and shiggles though, even though I see absolutely no connection...

I mentioned it several times on this board before, but it was probably about 6 or 7 years ago, I went a game at the Joe and Pavel had really just started bursting onto the scene (it was only like his 3rd or 4th season with the Wings full time), well anyways, like I said, he had been with the Wings for several years, so I was fully aware of who he was and was just starting to get an idea of just HOW good he was/could be... we went to the game early for warm-ups and after almost everyone else was done with warm-ups and skating back off, he skated into the crease at about the top of the crease and repeatedly (at least 20 times in a row) shot the puck so that it hit the side post, then crossbar, then back down to his stick *ding, ding, dink* , like a double bank shot in billiards... Like I said he did this about 20 times WITHOUT FAIL and without barely moving his stick more than 2 inches each time to adjust to where the puck landed... I was absolutely awe-struck at his control and hands... Fast forward to today and all the CONTINUED highlight moves and I can confidently say, WITHOUT hesitation, that Pavel Datsyuk has the single greatest puck control/hands in the history of the game... go ahead and try and argue who is/has been better? It's like the guy LITERALLY has the puck attached to his stick by a string and is a once in a lifetime (possibly history) that you will ever see a player with that ability... and DAMN are we lucky it is happening in the Winged Wheel...

I disagree, the overall defensive game and the quality of goal-tending has DRASTICALLY improved since then (not to mention equipment and technology behind it) and you can't judge everything by point totals... just because guys were putting up insane numbers does not equate to a better on-ice product - The NHL was primarily all NA players through the 80's and it wasn't until the mid 90's that it really expanded to a world wide talent pool... I think the quality of players in the game today is FAR better than it was back then and if you put both talent pools AS A WHOLE into one league, in their primes, today's pool(AS A WHOLE) would destroy the talent pool(AS A WHOLE) from back then(keep in mind, I'm saying AS A WHOLE... there have always been individuals that are exceptions to the rule, that would have most likely excelled regardless of the scenario - Gretzky, Bossy, Lemieux, Messier, etc...)

This is dead on, the real solution, I think is to expand rosters to 24 for the regular season and thus adjust the salary cap by about 800k - If these players that are left want to play in the NHL bad enough, they will lower their price tag to make it happen... I also think a key solution could be the luxury tax system I have proposed in the past: http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.php/topic/65289-luxury-tax-system I had some time to think about it, and made some amendments to the guidelines, but I still think this would help make the league a LOT better across the board: 1. Teams can exceed the cap by up to 10% of the cap, but must match dollar for dollar for every amount they go over (ex. if a team goes over the cap by 5 million, they must pay an additional 5 million into a league revenue sharing program) 2. All the money generated by teams utilizing the Luxury Tax will be dispersed to all the other teams in the NHL which are ONLY ABOVE the cap floor by 50% or less (ex. If the cap floor is 50 million and the ceiling is 70 million - all teams with a cap of 60 million or less would get an equal cut of the Luxury Tax pool, as opted) 3. ALL TEAMS which receive money from this Luxury Tax pool get a new, modified floor and MUST exceed the cap floor by at least 110% of the Luxury Tax money they were given (ex. If the cap floor is 50 million and Team X receives 1 million in Luxury Tax sharing, their new cap floor becomes 51.1 million) or they can opt for only a percentage of the revenue sharing revenue offered (under the same guidelines as above, 110% rule, etc, etc) or opt out of the revenue sharing all together and the revenue would then get dispersed to the rest of the qualifying teams - If for any reason there were revenue left over from the revenue sharing system, it would get evenly split between the 30 teams and has no salary cap implications(basically it would just go back into the owner's pockets) 4. Teams are given a home grown cap relief player - Every team can designate ONE player on their roster which is given a "Franchise Tag"(player must have been drafted by the team to qualify) - 20% of this players salary will NOT count against the cap (this applies to both the floor and the ceiling) but WILL count towards the luxury tax total if it takes the team over the cap - This tag must be applied yearly (ex. If player X was tagged in 2009, it does not mean they are automatically tagged in 2010 and the team can opt to tag a different player, if desired) - They still cannot exceed the league max contract and if they are traded, the team absorbing the contract absorbs 100% of the contract as the cap hit I think this system would actually pump MORE money into the league from the bigger teams which are willing to pay it, however, since it has a HARD cap value of only 10% over, teams will not be able to go out and just buy up all the talent in the league, or simply throw money at their problems (ala NY Yankees) - Also, the smaller markets would be given more money, which they would HAVE to spend on their team, to improve their on ice talent... this also encourages players to stay where they came from, thus letting markets attach themselves to players closer and fan bases to have investments in individual players (good for marketing) I don't see how this could do anything but positive things for the league and think, if anything, it would actually create BETTER parity...

Agreed completely... All and all, I have been VERY happy with this off-season and this is probably the most excited I've been about an upcoming season since probably '01... although, '06 I was SUPER pumped, but that was for different reasons (a year without my beloved Wings REALLY took its toll) All and all I am very optimistic and have high hopes for this season!