Collin Lane

Hahahahahah... the only reason I mention it is I remember this great poster some fan made at a Wings game saying something to the effect of: "Chelios is uglier than Ricci." I'm sure you know the one I'm talking about, the one where Chelios is skating by with a wry smile as the fans are pointing to the sign. On a sidenote, my girlfriend said this in response to seeing Ricci's picture for the first time: "Dear God, he looks like he belongs on one of those Geico commercials as a spokesman."

It seems like the cap didn't do anything to control player salaries so much as it did to simply push the big ones down a full age bracket - i.e. bigger contracts are going to younger players and deals like the one Fedorov got from the team whose foul name (no pun intended, well, maybe a little bit) shall not be uttered, don't happen anymore. On the one hand, it seems like deals like this make sense and we've got a real bell-curve of salaries vs. age, but on the other hand, I feel bad for veteran guys at the end of their career who have to team-hop on all these one-year contracts. I remember when Mike Peca was in Buffalo, I thought he'd be there for the rest of his career, not pull an Anson Carter and play his way into the hell-hole of all hockey hell-holes.

Where is Scott when you need him? Not since those days have I seen someone so effectively monopolize the hatred of the LGW members. I hate the Preds with a fiery passion that burns like the bowels of hell, and although I don't really have a problem with this thread just because, hard as I might try, I just can't get the stick up my ass that far, it irks me a little that someone is essentially using this forum for free Predator viral advertising (he's started this thread simply to let us know that he's updated his own website? Can I have a thread dedicated to my myspace page and post a little update here everytime I update it there?) - I'd have the same problem if Adam Proteau started a thread here, although less so because he's not affiliated with any other team and because he is, well, qualified. I welcome opposing view points - life would be incredibly boring, albeit convenient, if everyone agreed with me, but there's an air of useless narcissism to it that bothers me. This is not a thread about another team. This is a thread about another team's fansite. And I think it's important to note that for all of you jumping down Ian's throat: you're doing the exact same thing that you're chastising him for. Ian said something you obvious disagreed with and got a dozen posts in response essentially telling him to go stick his head back up his ass. He fired back, so did you, and here we are. If we're going to be a forum where all view points are up for discussion, can we please let all view points be up for discussion? There's this nanny patrol that roams around these boards, much like trolls do, nagging and yelling and insulting people, condescendingly correcting them for the slightest mistake and taking them into a back alley when they say something asinine: all you're doing is making this worse and making people like me feel I'm back in Catholic School getting slapped on the wrist by a nun everytime I blink too fast or sigh too loud. I don't have a problem with sarcasm or rudeness or even arrogance; I have a huge problem with hypocrisy. So can we all just go back to hating Scott and be nice to everyone else (ex. That Scott... he sure was a douchebag)? And Ian, for the love of God don't call someone a ****** trying to insult them... if you don't find it blatantly offensive, then at least admit it's cliche. And also, Ian, remember it's the offseason and most people, myself included, welcome any taste of hockey they can get their hands on (like a crack addict trying to get his fix by snorting the frosting at the bottom of the cereal box that he's just torn open, spilling frosted flakes all over the floor - not that I've ever done that or would), even the irrelevant discussion about another team's fansite. Charlie Teljeur had this great article on THN titled "Don't Read This". I can't find the link, but it honestly applies. So don't freak out - once October comes, we'll all go back to caring about how hot Henrik is, how useless Lilja is, and how the hell Datsyuk scored that goal without literally setting the goalie on fire. Nick Lidstrom: great defensemen... or greatest defensemen? Chris Chelios: truly uglier than Mike Ricci? On a scale of 10-to- you're an idiot, how much does Anaheim suck? etc, etc... Can we all just take a deep knee bend and start all over?

While we're at it, can we trade back for Bertuzzi, trade for Pronger, sign Forsberg, talk Claude Lemieux out of retirement, and maybe throw in Bryan Marchment, Jordan Tootoo and Scott Hartnell? I'd honestly like to see us try to land a legitimate top-six forward who will actually contribute to the team for a full season and not be a me-first cancer in the locker room. Or, if nothing else, save the money for a late-season rental and then make a big splash in the UFA market next season, particularly if Lidstrom ends up retiring - Dany Heatley, anybody? Forsberg isn't worth the 4-5 million his ego will command and there are some much better ways to use the cap room than on floppa.

Ouch... my sympathies to Chris Osgood, Manny Legace and Curtis Joseph.

Oops... Franzen... my bad.

No, I'm saying that I liked what Schneider (I'm not a huge Schneider fan, bytheway, and I'm glad we have Rafalski instead of him) did on the PP - that if a lane wasn't open to the net, he'd fire it off the end boards for a rebound. I like the fact that Rafalski is willing to put the puck on net, but I think he tries to force it too often instead of taking an extra second. I remember a game against Ottawa where Chris Phillips blocked like 4 consecutive shots of Rafalski on one PP. Granted, Phillips blocks like 28 shots a game, but Rafalski just kept winding up and firing low from the same angle and the same spot on the ice. I'm just asking for a little flexibility. But anyway, I went to the gym last night and there was a woman on the stairmaster - it reminded me of Larry Murphy skating with her arms and knees pumping up that high. I think Rafalski is a better all-around player than Murphy is (Murphy made up for his skating with his intelligence), but he won't have nearly the same effect on Lidstrom, specifically, like Murphy did.

Insert obligatory homophobic *** joke >here< I agree with you to some extent, though - I don't think Simon deserves the rap of a player like Claude Lemieux or Bryan Marchment, though, but as much as I love the Wings, if they ever became a team like Nashville, San Jose or Colorado like they were in the 90's, or Toronto when Darcy Tucker rammed Mike Peca into the boards, I'd start rooting for another team. As much as I hated what McLennan did to Lilja, he's not actually a bad guy and prior to that was a pretty good player with respect to dirty play. It's a player like Marchment, who repeatedly goes after other players' knees and hits with the intent to cause a prolonged injury, then shows half-hearted contrition, a guy like Tootoo in the current NHL, that deserves to be taken out back and... ah, the hypocrisy of it all - I was going beaten.

Krupp, Hatcher, Ranford. Game, Set, Match. I think with the right coach or linemates, Lang could be good again. Babcock doesn't seem like the kind of guy who really spends a lot of time motivating players; granted, he shouldn't really have to at this level. I imagine if you paired him with a guy like Havlat, he's going to be better able to find space and make plays because Havlat is going to draw most of the defensive attention and I also imagine he'll be generally more motivated. It also has to suck to be the whipping boy for a team, especially a team with such high expectations of success. With the exception of like one, maybe two seasons in Pittsburgh, he never really has played on a team that was expected, I mean, really expected to win and had the pressures that come with being a contender. The Wings have this Yankee-like aura around them where, whether or not it's spoken aloud, they're expected to win every year, and every year that they don't, it's a disappointment to some degree.

I'm pretty damn sure Bettman re-upped the contract with VS. through the extension so the NHL isn't going anywhere until like 2011. I remember watching Bettman get a lot of s*** from the people on this forum when he announced it, although it was a couple months ago and Bettman gets so much s*** for so many things on this forum that I could be confused. But I think the point here is really: Bettman sucks. Now if only he was lazy...

The Lions should just take a couple years off and go play rec-league touch football. Rebuild the confidence and such.

He's Native American. I used to watch him all the time when he was a Winterhawk - he was a fan favorite and a stand-up player, but he wasn't really that, you know, good. I haven't seen him since he left Portland, but the guy got made a pylon more times than Britney Spears's failed out of rehab.

It seems like he'll be taking Schneider's spot, which means he won't be playing with Lidstrom. Murphy was a terrible skater, which is one of the reasons why I think he paired so well with Lidstrom - you're able to pinch up and join the rush more because you know you've got a guy that'll still be skating to the blue line by the time the puck heads the other way. Rafalski drives me nuts on the PP - everytime I see a Devil's game, it seems like he shoots right into the d's legs rather than trying to find a lane. I'd rather have a shot go wide and potentially get a bounce off the boards than have a shot go right into a players legs and either a) fall dead to give the other team possession or b) deflect right out of the zone.

That color was mustard? I always just called it puke-green.

I don't think that article was arguing that ESPN didn't cover hockey as much as the disrespect they show the sport when they do. It's one thing for a network not to cover the NHL, in the same way that TSN doesn't really cover the NFL, but when TSN does cover football, it's done respectfully and professionally. How many mullet jokes have you heard on Sportscenter (note: not Sportscentre), and how many times have you heard ESPN anchors literally burst into laughter while covering NHL highlights as if to say: "I can't believe we're even wasting our time covering this stupid-ass game". Hockey is a punchline to them and they stereotype the NHL as a league full of Bertuzzi's, Prongers, and Simons. It's flat-out unprofessional, regardless of how little or how much time they spend covering the game. And the NHL is not in danger of collapsing - it has always been a gate-driven sport and will never capture the US audience the way football (not baseball) has, unless it finds a US-born Gretzky or someone who can legitimately challenge his records and create buzz/drama - as good as Crosby is, I don't think he's 200-pt-season good, which is a problem in having someone who was so far better that the rest, statistically speaking; you're essentially fighting for second place the entire time. I think most of the troubles the NHL faces in the US are caused by a) a bad economy that prohibits fans the luxury of paying $110 per ticket and b) horrible owners that resort to quick-profit-fixes like raising ticket prices without taking the time to establish (or in most cases, re-establish) a strong, diverse fan base. Think of Jacobs what he's done to the Bruins, raising ticket prices, not investing in his team, and wondering why his profit margins continually shrink despite the quick-fix approach, which is inherently causing this profit margins to shrink. I think Bettman pushed expansion too quickly and was too worried about consolidating the league's power with respect to the PA, including netting the huge expansion fees the league charges to new franchise owners to create a war chest* rather than strengthening (not necessarily expanding) the league's influence in the states. I think the league in general is impatient and very prone to overreaction or underthinking. *I'm someone who believes that Bettman intended to take the CBA to a lock-out and force the dismissal of Goodenow.