GMRwings1983

It's too bad that Kenny Holland has never heard of any of these guys. I'd love for us to have just 1 guy like that, which is why so many people here are pulling for Downey to make this team.

Well, there's our enforcer. He is one of the best fighting goalies in the league. Now if only the Sens would let Emery go.

I'm all for fans being rabid and biased towards their team. It's something that the league needs more of. As for all this talk about hockeytown, I don't want to sound pessimistic, but I don't think that 5 years from now anyone will constantly refer to Detroit as hockeytown. Hockey isn't as big now as it was in the mid 90's, and the Wings don't have the same popular superstars like Yzerman, Feds, and Shanny. Also, the Tigers and Pistons are more popular in Detroit now then they were 10 years ago.

The new jerseys all around the league look horrible, and are just part of a marketing scheme to make more money. It seems like this league does about all it can do to piss off as many of its fans as possible. The lack of fighting, the lockout, and now these new jersey designs.

Which one? I can think of about 20 right off the top of my head.

I think that espn probably thought of all the hockey players they can actually name, and then decided to put them on the list.

Once again espn proves that they don't know s*** about hockey. Murphy is not hated in Toronto whatsoever, because every time he appears there for any reason he gets a great response from the fans. Also, Wings fans didn't hate Primeau that much for him to deserve to be on this list. This list should have just stuck to baseball, which is all that espn knows anything about.

Absolutely. This way I wouldn't have to stay up till 2 in the morning to watch our playoff games.

You're absolutely right. People will always say that their own s*** doesn't smell, and that is the only explanation for why anyone would rather watch Nascar, baseball, or even horse racing over hockey. Hockey faces the same problem that soccer does in this country, in that it wasn't invented here, thus it isn't as popular. As for espn, they're lazy and they suck.

Ten years ago the top fighting major leaders had at least 25 fights and 300 PIM's. I was trying to make a point that the league has changed a lot since then, especially since only 1 guy cracked the 200 PIM mark last year.

Top 5 Wings Blues Blackhawks Leafs Flyers (only the orange) Bottom 5 Ducks Sabres divealanche Canucks Hurricanes

Of course Downey. He's an enforcer who actually has a slim chance of making the Wings roster. Anyone who's been a Wings fan for the last several years knows just how odd that is.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to watch the game so far. Great to hear that Downey scored a goal, though. Also, can anyone please tell me if Lilja has KO'd Boogaard already like I predicted earlier?

If we sign him, then what do we do with Fillpulla? We'll have 3 all star centers and Kris Draper, which once again means that we'll have a bunch of natural born centers playing wing. I'd rather have us go after a top winger than a top center, of which we already have 2. Homer is the only thing we have close to a top winger at this point.

I understand, but not that much has happened since they last voted on the issue for everyone to now all of a sudden change their minds on it. What imbeciles!

I don't get it. Didn't the league vote on this same issue last year and turn the plan down? If so, then why did they want to change it for next year and not for this year?

You kind of answered your own post. If Lidstrom, Cheli, or Hank made that mistake, we wouldn't be calling for their heads because they're too important to the team. In Lilja's case, he was already expendable before that play, so that is why so many posters on here want him gone. All "pain train" jokes aside, what does he exactly give our team that no one else does?

I don't have anything against Ozzie personally, but you're looking too much at the stats, and not enough at common sense. How can you really in your heart believe that the HHOF voters are going to induct Osgood? Also, Cujo is not a lock for the HHOF, because he's never won the cup. Likewise, I believe that Rogie Vachon hasn't been inducted yet, and he was a betteer goalie in his career than Osgood was. Yes, Ozzie won the cup, but I think that the Wings won it despite of him and not because of him.

Last year also proved that we can take cheapshots without doing anything about it, and that we give a green light to other teams to injure our players. It also proved that our guys are good at turtling when someone challenges them to a fight, thus embarassing the entire organization and its fans. There is a way to win and still have some tougness. Just look at Anaheim, which you must have forgotten about in your post.

Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone makes mistakes which are so monumental, and are in that kind of an important game and setting.

I like the Norris trophy the way it is now, because it goes to the best overall defensemen, which is exactly the way it should be. I get offended whenever someone suggests that there should be a best defensive defensemen trophy, because that makes it sound like Lidstrom can't play in his own zone, and let's face it, he's the only one ever winning this trophy, so it's hard to argue that those comments aren't directed at him. There's a good reason that guys like Zubov, Stevens, Foote, and Gonchar have never won this trophy, namely that they weren't as well rounded as guys like Lidstrom, Pronger, or Bourque.

No way in hell does Osgood get into the Hall of Fame. He's been a solid goalie throughout his career, but I can't say that he was ever great. The Hall of Fame should only be for the elite goalies, and there's no argument anyone can make for why Osgood is an elite goalie, and no his number of wins isn't enough. Those wins came because he played with great players throughout his tenure in Detroit. Yes, I know there's plenty of Hall of Fame goalies that played with other great players, but those guys are out of Ozzie's league.

I don't think that any player in the league has 15-20 fights anymore per season, and Downey wouldn't either because of his history of injuries. At this point, though, I'd still rather have Downey over having no enforcer at all.

I'd hate to admit this, but if we don't dress Lilja, then I'll lose much of my comedy material on these boards. Who's going to do the fighting for us since I don't expect Downey to make the team? Who's going to stand up to Boogaard and Laraque? We need the pain train.

The sad thing is that even if we sign Downey and dress him for 82 games, we'll still be the softest team in the league by a mile.