GMRwings1983

Don't worry, we'll find a new punching bag very soon to gripe about here. Can you say Mikael Samuelsson.

Does this mean that Drake will teach Kopecky on how to run players from behind?

What is the word on a guy like Eric Godard. He ain't going to do much except fight, but that's better than what a guy like Langfeld can give us.

I like the fact that they brought back their old logo several years ago, but the colors sucked. They went from yellow to some kind of beige color, much like the St. Louis Rams did when they changed their jerseys. Is it just me, or does it seem like just about every team in the league doesn't have as good a jersey as they once did in some point in their team's history.

I can't believe that so many of you are content with Andreas Lilja being the best fighter on our team. As a fan I would like an enforcer on this team just to know that when s*** goes down, we have someone who can do somehing about it, instead of standing around like statues.

This would be good for hockey, but as a Wings fan who doesn't live in Detroit, I don't mind if the nhl stays on Versus where they show 2 playoff games a night. Espn won't do that anymore even if hockey comes back on their network. Besides, all 18 Wings playoff games were televised last year, so I don't mind things staying the way they are, despite the league's best interests on being on espn.

Sakic should go down as one of the 5 best captains ever. He's probably the only Divealanche player that I've never hated, since he doesn't play dirty, dive around, look like a douchebag, or run his mouth a lot.

I live in Kansas City, so this isn't good news because I would love to have seen the WIngs 4 times a year, but it's probably better this way. Neither city really deserves a team since most of the residents can't even spell hockey.

Good point. I've seen replays of that game before, and two of the goals were softies and the 3rd was an empty netter. He should be thanking Marty Brodeur for that night.

Although I have Messier ranked ahead of Yzerman as far as the better player, I don't see how some of you have Messier as the better captain. For most of his career in Edmonton, Gretzky was the captain and not him. Messier walked into a beautiful situation in Edmonton with all of those hall of famers on their team, and even when Gretzky left they still had a great team, which is why they won that cup in 1990. As for the Rangers, he took the entire Edmonton team with him when he left for New York, I think they had something like 8 or 9 guys on that 94 Rangers team that played for the Oilers cup teams. Plus, Leetch and Richter were the best players that year in the playoffs for the Rangers. And we know he didn't do anything with his leadership in Vancouver. Yzerman on the other hand walked into a dump in Detroit and stuck through all the tough times instead of going elsewhere. He sacrificed his own stats, and anything else he could give just to win Stanley Cups. I think that ultimately history will have Messier ranked as the better captain because of that cup win in 94, and also because a lot more people hate the Red Wings then the teams that Messier played on, but in my opinion Yzerman is what a leader should be since he spent his whole career with one team through all the good and bad times.

I think that it's important to note that it's hard to look at a player's all around game to determine their all time ranking. I've never thought of Gretzky or Lemieux as great defensively, but that doesn't mean that they should be bumped down the list for that. Hell, there's offensive stars now in the league that have a better two way game than Gretzky or Lemieux, so that is why I can't put Yzerman in my top five despite everything that he did all-around.

I think we should sign him. I'm sure the boys could always use another stickboy on the bench.

Great point, that is what I was trying to argue when this topic began.

How can you have Paul Coffey ranked in the top 10 all time. I have him ranked around 9th or 10th on the greatest defenseman list.

Hull and Richard were two of the most feared offensive players in history, even more so than Messier and Yzerman, even though the numbers would show differently. I think Hull scored something like 600 goals before he left the NHL to play in the WHA while he was still in his prime. Otherwise he might have more goals than anyone in history. Both he and Richard revolutionized the game in many ways.

An enforcer would not put this team over the top as you say, but it's hard to watch a scumbag like Pronger or Iginla running someone into the boards and knowing that we aren't going to retaliate. I'm beginning to think that Holland is a firm believer in Mahatma Gandhi's theory of nonviolent resistance. I just know that other teams feel like there's a green light at running Wings players, and I think that that has to be put to an end.

Retrospectively looking at my list above, I have him 8th, but still not in the top 4.

I was merely being objective. I love Stevie as much as anybody, but I can't honestly say that he was 3rd or 4th. Besides, there are some idiots out there who have him ranked somewhere around 20 or so. I think that they work for ESPN. I have Gretzky, Orr, Howe, Lemieux, Richard, Hull, and Messier ranked ahead of him.

It seems like a lot of you are still living in the past when we had Larionov, Robitaille, and Holmstrom playing on our fourth line, thus there were valuable roster spots that couldn't be given up for an enforcer. The truth is that we don't have that kind of depth anymore, therefore, I believe that we wouldn't lose anything by bringing in an enforcer.

You are right, and the problem is that Holland seems to be ignoring the fact that as I stated earlier, our fourth liners didn't exactly light the lamp last year, so what do we have to lose? We wouldn't be sacrificing any goals by carrying an enforcer.

Kopecky better accomplish something first, before we can talk about how his roster spot shouldn't be given up for an enforcer. He had one point last year in 26 games.

With all of the cheapshots that this team was on the receiving end of last year, you'd think Holland would have learned his lesson by now. This year we need an enforcer more than anybody, especially since our roster isn't as deep as it's been in past years, thus we can't afford more injuries. As for those of you who are concerned with enforcers taking up roster spots, don't forget that we had a lot of fourth liners last year that couldn't produce any numbers either, such as Langeld, Hussey, Kopecky, Ellis, etc.