GMRwings1983

None of our D-men fight a lot, though. When they do, it's usually for a reason. I don't know how Babcock can get upset about that? Would he let Panik hit him high and not do anything about it? Like I said, I'm not sure what they expected Tootoo to do differently? He's always played the same game.

I know. My point is, it's hard to have a physical sport with a fighting history, and expect people not to fight when there's an elbow or a cheap hit. The Smith fight was necessary. He doesn't want a guy running him again like that. He was sticking up for himself. If you take fighting out of the game completely, I'm afraid it'll encourage more cheap hits.

Hits behind the play is basically a guy finishing his check. He takes himself out of the play, but he also takes the other guy out. He fought to spark his teammates, not just for his sick amusement. He knew his role. I don't think he did anything differently in Detroit than he did in Nashville. Apparently, Holland and Babcock never saw him play before and expected something else.

How is physicality not part of the game? If you're going to have hits, you're going to have guys who fight. It is part of the game. There's less fighting now, but there's more headshots and cheap players like Cooke, Ruutu, Orr. I'd rather have enforcers than those people.

You're not worth any more of my posts in this thread after that kind of response.

Fighting is the only penalty that's treated as a "fetish" by a certain group of hockey fans. You can compare it to other penalties all you want, but the popularity isn't quite the same. Guys like Probert, Odjick, Schultz, Brown, and many others have always been popular with the fanbases that root for those teams. Not many people have historically been in love with guys who trip or hook someone on the ice. Your high horse is really a rocking horse, but you still need to get off it. Not all pro-enforcer posters are as dumb as you think they are. Oh I know those guys are dinosaurs who don't exist anymore. Doesn't mean I can't have nostalgia for that part of the game. Holland won't sign any fighter, whether that player can score goals or not. He signed Tootoo, but never played him because he didn't fit our style of play (which makes me wonder why we signed him). There are plenty of young guys who can hit, fight and score occasionally. We just don't look for that kind of player.

So we're all low brow dips***s because we happen to like that part of the game and the players who have historically been linked with hockey pugilistics? I like that part of hockey history as much as I like the skilled players who made up the game's history. You need to get off your high horse.

Oh, is the toilet where you get the idea for your posts from?

McGrattan and Engelland will make a man out of him yet. So if there's a brawl during a Wings game this year and the fans are into it, are you going to come here and post about how boring, stupid and pointless it all was? Or are you going to chant and be entertained like everyone else?

I agree. Brian Burke is trying to get rid of the vanilla midgets. I wish the other GM's were on the same page as him.

You've never seen Gino Odjick take a shift have you?

We've won so few fights over the years, that I wouldn't mind if a Wings player pulled a foreign object out of his pants (a la Ric Flair) and used it on his opponent. That's true, but Bob Probert made a lot of money for his family because of fighting. Granted, he could play and score, but other enforcers couldn't, and still made good money. You can't have it both ways sometimes. That's what their job called for is fighting. Honestly, I fall asleep watching those middleweight fighters scrap.

Smith was actually the best fighter on the ice at that moment. But yes, the Wings don't stand up for teammates enough. The Weber on Zetterberg play is a great example. The league is now about having smaller middleweights who can play hockey and fight. We don't even have those on this team, for some reason.

Franzen needs to pull a McSorley on someone and take himself out of the lineup for like 30 games.

He needs tips from his oldest brother Rory. Beast of a fighter. That fight was Kopecky like.

At least somebody gives a s***. Smith used to be a better fighter before he joined this milksop team.

Why wouldn't it be the worst hockey of his career? He's in his mid 30's now. Not like he's going to get faster, work harder or score more at this stage.

Ericsson needs to randomly grab that Kadri and start pounding away.

I'm with ya.

Dan Cleary will lead us back in this game.

I hope Babcock's strategy of tiring out the Leafs' shooters in the first two periods pays off in the 3rd.

The average hockey IQ of the Wings defense has to be among the lowest in the league. You have one skilled offensive defenseman, and a bunch of defensive defensemen, plugs, inexperienced guys, etc.

It was nothing compared to Samuelsson's move, where he'd put the puck on his backhand, skate in a circle, and do nothing with it.

3-3 actually. How about if we just look back to Howard's career. He's under .500 in playoff OT's. Of course, that's a team thing also.

I was talking about our playoff overtime history.