GMRwings1983

You might be right. None of these guys are in their 20's exactly, but the Wings are too connected to older players to ever consider pursuing other options. I know Franzen has a big contract and they just re-signed Bertuzzi. I don't know what Cleary's status is, but I wouldn't mind cutting ties with him after this season.

Well, the last couple of playoffs, some forwards have shown up and some haven't. To win the Cup, you have to feel that everyone must show up. Don't know if we can expect that from this lineup.

It's OK, I'm not really all that worried. Holland will do something at the deadline to fix this. We have plenty of cap space and................

Watching Franzen lose physical battles along the boards to guys like Kane and Keith is pretty frustrating. They're great players, but with his size, he should be tougher to handle. Just looks like jelly out there.

Once again, I don't remember Chicago being on the ropes in this game. Emery didn't have to stand on his head. That's what I would call outplaying a team soundly and dominating them. It was a pretty even game, but Chicago seemed to have more odd man rushes and a better 3rd period. I figured the home ice and all the powerplays would eventually help Detroit. It didn't.

How did they dominate? Chicago seemed to have countless scoring chances on odd man rushes and outworked the Wings in the 3rd period. The forwards for Detroit didn't show up tonight, outside of Helm's line. We certainly didn't "dominate" the game. You make it sound like Emery pulled a Giguere on us.

Who knows, we may be better off dropping to 4th or 5th and playing Nashville or Phoenix. Instead, we could get stuck playing Chicago or San Jose.

A lazy and uninspiring effort, especially in the 3rd. How do you only score one goal against Emery, especially with all those powerplays? And so much for our home ice dominance. This past week has ended that. This team seems to have burned out from having that streak hanging over them game after game.

Then we'd look embarrassing in the fight and not score on the powerplay. No thanks.

How long have you been a Heat fan?

I'm ready to bear his children. Mursak? He fights? I guess with our defensive injuries, Quincey is unlikely to fight anyone right now. Especially with Smith already going off.

Our current lineup is more than able to handle Chicago's so-called goons. Keith was the one who went after Flip. He's hardly a goon. Bickell is big, but not really that tough. Mayers is a boring, old hugger. We should be fighting back like Smith did.

Why wouldn't they be? Our powerplay isn't going to do s***. Now we need to get a guy named Jones, and pair him with Smith on our blueline. Or a Wesson.

I like this Smith already. He just ended our fight loss streak.

So Holland is giving out injury reports seconds after they happen?

I didn't know there was a quota for injuries. So when it's met, we won't have any more?

I miss Doc and Edzo constantly talking about Jimmy Hayes.

We had 7 powerplays against Chicago in four games.

Good thing we traded Commodore for that valuable 7th round pick.

Looks like the Wings should have dressed 7 defensemen for this game. Janik is not really a downgrade over Kindle.

Our great PK strikes again. Just back off and let them shoot from the point.

Well that's true, but the point is that today's Norris trophy races are closer. Someone could make an argument for being snubbed every year. However, Orr was just way above the other defensemen of his time. And I don't think that means that era was weak. There were plenty of good defensemen in the 70's. But something is to be said when a guy is just far above the rest. I mean, if the era was weak and defenders weren't as good as they later became, then where did this Orr guy come from? How come he wasn't just slightly better than everyone else? Was he from outer space? Orr dominated his era way more than Lidstrom dominated his. Orr was a player who revolutionized hockey in a sense. Much like Gretzky, he put up numbers way better than anyone else for his era, or any era of defense really. Lidstrom has been consistently the best defenseman in hockey for about 15 years. But he's not doing anything stats wise every year that no one else could dream of or approach. And durability is an important factor, but I don't think it's that important in this argument. Potvin, Robinson, Bourque, Coffey, Harvey and many others had a longer career at being great than Bobby Orr. I wouldn't put any of those players ahead of him.

Well, that wasn't the format back then. OT should be 5 on 5 if you're going to give the loser zero points. That was the old system. It'd be unfair to punish a team for losing a 4 on 4.

Well not really, since Kopecky isn't a great player and no one would rank him above those two. But when you're comparing great players to each other, you can't just go on Cup rings. Too many things factor into that. In this case, Orr didn't play a full career. Also, remember that back then there was Montreal to mess around with. Winning a Cup with any other franchise couldn't have been easy. At the same time, if Orr did play a full career, he'd have a lot more than 8 Norris trophies. Lidstrom won a few Norris trophies which could have arguably gone to other players. Orr was putting up numbers no defenseman could have dreamed of back then. He was clearly the favorite to take the Norris every year.

Me too. I've had to deal with Blues fans before, and they act like their team has won something before. It's pretty funny actually. f*** their organization and the players. I hope they lose in the first round.