GMRwings1983

Seriously, these are our two hardest working players and our two best checkers. If they were on the same line, they could create a lot of havoc offensively and would be a very fun line to watch. Plug in anyone else as the other wing on that line, except for Draper, who would of course have to be the remaining center on the 4th line. Babcock needs to make this happen.

Filpulla - Datsyuk - Bertuzzi Cleary - Zetterberg - Eaves Helm - Abdelkalder - Miller Maltby - Draper- May That's how I'd do it now until Williams or Holmstrom come back. If not for that ****** Lebda, this would look like a much better lineup with Homer also being in the top 6 instead of Eaves, who's not really a top 6 guy. However, this is my current compromise.

Good win and that's all we can ask. Can't really control what the other teams in the West do with their 3 point games. We just need to keep winning and not have any more off nights like that Islanders game. We've got some tough games coming up here in the next week or so.

I think Lilja could hand this Scott ***** his lunch. Still, he does look like a tough customer himself. I hope he starts fighting against the top guys in the league, just so we can see how good he really is. I remember Steve McKenna was about 6'8, 260 lbs also, and he was a freaking punching bag.

He can nicely explain to his family that he's coming back from an ACL tear, and doesn't want to aggravate it by playing in a tight Olympic schedule with many games in few days. Does his family want him to blow out his knee again? Lose. GMR win.

It was good reasoning on my part. I was talking about guys who are injured or just coming back from an injury, especially a severe one. I never said anything about all players in all sports. Good stuff on your part overgeneralizing what I said.

Hopefully, Yzerman will snap and start yelling at Bettman, prompting security to come bail Bettman out.

Funny how they rotate this every game. I think Babcock is close to telling Leino to go f*** himself permanently. He's clearly pissed at his effort and performance, especially since Carolina isn't really a tough team physically for May to be playing.

Sorry pal, but it looks like you'll have to wait another 4 years for a Gold Medal. No way they can win without Selanne, since they're undermatched as it is compared to Canada, Russia and Sweden.

I think we've just created a new player. LeBeech is probably the better way to spell it and pronounced like it sounds. He'll wear number 36, which combines their two numbers. He'll be the fastest skater in the league, but have no physicality and won't know how to do anything on either side of the ice.

If only Rasputin was still alive, I think he'd be exactly what our players need.

Orr actually fought quite a bit in his career. So did Messier. I think Bobby Orr was actually a pretty tough dude who not many people wanted to challenge from what I hear. Yzerman, Gretzky and Lemieux probably have around 5 fights between them, so I don't know what you regard as being once in a while. I do want to see Ovechkin fight more often, however, since he lays so many huge bodychecks, and is a bigger more physical superstar player. Kind of like a power forward.

Good news and bad news here. Good news that Ericsson is back, but why can't Babcock see that Lebda and Meech are complete failures out there? If they fused together into one being, combining all their skills and talent, they would still suck. With Janik we'd have a guy that can block shots, hit, fight, and not make stupid mistakes with the puck.

I don't hate Selanne, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I don't want Anaheim coming after us in the standings, and like I've said before, it's about time other teams starting having massive injuries so that it all evens out for the Wings.

Unless it's Steve Mckenna we're talking about. Laraque, Brashear and Belak have proven more than capable of handling him. I guess by weight class you meant no one weighs as much as him, but that doesn't mean he's better than everyone else. I don't have a problem with what Vancouver's coach did. It's not really against the rules and there's nothing wrong with trying to intimidate your opponent to get an edge over them in the future. I'm sure the KHL slappies here will disagree and say that gooning it up isnt' a part of hockey, but it is and the rules allow for it.

Great news, although I'll still believe it when I see it. The injury he had is one that takes a long time to heal. I hope he doesn't play in the Olympics. We need him healthy for a playoff push, not so Sweden could win another Gold Medal, which they probably won't do anyway. The Wings pay his checks and not Sweden. That's why he left Sweden to come here.

God, our team doctors are completely useless. Nobody ever comes back before the scheduled date to return. They need to start using witch doctors or something. We could use him too, since we're getting no production out of Rafalsi and Lidstrom on the PP. He was by far our best offensive defenseman this season.

Yeah, Downie is a s***ty fighter. He's famous because he agitates well and is a cheapshotting prick. Ovechkin is strong, but fighting in hockey involves knowing how to balance, and it's different than fighting in real life while not on skates. Hell, Fedor Emilianenko would probably get his ass kicked in a hockey fight, if he doesn't know how to balance properly and get a good grip.

That's not true. A lot of fight fans around the league despise Backes and think of him as a spotpicker. I interact with people on fight sites, and Backes does have some people who defend him, but many others who hate him for being a gutless player who picks his spots. For instance, Wings fans here like Maltby, while other teams' fans think of him as a cheap agitator punk. You just love Backes too much to realize that other fans dislike him. Don't know where you got that 99.99% from, but it's much more split than that.

Yzerman and the Russian Five for me. Eventually, I tagged on to some of the other players also, like Shanny, Lidstrom, McCarty, Draper, Maltby.

Why are you such a self-righteous poster? I have my views, but I never really act like you do. It's pretty arrogant, obnoxious posts like these that make it hard to take you seriously. You made some good points in your post, but as usual, screwed it up with a silly comment at the end. I never said the season was over. I just don't like the way it's gone so far and don't want to blame it all on injuries. I feel like some posters will ride this excuse all season long, even if the healthy players are struggling.

What reason do I need for hating Backes? It's my own personal thing.

What about Datsyuk, Lidstrom, Rafalski and Zetterberg? Do you blame their lack of success this season on injuries too? If those guys played like they're hyped on this site, or like they've done in the past, we'd have one of the top records in the West right now, regardless of injuries to others. Stop making freaking excuses and blaming it all on injuries. We lost 6-0 to a team full of guys that aren't better than the Wings current roster, with all the injuries. Face up to it.

You stopped there? Nice sense of humor you have there, Watson. I'm sure other people will actually read the "entire" post and agree with some of the things I said. You're obviously too far in your own world to do so.

Nope. Always been a Wings fan. If I was just bandwagoning, I'd go join the Pens forum, where I'd be guaranteed at least 3 or 4 more Cups as a fan. There's a difference between dominating every night and taking nights off. I expect the team I cheer for to not take any nights off. Any fan does. There's no excuse for the game last night, nor for the efforts against LA and Anaheim. Even with several players injured, we should be putting up better efforts with what we've got now. People here have always raised Datsyuk and Zetterberg to god-like levels in the past, so it's only fair to question those standards now that they're struggling.