GMRwings1983

Who cares what Lilja did 2 years ago in the playoffs? He's greatly improved his play in the last few seasons. Lebda is the one who's had to consistently battle for a roster spot this season. He's lucky Lilja is hurt or else he wouldn't even be in the lineup. People have been praising Lilja's play all season. It sounds like you've been in a coma for the last few years, which started the evening of that game 5 loss against the Ducks. Welcome back to consciousness. A lot has changed since then.

I don't care, it's just one roster spot on the freaking 4th line. Even Probert didn't have speed or 2 way hockey, and he's probably as talented an enforcer as the league has ever had. Your idea of an enforcer is an impossible one. Mine only involves taking one roster spot on the 4th line away from a useless hack, and giving it to a tough guy. That shouldn't ruffle any feathers or spoil team chemistry, at least it didn't last year.

There is truth in whay you say, but it still seems like every team has a guy that is just there to fight. The problem (or at least fans like me see it as a problem) is that guys like that don't exist to the same extent that they used to. My beef is when people make it sound like there's no enforcers at all in the game, unless they are talented in other ways, or for that matter I hate it when people make players like Lucic into enforcers. True enforcers do still exist, and if we dressed one in place of some useless 4th liner like Kopecky, I don't see how that would lessen the Wings' greatness or skilled style in any way, especially since it happened only last year.

If you only want to talk about the Wings, then don't talk about enforcers in general changing in the "new NHL". That was my biggest problem with your post. Oh, and McCarty last year was not a talented player anymore, so that's why I grouped him in with Downey, and it doesn't matter that they split the season. Point was we had an untalented player on the roster the entire season, whose main job was to fight and play physical hockey. As far as one goon playing the entire season and playoffs for the Wings, we obviously haven't had one for a long time, but now you're narrowing the definition just to prove an obvious point. The OP would have never started this thread if that was something the Wings did often in recent memory.

Depends on what you call a full season. Downey and McCarty aren't that talented, and the two of them combined played the full season last year. Besides, I was responding to your sweeping comments about enforcers around the league in general, and not just how it relates to the Wings.

I hope you're joking. Bertuzzi has never been an enforcer. If you're not joking, then you have a completely different definition of what an enforcer is than most people do, thus the whole conversation between us will result in miscommunication. Enforcers haven't changed at all. There's plenty of untalented goons still playing in the NHL. It's not going to change until the league bans fighting altogether.

Is that what I said? There are no guys in the league who are enforcers that can score 50 to 60 points. And please don't say Lucic cause he's not an enforcer. Geez, talk about twisting my words around to prove your point.

Hey, Brett Lebda, is that you? Seriously, I've never heard anyone kiss Lebda's ass the way it was just kissed in all those posts. Lilja clearly outplayed Lebda for the last couple of seasons, and yet who do you give the love to? Lebda. Lebda doesn't take many penalties because he plays like a wuss. Lilja actually stands up for himself and his teammates and plays some semblance of physical hockey. Who cares how fast a guy skates if that doesn't amount to anything. Lebda has actually looked O.K. in the playoffs so far, but Lilja has been far better in the last few seasons for this to even be a comparison anymore.

Of course I'd want Crosby on the Wings. We'd have our own damn channel if that were to happen. Versus would rename itself FSWings.

How can anyone seriously suggest that Yuri Butsayev or Jesse Wallin were duds?

Dumb penalties don't necessarily come from enforcers. Downey didn't take many from what I can remember. Maltby took a dumb penalty the other night. Nowadays in the NHL, you're going to be killing lots of penalties no matter what. It has nothing to do with enforcers, it's just the way the calls are going now.

It's one thing to have an opinion on this issue, but it's another to make uniformed posts. There are plenty of dedicated, nontalented enforcers in the league today. Those days are not over as of yet. Of course a guy that can score 50 to 60 points who also plays physical is more useful than an enforcer who doesn't score. That's almost a laughable point to even bring up. It's like saying that Gretzky was more valuable than Tony Twist. Duh! However, it's hard to find guys like that, and as far as I know, the Wings don't have one either. Oh, and my criticism to the other poster also goes for you. Many enforcers haven't had to change anything, and still don't have any skill, yet they do fine on just about every team in the league. Bottom line, is that even in the "new NHL" you don't necessarily have to be talented in any way to be an enforcer.

We could be playing the toughest team in the league, and we'll be without Lilja? He would thrive on such a situation. I guess this is good news for Parros. Draper isn't that good anymore, but I still think he'd be an improvement over Kopecky. Drapes always plays better in the playoffs.

I know it's a regular season award, but Mason was awful for them in this series. Many of the goals weren't his fault, but this wasn't the same Mason that they had in the regular season. Ryan on the other hand is running laps around the Sharks right now. This guy is a scoring machine. Like you said, he hardly got tested at all in the period, which is probably a good thing. Unfortunately, the team will never really disclose the extent of his injury so all we can do is speculate.

It'll be interesting to see how Babcock tries to matchup with Anaheim top line right now. In the past we'd put our checking line against another team's top line, but right now we don't really have a checking line, because our 4th line sure as hell wouldn't be matched up against that top line. Also, I'd love to see Vancouver and Calgary go at it in the playoffs. Those teams hate each other and would provide a wonderful series.

Funny how the Jackets whine about the valid too many men penalty, but forget about the B.S. call against Erickson that allowed them back into the game.

I wasn't aware that they had any fans. Just a bunch of Buckeyes fans who happened to attend another event since it isnt football season. They've got a lot to learn about the rules of hockey.

Excuse me for asking sir, but who in the blue hell are you? This is the same s*** people were saying last year. We're not in any more trouble than anyone else is. Nobody is looking forward to playing the Wings right now after this series.

Funny how Dorsett hugged the referee as soon as Erickson dropped the gloves. I guess Dorsett must have mistaken Erickson for Lilja.

Yeah, but did you predict a sweep like the great GMR did?

Great series. That might be the easiest playoff series I've ever seen the Wings have, along with the one in 2000 against LA. The only time I had any sweat was at the end of this game. BTW, I predicted a sweep in the thread a week back that talked about who would get swept in the first round.

The difference between the regular season and the playoffs was that Mason looked like a rookie in the playoffs. He was awful in this series. Also, Ozzie didn't have to face any tough shots in the 3rd, thus we don't really know his status as of yet.

I hope the annoucers booth in Columbus gets flooded somehow. I'm tired of these clowns. I can't believe Danny Gare was once a hockey player. This guy is an embarassment to his profession. Geraldo Rivera could be a better announcer than him.

Lidstrom needs to score from center ice to end this series.

This is a must win game for us. I don't want to have to listen to these announcers for any more games than necessary. A complete embarassment to sports announcing if you ask me.