GMRwings1983

None, but people love talking about how there's no room for guys like Downey in today's league, without realizing that the league is full of guys like Downey. It just escapes their thinking at that moment, and unfortunately we have to keep hearing that line over and over again.

Your internet problems were a direct cause of the Wings recent struggles. You should be banned for life.

Then why does every other team have a guy like that, including the Wings for most of last year? Oh right, I forgot we're just special in ways that no one else is. You've probably been watching too much KHL lately and got it confused with the NHL. There's plenty of room for guys like Downey as is evidenced by what everyone else is doing.

What can Abdelkalder do that no one else on this team can? For Downey to only get one game makes it pretty pointless to have ever brought him up from the minors, especially since he played really well.

Nice move by the team. The guy plays his heart out for 1 game, showing the kind of energy we haven't seen all year, and they send him down as a reward for his play. I know Abdelkalder has more talent, but the 4th line isn't there to score goals, it's there to stir s*** up.

Welcome back to the fight. What were you on Easter Island all this time that you couldn't post?

Don't let French Canadians vote.

No they wouldn't. The Wings have better chemistry than players assembled from other teams who aren't used to playing with each other. I'd bet on the Wings.

What other aspects of the game? We already have everything else we need, except for toughness and intensity. I know I'm sounding real picky here, because we have an almost complete team, but the Wings still lack that toughness that we had last year when we finally won the Cup after many years of disappointments. The other aspects of the game are more important, but we don't need anything else right now on paper.

Right now many people seem ready to hand Chara the Norris trophy, so I don't know how this will change Lidstrom's chances. I doubt that it will, though.

Good point. I think of Drake more as a physical player rather than a guy who fought a lot, but he did have several scraps for the Wings last year. There's nobody here now to pick up the intensity that him, Downey and McCarty showed, and for people to try to diminish those guys' importance to the team is idiotic. Anyone who says that the Wings don't need an enforcer is forgetting about last year and what happened for several seasons before that.

As I've posted a million times before, having an enforcer only makes the rest of the team play more physical, because players feed off of each other. In my opinion, that was a big part of why we won the Cup last year, because Downey or McCarty were always in the lineup, and their physicality resulted in the rest of the players also being more physical than they were in previous years. This year that same physicality and grit don't seem to be there. It might not show up in the standings, but it will show up in playoff time, especially if the 4th line has been showing no physicality or emotion all year. It's going to be hard for this team to all of sudden turn up its intensity level in the playoffs. That 4th line is the reason why the Wings are no different than any other team. We need an enforcer just as much as anyone does, and we have several roster spots that we can afford on an enforcer. The salary cap, however, is a different problem. All you people who say that the Wings don't need an enforcer like other teams do, know nothing about hockey. Last I checked, we had 2 enforcers last year and won our first Cup in 6 years. No coincidence there. It was the most physical Wings team in years. It'd be nice to see some more of that again.

You guys are all overreacting about how the Wings will rally around this so-called adversity. It's just one freaking game. No one will care about this 2 weeks from now, and I doubt that this will be the spark that ignites this team to play amazing hockey the rest of the season. I'm sure the team is upset about this, but this isn't the travesty that everyone here is making it out to be. It's just a b.s decision by a b.s league, but it's still one game and not ten or twenty. It's not like we're going to come out and start randomly attacking Columbus players and beating the s*** out of them. It'll just be an ordinary game, except two of our best players won't be in it.

What's wrong with creating more jobs for the city of Detroit? This topic shouldn't even be debatable.

No, I just have a fascination with seeing Lilja tackle Madonna randomly, and start wailing away at him for no apparent reason. Don't know why, since I really don't have anyting against Madonna, but for some reason I'm always amused at the thought of that happening. I wouldn't care much for seeing Thomas or anyone else do it. P.S. This contest is going to take all night. They might as well put this in place of the ASG tomorrow.

This contest isn't what it used to be now that shootouts are a part of the NHL. It used to be a rare sight seeing penalty shot situations, but not anymore.

I'm kind of pissed that we'll never get to see that great video of Al Iafrate ever again.

Chara just looks like a big giraffe out there. I figured he'd win. Also, I'd always heard that Bobby Hull once shot a put around 115 mph, but I don't know how much truth there is to that rumor.

Souray and Chara going at it for the hardest shot. This should be good, especially if Weber is also in it.

Or they could just put a target in the middle.

Forget JR, Sammy will show them how to shoot!

Why? The French Canadians are the ones who voted in those s***ty Montreal players who've had bad seasons into the ASG. I say they deserve their criticism.

I couldn't wait for the young stars game to end. That pond hockey s*** gits old after about 5 minutes. The breakaway challenge is a joke. Seeing Kane flopping around on the ice like a clown was embarassing. Don't know why they brought this event back after last year's disaster.

Lidstrom should refuse to shake Bettman's hand if we win the Cup at the end of the season.

French Canadians need to shut their mouth, because they've cheapened the entire ASG by voting in undeserving players from their team. WHo cares what this moron said? The whole league doesn't have charisma, other than Sean Avery, who the league suspended for making fun of some girl.