GMRwings1983

Having a tough guy in the lineup can only rub off on the other players to play more physical. Last year the Wings dressed either Downey or McCarty throughout the entire season, and it wasn't a coincidence that they played tougher hockey than they have in a long time as a team. Whether we would or wouldn't have beaten San Jose the other night isn't the point. The point is that the Sharks are a big, physical team, and the Wings need to play tougher, grittier hockey to beat them in a long series. Having an enforcer can only help that.

Brad Stuart is kind of a mystery to me. The guy is 6'2, he's from Western Canada, and he doesn't fight. Go figure that one out. Lilja needs to have a talk with him in the locker room about dropping those gloves from time to time.

I am. I also want him to drink blood on the bench in between shifts.

That Isles team was better than the teams Luongo played for in Florida. Besides, they canned him after only a few seasons.

A prime Osgood? When did he single-handedly take a s***ty team to the playoffs? Come off the Ozzie homerism here. Ozzie was never in the same league as Luongo at any point in his career.

I don't want to mention any names, but I'm sure that we could trade Thomas Kopecky for any enforcer. If that doesn't work out, we can always trade him for a good six-pack of beer. Lebda is the same way.

You can't teach elephants how to fly. The league should not try to cater to people in the South, especially if they have to get rid of fighting to do it. Basketball and baseball are for *******. No reason the NHL should be the same.

No. It hasn't for a long time now. I don't watch these games with any kind of intensity at all. Once the playoffs begin, I'm on the edge of my seat. And where we're seeded doesn't matter to me either. Playing the 8 seed in the first round hasn't been easy for the Wings in a long time.

Luongo was robbed of the Vezina trophy 2 years ago. He's absolutely one of the best goalies in the league, if not the best goalie like I think he is. No other goalie in the league could have taken that s***ty Florida team to the playoffs either.

Vancouver has given us trouble this year. They've got speed, several lines that can score, and the best goalie in the world.

That's by far the most accurate description of me that either you or anyone else has ever posted on LGW.

And Kopecky has demonstrated that he's about as useful as an empty beanbag. Why should he play instead of Downey? Downey can at least fight, which is 1 more thing than Kopecky can do.

Pierre probably posts on LGW. I can't believe this guy dislikes the Wings and yet is a proponent of banning fighting in hockey. Doesn't make any sense at all.

In life, people act tougher when they know they have backup in a fight. Same way in hockey. There's a reason why every other team in the league dresses an enforcer, and it isn't to amuse the fans.

McCarty was. Ah, but I forgot that he's not an enforcer and apparently was not a part of the team at all. In other words, I contributed as much to the Cup win as McCarty did.

Sandy McCarthy. And why should we care what Zetterberg and Lidstrom say? If people on LGW say that fighting is detrimental, then it must be true, regardless of what anyone else said.

Players play with more grit when there's an enforcer in the lineup. You know, kind of like they did last year. It's harder to play a grittier game when you know that no one has your back in scrums or fights. That's why every other team has an enforcer and we don't. The argument that we can't give up a valuable roster spot to an enforcer is obsolete. Our 4th line is no longer valuable.

He's not good looking enough to be our goalie.

Take Lilja's name out of that sentence, and the rest of it is pure nonsense. The Sharks are a bigger and hungrier team than the Wings right now. That's why it's so hard to repeat as champs, because the hunger is no longer there the same way it was before. ANd when have you seen any of those other guys you mentioned fighting back? Bring up Downey and sit Kopecky.

Anyone who thinks that Ozzie was great with the Isles or Blues is crazy. If he was that good, those teams wouldn't have let him go after such a short time. He's benefitted his whole career from playing on the best franchise in sports in the last 15 years. Without that, he'd just be another average goalie who's been passed around his whole career.

He hasn't been mediocre. He's been bad. His stats are some of the worst in the league, which is obviously not mediocre. The wins he's gotten have come when we simply outscore the other team. In other words, we win in spite of him and not because of him. As I've stated earlier, Ozzie has been best when he's been the underdog in his career. Since last season, he's no longer been the underdog. He can't handle being the guy with the heavy load on his back. Also, he's not the kind of goalie that can face 30-40 shots in a game and still win for his team. Only the elite goalies can do that. The defense has to find a way to give up less shots, because Ozzie can't handle this barrage of shots. Finally, we need to think about developing a young goalie. Howard is a guy this team hasn't given much of a chance to, so it's probably better if they look elsewhere. Maybe we need a Swedish goalie.

Backstrom and Boogaard for Kopecky, Sammy and Osgood. Get it done, Kenny!

Last year Gaborik was not in the fastest skater contest, even though he's probably the fastest skater in the league. The skills competition has become a joke. Does anyone know if they plan on having the same format for the fastest skater competition as they had last year? Also, are they having another stupid, high scoring young-stars game? If so, they should get rid of it and bring back what they used to have in the mid 90's right before the skills competition, when they'd just have old timers coming out there and playing hockey. That was more fun to watch then seeing a bunch of 3 on 0 breakaways.

I feel sorry for the goalie that has to stare at that big phallic symbol for 2 periods.

Never thought I'd see you post this. I seem to remember a certain thread from last year's playoffs that you might not want to see brought back. Hey, who knows, maybe in 5 years Kopecky will become a power forward who fights heavies and wins all of his fights by KO. Then there will be plenty of threads that we can go back and laugh at from these last few months.