IILeiBlazeII

Here comes Etem, I'd wager...

Really, now that Gormley and Fowler are gone, we're almost right on the spot with the most recent TSN mock draft: http://tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=26432 The only ones out of order right now are McIlrath and Schwartz...

Does anyone have the skinny on capspace and the amount LA wants to spend on their roster? I mean... in a year or so they're going to be paying out their ears to keep all that young talent around... Johnson, Quick or Bernier (I *think* that's how you spell it?) and Doughty are just a few players that come to mind... The punchline is Kovy is gonna command a crap-ton of cash... and I'd hate to see a budding team like LA get shoehorned the same way Chicago is right now. If he isn't signing for at or around $8mil on a multi-year deal, I don't see him going anywhere on this continent.

Boy, these threads don't normally interest me, but those lines are super sexy. I've never thought about Big Bert, Helm and Cleary playing on that 3rd line... hell... imagine: Scruffleberg - Datsyuk - Homer Hudler - Val - Mule Bert - Helm - Cleary Eaves - Abby - Miller/Draper/Ritola/Ilari *That* is incredibly exciting - putting the Z-D-H line back together? $$$

VERY VERY misleading... I'm half blind without glasses/contacts in/on and that little blurb under the title was illegible - I almost freaked out and called my folks 5 states away in celebration! Someone should change the title... On topic, it would be brilliant. At the very least, get him in an assistant coach role down in Grand Rapids. In fact, the Griffins are talking about how they want a veteran presence on the blue line... if he still has game left in him, let him mentor the younguns whilst still playing on an AHL contract! I think that man has such a vast hockey knowledge that he would be valuable in any capacity you'd put him in.

Forgive me, but my google-fu is weak. Is there a lightning forum like LetsGoWings? I can't seem to find one. I think the only way I can get over this is by congratulating the fanbase for obtaining the classiest fella I've ever known and warning them that if they mistreat my childhood hero, I'll have to bust heads.

3:1 ratio at this point... but that'll do. For now. I demand satisfaction, though! I can't sit around knowing that Stevie doesn't have a proper internet fanbase! Could it actually take a group of Red Wing fans to make a 3rd party Bolts forum? LoL

-via the NHL rulebook- 61.1 Slashing - Slashing is the act of a player or goalkeeper swinging his stick at an opponent, whether contact is made or not. Non-aggressive stick contact to the pant or front of the shin pads, should not be penalized as slashing. Any forceful or powerful chop with the stick on an opponent’s body, the opponent’s stick, or on or near the opponent’s hands that, in the judgment of the Referee, is not an attempt to play the puck, shall be penalized as slashing. As far as hitting a goalie when he's out of the crease... again, a bump is one thing - this is another. And trust me, I'm about as subjective as one can get here; I dislike both Perry AND Vokoun. I suppose our disagreement is the problem with a referee system, ya know? One person sees one thing, another person sees another... *Edit to mention my idea of a stick check is lifting the stick from below or from the side, not slamming my stick on top of the opponents. There is a distinct difference between trying to get the puck loose and what I saw in that video (again, IMO).

I can't believe the arguments we're seeing here. 1) Perry slashed the goalies stick. The stick doesn't need to snap like a toothpick for it to be a penalty. 2) He obviously interfered with the goaltender. I'm trying to imagine what we all would have done if that was Howie in Vokoun's place - this forum would be *LIVID*. A bump is one thing - Perry made sure the goalie was out of the picture. All that = 2 minutes and no goal. Simple. As. That.

I would 100% prefer Jordan Staal to Crosby. Beacon of - oh god, I'm gonna use a dirty word on LGW - class(!!!)on a team full of cheapshooters, divers, crybabies and primadonnas. If only we could switch to J. Staal... he reminds me (personality wise) of the new coach in Pitts, who really comes off (to me, at least)as fair and level headed.

Watching those two videos still brings manly bromance tears to my eyes. Proof, in my estimation, that the Red Wings/Red Wings Fans relationship is somehow more elevated that the traditional "Hey I'm a fan of team X!" Prolly similar to Montreal and the Habs, Boston and the Red Sox, and the other storied franchises in sports and their respective cities. Nice to think we has something special like that, eh?

So you can't kick pucks in hockey? Not saying the ref did it intentionally (I'm not tinfoil hat paranoid quite yet...) but if humans in decent to excellent shape can't kick pucks, then the Wings deserve a lot of goals back...

All I got to say is that's what Pens fans get for verbally assaulting my Mum on Mother's Day. How do you say "karma's a *****" in French? Nice win, Habs!

Vive les Habitants! Vive la Bleu Blanc et Rouge! That is the extent of my French - Lets go Habs!!!

I'm in a similar place. I didn't see them making the playoffs. I didn't see them making the second round. I'd be interested in seeing what would have happened in the calls were even, but whatever - Hudler will be back next year, breathing some refreshed air into the club and who knows what other changes are coming down the pipeline... But hey! even though its been how long? since a team battled back to win a series down 3-0... those kind of statistics are made to be broken! If anyone can do it, its the Red Wings, yeah? :3 An optimist to the end, I know. LoL

Am I the only one that LOVES to see this out of Ovie? I mean, I know I'm a biased fan because I really like Alexander Ovechkin, but look at that emotion! He does NOT want to feel this way again, you can see it and hear it. Sometimes it takes getting stunned like this to make a good team great - I remember the 1995 and 1996 seasons in particular for us. Losing is crappy; winning is everything. It took losing to the Devils and the Avs to wake us up... it may just take the Pens and the Habs to wake them up. Mark my words - Ovie will have his cup ring in the next decade. Guaranteed.

~takes off glasses~ ...My god...

GNredwing's picture, captured during the reopening of the South Fork Bridge, November 1940! Tell us more about this... future knowledge you've obtained, my friend. Any... sports almanacs, perhaps?

I just imagined Bettman from your avatar stating that as a question - it made me snicker :3 Some things in the article are true - I *do* think the number one thing for Howie is absorbing those shots and avoiding rebounds - but really, if the Wings play like the Wings, they'll be fine.

Those may be the shmoopiest commercials I've ever seen. The NHL is really out-doing themselves with these 'History Will Be Made" ads, I tell ya.

oh, seriously? Whoever did it, it looks real good :3 Sorry, then... think I should edit it out so that whenever someone *does* find it, it'll be the first thing people see?

I wear red every day the Wings are in the playoffs and I don't shave until the wings are in a dire emergency - like one game away from being eliminated or on a losing streak - as if shaving my beard is unlocking some sort of magical game-winning conduit. It worked against the Stars in the '08 WCF and against the Ducks in the second round this past year. ... I have since learned that it doesn't work twice in one playoff year. :\ DAMN YOU, PITTSBURGH!!!

Just did a youtube search... is this it?

So I saw on TSN that the pens wrapped up Letang for 4 years/$3.5 mil... http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=316025 ... and it got me thinking: How in the name of god are teams like Pittsburgh and Chicago doing it?!? Surely they're topping off with their cap supply, aren't they? So I went on to Hockeybuzz's cap central to look at numbers... Pitts: http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=PIT Chicago: http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=CHI Detroit: http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=DET ... it appears that Pittsburgh and Chicago both have NEGATIVE cap space numbers, while Detroit has stayed in the green. Now if this has been hashed over before, I apologize... but it just doesn't add up to me, ya know? Anyone know and secret cap techniques that would allow Detroit to be almost 5 million over budget like the Blackhawks appear to be? Or even 2 and a quarter like Pitts?

Thanks for the explanations, guys! Still doesn't make a whole boat-load of sense to me, so I guess I'll have to suspend my understanding in favor of the professionals! :3