FunkedUp

Yep. This could be trouble for the wings....

Since Hideki Matsui is a free agent right now, the Wings should sign him. Maybe he can help out our offense.

http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/20...enseman_do.html Should be interesting. Raffy and Ericsson are out, hopefully Kronwall is good to go. Damn flu is hitting the team!

This isn't good. If he's not traveling with the team then I have a bad feeling. I don't think May would be staying overnight if it wasn't serious. Hopefully, I'm wrong. Eye injuries are nothing to mess with...

It could. I also suggested that first round picks be exempt from the reduction. This way, the teams with the top picks wouldn't get off the hook easy by simply drawing a top pick. A reduction of 5% seems a bit trivial, but I still would support it. With that 5% reduction, Datsyuk's current $6,700,000 cap hit would then become $6,365,000 for a savings of $335,000.

The cap is garbage and it penalizes teams successful teams while rewarding less successful teams. Salary caps are a form of price fixing, and people will try to find loopholes around this anyways. I won't get into an economics discussion as to why price fixing is bad, but it's bad economics and endangers the quality of the game. To fix this remedy, I suggest the following: 1. Abolish the cap. The best idea. 2. Institute a luxury tax. This would enable teams to set their own payrolls, but would be taxed if they exceed the set cap number. The proposed luxury tax percentage would vary wildly, and would probably be opposed by the less successful franchises. However, teams that wanted to put a good/better product on the ice would be able to do so. They would just have to pay a little more. 3. Discounted cap hit for your own draft picks. Maybe just a discount for non-first round draft picks, instead of all of them? Something that really angers me is that, for example, the Red Wings have been so successful these last years that they have had minimal first round picks and are forced to draw at a later round. I understand the draft in the sense that less successful teams should have a crack at the top picks, but when a team like Detroit gets lower picks and then draws better players then the first rounders, then has to pick and choose between players when their entry-level contract ends, it bugs me. Take a look at last summers debacle. Z is signed for 6, a great cap hit. The Mule also signs for under 4, another great hit. Both Z and The Mule were selected because of our scouting departments elite skills, not to mention they were drafted in late rounds! Then we have a dedicated guy (say what you want about Hossa but it validates my point more) that wants to stay at Detroit. We are FORCED to choose between the 2 (Hoss and Mule) even though we drafted The Mule and Zetterberg! Something great about discounted draft picks, for example, a rate of 50% cap reduction, is that it would reward good drafting and scouting. So Z's cap hit would have been slightly over 3, and Mules cap hit would be slightly under 2. Then we could have signed Hossa. Say what you want about Hossa, but it would have been great to have him locked up at this time. By the way, I also find myself thinking what our present-day roster would like like if there was no salary cap in place. Oh the possibilities...

+/- Kirk Maltby 3 Nicklas Lidstrom 2 Brian Rafalski 1 Kris Draper 1 Johan Franzen 0 Justin Abdelkader 0 Tomas Holmstrom -1 Darren Helm -1 Patrick Eaves -1 Henrik Zetterberg -2 Pavel Datsyuk -2 Derek Meech -2 Brad Stuart -2 Brad May -2 Daniel Cleary -3 Valtteri Filppula -3 Niklas Kronwall -3 Ville Leino -3 Todd Bertuzzi -4 Brett Lebda -4 Jason Williams -5 Jonathan Ericsson -6 Yuck, I don't remember seeing anything this awful in a while.

Maltby is tied for 2nd in goals, tied for 4th in points, leading the team with Lidstrom in +-, and he's only played 6 games. He's also been effective on the PK and has 1 SH goal, and of course he can agitate the opposing team just as well as he could 10 years ago.

Nothing is going to happen until the trade deadline. It's a tough situation no doubt, but Holland isn't going to make some freak move and mortgage the future. With Franzen out we will probably be seeing a rotation between Abdelkader, Eaves, May, and Maltby on the bottom lines. We will be getting Helm back soon, which will add a boost. As long as we can keep our PP up and hone in on the PK we'll be in a good position when the Mule gets back...

www.nhlnumbers.com I think it's better than capgeek but what do I know...

I hope Helm comes back. We need his energy. I do wish that Bab's would switch up the lines... Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Franzen Bertuzzi-Filppula-Leino Cleary-Helm-Williams Maltby-Draper-Holmstrom This would be an awesome combo. Good look to anyone containing that top line, and from watching the past seasons very closely I think it's a crime not to put Pav and Z together. If you add Franzen to that line it just oozes with offense. Also the 2nd line is still a threat, and the 3rd line could provide energy as well as scoring. Holmstrom should be relegated to the 4th line. It's not that he's playing badly, but we need the guy healthy for the season and a healthy Homer is a good Homer. Limiting his time to 4th line minutes and the PP might help him to stay healthy. Now only if we could get Lilja on that back end with Big Rig...

Oh man...There's really too much to think about here. But could you imagine a Yzerman-Gretzky-Probert line ???

Oh man...There's really too much to think about here. But could you imagine a Yzerman-Gretzky-Probert line ???

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/09/29...rry-blades.html I'm not really sure what to think about this?

Update:

Lebda and Meech may not be the greatest, but for their cap hit it would be tough to find a better bargain. Of course, it would be much better if Lilja was healthy. I know people rag on him, but we are really missing his presence. I don't think it's much of a coincidence that our defensive play and PK are lacking quality in his absence.

Hey, don't worry guys. Maltby is on pace for 82 goals.

I'll be watching the B's and Caps. It's going to be very weird seeing hockey again, since I haven't paid any attention to pre-season or anything since our last game. OOooo... I'm excited though... :banana: and just for some predictions... caps, leafs, flames, and the avs will all come out with W's... HOCKEY'S BACK!!!

I know Rodney has only blown 1 save this year, and is 36 for 37 in opportunities which is quite excellent actually. But does anyone else feel like they miss a beat in the bottom of the ninth?

Oh man...could you imagine? Kov and Pav on the same line together

Best seats are undoubtedly the Legends Club. I've had seats in basically every section in the house, including suites, the party deck, front row, etc....but the Legends club is by far the best. You get a bunch of free food, free non alcoholic drinks, and game infromation statistics that are so in depth that you would wonder who possibly could be writing them. There are bathrooms a few feet from your seats, and you can make it to the bathroom and back if there's an icing call. There is a bar about 10 feet away and you can get your drinks almost instantaneously and they have good beers on tap... There is also a ton of memorabilia and cool stuff. Also, everytime I've been in the Legends Club someone cool stops by. I've met Dino, Probert, Stevie, Gordie, Kenny H, Mickey Redmond, Teddy, Ken Daniels, and a whole bunch of other people. If you can get tickets for the Legends Club....do it!

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=291446 Not surprising. I wonder who will be next?

Um...I believe Nick did not win the cup as captain in 02'. I believe there was some other captain at that time. I could be wrong though...

Despite losing free agents and what the hockey media says, the Wings will break the 300 mark in goals scored and will allow less than 200. Hank will hit 40 and the Mule will crack 50. This is the year that Datsyuk breaks the 100 point barrier and ends up with the MVP. Bold predictions? Yep. Unrealistic? No. The Wings will be on a mission this season and the bad taste from last year will linger for the whole season until the last game played. I think we are going to see a different team that is more focused during the season. Ozzie will play a better game and the Wings, defensively speaking, will be on a whole different level then they were last year.

Only time will tell with this one. Kessel is no doubt a great player and will continue to get better, but you got to wonder about those draft picks. That is definitely a steep price to pay for a player, but the kid is only 21 so you have to look at it from both sides. It will be interesting to see how Kessel adopts to not having one of the best passers in the game (Savard) to set him up. This no doubt makes the Leafs a more formidable team and I'm happy to see them heading in the right direction.