Third Man In

Geez. Couldn't they find ANYONE else to buy this team? Shouldn't there be some sort of moratorium on buying one team after bitching about losing money on another? At least when Leipold was dumping salaries, he didn't have enough foresight to send them Minnesota's way.

Congrats Ozzie on his 3rd All-Star game! No kidding--not only are their stats almost identical, but do you think Henrik will even know how to get his jock on straight without Daniel there? I kid, I kid. As for the Leclaire/Manny thing. Yes, Leclaire deserves the nod over Manny. But their numbers aren't that much different, so it came down to 1.) St. Louis having a slightly better record as a team (even though, again, Manny's and Leclaire's W-L aren't that much different), and 2.) Manny not playing with a guy named Rick Nash to take up the team's All-Star spot. Edit: toby91's right. Ozzie playing in '98 is a lie. An evil, evil lie.

Yesh! Osgood continues to be the best bargain for a quality backup starting goalie in the league.

True. I'd love to keep them together on the first PP unit. But they need to be split up at this point to give the team more balanced scoring, especially against good defensive clubs.

I agree about the line combos. Except that Dano was playing so well with Dats and Flip, it seems a shame to split them up.

Not according to NHL.com, which lists the attendance as 0. http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?service=page&am...&gameType=2

I dunno about the morbidly obese goalie idea...I'm more inclined to the idea on Saturday Night Live when Wayne Gretzky hosted years ago: "Wayne, why don't the Kings just put a midget in goal holding a giant board the size of the net? No one could ever score."

On one hand, I like the idea of being the one team in the league that can still win w/o bringing its A game. On the other hand, I hate the idea of being the one team in the league that can still win w/o bringing its A game. No more playing to Edmonton's and Washington's level, eh?

Wow! One bad period, and all the sudden it's time for Cheli and Dom to retire...

So the Attrition '07 campaign continues, eh? First Langers, now Manny

Pull Dom now.

Damn kids

Muchas gracias, Miquel! Tu es El Hombre. Viva los Red Wings, y viva Miquel!

Thanks for posting the rules, loo. The important thing here is that it sounds like you can write in more than one player per ballot. So the "Write in Ozzy" campaign won't take votes away from the "Write in Homer" campaign

I dunno. Do teams play more conservatively because that's the style they prefer, or because from a talent perspective that's what they have to do to compete? For some teams (perhaps the '94 Sharks or the '96 Florida Panthers), the latter seems to be the case. For the left wing lock era Red Wings, it's probably more towards the former. I see your point, but I think we have a chicken and egg argument here, in which case I'm happy to agree to disagree. It's surely incorrect to single out any one cause.

I should add that one of the problems I see with the European influx argument is that while yes these players have added skill to the league, they are often forced to play a trapping or dump and chase style instead of the puck possession style they're used to. I think this makes especially the mid-level European players less effective than they might be (imagine D-Mac in his prime if he played in Europe for a puck possession team on a larger ice surface--he wouldn't have been as effective) So while Europeans have helped, I don't think their effect on scoring is as high as is often supposed.

Thanks t91 for giving a more detailed response. I certainly agree that the influx of European players has helped. But overexpansion and now the salary cap that it's spawned, for better or for worse, has undoubtedly led to less overall talent and scoring. I'm not arguing this is the only cause--certainly, the game is going through a much more defensive phase than it was in in the 80s, goalies are bigger, better, and better handling the puck, etc. But I think my explanation has a lot more to do with decreased scoring than a lower percentage of teams making the playoffs. Edit: I say 'certainly' a lot, even when no one is certain about anything.

Apparently one more time. Saying it's wrong three--no, four--times instead of once doesn't convince me

Duplicate Post

I think Ron's got the right cause for the decrease in scoring but the wrong explanation. Scoring IS down because there are now 30 instead of 21 teams. But I don't think the explanation is that a lower percentage of teams make the playoffs, therefore games are tighter. Rather, I think the leagues is overexpanded, so the collection of offensive talent on any given team is overall much less. Defensive positioning is easier to coach than goal scoring.

Good topic. On one hand, if a tribe clearly supports the affiliation (as with FSU and the Seminole tribe), this seems perfectly okay. But what about other instances--where do we draw the line? If 75% of Native Americans don't think "Washington Redskins" is offensive, that still means that 25% DO think its offensive. It's not fair to sweep this sizable number of peoples' feelings under the rug and complain about the PC police and people being overly sensitive. This isn't something trivial, like if you like Vancouver's new uniforms or not. This involves a legacy of racism, discrimination, and colonization. Do you all remember the University of Northern Colorado intramural basketball team, the Fighting Whites? When this came out, many whites were amused, and some were offended. I think its funny, but I don't think I'd be nearly as inclined to think so if it recalled a similar legacy of oppression. Edit: image

Reds, of course. Side note: speaking of switching jerseys, wasn't it great when the Wings used to actually play Original 6 teams besides Chicago, and sometimes the Wings would wear their home jersey in the other Original 6 team's rink, and vice versa?

I'm sure it's great if you have it. But I refer you all to the GDT to see why Bettman TV is utter crap for most of us.

- Feds - Yes - No - Mr Hockey - Ozzie - 115 - The goal scorer would be the third guy on the line... - Same as Dats - Raffy. We have enough shoot-out candidates. - Malts

That would be a better name for it--Versus2: The Deuce!