Sepster

In terms of this season and playoffs, I like Forsberg better than Sundin. The Loafs will ask a fortune for Sundin and there's no way Kenny does that. Forsberg for only money at this point is a much more realistic situation. HOWEVER, IF Forsberg really is insisting on a long-term deal, obviously one that would take him past this season, then NO DEAL! The chances of him staying healthy and completing ths contract are practically non-existent. So in that case you'd be tying up money that needs to be used for Zetterberg, Cleary and Filppula. Remember, all contracts for players over 35 yrs old are guaranteed AND count agaisnt the cap. I've already started praying tha Draper, Maltby and Osgood stay healthy and productive for the next three years, I don't need to start worrying about Forsberg with his health issues.

Jackman's a real tough guy when he can sucker punch a guy after a goal or cross-check their ribs while standing at the front of the net, but line him up for a hit and he breaks, poor guy, I'm really going to miss some sleep after this one. Was the hit questionable? Probably. Does Jackman dish out WAY more questionable hits than he receives? ABSOLUTELY. Don't anyone cry for this guy, he's one of the dirtiest SOB's in the league, what goes around comes around. Good riddance. (And by the way, his Calder Trophy sure looks like a joke now-a-days doesn't it? It may have been a toss-up that year between him and Zetterberg, but in hind-sight the voters sure f*cked that one up. Can we get a recall for that one?)

Let's say McCarty is cleared to play and comes back to the Wings, what possibly makes people think that he won't be hurt again? We're talking about a player that missed more than 25% of the games he was eligible to play in due to injury. For some perspective, consider that between the time he came into the league ('93-'94) until ('05-'06) he missed more games than Steve Yzerman did due to injury, and that includes all of Yzerman's knee, neck, back and groin injuries. During that time period out of a possible 947 regular season games McCarty missed 237 games, Yzerman 190... pretty telling considering Yzerman kissed an entire season after his knee surgery. I seriusly doubt McCarty would come close to being healthy enough to make it through a seaon or be around come playoff time.

I've been talking about this strategy with anyone who'd listen for years. It only increases travle costs for Eastern Conference teams and you know what? f*** them, you think LA, Anahiem, Vancouver, Pheonix Dallas and others in the West think its fair to have travel costs multiple times higher than East Teams? How fair is it for the Pacific Division to play something like 40 games in the Pacific Time Zone, 20 games in the Mountain Time Zone 10 in the Central and 10 in the Eastern, when teams in the Southeast Division play 3 in the Central Time Zone and 79 in the Eastern Time Zone. This decision shouldn't be based on whether half the league wants to cheap out on their budget at the expense of the other half of the league. The NHL needs to base its scheduling decisions on what woudl be the fairest and most bablanced for the ENTIRE league as a whole. I agree whole heartedly, go to North and South and allow all teams to travel the same amount during the season AND playoffs.

The one and only reason is that the NBA and NFL Player Associations have deals where every jersey has to be sold with a name on it. That way the player whose name appears on the jersey gets a cut of every jersey sold with his name. Thats the reason why Kobe Bryant swtiched #'s the other year. His jersey was no longer the hottest selling (I believe it was either LeBron or Wade at the time) and he wanted to kick start his jersey sales. His choices were to either switch teams or switch numbers. As I mentioned before Stalh's is the official supplier of lettering for the NHL and they pay the NHLPA a certain fee (no idea what amount it is) that allows them to sell the official lettering in any name that is ordered, therefore Reebok still is allowed to sell blank jerseys because the NHLPA still gets a cut when that blank jersey is lettered. Stalh's has continually tried to negotiate a similar deal with both the NBA and NFL, but haven't been able to get one done.

Joey, I may have an answer to your questions as to why this has started within the past year or so. Fisrt, let me start by saying that I am a part owner of the Harper Sport Shop in St Clair Shores, mi and has had an open account with CCM for over 50 years, and have sold NHL jerseys for as long as I can remember. Here is how this all works; when CCM was its own entity it allowed retail, brick and mortar order stores to sell both replica (the lighter-weight jersey without the fight-strap and double elbows and shoulders) and authentic (same exact jersey as game-worn by the players) jerseys. Also, they allowed retail stores to order both blank jerseys and jerseys with players names already sewn on. This made it really easy for retail stores to service the customer by being able to offer a jersey in any size with any name the customer wanted on the back. Personally, we would exclusively order blank jerseys and sell both the blanks and also have some jerseys "customized" with players names on them. We order our lettering directly from Stalh's, which is located in St Clair Shores and has the official liscense to supply the lettering to ALL 30 NHL teams along with retail stores. Which is great for me because the jerseys we letter are lettered with the exact same lettering they use to letter NHL Teams. Since CCM was purchased by Reebok several things have changed. One, Reebok originally wanted to stop selling blank jerseys all together. Which means only certain players from each team would be available since there are too many players on an NHL team to offer all of them. Reebok also holds the liscense for half of the NBA and all of the NFL and you'll notice that you CANNOT by blank NBA or NFL jerseys, this makes it much harder for retailers to stock them and therefore most NBA and NFL purchases are made through the leagues respective Web Sites. Secondly, when I first saw the replica jerseys last year Reebok was going to make them with a SCREENED logo. Not the embroidered logo that you find on the old replicas and the current authentics. Retailers all went nuts and Reebok changed their mind and decided to put the embroidered logos back on (albeit at $10 more cost then they originally had offered them). My guess is that Hockeytown Authentics and Joe Louis are getting their jerseys directly lettered from Reebok and it is Reebk who is using a cheaper and "inaccurate" number size. There is NO WAY that Hockeytown and Joe Louis are buying blank jerseys and sending them out to be lettered. The problem is not Hockeytown or Joe Louis, its more Reebok than anyone. They've changed quite a bit with CCM since they've bought them and I'll tell you that most retailers don't think its a good thing. I suggest that if you're as passionate about this as you seem to be, you're best bet is to purchase a blank jersey, whether it be a replica or an authentic and have the jersey lettered with the player you want. Make sure the place that is lettering the jersey is using official lettering from Stalh's. Not to seem like this is a gratuitous plug, but like I said, my store sells hundreds of jerseys a year, we have both the replicas and the authentics, we use the official NHL lettering and we can letter the jersey with any name or player you'd like. Turn-around is about a week to 10 days for the lettering if the jersey is in stock (which it usually is). Hope, that helps and I'll try to answer any other question you might have.

WOW, that comment is just stunning. As others have said get a ******* grip. I have no idea how long you've been a Wings fan or have closely follwed the team, but here is something to remember; when Homer was first brought over to the Wings and Bowman told him to make his trade in the crease area, Homer realized very quickly that he would take a lot of abuse. Getting tired of it he started to ask Joey Kocur to teach him how to fight. Wings management immediately recognized that 1) he would never be that good at it and 2) he much more valuable on the ice, so they stop him from learning. To say you have no respect for Holmstrom because he doesn't fight back agaisnt all of the abuse he takes... thats absolutely insane.

I'm not that worked up that he didn't take his helmet off, it doesn't always happen, when guys do set up, remove the helemt and start swinging, thats about as good as it gets. What does irritate me to the umpteenth degree, is that Tootoo doesn't even bother squaring up most of the time. He acts like he's skating away avoiding a fight and then all of a sudden swings around with a monster SUCKER-punch like a gutless little f***. The issue most people have isn't about removing helmets its the sucker-punching. About as classless of a move as possible in any walk of life and it really shows his level of character which happens to be piss-poor.

Look who else is at the Troy Sports Center in his Chicago Blackhawks gear, Sergei Samsonov. Its not uncommon for players who are staying or living in the area to practice with each other before traingin camps start. These aren't official Red Wings practices, teams can't officially hold them until certain dates, so players get together and basically have pick-up practices with anyone around who can realistically play I remember guys likes Derian Hatcher (before he played with the Wings) and even college players would skate at the Troy Center with Wings starting in early August. I have a buddy (Anton Fedorov, the first Russian-born player to play in the CCHA and played for U of M back in the early 90's) skated with the Wings a while back (he was skating with Larionov, Kozlov, Dandenault among other at the time).

I saw Kindl play in the Wings' Red and White game the fall after he was drafted. He was 18 at the time but looked very comfortable out on the ice. Granted it was an inter-squad scrimmage but what I took away was how well of a skater he was. And not just, "oh, he's a good skater for a big man (like Fishcer was)," but he's a flat-out great skater for any size. I, also, saw both Kindl and Ericsson play twice during the pre-season last year and they both looked capable of playing D in the NHL. Needless to say if they both continue to progress this up-coming year for Grand Rapids I see no reason the Wings shouldn't make room for them on the Wings for the '08-'09 season.

What if I'm a Spambot who is a Wings fan and likes to contribute regularly to threads?

The best part of that first video is seeing the dejected look on that no-talent, piece-of-s*** hack Dale Hunter sitting on the bench. I loved beating his ass and sending him off into retirement a prepetual loser, as he deserved.

What's the rookie cap? I thought it was less than $850K, but I looked up Malkin (figuring he would be at the max) and see that he makes over $960K.

I'm not that suprised that the league reversed the automatic suspension. Honestly, just like the league said, he was involved in the original fight, and it wasn't his fault that his fight strap got ripped off, he did apparently have it tied down. Having said that, the guy is a major punk and it is really reinforced by the fact that the guy won't sack up and face someone who challenges him to a fight. To play the way he does, and then try to hit the deck and let others try to clean up the mess he starts is the epitomy of a ball-less sack of crap. My only really conflict here is who I think is the bigger ball-less sack of crap; Hartnel or Tootoo... or, possibly even Trotz himself. Rant over... continue on, nothing to see here No way can Scott Stevens be lumped in with this crew. As you said, he was a devastating hitter, but he was clean. Stevens played 1635 games in the NHL and received two, count that, TWO elbowing penalties for his entire career. Thats one periods worth of elbows that Hartnel or Tootoo should be called for. Man, it steams me to even think that Stevens would be thought of in the same way.

A-Men, Brother!

Ha Ha, yes, "Whatever ." Nicely put.

Wallin was never voted the AHL's Top Defensemen (during a lockout when he would have been playing against more NHL quality players, as Kronwall has) nor was he selected as the Tournament MVP on a Gold-Medal winnig World Championship team. I think that along with the fact that Kronwall is a much better skater/passer/hitter than Wallin could have hoped to have been might be why the Wings are giving him a little more time than Wallin. Plus Wallin was projected as a stay-at-home 5th or 6th defensive defensmen - those are much easier to come by than a "potential" top 2-pairing. And while I agree that Kronwall has looked like he has hit a plateau the past month or so, I find the comparisons to Wallin to be a little ridiculous.

Completly Off-Topic, but my brother and I were trying to figure out if anyone has ever had a Triple Gordie in a game? Triple Gordie = 3 goals, 3 assists, 3 fights, 1 game Has it ever happened? Is it even possible?

sarcasm, guys. He heard Holland was the worst GM... 'at the parade'..... meaning the Stanley Cup Parade. He's being funny.

The salaries do count against the cap if the player is playing for the NHL club. They don't count if it is a two-way contract and they're playing for the farm team. I agree, if Datsyuk comes over (and I am cautiously optomistic) than what other team could say they have the Russain Leagues MVP, Swedish Elite's leading scorer and the AHL's Best Defensivemen ON TOP of the defending Selke Trophy winner and a three-time Norris winner?

I always liked Thomas, but I just can't see a place for him now, even at the league minimum. If he's invited to camp, great, see what he has left. then go into the season, see what the "new" NHL is all about and if we still have a need and he's a known quantity than give it a shot. But before camp even starts, concerning him, all bets are off. Take a wait and see approach before offering a contract.

I know this is fairly callous and I don't mean to affend anyone, But Probie never was the same player after he got "cleaned up." Neither was McCarty after he became sober (which of course was great for him). It seems to be a very unfortunate situation where some enforcers are great because of substance abuse.

My initial reaction is that I'm not a fan of this move. Not that I don't like Delmore, its just he seems like a redundant signing. We have average size offensive d-men, we NEED size and toughness. I just hope that if this signing is actual fact that it is not the last addition to the D corps. I'm still hoping for Todd Simpson.