wings_fanatic

Brodeur retiring will not impact Nick being a first ballot HHOFer at all. Nick was the best player in all of hockey the past 20 seasons and while Marty was outstanding, most people in the hockey world would agree that Nick has been the best player the past 20 years, with Marty being not too far behind. Now I gotta make sure I get tickets to the Alumni game at the Winter Classic because I am looking very much more forward to that for the possibility of Nick Lidstrom to play one last time in front of my eyes.

Nicklas lidstrom was in his prime for all 20 seasons he was with us in detroit... No joke. The man brought his A game night in and night out, and every single night, he was the most important piece to our teams success.

Reports indicate that the cap will increase to anywwhere between 68 and 72 million dollars so that is why he used the 70 million dollar mark.

If the Devils lose, which I am confident they will, I still see Parise walking away. Why? Because the Devils are not that good of a team heading into the future. Marty may or may not retire after this year, but regardless once he is gone, their team will not be nearly as good and I think Parise knows that.

What s***ty officiating this game. That call for goalie interference was retarded and the nhl needs to fix that because Marty was clearly out of his crease and he skated out into the Ranger player... his own fault! Anyways it is a shame that the only Rangers player who seemed to show up tonight was Henrik Lunquivst who has made tons of nice saves this game and had zero chance on either goal. If Parise wins the Cup and stays in Jersey, maybe we can turn our hope to the King getting fed up with the Rangers and their lack of goal support and demand a trade to the Wings hahaha (one could only dream). But seriously, Brad Richards has had a TERRIBLE series and has not been worth half of what his contract is this year. Gaborick too (playoffs). Hopefully the Rangers can come back, but doesn't look like it,.

I would take Dom back with open arms. He would sign cheap and he could either work or not work ... either way it wouldn't really cost us anything. I think there is potential it could work out great and it could provide more hunger for a Cup. Heck the last 2 times we won the Cup, Dominik was part of our team, so lets try it one final time. Get it done Kenny!

I am amazed at how bad the officiating has been in this series. Torts was absolutely right when he said the Devils dive a lot and imo they got away with quite a bit tonight while the rangers got called for every little thing they did. Needless to say, Torts has 2 very important things he needs to do before next game. 1) He needs to get his team to start ON TIME... every single game this series the only Rangers player that shows up in the first is the King in net, and if not for him this series would be almost over. The Rangers need to come out of the gate at home on Wednesday and provide support for King Henrik and push the Devils around. 2) He REALLY needs to fix their coverage in their zone. The forwards have been allowing the Devils pointmen WAY TOO MUCH TIME to shoot the puck towards the net and that has been basically the only way they are able to get anything past Lunquivst all series long. Torts needs to get his forwards to challenge the points a lot more than they have been. If they do this, the Rangers will win game 5 and likely the series. I guarantee Lunquivst is nearly unbeatable, so if the Rangers make these adjustments they will win the series.

We also did not get goals that we needed. Fact is it became extremely apparent that Pavel and Hank need better players to work with. To be honest, I think Kenny should PRESS to get Parise AND Semin and here is why. Parise is not a "Sniper" he is a hard worker who scores all sorts of different kind of goals, therefore I think he would work a lot better playing with Hank then Pavel. But Pavel still needs a legitimate sniper who can score goals and semin would provide that (and he is right handed). Imagine: Semin- Datsyuk- Homer Parise- Zetterberg- Franzen Cleary- Filpulla- Bertuzzi Miller- Helm- Abs/Eaves I know it is wishful thinking, but that would be a much more improved team. ALso, I know many don't like HOmer on the top line, but I feel having him on the top line benefits the team as a whole because he slows down the 4th line, and he can make the top line more effective by retrieving pucks and screening the goalie.

Teams can trade for a players rights before july 1st and negotiate a contract with the player but there is no guarantee that the player will sign with the team that the contract was traded to.

Another great game by King Henrik and his Rangers in front of him, and what a way to end one of the best series in a while... it was so evenly matched and had such great goaltending. My only complaint about this game is I find it downright retarded that the Rangers 3rd goal did not count because of that stupid intent to blow the whistle rule. IMO you either blow the whistle or you don't. The puck was visable the entire time so I have no idea what the ref was thinking other then knowing the nhl would want it to remain a 1 goal game. With that said, they need to get rid of that intent to blow the whistle crap. I think the Rangers will win the Cup because the King looks unbeatable and looks like he WANTS the Cup more anyone. It will be nice if they win the Cup which if they do they would be the 4th original 6 team to win the cup in the last 5 years. go rangers !

Torts is honest I admire that and respect that. HE is the only coach who is not afraid to speak out. There are MANY times during the year where I feel the officials make extremely bad calls against the Wings that play a huge part in a loss and Babcock says nothing. I would rather a coach not be afraid to speak his mind and let everyone know what happened. Way to go Torts.

Awesome win by the Rangers! I think this game showed that they are just destined for the Cup this season.

Also the Franzen experiment of wasting Datsyuk's time needs to be over. I never want to see 93 on the ice with 13 anymore unless it is a powerplay maybe. Parise/Semin- Datsyuk- Nyquist Filpulla-Zetterberg-Franzen/Hudler Cleary-Helm-Franzen/Hudler

Reading some of this is just crap. Honestly the amount of you guys who have just completely went against Nicklas Lidstrom is retarded. For the love of god he was playing very well until he got injured (fluke injury) and was in contention for the god damn norris trophy!! The only reason he looked somewhat human near the end of the season was because he never fully recovered from that injury. The man clearly has a lot of hockey left in him and he has been such a good leader for this team over the years it is not even funny. Any true Red Wings fan would want Lidstrom to come back no matter what and would realize he should be and IS their top priority going into the offseason. I truly feel very confident that he will choose to come back 1 more year and when he does, a lot of you debunking him right now will be right back on the wagon telling all of your friends how great Nick is. Anyways, I think that after Kenny signs Nick up, he will first go after a goal scorer. I think it is very realistic to imagine the Wings landing Parise and Suter because they are very good friends, it is known that they would like to play together and Parise has stated several times how he loves the Wings system and style, and mentioned what it would be like to play with Pavel. Obviously it would take a lot of luck to get both of them, but it is very much possible. If Kenny is unable to get Parise, then he will go after Semin, who I think would be a nice fit with Pavel. The advantage for Semin is that he is a right handed shot, has lots of skill, would be cheaper than Parise, and could still get at least 30 goals playing with Pavs. After this route, I think Kenny will also add a bigger body forward to the 4th line.

None of their stars stepped up?? How about their outstanding goaltender who has been their best player for the past many seasons! Henrik Lunquivst was outstanding last series and all season... he has been pretty much unbeatable and it will be very difficult for the Caps to beat him. How about their captain Ryan Callahan?? He was fantastic that series as well, contributing some important points, excellent at both ends of the ice, and was a hitting machine. Their Dmen were outstanding all series as well. Overall you underestimate the NY Rangers and I think they will have only a little trouble with the Caps. King Henrik and his Rangers over the Caps in 6 games.

Here is a scary thought... so far based on the 1st round the only team that remains with a Cup victory since 2000 is the Devils, and that is if they win tomorrow. We could be going into round 2 with every team not having a Cup since at least 2000.

Nick Lidstrom did not have a decline this season, he was playing through a deep bone ankle injury... if you knew what that is like then you would know how that affects your game a lot more than you think. Before that, he was a leading candidate for the Norris so it is safe to say that there is no decline this season for Nick. Also Nick has stated recently that he will never sign a contract and state that "this will be my last season." Nick is a classy guy and would not want to make a season about him... Now I think he will sign for one more year and he will once again be our best dman regardless of if we sign Suter or not. As for Homer, I am thinking that we bring him back 1 last year. He is a veteran who will be hungry and he was one of our best players in the playoffs, competing every shift. I also think it is really important he comes back because him and Nick are best friends, always go out for lunch on a home game day, and always drive to the Joe together for games... pretty important that they both come back.

I would LOVE to get Semin. I don't care what anyone says, the kid has talent and LOTS of it. He has been the Caps best player this post season and is committing himself to defense a lot more than before... I constantly see him coming back, blocking shots and on offence he is a very good passer and he has a hell of a shot (right handed could be huge for us). To top that, his idol is Pavel Datsyuk so playing with Pavs might help him push himself even more to compete every shift. If the Red Wings could somehow sign Semin, Parise AND Suter, not only would Nick for sure come back, but they would be very much the top contender for the Stanley Cup and they would be STACKED! It is a huge long shot but it could happen. I expect Kenny will likely sign one of Semin or Parise and then go full out for Sutter. I guess only time will tell.

I feel sorry for Nick because you could tell how disappointed he was, but I have no doubt in my mind he will come back one more season. I dont want to blame Babcock for losing this series, but he was a good portion for the reason unfortunaely. His refusal to change the top 2 lines and give pavel some legitimate help is beyond me. But another thing that killed us was the start to the 3rd period tonight. It was a very very dumb decision by him to not start Lidstrom at the beginning of the period because that play would have never happened because he settles play down and gets things going... terrible mistake by Babcock and that was the difference maker tonight. Overall I think that losing this series in 5 games will be much better for us for the off season then if we lost in 7 games because now it forces Ken Holland to do something in the off season. It was so clear this series that there was NO ONE for Pavel to work with at all. It was actually disgusting to watch. To be honest, I doubt Nick comes back unless Kenny makes some sort of move because this team as it is does NOT cut it. I fully expect to get Parise or Semin at the very least. I would also like to get a better 3rd or 4th liner. Also good bye Brad Stuart you were great here, but not towards the end... have fun in Cali. Overall I think with a few additions (as I mentioned above)Nick will come back (and he will ******* prove any loser wrong that thinks he has lost it because he was in contention for the Norris til he got injured and there is no doubt in my mind that he will be amazing next year. I think with the additions, and Nick coming back next year, they will make a really strong run.

I find it so funny how babs simply refuses to alter his 1st and 2nd lines.... like seriosly they are getting nothing done. Why NOT try fil with pavs and nyquist??!

good response period by Howie. I thought we had a good start but then we started making way too many mistakes in our own end. I still think the top 2 lines SUCK! Cleary took a whole 14 seconds to piss me off this game. Most importantly, Pavel looks rly energized tonight so Babs needs to change the ******* lines already to give pavel someething to work with. Filpulla- dats-nyquist franzen-hank-hudler If we end up losing this series a good reason for it will be babcock's refusal to change the god damn lines.

Big mistake by Babcock to keep these same lines as the last 2 games... they are clearly getting nothing done as we only have 1 even strength goal in that time. He should have a new top 2 lines: Filpulla-Datsyuk- Nyquist Franzen-Zetterberg-Hudler Anywayds if we win game 5 I think we will win the series. GO WINGS

After that goal where the 4 players went to erat, after they scored lidstroms reaction was something i have never seen before. Nick looked immediately at white and was making an angry face as if he wanted to ask what the hell he was doing...but then he just skated away and chose to not say anything at that point. I have never seen nick so angry looking like that before.

I have always been against franzen playing with pavel for like the past two seasons...franzen just wastes pavels time out there. I was at both games this week and there were times where pavel got the puck and was rushing it and franzen was behind our freakin Dmen!! Because of that pavel dumped it in and skated to the bench annoyed. Mike babs is a great coach but he waits too long to change his lines. Pretty funny that we can sit here and come up witht better lines then what babcock has come up with. Get it done babs!

I likel everyones suggestion of fil with pavs and nyquist... I think thatt would be a fantastic line that would have such a good mixture of speed and skill that i think it could get us right back in this series. And honestly it is obvious that fil is not effective offensively so far and pavel has had zero support so this change could be huge for the wings. Filpulla-datsyuk-nyquist Cleary-zetterberg-hudler (worked before ,hudler is playing better than useless franzen) Bertuzzi-abdelkator-franzen Miller-emmerton-homer Lidstrom-white Kronners-stu Ericsson-quincy I think these lines could spark eneergy and get us back into this series...also howard has got to make some big saves for us...he has not been the reason we have lost two games but he also did not help us win. I likel everyones suggestion of fil with pavs and nyquist... I think thatt would be a fantastic line that would have such a good mixture of speed and skill that i think it could get us right back in this series. And honestly it is obvious that fil is not effective offensively so far and pavel has had zero support so this change could be huge for the wings. Filpulla-datsyuk-nyquist Cleary-zetterberg-hudler (worked before ,hudler is playing better than useless franzen) Bertuzzi-abdelkator-franzen Miller-emmerton-homer Lidstrom-white Kronners-stu Ericsson-quincy I think these lines could spark eneergy and get us back into this series...also howard has got to make some big saves for us...he has not been the reason we have lost two games but he also did not help us win.