Nev

Yeah, I know it was only the Sabres, but we did just about enough to beat them. Monster was strong, Tatar was noticable every shift, Alfredsson plays with such poise, and even Mule was making things happen out there.

It was, but go back and look at how much Hudler, Filpulla, Zetterberg, Kronwall, Franzen, Samuellson, and Cleary were on, and look at how much more they got paid on their next contract. Look at how much (or more accurately how little) we were paying Ozzie and Hasek. The fact that we had so many good players on cheap contracts enabled us to sign Rafalski and then Stuart.

What a terrible game. One of the worst teams in the NHL playing defensively, against an average team playing really, really badly. The top line was really good in the 1st period, 2nd period they did nothing. Its nearly midnight here and I got work in the morning, I don't think I can stay up for another hour to watch this.

How brutal were those PP lines? Weiss as the net front presence? Just load up on the 1st PP unit and keep it out there as long as possible.

Arghghgh, Ville Leino, 12GP 0-3-3, -2. This isn't going to end well is it?

Do they have many rookies who have yet to score their first NHL goal?

Talent, put and simple. On the back end especially. The toughness/fighting thing is a complete red herring. Go back 5 years to when the Wings had a monster team, and the same people were making exactly the same accusations - "we need more fighters! Our team is too soft! We'll get murdered in the playoffs!" And Howard going back to last seasons form would help too.

Ha, fair enough. I like to think of myself as one of the more reasonable posters on here, but this thread touched a nerve I'm afraid. Excellent, that's twice in a month that I've been nominated, I've got a realgud chance of winning this year now!

I don't hate Cleary. I do hate ungrateful, spiteful, keyboard warriors who are unable to appreciate the fact that the reason Cleary is so ineffective is because he has given quite literally everything his body has for this team. I refuse to hate a player who has been a part of so many great moments for this team. I refuse to hate a player who continued to play in the 2009 playoffs - all the way to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals - with a double groin tear so bad he couldn't actually walk up a flight of stairs. I refuse to hate the player who laid out Phaneuf, fought Pronger, scored the winner in game 7 against the ducks. I refuse to hate a player who took a slapshot to face and was eating through a straw for a month, who lost 20lbs of muscle that had taken a lifetime to build, and when he came back went straight to the front of the net again. So all you internet tough guys who don't have a fraction of the heart, courage and toughness that Dan Cleary has displayed in the Red + White, I suggest you all STFU and show a bit of class, dignity and gratitude.

That we have the most amazing player to watch in Datsyuk

Or to put it another way - after 1 game, he has the same number of goals as Cleary and Miller combined in 45 games. 2 players who didn't need to be re-signed, eating up $3.1M of cap space. Anyway, if Nyquist stays up and continues to perform, what chance he makes Sweden's roster for the Olympics?

I think we can all agree with Weiss and Alfie back, and Nyquist and Tatar up, we can roll 4 pretty good forward lines, even if it means having Cleary or Sammy playing on the 4th line. Its the defence that worries me. After Kronner/E/DD there is a HUGE drop-off to the bottom 3. No amount of line juggling can hide that fact.

If he keeps this up, he could become a genuine contender for the Hart, especially with the Eastern Conference bias in the media.

Dabura mentioned our special teams - we're 9th in PP and 3rd in PK. Considering how problematic they've both been the last few seasons, that's mighty impressive.

For just 1 day, he saves us a few thousand dollars as opposed to Nyquist, since he makes about $400k less. It all adds up, and every little helps.

Ha! Called it! But still, Cleary

Unless of course that 2nd line spot is being kept open for a certain Mr G.Nyquist esq.

OK with splitting up Pav and Hank, it simply has to be done at the minute. Ignoring the fact that Cleary is on the top line Z + Franzen, but short of a forward???????? Man, if only we had a hungry young 22 year old winger who's shown some good chemistry with Franzen the last few games eh?

We're quieter because it's becoming increasingly hard to defend some of his actions recently. As I said in another thread recently, not everything he does is totally wrong - his tactic of trading down our 1st rounder has reaped a bounty of quality prospects. But unquestionably, he has become overly loyal, unwilling to cut ties with players, unwilling to use our big pool of prospects to trade for roster players, but also unwilling to promote those prospects to the big club, coupled with terrible roster management. Nyquist and Tatar need to be on this team full time - not just because they're good enough, but so that they go from being inexperienced youngsters, to established pros. So that next season they've both got 100+ NHL games under their belt when we have to try and work in Almquist and Ferraro and Sheahan who are out of options, and Jurco and Mantha and Sproul and Oullet are all going to be knocking on the door.

He never had a step in the first place, but he was playing with speedy wingers like Nyquist and Brunner who complimented his skill-set. Stick him with Cleary and Sammy and suddenly he looks slow as molasses again. His best play this season was when he had Abdelkader and Tatar on his wing. Anyway, we gotta win tonight, right? Right? Right.....?

Not so sure about Bert and Alfie. They've both been playing OK, they may want to come back for another year, I could see Bert retiring though, as his court case starts in September, so he may want to concentrate on that. Thing is, we need to create spots. Almquist, Ferraro and Sheahan are not waiver exempt next season, Jurco is already a PPG player in the AHL at age 20.

Declining Kozlov? He had four 70 point seasons after he left Detroit, just two whilst he was a Wing. But whatever, I think trading for arguably the greatest goaltender of all time classes as blockbuster.

That's why the cap dead-weight needs to part of a package, not the centre-piece. Just as an example: Buffalo are in full on tank mode, and they have a veteran PMD in Erhoff, who for arguments sake is available for trade. His cap hit is $4.0M, so we need to clear that or more off our salary. Buffalo have ~$7M in cap room, so they can afford to take some salary off us. So we trade say Smith, Pulkinnen and Sheahan for Erhoff. To make it cap compliant we add pending UFA Quincey. Not saying we should do that, or that Buffalo would agree, but that's the kind of thing we need to be doing. Agree, but there are enough bottom feeders this season - Buff, Edm, Philly etc - who are going to be looking to shed vets for prospects and picks Um, Hasek? And not "blockbusters" but Stuart, Schneider, Bertuzzi, Lang...

I see what you did there

Since he's playing himself further and further down the depth chart I'd give Dan Cleary free surgery on his knees/back/groins such that he doesn't need a wheelchair by the time he's 40 and LTIR him for the rest of the season. Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Bertuzzi Franzen - Weiss - Tatar Nyquist - Helm - Alfredsson Miller - Anderson - Abdelkader Then use our glut of prospects to trade for a veteran defenceman to stabilise the bottom 3. We've got so many prospects right now, we can even afford to throw in a 2nd or a 3rd to get someone to take Quincey off our hands. Kronwall - Ericsson Dekeyser - Vet Kindl - Actually_we_might_need_to_trade_for_two_veteran_defencemen