Nev

Yeah, when my wife had it, she was utterly wiped out for a year, sleeping 18 hours a day, and she wasn't 100% for another couple of years after that, she would just fall asleep at the drop of a hat.

Back OT, this is a HUGE year for Kronwall. AFAIK he's never spent any meaningful time on the top pairing, and its a big step up from the 2nd pairing. He's gone from facing good players every other night, to facing star players every single night. Just to add to the pressure, he is now by far our best D-man now on a D-corps full of 3rd pairing guys, and hes stepping into the skates of the 2nd best defenceman of all time. No pressure then. It'll be interesting to see how he does on the 1st PP unit, when he's feeling confident, and he chooses to use it, he's got a terrific shot from the point, but in the past he's gone through long stretches where you just don't see it. So genuine #1 defenceman who's simply been denied the opportunity because of the quality of players in front of him, or good 2nd pairing guy who's been over-promoted? Only time will tell.

Wings win 14-3. Goal and 13 assists for Datsyuk.

Kinda scares me that so many Wings fans are expecting Smith, Brunner (if eligable) and Nyquist (if he plays) to win the Calder. High fan expectations and an over-reliance on un-proven players can be a dangerous combination.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to any Wings fan - we've been in a slow and steady decline for several years now. Unfortunately the old way that we compensated for aging stars and retirement of core players - free agency and trades - just doesn't work anymore. The new way - sucking for several years and rebuilding with lottery picks on ELCs and filling out the roster with cheap veterans - won't work for us yet because we don't suck enough. Right now we're stuck in the NHL Poverty Trap. Not good enough to be a genuine contender, not bad enough to rebuild properly. 6-10 is probably where we'll finish in the west, depending on injuries and the form of key players. The fact that we're still expected to make the playoffs despite the loss of Lidstrom, Stuart, Rafalski, Draper, Maltby, Holmstrom, Osgood et al in the last few years is testament to Hollands managerial skill.

Holland has also been to the playoffs every season since 2002, won 7 division titles, 3 Presidents Trophies, 2 Western Conference championships, and 1 Stanley Cup. I'd say not trading roster players has worked out pretty well for him.

Hard as it is to comprehend, 1996 was 17 years ago!!! It only feels like yesterday....

I love me some Homer as much as the next man, but I think Phil Esposito might disagree with your statement Its a spooky, eery feeling. Who knows when we'll see another Stanley Cup?

Finding it very hard to get excited right now.... Just out of curiosity, have the players gained anything out of this apart from a reduction in Free Agency age from 27/28 to 25/26? Everything else seems to be pretty much damage limitation. Looks like a decisive win for Bettman from here.

No different to the Wings fans on these boards that react to playoff losses to the likes of Nashville and San Jose by asking their fans how many cups they've won.

Wow, imagine the response if Bettman ever dares show his face in public again?

01 Jan 2013. One big fat

Did you know in 2009 Gill had just 3 minors in 24 games? The following season, playing for Montreal against Pittsburgh, he had 7 in 7 games - all for obstruction, interference or holding. Its hard not to be paranoid when that kind of stuff happens.

FWIW, I thought the 2008 finals were horrifically reffed in favour of the Pens, and we won that one, so that can't be put down to sour grapes. Pens fans liked to point out how the total PIMs were even that series, ignoring how they racked them up when they started gooning the joint out after being blown away in games 1 + 2. Not to mention Gary Roberts cowardly sucker punch on Franzen, trying to start a fight with Datsyuk, the blatant trip on Dats with 10 seconds to go which led directly to that last second chance, Hal Gill committing Interference and/or Holding on every single shift, the way Detroit defencemen found themselves repeatedly without sticks when the Pens were on the PP.....I could go on, but suffice it to say the interview by Ozzie/McCarty after they won was quite telling. As for the too many men in '09, what really got me was that once the refs realised, they didn't blow the whistle, they told the 6th man to get off the ice. No wonder Ilitch didn't want to shake Bettmans hand after game 7.

96>95>09 Really, we over-achieved in 2009. We sucked through most of the regular season, defence and goaltending were horrible and it was only the much-maligned Hossa's goals that saved us on a nightly basis. Even in the playoffs we didn't play that well as a team, and it was only Ozzie returning to 2008 form that carried us to the finals. Then in the finals, we were actually outplayed in 6 of the 7 games, which given our injury list is no surprise. Just to recap for everyone Datsyuk - broken foot Hossa - torn rotator cuff Clearly - double groin tear Ericsson - emergency appendectomy, came back after 1 game Rafalski - separated shoulder AND herniated disc Lidstrom - emergency ******** save, came back after 1 game Kopecky - out with broken jaw Lilja - out with broken brain Holmstrom - no specific injury, but so badly beat up he was contemplating retirement Now compare that to our 2008 injury list which was just Filpulla (playing with strained knee ligaments). Then look what happened in 2007 when Schneider and Kronwall both went down. Babcock admitted that he felt physically sick when he knew Schneider was done. Its also telling that Babs, Mr Hard-ass, Mr Win-itdoesn'tmatterhowjustwin, spoke with pride about the team after they lost in 2009. It was totally unBabcockian, to praise a team that had just blown game 7 at how to win the cup. Because he knew, they had over-acheived getting that far, and once Fleury had stopped giving us 1 or 2 softies per game, we had no chance.

Patrick Roy - when I think of how little Montreal wanted for him, and what we would have achieved with him in net..... Having said that, if we got Roy, then there would have been no Avs/Wings rivalry to remember. Mark Recchi. Always seemed like a classy guy and such a skillful player, he would have fit right into the Wings system.

Exactly. There are so many variables, so many unknows, so many uncontollable factors once you draft outside the top 5, there is a large amount of chance involved. Detroit has done unbelievably well to stay competetive year after year, especially in the cap era when stacking lottery picks has proven the easiest way to success. Of course, if we want to talk about drafting Keith Primeau ahead of Jaromir Jagr, thats a legitimate debate to have

I agree with everything in this post.

Regardless of whether revenues go up or down, there will be a lockout. Revenues go up - owners want more of an even bigger cake. Revenues go down, owners want more of the cake so their total profit doesn't go down.

And I'm pretty sure no-one else had as tough a 1000 games either. Guy was an absolute warrior for us who took a pounding shift after shift, and always came back for more. Its made me sad the last few years seeing him slow down and the beating he took - not on the ice, but on this forum from short-memoried ungrateful fans (ditto Maltby + Draper). IIRC he's also an American citizen now, so he'll be staying in the US whatever the future holds.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - If Messi is the Playstation footballer, then Datsyuk is the Playstation hockey player. Thanks Gary for depriving us of his otherworldly skills for a second time!

Great job America! Track is excellent, and I was so so pleased to see the stands absolutely rammed with fans. I know a lot of F1 fans around the world were concerned how it would be received given this is the 8th circuit to host F1 in the USA, but to see 125,000 people there was amazing. And you were treated to an excellent race! Seeing Hamilton and Vettel going at it hammer and tongs for 50 laps was epic Now onto Brazil were hopefully Alonso can deny FingerBoy

But why do other "violent" sports such as rugby and the NFL not have fighting? Rugby players play a sport every bit as physical as hockey, a sport where physicality and physical intimidation are every bit as important, yet fighting is not part of the culture.