Nev

I actually think Babcock is the most important person on the Redwings right now. The roster has been slowly going backwards the last 3 seasons, and its taken a big step backwards with the retirement of Lidstrom. Based on the talent of our roster right now, we're a bubble playoff team that could finish anywhere from 6th to 10th. The difference between making the playoffs or not for us is going to come down to 1) Health 2) Goaltending 3) Coaching If Babs can somehow drag this roster to a division title he might finally win the Jack Adams he so richly deserves.

They probably won't match it, but they'll happily take the 1st, 2nd and 3rd we'd have to give them in compensation.

Crymson went and asked Deep Thought how many points Smith would get this season, and he told him the answer - six by nine.

Uh, no, not correct at all Haroldspests has got where I am coming from. This isn't a "calling out" as you keep saying, its an open ended question - the departure of Lidstrom and Stuart has left a gaping hole in our D-corps, can the players we have left fill that void? When Stevie, Shanny, Hull etc all left, the question was, could Datsyuk + Zetterberg fill that void? They did, and Pavel I think has far exceeded all our expectations of him. Now its Kronwalls turn to be asked that question, and lets not kid ourselves, its a big question. Instead of matching up against good players every night, he's going to be matching up against great players every night, every shift. Kane and Toews and Nash and Perry and Getzlaf and the Sedins. Thats a big step-up and a lot of pressure. Furthermore, he is now, incredibly, our oldest Defenceman, expected to provide leadership and guidance to the rest of the D-corps. More pressure. Now he may step up to the plate and prove himself like Pav and Hank did. Or he may show why he's never made it onto the 1st pairing. I love Kronner - when he's playing well and confident he's got a bomb from the blue-line and he seems to block a lot more shots these days, to go with the monster hits we all know and love. But is he a bona fide #1? We just don't know, but we're going to find out. And there are question marks over the rest of the defence. White - I stand by my comment. Can he play without Lidstrom? Was he just the last in the long, long line of partners who Lidstrom has made look good over the years? Seriously, go refresh your memory on his list of partners who have had career years, or revival in old age alongside him. From Murphy to Rafalski, through Dandenault, Bykov, Oloasson and Schneider. Ericsson - has all the tools, but so rarely puts it all together. I'm convinced (as are others on here) that his problems are between his ears. He seems to seriously lack confidence and self-belief. When he's playing poorly you can almost see him thinking about every move he has to make, a luxury not granted to NHL defencemen. Will he gain confidence from playing more minutes and more situations, or will he crumble under the pressure? Kindl - I stand by my comment, he isn't good enough for the NHL and never will be. Smith - if he plays up to his potential he is a genuine Calder candidate. But he must cut out the defensive mistakes (at one point he was giving away a goal a game) and badly timed hits/fights/penalties/pinches. otherwise he will start going the way of a LGW whipping boy. How will he cope with NHL grind of playing every other night that wears out so many rookies? Quincey - again, its all there but so far he hasn't regained the form he showed in LA and Colorado that had all the Holland haters crawling out the woodwork. Janik - I know the fight fans love his grit, but there is a reason he's a career AHLer, he's just not good enough for the NHL. And thats our D-corps. RIght now there are more questions that answers. It may end in all-star games and Norris and Calder nominations. Or it may end up with 10th in the conference and meltdown on LGW. For it to be the former they must ALL up their games, and that was my point.

This isn't just about Ericsson - across the board the D needs to step up. Smith needs to live up to his potential with a Calder contending season. Kronwall has gone from being a solid 2nd pair man to #1 defenceman in less than a month, and will probably have an A on his chest too. Will he grasp the opportunity with both hands to finally show us why he was "Nick Jr" for so long, or will he be shown up as not good enough to be on the 1st pairing night in and night out? White - can you play without Lidstrom? Quincey - will you justify that 1st we blew on you? Kindl - will you ever be more than an average AHLer out of his depth as a 7th D-man in the NHL?

I remember when they signed for Colorado and teh interwebz went into meltdown - give them the Stanley Cup now etc. I also remember when Hatcher signed for Detroit.... Parise and Suter may make Minnesota the dominant team of the next 10 years - or they may turn into a 200 million dollar millstone.

Not after signing for Philly, and all their meetings last season...

As someone who remembers what a DOMINANT player Jagr was with the Pens, and even with the Rag$, seeing him whoring himself out around the NHL for a season at a time makes me sad. Being a Pittsburgh legend and then signing with Philly was bad enough, but this is just sad

Exactly, why tarnish your reputation as a franchise hero just for a few more $, when you're already a multi-millionaire? Glad he made the right decision in the end.

Is it wrong that my first reaction on hearing this was to laugh manically? Seriously though, he's not that bad, especially as a bottom 6 player. And for everyone moaning about his shooting - just remember he only shot that much because Babcock told him to. Price is a little high though.

Somewhere, Valtteri Filpulla's agent is rubbing his hands with glee

Dats busts his ass every night Hank busts his ass every night Flip busts his ass every night Helm busts his ass every second of every shift of every night. They might not always score, they might not always be the best player, they might not always win - but they will always give their all. They might be playing injured, lacking confidence, not getting the bounces - but they will still try.

This. I think a lot of Wings fans opinions of him are clouded by the fact he bolted for the KHL, then came back and took half a season to get into NHL shape.

Plenty on the Wings credited his move to wing as one of the reasons for his increase in points - including Flip and Babs. Babcock's system places a lot more defensive responsibility on the center than it does on the wingers.

First of all, if he does move back to C don't expect him to put up the same points as last season - especially if its on the 3rd line. Secondly, if he does end up centering the 3rd line, it means we've had a good off-season and we have the depth to put Helm and Abdelkader on the 4th line

There is nothing perceived about Franzens laziness. Streakiness is something that all players suffer from to a greater or lesser degree. Even Pavel was ice-cold in the first and last months of the season (for different reasons), and red-hot inbetween. The key is to make the streaks last as long as possible, and minimise the funks. My problem with Franzens bad attitude is that he is allowed to get away with it. Signing a lifetime contract and being allowed to coast your way through it sends totally the wrong message to the rest of the team.

It means that great players who have great but not long careers (Bure) can get in as well as good players who have long careers and can pad their stats (Cicarelli). Bure had three 50 goal seasons in the dead-puck era, back to back 60 goal seasons before that. He even stole the Calder Trophy from Lidstrom. He's been waiting a while for this. Sakic is a no-brainer, and I thought Shanny was too. Oates and Sundin ahead of him? I'm baffled, truly I am.

I know all that, I just didn't know he was with GR But he'll mesh fine with Babs, they both learned their Hockey in England

Jim Paek is a coach in GR? I remember seeing him play for the Nottingham Panthers about 10 years ago. If he gets promoted that would make 2 wings coaches who learnt their hockey in England

Lock for the HOF, but he's in that big group of question marks for number retirement - the "lifers" like Homer, Ozzie, Draper and Maltby who embody everything about what it is to be a wing but didn't have mad HOF skillz, and the guys like Shanny and Feds who had the mad HOF skillz but weren't lifers. The problem with using Listrom and Yzerman as your benchmarks for retirement is that we might not retire another number for the next 100 years. Some Wings fans are certainly quite snobbish about this , and wouldn't have a problem with that, but in the era of the cap and free agency, 1st ballot HOFers who spend their entire career with one club and win multiple cups are going to become increasingly rare.

Great shot, but poor skater and bad defensively? Sounds like a young Brett Hull

If Flip has another season like last year, he's going to get $5m. Honestly all you people moaning about too much money for this and that contract - heads up guys, its not 2005 anymore! The going rate for players has gone up!! Great signing for Helm, guy busts his ass for us every night.

You mean Franzen, right?

I love how 19 years after it happened, it still eats at him that he felt he was responsible for the Leafs game 7 OT winner in '93. Explains a lot about the man. Great interview.

The difference is cycling actually has a drug testing program in place, and cyclists actually fail them. You can also see the last 10 years how times have started to come down from where they were when doping was more common. The NFL on the other hand.....when was the last time someone failed a drugs test for a performance enhancing substance? Or are we supposed to believe that linemen have gone from ~250lbs to ~330lbs purely through improvements in nutrition? And that of the thousnads of players in a sport based on speed, size and strength, where you can be cut in the blink of an eye, not one of them has ever been tempted to use doping? Its the NFLs dirty secret, the elephant in the room that no-one talks about.