Nev

Well, that and playing in the top-6, with talented players, and on the wing. Instead of centering the 3rd line with non-scorers either side of him. But good on ya Flip, always knew you had it in you, just wasn't sure if we'd ever see it.

Watch them win a couple of games now and clamber up to the 7th or 8th overall pick instead of tanking and getting a lottery pick....

On a Wings board anyone who says anything other than Detroit is going to get negged more than Leftwinger. There's never been a series yet when the LGW massive didn't think they were going to win. Me, I think thats why games are played on the ice, not on internet message boards

Well stop reading it mate, and take your own advice and stop posting in it! Fact is, we Wings fans have a love/hate relationship with Crosby - we love to hate him. And in our heart of hearts, most of us know that he is probly the best player in the NHL right now, we just can't/won't admit it. That;s what happens when you're a whiny entitlement ***** who gets relentlessly shoved down the hockey worlds throat.

And its not just us that passed on Lucic, its 30 other teams as well... Anyway, Holland has always said they draft skill over size because players can always get bigger, and if they're standing out as an undersized 17 year old that it says something about their compete level.

How good a skater is Sheahan? Just curious since its the most important attribute for a centre under Babcocks system.

Fixed that for you.

Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh again. But only if Crosby is playing - if he's injured all playoffs and they win it, and as long as they don't beat us in the finals - I'd be curiously satisfied.

Had a little play on Capgeek.com and the situation I see it is this. Assuming: Cap stays roughly the same. Hudler, Holmstrom and Stuart are not re-signed. Lidstrom, Abdelkader and Helm are re-signed for ~ $9M total, leaves us with ~ $7-8M in cap space to try and sign 1 big UFA (Weber or Parise). If we want to sign Nash or Suter (RFA) we're going to need to clear another $7-8M in cap space, the easiest way being to trade Franzen and Ericson for one of them as part of package. so... FORWARDS Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Rick Nash ($7.800m) Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Gustav Nyquist ($0.875m) Drew Miller ($0.838m) / Darren Helm ($1.500m) / Justin Abdelkader ($1.500m) Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) / Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) / DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.000m) / Shea Weber ($7.300m) Ian White ($2.875m) / Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) Brendan Smith ($0.875m) / Kyle Quincey ($3.350m) Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) / GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) Joey MacDonald ($0.550m) ------ CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $64,287,500; BONUSES: $37,500 CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $12,500 Pav needs a bona-fide sniper alongside him, whether it be Parise or Nash. Hossa and Shanahan had 40 goal seasons being fed by Pav, Hull had 30 and 37. 'nuff said.

Only 14 shots at home in a 5-2 loss to the Islanders, 13 SOG in the 8-0 loss to Boston. Guess that coaching change didn't provide the spark that Burke was looking for....

Yeah, thank goodness for our big players - Franzen (6-2, 220) and Bertuzzi (6-3, 235) racing in on the forecheck, wearing the opposition down with their hits, battling in front of the net.....and Ericsson (6-5, 220) winning all those battles in the corner, knocking opponents on their asses around our net.... Meanwhile: Datsyuk (5-11, 195) Zetterberg (5-11, 195) Emmerton (6-0, 190) Fillpulla (6-0, 193) Helm (5-11, 195) Nyquist (5-11, 170!) Hudler (5-9, 178. Yeah right) Miller (6-2, 178. Beanpole!) Mursak (5-11, 184) Eaves (6-0, 191) Kronwall (6-0, 190) White (5-10, 191) / Rafalski (5-10, 178. Another yeah right) Now obviously size isn't everything, and some of our smaller players are also some of our more physical (and best), but across the roster, we're just too damn small, and our 3 biggest players don't play like big men and use their size. I'm happier that our D is bigger with the addition of Quincey and Smith, but the latter is seemingly giving away a goal a game atm with his rookie mistakes, something that cannot be tolerated in the playoffs.

I think when we're all healthy, our 3rd line of Abdelkader-Helm-Miller is pretty good (and would make an even better 4th line), but I totally agree with everyone that our 4th line is completely lacking in identity and purpose. My hope is that the veterans like Homer and Cleary will turn it up in the playoffs - they've been warriors for us in the post-season, but I wonder how much their bodies have left to give. This, this and this again. I've said it repeatedly on here, the 2 losses to the Sharks were because they were just as talented, just as hard-working and just as good skaters, but 2-3 inches taller and 15-20lbs heavier.

Right now, the seeding is less important than the fact that half our line-up is going to be out injured, or playing injured, or coming back from injury early for the playoffs, or just come back from injury and not 100%. I would happily trade the #6 seed for a 100% healthy line come Game 1. 2007 and 2009 are all the evidence you need of how hard it is to win when your key players are banged up. The first half of the season I had such high hopes for this team - defensively strong, Dats and Flip on fire. Right now my playoff expectations are lower than a snakes belly.

"We have a lot of cameras, and we're gunna need 'em"

Well, they're going to be flying back to Detroit Sunday - I know Red Bird One is impressive and all that, but I'm sure it doesn't have a full medical suite onboard...

Isn't that what I said?

See, you started well talking about Flip, but then veered OT talking about Franzen and lost everyone.....yes, you are correct he is our 3rd/4th forward in terms of skill/points. In terms of effort he is more like 12th/13th. If he put in half as much effort as Dats/Flip/Helm etc he would be an all-star. And enough with the "my opinion is more valid than yours because I play hockey" BS. My wife used to go out with a professional hockey player, a former 1st round draft pick, and he was as thick as pig-s***.

He has a Modified NTC according to gapgeek, no details though. Stuart is as good as gone next season, and without any other prospects on defence pushing for the big club that leaves us with Ericsson and Kindl as 6 and 7, both easily waivable/buyoutable if we want to go for Suter/Weber.

Disagree on Zetterberg - obviously he was drafted low, but before he came across he had a big reputation and people were talking about him as a "smaller Forsberg" Obviously Datsyuk came from nowhere - Datsyuk 1.0, the pre-lockout shy little kid with the dazzling skills. Datsyuk 2.0 also came from nowhere, the post lockout 2-way monster that he became once Babcock got hold of him.

I have always thought that fans of ALL teams have a tendancy to massively over-rate their own prospects. Once upon a time Kopecky and Hudler were tearing it up in the AHL, then they made the NHL and became perenniel whipping boys. I remember people here saying a young Lebda would one day be "elite". I remember when Kronwall was "Nick Jr" - he's turned into a pretty good player, but he's no Norris candidate. Just for intrests sake, here is a list of our prospect rankings from 2007-2008 on RWC. 01 Jimmy Howard 02 Jakub Kindl 03 Justin Abdelkader 04 Cory Emmerton 05 Brendan Smith 06 Jan Mursak 07 Dick Axelsson 08 Jonathan Ericsson 09 Kyle Quincey 10 Darren Helm 11 Johan Ryno 12 Joakim Andersson 13 Logan Pyett 14 Ryan Oulahen 15 Mattias Ritola 16 Igor Grigorenko 17 Daniel Larsson 18 Evan McGrath 19 Zack Torquato 20 Anton Axelsson

The Stevens-Kariya hit was nothing like a Kronwall hit. The puck was on the left wing and Kariya was at centre ice when he got levelled, but that was Stevens MO. Most of his monster hits were after the puck, or the whistle, had gone.

He's going to miss the playoffs for the 4th straight season. Any coach, or any GM, in any sport, in that situation has to be prepared to be asked if they're worried they're going to lose their job.

Its Max Talbot, what did you expect? Anyway, good to know there is no suspension from a clean hit.

Surely the gutless thing to do would be to NOT ask the question? His reaction just reinforces everything I think about Burke - he likes to project this tough-guy persona, when he's actually a pouty prima-donna.