Nev

Thankyou Ozzie For kicking Roy's ass For making it look so easy in 2008 For putting a worn-out, broken-down, beaten-up team on your back and taking them *this* close to another cup in 2009. Such a shame that the last 2 years ended up the way they did but after 400 wins and 3 cups I don't think you can complain.

Jeez Eva, did Messier run over your dog or something? As for the poster who said Lidstrom wasn't as good as Yzerman. Er, no. Yzerman was, at best the 3rd best center of his era. Lidstrom is, at worst the 2nd best defenceman of all time. Yzerman may mean more to Wings fans for lots of reasons, but no way is he a better player

Does this make things easier with things like taxes or something? I know several Wings players have taken US citizenship - Shanahan and Holmstrom spring to mind. I can understand for someone like Homer who spends 80% of his life here for 15-20 years, is bringing up kids etc and how it must make things a lot easier, but what are the benefits for Canadians?

First thing they teach you when learning to skate - how to fall down.

I have no doubt that there are ex-wings and ex-ducks around the NHL who hate Babcock for precisely the reasons already stated. And I have no doubt that UFAs who are looking for an easy paycheck for no effort would want to avoid Babs and the Wings. What is interesting is guys like Hudler. Remember when he used to be a 4th liner and was putting up points every night, Babcock's response was to bust his ass every night to the media and continue to limit his minutes. Why? To push him to be better. Conversely, when Hudler got back from a year of snorting coke off of eastern european hookers and had a confidence level lower than a snakes belly what does Babcock do? Whilst LGW was going nuts calling for Hudler to be flogged till his play improved, Babcock continued to play him, even putting him on the first line, until Hudlers confidence and numbers returned. I reckon he learned something when he was doing that Sports Physchology degree

In 3, 4, 5, 6 years time? In 7, 8, 9, 10 years time? That's my problem with the contract, not the value, but the length. For a 30 year old, on the back of a couple of half-decent seasons. Franzen is already struggling with his knees, admitted to phoning it in during the regular season and was MIA during the playoffs. And he's actually getting paid a lot more than 3.9 mil right now, thats just his cap hit.

You do realise that plenty of people on here regard the Franzen contract as a giant albatross hanging from out necks, and said so at the time it was signed? Anyway, we were never in the running for Richards.

This contract has the potential to usurp Uwe Krupp as the worst in Redwings history

Help me out here guys, there must be another Mike Commodore that I've never heard of right? Because the only Mike Commodore I can think of * Is fat, lazy and sucks * Got sent to the AHL by the BJ's (the BJ's!) for being fat, lazy and sucking * Fell out with Mike Babcock (aka our current coach) when he called him out for being fat, lazy and sucking * Got bought out by the BJs for being fat, lazy and sucking * Is fat, lazy and sucks If someone could give me a short potted history of this other Mike Commodore I'd be very grateful k thks

LOLz, so so true

I was kinda hoping that he would go back to the Pens for 1 year, wipe away the bad blood from his original departure and send #68 to the rafters in a few years time. Guess that ain't gunna happen now!

Great post! We're already seeing this effect as great players from this era like Bure and Lindros are being ignored for the HOF whilst guys who played through the 80s and had long careers get in (I'm looking at you Dino Cicarrelli)

Wow Just wow. I guess that increase in the cap and a weak FA market this year means that its Overpayment City. I imagine we're going to see some monster contracts for some very average FAs in the next few days.

Because its not all sweetness and light being a proffessional athlete in Russia?

This. As the league got increasingly lower scoring, those two were magic together and put up some big numbers on a poor Ducks team.

Yep, and hockey fans across teh interwebz (including LGW) have a tendancy to massively over-rate prospects.

Could be worse, Sepp Blatter could be NHL commish

A hooker? Anyway, this is getting mentioned on the news over here. Only way that hockey would be mentioned on UK national news so good job Vancouver

You don't know much about Red Bulls marketing strategy then. They have renamed 3 proffesional football teams (in the MLS, Germany and Austria) as well as the current Austrian ice hockey champions. And of course there is the F1 team which has dominated the sport for the past 2 years. If it is them, whoever they rebrand will find themselves with a huge financial injection, and RB really don't give a damn about what other people think of them - in fact they revel in it.

I've got 2 words for you. Red. Bull.

The new name, new colours and something thats never been done in the NHL before leads be to believe that its going to be someone who changes their name to a sponsor a la the New York RedBulls in MLS. So, the Tampa Bay RedBulls, or Miami Monsters, using the example of energy drinks (who might believe that the average hockey fan fits their marketing demographic).

Nashvilles puke yellow jersey for me, all day everyday.

There's 2 approaches to this. 1) Nick feels obliged to stay one more year so as not to leave the redwings completely in the lurch, with no easily available replacements for them both 2) Nick has always said he will stay as long as the team is competetive. Depending on Kenny has lined up he can either do a Shanny and say "this is someone else's team now", or go "hell yeah! one more kick at the can!" Either way, we're 1 season away from a major rebuild, which will be far, far more painful than the post Shanny/Stevie transition.

Yeah I agree, based upon his play and hints from Babcock, I think Ericssons big problem is between his ears.

I agree. Their 2nd + 3rd lines were bigger, stronger, faster and better than our 2nd and 3rd defence pairings.