Nev

dammit, you beat me to it!

The guys a Chicago and Pittsburgh homer. He's bad enough on NBC, but when doing the PBP on Blackhawks local broadcasts he's unbearable.

In other news, good to see the NHL finally grow a pair. Maybe, just maybe the likes of Cooke might cut down on the dirty plays now.

Not a knee-jerk at all. I along with several others expressed disapointment with the length of the contract at the time, he basically got a Franchise Player contract as a reward for 27 and 34 goal seasons - at the age of 29. Especially for a player who is prone to floating for large periods of time, whatever happened to "The Mule?" The money is a bit meh, $4m for a 30 goal scorer is OK I guess. The only good thing about the contract is its structure, so he can retire/be bought out without giving us a punishing cap hit. As for Rafalski, I've never regarded his contract as the albatross some do. It seemed like a lot at the time, but he was a key, key component of our 2008 cup, part of the "Big 5" that Babcock would ice against the oppositions top line, and just for that I regard his contract as worth it. So by the same token if Franzen scores 12 goals in the playoffs and leads us to the Cup I guess I can forgive him

When Johan Franzen is lazy, he sucks.

I think you mean Franzen. As the years go by, that contract is going to look worse and worse

I know. Even more amazing when you consider Bowman + Sather had stacked rosters with the 70s Canadiens and 80s Oilers. Babcock has done it in the Cap era. Sad isn't it?

But wasn't turnovers one of the knocks on Kindls game when he was in GR? I worry this isn't a Rookie issue, more that he is simply mistake prone.

He's tore up the NCAA for 2 straight years, there is absolutely no reason for him to stay another year. Hopefully he turns pro this season, gets some time in GR and gets a taste of what the "mens" game about to prepare him for next season.

Normal circumstances - yes. But its Ott, so if Colies Wheel of Judicial Integrity lands on "Star player, no suspension", for once I won't mind.

BREAKING NEWS! Valterri Filpulla is streaky and is playing with streaky linemates. In other news, a Democrat disagreed with a Republican today.

Everyone laying the hate on Leino, have you ever stopped to consider he and Philly is only what we've done with Cleary and Miller and Eaves? Others teams cast-offs that have made it as players with us. Might be because they found a system that suited them, might be because they were in last chance saloon and finally "got it". It doesn't matter.

Ouch.............and very lucky it wasn't a whole lot worse.

Sounds to me he's looked at the Chelios situation and decided he doesn't want to go that route. That is,early 40s Cheli was still a valuable contributor, but as he approached the mid 40s Cheli went into a noticable decline being bumped down the depth chart and even a healthy scratch. Fact is Lidstrom is already slowing down. The last 2-3 seasons he's made more mistakes than the rest of his career put together. I still can't get over it when I see it, "was that turnover by Lidstrom???" He's still at a Norris level, but he is no longer at the superhuman level he has been the rest of his career. Even unparalelled brilliance is not immune from the aging process.

He was doing the radio commentary of Det-Buffalo a couple of years ago and accidentally referred to Detroit as "The Rings"

So basically they're using the increase in the cap to pay for Seabrooks new contract? And they will still have only ~$11M for 12 players....

What he said. I have very little to no sympathy for players on big money who end up in the AHL. If you sign a big money contract, you better play like a big money player. To blame it all on the GMs is ridiculous, if players/agents didn't hold out for so much money GMs wouldn't have to give out stupid contracts. There are exceptions of course where GMs hand out contracts and the whole world goes "WTF were they thinking?" So no sympathy for Commodore making $3.75M in the minors. If you weren't fat and lazy maybe you would still be in the NHL? As for Franzen, thank goodness that his contract is structured such that he can be bought out/retire with a minimal cap hit in a few years time.

There was an awesome video on youtube a while back of Babcock scoring in a shoot-out for Whitley Bay when he was player/coach for them back in the day....just looked for it and can't find it anymore

I love that pic of him in the Buck-skin coat. Even as a kid he had the death stare!

I kinda agree that there are plenty of other US teams that deserve a WC at home. So how about this. Wings - Blue Jackets at Ohio Stadium? Will be like a Wings home game even though its technically on the road

Don't usually agree with Grapes, but he's cock on with this one

Scientist call this phenomena the Lidstrom-Dandenault Effect.

All this talk of playing with Datsyuk and the chemistry: if Hudler was playing like he was in October & November, ie with no effort, intensity or confidence, it wouldn't make any difference. Hudler + effort + intensity + confidence + Datsyuk = Win.

Uncle Mikey says