Nev

Whilst there's never a good time to have an injury crisis, at least there'll all happening around a light January schedule and the All-star break. Sucks for Ozzie though, just as he was playing himself into form and challenging Jimmeh.

What do I know?

Wings in Vancouver has always been a high scoring game the last few years, and the way the wings have been playing the last six weeks another 5-4 or 6-5 is on the cards.

All those calling for someone to pound Kostopolos for the hit....10 minutes left in the 3rd, you've only just come back from 4-2 down to tie it - not gunna happen. Like in a playoff game, no-one is going to risk taking an extra penalty just to extract revenge. And the only realistic choice to fight him was Abdelkader, and how often, if at all, was he on the ice at the same time as Kostopolous in the last 8 minutes? As Atadoso says, if Abdelkader doesn't see the hit (why would he? he's following a bouncing puck), then the chance is gone.

Murph said it best - blindside hit on a player in a vulnerable position who was unable to protect himself.

I think it was more Babcock having problems with him being fat and lazy.

I've just noticed....look at the gut in that picture! Nornally when you lay on your back it spreads and flattens. Dude looks pregnant there....

Always liked Langenbrunner. My hope is that Abdelkader will mature into a player like him.

To quote Scotty Bowman, "The safest place on the ice is between the pipes when Kris Draper's on a breakaway"

I'm guessing Cleary.

See, if you're Scotty Bowman and you do this, you're a phsychological genius. If you're not Scotty Bowman...... Still, at least he brought Micky Redmond here

This is the problem in a nutshell - its cap world now. Its not like the 90s when the top teams packed a powerful 1-2 punch of two #1 centres: Yzerman-Fedorov, Sakic-Forsberg, Modano-Niewendyk. The only team to go the 1-2 route is Pittsburgh and they've had no end of troubles finding a decent set of wingers to complement Crosby & Malkin. And as soon as they do, they'll lose them as free agents because they won't be able to afford to keep them. So you can rank Flip 14th out of 16 playoff teams #2 centres, but how do those other teams wingers & d-corps stack up? Because you can't have it all anymore, and the cap forces you to rob Peter to pay Paul. But considering we're 1st in points & goals I think we're a pretty balanced team

Draper, Cleary, Yzerman + Lidstrom all went without visors....until they got hit in the face with a puck. There's such a lot of macho BS around visors in the NHL. Your eyes are totally irreplacable. I have to wear eye protection as part of my job all day every day.......no-one thinks I'm a wuss for protecting my eyes. As for visors fogging up, the answer (and the best protection) comes from wearing a face cage, but then your fellow pros really will think you're a wuss.....yet almost all the players at my local level here wear them.

Before my time as a Wings fan, but 17-57-6? 415 goals against????? http://bleacherreport.com/articles/550841-25-years-ago-detroit-red-wings-were-nhls-biggest-losers

Congrats Ozzie on a CAREER HIGH (!) 46 saves to get your 400th career win Love the photo where Draper is the first one out to congratulate him. And nobody can deny how popular Ozzie is in that dressing room.

He said a while back he won't watch much hockey when he retires, but he would pay to go and see Pavel Datsyuk

Well, I started supporting them in 92-93 when I was living in Toledo, and EVERYONE called them the DeadThings, and I was like "but they're really good, and they've got all these really good players". Then they choked in the playoffs against Toronto and everyone was like "see, same old DeadThings!"

That was ridiculous....not even a big hit and it sparks a line brawl. I hope the NHL starts handing out suspensions @ Boston for that garbage, and especially Lucic for the sucker punch at the end. As for Savard - if you don't your star player fresh from a long concussion in a fight, don't start a line brawl. Morons.

Thats comedy gold, all of it That one made me literally lol.

Well, a win is a win, but we really need to sort our defence out, this is in danger of turning into 08-09. Lidstrom was a -1 which puts him down to exactly even

I guess we'll see the next month just how valuable Pavs is to the team....

Not strength, skating ability, which is the #1 requirement for a centre on a Mike Babcock coached team. Foot speed, strength on skates and willingness to back-check hard. These are the things Babcock looks for in his centres, and they are co-incidentally the 3 weakest parts of Hudlers game. My thoughts on Datsyuk's injury are unsuitable for a family forum such as this.

He also played in a charity soccer match in England a few years ago - was quite a big deal, live on prime time TV, 76,00 fans in the stadium. I also remember an inteview with Konstantinov a few years ago and he said that Fedorov was pretty much the only ex-team-mate who still visits him. But I forgot, he left Detroit as a FA, so that makes him an *******, right?

This.

As I understand it, the potential sticking point isn't the PA wanting the salary cap removed, but the owners wanting guaranteed contracts abolished - ie like the NFL, you can just cut a player at any time without having to pay them another dime. Something which I am totally opposed to.