Nev

I said at the start of the month that November was crucial for the Wings with all the home games we have. So far we've done fantastic. 8 games in 13 days sounds bad, but we've got 3 days rest at the start, so you could also say 8 games in 16 days which ain't so bad. Only 3 of those 8 are on the road, and they're all relatively short hops - Montreal, S.Louis and Nashville.

That was pretty funny. Perry may be a complete toss-pot, but give him credit for waiting......and waiting.....and waiti.......aww, forget it, the moments gone

I think it was Franzen said last season that Helm was the best skater he had ever seen.

Great to see Ozzie turning it around, lets hope he keeps it up. The rest of the season in this kind of form sure would be nice

Add to which Chicago, Nashville and StLouis all lost. We're still 10th but only 1 point behind Columbus, and 3rd place.

Bert has been far better than I could have hoped for $1.5M, he's just snakebit right now. As for shooting from bad angles etc, he's only doing the thing that will get him in Babcocks good books quickest and easiest - shoot early, shoot often.

The fact that come Stanley Cup finals time, we no longer get the north american commentary, we have to suffer the "international" commentary with Dave Strader and Joe Michelletti treating the entire audience like a bunch of 8 years olds who've never seen a game in their life. "Icing is where the puck travels across both red lines and........" *goes to find a noose*

Franzen didn't go after Malkin - the Pens were gooning it up at the end of a game when they had their asses handed to them on a platter. Sykora ran Osgood, Roberts started a fight with Datsyuk, and Franzen ended up on top of Malkin in the ensuing scrum. The only team trying to "send a message" where the Pens

I'm inclined to agree. We racked up what, 115 points in 2008? And that includes February when we went 4-8-2. Of course we had 10 (Ten) starters out injured, including our top-4 defencemen. Lest we forget, our top D-pairing was Lilja-Lebda, and that was the old turnover-whipping boy Lilja to boot. Without that we would have been 125+ points.

Reading this thread, I was expecting to see the Pens in #1 the way you guys were going on....can't argue with what his list much tbh. I just hope history doesn't short-change the 08 team. 1st in points, 2nd in goals for, 1st in shots, 1st in goals allowed, 1st in shots allowed. They were an absolute machine that year, the perfect confluence of talent, desire and coaching, utterly dominant in all phases of the game. But I always leave the last word to Bowman in these kinds of threads. He called the 02 Wings his best ever team, and considering he coached the 70s Canadiens, the Lemiuex-Francis-Jagr & co Penguins as well, that counts for a hell of a lot. Aside from star power, the other big thing for that 02 team is who they beat. Lets be honest, the Avs had a great team, and the 2002 WCF will go down in history as an all-time classic. Detroits 2-0 win in game 6 is perhaps the finest performance I have ever seen from a Wings team.

I think thats a terrific schedule - 9 home games, only 5 on the road, and they're all "close". We need to be targeting 18-20 points this month to put us right back into the playoff picture. There's something very very wrong about being 11th in the conference

Except when he's facing Zetterberg/Lidstrom 5(?) points in 13 playoff games against Detroit

I stand to be corrected on this, but wasn't last years contract "entry level". I recall that the chase for him came down to which team he wanted to play for, as all the teams wanting him could only offer him the same money. Now he's on a proper NHL contract and he could have been given whatever.

I've been trying to say this for months, but it makes certain members feel better about themselves to invent straw men, and tenous arguments with which to battle these straw men. Even StormJH1s comments are being twisted into something they're not. As for May and clearing the net, to be fair his fight against the Canucks might well saved us a goal when play was stopped with 3 Canucks round our net and a loose puck. Putting opposing forwards on their ass when they get round our net has been a problem for years - the Edmonton series was the first time I really noticed it, especially as their D was brutal in putting our forwards to the ice every chance they got. And now we've got a couple of goalies who can't control a rebound to save their lives, and are usually out of position when they do make a save, its become imperative to clear round our crease. Right now we only have 2 d-men with the size/strength to do that.

I would imagine they want him with the squad whilst they're on this big road trip out west so they've got plenty of players in case of injuries, and also so he can be part of the team - y'know, bonding on the road and all that. Given that his play isn't forcing Babcock to keep him in the line-up, I expect that when we get back to Detroit he'll be sent to GR.

Yeah, but then we wouldn't have had that hilarious conversation on the radio the morning after the cup when he was absolutely hammered (not that I condone binge drinking kids) Seriously, I've saw a comment on Mlive from one of the bloggers the other week, can't remember the exact quote, but it was insinuating that certain younger wings have been seen spending too long at the bar. I assumed he meant Abdelkader (given his reputation), but I guess it could've been Lebda as well. Or both

I'm not going to say "you hate to see anyone injured" because thats not true. Tucker has been cheap-shotting and pulling this kind of s*** his whole career. Karma is a *****.

Sorry guys, but I remember this - it wasn't reported at the time, naturally, but afterwards plenty of columnists pointed out that Hasek had annoyed some of the vets and were aiming shots at his head. IIRC the stories also resurfaced when he fell out with Ottowa as evidence that Hasek was me-first and a poor team-mate. As for "deliberately hurting him", goalies are pretty well protected, Hasek was prone to heading pucks in games anyway, and Hockey players, like most proffessional athletes, have their own ways and means of showing their disaproval towards team-mates.

Wow, perfect clean hit - puck was right there, elbows down, never left the ice.

I've been reading Buccigross's column for years and years now, and whilst I've gone off it a little bit the last couple of years when every other article is a Crosby-Malkin wankathon, one thing I have learned in that time is to trust his hockey predictions. Time and time again he gets it right, including last year when he predicted that Pittsburgh would beat Detroit in 7 (I was like "wtf? Pens win game 7 at JLA?") Because I have learned to put such faith in his forecasts I was actually depressed when I read his pre-season prediction for us to finish 4th. Its not because he hates the Wings (although he does have enormous hard-ons for the Pens, Flyers and Bruins and always has), he's just calling it as he sees it. Our team defense sucks, our goaltending has been average, and our big 3 are all getting older. For the record Pavel Datsyuk, since he got within touching distance of 100 points last season has just 2 assists in his last 8 regular season games.

I think the bigger problems is the Straw Men the Filpulla bashers invent - I don't recall anyone saying he's the next Datsyuk or Zetterberg, as the Flip bashers are so fond of refuting. All the Flip fans (including myself) have always seen him as a solid 2nd line centre, excellent defensively, really good skater, good playmaker, capable of 50-70 points with the right linemates and sufficient ice-time. And yes, his biggest problem is shot selection. It doesn't even matter if his shot sucks, Babcock will still want him to shoot for screens, tips and rebounds. When he does decide to shoot, it always seems to be a from the wrong place.

Congrats Nick! Got all nostalgic watching that Youtube highlights package, thinking how much longer are we going to have the priviledge of watching this great hockey player? If he stays healthy he should catch Potvin (1052) and Leetch (1028) this season for 6th place all time, but I fear that Larry Murphy at number 5 may be a season too far (1,216).

I LOL'd. Since when all the naysayers are told "its still October", can anyone praising Williams also be told "its still October"?

Only problem is its not 5 games, its 87 games stretching back to the night we raised the banner against Toronto. Its seems all of our faults from last season are back, but without the stacked roster to help us get away with it.

Well before Zetterberg came over to America was being touted as a "smaller Peter Forsberg". Or as Ken Holland described him "this skinny little kid who nobody could get the puck off" I'm going to say Ferarro. He has talent, and sounds very mature and aware for his age.