Nev

Oh really? You do know he has already set a career high in assists this season and is on course for a career high in points? Anyway, enough of arguing about the maths, lets ask Mike Babcock shall we? http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/20...ula_not_sc.html

However, don't forget that the late 70s and early 80s had some truly appalling expansion teams (and a horrid Redwings) which in an era of high scoring and no concept of team defence led to those ridiculous +/- totals. I think Potvin put up similar +100 numbers. You can be sure that if those dreadful teams of that era knew how to trap that those goal differentials would not be so great. Not to diss the 70s Canadiens because they were truly one of the greatest teams of all time, but Scotty Bowman, who coached those 70s Canadiens, and the 91 Penguins (Lemiuex, Jagr, Francis, Toccet, Murphy, Mullen etc etc etc) and of course the 97, 98 and 02 Wings said that the best team he ever coached was - the 2002 Detroit Redwings. When Brett Hull is RW on your 4th line, and Pavel Datsyuk is his centre, then you know you've got one hell of a team.

I agree that we could be in salary cap hell with a bunch of aging players still with a big cap hit, however - I'm also of the opinion that we must take advantage of the loaded roster we are blessed with at the minute. Lidstrom is aging, and starting to show it, but is still an elite defenceman, Z & Dats are the best 2-way forwards in the game, and are both in their prime. We have a depth and quality to our roster that is the envy of the league. If signing Hossa to this incredible roster gives us another cup or 2 in the next 5 years, but leads to 5 lean years as we are saddled with an old but expensive roster, then personally I would make that trade. This Wings dynasty cannot go on forever, we must take every advantage of what we have. As for Hossa, I can't believe it, but I think we are really going to get him. He has been saying more and more how he wants to stay and is willing to take a pay cut for it to happen. Franzen, I'm not hearing so much........And Kenny is playing it brilliantly with his "first to agree a contract stays, one who doesn't agree a contract is gone. He is in the unique GM position of actually driving the price down!

*points at sig* *again*

To be fair, most media pundits that I have seen have him in 3rd for the Hart, behind Ovechkin and Malkin, but I think his recent play and Sundays beatdown may have propelled him into 2nd place. He has a much better chance of the Lester B Pearson, given that is has no East Coast media bias involved and its not "best player on an average team", but just Best PLayer.

Well how ironic is that? The previous coach traded his scapegoat for the current coach's scapegoat. Reading those Bowman stories I was like "wow, thats exactly how Babs treats Hudler"

Because he doesn't play in the Eastern Conference. Trust me, if he played for one of the big market teams in the East (Philly, Rangers, Boston, Toronto etc) his profile would be MUCH higher. However, since all the media big-boys rarely get to see him, they have no idea how good he really is. Thats the way it goes I'm afraid. That and his English is poor and he is a shy kind of person. He reminds me a lot of Paul Scholes at Manchester United - world class player who has won everything in the game, but never does interviews, promotions, adverts etc. Just wants to be at home with his wife and kids.

Absolutely love them both. Mickey is like your favourite uncle/grandad - you can just imagine him playing around with the young kids at a family get-together and telling them all kinds of tall stories. Daniels is a good play-by-play man and really knows his stuff around the league. Serious question: What chance either (or both) getting into the HHOF in the broadcast section? Redmond has been doing the Wings TV since forever and Daniels has done coaches corner & HNIC from back in the day. As for dreadful commentary crews, add Philly to CBJ & NSH. Unlike the latter 2 which treat their audience like uneducated hockey novices, as well as being total homers, the Philly crew are like a cross between the Broad Street Bullies, and Philly fans in general. Remember watching a game against the Rangers a couple of years ago and Philly were gooning it up big style - after each (highly merited) Flyers penalty the commentators were weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth like it was the greatest injustice in history. Know your audience I guess I'd like to also say I enjoyed the Washington crew when we played the Caps the other week. They had really boned up on the Wings and knew all our strengths and weaknesses from this season, as well as giving us a lot of praise.

Well, by your own logic, Hossa is a massive upgrade over Hudler, so why keep Hudler? And Hossa is plays wing, not centre. He doesn't take face-offs, and whilst not downplaying his defensive ability, he wouldn't be matched up against the opposing centre like Flip was against Malkin. Under the system the Wings play, the onus is on the centre to be the main back-checking forward. Dats has gone on record as saying that he prefers Z being at centre and himself at LW because he doesn't have to back-check as hard.

Faster? Seriously? I make this point every time the Hudler v Filpulla debate rolls around. Who shut down Evgeni Malkin in last years finals, playing on one knee? If any of you seriously think Hudler could have outplayed Malkin as well as Flip did, well, I don't know what to say to you. Oh, and for the record, with all the "Filpulla has regressed" opinions, he has already set a career high for assists this season and is on course for a career high in points - all whilst mainly playing on the 3rd line and little PP time. Hudler is clearly a better scorer, and I love his scrappy-doo attitude, but don't just look at the points totals and then dismiss Flip.

McLellan is probly a good call for Jack Adams. With all the Wings PK problems and high GA numbers, sportswriters are unlikely to vote for Datsyuk to win the Selke, even if he is on course for a career high +/-. I like the call for Richards, his numbers for hits and blocked shots are excellent, plus he plays for a big media-popular team. Crosby is wayyyy out of the race for the Hart, pretty much every sportswriter I've seen has a 1-2-3 of Ovechkin, Malkin and Datsyuk, but after today I think Dats has probably leapfrogged him - especially if the Pens don't make the playoffs Dats is on course for career highs in goals, assists, points and +/-, if he keeps this play up and breaks 100 points (and the Wings go on a tear and catch SJ) he could steal it off Ovechkin (memo to Babs, keep him and Hank together!)

Well aside from frustrations with finding a decent internet feed and conspiring to miss all 3 goals a VERY satisfactory afternoon. A 3-0 win on the road is always pleasing at the best of times. To do it against a team that somehow considers you a "rival" is better. To shut down their 2 media-appointed-saints-from-heaven is better. To have your top forward doing the shutting down and then banging home 2 goals to boot is better. To do it whilst listening to the unending Crosby circle-jerk is better ( I could hear it through the Russian commentary!). To see Crosby constantly losing his cool and acting like a spoiled little ***** is better. To do it despite the one-eyed reffing is better. All in all, probably the most satisfying Wings performance of the season. The 1st period against Edmonton yesterday was probly the most dominant, but on the road, back-to-back, against probably the most hated team, and certainly the most hated player on LGW, to see a glimpse of the 07-08 Wings again was a thing of beauty. Now, we've had several false dawns this season, only to revert back to opening night form, hopefully the last 2 games are the start of Detroit consistantly playing like they should. Oh, and anyone else think Datsyuk has just leapfrogged Malkin into 2nd place in Hart Trophy voting?

I know, this is fracked up! There is one channel on justin.tv if you don't mind the Russian voice over... http://www.justin.tv/kovetm_live_3

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that for the 1st time that Wings win 14-3. Datsyuk has a goal and 13 assists to move within 3 points of Malkin for the scoring lead. Crosby has a 9 point night (3 goals, 6 assists). Oh, and haven't seen it in its own thread, but it appears that the majority of NHL players think Crosby is a whiny little ***** too http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?p...809playersurvey

I tell you what, how much does it say about this years Wings that you don't feel safe until they've scored the 7th goal? Still, great play by Sammy And agree with the other posters about the 4th line - Drapes and Maltby were really buzzing out there. See you all again tomorrow for the Crosby wankfest on NBC

Bloody hell, what a period! That was like a 20 minute powerplay. With the ice tilted in our direction! Incredible, now hopefully Detroit can keep up it up - we've seen too many defensive collapses this season after jumping out to a big lead *cough* Pittsburgh *cough*

haha, damn straight! Kids are in bed, wife in bed early, PC all to myself. Life is good

Seriously??? Thats overpaying Kopecky by about 650k per year. If we sign him to a new contract, he wants to be on NHL minimum (350k from memory). Absolute worst case scenario he carries on getting 500k. If he thinks he can make more than that in the NHL or anywhere in Europe, good luck! As for your last comment - seriously??? Did you not watch Helm in the playoffs?

2 years ago I didn't think it would be possible for me to have a greater man-love for someone than the man-love I had for Zetterberg, but Pavs has taken it to a new level. Unbelievable skills, ferocious 2-way play and a personality to die for. In a bizarre kind of way, the fact that his English isn't brilliant allows him to be even funnier - clearly the slightly geeky/awkward style works for him, and doing it in broken English makes it all the better. Sadly, the NHL and non-Detroit media haven't picked on him and his personality since they're too busy on their knees for Crosby and (to a lesser extent ) Ovechkin. Whilst searching for a Datsyuk quote, I came across an awesome one from Sammy *points at SIG*

If signing Kopecky for 0.5M on a two-way deal is the payback for getting Hossa to sign for $6M per year, then thats a good deal. And to be fair to the fella, he is coming off a serious injury last year which often affects someone play the next season. It will be interesting to see how he does with a full injury-free off-season behind him. So yeah, he is a career 4th liner/AHLer, but having him as the 12th/13th forward and keeping Hossa is a price worth paying IMO.

same

If you're going on years past I have to say Bure. I saw him in the early 90s on the same ice as the likes of Fedorov, Yzerman and Coffey and I cannot even begin to describe how much faster he was than any of them. The first time he got a partial breakaway I remember swearing out loud at how he suddenly just flicked a switch and left everyone in his wake

Yzerman is meant to be a big football (soccer) fan - at his number retirement ceremony, Lidstrom presented him with his gift from the players which was a holiday + tickets to the 2008 European Championships in Switzerland/Austria. He could've chosen a better team though

First Wings game I ever went to, a rookie Dallas Drake had a goal and 2 assists in a 5-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks Everyone else seem to have exhausted the list of ex-Wings. A rookie Slava Kozlov also scored.

I dunno what to make of that game - it wasn't a terrible performance, although some of our play in our own defensive zone was. We really struggled to get the puck off their top lines and clear the zone, and Rafalski in particular was unable to cope with the size and strength of Ovechkin all game. The worst thing about that 5on3 at the end was that Lidstrom and Rafalski were on the wrong side of the ice - the best way for a team like Detroit with 2 d-men with the laser shots to score is to have them on their off side and set up for the one timer. I was screaming "switch! switch!" at the screen, but they seemed determined to stay on their respective points. Actually, to be fair, whipping-boy-Rafalski tried a couple of times to switch, but above-criticism-Lidstrom wouldn't move from the left point. Blaming this losing streak on injuries is just another poor excuse - that lineup is good enough to beat any team in the NHL. Blaming it on Filpulla/Kopecky/Kronwall is just looking for scapegoats. Trading away any or all of them is not going to solve the malaise that has blighted this team since Toronto on opening night - this 5 game skid is how they've been playing all season and generally getting away with it. Now the pidgeons have come home to roost. Bar Hossa, this is the team that steamrolled their way to Stanley Cup last season. They've not been sucking all season because of a lack of quality, they've been sucking because, as Zetterberg admits, mentally they've not been up to it. Until they regain the focus, hunger and desire they displayed ALL last season, we have no chance in the playoffs. I'm beginning to wonder if they ever will this season.