titanium2

He also scored 50 goals in juniors.

I'm not quite sure what you mean.

Here's our enforcer right here.

The 96-97 Wings would have ran each and every one of the other teams into the ground imo. Yes, even the 2001-2002 team. They had the deepest back end and that team was simply on a mission.

Nope. I expect Howard to go through a sophomore slump. He's not immune to it in my view. I just hope he bounces back well for every game and that Osgood has a good year.

Is Step two make Hudler, Williams and Kopecky franchise players up front and then Meech on the back end?

The Wings did get pretty lucky in 2008. Nashville was tough; Colorado only had half their team; Dallas had to be a little worn down from defeating Anaheim and San Jose, two physical teams; and the Pens are... well, from the East. I would imagine that the toughest route the Wings hypothetically had in 2008 would be Nashville in Round 1, Calgary in Round 2 (had they upset the Sharks, which they were very close), Dallas in Round 3 after a challenging first round against Anaheim and then a relatively easier second round against Minnesota.

Well, Leino was really the only asset they had of trade value that they were somewhat willing to give up. Holland had to trade Leino given the situation. Williams, however, had a 1.5 cap hit and had no trade value. Nobody wanted him and he was taking up space that would've allowed Leino to stay a Red Wing. Re-signing him was a move that Wings fans not only hated from day one but also thought it wasn't much of an option. That's where you can blame Holland.

They need a center for those guys. Tatar and Nyquist aren't natural centermen as far as I know. They can play some spot up duty in the middle but Tatar is a LW and Nyquist plays RW for Maine. I hope that's what they find in this year's draft. Ferraro is listed at center but I doubt he'll be a center at the NHL level if he wants to play in the top six. EDIT ADD: The Wings don't really have any top six centers in their prospect pool. -Helm is a bottom six center. -Andersson, Abdelkader and Ferraro are more of a bottom six center at the NHL level that can fill in as a top six center during injuries. -Emmerton hasn't even made the top six in GR in two years. -Raedeke is another bottom six center. It'd be nice if they could get some flat out top six centers this year but I know every team wants those guys.

We heard during the finals that the Flyers coach switched up his lines because he wanted one of his players to skate through the center of the ice. Earlier this past season Babs split up Pav and Z because he wanted each of them to skate through the center of the ice. What exactly is it about skating through the center of the ice that helps a player, seemingly mostly centers, to be more confident?

What's Cheechoo's problem?

Still though. It's a bit much of a cap hit for an injury prone mediocre playoff performer.

If we're going to talk about luck having an influence then it was pretty much the deciding factor in the 09 finals. If the Wings had it, they would've been healthier and they would've been able to put the Pens away. The Wings had some of the most unluckiest injuries I've ever seen. A ********? Acute appendicitis during the playoffs?

Hmm. I know we'd all like to think that but I think this past year proves that a playoff spot isn't a given for the Wings as it used to be, not to mention being a contender. I don't see how the Hawks won't be contenders actually. They will have Keith and Seabrook and Toews, Kane and Hossa. Seems like that's as much of a contender as you can hope for in this league.

Their cap situation may be like nothing we've ever seen before but at the end of the day they still won the cup. For that reason alone I find it really hard to point and laugh at anything they do. You have a ton of organizations that don't task as much risks, manage their cap by the book and have no cup on their resume. My thinking is that a good amount of those organizations now think they would've done the same thing. For whatever reason they just didn't think of it or didn't think it was allowed. Load up on names and talent regardless of the cap, deal with some very serious bureaucratic bulls*** and then ice a team that will still be competitive. Sounds good to me. Ilitch is a guy who isn't afraid to spend as long as the teams win. He might be a little upset that they beat him to it but I bet he would have loved to have done what Chicago did. Chicago will get through this and it's not going to screw them over as much as we hope it will.

LGW has had a lot of petty threads since Chicago won. I'm glad some Wings fans are ripping into them though.

A nitpicky semantic detail but Pronger should have just said "How? I don't play in the minors" and it would've been perfect.

Every team needs a little luck to win.

I think the lower profile ones do. Like Lebda and Lebda. And Willy probably as well.

In then end I don't really know how screwed they are. They just won the cup. They'll still Toews, Kane, Hossa and Keith. Unless all the GMs in the NHL are going to bully the Hawks into being over the cap next year and having to forfeit every game I don't really see all that much bad.

I thought all bonuses are supposed to count against the cap anyways?

They totally dug their key into the side of our pretty little souped up four wheel drive. Carved their name into the leather seats. Took a Synergy 19 to both headlights. Slashed a hole in all four tires. Maybe next time we'll think before we cheat on them with San Jose.

Is Phaneuf a locker room cancer? That's the hearsay but is it any true?

Burish then said, "You eat pieces of s*** for breakfast?"