awingsincebirth

Well, this elimination marks the first of my terrible pre-season prediction for this year. I definitely had these guys pegged as a team that was gonna surprise some people and make a nice little run at the post-season (maybe getting in, maybe not). I must have somehow mixed up the Kings and Coyotes logos when I gazed into my magic looking-ball at the beginning of the year. I was thinking that with Blake, who was getting older but still a "capable" defenseman, along with Stuart and Visnovsky (who I think I entirely overrated) they would have a decent blue line. Then with Kopitar, Cammaleri, Brown et al they would have a good, explosive, young offense. Although, to an extent, this may have been true, the fact is that they don't have a goalie. Jason LaBarbera isn't a starter in this league IMO, never will be. Bernier is the (very bright) future, but not the present. I guess I just though that they'd be a bit better with the O and the D to make up for their lack of G. Whatever, s*** happens.

I would love Rolston (and his shot) too, playing on a line with Dats, that could really work well. However, I'm not sure how cheap he would come. Unless he really wants to come home to play (and I know nothing about him so I'm not sure if he's the kind of guy that would do that), I could see him getting more money than the Wings would be willing to pay him from some crap team. I don't know though. As for Brunnstrom, I wasn't aware of the rumour that we had already signed him. I just thought he had made it quite clear himself that he was leaning towards playing in Detroit. I still feel somewhat confident that he will be in Mo-Town for the start of training camp.

Article Here Correct me if I'm wrong (I know I'm not), but didn't the last stomping incident warrant a massive suspension? Obviously Pronger won't be seeing the same length of suspension because he's, well, Chris Pronger, and apparently that means something. But cummon! If it can be shown through the video, and it is obvious, then he should be out for a while. Ridiculous!

I can only assume that there is a degree of sarcasm here. In all seriousness, I do think that having Downey in the lineup today may have very well got us the win. I though this game was incredibly boring because we were just playing with ZERO energy. Having Downey in their could have injected some life into the lineup which we desperately needed.

Ya, I guess that is more or less what I'm trying to say. Perhaps it would have been better had I said: "Kenny is confident that he can resign Flip before he becomes and RFA". Because, no, nothing is ever certain in this game.

That's true, the draft pick compensation had completely slipped my mind. My bad.

For sure. Anyone who would defend what Pronger did (which, I'm guessing is most Duck fans) don't belong as fans of our sport. Luckily for us - seeing as they are DUCKS FANS - they probably really aren't anyways. Although I would be interested to see if Ducks fans have changed their tones at all since the latest evidence has come out.

Out of context man. In his post, he was referring to the play where Pronger went after Handus and dropped the gloves on him when he shot the puck after the whiste. Not the Kesler incident.

(Hopefully) If Kenny would have thought that there was a distinct possibilty that he wouldn't be able to come to terms with Flip and that we'd lose him to a Big Fat offer sheet (which I think some teams would be willing to do for him) he would have shopped him around a bit more at the trade deadline. I know that it is impossible forus to know what kind of deals Kenny had in the works, but the fact remains that on TradeCentral on TSN, Kenny said he would only be making small moves, which is exactly what he ended up doing. I think that the whole Hossa deal was just a pipe dream cooked up by us LGW fans. Going by my theory, and assuming that Kenny wasn't in the running for any huge names, Flip's name would have never come up. For this reason, I think we're pretty safe. I wouldn't have had too much of a problem with trading him for the right player. But because we didn't trade him, when he could have fetched a nice return in a solid package, I'm quite confident that Kenny knows we can sign him before July 1st and thus risk losing him for nothing at all.

What I simply CANNOT understand is why the hell the league was sooo fast to come to a decision about this. Considering the facts that this immediately drew obvious comparisons to an incident earlier in the year that warranted a NHL record 30 game suspension, it is clearly a sensitive, critical issue. Why the hell would the league not recognize that give the situation the attention that deserves - that it requires? (Rhetorical question, because I'm pretty sure we all know why) I find it incredibly hard to believe that the league would not have had access to the latest view of the incident - in which it becomes incredibly clear to EVERYONE that the intent was there - when they made their decision. And at this point, to give the league the benefit of the doubt when it comes to issues such as this seems almost naive. Either a) the powers that be made far to rash a decision without getting all the possible information before coming to a conclusion, or b) there is some "Protect Pronger" (and the Ducks) coalition that exists in the league office that is polluting the game that we love. Either way, something has to happen, and in my opinion, heads should roll. (But, of course, they won't)

Although I disagree with your last post about him not getting suspended because Kesler was not hurt (because suspensions often take place when there is no injury), I do agree with this. Had Kesler been hurt, I really don't think that the league would have had any choice but to suspend him, they would have been under such pressure. The fact that there was no injury made it a lot easier for the league to do what they did. But what I honestly think (without trying to be a Pronger hating tool) is that the league though that if they were gonna hand out a suspension to Pronger, it would have had to be a fairly sizable one based on the precedent set in the Simon ordeal, which they were simply not willing to do. Thus, they played the "inconclusive" card and he got off scott free. Because seriously, to say "It was inconclusive, but we're gonna give him a game or two anyways" wouldn't make a lot of sense. Inversely, to say "Well, he did stomp on Kesler's calf, but we're only gonna give him a few games for it", after the Simon incident, wouldn't make a lot of sense easier. Needless to say, they chose Option 1. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Ya. To think that he was just starting his stride is just ridiculous and naive. To think that Chris Pronger isn't capable of making such a dirty play is even more ridiculous and naive. In my eyes, its pretty obvious what happened becase I can remember myself in the situation that Kesler was in back when I was playing competively. Kesler was down with Pronger on top of him, and Kesler was a little pissed off and frustrated with the situation, so he was using his legs to keep Pronger tied up so he couldn't move. Back when I played, I would do whatever I could in that situation to impede the progress of another player. So then Pronger the Deush gets really pissed off, frees himself from Kesler's legs, stomps on him once for good measure so as to say "Ya, don't mess with me", then skates away. I wouldn't expect him to get 30 games, because that was largely based around the last suspension that Simon received which was very serious. However, that is the only stipulation, in my mind, that would result in Pronger getting fewer games than Simon (in a fair NHL). To say that the in-game situation during which a dirty act was commited has the ability to make the act seem more or less acceptable is ridiculous to me. If you step on somebody purposefully, whether or not he has you tangled up or some s***, you should be thrown to the curb. Nonetheless, Pronger walks away not with 20 games, not with 15, or 10, 5, or even 1. But with ZERO disclipline for an act that, in my eyes, warranted him missing through the first round of the playoffs. Not 100% surprising, but pretty ******* ridiculous (Pardon my French).

any word on a video of this on the Net anywhere yet??? I'm chomping at the bit here ahaha

Where is the video, Superman, I really wanna see it so I can start bitching hard.

Not at all.

Ya, I'm really looking forward to hear how Bettman et al plan on wiggling their way out of this one. Same incident, but Pronger will probably get like 25 fewer games. It's bush league, but we all know it's gonna happen, precedent or no precedent. And, furthermore, even if they do grow some balls and come out and say, "Pronger gets 30 games", its not gonna be a "good for them for doing the right thing", it gonna be more of a "It's about f*cking time they got something right". At least in my mind.

Ya, and even fewer points out of that 9th place finish that they seem to have become so comfortable with.

I really have no doubt that his back is affecting him, at least to a certain degree. No way of telling just how much, but I'm pretty sure it is having something of an impact. I'd be all for Babs giving him a few games off down the stretch, especially around the time we get Danny Boy back in the lineup. With Dats the way he is playing right now, and Hank the way he played earlier in the year, we would be very hard for anyone to beat.

I've been reading through this thread and agreeing with you the whole time Harold. This is what you may have intended to say, but I think, in all honesty, its very hard to tell whether or not he is one of the best defensive players in my book. Yes, he is one of the greatest pick-pockets in recent history, and yes, he has a ridculous +/- (but, hell, not to take away from him, I could be a + player if my typical d-man pairing were Nick and Rafi). But, Dats is too awesome of an offensive player to evaluate him from a purely defensive standpoint. Like you said, he doesn't play in a pure shut down role. But hypothtically, if he was placed in a pure shut down role, and told to downplay the offense, I think he very well could become the best defensive forward in the league. However, it's just hard to say because he does so much of everything else. This also applies to the PK minutes, which I'm sure you realize. He could very well be a go to PK guy, but Babs knows we have enough solid defensive players to play that role, and Dats would be best saved for an offensive, even strength or PP role. In short, because of Dats' offensive prowess, it will make it harder for him to win the Selke. Certainly not impossible, but harder.

1. WINNER 2. Runner up 3. Honorable mention Selke 1. Pavel Datsyuk 2. Mike Richards 3. Patrick Sharp Hart 1. Evgeni Malkin 2. Nicklas Listrom 3. Alex Ovechkin Vezina 1. Marty Brodeur 2. Evgeni Nabokov 3. Roberto Luongo Lady Byng 1. Pavel Datsyuk 2. Joe Sakic 3. ??? Norris 1. Nicklas Lidstrom 2. Zdeno Chara 3. Chris Pronger Jack Adams 1. Dave Tippet 2. Guy Carboneau 3. Mike Babcock Calder 1. Nicklas Backstrom 2. Patrick Kane 3. Peter Mueller STANLEY CUP 1. DETROIT RED WINGS 2. NEW JERSEY DEVILS 3. ANAHEIM *UCKS

Here's my top 15 goalies: 1. Luongo 2. Brodeur 3. Kiprusoff 4. Nabokov 5. Lundquist 6. Toskala 7. Turco 8. Miller 9. Hasek 10. Giguere 11. Leclaire 12. Bryzgalov 13. Huet 14. Thomas 15. Vokoun Ya, that's right, I have Toskala in at number 6. I believe if this guy didn't have such a circus playing in front of him, this guy would be elite....a real TOP NOTCH GOALIE!

Now you just sound DUMB! ahahaa

Gary Bettman will hire top scientists to build a mechanism so that he, and ONLY he, can live forever. It will work, and he will be the Commisioner of the NHL for the next millenia. It will SUCK.

Ya, I'm gonna go ahead and apologize to all the balding people I may have offended with my last post. I'm just sayin, I've straight up shaved my head a couple of times, and it feels FANTASTIC.

Wow. My Sopcast feed bailed out 1st intermission and I ended up takin off, so I missed the huge Raffi bodyslam. I watched NHL.com highlihgts and it wasn't on there, so if that ends up on Youtube or wutever, and somebody wants to post it, that would kick ass! Also, I just caught his interview in the first intermission. I think he should just shave his head bald. I mean, if I ever get that old dude balding thing goin on on the top of my head, I'd just shave it off. He looks like he's 31 goin on 55. Different strokes for different folks I guess.