awingsincebirth

My problem with this argument is not necessarily your side, but the premise of the whole argument in general. I view the appointment of the C to be a more organic thing. You're asking what we think would happen if someone else were captain, while I honestly think that could never be the case. Lidstrom is the Captain because of what he has done and who he as been for this team. Because of this, regardless of who has a C arbitrarily sewn to their jersey, you know which of the warriors the rest of the team will look up to when the game is on the line. Nick, alone, is the logical Captain of this team and will remain as such until he retires. I don't know if I am making any sense or just blabbering nonsensically. Although, I do feel the way that Babs seems to swoon about Nik in the press (and has pretty much ever since he got here) seems to indicate to me that Nik is doing an alright job as a leader inside the lockerroom, in addition to where we all know he is one of the best leaders in the game; on the ice.

I like it. I'm in.

Hahahaha. Now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure that I remember a picture of Marian Hossa getting drafted - Hoss is up there wearing a Sens jersey shaking Buttman's hand, but if you look really hard to the back of the stage, there's old Kopecky with a "f***, I hope nobody says anything" type of look on his face. And so the love affair began.

You, my good sir, place a frightening low value on the importance of your genitals.

Certainly seems like a possibility.

I can't seem to find this info anywhere in English. What's the term on this beast? Is $11.whatever the actual cap hit. That would be incomprehensible if it were.

I think the better question is: who knowingly signs a contract extension with the Thrashers?!?! (assuming that is what this is about)

I think that it is abundantly clear that Forsberg's NHL days are done. And if there is any team stupid enough to give him his 1000th chance for rekindling his fire, they will undoubtedly regret wasting the cap space. It won't be the Wings.

WOW! HAHA. Amazing picture....I want one.

I really like this quote from Hitchcock (IMO, as classy a coach as your gonna find in this league). A lot of talk in this thread has been about how the coming regular season is going to be a tough one. I can't disagree. Games will be tighter, and we will score fewer goals. For anyone to deny that would be lunacy. Okay. This team WILL make the playoffs and they won't be one of the bottom seeds fighting til the bitter end to get in. I think most people recognize that as well. We may well win the division, the conference, or the league, but it is far from guaranteed. Then comes the playoffs. The fact that no one seems to be talking about the playoffs and the core of our team baffles my mind. As cautiously optimistic as I am about the regular season, I am still incredibly confident about how this team will play when the second season rolls around. Why?.....Why not? This core has dispelled a lot of the memories of past playoff flops that we were all so accustomed to five years ago. This team steps it UP when it matters the most. In the past three years we won a Cup, lost in game 7 of the Cup finals, and fell just a bit short of beating a devilishly tough Anaheim team (who, with all-do-respect to the late Ottawa Senators, were the last thing standing in our way of taking home the Cup that year). I agree fully with Hitchcock that, no matter where we finish in the regular season, that the road to the Cup still runs through the D, and if Chicago or anyone else wants it, they'll likely have to pry it from Z's, Mule's, Nick's, and Ozzie's cold, dead fingers (figureatively, of course). I don't know if the new blood will replace a reasonable amount of the production that we have lost. I don't know that Z and Mule will both put up 40+ and Dats will finally top 100 points. I don't know if Flip can take the next step and become a 2nd tier superstar in this league (because I believe he has the potential). But I do know that we will have enough to keep us playing into April, and that's when this team will step up to a level that will make us sorry we doubted them so much on days like today. Whether that level will be enough to get the Cup back where it belongs remains to be seen. But we won't be going down without a hell of a fight.

dp

Awww. It's so simple. How could we all have been so blind!

Meh. They're on their way to becoming a 'Ducks' style of team. And certainly they are looking more and more like a Western Conference team in the East every day (which bodes well for them definitely). However, most of these comparisons are made through looking at the back-end; 'Ducks-style' (as we are talking about it) happened at both ends of the ice. Sure, you had your Prongers and your Beauchemins on D, but IMO what really made that team nasty was guys like Getzlaf, Perry, R. Niedermayer, Moen, Penner (before he sucked), etc. These were guys that had a reasonable mix of skill and hard-nosed toughness. I feel that with all of the hype regarding the Leaf's new blueline (which, once again, is awesome), many have lost sight of the fact that this is a team who's best forward is JASON BLAKE ( a guy who can go for long stretches of being really good, and subsequently can have long stretches of being entirely ineffective). I realize that trading Kaberle with aid in bolstering the front end. I also realize that, oddly enough, the team didn't have much trouble scoring last season. What I am driving at here is that the current Leafs do not have anything close to the offense that the Ducks have had in recent years, neither in their hard-nosed appearance nor in their overall skill level. They've got a few skilled guys and few tough guys, but no one (at least that I can think of) that offer a good deal of both. With that said, I think that it is going to be a very interesting year in Hockey's Capitol, as I think that Burke has put together a team that is going to be tough to play against...for anyone.

On the topic, I'm a student at UWO in London and I met and talked to Sam Gagner for a bit at Jack's (my favourite little night spot) on All-Star weekend this year. He was a pretty cool guy, but so damn tiny for a professional hockey player. I'm only like 5'11, 170 lbs and he was significantly smaller than me.

...any word on whether there would be any issue with the deal considering he would be under contract until he is 42. I kind of though Detroit would only be offering him 10 years because they knew that the league would scream foul at 12.

THIS! At what point do people start pointing their fingers more at Brian Murray. Look at the facts! He was NOT the orchestrator of the Cup Finals run a couple years back, that was John Muckler. Inexplicably, management fired Muckler after that season and put Murray at the helm. Since that happened, Murray has officially run that team into the ground to the point where free agents never seem to resign (fairly small sample size, but still damning evidence IMO) and even the players that they do have under contract want out (see Heatley, Daniel). The guy has been a schmuck. Now I'm not saying that the guy is a terrible GM in the vein of John Ferguson Jr. or anything like that, he truly was pivotal in building the team that beat the Sens for the Cup back in '07 (moreso that Burke was, IMO), but he has done NOTHING as the GM of Ottawa in terms of making them a better team. It's not as if they are rebuilding and setting up a solid core for the future; they just suck! Honestly, living in Canada I have seen a significant amount of media exposure surrounding the guy. The guy truly is confident and unflappable, and always gives off the aura that he is in complete control of what is going on in Ottawa, alot like Kenny is here. The only difference is that things have literally started falling apart for the Sens since his first day as GM. Its gotten to the point that I honestly believe that the fact that his reputation has gone relatively untarnished seems to be credited more to his professional presence than to his ability to actually run a team. I've always like Ottawa, but it is clear that Murray is going to have to be sent packing before that team can turn it around.

I love it when you post things.

They both believe that Pittsburgh-based BMW dealerships only give special treatment to superSTARS, like them.....(chick-a-yeea....chick-a-yeea) .....?????

hahaha. I do kind of see what you are saying, though. Let's way til we have dispelled of the Hawks in 5-6 games before we start to acknowledge all of their accomplishments (of which they should definitely be proud). Right now, they are our opponent - an obstacle on our road to the repeat - that must be destroyed.

Four things: One, did anyone else think that none of the hits they showed (which they stated we "all on the numbers") were actually on the numbers. They weren't even significant hits, just Dats trying to throw his wait around a little bit and make his presence felt. That entire argument was just ridiculous. Two, Ron MacLean has one of the toughest jobs in hockey. Have you ever tried to have a cogent argument with someone drunk and stubborn. I have. It looked a lot like that. The part where MacLean was trying to talk about the Fab 5 and Cherry was just yelling bulls*** at him was physically painful and embarassing to watch. Three, I'll say this. I do buy into one of his arguments. No Detroit sports team has seen such attendance drops in recent years as the Wings. Thus, the economy argument only can go so far. There is something else there. Four, BUT (and this is my big one) Cherry seems to fail to realize something. There is no doubt that one of the main goals of the league is to entertain the fans. Clearly that is what Cherry is saying, that the Wings have failed because they aren't doing that as well as other teams in this aspect. However, in my opinion, that goal is the responsibility of those with roles working for the league or for specific teams that have nothing to do with hockey in itself (PR, marketing, and a whole other host of people that I'm sure Cherry could care less about). The NHL is about HOCKEY. There is no right or wrong way to play HOCKEY. HOCKEY is a game fueled by competitive spirit and a desire to win above all else. Frankly, the entertainment factor is an unfortunate byproduct of being part of a commercial entity. Kenny, Babs, Dats, Z, and Lids (as well as the GMs, coaches, and players of every other team) have been entrusted with one duty and one duty only. TO WIN. No one in recent history has done that nearly as well as the Wings have. To me, that's what it should all come down to. That's it. Considering Cherry as something of a hockey purist because he has a public stage on which to whine every weekend about teams that aren't entertaining because they don't fight enough is entirely misguided. A real hockey purist would look at this argument and cringe at the way that ENTERTAINMENT has supplanted WINNING as the main goal of a game that should all boil down to pure competitive spirit. Cherry is just scared s***less of the likelihood of other teams adapting the Wings' system because of how successful it will be. I'm Done.

Anaheim - Getzlaf Atlanta - Kovalchuk Boston - Savard Buffalo - Connoly Calgary - Iginla Carolina - Staal Chicago - Toews Colorado - Sakic Columbus - Nash Dallas - Morrow Detroit - Datsyuk Edmonton - Gagner Florida - Bouwmeester Los Angelas - D. Brown Minnesota - Burns Montreal - S. Koivu Nashville - Sullivan New Jersey - Brodeur NY Islanders - The Asian Guy (???) NY Rangers - Dubinsky Ottawa - Alfredsson Philadelphia - Richards Phoenix - Doan Pittsburgh - Talbot San Jose - Marleau St. Louis - Perron Tampa Bay - Lecavalier Toronto - Kaberle Vancouver - Luongo Washington - Ovechkin

Made me smile, too, my friend.

ahahaha

what did you just call me?!?!?