jim3033

I see. I was thinking Toronto or Atlanta would be more willing to sign Cleary for more than the 2.25-2.5 million a year he will probably get here. I was thinking that at the trade for Sundin or Hossa they would sign Cleary for say, 3.5 million. Cleary would have to agree to it though and would probably be pretty pissed. So I see what your saying.

Alright, keep Cleary. Anaheim is a big team though.

Anson Carter and Janne Niinimaa. I'd trade Cleary and some draft picks for a Hossa, Blake, or Sundin if he doesn't sign by the 25th and Holland thinks he can sign someone on par with Cleary over the summer. Also Forsberg rejected Anaheim. EDIT: wow we thought the Joe was havin' some attendance problems this year. Look at the Islander'g game on Versus!

Awesome. I call that a mandate. It would be like Cool Runnings. Make it happen Bettman.

Good article. Here are the attendance records over the last several years. http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2008 I'm tired of the NHL lagging behind for these southern teams too. Why don't they put a hockey team in Hawaii or Anaheim... oh yeah.

It doesn't take a Harvard education to know which way the wind blows.

That's pretty hilarious. I always thought Lang was really cool. That hair. haha.

If I remember right, he was really good with penalty kill, faceoffs and a never made many mistakes which is no small feat in the playoffs. I was expecting to see more goals from him though. I guess I associate that with a lack of passion since he scored so many goals when he played in Washington. But probably just the way he played, didn't fit as well in Detroit.

I was listening to Chelios on that Stony and Wojo radio show and he said Bertuzzi and Calder helped out during the playoffs. I thought the Wings made a really good run and the way Anaheim beat us last year was so close you can't be too disapointed. Hell, we beat em' 5-0. It was us or them to win the cup. I thought Holland did a good job. That was probably the best deal he could get. I thought Lang could have played better. Even with his timely goal at San Jose. He lacked passion a lot.

In keeping consistency with the way they are calling them. I'll second that.

He just plowed into the goalie! You shouldn't be able to do that. If that's a goal and Homer's isn't then..shoot.

There was just a weak penalty call against Phoenix that lead to Dallas getting the go ahead goal with 2 minutes to go. The announcer said "Wayne Gretzky is losin' it like Britney." That's pretty lame. The announcer just called it a "dainty penalty." That sucks pretty bad since that team is struggling to make it to the playoffs. EDIT: It was a call that made it a 5 on 3 no less. That was a super weak call for a 5 on 4 let alone 5 on 3.

Bring on the Colorado Avalanche! WOOOO I'm hoping we don't get a western canadian team. Those teams do anything to win come playoff time. Nashville or Columbus would be boring. I'm betting Phoenix wont make it in. Bryzgalov can't do it all. Anaheim wont come in eighth place. St. Louis wont make it in. Our luck we will get a canadian team and have to pray every game not to get a major injury. Remember when we played Edmonton a few years ago and in game 3 (we were up 2 games to 0) we were heavily outplaying them in the first and that net came off the bearings a lot and then they went as far as to bring out a new net stopping play for several minutes. Then they said something was wrong with the glass and delayed the game for a while in the first. That stuff was totally ridiculous! Needless to say the momentum shifted and we lost the next 4. The end of that game 4 or 5 against Calgary last year was totally ridiculous too. I don't quite remember the details but the sportsmanship was horrible. The American teams usually play fair though cheap shots are known to occur(Prinkles=Pronger). Also you gotta worry about funky reffing against certain teams. I don't remember any outrageous reffing or cheapshots against Colorado, minus the Lemiux thing. It was always good solid hockey. Of course there was that brawl but fights are normal and players agree to them.

Mlive said Ken Holland wont make a move or be as aggressive with trading until he knows where he is at with Dan Cleary. Hope he signs soon.

With the auto plants leaving Michigan all the auto related jobs left too. I don't think as many people can afford to go to the games anymore. They've been selling $9 tickets for this month and the upper level has been packed. I don't think it is a question that we're in a recession. I don't think all the divisional games are helping the situation either but I'd go to a mid-season Columbus game if I had the bucks. Here is a list of top attendance in the NHL. Detroit has always been in the top 3. It just started happening this year. I don't think the playoffs had any sellouts last year either. http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2008 The Anaheim game was basically sold out though. EDIT: Those videos were creepy. hahaha

'If O'Halloran had wanted to call interference, he had a dozen incidents during the contest for which he could have raised his arm rather than on a play on which interference actually didn't occur.'

Agreed, growing young hockey cities always get the upper hand by the higher ups. I don't know if it's the economy of Detroit, the aging JLA or the fact that Detroit has been good for so long but it gets on your nerves. Bettman calls it the human element of the sport. http://www.nhl.com/radio/nhl_hour.html That is a really good excuse for bad reffing at the most critical points in a season. The NHL has the best hockey players in the world and it needs the best referees in the world too. I think the refs are pressured in some way to give some other teams the advantage. A lot of people will disagree and say that would never happen but this stuff happens a lot. Maybe it was because Homer has a bad rep in front of the goal but there were other calls in that game too that didn't involve Homer. I don't know what goes on but it really feels like a Nerf NHL sometimes. Why don't they just make a globetrotters league for the NHL and have them fly around those southern states spreading the good word of hockey? --The wings may have gotten away with a similar 'no goal' playing Colorado a week ago and it looked like Hasek took a dive. That one was more clean cut than this one though. Anyways, the Wings have an awesome team and I don't care what the pundits say who didn't watch the game or aren't allowed to say anything controversial...so that's my rant

Giggy was running into people in front of the goal the whole game. He ran into Franzen in the second and he fell down. I read the rules. It is still a stupid call. I agree that ref needs his head examined. Hasn't someone started a chart of the questionable refs somewhere?

glad he's ok. wow.

I guess this is the only redemption we get. The game was scattered with a few questionable calls all towards Detroit. I got over the first one, but they kept making the same 'mistakes.' And in defense of that last call. Giggy initiated contact with Homer to tell him he was in his way as the puck was in the screen. Not enough time to use that rule. Plus no penalty was called. I dislike lawyers!!!

Well said. I agree. I just listened to Lidstrom's post game interview and he even sounded a little upset and he is one of the players. Ozzy sounded upset too but had a real mature response. It's too bad. It is really scary to think if this were a playoff game. And I hope those second period calls don't get overlooked. The one where Ozzy had the puck and Kunitz knocked it away was bad. But then when they called that penalty on Sammy and they got that goal I quit watching. I've seen these calls before in crucial games and it kills you to see them happen at the most important games of the season. Hope you guys that think it was a fair call can understand.

If Detroit learned anything from this game they need to be more sneaky...

Anyways, some of you guys agree with the call and some of us disagree. I disagree.

You guys that are calling that an acceptable call are douchebags. The blue line rule doesn't exist anymore. Giggy can just as easily move into Holmstrom. Wow you guys are fags.

Dude, Osgood played good. The whole team did. There are areas for improvement. The story of this game was the call on Samuelsson in the second and the goal at the end of the game. Detroit had all the momentum and drew the penalty and then somehow they threw a penalty at Samuelsson even though Kunitz gave him the facewash. The refs ruined an awesome game. Those teams play the whole season with decent reffing to play each other.