Redmen and Their Wives

Yeah, the French-Canadian accent makes it even funnier. QUEEEK QUEEEK like a Chat

Red Wings draft picks by nationality since 2000. Russians: 6 Europeans: 25 North Americans: 24 Seems pretty balanced to me. The Europeans have just tended to be more likely to develop into bonafide NHL'ers. Free agent acquisitions: Russians: 0 Europeans: 3 [Lilja, Sammuelsson, Hasek] North Americans: 7 [Lebda, Drake, Osgood, Cleary, Downey, Ellis, Rafalski] I just don't buy that the team needs "more Canadians" like that's automatically going to make the team better. Do they need Ryan Smyth when they already have Tomas Holmstrom? Do they need Danny Briere and his -20 rating when they already have Pavel Datsyuk?

So Sergei Fedorov and Nick Lidstrom weren't part of the core of those three championships? You cannot be serious.

It sounds like Q and Kindl have really struggled this season. But the combination of Q playing well last year in the playoffs and any callup likely getting 3rd pairing scraps it probably made sense to see if bringing him to Detroit would get him back on track. I imagine the Wings want Ericsson playing 25+ minutes a night right now, which ain't gonna happen in Detroit. With that being said I'd love to see Ericsson get a callup at some point. Kindl is really struggling so it might be best to continue to give him big minutes in GR to try and get his season turned around.

Nick Lidstrom was the first European player to win the Conn Smythe in '02. Sergei Fedorov led the team in total points in the playoffs during the Cup run in '97. Dominik Hasek played a key role in winning the 3rd Cup in '02. I'd say that counts as being led at the top by Europeans. Canadians are obviously important like I mentioned in my earlier post but to discount European players - especially in Detroit - just doesn't make much sense in my opinion.

The McDonald's one they're running right now is pretty funny.

Nice. With Rafi out of the lineup I'd like to see the Pain Train paired up with Lidstrom. That might be what it takes for Lils to get his mojo back. Lidstrom-Lilja Cheli-Lebda Q-Meech

Franzen was on a line with Pavs in preseason and the Mule tore it up. He got injured early on and hasn't been on a line with Datsyuk since. I think this is a good move and allows Babcock to split up the Eurotwins. This team needs some sort of spark and this could be what it takes.

It all depends on what Canadians we are talking about. Brendan Smith looks like a pretty good draft pick, so sure in that case drafting a Canadian made sense. Same deal with Logan Pyett and Darren Helm. But drafting Nick Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Holmstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and Valtteri Filppula all look like pretty good picks. Just because a guy's Canadian doesn't mean he's a great hockey player.

I like those lines. Maybe I'd switch up Homer and Fil tho. Franzen-Datsyuk-Filppula Sammy-Z-Homer Kopy-Draper-Maltby Hudler-Drake-Downey Glad to see Jimmy get the start. Hopefully they also call Ericsson up before the deadline to see how he looks. Ericsson and Jimmy Howard have been the best players in Grand Rapids, so why not reward them when the team needs some help? Remeber how Filppula could have been sent down last season but was pressed into service when Greg Johnson had to retire? That worked out pretty well.