JPT

I agree this means a trade is brewing where Nyquist and/or Flip are gone. Otherwise we don't have a roster spot for Sammy.

This article you link to is over 2 years old. And it wasn't all that great to begin with.

That second group of D pairings made me throw up in my mouth a little.... Setting aside the fact that we let Quincy go for nothing I think we overpaid to get him back. He's nothing better than a 4th defenseman on a good team. I think he's better than he played during this brief stretch with the Wings though. I think with the possibility of losing Lidstrom and Stuart and not signing Suter you have to make a 3 yr deal with Quincy.

I think we have to let Hudler walk. For his current contract and his offensive output I think he is a decent fit on the team. But he is going to want a raise and quite frankly he doesn't win any battles and is a defensive liability. He also doesn't really create any scoring chances for anyone else.

While I don't agree that our lack of physical play/enforcer spells doom for us in this series it sure would be nice to have a couple of guys to lay some big hits on the Preds and to challenge Weber. Is there anyone serviceable that we could have brought up from the Griffins? Emmerton essentially brings nothing to the table so why not?

Also why oh why is Emmerton out there contributing nothing as usual?!?!

A couple bounces went the Preds way, the Wings whiffed on a couple nice scoring opportunities. Wings played a decent enough game and the Preds PP looked like garbage. This series is gonna give me an ulcer. WTF Weber that is some dirty s***. Suspension is def warranted it looked like he grabbed his helmet and drive him into the top turnbuckle!

This series is going the distance, both are good teams but the Wings I think have a slight edge. If the Wings can take care of business in this series then they are capable of going the distance. That being said its close enough where the bounce of the puck is going to have a big say in who moves on to the 2nd round.

I wish this was true but I don't really put much stock in any reports. I think it's funny how people around here think it's a done deal we get either Parise or Suter when we probably don't end up with either. I hope to be proven wrong though!

It's not about TV it's about the internet broadcast package the NHL offers. The league restricts competition in the local broadcast market. I'm not going to argue the legality of it because frankly I don't have an informed enough opinion but I do find it interesting that the league can hold the NY Rangers fan hostage by not allowing the NYR fan who buys the online package to view Rangers games. The Rangers fan has to then purchase cable to be able to view games which is a ridiculous monthly amount for a ridiculous number of crappy channels. It just so happens that that enriches the Dolan's through Cablevision, a local cable provider in NY and NJ. They also own MSG the channel that air's the Rangers and they get a little slice through those cable subscriptions. I'm not saying that's illegal but its certainly not in the best interest of the consumer. In an ideal world the NYR fan could subscribe to the online package, pay X and not have to subscribe to cable on a monthly basis should he or she not want to. Sports is certainly one of the reasons I pay ridiculous amounts for cable on a monthly basis...otherwise I could find enough on Netflix and Hulu to keep me entertained.

I don't think the players will feel quite so rosy about this. I think it's in the long term interest of the team to sign a Parise or Suter. I know neither are guaranteed and I'm not suggesting that we should overpay(~7mil/yr I suppose is market rate)but the stars on this team are aging and a forward is not going to be effective in his late 30's(Selanne aside). We need some younger top end talent on the team so when Dats and Z are getting up there we don't have to rely on them so much. I know there is some nice talent in the pipe but you never know what will happen with those guys....

Time to turn this ship around! I only get to see a few games in person each year and the other was the abomination out on Long Island. Lets go Wings!

I expect the Wings to struggle some with a depleted lineup but when Pav and Lidstrom are out that's when you want to see what the team is made of. Will people step up and play hard or will the team be passive as they have been over the last couple of weeks. I see it as a test in a way. They have had a good season and I won't cry if they don't win the division. But I would like to see some fire out on the ice. This last stretch is the time to turn it on for the playoffs. I also would like to see them kick the crap out of the Rangers at MSG next week since the only other game I got to go to this season was the embarrassing loss at Nassau Coliseum.

Never mind

I was at the Coliseum for last year's debacle against the Isles and will be there tonight. Wings will take care of business tonight Dats or no Dats.

Please no - I don't care how cheap he would be. As others have said we have plenty of bottom 6 forwards and I would rather see someone young get an opportunity. Maybe Drury has something in the tank but who knows. Modano added squat to the team last year when healthy. I would have rather seen Mursak get a chance.

Ericsson is only reliable in that when he went back to play the puck in his own end it usually resulted in the opposition getting numerous scoring chances. His play during these playoffs were awful - Salei was WAY better than him. I get he was a late draft pick, a converted forward and that Babcock sees something in him to put him out there night after night. I never had sky high expectations for the kid. I'm all for a experiment with a high reward - but not at anything above 1.5mil a year.

I can't complain about the deal looking at the long term. Could we use the cap space to sign a better defensemen now? Sure. But couldn't back then.

Howard has been good all series but was a reboundasaurus rex tonight - was the cause of a lot of good Sharks chances. Ericsson, while not to blame for the loss, is noticeably terrible in both ends of the ice. Hope he is not back next year. The Wings NEVER win in OT! Especially in the playoffs. So disappointing. Whoever thinks Jagr is the answer needs to have their head examined!

Eaves!!! Needed that one!

Kronwall really had a great series against Phoenix and I would even say thats the best hockey I've seen from him. He was touted as having a ton of potential and we've seen flashes here and there but never anything as sustained as during this first round. He had a good, not great, season. He blocked a lot of shots and although his offensive stats were less than in years past he was solid overall. I do hope we see a few big hits from him in these playoffs!

This deal is fine, maybe he's a little overpaid but the length of the deal makes it easily digestible. For those thinking that this will help his consistency I would have thought being a young goaltender playing for a new deal would be motivation enough to buckle down and eliminate the glaring problems with his game. If not having a contract was an issue than Jimmy Howard is not a viable goalie.

Glad the Wings got the win and especially glad Datsyuk is back! However the Wings did not play all that great tonight. Aside from Kindl turning the puck over like it was his job there was sloppy play all over the ice and Howard was a rebound machine(which has been a problem of his since regularly playing in the NHL). The Rangers are inept enough that the Wings could still come away with a win.

I'm glad I came across this thread. I live in NYC and have to buy Center Ice every year but Time Warner will only show 2 games at a time in HD(2 of 12 Center Ice channels are HD. Watching in standard definition on my LED looks like crap so I'm considering the Gamecenter to have consistent quality. Is it close to HD?

Pronger is a hell of a player but that moment from '02 brings a smile to my face. I remember seeing Pronger go for a hit like he was gonna take out Stevie for the rest of the series and when Yzerman ducked and Pronger hurt himself...well it just felt great.