dobbles

how many times this season will they even be on the same ice together? and if they are, i think its less of an issue for the wings worrying about getting ran, and more of an issue of the hawks worrying about getting scored on if thats the matchup that occurs. as far as agitators go, there are many that are better. heck, i would take this over that 4th line they had 2 years ago with eager. that line always gave us problems.

the tough part of the ericsson signing is that its not that bad this year. thanks to the cap increase and current contracts, eating his extra 1-2 million overpayment isn't that hard this year. however, what about next year? we can only assume it will finally be lidstroms last, so who is going to fill that big void? additionally, how can we ever expect to sign stuart and kronwall for less than twice what ericsson is making? its bad contracts like these that hurt teams over and over again. it can start a bad cycle. it inflates everyones value including not just teammates but guys all across the league. the lockout was necessary thanks to idiot gms handing out way too much money. the red wings tradition dictates this team should not be part of that group. everyone loves to start trolling back with how many years the wings have made the playoffs and all that, but the last couple offseasons have been pretty gross. the team has been great because it has made great personnel decisions. that era seems to be ending. the sad thing is that even all the great work of signing guys like datsyuk and zetterberg to long term deals is totally wasted when you just give that extra money to players that don't deserve it.

i dont really think thats the case. its not as if the wings have players in the ahl or europe that are dominating their league and obviously need to be in the nhl. because the wings rarely get the chance to draft top end talent, the players in the system need more time to improve. obviously it helps having a deep nhl team, but lets be honest, its not like kindl would be top 4 on other teams, or that mursak is top 6 material for nhl teams right now. these guys are brought up slow for good reason. i think there are a couple good examples of players that were nhl ready like quincey. he was someone that benefited from being thrown in the deep end and developed into a solid nhl player. but even the leino situation wasn't an overripe scenario. he got his chance. he just didn't fit here or wasn't motivated. it took the change of scenery to get him in gear. we all love to talk up wings prospects that excite us. but every team has prospects they are excited about. and the funny thing, is with the wings always finding diamonds in the rough, you never know when a 7th round pick, waiver pickup, or undrafted free agent ends up being the next steal for the team. so while we all hate to see smith, tatar, or anyone else not in the winged wheel, a lot of times its for the best.

while i don't mean to interrupt the awesome hyperbole of lgw, both sides of this are understandable. i could even see babcock being disappointed and making those comments. burns isn't the next lidstrom, but is one of the better realistic options to replace rafalski. many thought he wouldnt be moved, so when he was, and for a pretty reasonable package, it raises eyebrows. i think a lot of people feel like a package built around filppula (or MAYBE hudler) could have been assembled that was similar to what SJ got. personally, i think the wings could have made a similar/better offer. many people are saying we would have to offer franzen, however, i think people that suggest that are over-valuing setoguchi. while goal scorers are a rare commodity, he has pretty pedestrian numbers overall aside from his 30 goal season. if you look at the production the last 2 years, he has been comparable to flip. for a lot of people this was a big missed opportunity. thats why people are so passionate. we all just want to see the red wings be the best team possible. unfortunately, we all have differing opinions of what that entails.

I would love to see Michael Ryder. Watching him in the playoffs he seemed like a guy that would fit in well in Detroit. He has scored 30 goals a couple times and overall has been a productive guy for a 2nd/3rd line spot. I know the wings are still log-jammed at forward. However, they can use more scoring depth. Perhaps unloading Hudler would be worthwhile and Ryder could slot back in his place? To me, a player like Ryder is much a much better target than someone like Brad Richards. And I think it would be a much better fit anyways. Unfortunately there are 2 things I think make it unlikely. Salary and Claude Julien. He was already making 4 million and after a good playoff run he might want a modest raise. Even if Hudler was moved, it would still be several million more to upgrade. The other part is that he has played most of his career with Claude Julien and considering they just won a cup together, he might want to stay. I haven't really looked into the Bruins cap situation though, so perhaps he might be on his way out because of financial reasons. Thoughts on Ryder?

its funny, stars fans had been saying the same thing for several years. unfortunately most wings fans were too caught up in the local boy comes home to win a cup angle and totally dismissed it. as a wings fan not from detroit, to me the signing made much less sense. the results speak for themselves. and his continued give a crap attitude continues to be apparent.

hyperbole ftw! no one is saying that at all. most people just advocate the solution that makes most sense for the league.

detroit going to the east is not whats best for hockey. so i dont see it happening nor do i want it to happen. preds to southeast and wild to norris makes the most sense. i know the late starts suck, but thats life.

first off, your begging for partiality and whining when you dont get it is getting very old. its not going to happen, so either accept how it is or GTFO. regarding your post, i actually think it comes down to one very simple thing. the sharks penalty kill. it was good and frustrated the wings PP causing them to be even worse. the 2 wings PP's in the first period were simply awful. had they scored or even generated some chances/momentum, that first period could have went much differently. instead, they looked totally lost and it ended in that awful zetterberg turnover for the 2nd goal. furthermore, in the 3rd, the PP was almost as bad. it was rather ineffective the first time and poor zone possession led to the kronwall penalty that ended the first PP. and even the 4th PP was pretty brutal. kudos to the sharks PK as it prevented any sort of entry and minimized TOA during the PPs. I think their early success frustrated the wings and caused them to second guess their entries which caused a nice circular effect. regarding your points, i think home ice had little to do with it. the wings were 2nd in the league in road wins in the regular season, and were 3-1 on the road in the playoffs entering the game. and only the rangers had fewer home wins in the regular season among playoff teams. the wings struggled at home down the stretch. so to me, home ice had little to do with the game itself. the time off before the series might have been a factor, but last year they had a tooth and nail fight in the first round and still got bombed in the first 3 games of the second round. so both ways ended up in a 3-0 hole. you also have to remember 2 of the first 3 games were OT, they could have ended very different. (i'm not saying the wings deserved to win or anything, but just with a little different puck luck, we would be having very different conversations, so try not to put too much stock into little thing. in other words, correlation doesnt mean causation) thats enough rambling for now.

i personally have no problems with the wings being out. i just have a problem with cowardly hockey. and unfortunately the western conference is going to be a battle of the two worst playoff choking and diver filled teams of post lockout hockey. its bad for the game of hockey to see teams like this succeed. while i would have loved to see the wings win it all, with them out i want to see it go to a deserving team. i would have loved to see nashville go over the 2 teams left. right now i am just rooting for whoever comes out of the east. the sharks managed to win. but no sharks fan should be on here bragging. theres not a lot to be proud of as a SJ fan. they barely managed to win a series even though franzen basically wasn't effective for any game, and we played most of game 7 with only 10 forwards. go ahead and keep grasping at straws like offsides calls and too many men. the sharks got away with just as much (they played 5 seconds or more with 6 guys earlier in that same game) if not more than the wings. they play douchey hockey and deserve anything bad that comes their way.

i agree with the OP. while there is always room for improvement, the wings have shown they are capable of playing top level hockey. regardless of what happens tomorrow, the wings are already in the last 5 teams standing. and while we all expect a cup every year, i find it hard to believe that a team that was 6th in regular season points and has won more playoff games than all but 4 teams (so far) needs to be blown up. unfortunately though, the thread has degenerated into the same old hudler debate with eva against everyone.

i think he had a good game. generated some chances, made some plays, and even took the body a couple times. (not saying he laid anyone out, but at least he took the man)

what a great ******* game. great to see the crowd so into it

i would put hudler and modano in. franzen and abdelkader out.

remember when leonardsankar never posted and lgw was a better place because of it????

I am so ******* sick of Versus always using the opponents feed when the Wings play. Is there some disagreement between FSD and Versus? I honestly can't remember a Wings game this year on Versus with the FSD feed. Yet they can never actually get a neutral crew of their own. I am so sick of hearing how Versus makes hockey #1 and they have like 1 crew and just steal local feeds for all the other games. At least ESPN had enough money to hire their own talent. f*** VERSUS

i actually like jack edwards. he was good back in the day on espn. and while he can be a homer, i hear him make fair assessments about bad calls and things that balance him out a bit. he is paid by nesn to be the bruins announcer. not a neutral announcer. with that said, that video makes no freaking sense at all!!!!

the thing about +/- is it has to be taken in perspective. and so far, i think people are missing the mark in a big way. there have been multiple posts about how the bruins have thomas and the wings had howard who was sub par. however, thats not the perspective thats important. you have to look at their ratings in contrast to teammates to get a much better portrayal. chara led the bruins entire team. so while most of their team was positive thanks to their 2nd in the league +51 goal differential, chara was still the best in that regard. conversely, nick was last out of the top 6 wings D. only kindl and janik were worse and janik basically doesn't count at all. and as said, kindl still is the 7th dman and played only 48 games, so hes not exactly a good comparison. here is the good news IMO: weber is the main competition, and he suffers from a similar situation. he is behind several defensemen teammates at a more pedestrian +7. i still think it will be a big hurdle to overcome in many voters minds, but if it really is a 2 man race like most think it is, that helps minimize the effect of the bad +/-.

yeah, that skate was really close to his face. didn't seem like it in real time. dats needs to just take the shot into the empty net.

great post! i too was thinking about the 2nd part. if this is just some theory from a friend, he sure is trying really hard to defend the position from anyone who even slightly disagrees. regarding the OP, i think its bullocks. the hawks getting good has little to do with bowman. they had tons of top picks from years of cellar dwelling and managed to ride them while they were on entry level deals. the hawks still were generally mismanaged the last few years, but have been extremely lucky. the campbell contract is one of the worst in hockey, huet was a gigantic bust, and they barely made the playoffs the year after the cup. they aren't some fantastic dynasty in progress; they are one hit wonders. its funny how people actually thought the core was important. tampa bay had a great core after their cup and had problems making the playoffs. several other teams have had the same problems. conversely, the wings continue to replenish their team. while it has been several years now since the gigantic diamonds in the rough picks of datsyuk and zetterberg, they are still showing the ability to pick quality guys and develop them. regardless of how much he gets hammered on here, ericsson had 15 points and was +8. not bad for the last pick of the draft. helm this year took huge steps to become more than just a bottom 6 PK guy and is very close to being a legit secondary scoring threat. the wings saw good potential from tatar and mursak this year which continues to replenish the team. the team has shown it can bring in vets like bertuzzi that contribute. they made a great waiver pickup to get drew miller. i just don't see how this team can really be considered mismanaged or somehow deficient because bowman is gone. sure its a loss when a great hockey mind like bowman leaves the organization. but it was going to happen eventually. plus, are there any quotes from back then that imply stan was even seriously considering leaving the hawks? he started there in 01, and perhaps they had been grooming him to become the GM much like we groomed holland? i honestly don't recall the events of back then, but we often assume everyone will instantly jump to come to detoit. yet some people do have better opportunities elsewhere.

just checked into our hotel. on the way through town saw a guy walking down the road with a wings jersey!

my wife and I will be there for our first wings game. ticketmaster still lists seats, so just going to the box office might be best.

I am so ready for this game! It will be my first ever Wings game in person!!!!!!

guys, EVERY time it happens its an accident! unless there's players out there intentionally firing it over the glass and taking penalties?!?!?! sorry, i know its a stupid point, but just made me laugh hearing it twice in a row.

i don't buy it. both fights were won by bertuzzi, yet the first one didn't cause the wings to play better. additionally, the wings started the game playing physical so its not as if they needed bertuzzi to step up and keep the preds from dominating physical. i can only assume that it was a very concerted effort to play physical after their last meeting and had nothing to do with bertuzzi's fight. additionally, the second fight was very much about settling the score from their earlier bout. it had nothing to do with defedning teammates or anything team related. while the fights were enjoyable, i don't see them as related to the game. the wings played very physical before and after the fight. as noted earlier, the wings actually had good jump to start the game. so they had already been playing well. i am fine that cleary and babcock said the fights pumped them up. thats cool. i still think that means the fights had anything to do with the wings managing to come back.