dobbles

i want to respond to this in hopefully a thoughtful and respectful way. let me first say, i am not as far out as many of the people that were sick of maltby. however, i was against the signing this summer. also, i definitely do not advocate any bashing of lidstrom because he is still very important to the team. if anything, i think any negative comments were over the summer wishing he had taken a bigger pay cut. to me, the reason many people get upset when these guys keep hanging on is because it is not for the good of the team. had maltby stuck around this year it would have meant losing another player. while someone like drew miller might not be the key to stanley cup success, he has more long term and short term upside than maltby. the problem is that the wings organization will be loyal. so if players aren't willing to accept their best days are behind them, then they linger on for longer than they need to. when this happens, many fans can turn against the player. chelios lingered, maltby lingered, and draper is getting pretty darned close. i am appreciative of what kirk maltby has done to help the wings over the last 15 years. it doesn't mean i had to be happy over his contract this summer. to say anyone who disagreed with your opinion is a moron is just silly and juvenile. with all that said, i wish maltby a happy retirement. there ended up being no negative impact to the signing, so no ill will on my part going forward. (not that maltby or anyone cares about my ill will!)

i have no idea about nhl games, but as a former season ticket holder for an ahl team, it was a regular occurrence for coaches to watch warmups in the stands. usually they were in their own end watching their guys, but sometimes they would be at the opposite end watching the opposing team. i could definitely see it being less important in the nhl where you have much better scouting and video capabilities; but it wouldn't surprise me to see a coach watching warmups either.

hey guys, havent caught the first 2 games. how has coetzee looked? he could still go back to the chl as an overager right? has it ever been stated if he is there to stay?

guess what another great way to get things started would be? perhaps going on a red wings message board to share your opinion and see what others think? naw, thats obviously absurd. disregard the fact that message boards are meant for discussion. why would we ever want to do something so silly?!?!?! i didn't start the thread, so i really don't care, but i certainly respect the OP for his opinion. if you don't like the thread, just ignore it. or i guess you could continue to be an ******* about it...

i like the last pic on that page. babcock standing there is pretty funny.

god thats such a stupid response. i guess all team related threads should be closed because it doesn't matter what any of us think since we aren't the coach or GM.

thats why i mentioned board ads in my post i just think that the teams are going down a slippery road. for all that say this is better than ads on jerseys, i think thats only a few years away. first it was the boards, then it was the ice, then its the glass; they are running out of places, so the next logical step is uniforms. fans pay lots of money for tickets; lots of money for merchandise; and pay for cable stations that broadcast the games; yet its always about squeezing more money out of people. the integrity of the game means nothing anymore.

i would love to know how much board ads and such actually go for. i assume its a pretty small part of a teams revenue. its too bad that for such a small increase, we have to see our game cheapened and trivialized for the sake of consumerism.

i think the wings are doing a good job of standing up for themselves. they might not be winning the fights, but they are showing anaheim they wont take their crap. proud to be a wings fan tonight.

great to see dats stand up for himself. you obviously hate to have him in the box for 5 minutes, and hate even more to see him get hurt in a fight; however, THAT is what this team needs more than downey, may, or anyone else. they need TEAM toughness. great to see.

games in canada are rarely in HD for me. its some sort of capacity issue or something.

i have directv and it shows the game on 772 and 773

tomorrows wings game showed up for me a few days ago. however, from what i always hear, folks that get CI through cable get a lot less games/feeds. hopefully you are able to get it. i have directv.

my understanding is that the only time the 35+ rule applies is if the player signed a multi-year contract. so if draper retired, we would be on the hook for his cap hit still; but with maltby, he only hits the cap when on the detroit roster. hopefully someone can confirm/debunk it.

i am watching nhl network and they reported that all players cleared. they said that was from bob mckenzie. might want to search for his twitter feed if you want concrete evidence.

quit deflecting from the real issue! we need an answer now! is or isn't ritola actually crosby v2.0??!?!?!!?

the wings were going to have to waive/lose somebody. as you guys have debated, there is really 2 reasons to make the decision. who is better now and who is better long term. miller is the better player now. maybe not by much, but i think thats fairly well agreed on. its the future potential that many seem to be arguing about. i am a former ahl season ticket holder and know how much prospects can get overrated, underrated, forgotten about, passed over, etc. so i can appreciate those that have followed ritola in GR and think he has more upside. however, i tend to look at it even more big picture. either one will end up as the 13th forward this year barring injuries. so the choice will most likely have little bearing. and when you think of long term, ritola is probably already behind guys like tatar, mursak, and even owens now based on their play. those guys are a couple years behind in age and still have much more room to grow. based on the fact that in the upcoming seasons we will trying to find slots for them too, i think there just wasn't much room for ritola. its unfortunate that because of injuries we got miller off waivers last year, but that extra body may have been enough to close ritolas window with the team.

perhaps if we all buy 5000 hot n ready pizzas, mr. illitch will have so much money that he can afford to have the teams play in separate arenas still!

well thats interesting. i agree that ericsson looked great with lidstrom in 08. the down side of having E on the top pair is that someone from the top 4 had to drop down. while it might hurt some ego's, i don't think its a huge deal as long as babcock can distribute minutes accordingly. every year as lidstrom has gotten older, theres talk of reducing his minutes. perhaps this change can finally allow that to happen. roll all 3 pairs throughout the game.

well TB must think he has nhl potential this year; if they want to send him down, they have to waive him as well which starts the process all over.

thanks for typing it out. that was what i had assumed it was. regarding the top 4 D, babcock did try out the pairings in preseason, but has he or anyone else went on the record saying they would indeed be trying it in the regular season?

i haven't been paying attention the last few days. has babcock or anyone else hinted at opening night line combos? if not, would love to see what you guys think works.

too lazy to quote the posts from the last page talking about the specific new rule, but my understanding of it after watching that video the nhl put out was that they are cracking down on hip checks that are very low and specifically target the knees; i don't think it has anything to do with being below the waist persay. while the still image does look somewhat low, i think it was still a clean hip check that did connect almost entirely with schenns hip area. in that rules video the nhl put out, the examples it showed were all hit where the player was significantly lower than abdelkaders hit.

i have no problem with ericsson starting the season. i just hope if he plays poorly that kindl gets some chances to prove himself as well. its going to be a tough balancing act. often times you have to be able to work through bad play, and if you aren't playing all the time it could make things worse. so considering both ericsson and kindl are young and slump prone, it might be a tight wire for babcock to walk.