Frozen-Man

How come it seems like almost every thread descends into a fighter/non-figher/toughness/soft/grit debate. I understand that the guys mentioned in Dreger's article would add some grit but still. . .

I meant to +1 that but missed and negged you instead. Sorry about that, I thought it was a great comment.

Interesting that you showed Ballard as an example of a good hip check, he was asked about the Marchand hit and here is what he had to say: *** And yes I realize Ballard is not unbiased as he is Salo's teammate.***

BTW you can look here to find a break down of the average distance that each team travels to all of its conference foes. Florida Panthers are screwed the worst with an average travel distance of 1,083 miles of travel per conference foe Philadelphia Flyers have it the best with an average travel distance of 164 miles of travel per conference foe.

Yeah but almost all of the other teams in Florida's conference (other than the opposing Florida team obviously) are extremely far away. Additionally, it is obvious that the Florida teams are being screwed because there is an entire conference between themselves and the other teams in their conference. Edit: Looking that the breakdown you are right about Edmonton having to travel just about as much as the Florida teams but I still think the key difference is that it is the best Edmonton could have and still stay in their time zone. Florida teams just got screwed because they are Florida teams as they could have had a much better arrangement.

Much less a goalie just back from a concussion.

That looks awesome on the iPad. Thanks Matt.

I'm not a huge fan of Eddie when he is commentating but I met him in a hotel lobby after game 1 of the 2008-2009 Stanley Cup Finals and he was very nice, to time to talk to everyone who came up to him and when I talked to him really complimented the Wings and how great they were in game 1 When he is commentating he can't get over his bias over the Hawks but in person he was a pretty nice guy.

I think the Wings are in kind of a hard spot right now with the 4th line though. Holmstrom is mostly effective on the PP and there is uncertainty how to best utilize or utilize him at all during non PP time. I think he kind of throws a kink in the lineup because where exactly do you put him.

My mistake I apologize, I thought the first part of your post, "Well there were both huge in a stanley cup win last year" was in reference to Lucic in the playoffs. You are correct he scored more goals than any Wing during the regular season.

I don't disagree that Lucic was beneficial to the Bruins in the Playoffs last year but it is a extremely misleading to say that Lucic "scored more goals that anyone on our team" in the Playoffs last year. While technically true Lucic scored 5 goals in 25 games which is .20 goals/game. Z on the other hand scored 3 goals in 7 games which is .43 goals/game. At that pace Z would have scored 10.75 goals in 25 games and more than doubling Lucic's goals. In fact Z, Dats, Eaves, Homer, Helm, and Mule all had better goals/game than Lucic. Additionally, Bert, Cleary, and Flip were all right behind Lucic at .18 goals/game. When you play well over twice as many games as the players that you are comparing it not that relent how many goals were scored but rather how many goals were scored relative to the number of games that each player played. In fact, Lucic was tied with 3 other players for 5th-8th on his team in goals/game. It took Lucic 447 minutes and 32 seconds to score 5 goals throughout the playoffs whereas Z got 3 goals in 153 minutes and 56 seconds. Lucic also scored more goals that Bobby Ryan or Patrick Sharp, more than double Ryan Getzlaf, 5 times more than Dustin Brown, Patrick Kane, or Johnathan Towes. Like I said I don't disagree that Lucic is beneficial to his team but I find your comparison of his goals scored to the Red Wings goals scored to have no real relation.

Except for that pesky No Movement Clause Selanne has (along with a multitude of other reasons).

You have no basis for saying that there was no intent to injure. There may not have been but it sure looks like there is from the positioning of the players and Kronner's distance from the boards.

Ivan Drago - That's what I thought of too.

Like the previous poster I disagree as well.

Too bad. Just when the Wings looked like they might break out of their slump.

Wow, that is awesome. Proud of Kenny and Kronner. Good deal all around.

I keep checking and haven't seen anything yet and usually would have heard by now. Hopefully he remains a Wing.

The reason why is simple. The Wings win so they don't draft high. You want to draft players like Chicago, Pitt, and Edmonton have then you better want the Wings to suck for the better part of a decade because that is what those teams had to do to draft where they did and thus be able to get the players they did. If not just enjoy the unparalleled success that the Wings have had.

2000-2001 Boyd Devereaux but seriously 1988-89 Steve Yzerman - he was incredible.

Compared around the league what Stuart did last year for $3.75M was a bargain in my opinion. I would love to add Suter but he isn't going to be anywhere near $3.75M.

Very true. It is one of his better attributes that he doesn't freak out and overspend when something comes up. He handled the post lockout and hard cap well and has not gotten roped into any really horrible contracts either in length or price. Additionally, he has managed to keep key pieces and generally at reasonable or below market prices and add in key players without breaking the bank. Stuart was a bargain though and if he has a season this year similar to his season last year will be getting a substantial raise.

I can't wait. Glad the off-season is finally over.

I don't really like the considered changes to penalties (not allowed to ice and/or playing the full two minutes). I would however, like them to implement a rule that if your team is up and takes a penalty and there is not enough time left in the game for the full penalty to be served the game extends until either the other team scores or the penalty expires. Similar to in football where the the game can't end with the defense taking a penalty on the last play. I hate when a team is up by a goal, 10 seconds left in the game, the team that is down has a great scoring chance and so the team that is up takes a blatant and easily avoidable penalty completely negating the scoring chance and all that happens is that the team that is ahead is short handed for 10 seconds. At a time where a penalty is most detrimental to a team that is behind there is almost no consequence to the team that is ahead in taking the penalty and there is a huge benefit in taking one. That would be my number one change (well that and getting rid of the instigator penalty).