tommingthepuck96

Good points, im also willing to bet just like previous years the wings will have to play the most back to back games of any teams in the regular season.. Honestly the wings undoubtabley have the team to make it to the finals for the third year in a row, but all other factors are against them. Im preditcting the wings make it to the conference finals, while getting hit with the injury bug again, and go out in 7 games. (Opponent unknown) Also don't expect the leagues brillant scheduling or officiating to get any better either..

I dont know how accurate either of these sites are but NHLnumbers says the wings have around than 5m in cap space. http://nhlnumbers.com/overview.php?team=DET&season=0910

Uhhh i cant see filppula getting third line minutes another year.

Yes the wings are still an awesome team, the catch is, the chances of the wings having a 90% healthy lineup for more than 20 games is very low. Ok thats a little exaggeration, but the bottom line is dont expect to see everyone to play 82 games. Injuries too any one of those top 6 players screw up everything. The wings dont have the depth they had last year. And when i say depth i mean top 6 players, losing samulesson and hossa is a big blow, and it leaves who to fill in when someone from the top 6 gets hurt? helm and leino? Yes the wings are still the very best in the league, but when it comes to injury prone team rankings, the wings are right up there. This year injuries are going to effect the team ALOT more than injuries did last year.

If Z plays with datsyuk for atleast 80% of the year he'll be putting up atleast 85-90 points for sure. I also expect this to be filppulas real breakout year in terms of goal scoring. (24 goals, 40 assists) or some where around there is my guess. Franzen should have no problem hitting the 40 goal mark. And cleary will have a rebound season. Obviousley this is all depending on if the wings can stay healthy. I don't expect the wings to score less goals than they did last year, people are going to pick up the slack of hossa no doubt, but i think the wings are going to be a two line team again. (Z,Datsyuk,Mule,Filppula,Cleary,Hudler,) ...Again as long as the wings don't get hit with the injury bug again they will probably still be one of the favorites to win the cup.

They don't need to add a superstar scoring winger, or any type of center. The only things the wings need is a right hand shooter who can play the PP, and a grit type player.

This would annoy me as a kings fan. I live in cali so i catch all the kings games, and this guy actualley has some decent offensive skills.

That sucks if you think i was being serious. Anyways, did anyone else laugh at bettman being boed by montreal fans?

What the f*** i just wasted 3 hours of my life listening to dumbass pierre mcguire. This extra second rounder better be a MVP player or the red wings and the management will not have my support till they win the cup again.

I remember we were at game 4 in anahiem after samulesson scored that goal he pointed right at me in the stands. Dude has an awesome shot, but his overall game just doesnt fit into the red wing system.

Hes the only player in the league that you can say is the best at what he does with no argument from anyone. Ive always noticed this... and I think that alone says enough about lids

Would be interesting if caps and wings could meet up in SC final. Would like to see what OV could do with zetterberg constantly right behind him, and the best defensmen in the world constantly in front of him. Actually i better be careful what i wish for.

Beat me too it, ovechkin and malkin both play the full 2 minutes on every power play, and also D0 not kill penaltys at all. All stats aside though i still think ovechkin as a slight edge over datsyuk offensively. Maybe its the s***ty eastern conferfence defense or maybe not, but ovechkin has that offensive spark that datsyuk, nor any other player has.

I remember babcock saying to an interviewer one day that its not really about 3 man lines, more about 2 man combinations. Heres my view.... Z and mule are combination 1. And Hossa and filppula are combination 2. Datsyuk, bar none the most complete player in the league rotates in where ever needed depending on line match-ups/injuries. (That said im taking nothing away from Z or Hossas two way game.) Back to my point...In my opinion filppula is just as vital to hossa as hossa is to filppula. Filppula is a natural pass first guy, and a great passer, hossa is a natural shoot first guy, and probably the best goal scorer on the team. If hossa does Re-sign, you need to have these 2 guys together at all times during the year. I can't see filppula being traded in order to keep hossa. Its just not going to happen.

I know alot of you don't care about opposing teams but i thought it was interesting the way queneville coached his team and how lucky the wings are to have a coach like babcock. Anyways whats with all the blackhawks star players getting such s***ty ice time? If you look at all the other teams detroit had difficulty with anahiem and penguins, their star players were getting maximum ice time. Anyone else think quenneville absoultely killed his teams chances at beating the wings? 1 Dave Bolland 18:43 2 Dustin Byfuglien 17: 10 3 Sammy Pahlsson 16:38 4 Patrick Kane 16:35 5 Patrick Sharp 16:16 6 Kris Versteeg 16:13 7 Jonathan Toews 16:13 8 Martin Havlat 15:34 9 Andrew Ladd 12:54

Ovechkin,Datsyuk,Kovalev Kovalchuck,Malkin, Semin Frolov,Federov,Afinogenov Extras: Kozlov/Samsonov.....??? Pretty damn amazing... I would expect them to challenge sweds/ canada if not win the olympics next year.

I feel disappointed as a fan this year, i started losing interest after game 3 in chicago. So disgusting to watch some of these games not only this series but round 2, and WC. Its not really an angry feeling its more like an annoying feeling. I honestly feel that the leauge and the rest of the hockey world wanted no part in the wings winning the cup again..

No suprise, after game 3, it was easy to see how the refs were going to call the series. Im not pissed, not angry but i lost a whole lot of interest in watching playoff hockey this year.

Odd little comment there, but to add to that, heatley's also about 10 years older than filppula also heatley's from canada and filppula is from finland. Didnt know one's favorite players must all be alike.

Heatley is my second fav player only to filppula. I always thought it was weird because heately's 15 and Val's 51. I would love to see them both on the same line, but wings could never sign heatley. I can see him going to the oilers, or like someone else said maybe the ducks. I'd like to see him end up in L.A though.

Anyone else really annoyed when Pierre McGuire adds a "Y" to just about every players name? "Matty Cook" "Danny Cleary" "Billy Guerin"

Theres actualley 2 pics of wings celebrations on NHL.com right now. Looks like NHL writers might be reading this site.... I wanted to make this my backround but rafalski kinda screws it up

Per front page NHL.COM Jordan Staal gets text advice from brother Eric

Anyone have a feed to the cbc pre-game show? Versus is to poor to do one of those.

I remember watching this last year, i thought i was the only one who noticed how close he was standing to that dude, i dont remember the long stick comment but thats ******* funny