Yellowknife Redwing

Who are we kidding here? Osgood's numbers were in the toilet until the last 3 games and Babcock kept playing him and I don't see Chicago's situation being any different. When Huet is playing with confidence he can be a difference maker. He's definitely not worth his salary, but he's not a bad goalie. The very notion of a Wings fan thinking that Chicago will struggle to challenge for the Central crown (nevermind the fact that they're contenders for division, conference, president's and Stanley cup) is a laughable fallacy. Chicago is playing through a rough patch of goaltending as we were, plus Toews is out with an injury and they've yet to add Hossa to their lineup which could see them rocket to first place within a matter of weeks. When Chicago finds their stride they will be putting 50 pucks on net per game from the likes of Toews, Kane, Sharp and Hossa so chances are their goaltending will need to be marginal at best for them to win 70% of their games. The last couple months of the regular season are going to see some furious hockey from the central division in its entirety.

I hate to say it, but I think those numbers are slightly indicative of the fact that Kopecky's been snake bit of late. I watched him play last night in the Hawks' loss and he had a couple decent scoring chances including a Hossa-like wrist shot and he looked excellent in front of the net. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be rid of the guy, but he had flashes of brilliance in a Wings uniform and definitely has the potential to develop into a 20 goal scorer. Once in a while, the guy has hands:

I also noticed several biased comments from Weekes while he was doing CBC commentary. Oh well, they can't all love you and I'm certainly not losing any sleep over it.

A sorely overlooked point is that Janik stepped in to replace Ericsson/Rafalski and didn't make a single mistake all night, he was rock solid. I think he's earned another look at very least.

Best game of the year just in time for the game where we'll need to be at our best. Oz was great, PK was solid, everyone did their part. Janik played extraordinarily well IMO, he was one of our best d-men.

I'll be at this one tonight. You can hate me for going if you want, but I've never been to a Flames game where they lost; a perfect 13-0. Here's hoping it stops here. Wings 4 - Bert x2, Rafalski, Cleary gets his 100th career goal Flames 3

Just wanted to emphasize the fact that Filppulla was our best offensive contributor tonight, despite being limited to a single assist. He had 4 absolutely gorgeous tape-to-tape passes that resulted in golden scoring opportunities. Great to see ZDH have a strong game and I think Jimmy has earned the right to start in both Edmonton and Calgary (I'll be at the game!)

For those of you that enjoyed the article, pick up Jimmy D's book "The Road to Hockeytown". It's a great read.

Based on that gallery, Jimmy Howard, Cam Ward and Mike Smith are my favorites

I would gladly trade Meech for Brunnstrom. We've got Lebda, hopefully Lilja soon, Kindl if need be, and Delmore has considerable NHL experience and would very easily fill the forward/defenseman spot that Meech occupies. I just don't think the Stars would part with their prized FA acquisition. There is something that rings quite nicely about Brunnstrom/Filpulla/Leino though.

I think the Patrik Stefan trail of tears is my favorite, lol

I can't tell if you're being serious or not, but if you are, wow. I don't think it could be any clearer that "his" Twitter is a parody.

It's a combination of ingredients, but the 3 main concerns in my mind are a) Goaltending - the first 2 goals against are just good old ugly hockey goals; can't really fault Howard for the crease crashers. The 2 goals in 13 seconds lost the game for Detroit. The first goal is forgivable, every goalie gives up a bad one now and again, but the second goal is a stop that absolutely MUST be made. Yes, there was a defensive lapse that caused the break, but the actual shot taken eliminates the context from the picture. It's an easy save and Howard has to have it. The fifth goal is just a beautiful deflection and can't be helped. b) Special teams - 2/5 on the PK loses the game every time. The Wings are too scrambly, aren't boxing out well, and the defencemen aren't taking the body enough below the goal line and at the half wall. Break-in and setup looks tremendous on the powerplay, now they just need to start putting the puck on net. The mentality of cycling until the big boomer from the point comes up is poisoning the Wings right now. Zetterberg especially needs to start putting low, hard wrist shots on goal when he spins out from the half wall. There is far too much cuteness going on right now and the team really needs to get back to Babcock's Basicsâ„¢ - SHOOT THE PUCK! c) Complacency with the lead - this is kind of an extension of point b but I think it bears repeating. This was a huge issue last year for all the same reasons. Once the Wings establish a 2 goal lead they try to go Globetrotters and very rarely put the hammer down and just decimate the other team. They need to start shooting the puck and looking for ugly goals to pad the lead until the game is out of reach. I can hardly think of any instances where the most talent-laden, offensively brilliant team in the league won by 4 or more goals last year. Something needs to be done to change the tic-tac-toe thought process that consumes the top lines when they have a lead. As far as I'm concerned, the mercy rule should only go into effect when you achieve double digits in the goal column. Pretty goals may work against pretty teams like San Jose, but you're going to need a lot of ugly ones to beat teams like St. Louis, Nashville, Calgary, etc. Bertuzzi, Cleary and Leino have been the most impressive Wings by far because of their willingness to mix it up in the corners, fight for pucks and just jam the puck on net and hope for a rebound.

That's exactly what I was going to say. They could run a simulation with a 2-man line of Crosby and Malkin with an open net and the Penguins would still win the cup in NHL 10.

It's reasons like this that I think Dan Cleary should be given some serious consideration for being the next captain. I'm sure Hank will make an excellent captain in the mould of Lidstrom, but there's just something about Cleary's fiery attitude and passion that makes me absolutely love the guy.

Good riddance. He's been a promising prospect for quite some time now, but he is one of many in the Red Wings' system and will be forgotten as fast as you can say Igor Grigorenko. If he isn't willing to put forth the effort to get an opportunity to play for the best hockey team on the planet then he wasn't DRW material to begin with. This attitude, coupled with a very poor showing at camp almost ensures that this will be his last opportunity unless something drastic changes.

Shame. Good goalie, better person.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/08/27/senate-harper.html Pretty incredible how far he's come in his life considering his roots

They're always available at NHL.com on the main page tabs

5 Darren Helm breaks the all-time record for playoff goals without ever having scored a regular season goal (5) with his OT winner in game 5 against the Hawks EDIT: seemed like fun, felt like chiming in

Insert Leino into the 3rd line, scratch Chelios and put Kindl into Cheli's spot for the 6-7 mins a night that he plays to see if he can instill some trust in the coach. What's that you say, you're worried about a rookie defenseman in the playoffs? Really, how much worse could Kindl f*** up than Chelios already has. Aside from 2 drawn penalties the other night, Cheli has committed an error (giveaways, taking penalties, out of position, incapable of skating with the other team's forwards) almost every time he's been on the ice.

Nobody. We should have won that game and I'm perfectly fine with the way the Wings played.

I'm confused. We're talking about Phil Poola here, right?

That's the most *****, cop-out, bulls*** I've ever heard. What a disgrace to Red Wings fans.