Yellowknife Redwing

If Russia wins, at least Morrow and Richards aren't going to make it easy for Ovechkin.

Not sure if this will work in the US and abroad, but for Canadians: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/hockey/results-a...0404/index.html Skip to 21:12:12 Nasty elbow by OKT. Lots of blood doesn't help how it looks either.

...or Bykov Of Gustavsson, Bykov and Babcock, I'd be inclined to be the least critical of Babcock.

The officiating in that game was absurd. As if Russia needed any help to beat Latvia, they got 3 completely bogus powerplays and Kovalchuk was able to maul guys to the ice with the free hand at will. Add a couple missed high sticking calls, blatant uncalled trips and a clear boarding by Skrastins and I'd say the refs botched this one pretty good. On another note: does anybody know why Bykov isn't using Ovechkin, Datsyuk, Semin, Malkin or Kovalchuk on the powerplay? I understand him wanting to use a group with some chemistry, but their powerplay was like 1 for 8 wasn't it? I'm hoping for Canada's sake that foolish pride is causing Bykov to try to prove a point about the KHL by giving Morozov, Radulov, etc all the prime minutes. In a tourney format where goal differential matters I just can't fathom the reason to have all that firepower on the bench.

NBC is just as embarrassing when broadcasting NHL hockey, so I don't see why anything would change. Emerick may have an encyclopedic knowledge of hockey and have a bunch of silly catch phrases etc, but the level to which they dumb down the game is absolutely unbearable. You can't watch the "NHL on NBC Game of the Week" without having them explain the most fundamental of concepts repeatedly - and they do it EVERY WEEK. Whether accounting for casual fans or not, they should not be explaining the basic rules of the game with every broadcast. This is the only sport where you ever hear nationally syndicated broadcasters pander to the casual audience as if they were retarded. The example I always use is NBC's coverage of Football. NBC's coverage of the NFL is absolutely pristine. Their PxP guys call the action on the field as it pertains to the game situation without dumbing it down and their color men provide in-depth and accurate analysis. Could you imagine Doc and Pierre calling a football game? Doc: Annnnnnd the Raiders come just shy of getting a 1st down so now they'll have to punt the ball away to the Chargers. Pierre: The reason they have to do that is because they're down to their last possession, which means that if they fail to gain a 1st down on this try, they will be giving up superior field position to the other team. The punt is a safe way to guarantee good defensive field position when the Chargers begin their offense! NBC doesn't treat NHL hockey like a real sport, they act like it's some cute spectacle that last 3 months of the year and has a neat trophy. Their Olympic coverage isn't going to be any different.

Another thought I had: What a difference it makes in this team with Kronwall and Franzen in the lineup. It is incredible how much space Kronwall creates with heady decisions and good outlet passes, and other teams just seem to fear Franzen when he's in the offensive zone. Franzen backs off D almost as effectively as Datsyuk. He is quite a presence.

Datsyuk looks like the best player in the league tonight, what a stunning display of skill in all areas of the rink. Everyone on the team looks awesome except Ericsson who has made a couple really noticable gaffes (the giveaway at the line that almost sent the Sens on a SH 2-on-1 and the blatant hooking call). Overall, this is looking like one of the better games that the Wings have put together after 40 mins. I'll wait with bated breath to see if they can carry a 2 goal lead in yet another game where they've clearly been the best team. We're in crunch time against an opponent that doesn't care half as much about these points as we do. It's about time this team started playing like a championship team. Great stuff so far.

Don't worry fellas, the only Red Wing that will be playing against Canada in the gold medal game is Datsyuk

Good call >_< It's not like me to forget ole' Danny boy either Make that bottom 6 Cleary/Helm/Eaves Draper/Miller/Maltby You get the idea though, it was the top 6 I had in mind

If we're sending Filppula to Florida, I would love to see him go with a minor salary dump (Lebda, Meech, something in this neighbourhood) for David Booth. Booth is 25 years old, scored 31 goals last year, has a laser of a wrist shot, is locked into his contract for a few years and is Detroit born. He's an ideal fit for both the area and the situation that the Wings are in with needing a pure goal scorer. Franzen/Dats/Homer Booth/Z/Bert Draper/Helm/Eaves Malts/Miller/whoever looks pretty good to me

Great tilt by Ericsson, but it cost us a great scoring opportunity with Dats and Mule closing in on the net >_< Oh well, I'll take it.

That's it, I'm officially sick of Ericsson. He needs more than one game watching from the pressbox obviously. That goal is absolutely unacceptable from the other team's 4th line at that point in the game. Jesus Christ that's enfuriating. They got absolutely dominated for that entire period and that's how we close it out. They need to re-insert Janik into the lineup.

Chris Osgood is a better goalie than Turco and Howard is currently playing head over heels better than both. This speculation makes zero sense to me.

I have absolutely no idea why Babcock stopped using Bertuzzi in the shootout. Next to Pav, he's the only player on our roster that looks consistently dangerous and regularly changes things up to keep the goalie guessing. Bertuzzi has also looked excellent on clean cut breakaways this season. Williams snuck a nice move in tonight, but Hank has just been a disaster for most of the season. If it were up to me our shootout lineup would be Bertuzzi, Datsyuk, Franzen (in that order) for right now.

- He fired Carbonneau at a strange point in the season only to take over as bench boss and produce identical results - He's consistently done almost nothing at the trade deadline - He lost Mark Streit to free agency despite having an unbelievable top pairing in Markov/Streit - He has a log jam in goal and has done nothing about it even though Halak has clearly defined himself as the no. 1 goaltender and Price would garner exceptional trade value (or vice-versa, if you like) - He took on Scott Gomez's $7.37M cap hit and lost Alex Kovalev to an inter-divisional rival for a $5M hit even though Kovalev was a fan favorite in Montreal and wanted to finish his career there. While acquiring Gomez, he traded Christopher Higgins - a very consistent 20 goal scorer for the previous 5 seasons running. - He threw money at a pile of undersized forwards - He still doesn't have Plekanec, his best player and pending free agent, under contract talks - What good moves has he made during his tenure other than signing Mike Cammalleri?

"Jeez, we're playing terrible. Oh well, still 70 games til the playoffs" "Wow, we're doing horrible. No big deal, still 58 games til the playoffs" "Look at all these injuries! This is ridiculous. It's fine, still 40 games til the playoffs" "Wow, just blew another 3 goal lead in yet another 4 point game. Good thing there's still 24 games til the playoffs!"

Abdelkader is a top-6 center and point producer at the AHL level and his role is completely opposite when he's with the big club, which is probably why he plays with a lot more swagger in the minors. Looks good though.

We're gonna get mur-diddly-urdered

I suspect that this trade is going to be one of those trades that we regret in a couple years, but it make sense given the current circumstances. I would not be surprised to see Leino double his current production this year within the next month.

Here's a propsal just for fun: Under the assumption that we can get Kovalchuk to agree to a front-loaded 10 year deal that averages out the cap hit to 8 million per year: To Det: Ilya Kovalchuk $6.4M Cap Hit To Atl: Johan Franzen $3.955M Cap Hit Daniel Cleary $2.8M Cap Hit Ville Leino $0.8M Cap Hit Brett Lebda $0.65M Cap Hit Detroit's roster would look like this under the cap this year: Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Kovalchuk-Filppula-Bertuzzi Draper-Helm-Eaves Miller-Abdelkader-May Lidstrom-Rafalski Kronwall-Stuart Ericsson-Meech Osgood Howard and the salary breakdown would look like this PLAYER CAP HIT F Pavel Datsyuk $6,700,000 F Ilya Kovalchuk $6,389,300 F Henrik Zetterberg $6,083,333 F Valtteri Filppula $3,000,000 F Tomas Holmstrom $2,250,000 F Kris Draper $1,583,333 F Todd Bertuzzi $1,500,000 F Justin Abdelkader $850,000 F Darren Helm $599,444 F Drew Miller $525,000 F Brad May $500,000 F Patrick Eaves $500,000 D Nicklas Lidstrom $7,450,000 D Brian Rafalski $6,000,000 D Brad Stuart $3,750,000 D Niklas Kronwall $3,000,000 D Jonathan Ericsson $900,000 D Derek Meech $483,333 G Chris Osgood $1,416,666 G Jimmy Howard $716,666 — — ROSTER SIZE 20 SALARY CAP $56,800,000 TEAM CAP NUMBER $54,197,075 CAP SPACE $2,602,925 Assuming that Lidstrom is going to take a significant pay cut next season (we'll use 5 as a base figure), this leave approximately 5 million in cap space (2.45 from Lids, 2.6 from remaining cap) to accommodate for Kovalchuk's increased cap hit (~6.4 up to 8.0), plus any raises with a bit of flexibility regarding our 4th line situation. There is absolutely no way that Atlanta gets a better offer than this because they gain two excellent top 6 forwards, a project forward and 3rd pairing D-man with tons of NHL experience and a cheap price tag. Franzen alone would be enough to make Waddell sit up and pay attention I would think. Detroit wins because they solidify their top 6 as probably the best in the league in gaining one of the game's elite goal scorers and have an exceptional 3rd line to boot. Before you flame me, remember 2 things: This is for fun AND is under the assumption that Kovalchuk will sign the afformentioned deal. Thoughts?

I don't know why everyone is so upset. The Wings played pretty well tonight and were the victim of a couple bad bounces and a hot goalie. Replay this game 10 times and the Wings probably win it 8 times playing exactly the way they did tonight. Kudos to Hiller for a great game, but there is no reason to curse the team. It was a solid effort that came up short. It happens.

Williams, Lebda, Leino and May. We have enough reliable players to fill the roster out after they're gone and that will give us some flexibility under the cap in order to add another D or F should we deem it necessary. All of the above players are interchangeable pieces and do not fill any vital role on the team.

I like how Dats went right back to the same move and made it work for him. Wings definitely deserve a better fate in this one and here's hoping they can pull it together quickly in the 3rd. I'd love to even get a point out of this one.

I just realized that the Wings always play against the Ducks the way San Jose always plays against us.

Chalk up yet another missed opportunity to put some separation on 8th