Cern

Also, comparing a team to Bud Light Lime has to be one of the most devestating insults ever conceived.

Because it isn't. When the crowd starting chanting songs beyond the faceoff during the SCF I was blown away. I've never to my recollection encountered anything like that in a hockey game before, and it was done without being provoked by a major hit or a fight. In any case it boggles my mind that someone can argue that the ultimate goal of hockey isn't winning games or scoring goals. Until they start awarding points for fights, it never, ever will be the ultimate goal of hockey, period. If you have a problem with that it should be the guys who write up the rulebook you should be complaining to.

Dohohohoho

Soccer is growing immensely in popularity in Vancouver, particularly now that the Whitecaps are slated to enter MLS. Moving their home pitch to BC Place is going to contribute to that further, I think.

This. Places like Vancouver and TO are incredibly diverse, meaning that huge chunks of the population haven't ever grown up with hockey. Calgary's a lot more heterogeneous, which probably factors a lot into why it's one of the leaders in hockey followings. Could be a financial thing too. Soccer's so popular because you can pretty much drop a ball onto any patch of dirt and play. Hockey requires a pretty considerable monetary commitment, which I would think makes it a lot more difficult to get involved and develop and interest in the game.

I'm more concerned with the sheer number of rookies on the roster for next season than Williams. Howard in particular, having him play 30+ games when his previous NHL experiments have been complete disasters makes me really nervous.

Well, I'm trying to get into law school. I try to pretend posting on here is giving me some kind of impromptu practice

To be fair, a single game determined the difference between 'did work' and 'didn't work' last year. f***, the year before that it DID work - though certainly gritty I wouldn't say Dallas Drake was an enforcer by any stretch of the imagination, nor was a completely-ineffectual McCarty. Furthermore, to simply dump the enforcer excuse as an explanation for why the Wings weren't quite able to close out that last series I feel is simply too shallow to serve as a satisfying point of improvement in and of itself. Not that I'm happy about Williams being on the roster in the slightest, but everyone here talks about the lack of an enforcer last season as though we were chilling out with the Coyotes in the conference basement because of it. The last two playoff runs have been objective proof that the Wings can be immensely sucessful without the cast of Slapshot on the fourth line, no amount of bickering is going to be able to circumvent that fact. It's just yet another case of Wings fans having been spoiled with success.

ah hahahahaha. I do agree with you about the let-Williams-earn-his-spot thing, but your xenophobia is becoming casual to the point of laziness now.

For the right price, bring him on in!

I'd be really happy with Prospal and Grier. No to Bertuzzi, never liked him, he's more injury-prone than it's worth, and it didn't work the first time he played for us.

Wut? I got shivers down my spine this year's finals when Detroit's home crowd were chanting songs at the tail end of games. Should we seriously be dropping ourselves to Nashville's level and imply that it's impossible for us to get pumped unless someone's getting slammed into the boards? This team was the most offensively-charged squad in the league, it's only stopped becoming 'good hockey' if you've become more of an MMA fan than a hockey fan. Speaking of the singing, though, that's one of the things I wish other sports carried over from soccer. It would be ******* unreal if hockey fans made a regular tradition of chanting team songs (and songs specifically reworded against rival teams ). Arena atmosphere would be insane.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF, NO TO EITHER

Holland has already said that he was going to wait several weeks before making a move on a free agent anyway, how can Hudler handcuff him when he was already on record saying he was going to wait? It's not like he cockblocked the Wings from acquiring some big-name first-line guy, we're looking for fourth-liners in what has ultimately been a surprisingly slow free agency offseason. In any case it's moot since, again, there was no way Hudler was going to stay on the team with any kind of a fair salary with our cap as tight as it is in the first place, especially when we're looking for a free agent on top of that. Arbitration wasn't going to change that, and I see no reason why anyone should have believed that it would. Were you expecting arbitration to result in a 1mil contract or something? Hudler did it to guarantee that when he returns he, if nothing else, has first crack at the team he wants to play for with a contract already settled out, meaning a s***load less legal hassle for when he returns. It's living proof in and of itself that in the long run he's committed to the Wings - signing with Dynamo is little more than a way for him to remain productive once arbitration finalized the already-evident truth that he isn't going to fit for the time being. All the better for him that there happens to be a decent amount of money attached to those two years - you're a liar if say you wouldn't accept that kind of money knowing you'd want to come back after those two years are up. It's all well and good pointing fingers and screaming sell-out when you're not the guy in the hotseat. Frankly all I've heard from these let-Hudler-rot argumentalists is emotional conjecture that dosen't look beyond next season. There's nothing out there proving that Huds won't improve in the KHL and there's certainly nothing out there proving that he wants to stay there long-term (indeed, the OBJECTIVE FACT that he only signed on for two seasons is direct evidence to the contrary). You might as well argue that Ray Emery wanted to stay in the KHL for the rest of his career based on the sheer fact that he happened to play there for one season - there's no substance behind it whatsoever. I also don't see any reason to believe why there's no chance the Wings would take him in two years - after all, here we are looking set to bring back Jason Williams of all people, and Hudler is clearly an upgrade from him. Indeed, *if* he improves game while in Russia - something nobody has any weight whatsoever in arguing he definately will not - having that pre-arranged contract could turn out to be a bargain in the long term. I appreciate that a lot can change within the Wings roster in two seasons and that ultimately his reacquisition may turn out to be unnecessary, but you're chasing shadows arguing that Hudler is doing this for the money. Everything about the situation points to him ultimately wanting to return to the NHL, and as a Wing.

He's s*** at arguing his 'points' Christ, it's like I'm talking to children.

Great use of evidence there! Seriously, you couldn't convince me that hockey pucks are coloured black if you dangled one in front of my face.

That makes no sense. If he wasn't interested in being a Wing he wouldn't have bothered with arbitration to begin with. He woudln't even need to have bothered with the KHL, there are plenty of bottom-feeding NHL teams with tons of cap room to burn that would make a payday far less complicated than this. Consider the facts: -There's no cap room whatsoever to fit Hudler in at a fair salary this offseason. The fact that Hudler is no longer a Wing shouldn't be a surprise to anyone after the Wings' deep cup run, arbitration be damned. Hudler isn't stupid, if someone like me was aware he was going to be one of the odd men out this offseason I'd imagine he did too. -Barring some astronomical drop in the cap, in two years we're more than likely going to have considerably more wiggle room. Guys like Draper, Maltby, and Holmstrom will probably be gone, while Lidstrom will likely take on a new reduced contract -Hudler made the choice to go to arbitration, which for reasons already explained would make no sense whatsoever if he had no interest in being a Wing. -Hudler took a two-year contract. He's a young player who could make a decent impact in the KHL, if he wanted to stay there he would have taken a longer term. Not only that, two years is a perfect length to be off the Wings' payroll since the deductions mentioned in the above point will have kicked in by that point. You people desperately wring your hands and whine and cry about how Huds 'betrayed' you because the mere sight of the letters 'KHL' sends you into an auto-hissy fit when looking at the scenario with even a shred of logic it's evident that in the LONG TERM this is the best scenario for both parties. The Wings get a bit extra breathing room until they can get some decent cap room freed up, and Hudler can keep himself from getting rusty without being forced to take some long-term contract for another NHL team - with an essentially pre-drafted contract waiting for him in two years for the team he's repeatedly stated is the only one he wants to play for in this league (and could potentially end up being a great bargain should Hudler build up his skills in Russia). Both sides ultimately benefit, irregardless of how much you want to stamp your feet about it. Come on, think a little.

You make the flawed assumption that the only thing hockey players care about is money. If that was true, it would be the KHL that's the premier hockey league, not the NHL

Ugh, at least make an attempt at Prospal, please. He'd be better than Jason freaking Williams and with the Bolts paying off his old contract we could probably get away with offering a reduced price.

Accepting phone calls essentially means his rights aren't retained by the Wings through arbitration, which greatly diminishes the chances of him playing for the team he wants in the future. To say nothing for if all his offers are for longer terms than what he's signed for in the KHL. Why would he want to stew in Atlanta or someplace like that for five-six years when he has the opportunity to return to the Wings in less than half that time with the salary paperwork essentially already done? If he was only concerned about money he'd have done the easy thing and accept the outside offers, he dosen't need to go all the way to Russia to pick up an expensive contract. I can't speak for Hudler, but being in the best position to eventually resign with the wings might very well be worth the hassle to him. I'm also not terribly convinced that Hudler simply dropped this out of nowhere. For all the boasting made about the 'Red Wing discount' players are willing to take, it was clearly evident that a fair payment for Hudler would not fit in our cap situation, especially when we're looking for a free agent on top of that. Taking the negotiations to arbitration only further emphasized this, unless you were seriously expecting the settlement to be a ridiculous underpayment. It should have been rather clear that Huds was going to cost too much for us this season. You might as well have been shocked that Hossa didn't resign.

You're right, my mistake. I was implying you'd be able to interpret my statements with a shred of common sense in mind, but apparently that was too much to ask.

So what's he supposed to do if all he gets are long-term deals from other teams? He's already been on the record saying Detroit is the only team he wants to play for in the NHL, so if he does say 'no thanks' to other offers is he just supposed to sit on his hands? Again, if Hudler was really so hellbent on getting into the KHL why bother with arbitration in the first place? Moreover, why would he only go for two years if he has no interest in returning? He's a young player who could probably do really well in the KHL, there's hardly that much of a risk in locking him up long-term in Russia and he'd be financially set for life. It just dosen't add up that Hudler is interested exclusively in a paycheck, if anything the fact he went to arbitration just so teams don't make offers (that would likely be far larger than what the Wings have offered) is evidence of that. Going through all this just for the payday seems awfully contrived - if he was really only concerned about money why not just play for a crappy NHL team with a bunch of cap room? You people are really too twitchy, you see the letters KHL and you spontaneously throw a book-burning hissy fit at anything that happens to be associated with it irregardless of context. Hudler recognizes that as an RFA he's going to have to be one of the odd men out this offseason and he's giving himself the best chance not only to make his departure from the Wings as brief as possible but to make sure that when he does come back there's a pre-negotiated salary already set up for him on the team he's already made abundantly clear he wants to play for.

God, if I hear that ******* 'islanders-oilers' comparison being made to the wings-penguins one more time I'm going to punch someone in the face. Noone specific, just someone.

Crosby did jack s*** all finals, the 'emotion' was pure bulls***

Ah, the slippery slope argument, another classic. LET'S SNEAK NUCLEAR BOMBS INTO THE OPPONENTS LOCKER ROOMS TOO, THAT SOUNDS TOTALLY RATIONAL AND NOT RIDICULOUSLY OUT OF PROPORTION TO THE RULES OF THE GAME. Seriously, stop trying to be a smart-alecky dick and get real. Style of play and blatantly breaking the rules of the game aren't like things, if you didn't have the rationality of a 12-year-old you'd understand that. It's a completely moot point anyway given that "Attempting to injur another teams' star players" is the sort of broad-street-bully approach YOU essentially are pushing for.