Datsyerberger

Solid kill.

Bit of a soft call, but I've seen worse, so eh, whatever. Kill it off, Wings.

Previous posts aside (pointing out other changes since then), correlation does not imply causation. Cum hoc fallacy and all that.

This has been something that's way overdue. "Oh, but it'll be hard for fans to get right!" And we don't have plenty of names in the US of other European or all sorts of odd ancestry that's interesting to pronounce/read? People seem to get over them just fine... hell, here's some names from perfectly American sports figures: Roethlisberger (Rofflesburger? Roachesburner? What?) Ayanbadejo Aromashodu Rzepczynski Really, you can find tons of examples of names like this, from American born individuals, all in American pro sports. We don't make a habit of butchering the spelling of their names just because we can't pronounce it the way it's written. Frankly, I think we can live with a few Fyodorovs and Kovalyovs.

Good acquisition down the stretch, questionable playoff acquisition (for the price). Questionable playoff performance ability for a 1st + extra. Glad Kenny didn't trade good assets for his contract just to add to our strongest position.

How many games until he gets injured for the rest of the season?

The poor bastard in question was Biron. Emery is insane. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xqUbxr1Fbg He fights Peters after Biron and has this bats*** insane Joker grin the whole time.

Do not want. I actually like Smith, but he hasn't been the same after his concussion.

Well, now that we're to the All-Star break, what's the verdict on Salei from LGW? Quick numbers: 0g 7a 7p +3 70 hits (2nd on Wings defense) 72 blocks (3rd on Wings defense) 13 takeways (3rd on Wings defense) 23 giveaways (4th [highest] on Wings defense) 36 PIM (2nd [highest] on Wings defense) 5th in TOI/G for Wings defensemen 4th in PKTOI/G for Wings defensemen Salary: $750k (1.1m cap hit; hit $350k bonuses) Personally, I think we're getting what we pay for with the guy: A gritty, experienced, reasonably responsible bottom pairing d-man who can eat a fair chunk of minutes and play well on the PK. His defense isn't lights out, but it's solid enough. His offense isn't much, but I can't say I was expecting much other than about the pace he's on right now. And his PIM totals are actually lower than I expected.

As someone who grew up watching the Bolts as much as the Wings, gotta say I love 'em. Things I like: --No more than 2 colors. I'm sure the temptation was there to shove some silver or black in as trim, but it really doesn't need it. A good design doesn't need to be overdone. --Simple logo. Again, could easily be overdone. And yea, the lightning bolt can be compared to a number of things. But then again, there are only so many ways to draw the typical picture lightning bolt. --Shoulder patch. It's ******* awesome, and more powerful as a patch than it would be as the central logo. --Wordless primary logo. --The shade of blue. Damn, that's a great shade of blue. --Similar style to the Red Wings trim. Nothing wrong with using a good design; I'd rather them do that then come up with some weird looking post-lockout crap. --No black! (would be fine with a black 3rd) --Lack of silly trim and piping Things I don't like: --No lightning bolt on the pants; that was always a cool thing about the Lightning unis --No victory stripes on the underarms. Another cool thing the Bolts jersey had going for it (Fortunately, I think the above 2 could be added to the new designs without damaging them) --Size of the primary logo. I feel it's a little too large. I don't care for the "Tampa Bay" on the secondary, but feel the size of the logo is better. --Two main logos. If the logo is good enough (which I think it is), there should only need to be one. Preferably the wordless one. --Color blind people criticizing (perceived) color similarities. Notes: --The TB blue and TML blue are substantially different. --Other than using blue and white, the jerseys are substantially different from the TML jersey (much more similar to Wings) --Only so many ways you can draw a simple graphic lightning bolt. Yea, it's gonna look like gatorade, Flash, etc. Gee, because they're supposed to look like lightning too. --Really reminds me of the old Nordiques jersey. And that's not a bad thing.

Next summer.

I'm hoping he's found enough balance between edge and injury in his present playstyle. At his present age, he probably doesn't want to get as trashed as he was the last couple years with his previous more rambunctious playstyle.

Why replace him with Weber? Have Weber teach him to use that slapper of his more often and have 2 guys dropping 100+ mph bombs from the point.

Yep... gusts of wind.

Quite enough to push the vote if most of the fan voting was done early.

The selection was pushed by fan voting, and Sharp had a really strong first half the game. Mostly just people voting too early. Also, Lids + Weber pairing needs to happen somehow.

Or Weber. He was pretty close in the All Stars comp. I think 104.8 or so?

Yea. If he wants to stay around as a cheap backup next year I'm all for it, but if he feels he's got it left in the tank to still be a full time bottom pair D next year I'd like to see him find a job somewhere. Fingers crossed, the Wings have enough success this year to help his chances.

The only one that really surprises me is that Lidstrom didn't win smartest player. He's a top 5 d-man all time, his most talked about asset in relevance to his awesomeness is his hockey smarts/anticipation, and yet he doesn't take that category? Either he was overlooked since he's in his career's twilight or that says a lot about Crosby. This needs its own thread so this one doesn't get swamped by a single topic discussion debate argument pointless squabble.

Is it just me or is this like watching a shootout with 5 skaters on the ice per team?

Saw this on HF, nearly wet myself laughing (and apparently, so did the crowd)

What I'm wondering... he goes and moves his hand at his crotch when his voice really breaks on play (and it's very obvious the entire call his voice is shot). Knowing that his voice is trashed and breaking... did he intentionally pull a Michael Jackson, or was that entirely coincidental?

Says it's not even close.

Another assist for the little hobgoblin today. It's nice to see he's re-adapted to NHL ice.

I don't really give a crap whether we have an enforcer or not so long as we win the cup. Teams have won with and they've won without, including the Wings. As for entertainment value, given how ridiculously staged most of the fights between the 'real' enforcers are these days, I'm pretty ambivalent there, too. It's like WWE on ice. Now, if you want to give me a scrappy guy that chips in other ways (like Prust), then sure, if it's for a reasonable price. But I don't want to see the team break the bank either in salary or assets for one, either. It's all situational. There are people on the roster now that are as physical and fight as much as Drake (in his last year, I mean, not prime Drake). As for D-Mac.. well, he was at the twilight of his career, and that included his enforcing ability. I'd make a bigger argument for Downey, except that he didn't play during the playoffs at all, and we have players now who can bring what Drake/D-Mac did. On the matter of Downey again... honestly, he brought more as a good teammate and an exuberant lockerroom presence (from what I've heard of his good attitude) than he did as an enforcer (let's be honest, Downey was never a great fighter). I'm glad to have him with the org on the farm with his attitude and work ethic.