xtrememachine1

True. Our grit played a factor in the win over the Avs and to some extent the Caps. However, it was our speed that beat the Flyers in 97. It was our speed that gave us our record breaking regular season in 96. It was our speed that led us to the 95 Finals. Our 08 and 09 teams were all speed and they nearly won back to back Cups. I'm a little hesitant to give up speed for size.

If we had a bunch of big guys, people would be complaining, saying that we're too slow. The Wings have a history of success with speedy teams, we should stick with it. As for our flaws, the defense looks weak. Holland is relying on the defense getting built up through prospects because good defenseman are hard to come by these days and the good ones are getting overpaid. Honestly though, our defense is irrelevant if neither Howard or Mrazek step it up. Everybody remembers how great Mrazek was at the end of last year, but before that he was really inconsistent, like he is now. Howard is looking like the next Jim Carey. Unfortunately, Howie's contract makes him untradable and Mrazek is too young to give up on, so we're pretty much stuck.

So after driving 4.5 hours to get to Detroit and see my Wings play, ironically enough, my hometown team, I get to see them play well for about 20 minutes before crapping the bed. Is there a reason we're paying Mike Green $6 mil to play on the second PP unit? Z looks a little slow out there. Neither goalie apparently wants to be the starter. Did Brad Richards forget how to pass softly? Its like he's trying to break his teammates sticks with his passing. Thank God Larkin made the team. However, problems with the Wings play aside, I had the most AMAZING night ever at the Joe! Anyone that was at the game last night, got to see a good portion of my family. First, the dance off between the brother and sister during the 2nd period were MY KIDS! And then second, the woman on the zamboni during the second intermission, the "First Lady of Hockeytown", was my wife, Maria. Thus, the reason why they played "Maria" from the West Side Story. 10 years ago we were at the Joe for the New Years Eve Wings game and I asked her to marry me. Both were kind of spur of the moment things that just sort of happened. My kids were randomly selected for the dance off and then whomever was supposed to go on the second zamboni with the guy dressed as Abe Lincoln didn't show, so my wife, who was already down there with the kids was like, "I'll do it!!" I was absolutely floored! We won 3 practice pucks, 4 gift cards for Massage Green Spa and a $25 merchandise gift certificate. Since we don't live in Detroit and don't have a Massage Green Spa near us, my wife was just going around Detroit last night and today just handing them out to people. lol She felt bad that I didn't get the ride on the zamboni (I totally didn't care, I loved seeing her out there, plus NOW she's a big Wings fan) and gave me the certificate, so I got a sweet Stadium Series Abdelkader t-shirt. So despite the unfortunate play of our guys, it was a pretty unforgettable night for our family.

I'll be there with the family. We drove 4.5 hours yesterday from Pittsburgh. It'll be just my second (and probably last game) at the Joe. My kids are beyond excited for the game. We got pics in front of the Joe yesterday. Here's hoping this is a blowout win for the Wings and not another "blow the lead, go to OT and lose" kind of game. My brother is a hardcore Pens fan and he doesn't think the Pens have chance tonight. So here's hoping he's right lol

So 10 years ago on New Years Eve, my girlfriend bought me tickets to go see the Wings at the Joe Louis Arena for the first time in my life (we live in Pittsburgh). Later that night, I asked her to marry me and we got engaged. So to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of our engagement, my now wife bought me tickets to see the Wings at the Joe again on New Years Eve this year and of course, ironically enough, they're playing the Pens. I feel like that was a sign I'm supposed to go. Anyways, we have two kids now and they're going with us and I've only been to Detroit once, so I was hoping you guys could help out. Obviously, we're doing Hockeytown Cafe. We'll probably check out the Spirit of Detroit statue too. What other fun things are their to do in downtown Detroit that would be kid appropriate? We're staying in a hotel that's 0.3 miles from the Joe. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Thanks Jimmy!

Its not a bad looking jersey. Its different, "modern" and a nice look for one game. The originals and the Winter Classic jerseys are still way better.

If we didn't lock him up, somebody out there would have paid more (probably around $4.5-5 mil) and we lose him. If we lose Abby, who creates havoc in front of the net? Who is a physical presence on our team? When D, Z and Kronner retire, who is looked to for veteran leadership? You may not agree with the length or the amount, but truth is we NEED him. When he got off to that fast start last month, he showed how much of a positive impact he can provide for our team. Because he's a physical player, I'm a little unsure about the 7 years, but considering all the good things he does for our team, $4.25 mil per year is a GOOD deal. You also have to take into account that $4.25 mil won't be the same 7 years from now. The cap will continue to rise and that hit won't be as impactful.

Isn't that kind of like saying, "If it wasn't for the fact that played better than the other team, we would have lost." lol I get what you're saying, if we played a better team tonight, we might not have had a favorable outcome. However, we played the Leafs and we did enough to win it. I won't be critical of the team until we start LOSING to teams like this one.

I still own this game. After playing NHL 95 to death, I got this one and it was the first game with an arena announcer and it scared the crap out of me. Decent game, but not as good as NHL 95 though. If I had a computer capable of running this I'd still be playing it.

For what he means and what he will mean in the future to this team, this is an excellent deal.

The Pens had high hopes for him when they acquired him in the Kunitz deal, but after several chances with the big club, he never really did anything. He's a pretty decent AHL player though (121 points in 178 games). He's a nice pick up for the Griffins. I wouldn't expect much from him on the Wings though as he's never done anything in the NHL (19 points in 143 games).

So you'd rather take a lesser player because one can play center and the other can't? Z, D, Sheahan, Helm, Glendenning, we're good on centers. EDIT: Maybe they'll get both. Then trade for Lecavalier and have the big three from TB's last Cup team. lol

Richards wasn't very good last year and he was on a great team. I'm not against signing him, but I'm interested in how much and how that cost would compare to Martin St Louis's price.

Great signing! The cap hit is about what I'd expect, not overpayment. Much needed right handed shooter for the PP. Ideally, I'd like to see them get another good d-man, but probably won't happen. Happy with this though.

Good trade for the Pens. Basically gave up nothing, Tor is eating part of the salary and Kessel will score a TON of goals with Crosby and/or Malkin. However, offense was never a problem. This team will still struggle in the postseason.

Honestly, I feel like this was done just so they had more cap room to sign guys like Nyquist, Pulkkinen and Jurco. I'm not saying that we won't sign any free agents, but the only way we get players these days are if they want to come here and play for less, nobody else wants them or via trade. The Wings don't overpay for free agents and that's what the start free agency period is all about.

I'm actually glad to hear (or read) that other people feel this way too. It was more exciting, the players were better, the teams were better. Its kind of amazing to me that the Stanley Cup final ratings are so high these past few years considering, as a hockey obsessed maniac myself, I could care less who was in it or who won these past few years. I wonder if its because the last 5 years of finals have been played in mostly big cities (Chicago, Philly, NY/NJ, Boston and LA).

I'm not saying that's who I want them to get, I'm saying that's the type of players they'll sign based on who they've signed or traded for in recent history. I could see Holland trying to patch up the defense with another Zidlicky type or sign another forward like Cole.

No and no. Beleskey is overrated and we don't need more forwards especially one that won't make an impact bigger than the guys we already have in the AHL. Franson is going to get overpaid by someone and that someone won't be us. Plus, do we really want another Franson to complain about? We'll probably end up with Fleischmann, Erat or Stafford. That'll be our big top 6 acquisition. Maybe Martin St Louis if he ends up being cheap. On defense it'll be like Zbynek Michalek or Michal Rozsival. A right handed shot that nobody else wants and will be cheap. We have too many good young forwards with inexpensive contracts to spend big money elsewhere.

This article didn't fill me with any confidence that they'll fix their blue line anytime soon. http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2015/06/22/red-wings-aim-to-fill-void-on-blue-line-internally/ We kind have already been doing this and the results have been less than spectacular. How many seasons are we going to wait to see if these blueline prospects we have will pan out? Aside from DeKeyser, I haven't seen anybody show anything that would lead me to believe our defense will get better from within.

Right, you said we haven't drafted a Datsyuk/Zetterberg type in 15 years. Then I said how similar Nyquist and Tatar are to those two after their first two years in the NHL. I'm not arguing that we have guys like Toews, Kane and Keith because as I said before we don't draft high enough. What we get are players like Zetterberg and Datsyuk and have a team with depth instead of top heavy talent that eat up tons of cap space. We never monopolized scouting overseas. Teams scouting young Euro talent has been going on for decades (Stastny, Kurri, Naslund, Forsberg, Jagr, Alfredsson, Hasek, etc). We've just been doing a better job and apparently are continuing to do a better job because we have plenty of high end prospects in our system despite poor draft positions. Maybe its just your pessimism bleeding through, but how could you not see Nyquist and Tatar becoming the next Z and D when, statistically, they were as good if not better? Maybe its just a gut call on your part, but this situation seems really similar to 2004 when people were discussing if Z and D were going to be able to replace Yzerman and Fedorov and that we were going into a rebuilding phase.

I'm not going to compare Nyquist and Tatar to elite players when they were in their prime, but I am going to compare them to when they first got into the league. Nyquist and Tatar are showing a ton of promise just like Datsyuk and Zetterberg did back in 02, 03 and 04. I feel like Nyquist is every bit as good as Zetterberg was in his first couple years. Their numbers are actually pretty similar too. As for Tatar, he scored more goals in his second full NHL season than he ever has in his career with 29. The guy is only 24 years old. He also put up more points than Datsyuk after his first two NHL seasons. I'll be really interested to see what the 23 year old Pulkkinen can do with a full season in the NHL after putting up 34 goals in 46 games in the AHL. Not to mention we still technically don't know what we have in Mantha yet and Dylan Larkin has been showing tons of promise. We also just signed Axel Holmstrom, who was Sweden’s junior hockey player of the year. Maybe none of them will pan out or maybe all of them will, who knows? But saying we haven't been drafting well over the past 15 seasons isn't true. If you want to be pessimistic, that's up to you, but there's a ton to be excited about. We're not going away anytime soon.

True. We don't have a Toews, Kane or Keith prospect in our system and you're right, we don't draft high enough to get those types of players. However, what we do get are a bunch of Zetterberg and Datsyuk type players and since they're not high end superstars, come at a reasonable cap hit that allow us to get more talent and become a well rounded team with depth. Depth is key to being successful in the playoffs. While Chicago has had those types of players AND depth, eventually something will give with Toews and Kane's big $10.5 mil per year contracts hit the books this upcoming season. As for the Wings, we're not as far off from contending as you might think. Honestly, I think this team just needs to fix up its defense and quit hoping Smith, Quincy, Ericsson or Kindl turn into something special. We have plenty of good forwards in talent and depth. If we could get the back end solid again, we'll be contenders for the Cup very quickly.

This post might work better on a Pens board seeing as how they passed on Toews and have a first round pick superstar that is also 27 and is supposed to be doing all this. There's no denying the Hawks success or Toews who is clearly the most successful among Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, Stamkos, etc. But Wings fans don't care. As far as we're concerned, once we're finished rebuilding your dynasty will be over.