xtrememachine1

Trading the franchise for spare parts (Rick Nash), overpaying for defensemen (Wiz) on free agency, trading for a young goal scorer that has made it clear he has no desire to play for you (Jeff Carter), having pretty much all of your highly rated draft picks do nothing, finishing near the bottom every year... I wonder which of these straws finally broke the camels back.

I'll wait for them to go down again before saying its an up and down season. I mean, cmon guys, no preseason games, lots of new players, lots of injuries and we struggled. Now that there's some experience and healthy bodies we're playing much better and winning some games. That's not inconsistency, that's normal.

Ths will definitely happen someday. Not the Stamkos part, but Yzerman will return to the Wings. After the Lightning accomplish their goals and the Red Wings finally go into a full blown rebuilding process, Yzerman will go back to Detroit and make them great again. It will be a great story.

Well when you bang and crash at his speed, its tough not to be injured often. I will say this though, this team is MUCH better with him in the lineup. I don't think I can recall a player on the Wings contributing this much to the team without it appearing on the score sheet.

True, but we have a much better offense than the Devils did that year. We have a goalie who is actually playing really well for us right now and an offense that's a little snake bitten at the moment, but is far too talented to stay this quiet. The defense is definitely a work in progress, no doubt, especially with the injuries now, but who knows what our defense will look like in a couple months after the trade deadline and our younger guys get more experience. I think history has also proven that doubting the Wings can make people look very foolish in the end.

I was doing a little research and looking back at the last lockout shortened season. Everyone keeps saying how important is it to "get off to a good start or it'll be over before you know it". While it never hurts to get off to a good start, I'm much more interested in how things end. In 1995, the NJ Devils started off 0-3-1, were below .500 for about half the season, finished a little over .500 and made the playoffs. In May and June they went 16-4 and won the Stanley Cup. If you like to be pessimistic, then by all means, keep whining about the slow start, but how well they're playing in January means nothing, even in a short season, and there's the proof.

Glad to see Nyqvist back where he belongs.

Reading his scouting report it says the Huskins "gets injured a lot". Man, does Holland get some sort of bonus everytime someone gets injured?

Well with Colo out, they need someone, that's for sure. Wish Hannan didn't sign with Nashville for a bag of peanuts.

Our special teams look like they didn't practice in training camp or get any work in those preseason games... wait... If its this bad at this time next month, then there's a big problem, but right now, you can't look into things too much. New players, young players, new system for most of them, no practice or exhibition games, lots of factors. Is it an excuse? Sure, but its also true.

Damn, I was really hoping he'd be able to step in and fill some of those holes on defense. We're giving up a sickening numbers of shots. Time to really see what we have on defense at GR.

I think Brunner will put up good numbers if he stays with Z and/or D. If he's on a line on his own, forget it. Also, I think Z and Brunner has an advantage going into this year. Like I said in my original post, Zetterberg and Brunner have been playing together, developing chemistry for the past few months over in Switzerland meanwhile, everyone over here is cramming in training camps and may not be ready yet.

Brunner, yes, I considered the schedule. Parise, I did not. Probably like 13-14 goals for Parise.

Central division: 1. Red Wings 2. Blues 3. Blackhawks 4. Predators 5. Blue Jackets - Wings finish 3rd in the Western conference. - Brunner scores close to 20 goals - Kronwall picks up his game and solidifies himself as the new number one d-man. - Howard plays more games, than Gustavsson, but the Monster has better numbers. - Datsyuk finishes in the top 5 in scoring. - Nyquist finishes the season on one of the scoring lines. - Franzen will be a $3.9 mil cap hit, score around 30 goals, and people will complain. - Crosby wins the Art Ross. - Ovechkin wins the Hart and Rocket Richard - Tuuka Rask wins the Vezina - Shea Weber wins the Norris. - Parise scores less than 30 goals. - Suter finishes the season as a minus player - Rick Nash does only slightly better than he did in Columbus. - Anaheim makes the playoffs and Selanne's final run for a championship is an exciting one. - Rangers, Flyers, Wild, Hurricanes, and Kings underachieve. - Stars, Canadiens, Oilers and Ducks overachieve. - The Kings start off slow, but finish strong to barely make the playoffs. - Penguins and Canucks are top seeds in their respective conference. I don't understand why people are ranking the Wings so low, just because of Lidstrom. I mean, I know he's great and all, but he's not the whole team. There are plenty of teams that won the Stanley Cup without Nick Lidstrom in their line up, we can too. We have more depth and speed up front. While other teams are cramming in as much training camp as they can before the season, Datsyuk is already in midseason form and Zetterberg and Brunner have been playing together, developing chemistry for the past few months over in Switzerland. IMO, Kronwall can be the next Scott Stevens. That hard hitting, stay-at-home defensive style with a big shot from the point every now and then. Colaiacovo is a very solid pick up for us. I think he's an improvement over Stuart. Plus, we have Brendan Smith, who is really motivated and excited to be playing in the NHL this year. People complain so often during the season that the Wings looked lazy or "unmotivated" out there. We have plenty of new blood in our lineup that should change that perception. I think the pessimists and the critics who have been predicting the Wings downfall for over a decade now are going to be surprised/disappointed.

I follow "Hockeyy Insiderr" and does seem to be calling some of these transactions before they are official. Numerous times he's said something then a couple hours later Dreger will tweet it. He called Semin to Carolina the day before it happend, so there may be some truth to this guy. As for the trade itself, hate to lose Flip and Nyquist, but 25 year old, really good offensive defensemen with cap friendly contracts don't fall from the sky.

I'm not sure I understand why the contract situation with Carolina is such a big deal to people. He held out, but it didn't really hurt us. We made the playoffs, he came back, played great in the playoffs and we won another Cup. The way he left in 2003 wasn't great, but it wasn't so bad that it could erase or taint everything he had done for the Wings for the 11 years. He was a HUGE part of those championship teams in 97,98 and 2002, I don't see how you can not be leaning towards retiring his number. Do we win those three Cups without him on our team? Do have all that success we enjoyed during his career without him in our lineup? I really doubt it. Maybe people were too young to remember or simply don't remember that time very well, but Fedorov was 90's Wings hockey. Maybe its because he was more flashy than others or because he was that good, but Fedorov was always the first name to come up when talking about the Wings back then.

Really good question. He gave this organization problems with contracts and leaving on bad terms, but was a major part our success during the 90's. A major part. When you think Red Wings from 94-2003, you think Steve Yzerman, then Sergei Fedorov. The guy did it all. Played center, wing, defense and did them all really well. He had a cannon for shot, was an incredible passer, played excellent defense and was the fastest skater in the league. I've often said when Fedorov was motivated and really wanted to win, he was the best player in hockey. So while all the off the ice things put a bad taste in our mouths, you can't rewrite history and I think the pros far out weigh the cons here and I think #91 should be given some serious consideration by Mr Ilitch to be put in the rafters.

"For me, knowing Detroit’s history they don’t really pay the market value for a defenseman or any player" - James Wisniewski on NHL Live Enjoy your fair market value contract on that AHL team you're on.

Oh man, NYR really got a good deal. Good for them. If I'm a Jackets fan though, trading Nash for these players is 100 times worse than trading him to Detroit. I'd be pissed.

Damn it. Let's see how much they gave up now...

I have a feeling this ESPN link will be another one those kind of links that we pull up in 5 years and laugh about.

For the people saying that signing this offer sheet doesn't mean he wants to leave Nashville... http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/19/agent-weber-doesnt-want-to-go-through-another-rebuilding-process/

Could Nashville still trade his rights? Lets say Nashville trades him to the Rangers and get a bunch of players or whatever in return. NYR then has the ability to match that deal and Weber belongs to them. Is that a possibility or is their some rule preventing that from happening? I don't know. If that is the case, Nashville may wait 6 days to try and swing a deal before matching or not.

Dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

I was really disappointed to see this. I'm actually NOT going to "put this to bed" though. If the Wings offer is the best he's getting and will get, he'd be an idiot not to reconsider. Then again... this IS the CBJ GM we're talking about.