xtrememachine1

Great first game back for Sid, but yeah... it was the Islanders people. You know the franchise that hasn't been good in like 20+ years. Plus, with their 4th string rookie goalie to boot. He always done exceptionally well against this team. A couple years ago Ovechkin had him by 10 points, Crosby played the Isles twice, and they were tied. Talk about his "greatness" when he's not blowing up the Isles or Leafs.

There are people in Pittsburgh wearing Crosby jerseys and walking around the streets saying "Happy Sidney Crosby day!". No joke.

But this isn't that team. That team went into a funk in the middle of the year and had tons of injuries. This is just bizarre. How do you win 5 straight to start the season, then lose the next 6? Something broke somewhere along the line and it needs to get fixed. Maybe it was the Washington blowout or losing to Columbus, but something happened at the beginning of this losing streak to knock them off their game. Somebody needs to step up and right the ship.

I like Dom and I really wanted him here in 2007. He was considered over the hill then and its 4 years later. Great guy, hall of famer all the way, loved seeing him add to his legacy in a Wings uniform, but he's done.

According to CapGeek, Weber is a RFA again next year? I thought we went through this and he would be a UFA this coming July. Unless there's something I'm missing, he'll be a Pred this year and next. As for the Rinne deal, $7 mil is a lot for a goalie. They have a lot of holes while paying him just $3.4 mil. Now they'll have even less to work with to fill those holes. He's a great goalie and all, but $7 mil per year... its not like Vezina trophies have been rolling in or he's won numerous championships. He shouldn't make more than $5 mil per year.

Wow! That came out of nowhere! $4.75 mil per year too! That is insane good for a player of his caliber. He could have gotten way more on the open market. Glad to have him back for good.

They could go 0-100 on the powerplay, if they keep shutting teams out, it'll be all good.

This is just an awesome post. lol Seriously, I don't really see why some people would think the Jackets would break out all of a sudden. Sure they got Jeff Carter, but he made it very clear that he doesn't want to be there. Not exactly what you're looking for in a first line center. Plus, the defense is still lousy, with or without Wiz. The Central is a tough division. It'll take more than a couple new players to become a playoff contender. This isn't the East ya know.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. They'll take whatever, just to get into the East. Detroit in the Southeast doesn't make sense, but it makes more sense than Winnipeg in the Southeast. I think with so many teams in limbo and potentially moving, they may want to hold off a big realignment till that all gets settled. One thing for sure though, Winnipeg can't stay in the division they're in and if one team is moving West, one team West will move East and that team SHOULD be Detroit. I understand the arguments for Nashville and Columbus, but Detroit has been waiting to move East since before those franchises existed. Good things come to those who wait.

It doesn't make sense. But it makes about as much a sense as having a team in the Eastern time zone, play half their games in different times zones all across the continent. Between the two, Detroit in the Southeast makes more sense.

- Detroit wins the division - Ovechkin wins the Art Ross and Hart Trophy - Lidstrom ties Bobby Orr for Norris trophies - Bryzgalov wins Vezina - Crosby plays the second half of the season and Pens go deep into playoffs - Jets make the playoffs - Sabres do not make playoffs - Red Wings make a significant trade at the deadline, possibly Shane Doan or Alfredsson or both. - Canucks finish with the first seed in the West - Bruins finish with the first seed in the East - Neither Canucks or Bruins make it to the Conference Finals - Final Four will be Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Washington - Detroit vs Washington in the Finals - Detroit wins the Stanley Cup, Lidstrom retires

Its not the Red Wings job to make sure other Western teams fill out their arenas. Also, if the Wings move East, these Western teams that never make the playoffs (like Columbus, St Louis) will see their odds of getting a playoff spot increase since they won't be getting beat down by the Wings. If they make the playoffs, they get at least 2 more home games. Winning games and getting into the playoffs will increase the fanbase and generate more interest. They could have sell outs for games that don't involve the Wings. Wouldn't these franchises rather have sell outs because their team is popular, not because the visiting team is popular? Also, if your franchise is dependent on the Wings visiting your city 2-4 times a year, then you're doing something wrong and you probably shouldn't have a franchise in the first place. I think its crap that Wings fans, in which most live in the Eastern time zone, have to stay up insane late to watch half their teams' road games because some Western franchises can't generate local interest in their hockey team. Meanwhile, we could have a lot of great original 6 rivalries get renewed if they moved East. The Wings are great, but they won't be great forever. Someday they'll have to rebuild and they won't be the draw in other cities that they are now. A conference realignment should have nothing to do with how good a team is at that moment because that could change any year. Okay, I'm done ranting now.

Not really, no. I feel like Colorado shouldn't have won Game 5, Forsberg was so far offsides it was ridiculous, and like I said that team was just too talented to lose. Beating any team the 4th time is always the hardest so I couldn't imagine how difficult it would be to eliminate that Wings team. They ended up winning the last two games by a combined score of 9-0. It was the only time I wasn't stressed out during the playoffs. I just knew that there wasn't a team out there that could beat this Wings team 4 times in 7 games, it just wasn't going to happen.

For whatever reason, I wasn't stressed about that series at all. I knew no one would beat the Wings 4 times in 7 games. They were an all star team, they were just too good to lose. Sure somebody could get lucky and win a few games, but this team wasn't getting eliminated. I went with "Other" with the 2008 Finals in mind. THAT was nerve wracking. At least for me anyways. For good back and forth series.

That's debatable. I debate it in my own head all the time. lol Based on awards and accomplishments, Lidstrom has to be considered one of the best of all time. However, Yzerman was in his prime at the same time as Lemieux and Gretzky. He missed out on a lot of scoring titles and MVPs because of that and was viewed as 3rd best back then. Would Lidstrom have been as successful if he played in his prime during the same time as Bobby Orr and Doug Harvey? Plus, Yzerman played 10 years without Scotty Bowman as coach. Lidstrom was very fortunate to always be on a talented, Cup contending team. So while, Lidstrom is a better player in terms of awards won and accomplishments, I think saying he's more talented is an illusion. Stevie definitely had a greater impact on the franchise than Nick. BTW, how nice is it to have a problem like this where we have too many great players and we can't decide on who's the best? lol

Meh. A lot of people picked us to the win the Stanley Cup at this time last year. Underestimating the Wings is probably the dumbest thing anyone can do in the world of hockey.

I don't get how Malkin is ranked just behind Stamkos at 6th. Malkin has done almost nothing the past couple seasons while Stamkos has scored more goals than any other player in that time. Crosby is first because the writer isn't in the mood to deal with bandwagon Pens fans that would blast him for not making him first. Datsyuk is the best, Crosby is second, Stamkos is third and Z would probably have to be 4th or 5th. He's better than Staal, Kesler, Thornton, Lecavalier, and Mike Richards, for sure. Toews is good and picks up his game during the playoffs, but to rank him 3rd is ridiculous. All that firepower he has around him and his career high is just 76 points? 3rd best center in the NHL? 76 points? Nope.

I voted for Draper. I felt much more comfortable when he was on the ice than Hudler. Considering Hudler is supposed to be better offensively, last year he only scored 4 more goals than Draper and played in 30 more games than him. Draper isn't what he used to be, but in a limited role as a 3rd or 4th liner, he's still effective. Good on faceoffs, still has some speed, defensively responsible and he brought out the best in Darren Helm when they played on the same line.

Its kind of tough to grade him on this off season. He had money to spend, but there wasn't really anything out there and what was out there got overpaid. The Ericsson signing I'm not wild about, nor the Commodore one either, but White and Conklin were solid acquisitions and I think the goal of this off season was to not overpay for mediocre talent with a better UFA class coming up next season. I'd have to give him a B-. The resigning of Ericsson is risky as their betting on him reaching his potential very soon and I'm not thrilled about Commodore. I would much rather have a more proven defenseman for a year like McCabe or Hannan.

Let's not forget, if it wasn't for Howard, we don't make the playoffs in 2010. He was AMAZING during that stretch when the team was injured and not playing all that great. 40-50 saves for him was the norm. He was inconsistent this past regular season, but I felt was very good in the postseason. IMO, Howard's playoffs in 2011 was significantly better than in 2010. Those first two games in SJ would have been blowout losses with a lesser goalie.

I remember that Zetterberg was on a line with Cleary and Bertuzzi because I remember saying "Wow! Z lost both of his linemates in the first two periods." Then he was stuck with Hudler and Abby/Miller/Holmstrom

Very good signing. He'll fit very well on our team and should keep Howard rested for the playoffs.

Its funny you bring that up. Right after we lost to the Sharks, those back to back losses to the Avs in the second round came to mind and I said outloud, "I hope this doesn't mean we're gonna lose in the first round next year". lol Then again, if that means we win the Cup the year after that, I'll go for that.

This is starting to be like a running gag now. I remember reading an article like this before the 05-06 season, saying how the cap was going to destroy us and all of our old guys were moving on, etc. 58 wins and a Presidents trophy later, people shut up. Articles predicting the Wings demise is like the status quo now. Also, wasn't it ESPN that reported Jagr signed with the Penguins, 1 year, $2 mil? Whoops.

I was thinking about this for awhile last night and would the Wings have a press conference to announce Osgood resigning for less than a mil? That doesn't seem like big enough news to necessitate a press conference.