mjlegend

They'd be crazy not to sign Keith Hackney. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4iZ-NEz-mg

The quality of defencemen that are available in 2010 under age 35 for a good price is very, very low. Even the RFAs are meh. I note Shea Weber is an RFA after next year...

I would guess they don't resign Tanguay in the offseason. They have some pretty crippling contracts that will make sure they don't get any higher than sixth in the conference for the next while.

Myers should win this award. A quality defensive, shut-down type blueliner with 46 points doesn't come around every day. Yer typical Calder-winning goalie of about 25-26 will need to have astounding numbers (Belfour, Esposito) in order to qualify in the minds of voters. J-Ho is in a unique situation in that the other candidates (Duchene, Tavares) are having rather un-amazing statistical seasons, while Howard is in the top five in the important statistical categories. Hell with it, the NHL will fudge the numbers and just give it to a Penguin anyway. Congratulations, Mark Letestu. Job well done.

Marleau won't be leaving San Jose for less than a $7.5 cap hit, unless Chicago gets "creative" and gives him a 20-year deal. I can't see him LEAVING the Sharks for anything, and remember we're not as desperate for top six help as other teams (cough cough, LEAFS, cough cough). My prediction is someone gives him $42 million for six years on July 1. Understanding that for that money, if you're a team like the Red Wings - do you want to change the focal point of your offence to him? Probably not.

The fact I want the team to win makes me a glory supporter? OK, then. I want the team to win more than I want them to needlessly fight, and apparently this is a completely f***ed up world view on your planet? Lolz. Drake and McCarty combined for five fights the ENTIRE SEASON, with McCarty having only one in the playoffs. In 07-08 the Wings had the FEWEST fighting majors (aka, balls) of any team in the league. And they won the Cup despite the lack of balls. Now's not the time for "balls". Now's the time to win hockey games. Hockey is about having more skill, perseverance and determination to put the puck in the net more often than the opposition. It's not about hoping some 220-pound guy with no hands fights another 220-pound guy with no hands. The Wings haven't fought since Feb. 11. They're 12-2-1 in 15 and 9-0-1 in 10. Why would we want to screw with that? There's a time and a place for fighting, and a time when it's absolutely necessary. The 1997 and '98 Wings had to exercise some issues they had with Claude Lemieux. They wanted to pound him and I don't blame them. They used it as a rallying point IMO for those two years. But that's in another time and an era gone by. If you fight guys want to watch Kocur and McCarty, I'm sure they're playing senior hockey somewhere in the greater Detroit Area. I'd love to shake their hands because those years were good times and both were proud Red Wings. But they're in the past and the reason this team is winning games.

You mean when the Wings were losing they were playing with more balls, or when they were giving the puck away too many times they were playing with more balls? The Wings are 12-2-1 since the Olympic break, all without any balls, apparently. If you haven't noticed, I don't give a s*** about balls. I give a s*** about a winning hockey team. And this team is currently winning. You want balls, watch a porno.

I enjoy greatly that the Team That Shall Not Be Discussed is down 2-0 to the freaking Lightning, and has only two more points that the Red Wings. Stamkos FTW!

If I had to do it all again, I'd marry that cover of Sports Illustrated. One of the best hockey pictures ever taken, also a SI hockey cover (!) signifying a great albatross getting removed from the franchise.

Nashville's losing, too. Getting to fifth should be the goal this week.

You are right about their offense, but with Brent Sutter as their coach, they're supposed to be good at keeping the shots against low, and limiting chances. His GAA should have gone down as much as it did. I think he's a great regular season goaltender. But I still think Kiprusoff is a question mark in the post-season because of the fact he's lost four first round playoff series' in a row in the post-lockout, post-clutching and grabbing NHL. I don't think it's a coincidence, and if they do sneak into eighth or seventh, I'm not confident they'll pull off an upset. And maybe my opinion has also been colored slightly by Kipper's performance against the US.

I'll put it this way: Put Jimmy Howard on a team like Nashville or Phoenix where no one has been to a Stanley Cup final, or hasn't been to one in several years, and I'd be worried. But in Howard's dressing room are guys like Lidstrom, Rafalski, Osgood, and several other players who have been to multiple finals over the last decade. That's where the real advantage of being a Red Wing comes in. If you're a rookie and you're not sure, ask around. And ultimately, if Howard were to fail early or get hurt, there's a goalie with three Stanley Cup rings on the bench ready to bail him out, and eager once again to prove something to himself and the rest of the hockey world. Does Luongo have that? Kipper? Bryzgalov?

That defence at the beginning of the year was supposed to be among the best in the conference with Regehr, Bouwmeester and Phaneuf. Even now, one through seven, they're pretty good. But if Kipper couldn't stop pucks with those three guys on the blueline, I really don't know how he could do it with Detroit's occasionally lax team in front of him.

Yeah, Kipper isn't that good, Calgary. Given his 70-plus game workload every year and the fact he hasn't gotten them out of the first round in five years, he's a bigger question mark than J-Ho if the Flames can't get into the playoffs. But there is nothing like Lames fans and their love of their acrobatic but perpetually tired goaltender. Bryzgalov hasn't played in the playoffs in three years and Luongo's last experience in the playoffs saw him Cloutier the Hawks into the WCF. I don't understand how any team in the West can claim their goaltending is any less of a question mark than anyone else's. Especially in an Olympic year where both Luongo and Kiprusoff didn't have the break that Howard had. If the Wings lose in the playoffs, I'm pretty sure it won't be because of goaltending. For me, at least, it really hasn't been an issue in the post-season since Legace left.

Ahh, the NHL and the uninspiring ideas from its leadership. What about the idea of simply locking in the Stanley Cup Finals every year to Washington versus Pittsburgh and stop this horsecrap about the regular season. Because I'm sure Crosby versus Ovechkin angle hasn't been beaten to death yet for the "casual hockey fan" who missed the first 3,023,923,580 meetings between these two meatheads.

Great for the organization. This is the first year they've needed the loser points to get there, but not every team has ever had a 100 point season in franchise history, let alone challenge for it for every year for a decade. No team currently even has five 100-point seasons in a row in the post-lockout, post-OT point system other than the Wings. The Devils missed by one point two years ago.

FYP.

I must be crazy because I like ties better than I like loser OT and loser shootout points. How we went from the tie system to rewarding teams for losing is beyond me. The NHL was a much better place when it was 21 teams in hockey markets, playing an 80 game season. The salary cap has been a good thing, but it would be even better if the league didn't have a dozen teams consistently losing money in bad markets. Bettman's insistence on keeping teams in the money pit, sunny US markets has bogged down both the quality of hockey and the growth of the game. Does it look better for the game to have 18-20 markets selling out their arenas, or to have the same ten damn teams with "For Sale" signs every year/two years because they can only put 11,000 butts in the seats no matter where they are in the standings? Remember 1994? The Rangers had just won the Cup. Messier was dating Madonna. SI had a piece about the NHL being the new NBA. The first lockout, which solved nothing, sucked all that momentum right out. The second one snuffed it entirely. Is the NHL better than it was 16 years ago? I say no. It's a stagnant business model right now and it doesn't show any signs of growth. Bettman was a step up from Gil Stein, though, the one-year president who tried to elect himself into the HHOF. Merely being one tiny step up from a crooked, inept boob is no reason for myself or anyone with any interest in the NHL to throw a tickertape parade for Gary Bettman.

Yeah, and to think the Wings are winning without a goon. (runs away)

Bert's 666th career NHL point. He now momentarily passes Miroslav Satan...

But Brian Burke already thinks he's the commish.

I always liked to see Todd Gill on the ice when the Wings played the Leafs because it meant the Wings would soon get another goal. I thought Larry Murphy was a floating prima donna through the early to mid 90s until the Wings picked him up for a bag of pucks. Screw you, Toronto. Where was I?

Me three.

I just don't see Kovalchuk playing for less of a cap hit than what he's getting now. He doesn't seem to be the type interested in being part of a team unless he's the focal point. With all the extentions signed lately, the UFA and RFA class next year borders on awful.