mjlegend

Most of the time, the Wings' skill players are too fast to be hit cleanly. Bump up the penalties on coaches for instigator minors and you'd see this "fighting after a clean hit" crap stop overnight. You get two instigator minors in a season, coach is gone for a game. Third instgator minor, he's gone for two games. Etc. If the league really wanted to put a quick end to it, that's what they'd do. Instead, they just try to appease everybody and end up pleasing nobody. He's still one of his characteristic snaps away from never playing in the league again. I'm glad the Rangers are the ones taking that risk on him although it was have been nice to see him in a Sharks uniform so he could completely screw that team up.

I don't think this could happen and i'd be extremely disappointed if they did. I'd be much more inclined to believe it if the Wings were in 7th or 8th. Thinking about this, the Wings ARE sort of saving players like Helm, Leino, Abdelkader for the playoffs, so they do have cards that aren't on the table they aren't tipping. But are the players on the ice conserving effort? I really don't think so. Sir, please lower your voice.

You're right, the Blues should have been expected to beat the Sharks. I don't know what the hell we were thinking.

Danny Markov was a'ight. I'd take Danny over Andrei.

Wings in four. Kronwall steams over Parise a la Stevens on Kozlov.

That's a hell of a lot of banners.

Oops! Maybe not! http://www.faceoff.com/story.html?id=b822e...topstories.atom Holy Mr. 3,000 Batman!

OK, I missed him too when I was trying to figure out who was out. 5-0 Wings, Conklin get the easy SO and in the process starts seven new goaltending threads on LGW.

I've never seen either of them stake, but Holmstrom skates slightly better and is better with his stick. Neither of them are going to win a breakaway competition against my grandmother.

Are they dressing 17 skaters for the game?

If Nabokov is hurt much longer, the Wings shouldn't have any trouble getting first place in the conference. The Flames haven't been doing all that hot in their last couple of games, so they don't scare me at all unless they go on a 15-0 tear. I hope the Flames play someone like Dallas in the first round and get knocked out because they overplayed Kiprusoff in the regular season. Where have we seen the Flames do that before? I respect San Jose and Calgary for the success they've had this season but I just think a fairly healthy Red Wings team beats them in a seven game series.

Well, what are people going to watch in October? Certainly not the Yankees in the World Series. . . .

Damn.

Lazy, too.

Thanks, I was actually trying to forget that one. That hurt almost as bad as 1996 because one of my best friends is a Kings fan. I watched a few hours of the trade deadline coverage, switching between three channels, but every time the Pierre/Jones panel was on TSN I switched the channel.

Must be a hell of a flu. That's about a week's worth of games and practice at a pretty important time of the season. Or he's a giant , I can't decide.

I noticed that myself. Bell's playing in Ottawa, too. Gotta be tough for the player to get psyched into the game at hand knowing he may be 48 hours away from riding the bus in the AHL or playing three time zones away.

Thanks for making it sound like a Viagra commercial. Now I'm going to feel dirty when I ask my doctor about this website...

We don't need a guy on the blueline to beat the hell out of the puck. Just one or two more to help clear it.

Ah, Niclas, we hardly knew ye... So is the focus on Jordan Leopold now?

I just thought of something today that scared the hell out of me: From Ducks: Chris Pronger From Chicago: Brent Seabrook, Dustin Byfuglien, Martin Havlat's expiring contract, 1st round pick (2009). The Hawks then pick up an enforcer (Laraque?) or an experienced forward (Recchi?) for chickenfeed and get Pronger's experience and sandpaper for this year and next year, plus get a whole lot tougher to play against. The Ducks get a 20-game audition to see if they want to re-sign UFA Havlat, plus they get solid prospects in Byfuglien and a draft pick, and a chance to see if Seabrook can get back on track. Maybe the Hawks would have to throw in Skille as well into one of the deals. I'm scared. I need someone to talk me out of this trade. Obviously, I think it only works if the Ducks bite on the last year of Havlat's $6 million/year contract.

Ditka. 91-3.

I hope it's the Sharks, since he did so well for them a couple of years ago.

I suppose it's beyond obvious to point out that Boogaard's presence didn't exactly prevent May from punching Johnsson out of the playoffs, but that's another thread for another time. All he really did in that clip was chirp Selanne and Getzlaf. Maltby could have done that, for Christ's sakes.

I loved when he tried to put words in Ron McLean's wife's mouth in that bit about Yzerman's jersey retirement night and McLean finally stood up to him and said something like "No, that's not at all what she meant..." McLean doesn't do that enough and it would make for great television to call Cherry more often on his lies.