mjlegend

It could also be a nice recruiting tool for young Swedish players who want to play in the NHL and want to play in a free-flowing system...

This great Sharks team will all go to s*** when they call up Claude Lemieux.

Why stop there? The problem with the Wings has always been Marion Illitch... Unless it's 1897 again, the Stanley Cup isn't going to be won or lost in December. Plenty of time to sort out whatever defensive deficiencies the team has, and plenty of time for the lines to show the required chemistry. Until then, I'm going to enjoy a divisional first place, conference second place, club.

Eight pages is my prediction.

If you have a good power play, 1970s-style physical intimidation just doesn't work. I'd rather see Bertuzzi and Roy take two minutes for being punchy jackasses and put the Wings on the power play than waste ice-time on someone who can't skate with this team. You still win if you score more goals than the other team, right?

The Stars or Yotes should both be good confidence builders for Oz, if he starts one or both. Actually, it's a pretty soft schedule this month, so here's hoping he can shake it off.

Guess this means there's gonna be a bidding war if we want Forsberg. GET IT DONE, KENNY!!!!

Can we afford any of the "better" goaltenders that are currently available? I think he's a bargain for what the Wings are paying him. I'm sure there's more of a mental aspect to trying to improve a goaltender's play than simply barking at him to stop more pucks.

I can't name any very successful agent-turned-GM in the NHL, and there have been a few of them.

Oh, my.

Curtis Sanford is who we thought he was. Tonight, they aren't letting him off the hook.

He would only ban the stairs if they besmirched the otherwise pure-as-the-driven-snow reputation of Elisha Cuthbert.

Somewhere right now, Tony Granato is wondering why his ears are hot.

I don't think we NEED him, but he is a good asset to have if our better defencemen go down for long periods of time. I'm sure this team can draft another Derek Meech if need be. Shame, because I liked Meech as a junior but this is a cap world and he's simply run out of time with this organization.

Awfully young to be pulling a Scott Niedermayer. . .

Re: Rangers jersey I love you Dr. Zaius!

Thanks, Matt. A two-day Christmas break and then Nashville and Colorado on the road? Blech.

As a non-Sammy fan, Sammy's having himself quite the year. I hope he likes it wherever some sun belt team overpays him next year. There's no way I'd pay him Mike Fisher-kind of money. IN the future, I'd like a D on the power play point (Kindl?), but for now this will do just fine.

Do you trade then Howard, considering Larsson's improvement and the fact McCollum's in the system now, too? There's no way you get anything NHL calibre right now for Howard, but some good Euro scouting may land a decent, long-term forward prospect.

4-2 Wings. Hossa with three points and Mule gets at least one goal. Wings play sharper overall but a second-line forward whose name rhymes with "Schlamuelsson" makes a horrible giveaway resulting in their first goal. Lidstrom = + 3

You don't suppose we could convince the PA that Chris Pronger made that same complaint, too, hey?

Nobody in their right mind would give up that high of a draft pick for either/both of those two guys. The Kaberle/Kubina watch is officially on, and teams could pay a high price, but who can afford rentals these days? Particularly a $5 million rental in Kubina? Seriously, what does a team gain with Pavel? Anyway, teams pay heavily for good D because they are very very rare. Who leads the Leafs' defence next year with no Kaberle/Kubina? Schenn? Van Ryn? Finger? Ian White? Tell me which one of these guys below makes you think "Now THERE's a guy to build our defence around!" http://www.nhlnumbers.com/freeagents.php?t...&status=ufa

Teams will of course want to give up their best picks and prospects for superstars like Antropov and Ponikarovsky. I love Leafs fans.

I'd love to see it happen, but I think this year might be their best chance. Todd McLellan scares me and I selfishly wish he would have stayed with the Wings longer. This team needs to start concerning themselves about what IT can do to improve themselves to get a better standing. One of those things might be a goal to drop down the shots against/game to 20 for the next ten games. Besides, SJ doesn't normally start sucking until the second round of the playoffs, or until they've overpaid for a Bill Guerin type at the deadline. Babs probably knows all these things anyway and it would probably drive him nuts to think about the fans talking about this.

0.75 more goals against per game could mean the difference between playing San Jose on the road in game 7 of the conference final or playing them at home. I'm not going to panic but it should be worked on before it gets out of hand.