octopusonice

Post count padding is a terrible thing. Don't do it!

Glad to see that the Oilers will stay in Edmonton.

Neat topic. Posting about anything you want. I noticed some people talking about the oldest items they have. I have a book about baseball written by John McGraw. It has to be close to 100 years old. Can't find it as it's buried in storage somewhere. My mother goes to antique stores/garage sales and sends me old sports books whenever she can. It would really be cool to have a hockey or Red Wings book from the early early years.

Not to get too far off the subject, but I grew up in KS (where hockey leagues are almost non-existant), and never played hockey, so maybe I'm easily impressed. Hockey is one of those things that I developed an appreciation for when I was out on my own and could afford cable tv. In another life, I'm sure I would have taken up the sport. Back on topic. I think what makes Datsyuk's moves so impressive is that he knows how to set up the goalie at the right time, get him to over-commit to one side and then burn him. It has to be instinctive the way he does it. Timing is everything on this.

Bad idea. Give it to the team that wins the President's Trophy. This way the team that played the best during the season gets rewarded. With the ASG format, it's likely that one team will benefit as a result of another team's efforts. Find other ways to give incentives for doing well in the ASG. Although having said that, I would not lose any sleep if they did away with ASGs all together in sports.

Filppula wants to stay in Detroit I want him to stay too

That move is so impressive, I can't even do it in my dreams!

A great story. Thank you for sharing it with us. I remember reading on another site how someone was giving instructions on how to 'pack a pi' so that security could not find it. Hilarious! I never get tired of those stories.

do you like apples? our team won the stanley cup, how bout them apples?

Glad to see the Professor finally make it in! The awards and honors continue to pour in for Wings players present and past...

I thought it was a very stand-up thing for Daniels to have Ken Kal call the last 30 seconds of the game.

I'm looking forward to getting this book. I can never get tired of reading about the legends on this team.

Even Reasoner, the only one who said anything positive, did not give a glowing endorsement. His evaluation suggests only a slight improvement. It looks to me like the Thermablade people want to push this through at all costs in spite of what the players say. I have mixed feelings about this. Stamina is a part of the game, so part of me is resistant to the idea of "let's use these skates, it will make it easier". On the other hand, players aren't using the same klunky skates that they used 50 years ago. I don't think it's something like using an aluminum bat in MLB. I guess if they can make them more reliable, and the league/PA sanctions it, I would not have a problem with it. I would keep it out of the youth leagues because not all kids' families can afford them , so no one should have an advantage. .

If the Wings adopted a third jersey that was anything other than a replica of one of their past uniforms, I would probably not support it. When you are one of the most storied franchises in the NHL, you don't need to do such things to market yourself. The best marketing is giving your fans good hockey. Please Mr. Ilitch, don't allow anyone to mess with a good thing! EDIT: added another comment

Glad to see Zetterberg got that award. He was solid to begin with and continues to improve his game.

I could see doing it if you were a fan of a certain player and they switched teams, or if you moved around between two cities, but when people have these mixed allegiances, usually they still have a preference, and root for only one of the two teams when they face each other. The only other scenario that makes sense is the one in a million chance that you are family of players on both teams. However in that case, you would really be fans of the individuals and probably not their teams.

EDIT: Half the people there (CBJ) probably root for the Wings anyway. EDIT#2: Sorry, hit the wrong button.

From the standpoint of answering the question, I voted Florida and Calgary. I eliminated any team from consideration that had won a Cup recently or had some tradition behind it. Calgary in my eyes had the least tradition IMHO, although some of you are free to dispute that. From the standpoint of being a dictator and making my own stipulations, I would not eliminate a Canadian team. A lot of those areas have suffered economically and I think having a hockey team is huge for the local morale. It would be tempting to eliminate the Ducks, but since that is the closest NHL team to where I live and can drive to to see the Wings, I would only do it if I could move the Kings to Anaheim. I would eliminate Florida and Columbus.

I wouldn't want him because I would question his motivation. Once he won a cup in Anaheim, he kind of jerked the Ducks around about whether or not he wanted to play this past season. I'm kind of surprised he would want to play for the Habs, but playing with Koivu must mean a lot to him.

I think a lot of fans like myself wish they could be there. It would be like a living museum.

I enjoyed that interview, but will admit that I questioned the game of Osgood after the 2000-01 season. I was glad the Wings signed Hasek for the next season and don't think that they could have won the Cup without him. It was ironic that the tables had turned and that the Wings could not have won the Cup without Osgood this year. Osgood was right when he said how he would not be at this interview with Rome without making adjustments to his game post-lockout. It seems that success in sports is directly related to making adjustments, and Osgood is a good example why.

If you are giving me the old lifeboat scenario and I can only keep one of them, I would say Helm too. I have been pretty impressed with him in limited action and he has a lot of hockey left in him.

I voted yes, but I don't need a fight in a game to enjoy it. I took my nephew and brother in-law to a minor league hockey game once. That experience can best be described as a fight where a game broke out. There were over 200 penalty minutes in the game as I recall. I think even the equipment managers fought each other. I did not enjoy watching that. It got to the point where I wanted to tell all of them to knock it off and play some hockey -- for at least five minutes, anyway. Having said that, IMHO, you have to let the players release some steam in the form of fighting, otherwise someone's going to boil over, get ultra-violent and swing a stick at someone's face deliberately a la McSorely. Most fights end up being a stalemate as the shoulder pads and jerseys prevent most fighters from lining up and cutting loose with a haymaker. It's also conceivable that one of the fighters is forced to not use their dominant hand in a lot of fights because of the position they lock up in. I'm in favor of outlawing fighting in younger leagues. Most of them aren't going to play the game for a living and don't need to be permanently scarred and maimed.

It's hard for me to answer this because I only have two jerseys: #5 and #19. In my mind and speaking from the heart, I like both of them equally. I don't want to choose. If you are talking about Xs and Os, I would give the nod to Lidstrom, meaning that Lidstrom is better at being a defenseman than Yzerman was as a center. However, the person who inspired me to be a Red Wings fan is Stevie Y. One of the greatest games I will ever see on TV was when he hit that slapshot to beat the Blues 1-0 in 1996 in the 7th game. The best way that I can describe that game is that it was as though God was up there talking to the Red Wings and Blues players before the game and telling all these players that they only had one game left to play in their lives and to make it a good one. I didn't know if anyone would get the puck in the net that night. This is going to sound odd, but I once had a dream a few years ago that I played for the Red Wings and was walking to the locker room. Stevie Y was there and asked me if I was going to come back next season. I was going to ask him the same thing, but instead, I just said yes. In my dreams I knew better; that Stevie Y asks the questions around here.

I'd rather sign the Hanson brothers