Rob the Badger

Can't have five players on the ice when you're short handed. Unless Boyd was getting off the ice when Rivers was coming on.

I'm sure that almost every team would want him, the question is, who could afford him. I'd be willing to bet that the Sens and Dany will come to an agreement. They've done well together for the last two years and he will most likely have another sniff at the cup this coming season, and maybe a few more in the seasons to come. The Sens are young and could be a good team for quite a few years.

Drapes has to take the face offs. He's the best guy on the team when it comes to face offs. One of the best in the league.

Grigs is all potential and has done little to showcase it. Detriot is tripping over themselves for him to show that he can be a difference maker and he's doing little to prove that he wants to make it in the line up. He always looks a step behind the play and isn't playing with any passion on defense. It is looking more and more like the Wings brass want him to make it more than he does himself. He has had a couple of flashes of offensive prowess, and that is it.

Lang will score a short handed goal on a feed from Bertuzzi and Williams. Rivers will be the one who created the play but won't get credit for it on the score sheet.

Maybe Ottawa is banking on him to stay with a cup contender. Would you rather get an extra 10% working for a club that has no shot at winning, but has some cap room. Or would you rather get paid a little less and have another shot at becoming a champion?

I could see the first goal of the season coming from a blast from the blue line on a PP. So I'd go with Lids or Raf.

The Bob and Tom show --- they're interviewing Alan Alda. He wrote a book or something.

I'm eagerly awaiting for it to arrive. I'm just not going to hold my breath though, because I'm not expecting it to happen. I hope it does, but it probably won't. The Big 10 network will probably have bigger ratings and more hype.

"People and Poses" by Scalera. It's a book about body positions for artists. Not exactly a riveting page turner.

Rush - Roll the Bones.

I think that the new Griffins jerseys look like crap. I am pretty disappointed. I was eager to go out and get a new Griffins jersey but after seeing these abominations, I am not going to. I guess I'll be dressed 'retro' at the games.

It would be great to have the Griffins make offers to players like Alexandre Giroux and Wade Brookbank. They'd really help the Griffins and they're both former Griff players. Plus, Brookbank is a pretty tough customer who would be a welcomed enforcer when needed.

The bad penny has returned. There may be other arenas out there that are prettier, but few of them have the great decorations hanging in the rafters that the Joe has. The Joe has great site lines, and yes, letting go of JLA is going to be just as tough as letting go of the Olympia was... someday it's going to happen. But you don't have to bash the Joe because it's old and has character. Being profane toward such an iconic hockey institute just makes you look tasteless.

It looks like Downey and Neil really gave it their all in that bout. Both of them looked exhausted. Neil is one of my favorite guys in the NHL. He played for the Muskegon Fury and the Grand Rapids Griffins so I got to watch him progress up to the big league. Great guy and tough as nails. Would love to see him wear the winged wheel someday, but the Sens would be idiots to let him go.

There are still goal judges, they just moved them. They made room where the judges used to be so that camera men could have a better shot at what was going on around the net.

I love hockey. I watch as many games as I can. From the IHL Muskegon Fury to the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins to our Detroit Red Wings. I watch the Monday and Tuesday night games on Vs. as often as possible. I really like it when they have a 7pm Eastern Conf game then after that is over go to a 10pm West coast Western Conf game. If they put more NHL games on TV, I would watch them, regardless of whether or not the Wings were one of the teams playing. Having said all that, I do realize that I am in the minority. I could care less about Football. I might watch 3-5 football games a year, and easily watch 150+ hockey games a year. I was born in Michigan, but I think part of my brain must have been imported from Canada.

I thought everyone's favorite ex-wing was Uwe Krupp.

Rafalski was signing autographs and yucking it up off the ice. I doubt he'll miss any real playing time. He's fine.

BB King - The Thrill is Gone. (Much like the Tiger's play off chances)

Growing a sport that isn't healthy is just a quicker route to killing it. Look at the season ticket holder stats for teams like the Panthers, Predators, Thrashers, Coyotes, etc. The league shouldn't be considering expanding, it should be looking to eliminate teams that don't belong in markets that won't support them. If they eliminate the sore spots, they should at least move them to where they would be more appreciated. Canada is hockey crazy. They could take a team in Hamilton and another back in Manitoba. There are other northern cities that would welcome an NHL team. Why not Milwaukee? Why not Portland? Why not Seattle? There are communitites that aren't supporting their NHL team, whether it's due to bad management or just community indifference. Keeping the teams just for the sake of keeping them, and dumping more money into them, just doesn't make sense. You find out who your real fans are when things are going badly. Teams like Pheonix and Atlanta are learning that now.

I'm in favor of losing teams and strengthening the talent pool. Not depleteing it with more teams that are doomed to fail. I'd be in favor of a 24 team league with 4 divisions. Only the top two teams per division would qualify for the play offs. Yes, you'd lose a lot of play off games and some revenue because of it, but the product would be better. This would also affect the AHL and other minor league systems by making their product better as well. Basically it would put the fourth line of every team back in the minors or back in Europe. Their talent pools get better and we'd be watching a better product in the NHL. We'd see a lot less empty seats in arenas like in Florida, Pheonix, Nashville, Atlanta, etc etc. If you can't draw in at least 5,000 season ticket holders to a top level professional sport, you probably shouldn't have a team. *looking at you Atlanta* The league's brain trust should be looking for ways to improve the NHL, not trying to find more inventive ways of putting the final coffin nails in it.

Not trying to drag this thread back its original intent or anything... but, I think that the strength of this years team is going to be its defense. In other years, they were an offensive juggernaut. That isn't the case and hasn't been since losing Fedorov, Shanny, and some of our other gifted goal scorers. The Wings will still put up decent offensive numbers, but it will be the dedication to puck responsibility that will carry this team, like it has since the lock out. That being said, We have four great top defensemen... and some talented youth to back them up. If Lilja plays as well as he did during most of the play offs last year, then great. If he doesn't, he's expendable. I would like to see more size and grit on the blue line, but who wouldn't. The only problem is with the new focus on speed, your blue liners had better be able to keep up with the opponents fowards. You can't hit what you can't catch, and if your giants on the blue line are left in the dust, what good is their size?

"The High Graders" by Louis L'Amour

When Kronwall is able to stay healthy, there will be plenty of room left on his band wagon when the haters on this board do their normal 180 and start jockeying for him to be the next captain of the org. Nik has a lot of skill and tons of potential that he will reach when he stays healthy. He's been a beast in international competitions and carried the Griffins on his back while he was in GR. He's had tough luck with injuries, that has been the only thing preventing him from NHL glory.