dat's sick

Whose?

I was surprised when Tatar fell so far down in the draft and had a feeling he could be a steal. Still early to say, but in a few years he might be another one of those guys that everyone is wondering why the hell they didn't pick him.

ZACH PARISE

It can work if you've got good shot-blocking and a goaltender that can stop the first shot. And if your defensemen are slow it might not be a good idea to have them running around and getting out of position. But for the Red Wings it was totally wrong.

Yeah I noticed that a lot during the playoffs too. Other team's sites had a lot more pre-game/post-game stuff than RW TV. And during the off-season, many teams had video recaps of their seasons, but not the Wings. A shame, but what can you do :/ Write an angry letter?

Backstrom had more points than Z last year (and more PIM), that's why he's higher. It has nothing to do with if they think Backstrom is a better player, just that it's not unlikely that he'll have more points this year again. But either way Backstrom is a great player, not as complete as Hank but if he works on his scoring he has the potential to reach 100 points. People sort of don't pay attention to him because of the flashier Ovechkin and Semin.

True. What they have are players that are exceptional at taking the puck away from the opposing players, a strenght they didn't use much on the PK last year. Good to hear that they're making the necessary changes. If the defense can return to form I see no reason for the Wings to do worse than last year.

Aww hell, I was really looking forward to seeing him in Stockholm... No more injuries please!

That doesn't sound completely unlikely as a PP formation, and would be awesome to see. But Babcock probably thinks there are enough swedes as it is so there's no need to bundle them all up together if he doesn't think it would help the team.

As much as I would want Zetterberg and Datsyuk to be on the same line and for Filppula to take a step up and center the 2nd line, a 3rd line of Leino, Fil and Williams IS pretty damn good. The Finnish Connection could create some magic, glad to hear they had a good start of camp. And those pics make me SO damn excited that hockey season is slowly starting up again. Less than 3 weeks until the season opener!

I know, I miss Forsberg too.

Not sure if Kronner is really the 2nd best hitter in the league, but he is the most spectacular and probably the best at open-ice hits. I think Stuart should be considered too.

It's still almost a month away so hopefully there's no reason to worry, but if he was to miss the season openers I would ******* cry.

A couple of years ago called, they want their post back.

The Wings could dress a team full of 19-year olds and people would still say they're old. I guess it's just because in many teams the stars are the youngest guys (Crosby, Ovechkin, Kane, Nash etc.) and the support players are veterans, while in the Wings the stars are usually a bit older while the support is (often) younger. And of course a lot of people think that once a player hits 30 he magically loses all skill and speed. And about Ozzie: if he was selected for the Olympic squad everyone would be saying that it was just because of Yzerman and Babcock running the team (like some said about Cleary), and now that he wasn't selected they are saying that the Wings brass don't have any faith in him. Total Catch 22.

Lidstrom could probably play until he's 50 if he wanted. The question is does he want to go out on a high note or slowly become a pale shadow of his former self like Chelios has? I don't think this will be his last season, but I don't think he'll play more than maybe 1-2 more years beyond this.

That's a dream scenario but it would be awesome if just half of that happened.

Zetterberg will have more points than Datsyuk.

The Rangers couldn't score more than 2 goals a game last year and still made the playoffs. Now they're supposed to finish 13th? Sure, if Gaborik can't stay healthy they've got serious problems, but Lundqvist alone will ensure they'll be at the very least fighting for a playoff spot. I don't believe in the Canadiens or the Senators. I actually think Tampa will take one of the last two spots in the East over either of them. The West looks pretty much how I'd predict it too.. although I think the Wings will be higher.

The Pens had almost no injuries during this year's playoffs. Will that happen two years in a row? Doubtful. Will the Wings be as injured as they were this year two years in a row? Also doubtful. And the Stanley Cup hangover IS real. The Wings started focusing on the upcoming season right after the Game 7 loss. The Pens are still partying with the cup. They're young and they don't have leaders like Lidstrom or Yzerman, the kind of guys that make everyone come down off that high and put in the work required to keep winning. The Wings were up and down during the regular season, but experience made them able to get it together in the playoffs. I doubt the Pens would be able to do that.

PP1 Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Lidstrom-Rafalski PP2 Filppula-Zetterberg-Cleary Kronwall-Stuart/Ericsson PK1 Zetterberg-Cleary Lidstrom-Rafalski PK2 Datsyuk-Draper/Helm Kronwall-Stuart/Ericsson

Z was targeting 50 goals last season. I think he really wants to rebound from a disappointing season for him individually and reach that mark. I'm definitely expecting 40+ goals from him. Franzen should also be able to get around 40, but I think he's a bit too inconsistant to get much more than that.

lol, someone should totally add the mario bros star music and some effects to this vid: name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>&"> name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350" />

There are a lot of people with broken sarcasm detectors in here..

This is the final nail in Abdelkader's AHL coffin, right?