dat's sick

Too bad Franzen wasn't there, he would have put Kane in his place.

But Leino is older than Z was and he has a whole season in the AHL and a little bit of NHL experience under his belt. 44 points is very doable for him. He'll probably have more than that if he gets some time on the top 2 lines and/or PP time.

Fil was completely snakebit and just not himself in the first half of the season. That's not comparable to Datsyuk who played great the entire year and just had a stretch of a couple of months where he was the hottest player in the league. I don't know if Fil had a bad case of stanley cup hangover or what, but something was definitely 'off' in the way he played for much of the year. I agree consistancy is key for Filppula. Like I said, if he was more consistant last year he could have gotten 50 points with ease. And if he can bring his performance from the playoffs over into next season, he could easily get 60 points. I don't care that 16 points in 23 games only makes for 57 points in 82 games statistically. Scoring in the playoffs is harder than it is in the regular season. Fil's shot isn't the best, he needs to work on that. But I don't care how lousy your shot is, you still have to use it. Maybe he's never going to be a 30 goal guy, but we've seen hints of scoring talent in him that tells me he could get 20-25 goals if he just stops looking for the pass ALL THE TIME.

I also think Flip can reach 60 points, IF he starts to shoot more. He showed in the playoffs what a great player he has the potential to become. I think some people really are underestimating him. He had a very, very slow first half of last season, that's the only reason he didn't have 50-ish points.

I always liked Sammy, but we couldn't afford him. Call me crazy, but with the Wings current cap situation I'd rather have Williams at 1.5M than Sammy at 2.5M. Atleast now we have a little bit of cap room to either bring up GR kids or make some moves at the deadline.

The only thing I'm worried about is that this team is much more vulnerable to injuries than we were last year or even the year before that. You can't go through an entire season without injuries, so we just have to hope many players don't get hurt at the same time because we don't have the depth to roll with it like we did this last season. As long as everyone is healthy I expect them to do fine. Like so many others, I expect us to score a little less but be tighter on defense and Ozzie to be more solid. We still have as many offensive weapons as any other team in the league, and there's no reason our defense shouldn't be able to bounce back from last season. My expectations in the end: Top 3 in the West. As for the playoffs, even with the losses we've had this off-season it's difficult to see what team is going to beat us in a 7 game series (once again, IF we're healthy). I think we have a real good shot at winning the cup. Especially if we can make some kind of pick up at the trade deadline. 4 years in a row in the WCF and 3 years in a row in the SCF would be amazing, and I'm sure the entire organization and the players will be gunning for that.

So where is the guy from that thread the other day who was arguing that Jagr was the best player of the last decade? I tried to talk some sense in him but he wouldn't hear any of it. Guess I'm not the only one who thinks both Brodeur and Lidstrom have been better in the last 10 years. And of course I think Lidstrom deserves this honor. He's been way more consistant and he has dominated the position of defenseman more than Brodeur has dominated the goaltender position.

It says Lilja had several fights last season, one of them being with Columbus' Jared Boll. In the article they write that it was Weber who injured him. Anyway, I'm beginning to lose hope that Lilja will be back on the ice anytime soon. We'll probably be without him for atleast the first half of the season.

Nah, stories like these always make me skeptical.

Haha true still would be cool to see for just 10-20 games.. or in the olympics maybe? according to liveblogging from the game, he's looking good out there together with Nicklas Backstrom and Hank. That is quite a line..

Right now Peter Forsberg is beginning his last attempt at a comeback, playing for his charity project The Icebreakers. He is playing on a line with Henrik Zetterberg. That would be fun to see for 82 games.

Ovechkin sometimes plays the point too, and I think he does it better than Malkin. But yeah, that's a deadly powerplay.. only problem is all those guys want the puck and I'm not sure if anyone of them is willing to take the job of standing in front of the net and do the dirty work. Actually the more I look at what Team Russia could potentially look like, the more I think that they're not going to be as good as everyone has been saying. Their high-end talent is the best in the world for sure. Ovie, Pav, Kovalchuk, Malkin is a top 4 that no other country can match. But I think both Sweden and Canada are a lot stronger when you look at potential 3rd and 4th lines, as well as on defence and goaltending. Not to mention that Canada and Sweden will probably have a better balance between skilled players and gritty, hard-working players. Russia is going to be dangerous if they manage to get everyone to work together (how good friends are Malkin and Ovie for example?), but they're not my top candidate for the gold.

Just don't let it be Bertuzzi. If the Wings sign him I'd consider selling my tickets to the season openers in Stockholm.

Guys, I think this could actually work. I have some adjustments though: Trade Filppula to the Capitals for Ovechkin, Green and their 1st round pick in next year's draft. This sounds like a deal both teams would benefit from imo. Trade Lebda and a 4th round pick to the Canucks for Luongo. They need a defenseman, we need a goalie. Both teams win! Hey, it worked in NHL09!

I'd still say it's more likely Z plays to 40 than it is that Hossa plays til he's 42. As much as I like the Z and Franzen deals and the cap hits they give us, I think maybe the league should have some kind of limit to how many years you can sign a player to beyond the age of say, 35. Meaning you could sign a 20 year old to a 15 year contract, but a 30 year old you can only sign to maybe 7-8 years at the most.

I never cease to be amazed at how big college sports is in the US.. 2 college coaches in the top 3? And I agree with Nev. But the list is obviously North-American sports/coaches only.

I think Datsyuk will have about 80-85 points (he can't have another year as great as the last two, can he?), Zetterberg 90+ points/40+ goals (bounce back year for him, I see a Selke in his future), Franzen 50 goals (I think he'll have a career year). Those guys will lead the way. Filppula will have a good year I feel, but won't have more than 60 points at the most. Leino could reach 50 if all goes well. Best +/- will be Lidstrom.

me too. he would have been a good fit here. oh well.

If Filppula plays the way he did in the playoffs he could easily get 60 points. Especially if he finally understands that he needs to shoot more, something he barely did for the first half of last season.

They're not going to trade Fil or Kronner for Kessel.. thank god. Kessel is alright, would be a nice replacement for Hudler, but if he wants 4 mil in salary there's no way he's coming here.

Hell yeah, I was just going to add it Kronwall, assisted by Zetterberg and with Homer in front of the net. It doesn't get much better than that. It's a nice idea, but how many people can read the russian alphabet?

Yep this is just a very preliminary list that doesn't really mean a lot. I do think it's good to see that Ericsson and Larsson are on there though. Larsson doesn't have that much of a chance of making the team, but Ericsson might.

Good list, pretty much exactly how I'd make it. I wouldn't say Kronwall is the hardest hitting swede though. Murray in the Sharks takes that title pretty easily. Homer might have been on that list a year or two ago. But he had a pretty weak season last year, and Eriksson deserves to be there with the season he had. Backstrom is still a little underrated in the league, though more people are starting to take notice to him. In my eyes he's the 2nd best player on the Caps, but Semin and Green get more attention than him. Gotta say NHL.com did good with these lists. No obvious flaws on either the Swedish or Russian ones.

I don't want Huselius on the team, and after his weak performance in the WHC's I doubt he's going to get a spot. If Omark plays well in the KHL he could be on there, and I wouldn't rule out Weinhandl and/or Mårtensson who seem to be favorites of B-Å Gustafsson's. In net I definitely think Jonas Gustafsson will be Lundqvist's backup, if he doesn't completely fail in the first half of this season. I agree with your top 5 D: Lids, Kronner, Ohlund, Hedman, Oduya. Although Hedman didn't get selected for the WHC team so if he doesn't play convincingly in Tampa his spot could go to someone else. 6th/7th d-men is between Edler/Murray/Strålman/Enström, with guys like Erik Karlsson and Jonathan Ericsson having decent chances if they have good first halves. I'd love to see Big Rig on the team. The lineup I would like to see: Franzen-Zetterberg-Alfredsson Sedin-Sedin-Samuelsson Weinhandl-Bäckström-Eriksson Axelsson-Påhlsson-Berglund(though he was bad in the WHC's, so not sure if he'll get a chance, maybe go with Sjöström or Homer instead) Omark Lidstrom-Kronwall Ohlund-Hedman Oduya-Ericsson Edler Lundqvist Gustafsson

Favorite hit of the year: