dat's sick

That brought a tear to my eye. How I've missed you Mule.

Guess you missed the stat about the Wings PP being best in the league at home the last month or so?

Breakable things? You mean like their arms and legs and feet? Just cut them off and stitch them back on when the season starts? Interesting idea but I'm not sure the players would be up for that.

What if Kronner sits out the Olympics only to be injured in the first NHL game after the break? What if he gets injured getting out of his car during the break? We don't know what will help the Wings long-term and players run the risk of being injured anytime they take the ice. It's not like the injury risk is somehow higher during the Olympics. Kronner, just like Franzen, has missed a good chunk of games and looked rusty after coming back from injury. He needs games, he can't rest himself into shape. If he's cleared by doctors and feels good he should and WILL play. If he can't play, it will be a big loss for Sweden which is all I said to begin with. Eriksson is to my knowledge the only swedish NHL player to be called to the National Team only to be sent home because he couldn't take a spot on the team over guys from the SEL. What a loser.

argh.. no Kronwall would be a big loss for Team Sweden.. we need everyone we can get who has any kind of physical edge.

San Jose is due for a win against us but man it would suck if we lose tonight. Teams can start to pass us from behind if we don't start winning. 6-1 Wings. Mule with 4, Lebda with 2.

All shaman said was that Hudler would be on atleast the same scoring pace that Filppula is on. Which is not an outrageous statement at all. Hudler has always been a better scorer than Fil, while Fil is a lot stronger defensively. You don't need to defend Filppula everytime his name is mentioned.

If we lose against the Sharks and Sens and the teams behind us win, we could be in 13th (!) for the Olympic break. That gives you some perspective on how bad our situation is right now. We really need Nashville to lose tonight.

Why are you making this into some kind of Filppula vs. Hudler debate? What people are saying is that it would be nice to have Hudler around. Personally I LOVED our 3rd line with Sammy, Fil and Hudler, but they all became too good to play on the 3rd line for cheap.

Hudler didn't play a lot with Zetterberg or Hossa. I remember it being a running theme during the season how Babcock refused to give Hudler top 6 minutes, people had all sorts of speculation about how Babs had something against Hudler. Most of the year he was relegated to the 3rd line with Filppula and Samuelsson.

He had 57 points in 82 games last year. With the injuries we've had this year Hudler would have gotten a ton of PP-time and 1st/2nd line minutes with Datsyuk and/or Zetterberg. Would he have had a point-per-game pace here? Probably not. But even by a very conservative estimation, let's say 30 points in 59 games, he would have been a huge help for us. The KHL isn't a bad league. Datsyuk had 32 points in 47 games there during the lockout, only to score 87 points in 75 games the next year with Detroit. Hudler is doing well over there, against players like Jagr, Morozov, Yashin etc.

If the 16 best teams in the league made the playoffs, it would probably be like 11 teams from the West and 5 from the East.

Definitely wish we still had him. We haven't had a 3rd line scoring threat all year. Hell, we've barely had a 2nd line scoring threat. We have too many grinders this year, not enough scorers.

Howard is getting more and more buzz. Myers is the front-runner but if Howie carries us into the playoffs he could very well win it.

Franzen and Kronwall have been resting for much of the season. What they need is to play games to get up to speed. If Franzen plays the Olympics it could very well help the Wings, since by the time the NHL picks back up he will have shaken atleast some of the rust off, instead of it taking 5-10 games after the break for him to get going at which point the Wings could already be out of the running.

They've looked pretty good since the trade.

Sweden had a pretty good team in 2002.. I will always remember how we kicked Canada's ass in the opening game of those Olympics.. one of the best games I've ever seen Team Sweden play, I was so sure we'd win gold then

The rosters have to be finalized on the 15th I believe. As long as the player was in the preliminary troup he can be inserted into the roster, however it can only be as an injury replacement.

I won't feel sorry for Anaheim if he's out for any lenght of time. We need all the help we can get, even if it's in the form of injuries. And Team Canada almost gets stronger if they add Stamkos, he has twice as many goals as Getzlaf this year.

Wouldn't be too sure with Modin and Holmstrom having some injury trouble and Forsberg contemplating not even playing because he's not happy with the level he is on.

I don't expect much of him these first games back. I'd say that after the Olympic break is when he'll start to get going, especially if he plays for Team Sweden.

THIS. I don't see the need to lay a guy out in that situation. Plus, it's a blind-side hit and to me it comes down to what Redmond is always talking about: lack of respect. And it catches Salmela in the head for sure, it's just hard to see on some of the replays.

Just seeing that line in print makes me excited. I know Mule isn't going to step in and score hat-tricks and dominate games, but still, that line will scare opponents more than any other line we've been able to ice all season.

Ovechkin will break all of Gretzky's records at some point during the next season. If he doesn't, I will eat a sandwich and enjoy it.

I think goalie is a pretty cool guy, he stops pucks and doesn't afraid of anything..