hokeychik22

i'd choose draper, lebda, datsyuk (them being my three favorite wings.) but if you think about it, partying with the whole team would be a riot. downey and ericsson included.

http://redwings.nhl.com/team/app/?service=...rticleid=390869

i was just going to post this too

i really like that article. i told the author of the blog too.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Grand Rapids Griffins center Justin Abdelkader has been named the Reebok Edge/American Hockey League Rookie of the Month for October, the league announced on Monday. Abdelkader, 21, scored a team-high seven goals and added two assists for nine points in seven games. He tied for the AHL rookie lead in goals and points for the month, while ranking among the league’s overall leaders in goals (T2nd), power play goals (three, T7th) and shooting percentage (0.500, T1st). The Muskegon, Mich., native and former Michigan State Spartan scored his first goal in his AHL debut on Oct. 11 at Lake Erie and lit the lamp in five of the month’s seven contests, including Oct. 26 against Norfolk when he netted his first professional hat trick. Detroit’s second choice (42nd overall) in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, Abdelkader made his pro debut last season with the Red Wings in their Presidents’ Trophy-clinching contest on April 3, and then remained with the club as a “black ace” throughout its run to the Stanley Cup championship. Abdelkader becomes the first Griffin in five and a half years and just the second ever to win the AHL’s Rookie of the Month award, following Tomas Kopecky’s honor for February 2003. In recognition of his achievement, Abdelkader will be presented with an etched crystal award prior to an upcoming Griffins home game.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/165674 You might say that Sean Avery is the human equivalent of jock itch. It's his job, as the baddest badass in the National Hockey League, to annoy his opponents, to get under their skin—anything to gain an edge. Like the time he painted his fingernails black. "It was an experiment to see what a guy would do when he saw a fist coming at him and the nails are painted," he says. Or the time he turned his back on a game against New Jersey so he could wave his arms to block goalie Martin Brodeur's view and glare at him like a jackal. "I still remember the look on his face," says Avery. "I think at that point he thought I was officially out of my f–––ing mind." The NHL promptly outlawed that kind of diversionary tactic in what is now called "the Avery Rule." "I only got to do it once," he says, "but it was a good once." If you met Avery on the street, though, you'd never guess he likes to get bloody. Quite the opposite. He may be the most hated guy in the NHL, but he's hands down its best-dressed player, too, with taste that runs to Alexander McQueen, Dries van Noten, Gucci and white patent-leather Saint Laurent shoes. Plenty of athletes are also known for being fashion plates: David Beckham, Roger Federer, Greg Norman. But Avery is cut from a different cloth, and not just because those guys are gentlemen and he's a professional jerk. His real passion is women's fashion—appreciating it, not wearing it. He started as a mini-clotheshorse growing up outside Toronto and gradually developed a taste for couture. With men's fashion, "you do suits and pants and that's about that," he says. "Women's clothes tell a story. That's what's interesting to me." Even though he left the New York Rangers to play for Dallas this year, Avery still makes it back to Manhattan for Fashion Week—he sat between Martha Stewart and Winona Ryder at the fall's Marc Jacobs show. He even spent the summer doing an internship at Vogue. "When you see a guy walking out of a game with a broken nose and a busted lip and two days later you see him at a Vera Wang show, it's probably confusing to some people," he says. "Or intriguing." So intriguing that New Line has commissioned a screenplay based on his double life. It's sort of "The Devil Wears Prada" with skates and brawls. "I think it's going to be something that guys can take their girls to," says Avery, who envisions fellow Canadian Ryan Gosling playing him. His internship provided plenty of fish-out-of-ice stories. During one of his first trips to the magazine's cafeteria, he took too much food—making him the first Vogue staffer to do that—and promptly spilled beef stroganoff on a horrified woman. The fashion world is with him when he plays, too. On the road he travels with a big bag to hold his favorite magazines: American Vogue, French Vogue, British Vogue, V, V Men. The ribbing from the guys, of course, can get ugly. "They call me a ***, and I laugh," he says. "It's so narrow-minded and stereotypical." And unwise. If you make Sean Avery mad, you might get a fistful of black nail polish.

since his surgery i noticed he has been a little better.

i personally would rather see Ericsson in stead of lilja, meech or lebda, but i doubt swapping him for one the guys i said would happen. We need new d-men all together.

lilja f's things up way to much, i know his first game back was pretty good, but other nights he loses it. Lebda has good nights, he's a pretty good player. Ericsson i think deserves to be playing in Detroit right now, Meech personally hasn't done much for me when i've seen him play this season. (he was great last year) this year he kept falling on the ice everytime i saw him, missing scoring chances, was on the ice for goals on the other team.

same here, i've been calling him Conks too. Besides Dom, and Jiggy (yea i like the guy, he's the only duck) Conks is a top goalie for me.

i agree with you. last season meech did pretty well, after last night i just thought he was very sloppy and falling all over the place as if he couldn't skate.

I WOULD OF LOVED TO SEE ERICSSON INSTEAD OF MEECH. I THOUGHT MEECH WAS JUST ALL OVER, FALLING ON THE ICE, SLOPPY. ERICSSON OVER MEECH!

i think he's an ass. i agree with you guys on that video. a big faker. also i can't forget what he did to ozzie in the playoffs, even if ozzie sticked him supposedly, he should of known better and left it at that.

I personally think if Ozzie wants the starting role then he needs to start proving himself. he might be a little nervous, but still.. also i think the whole team is still partying from winning the cup a little, and needs to end that til next june.

i'm personally not a lily fan and don't like to see him play, but I do hope he feels better soon. Surgery is never fun. Hope there is also no complications from surgery. i read in one article that babs said it all started a think a week ago with lily having stomach pains, glad though he took care of it now before it got worse. Also GO CONKLIN!! Good luck in net tomorrow night!! Lets leave Manny and the blues feeling blue.

i disagree, most hated i think would be ***-face Pronger.

Never!

jessica simpson-come on over..i love the song

wings don't need a third jersey. i'm fine seeing what i see already.

i noticed mac a little teary eyed here. overall Bush did a good job.

I don't think this was posted already. But oh well. Kris Draper is the luckiest man in Detroit. And he's got scars and four Stanley Cups to prove it. When you think about his career with the Red Wings -- he's entering his 15th season in Detroit -- it's hard to argue against that proclamation. It seems like he's been here forever. He's like a comfortable set of drapes, if you will, in an old house. You consider replacing them, but then think about how well they work, so you leave them alone. So while players and coaches have come and gone through Hockeytown, teams have been created and disappeared from the NHL and a new wave of fans has embraced the game, Draper, a 37-year-old center, remains. "Everything's been so positive," said Draper, who was traded from the Winnipeg Jets to the Wings for $1 in 1993. "I consider myself the luckiest athlete in Detroit. "I have a great relationship with the fans. I don't take anything for granted. I'm lucky." Indeed. A player like Draper -- a hard worker, not a star -- doesn't normally stick around this long. Steve Yzerman, yes. Nicklas Lidstrom, yes. Kris Draper, no. "He's one of those guys in a locker room, who just kind of brings everybody together," said Yzerman, now a Wings vice president. "On the ice, he does a lot of the little things well. He's a good penalty killer, an excellent faceoff man. Those things are very valuable." Darren McCarty, who knows Draper well, says the intangibles are what separate "Drapes" from so many other players. "Everybody knows his work ethic, his dedication and what a stand-up guy he is," McCarty said. "But he's the blood flow in this locker room and has been for a long time." Draper has enjoyed many magical moments, but none better than winning the Stanley Cup last season. This time, Draper enjoyed it with his wife and three kids. "My son (age 6), looking at me, we were out on the ice and he said, 'Dad, I want to see the Stanley Cup,' " Draper said. "That's something I'll never forget. "The most important things for me are my family and being a part of the Detroit Red Wings, and both of those things kind of came together on that night." Draper was fortunate to eventually return to the ice after a vicious check from behind by the Avalanche's Claude Lemieux in the Western Conference finals in 1996. Draper was never afraid of absorbing a big hit. The only thing that made him nervous was the NHL trade deadline. Each spring, Draper feared he was going to be sent packing from Hockeytown. But, somehow, he always survived. "That was always a scary day for me," said Draper, who won the Selke Trophy in 2004 as the NHL's best defensive forward. "When I don't have any messages on that day, I feel like, 'Oh, man, I got by another one.' "I never wanted to go anywhere. To me, this is the best place to play hockey, the best organization -- ownership to players." Among those players, he's closest to goaltender Chris Osgood and McCarty. In fact, Draper had a hand in getting McCarty back into the NHL. After a long lunch during which the two rekindled their friendship -- McCarty became distant after his personal life went haywire -- McCarty asked his buddy for help. "He said yeah, that he would open as many doors as he could," McCarty said. "But he told me I had to do the work." In that case, then, McCarty was lucky to know Draper.

here's a video i took as the banner was being raised.

thanks, using as desktop.

Hanks turn- http://www.hhof.com/html/exSCJ08_27.shtml

Brett's family i guess is from Wonder Lake, probably the reason he spends summers there.