hockey23

Norris Trophy winner my ass. I don't think I've seen Lidstrom make a play that bad in his whole career.

I'm gonna make Big E posts after every game until he turns into his old self again. That's 2 solid games in a row.

It's taking a 4:3 picture (not widesreen) and stretching it to fit the 16:9 widescreen TV. It's terrible and I find it better to just watch the 4:3 picture with the black bars on the sides.

How bout some love for Big E. He made some nice breakout passes and looked pretty solid. Definitely an upgrade over Janik.

Good Freep article with quotes from Hossa and Kane

Anyone else just see Franzen go off slowly? He made an open ice hit and it looked like he twisted his knee and went off slowly. Hopefully he was just tired. Edit: He's back out there and we score. Thank god

Agreed. He's a quality player but not elite. Definitely not top 5. He's never even put up 70 pts. He also gets labeled as one of the best two-way forwards but was a minus in the playoffs.

Didn't see this posted or if it's true but per TheNHLWord on Twitter...

Bonuses are for playing 40 games, 55 games, winning Round 1, and winning Round 2. Abby will be with the Wings from the start and they'll carry 14 forwards. One of Miller or Ritola won't be on the team. Veteran D possible but I say start with Kindl/Janik and get a d man at the trade deadline if needed. Meech will likely be traded.

K got ya. So cap space could be useful for short term injuries, but like you said with a 23 man roster multiple players would have to go out to even need to make a call up.

So you can have a 24 man roster if someone has a short term injury? I've never heard of this.

Trade Meech and you'll have $1.2 in cap space with carrying 14 forwards. There's no need for $500k for injury call ups. I keep hearing Holland wants to carry a full 23 man roster (14f 7d) so there wouldn't be a roster spot for a call up even if we had the cap room. Someone would have to go on LTIR anyway. So, spend the full $1.2 on d man.

How is losing 4 one goal games to the Sharks after bs 5-on-3s and Lidstrom's unfortunate broken stick getting smoked? The series was very competitive and the Wings lacked a Dan Cleary that could walk and Hudler. Add Modano to that duo and you have one of the best third lines in the league. The Wings didn't have solid depth last year and that's why they didn't go far. But to ignore adding a 57 point 26 year old and getting back a healthy Cleary is just blatant homerism on your part.

I hope you see that the Wings have more depth than the Hawks, so where does that put the Wings in the West 2-3? So basically you're saying a 2nd or 3rd seed can't win the cup. LOL

They don't have arbitration rights. Like others said, they will be signed after Modano decides.

Our only hope is that they're wrong. NHLSourcesSay isn't the most reliable.

Stick to talking about the Hawks. The Wings issue last year was secondary scoring and that was addressed by adding a 26 year old who has already put up a 57 point season. Also, free agents such as Modano may be added to also help with depth scoring. They have improved and may not be done improving.

SOurce?

I agree it's a pretty good roster, but Mirtle just tweeted that the Hawks would not give details on the bonus overages so I wonder how accurate that is. If it's only $1.3 they're in decent shape, but $4 mil could mean Sharp/Bolland. Edit: $4.2 mil in overages. Now they might be in trouble.

No, I was making the point that they would be $2.4 mil over and therefore would have to trade Bolland/Sharp.

K next question for Mr. Blackhawk. How would the Hawks look if they lost also lost Ladd, Huet, and Bolland/Sharp? Here's what I get with the $4 mil in overage (since you cant back up the $1.3) AUTO-GENERATED CAPGEEK.COM LINES FORWARDS Jonathan Toews ($6.300m) / Patrick Kane ($6.300m) / Marian Hossa ($5.275m) Patrick Sharp ($3.900m) / Dave Bolland ($3.375m) / * Jack Skille ($1.275m) Tomas Kopecky ($1.200m) / Kyle Beach ($1.171m) / Marty Reasoner ($1.150m) Troy Brouwer ($1.025m) / Viktor Stalberg ($0.850m) / Jake Dowell ($0.525m) * Bryan Bickell ($0.500m) DEFENSEMEN Brian Campbell ($7.143m) / Duncan Keith ($5.538m) Brent Seabrook ($3.500m) / * Niklas Hjalmarsson ($2.643m) Brian Connelly ($0.875m) / Simon Danis-Pepin ($0.850m) Shawn Lalonde ($0.773m) GOALTENDERS * Antti Niemi ($2.826m) / Corey Crawford ($0.800m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (no bonus cushion is used in these calculations) ROSTER: 22; CAP: $55.4m; PAYROLL: $57.795m; CAP ROOM: $-2.395m I'm lazy and just put 2's in front of Hjalmarsson's and Niemi's cap hits. I'm guessing they'll be signed somewhere in that range. But, this still leaves them with $2.4 mil to cut.

Mr. Blackhawk man - I asked on page 1 for a source for the bonus overage only being $1.3 mil and I guess you didn't see it so I'll ask again. I haven't seen this anywhere and now I'm seeing this from Mirtle on Twitter...

Don't compare the Wings and Hawks based on the core and where they're at. The Hawks now are somewhat similar to the '97 wings. YOu can start comparing once Kane and Toews win 3 cups and then they can transition flawlessly to a new core and that core wins a cup, all while being a top 4 seed every year.

You're proving his point. Osgood was excellent in the regular season before he won the cup. .914 sv % and a 2.09 GAA, not to mention a 27-9-4 record. pretty damn good if you ask me.

Wow. Finals appearances in 1998, 2008, and 2009 is getting hot for a few rounds?