Wombat

there is absolutely no way that Babcock will bench Helm. It will be either Kopy or Maltby. I would prefer to give Maltby a chance to roll with Draper in the playoffs at first. If he doesn't keep up the intensity and provide grit, throw Kopy right back in. I think the other interesting thing to think about is if/when Draper gets back, Babcock can more easily alter the lines with the addition of another quality centerman. He could reunite the ZDH line, going with something like: ZDH Franzen/Flip/Hossa Huds/Helm/Cleary Maltby/Draper/Sammy

What does everyone think about trying to balance out the defensive pairings? What I mean, switch it up so that the Wings don't have to roll a Lebda - Meech/Chelios pairing. Something like: Lids/Jr Stu/Lebda Ericsson/(Meech or Chelios) What I like about something like this is that it gives each pairing a little bit of everything. Each has some physical presence, speed, puck-carrying, and veteran savvy (if Chelios plays with Ericsson). Lebda/Meech scares me because they are essentially the same player, and they will lose more physical battles and have less D-zone savvy. Lebda/Chelios also scares me because I think Chelios needs to play with a fast and physical player to balance what he lacks right now. Also, Kronwall seems to play better when teamed with Lidstrom, but really, who doesn't?

Great point about the bad change... things like that can easily determine who wins and loses playoff games.

It seems to me that when he goes to make these big hits, he tries to jump and spin into the guy... almost like he's unleashing a double axle or something. Sometimes it works, and other times it makes him look out of control and he bounces off the guy. Someone else in this thread said something to the effect that he could stay low and skate through guys, and then there would be no question of him jumping into guys, and he could probably recover from the hit (positionally) faster and level the other guy harder.

Lots of positives from this game. Stuart was incredible... probably the best game I've seen him play as a Wing. Lidstrom was dominating. From the 3rd period on, the Zetterberg line was great, shutting down Getzlaf et al. and getting good offensive chances to boot. Helm is everything Draper used to be and more.

For most of the season, to me Chelios has not looked like a legit NHL player anymore. He had a short stretch of playing pretty well, but he has not been good the past few times he's played. Maybe it's because he doesn't play enough, but he's slow, weak with the puck, and takes bad penalties. I have no problem with Babcock benching him, especially since Stuart and Lidstrom were playing really well.

Draper's injury keeps everyone guessing This is a Mitch Albom article from today's Free Press. It includes this quote: If he was in no pain from a broken bone/sprained joint/pulled muscle, I would think he'd be good to go. That's why I'm thinking this has to be a head injury, where he's not "hurt" but has some other side affects that won't go away like headaches, fuzzy eye focus, etc.

I disagree. Lilja has not been allowed to skate or work out because of a bleeding vein, and not a concussion. I'm under the impression that you can still work out if you have slight concussion symptoms, but can't play until you have a couple days symptom free. I could be wrong though. Just how the pacing of the "he's out for two games" and that they don't know when he'll be back to me looks to be more of a concussion-type injury than a broken bone. There is a lot more guesswork around a concussion than there is any broken bone.

The thing I keep thinking is that it has to be a concussion. What other "upper body injury" would allow him to practice, but also be bad enough that they declare him unable to play for the next 2 games... re-evaluate, and then out another 2 games?

The options for the Wings next round is either Hiller or Luongo. I'll take my chances with Hiller!

You're quite right about this guy seeming to be a "winner" in life by gloating about getting kicked out of 2 playoff games. However I think you're off about the disrespect issue. I take it as an analogy of visiting someone's house. At my house, I can do as I please, but as a visitor of someone else's house, I must abide by their rules. By extension of your argument, if "nothing good" has ever happened at your house, it would not be disrespectful for someone to TP your lawn, soap your windows, or even leave a 10-pound mollusk in your living room as a calling card that they visited

No worries, my response back was sarcastic and I apologize if it did not come off as such. I completely agree with you that people will do what they want to do. Please do keep posting; it's just a forum and we're just sharing opinions, so it's all good! You know, I think you're right that I'm being a bit extreme in saying "both go to jail". I guess what I see is that the Wings fan started the situation, which was then escalated by the CBJ fan. If it had turned into something bigger than I guess the case for jail time would be stronger but as it is, I agree that it is probably not valid. That said, if I was a prosecutor in a hockey market, I might try to merit public favor by stating I would charge any fan throwing octopi (or other stuff) on the ice with a crime. An idle threat perhaps, but overall, you really can't trust every Wings fan to "respectfully" throw the octopus into an innocuous area of the ice in a potentially hostile arena. It's events like this that make me feel stronger about my original point; I love octopi at the Joe, and dislike it on the road. I wouldn't be shocked whenever a fan gets his ass beat for throwing something on the opponents ice, and I'd rather not have the situation develop.

I'm no lawyer or anything, but if I was a prosecutor I'd see if there was enough to go for a disturbing the peace/public nuisance/something of that nature. I'm not talking years in a PMITA prison, I'm just saying a couple hours/night in the clink. You never know what his intent was, whether it was to "nicely" throw it into an empty spot on the ice, or to try to hit a player. Depending on what the CBJ fan did, he would clearly face steeper penalties.

Cool, and no worries! Definitely a lot of bad decision making was going on in the stands late in the 3rd period.

If you are referring to me, I said in a previous post in this thread that I think both guys should go to jail at least overnight... the attempted thrower, and the guy that jumped him. Clearly he did not deserve a beat down so I do not condone that one bit.

Ah, thank you for pointing that out for me, I did not know there was an age limit.

Thank you for being the arbiter of opinion relevance. That's what I was trying to get at and perhaps I did not say it as succinctly. We would cheer if a Wings fan defended the Joe from some other team's fan throwing something on the ice. Of course, it is moot as right now it doesn't seem as if any teams have a tradition quite like the Red Wings, but I totally get why other cities don't like having it happen. I LOVE when the octopi fly in the Joe, but not on the road.

I'm sort of surprised Rinne didn't end up as one of the top 3 Calder guys... he had a good season.

Edit: I've posted this twice on two different hosting services and it's "disappeared" twice.

I deviate from most Wings fans over this point. I absolutely LOVE the octopus tradition. My friends and I in college would throw stuffed octopi around the apartment after Wings goals in the playoffs. That said, I am completely against the throwing of the octopus in an opponent's arena (with the exception of EXTREME circumstances like having the Wings about to win a Cup). Take a look from their perspective... no matter how traditional, would you like it if another team waltzed into your arena and did that? I think it's celebratory in Detroit, and disrespectful in other arenas. Some things are just best left at home, like throwing the octopus, doing the Lambeau Leap, or otherwise showing off. And let's face it... the octopus in the opponent's arena is not respectful tradition, it's trying to show up the hosts. We speak of classiness a lot on these forums and I find the octopus on the road to be very much not classy, despite it being a great DETROIT tradition that I love in the Joe. The guy trying to throw is wrong, and the guy beating him is wrong. I'd just assume that they both go to jail.

For the Wings, wouldn't it be more noticeable if they had set colors that were a strong contrast to their jesey colors? Red seats blend in more with the red and while that most of the fans wear, while blue or black seats would probably stand out more.

Interesting stuff, but did you adjust incomes by the rate of inflation? Using an Inflation Calculator I found online, $79.35956 billion in 2002 is equal to $93.83264 billion in 2009. So going by your estimates, if the current 2009 workforce earns $85.75 billion this year, it's actually worth less than the amount earned in 2002 because of inflation, almost 10% less. That means the cost of all goods and services aggregated (rent, energy, gas, food, cable, phone, etc) have increased more than the total workforce has earned. so if the Wings, or any entertainment-based business in Detroit, were to think about their ticket costs in comparison to how much money the entire metro area earns, they would have to drop ticket prices to match.

I agree. I said in this thread that I was cautious because the team did look soft most of the year, and while I knew they'd step up physically in the playoffs, I didn't know how much. They REALLY stepped up. That is the sort of overall team physicality that I want to see out of them. It wouldn't suck to have another 1 or 2 guys in there that can blow guys up with hits, but from this group, that was great. They took the physical play to Columbus and did not let up. Give me 20ish more games like that in this playoff season and the Wings are probably champs.

I am of the mind that you don't need an "enforcer" to win the Cup, but I do think it is easier if you have a bit more grit to the game than the Wings are showing right now. All I want is for the playoffs to start so we can see what this year's playoff Wings are going to be like. If they are soft like in the regular season, they won't go far. I think they'll pick up their gritty play (not fighting, but physicality does matter in the playoffs), but it's to be determined to see how far they pick up their gritty play. In the playoffs last year, they did not dress actual "enforcers" but they had grittiness permeating throughout the whole lineup. I think it's a valid argument right now that a team so seemingly devoid of grittiness can win the Cup. Where I disagree is that the Wings need a bona fide enforcer out there. I think they can do it with every player incrementally being tougher/grittier, like last year. It's not about the Wings' FM rank year to year... we know they are at the bottom of the list, but it's more about having guys that will step up when needed. I can't wait for tonight for us to see who steps up!