Chunkylover

I meant that recently they haven't had a win-streak. Everyone knows February was a "wake-up" moment for this team but it wasn't like they were bad the whole season, just the end of January where they won four games they should have lost. For example the come from behind overtime win against Minnesota, or our comeback win against the Bruins where we were down early. The team got in a funk because they started winning based solely on skill and not by playing aggressively. They've been on auto-pilot for a while and Babs has not had a chance to make a course-correction. Tomorrow's game will be tough but Thursday's game will be the tone setting game: whether they will get back to playing Babcock's style of grinding play or not.

The "Bolts" and "Sens" jerseys are dumb in my opinion. Dallas' is a little weak but I like it. Atlanta and Buffalo are alright but I don't like the modern slashes and armpit piping. The Sabres jersey isn't a genuine throwback because of that. The black jerseys in Carolina, Chicago, Boston, San Jose, Phoenix are fine but really lack imagination. Nothing new with the Penguins, Canucks, and Leafs, but still good. The latter two teams should replace their primary jerseys with their thirds. The Oilers', Flyers', and Islanders' are the obviously the best. The white name tape on the Flyers jerseys is weird but cool in a vintage way. LA and St. Louis have great thirds as well. The best of those which aren't throwbacks.

That would cause cap problems but I've thought of that as well. Although I don't necessarily think it's the goalies that need to wake up. The problem is that similar to that stretch in January of last season, the entire team is playing like crap but still getting the occasional victory. That, combined with no practice is delaying the coach's ability to correct the bad habits. This weeks game against the Canucks and next weeks game against the Flames will be good judgement games to see if a few days off between games are really what's needed.

The only reason the Wings get more penalties in third is they've been sitting back on their leads. No conspiracy there, unless they're in on it too.

I just moved back to Michigan and I had to switch from DirecTV to Comcast and don't have the NHL Network. The game has local blackout restrictions so does that mean FSD will be blacked out or is it blacked out for everyone not in the local area? Also I saw someone mentioned CBC, are they carrying the game tonight? Thanks for the help.

This has been one crazy season so far. Dallas sucking, Boston ahead of Montreal, Detroit weak at defense, the Southeast division with two teams in the hunt, and as someone mentioned a lot of serious injuries to top-flight players.

Given the way Lebda has struggled this season that would be a logical decision, but it was Quincey that struggled in the preseason so he determined his own fate. It says something about the organization that they are loyal not only to their contracts but also to seniority, with the latter winning in this case. To this point does anyone think our bottom pairing has been the key to our early struggles? Stuart is really to blame, or at least his agent is. If he signed, what, a day earlier we'd probably not have re-signed Lilja, and then our bottom pairing could very well be Meech and Quincey.

Why keep Quincey when we have Ericsson? That's the real comparison. Many have commented on how Meech played better than both Quincey and Lebda in the preseason. Lebda is established and had a good enough record to merit his spot on the roster and Meech and Ericsson and whoever else we have on D in the minors all were better than Quincey. As far as the depth chart goes. Yes we made a mistake not getting anything for him. Not as colossal as Bryzgalov or Schneider. On the plus side, we aren't paying him and that means that some of our better prospects are closer to making the big club sandwich.

It was kind of lame since Lils tried to channel his #3 counterpart in Calgary to start the fight. I blame the jersey and the bad ice. I mean come on Lidstrom fell trying to get back for a two-on-one. It must have been the ice. On the plus side those Vintage jerseys looked good.

That's it exactly. He's got this big, dumb, ******-face or something. I use to hate seeing him score but then I could no longer deny that he's a great player and so ******-factor aside I respect him. And what is it with all the AO knobslobbering? I love how he's seen by many fans as the anti-Crosby when it's the same media that overexposes the both of them.

This sounds more like Murph than Keats. Keating is a goofball with some of his pop culture references and all that but I'm sure he's having fun coming up with that and it's enjoyable to watch him enjoy his job. Try watching some of the New York teams' intermission shows. They try to run them like the evening news. Kind of a joke. And if you want bad cadence watch Murph on NHL On The Fly: Final. He's all about... PAUSing... and... EMPHasizing SYLLables in the... most disJOINTed FASHion. Stay between the benches Murph!

Is it safe to say that the Ducks were fluke champions along with the Lightnings and the Hurricanes? They've had a lot of personnel changes but mostly to their depth players. They still have a good core group, although perhaps the leadership of Niedermeyer and Pronger is over-rated. It just seems odd that they'd have this much trouble.

#10 didn't look that special. #9 looked like Murray led with his hands. #8 also looked a little suspect. I mean Tkachuk basically kneed the guy as he was falling. #7 was good. #6 also good but Kronner always looks like he's getting his elbow up because of the way he follows through. #5 looked a lot cleaner and twice as devastating. #4 good hit but not better than Kronner's #5. #3 Stortini hit him pretty close to the boards. Kind of surprised he didn't get a boarding penalty or something. #2 Kostitsyn does his best impression of Datsyuk taking advantage of superior leverage. #1 was great. What is it with Robidas always being a target for monster hits?

I've never liked Burns. He's Pronger Jr.

That's just crazy enough to work!

That's too bad for ol' Barry. Even though he's been a punk for most of his time on ESPN he was a sane counterpoint to Don Cherry during the playoffs last year. I'm not happy that he's fired but boy are Koules and Co. going to learn a lot of lessons about how not to run a team.

It would be nice if the third guy could get the odd goal and some consistent assists. His linemates are too good for him not to see any production. Sammy, Fil, and Cleary all have good defensive instincts and fit well there but they should be benefitting from Z and Mule which heretofore none have.

Sometimes I feel bad for Hank getting demoted and then playing with Samuelsson and Filppula or Cleary. But he's still putting up a lot of points so good on him. I think the most powerful counterpoint during contract negotiations will be the injury factor. Samuelsson is one of the most defensively responsible forwards out there. He's always mindful of when a defenseman is pinching. Sure he can cough up the puck but so can Rafalski who's making six times as much as Sammy. And yeah his shot is inaccurate but at least he's doing what the coach is telling him to do: shoot the puck! Hudler doesn't need any more second line time to prove that he just can't compete with the opponents top four defensemen. He thrives against bottom pairings and on outnumbered situations and that's really where he's the best fit. It seems like whether it's Sammy, Fil, or Clears on the second line they underachieve and that needs to be solved because there's no reason for that to happen when you've got Mule and Z killin' everybody out there. I say leave Fil with Z based on his potential and paycheck. Rotate Cleary in when he's healthy. Samuelsson is ahead of Hudler on this particular depth chart.

Thomas is a good goalie who earns every minute he gets on the ice and has beaten the odds against him multiple times. Plus he's something of a local boy.

Ales Hemsky - Edmonton's Datsyuk, he just tries to get too pretty Ryan Getzlaf - Big and physical with great hands Mike Richards - As mentioned, can do everything, in the mold of a young Shanahan Sergei Fedorov - Would be happy to see him back in Detroit Brendan Morrow - Good on-ice leader

And yet it's McCarty that's in Detroit, which means there is either a flaw in your logic or the coaching staffs'.

Clarkson did a good job of tying Mac up. You can see where he'd have his right hand back and Clarkson just had his arm locked to prevent the punch from coming through. The sad thing is that most fights are pretty boring and this is by no means the worst. Maybe one in ten are actually worth watching. Was Drake v. Perry that good last year; or Cleary v. Pronger? No. This was more of a fight than either of those. And FYI guys, if Downey is in GR and McCarty is in Detroit then Downey is not a better option.

I was on the road listening to the ticket and Ken Kal made the fight sound epic. When I got home and saw the replays it didn't seem that great, but 1:35 is a pretty long grapple-fest especially since they did get some swings in toward the end. Mac needs to get his stamina up because he was gassed.

What does GM have to do with the Wings? Sure it would be a bad thing but they don't own the team or the arena. Just a lot of trash talk from those pesky Canadians.

Where did that Samuel Jackson one come from? And in what arena was that LA/Colorado game?