Chunkylover

Maybe he'll do an alumni game in the future. "Yzerman passes to Redmond, to Dionne. He scores!"

Let me try it this way. Did Stuart make a few big mistakes? During the long regular season, do bad plays tend to overshadow good plays? Have there been forum posters who jump ship and condemn a player when he is struggling? I don't want this to be the case. I'm just saying that there really isn't that much of a difference between some of the bonehead moves Stuart commited and, let's say Lilja's assist on the Selanne goal. Lilja's bad pass didn't lose the '07 WCF, it was the whole teams lack of focus in games four, five, and six that put them in the losing position. I'm not, nor have I ever alleged that Stuart isn't good or I want him to fail. I'm just saying that with all the build-up and excitement surrounding the signings this year, there will be moments when we fans are let down and I fear that Stuart will become one of those scapegoats. As for me, I'm happy that guys like Lilja, Lebda, and Samuelsson now have their name on the Cup. Can terrible players really get their name on the Stanley Cup?

Well, like I said Pav is my favorite Wing so I have higher expectations for him and he didn't dominate early in the Nashville series. As for your second question, I'm not predicting doom for Stuart, I'm just properly identifying the player's abilities and tendencies. Beyond that, I'm observing a discussion board phenomenon. If you go to the oldest threads on the board there is talk about how terrible Osgood was and how people (some who are still active) were regretting his return to Detroit. Now we're talking about him as a likely Hall of Famer. Also, it's been noted that many people who bashed Pittsburgh fans for hating on Hossa because he didn't re-sign with them are now hoping against hope that he'll re-sign with us. Discussion boards can be pretty bi-polar sometimes and I wonder if in all the pre-season excitement, we aren't setting our sights unrealistically high. There is no good reason for the failure of the '03 Wings who had pretty much the same talent. But they did and anything is possible.

I just got the few Penguins figures they've released and have them set up against the few Wings that have been depicted from this year's team. Plus I have nearly a full complement of the 2002 Wings and Avs stars. I just wish they'd make a few more Ducks so I could recreate that great rivalry.

Well sir, I just plain disagree. I think he is a good stick-handler and skates quite smoothly and competently with the puck. In fact many complain that he just cycles relentlessly, which implies good puck-control. When he, Hudler, and Filppula (or Franzen) get together they play some real good puck-possession hockey. Additionally he looked good in the defensive role with Drapes and Drake.

You're right Stuart is a great top four defenseman and was a first-liner in LA. He had a good playoff run putting up big points and big hits. For the record, I've never questioned that. Do you think that over an entire season his errant passes and occasional poor positioning will move him from discussion board darling to whipping boy? Especially if Lilja is traded. I see this as a potentiality. Not probable but possible.

Great, now I'm a saboteur. Uh, I guess to get back on topic, I like the Pronger one. Mikael Samuelsson: "What this? Purely incidental contact."

He's playing acoustic Guitar Hero.

Dude, a new Ozzie is a must! I always thought a good Holmstrom would look like his goal against the Sharks in game four last year where he's jumping, twisting, and batting the puck out of mid-air.

Pav is my favorite Wing and early in the playoffs he was my whipping boy because he wasn't doing very much. I think everyone should be held accountable, but some players seem to get picked apart excessively.

No doubt he played and plays well. I'm just thinking he will make more than a few big mistakes and since his jersey numbers only add to five they won't be dismissed so easily.

I don't know, maybe I'm just trying to prescient but I believe Lilja to be a solid depth defenseman who catches a lot of flak for the occasional bonehead move. This is because his bonehead moves occur at the absolute worst time. We only had Stuart for a brief time compared to how long we've had Lils. I hope I'm wrong. Certainly not the first time Stuart misses a check at center ice causing a two-on-one will he be berated, but those will build up. When the Wings go through their usual midseason doldrums, I think he will receive a lot of criticism. Do you think he won't get slammed or do you think he won't ever provide fodder for detractors?

Danny Gare scares me sometimes. He wears trendy Buddy Holly glasses and I think I saw him with an ear-piercing. He's like adults who wear Heely's. Unnerving.

Well, if he did then good. I want him to succeed. I didn't know much about him before he came here so I had no expectations. I just noticed that he made a lot of Lilja-esque mistakes.

About what? Both teams are average at best, neither plays exceptionally exciting hockey, yet they are both able to sell tickets. No knocks on Detroit and I'm not transferring the title to them just observing their strength.

True, but can Stu live up to the hype, not to mention the salary?

I know people get annoyed by newbies who start a bunch of random threads without searching through the archives and merely replying to a thread which already exists. This was the only Samuelsson thread I could find so I hope no one will mind me discussing the player rather than the pictures. I just watched game 6 against Dallas and Sammy was on for both even strength goals (Drapes? Drake??) and then in the next game got two goals. He potted another goal and a few assists in the Final. My question is this, does Samuelsson make those around him better? He contributed to the depth scoring when it mattered most and was top five among Wings forwards in goals, assists, points, and +/-. Can we afford to let this guy go?

I agree that Stuart is a good defenseman, is definitely better than Lilja, and played well with Kronwall. There were more than a few gaffes in the playoffs, errant passes, running way out of position to make a hit only to miss, which will only accumulate during a long season. It is this that will make him the next whipping boy.

I like when other cities or sports magazines try to take this title and give it to someone else. Detroit is "Hockeytown" because they own the rights to the name. Even if they sucked they'd still be Hockeytown. What's real lame is that no one tries to take "The State of Hockey" away from Minnesota, or "Hockey Bay" from Tampa, or "Barren Hockey Wasteland" from Phoenix. No, they know they will only move their product by going after the big dog in Detroit. Meh, whatever. Buffalo and Pittsburgh are fads right now. They had good runs recently, won a lot of games and went deep into the postseason and the fans are excited about the new sports team in town. I mean, those cities didn't have teams before the lockout right? Toronto is the only team that could continue to sell out, at incredibly high ticket prices, and ice a sub-par team. So I guess Toronto has to be Hockeytown 2. Runner-up would be Minnesota.

I've been satisfying my Red Wings Hockey withdrawals by watching some of the games I recorded from the season and I think if Lils is traded that Stu will take his position on the forum whipping post. He's good and all, but he did make a lot of errors in the playoffs. Fortunately our back-checkers and goal-tending bailed him out for the most part but over the long season those mistakes are going to pile up. I'm not poo-pooing the signing or the player, just wondered if anyone else is seeing that develop.

I imagine Leafs fans care about who their captain will be, and I think it will be Sundin. The longer he waits, the more likely he will stay in T.O.

I've never been a fan of the "fat guy voice" announcers like Jeanneret, Rosen, or ol' boy in Nashville. The Nashville guys sound like they like each other and are having fun at the game but their banter is inane. Denis Potvin and Craig Laughlin have the most annoying, high-pitched voices. During this year's playoffs, as bad a homer as Eddie O was for Pittsburgh, the absolute worst tandem was John Forslund and Andy Brickley. Brick is usually good for the Bruins games (side note: both Boston announcers were very fair during the Habs/Bruins series) but both of them sounded incredibly disinterested in the Colorado series. I always like hearing Dave Strader call Wings games and my favorite was a game he called with the "O" in which Edzo kept calling him "Spades" until deep into the game when you could actually tell that his mistake was pointed out to him and he started saying "Strades". Genius. I think the Pacific teams have pretty good duos as well, although the Ducks guys are kind of stuffy about their team and the Sharks color guy looks like James Carville. The Wild and Stars pairs have good interplay and don't detract from the game.