Icesurfer

The goalie is suppose to be the best penalty killer...... enough said.

Just when I thought Kronwall was backing off from delivering those hits because of his tendency to injury. Maybe he should leave those hits to May... isn't that one of reasons why Wing's got May???

Was a great game.... Bryzgalov and Nabokov were fabulous..... I thought the Sharks should have put more pressure on the Phoenix defense toward the end of the game... they were too cautious.

If people think this will "benefit" the Wings you are nuts. You are all assuming that Franzen will come back in March and play the same as he did the last 2 years in the playoffs. First of all, depending on the degree of tear, the recovery from a torn ACL can be a slow and painful process. This is not the same as his previous injuries. I do not expect Franzen to be able to perform the same in April. Secondly, injuries occur anyway. I predict there will be at least one or two more injuries that would have given the Wings cap relief and allowed the younger players to play. Short injuries this time of year lasting no more than a couple of months are manageable and can give you what you want. This, however, is an entirely different story. Does Kronwall deliver the same mind boggling hits as he did before his torn ACL? I haven't seen one in awhile. If Kronwall was told to cool it because of his propensity for injury, it looks like Franzen is going down the same path for tendency to injury and I doubt anyone would tell him to "cool it". And we are talking about someone who was signed for a long time.

An injury is NEVER a good thing... especially when there could be long term effects with someone signed for so long. IMHO we will see recurrent injuries with Franzen... it is 3 years in a row so far.

Wings will have only about $2.7 mil to "play with" if Franzen comes back at the end of February. This is CAP RELIEF NOT "cap space". So they can sign someone to take Franzen's place up to the relief amount they will get. But with Abby called up it will eat away at that relief amount. So realistically the Wings could sign someone for about $2 mil. And when Franzen returns they have to immediately comply again with the cap. I don't think the Wings will sign or trade for anyone unless they have difficulty winning.... so might not be for another month or so.

OK... I know we are all very busy, but I love the salary chart and refer to it a lot. How about someone updating it? I am tired of looking at Hossa's name on it.... LOL.

Thanks!

I am a bit confused.... Was it Lebda and Abby playing with hangovers this last weekend or was it Cabrera and Garcia????

And how many times have peeps said the exact same negative cr*p about Ozzie..... year after year no less. Give Howard a chance man. Detroit's goalies don't have to be great .... they just need to be good. Thank you Lidstrom!

Another reason for splitting them up is that someone like Franzen will offer protection to Datsyuk and someone like Bertuzzi will offer protection to Zetterberg. How many times last year was Zetterberg checked really hard into the boards and there was NO retribution!!!! I remember a hit Zertterberg took behind the net and was checked hard into the boards and hurt his back.... NO RETRIBUTION!. Enough of that crap.... especially if Z hurts his back again! Another reason is that if those lines (a Z line and a Dats line) go back to back there is NO WAY the opposing team will have their best checkers out there for a minute and a half. It provides greater depth overall making the 3rd line and 4th lines even BETTER and more difficlut for the other teams to match up and keep up with the Wings. If you put Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Homer on the same line you might as well put an "X" on their back and say "hit me".... it's free of charge. I am not saying it won't be done... because it will, especially later in the game at home when the Wings are down and need a score. I think this year Babcock will do more shuffling of the lines than any other year since he has been here. The fourth reason is that we ALL know that both Datsyuk and Zetterberg make their linesmates even better players. I would love to see Eaves, Helm and Leino all get a chance with the both of them.... they could learn a lot. The fifth reason is that I think Homer is washed up anyway and may end up on the 3rd or 4th line. The sixth reason is that injuries always occur so we WILL see other players get a chance with both of them anyway and someone just may gel even better than "jelly and jam". You don't know until you try. In order words there are more good reasons to split them up than to keep them together forever. I probably could think of even more reasons... give me a few seconds...LOL OK... got another one...LOL.... the seventh reason is that Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Homer will be together on the power play and that is where they score most of their goals together anyway!! LOL.... got another one.... the eight reason is that defense and goaltending win championships. Both Datsyuk and Zetterberg, as we ALL know, are VERY good defenders and back-checkers..... having one on each of the first two lines is dynamite... because most teams have only 2 good lines.

Helm, Draper, Eaves just may be the best fourth line in the league...... AND THE FASTEST LINE! Maybe now the Wings will be able to cut Z's minutes down slightly and REALLY roll four lines. I have said all along that Babcock would split up Datsyuk and Zetterberg. With this team the Wings simply can not put their best players all on one line.... especially on the road... other teams would just key on them and the second and third line would have a lot to prove.

It would be in the very last month of the season in order for that to happen. With Lilja's salary included the Wing's are 971,000.00 over the cap. You can NOT use his salary as cap space. You get CAP RELIEF up to 1.25 mil which is not the same thing as cap space. But I am sure they have to designate which salary on the current roster is to be used toward that cap relief and it can not be a salary over 1.25 mil. So it would be someone like Ericsson's salary. Then you also have to take into consideration any call-ups if no one else goes on LTIR. Wings have about 250,000 of wiggle room as it stands now. But the way Lilja is talking and if he is cleared to play within a month or so and he says he is ready to play then the Wings are going to have to make 2 moves if one of them is Meech. As the rule states when Lilja comes off LTIR the Wings have to immediately comply with the salary cap based on Lilja's salary of $1.25 mil... not a salary lower just because it is later in the season.

I don't mind .... it just raises the intensity level.... GO WINGS!

Can the Wings keep him on LTIR all year even if he is cleared to play and says he is ready and wants to play???

How about the FSN Detroit telecasts???

Now how does this post get 5 stars? How boring! This has been rehashed a zillion times already. We are really scraping the bottom of the barrel for news stories.....LOL. Meech already knows as well as a bunch of writers that he is the one to go! Meech knows Meech knows again What's more interesting is .....who will be the SECOND player moved? Because when Lilja comes back, the Wings need to get rid of about an additional $500,000.00. Some are talking about Helm being sent down.... but I don't think so.

Comcast has their dirty little fingers into everything you can imagine. Comcast Spectacor owns the Philadelphia Flyers amongst a million other businesses. As far as I am concerned there is a definite conflict of interest. I would like to know the relationship between Ed Snider (Flyers Owner) and Buttman. To give you an idea of this dirty little web check out these links. Here is a list of companies you can boycott: Comcast Spectacor Comcast It's becoming as close to a monopoly as you can imagine. And when your cable fees keep rising you will know why.

Well.. that means the Canucks aren't going to win the cup. Schneider is nothing but bad luck. He won it the first year when he played a few games and has done zilch since!

For those like me who might have just signed up or switched to DirecTV last year and signed a 2 year committed this is a real bummer. And DirecTV offers football & baseball packages where Dish does not. And if your cable doesn't offer all of these then I can see where this will just perpetuate the illegal satellite access or make it even more widespread. With DirecTV you will miss probably at least half of the playoff games. So paying a $450.00 cancellation fee for DirecTV and sign another package with Dish to get the versus HD is probably ridiculous for some peeps. Once you watch hockey in HD it is very very hard to watch it in SD with unstable streaming. I will bet that once nagra 3 gets cracked peeps will use the $450.00 or less to invest in a DVBN & FTA system & get all their HD they want and get rid of the clowns and in the long run NHL revenues will fall. It is the NHL's fault for not structuring their agreements so that if the provider does not offer the coverage it allows the NHL to telecast on their network or whatever to make sure all peeps have access to the games. It was also a mistake to sign with Versus rather than ESPN. I would have been willing to pay the extra $10 a month or whatever to have Versus HD on DirecTV.

And the NHL extended it's contract with Versus through the 2010-2011 season.... what a bunch of morons..... worst network ever... Buttman screws the fans again. There are only 5 exclusive Red Wing games during the regular season... don't care about those..... but it is the exclusive PLAYOFF GAMES that will tick me off!

Yeh..... go Abby.... as long as you have that mean streak on the ice I don't give a cr*p what you do off of it.......LOL.

Someone has to score....LOL.... and your best players have to be your best players... especially this year. You can count on Leino for 25 goals though...

Pardon me if this has been posted already but does anyone know what the deal is with Listrom's elbow? Last I heard was that he was suppose to have surgery on it at the end of the season.... but everyone has been suspiciously silent on this issue. Obviously the health issues will be a major factor going forward.

My prediction is that Babcock is going to be doing the most line juggling ever. You basically have four different forwards from last year even though Williams and Bertuzzi have experience with the team and Leino got some but not a lot of playing time last year. Which players gel together will basically be a work in progress for the first 2 to 3 months and, of course, injuries always throw a wrench into that picture. There are more questions than answers. Is Homer on the downhill road? Will Filppula start shooting more at the net and put in some more goals? Will Cleary rebound and have a better year? The power play will have somewhat of a different look.... will it be as good as last year? Are the older guys losing speed... Draper, Homer, Maltby? We expect the defense to be better but we have forwards with defensive weaknesses..... Williams, Bertuzzi, Homer. Will Lidstrom's elbow give him more problems? Will Osgood have another regular season worst GAA & Save%? Will Howard finally become a real NHL goaltender? Can Eaves and Helm help improve a PK that was terrible last year? Overall though I would have to say our defense should be better with Ericsson back there. So at this point for me looking at line combinations, which I use to get excited about, is really a waist of time.... too many questions and too many "new" additions.