Icesurfer

Have a picture of a hockey player bandaged up and on crutches (Lidstrom or Pavel would do) and Buttman patting him on the buttocks.

I have to organize my underwear drawer anyway..... that's more important....... LOL.

The only reason I would like to see it completed ASAP is because I think it is affecting his play.

Got my wish..... thank you very much! Need the rest! Maybe Babcock will have a hunting accident tomorrow and won't be able to go either.....LOL.... just kidding!

Conklin is having a career year and Ozzie is having one of his worst years. THE PAST IS THE PAST...... FORGET ABOUT IT. It is about THIS YEAR. You need a goalie to make you at least 4-5 excellent saves per game. Conklin is doing that on a regular basis and Ozzie is up and down. If the playoffs were to start tomorrow Conklin would get the nod IMHO. Ozzie has only about 18 starts left to prove he can do the job. It will be an interesting mext two months to say the least but I think Ozzzie is done.

As good as Ozzie was as a backup last year he had only 4 shutouts. This year Detroit has had some defensive lapses and yet Conklin already has 5 shutouts. I think any goalie in the league would have better stats playing behind Detroit's number one defense and probably end up with their best career years! Go Conklin! Go Wings!

Nothing will happen unless someone goes on LTIR. Injuries are always the key. But then again, if someone gets injured, depending on who it is, nothing may happen anyway because we have guys like Helm in Grand Rapids who has playoff experience..... sort of our secret weapon..... LOL. In the beginning of the season Detroit elected to go with Osgood so they will ride the wave and sink or swim with him. Detroit is not into making big multi-player trades if you have been paying attention the last umpteen years.... so you can kill all those wild fantasies. The Wings are meticulous and deliberate with their transitions and the youngsters have to be well-seasoned. .....AND that's why they have been so successful. Holland and Burke are like night and day, yin and yang, apples and oranges, good and evil.....LOL...

Good..... like I said before..... Wings need the rest. But McLellan probably will pick Babcock as his assistant and Datsyuk probably will also be picked.... but I hope Lidstrom gets a rest.

So I guess that means Hudler's second line experiment is over...LOL. He is a great THIRD LINE player.... where he belongs.

Will the Lidstrom/Stuart and Rafalski/Kronwall combinations finally perk up the defense?? Those combinations had 2 goals in the Calgary game. From MLIVE: DEFENSE PAIRINGS Just for fun I will compare Detroit's defensemen to Kyle Quincey: LA got a flat out steal in getting Kyle Qunicey! As of this moment Kyle Quincey has 18 points is +5 and plays 22:20 average time on the ice per game..... for LOWLY LA. In comparison: Kronwall - 13 points, -4, 23:09 ATOI Stuart - 2 points, -4, 20:57 ATOI Lidstrom - 19 points, +9, 24:58 ATOI Rafalski - 21 points, +3, 22:16 ATOI I won't even bother listing Lilja's and Lebda's stats. Kyle Quincey had played 25 games for LA so far. Lidstrom and Rafalski have played 27 games each. Kronwall and Stuart have played 26 games each. Salaries: Quincey $525,000.00 Kronwall $3,000,000.00 Stuart $3,750,000.00 Lilja $1,250,000.00 Chelios $750,000.00 Rafalski $6,000,000.00 AND THE WINGS ARE FIGHTING FOR SALARY CAP SPACE. AND to add injury to insult some of Quincey's salary counts against the Wings Salary Cap....grant it... not much... but still.... This will EASILY be the steal of the year!!!!!! Not only that, but Quincey was signed for 2 years at that price...... and next year with a worse cap crunch we still will be paying Lilja $1,250,000.00. Not only was it a steal.... Holland handed Quincey to LA on a silver platter.

Osgood was in better "rhythm" last year when he was part time than this year when he has been full time. I say keep Osgood part-time until March. Go Conky!

So does that mean Conklin will be the number one goalie in the playoffs?????

I am referring to his 2nd line play earlier this year with Z...five on five. He simply is NOT a second line player....he goes up against bigger, stronger and better players from the opposing team. Plus on the website below you can see how players do when matched up with other players. Look also at 2007-2008 stats. You can see that 5 on 5 matched with Z that Hudler was horrible. Usually ANYONE that is put with Z improves as a player..... Hudler is the exception. Also you would expect anyone who is put on the PP and HAS A GOOD SHOT will score sooner or later especially if he is not being checked....regardless who is matched with. Hockey Analysis And it really doesn't matter anyway because Hudler will most likely be gone next year. I don't see how if the salary cap goes down to $55 mil the Wings will be able to afford to give him a raise. And it doesn't matter how many minutes you think Hudler should play .....Babcock has already made up his mind that Hudler will get only about 12 minutes. And we know that if Babcock says something it usually goes. Quote by Babs: "Huds is shifty,'' coach Mike Babcock said. "He's one of those guys we never play him tons of minutes, we find him best at around 12 minutes, and yet he can control the puck and make plays.'' 12 minute Hudler 12 MINUTES on the third line is perfect for him...... unless there is a lot more PP's ..... then he would get more time.

Hudler is 3rd line 12 minute per game player....PERIOD! Any more than that he goes downhill..... and he doesn't do well with Z.

Count the rebounds by Ozzie and then count the rebounds by Conklin..... you will see who is worse! Go Conky!!! You are #1!

He didn't put any pressure on the left leg going off. I think my hockey pool team just got better......go Lundqvist. Brodeur, Nabokov and now Luongo. Please stay healthy Lundqvist.

Exactly! It is impossible to cluck with your tongue going in and out of your mouth..... try it! It sounds more like a sucking than clucking...LOL.

Hossa, Marian $7,950,000 Datsyuk, Pavel $6,700,000 Holmstrom, Tomas $2,250,000 Filppula, Valtteri $3,000,000 Franzen, Johan $4,000,000 Zetterberg, Henrik $7,950,000 Cleary, Dan $2,800,000 Darren Helm $599,444 Leino, Ville $875,000 Abdelkader, Justin $740,000 Emmerton, Cory $645,000 Kopecky, Tomas $525,000 Darren McCarty/Downey $500,000 Lidstrom, Nicklas $7,450,000 Stuart, Brad $3,750,000 Kronwall, Niklas $3,000,000 Ericsson, Jonathan $900,000 Lebda, Brett $650,000 Meech, Derek $483,333 Kindl, Jakub $821,667 Osgood, Chris $1,416,667 Conklin, Ty Howard $716,667 The total is $57,722,778.00. The rumor so far is the salary cap for next year MAY go up to a max of 59,000,000.00. (About 2.3 mil increase) The Wings need to get rid of some dead weight and go with the youth movement.... which seems to be the opinions of many on this board anyway ....and we are all craving to see them. I estimated about $20-21 million between Hossa, Z and Franzen ... you can adjust those numbers up or down any way you wish.... and the Wings would still be under a cap of 59 mil. I also assumed that Leino would resign for 875K and Kopecky for 525K. 13 forwards/7defensemen/2 goalies. Notice that Rafalski has been traded. Sorry to do that but I had to dump a large salary somewhere. Most people agree that Leino, Ericsson, Helm and Abdelkader are ready and maybe so will Emmerton and Kindl. This also took into account that the Wings will be able to resign Leino for the same amount.... another tricky situation. If Kindl is not ready the Wings can keep Chelios for 500K as the 7th defensemen and save another 365K. Now, these are more changes than Holland and Nill are use to doing so it would take some guts to pull it off. More likely to occur if the Wings get ousted in the playoffs in the first round.

Everyone obviously knows that and that is exactly what will happen but it is fun to play with the numbers and see if there is a possible scenario where it COULD HAPPEN. And it could. Who wouldn't want to have Hossa, Z, and Franzen on their team??? I would say that the Detroit team is the envy of just about every NHL owner.... it's almost unfair..... NOW.... only if we can get the team to play up to the expectations.....LOL!

Rafalski's buyout would be 12 million. There is a complex formula to determine how much would count against the cap and I think it is spread out over double the length of the contract or something like that..... Could someone please enlightened me as to the makeup of this formula? It is probably way too much to consider anyway and the amount would probably be over 2 million per year cap hit which would make it unfeasible.... if it under $1 million cap hit per year then it may be possible. So we are back to Rafalski waiving his no trade clause for a price.....which is probably unlikely because he loves Detroit too dam much..... ugh! On the other hand Ilitch was use to spending $70 million a year for this team anyway...... and if having Hossa, Z and Franzen would put him in a better position to repeat again and again as a cup winner it may well be worth it.

That's why I had to trade Rafalski..... It is the ONLY possible scenario. Trading away Filppula is not enough. Besides Filppula has too much upside.... definitely more than Rafalski... and I would never suggest trading Filppula anyway. And I could see Ericsson easily becoming a number 3 or 4 defenceman. The only stumbling block is that Rafalski has a no trade clause..... but that can be waived for the right price. 3 years left on his K is too much of a buyout (% of 18 million).

Well, of course, he is going to have points.... he plays on the PP for pete's sake. It is no mistake that he has 13 points, Lidstrom has 12 point and Kronwall has 10 points because they ALL play on the power play. AND if you remember that is what is saving Detroit's butt because they are having a little difficulty scoring at even strength. Stuart, Lilja, Lebda, and Meech and 2,1,0,1 points respectively because they DO NOT play on the PP. And besides.... scoring is NOT the issue.... the issue that everyone is complaining about is DEFENSE and he IS a DEFENSEMAN in the number 2 slot! And I have seen too many defensive lapses by Rafalski..... definitely unRafalski-like.

Well then, Rafalski better get on his high horse and start playing like the number two defenceman that he is. His play has left something to be desired lately. LOL.

OK....keeping Draper and Maltby on the team and wait another year for Emmerton and Abdelkader: Hossa, Marian $7,950,000 Datsyuk, Pavel $6,700,000 Holmstrom, Tomas $2,250,000 Filppula, Valtteri $3,000,000 Franzen, Johan $4,000,000 Zetterberg, Henrik $7,650,000 Cleary, Dan $2,800,000 Darren Helm $599,444 Leino, Ville $875,000 Draper, Kris $1,583,333 Maltby, Kirk $883,333 Kopecky, Tomas $525,000 Darren McCarty/Downey $500,000 Lidstrom, Nicklas $7,450,000 Stuart, Brad $3,750,000 Kronwall, Niklas $3,000,000 Ericsson, Jonathan $900,000 Lebda, Brett $650,000 Meech, Derek $483,333 Kindl, Jakub $821,667 Osgood, Chris $1,416,667 Conklin, Ty Howard $716,667 Total is 58,504,444.00 If Chelios signs at 500K as 7th defensemen because Kindl is not ready it saves another 321K. So really the only changes would be Rafalski, Lilja, Hudler and Sammy out. Sammy and Hudler not resigned. Lilja traded..... which probably will be done this year. And Rafalski agrees to waive no trade clause at a price..... and the Wings can keep Hossa, Franzen and Z.

Not when you are bored because there is no game on a weekend!!! What a crazy schedule.