kook_10

I'm sort of in the same boat. I started to going to games pretty young and since my family never played or were fans I became a fan of who was in front of me. At that time it was Reed Larson and John Ogrodnick.

i have immense respect for Jimmy D and he was only speaking the truth freely. i say its "disheartening" only because he is entirely credible. i would just rather the players themselves be the one to defeat my optimism over the course of the season. just as they say: "we haven't won anything yet", they haven't lost anything yet either. and yes i am spoiled as a wings fan - aren't we all? i am grateful for their success. it was a long time coming, and a long time in hockeytown, so forgive me if i don't want to eulogize it in October.

Mike Smith's SAW mask is pretty lame too

I just saw Brent Johnson's helmet. He gets my vote as a late addition with a sweet Led Zeppelin theme:

yawn - go cry yourself to sleep again Mr. Wack and Jack my Tool

no double standard - what was confusing about important players, key players or captains? take a hike.

dumb question. I am a Wings fan - I would rather see the Wings score in any circumstance. If I were on Edmonton, Stoll probably wouldn't be worth sending a message over. One sided hits which are injurious to my team's key players. You can define this on your own. I never said play should be stopped. See the Konstantinov hit. QFT Unfortunately there has been no league pronouncement on dealing with it.

He also pointed out that he took issue with Laperriere zoning in on Lids rather than the puck with the intention of drilling him. Same way Mitchell zoned in on Toews and drilled him. Then he praised Downey for doing something about it! Downey said that he was sending a message around the league that if you run the captain you will have to pay the price. If that hit qualifies as running the captain I don't see how you could say the Mitchell hit doesn't. Where would you start? Is the captain a good place? What are your boundaries? Does Hank need to be hit knee to knee before you do something about it? As for the timing of it all, maybe it should be illegal to immediately retaliate but the refs blew the whistle and they didn't issue any instigator and they consistently haven't called it that way. Is it really less of an instigator to jump a guy the next period or immediately after a perceived offense? In most cases, the person you want to retaliate just isn't on the ice at the same time.

Such histrionics! On LGW no less! Protecting your captain would seem like a priority to some, but hey if you need to get someone's back I suppose you can take the waaaay back.

Well from your post you made it sound like they shouldn't even do that: To me it would seem worse to wait because, especially in that Downey fight, everyone knew it was clean and the fight just seemed like a real jerkoff.

OK - well I didnt expect that kind of response but to me that hit looked cleaner than Mitchell's. If the Wings are going to send Downey after a guy 10 minutes after a clean hit then Chicago going after Mitchell shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Both D-Men did exactly what they are supposed to do, no one is saying that they shouldn't or it shouldn't be legal. It is up to the team to let everyone know that they won't allow it.

So Downey shouldn't have thrown a hissy fit? Maybe he should have just checked him hard.

who says we have to roll 4 lines for 60 minutes any more? it's a myth that the Wings have any more depth than other teams these days.

It does beat those lightbox ads in the boards that shine onto the ice.

Friday: Florida @ Pittsburgh Minnesota @ St Louis Carolina @ Colorado Saturday: NY Rangers @ Montreal Boston @ Ottawa Washington @ NY Islanders Florida @ Philadelphia San Jose @ Atlanta Toronto @ Vancouver New Jersey @ Pittsburgh Buffalo @ Tampa Bay Dallas @ St Louis Carolina @ Minnesota Nashville @ Chicago Detroit @ Colorado Los Angeles @ Phoenix Edmonton @ Calgary Columbus @ Anaheim Sunday: San Jose @ Philadelphia Columbus @ Los Angeles Edmonton @ Vancouver

Clearly you are not so smart so I will spell it out for you. October is the beginning of the season. See if you can pick it up from there.

Been a Wings fan since 78-79. When were you born?

When the hit is more legal than clean, and when its October and you don't want the rest of the league to think they can push your diminutive team around for the next 70-odd games.

Nah, we should just let them run us again and let the Nightmare on Helm Street unleash his 5'11" 180 lbs of retaliatory fury next period.

In no way am I saying he did anything illegal. I encourage our players to deliver as many hits like that as possible. I am arguing that his teammates should do something about it then and there. If that were Henk I sure wouldn't want our guys to stick their thumbs up their asses and watch the replay on the big board.

Based on him coming out of the box and making a blindside run on a player who clearly doesn't see him coming.

I just did. As Mr. Snepts so astutely pointed out, these are grown men playing a tough game. They are also professionals. Maybe they know what they're doing?

Dougie Brown wasn't going to do anything there. They had to move on. If that was 19 and 24 was on the ice there would be no moving on. Kozzie wasn't blindsided by a guy coming out of the box, nor was he in a particularly prone position. He was trying to split the D, one of whom wouldn't allow it.

I've played enough games and injured enough guys with their heads down. Cleanly.

For once, I have to agree with GMR. What good are your enforcers if they don't protect your top players? Even if they have to take an instigator I think it is worth it to immediately go after Mitchell. Waiting is fine and dandy when your average joes take a few lumps here and there, but when your captain (who isn't the biggest toughest guy in the world) gets blindsided (albeit cleanly) with the intent of concussing him into next year then that person should be met with the same intent to injure he delivered on Toews. And don't tell me he didn't want to injure him, we have all been there. Mitchell saw a blindside head down opportunity and proceeded to hit him as hard he could. It was a legal hit with an intent to injure, and you can't stand idly by when that happens to your important players.