RedWingsRox

Erhoff waited this long ... he couldn't wait another 24hrs to see what other offers he might get ?? Dumbass ... you deserve to be in Buffalo if you're that stupid.

Air Hoff ... really? Buffalo for 10 years instead of waiting another day to see what Detroit would offer you ... I'm shocked and speechless. Even your offer from Canucks was better, Bieska money for a shorter term with a hell of a better chance at the Cup than Buffalo. You should fire your agent ... enjoy your decade of oblivion!

... really $7 mill for 5 years thrown around ... and if the Flyers bite or come anywhere close, they will be the laughing stock of NHL. Nowadays, goalies are $3-4 mill max.

Give him league's veteran minimum like we offered Nabby ... if he says yes, it would be nice to have some insurance and see what he can do but none of this $2 mill waste.

Oh Mario, please offer him more! I thought the experiment to bring over the hill, old veterans from other team ended with Mike Modano.

Ladies and Gents, I think this will be his last. I remember when we were playing SJ and then people asked, could this be his last game ... and we were suddenly jarred because it would be the end of a historic Hall of Fame player. SO before it's too late, let's enjoy this season with #5 anchoring our blue line ... I'm guessing it might be his last before he hands the C over to #13 .

$6.2 is fine ... salary cap is going up, Ralfalski's $6 mill is off our cap ... you can't pay him 2nd tier D-man money like $4-5 mill, he deserves the kind of respect of a top tier Dman and Captain. Those of you who thinks he should pay for free .. stop being so cheap. We want to be a classy organization.

You are the bearer of great news ... awesome.

IF the rumours are true, $5.5 mill per year for five years, Bryzgalov's agent is god. I didn't know Holmgren was that stupid, or is he? Bryzgalov is so unproven in the playoffs, no one pays more than $3-4 mill for a good steady goalie anymore. Gone are the days with these > $5 mill/yr goalie. Good, this means Philly will be gone in round 2 or so next year.

Glorious day for hockey. Now the only other thing that could be better is if Bettman announces his retirement tomorrow.

What can you say about Tampa? Pretty impressive. I was cheering for them but they accomplished a lot in this 1st season with Stevie Y and Guy Boucher. Boston did what was necessary to win. I don't think they have enough artillery against Vancouver but we'll see how much gas they have left in the tank.

Too bad we didn't get a chance to Kronwall Kesler or the Sedin Twigs.

Who the hell ordered the confetti to be thrown on the ice. First time I ever saw it, made the players look like little old grannies walking around that crap. Not to mention what it will do to their high performance blades. Gillis ... that was idiotic!

I think they should just give us Carter for us giving them Leino .

I don't much care for SJ nor Vancouver so it will have to be Tampa Bay and Stevie Y for the rest of the way for me. 1. Bad break on the icing call which led to tying goal with 15 secs remaining. But SJ had a couple of chances at an empty net and couldn't score. Sux to have such a mistake on such a crucial moment. 2. If on the winning goal, the puck hit the Stanchion (or whatever the hell you call it), shouldn't that be ruled out of play? 3. The team that deserved to win that game last night lost ... and unfortunately, it was a deciding game therefore the series. I don't think SJ could have come back but it sux to lose that way. 4. Agree with all who dumped on the Thornton, Marleau, Heatley line ... they are terrible. $22 million salary on that one line and they are stuck with all of them because they either have long contracts and untradeable ones. Good luck Todd.

You're right, no comparison. Rafalski is 38, Wisniewski is 27. Rafalski is winding down/ending his career. Wis is just hitting his prime.

Why aren't there other choices like Markov, Wisniewski, Brewer, Ehrhoff? Best bang for the buck might be Wisniewski or Ehroff. I'm sure Kenny is on top of this. He probably knows more than you and me. Wisniewski 10G 41A Rafalski 4G 44A You can replace his point production with one guy. I know Wis played 12 games more but it's close ...

As much as I don't want to see Raf go, this is a blessing in disguise. Holland is jumping up and down right now, Christmas came early for him. Rafalski was not playing like a $6 million D-man. I mean, Lids gets $6.2 mill and Raf gets $6 mill ... really? Was Lids only .2 million better ... NO! Had Rafalski not retired this year to wipe that off our cap, I sincerely doubt we'd be able to do any better next year than round 2 appearance. This knocks off that amount for us to go after someone in the 4-5 mill range and still have some $$ left over. Merry Christmas Holland.

What about Tomas Kaberle .... ... just kidding.

Clearing up a spot for Lidstrom in case he decides to retire from playing?

Finally ... what took them so long !!

Almost seems unfair, Yzerman 1st year as GM, Boucher 1st year as head coach and they're looking like a strong possibility to be in Stanley Cup Finals.

It's the day after and it still feels empty ... don't want this to be Lids' last year but ... Don't know if it is too early to assess but just stepping back a bit and wondering why we lost to same team 2 years in a row. When Chicago did it to Vancouver, there were some serious questions asked. Some say that Canucks retooled specifically to beat Chicago in the playoffs. So, from the bigger picture perspective, we loss to the same team in round 2 twice ... what was the deciding factor? With all due respect to Babs, was it that SJ had a better overall coaching staff? Was it injuries (a bit of a weak/lame excuse)? Was it that SJ just had better and deeper roster? My initial thinking is that although we got one of the best head coaches, SJ's coaching staff was a bit sharper than ours. Our special team and defensive coach needs to be re-evaluated. Of course, it wouldn't hurt if we picked up another power forward who can score 20+ per season.

Damn ... "History Gets It Done" How I wish we were the ones in that commercial. It still hurts.

What about bringing back Ville Leino now that he has some 'experience' .