Holmstrom96

Game is going to be aired on WJBK Fox 2 in Detroit.

Call me crazy, but I like the NYI alternate jersey.

I hope his number is available in GR.

LOL, I really like that guy.

Ouch.

I appreciate Fedorov, but he's just not retirement material. Retiring a number is for those that are very special to the organization. Even Datsyuk and Zetterberg should probably go unretired.

Before reading these articles, I kind of hated the guy. After reading two of Avery's articles, I kind of like him. I can see a little bit of myself in him. I would do whatever it takes to be useful to the team, and if that meant being an agitator, then I guess I'd be agitating. It's funny to read a story about him flying coach to experience what non-rich people experience. Life is all about happiness, and happiness is what you make it. For me happiness is a house the size of Avery's closet, being faithful to my wife, and raising two kids. I think I may be happier than many NHLers, and it costs me a very small fraction. I don't have cable, I don't buy new cars (or lease), I buy clothes on sale and wear them until they're falling apart. To Avery excitement is buying the new car, opening some bar, or some other expensive or time consuming thing. To me excitement is a $200 kayak that's big enough to fit me and my 5 year old daughter. Avery's article is an interesting perspective on wealth and professional athletes. I hope he finds the happiness he desires.

Neither. I love and respect Ozzie. I respect Fedorov. Neither quite fits the mold to have their number hang.

Maybe Commodore will come back?

I never saw any of that on the board, but I'm not as involved as others. I agree that it's completely irrelevant to discuss what his sexual orientation may or may not be.

For our sake I hope he retires. Dragging ass on ice can be dangerous when you've been dragging ass for so long. No roster spot is worth that.

Letting him look is smart. If he's got something lined up, I'm sure he'll let the Wings know, and then they can know if they need to be searching for a coach. I hope he stays with us, but I wish him well. He's done good for us.

How do you define "competitive"? Winning the Stanley Cup every year? Holland's Wings are competitive. They win more than they lose. They go to the playoffs, EVERY YEAR. They're just a couple players away from a championship team. There are 30 teams. 30 GMs. 53% chance of making the playoffs 27% chance of making it to the second round 13% chance of making it to the conference finals 7% chance of making it to the cup finals 3% chance of winning the cup Under Holland since '97, this is how we've done: 100% - Made Playoffs 64% - made it to second round 31% - made it to conference finals 25% - made it to Stanley Cup finals 19% - won Stanley Cup It's time for people to chill. You can't always win, but damn, we sure do win more than we don't.

Getting into the post-season is quite nice. Yes, first round exists suck, but it happens. Someone gets to win, and someone gets to lose. I love the Wings, but they can't win every year. This isn't a video game where you can turn the difficulty down until you win almost every game. If our goal is going deeper into the playoffs, then yes, we'll need to make changes. We were pretty healthy this year and we didn't get it done.

At what point does Holland get blamed for taking us to the playoffs every year? Looks folks, there are 30 NHL team. That means you've got a one in 30 chance of winning the cup every year. We've won four times in the last 17 years, Holland started being GM in 97. Even if we only give him credit for 2002 and 2008, that's two cups. We're in the race every year. Not every team is going to take us to the finals.

What do you do about games that are tied after 60 minutes? Regular season games can't be allowed to go into triple-overtime, for many reasons. I do like having the lengthy overtimes being something that is special to the playoffs.

LOVE IT

Fights are exciting and all, but I could live without them. I play hockey, and I have ZERO desire to fight. I was involved in a scrum on Sunday and did what I minimally needed to do to protect my teammates without escalating the situation. I know it's a little different between my s***ty D-League and the NHL, but fighting just seems like it's a part of tradition, but not a needed element for hockey. As to low scoring, I like that. I love 1-0 and 2-1 games. If I could make any changes to hockey I would: Switch to a three-point system, Win = 3 points, Loss = 0 points, Overtime/shootout win = 2 points, overtime/shootout loss = 1 point Change overtime so that there are less shoutouts (make it longer, go down to three on three after a while, etc...) I just really hate all the "loser points" that are generated in the games that go to overtime and shootout. It's unfair that extra points are generated in these games.

Real fans cheer for the Wings. They want all the players to do well. They're allowed to get frustrated when players aren't good enough. They'll allowed to be boastful when they've got a superstar. Big E. used to annoy the hell out of me, and I loathed him. I complained about him, wanted him traded, etc... But when he'd score, make a great play, or drop the gloves for us, I'd cheer him on, because he's a Red Wing, and I am a fan. Part of the fun is caring. It's why I can't watch most sports games where a Detroit team isn't playing, because I simply need to be invested for it to be entertaining.

We're in! Right!?

This.

HELM-ER.

We got our curly fries. I printed out a couple box stores and I made the wife go into the store while I went through the drive through so we could get double. We purchased food too, so they probably made money.

Nice job, FlashyG!

Not much of anything there, but seriously, F Matt Cooke. I could accept Weber if we traded for him. Cooke, I wouldn't want him on the team.