TheOwl

Guess Osgood hasn't figured it all out. All those goals he should of had.

Montreal sucks. They had 5 starters at the all-star game, look how stupid they look now, can barely make the play-offs. NHL is a joke.

^ Well Howard will need to be paid, and what happens when the cap decreases with all these 6+ million multi-year contracts. And what if Osgood melts down in the play-offs? Are we really going to have Howard and Osgood for next season? We'd be lucky to make the play-offs if Ozzy doesn't really turn things around. And if you were Hudler, or Sammy would you sign for bare minimum when your scoring 40-50 points a season, and a guy who scores around 90 makes 6 times more money then you do? 6 million for Hossa is no discount, he's already a multi-millionaire. Time to give people like Sammy, Hudler, Franzen the raises they deserve. If we don't win the cup with Hossa, obviously he didn't make that big of a difference.

Kopecky isn't even near the type of forward Franzen is, irrelevant of scoring, they play completely different games. And whether Babs matches Zetterberg/Hossa instead of Datsyuk the other teams top line, Datsyuk's line is way more defensively sound, and rarely let in goals. Seriously though, Franzen leaving will be bad for this team. Hossa wants 6 million at least, having 5 players making over 6 million is not a good idea at all. If Franzen will take 3 million, let Hossa go. Hossa is not worth losing Sammy, Hudler and Leino. Even Franzen at 3, Hossa 6 would mean Conklin, Hudler, Sammy, Leino all can't be re-signed. Hossa is too expensive.

Anaheim - Hate them all Atlanta - Kovelchuk Boston - Thomas Buffalo - Vanek Calgary - Iginla Carolina - Hate them all Chicago - Bulin Colorado - Hate them all Columbus - Don't care Dallas - Turko Detroit - Datsyuk Edmonton - Don't care Florida - Don't care Los Angelas - Don't care Minnesota - Backstrom Montreal - Don't care Nashville - Weber New Jersey - Don't care NY Islanders - Don't care NY Rangers - Don't care Ottawa - Alfredson Philadelphia - Don't care Phoenix - Don't care Pittsburgh - Hate them all San Jose - Nabokov St. Louis -Don't care Tampa Bay - Hate them all Toronto - Hate them all Vancouver - Hate them all especially Sedins, Loungo Washington - Ovechkin

Nashville has a much better shot at beating them tomor! But even still even if the Sharks lose, Wings still need to beat Calgary/Edmonton on back to back nights.

Wings need to win one game more then the Sharks.

Stars, Ducks and Wild are all really in melt-down mode. They have no reason not to succeed, and yet have no urgency to actually try and make the play-offs. They have no heart, no work, no determination. That's why teams like Edmonton and St. Louis are where they are, passion.

The quality of the individuals on the line is meaningless. _____-Datsyuk-Holmstrom is the Wings best line. And much better a defensive line then Z/H/_. The lines get mixed up so regularly though. You Franzen haters just love to complain.

Man, this is why nearly every team but the Wings completely sucks. The majority of the teams in the league rely 100% on goaltending, if the goalie plays poorly, they'll lose nearly every game. The Wings, Devils, Sharks and Calgary (maybe Boston) are really the only "complete" teams in my mind, who don't rely on one area of the game to win their games. You should hear the bulls*** that comes out of Canucks fans when Loungo lets in 2 goals a night. It's so pathetic.

Every player in the NHL has the potential to have 6-8 good games in a 82 game season. But answer this, how many times has Kopetsky been among the worst players in games this season? 30-40? Him and the 4th line were horrible for the large portion of the season. How many games as Hossa been the worst player? 2-3? Zetterberg? 2-3? Franzen? 2-3? The big 4 guys are all pretty consistent , and put up similar numbers. Their not nearly as streaky with their good and bad games, or goals they score. In all fairness, Kopetsky is a great young player, and has the potential to be a Cleary sort of player, and should be kept if he'll sign for around 1 million. But he's no Franzen, and won't be.

I don't see why how many goals/points a D-man has is more important then how effective he is at shuting down the other team. Unlike a lot of the other trophies, the Norris really can't just be handed to who has the best stats. And Datsyuk does deserve the Hart, as he is just as important to the Wings and their success, as Ovechkin, Malkin and Crosby.

Modesty is important, that's why guys like Dats, Lidstrom and Zetterberg are such classy people. But the fact is Ovechkin is undeniably the best goal scorer in the league, he is the best, no one is close, and for that reason he's the only guy I don't find annoying openly gloating after his achievements.

How can you say I have a personal biased then call Crosby the most complete player? How is Crosby better then Ovechkin, in any way? Use stats. Ovechkin is much better then Crosby offensively, more goals, more points, more trophies, over their careers, and nearly every single other stat. How is Crosby at all, complete defensively? Does he kill penalties? His +/- isn't exactly impressive. Their are a number of players I would consider, BASED on STATS, as more complete all around players. Datysuk, Ovechkin and Malkin being three of them. Datsyuk is nearly as good offensively, much better defensively. Malkin and Ovechkin much better offensive players, equally good defensively as Crosby. What category or stat does Crosby even lead in? Is he a great leader? I doubt it, the way his club has been floundering over the last 4 months.

I would take Swedens top line over Canada's, Zetterberg-Alfredsson-Backstrom. Crosby sucks, you guys think way too highly of him. I'm Canadian, and I don't see why anyone thinks team Canada is the favorite.

Imagine next year at the Olympics, a Datysuk-Malkin-Ovechkin line. No country can come close to that.

I like the Salary Cap, it's the best thing the NHL has ever done. And any sport that doesn't have a salary cap is not worth watching at all. The only problems I have are, if the cap decreases, the players salaries should decrease accordingly, through some fancy percentage. So if the cap goes down 10%, players salaries decrease 10%. No way should a team have to un-load salary from one season to another because of the cap decreasing. My second problem is, a lot of players make too much money. For example, Hossa signing for 7.45 million is not taking a discount, that's an insane amount of money, he's not doing Detroit any favors, even at 6 million it would be too high. Salaries are too high, should be a cap at 6 million, and then instead the players get bonuses based on performance. No person deserves to be making 8 million dollars to play a sport.

Last time I checked he has just as many goals as the great Zetterberg, one more then Datsyuk and only 6 less then Hossa, and he has the fewest games played of the four. Franzen is a beast with the puck, and he scored the most impressive goal of the season by a Wing, the one in Montreal. He's a clutch player, most game winning goals of any Wing, most fits of the 4 scorers. He's not the play-maker like the other 3 are, but how many fancy play makers do the Wings need? Wings need some big bodied goal scorers. Can't just have 12 skinny Europeans passing the puck back and forth. Any arguement against Franzen can be summed up perfectly with, he had the most goals per game last years play-offs, and he makes less then 1 million/season. Thank you. No more bashing the Mule. He is as good as everyone thinks, and the Wings would be incredibly stupid to sign Hossa for 7 million instead of the Mule for 3 million, if the option was avaliable. Franzen in my eyes is just as good a goal scorer then Hossa or Zetterberg, but perhaps not better offensively (assist wise etc.).

In the end I think it'll come down to this years play-off performance, if Franzen out performs Hossa on the score sheet, then Franzen should stay. Really, it's not really about how many goals you score, it's when you score them. If Hossa starts racking up more key goals, game tieing goals, game winning goals etc, more then the Mule, then it should be obvious. Too many of you are being caught up in this vortex of thinking we need really need Hossa to succeed. Would we really not be 1st place in the West without him? We did it last year with the same guys. Signing Franzen is a much better idea long-term, for one he'll be perhaps twice as cheap 3-4 Million, Hossa wants probably 6-7.45. Not only will we save 3-4 Million for a goalie, Sammy, Hudler or Leino etc etc, but what happens in a few years if the cap goes down? Obviously Lidstrom may retire, but losing Hossa won't be the end of the world. And if Hossa does sign, Sammy, Hudler, Leino, Franzen and Conklin are all gone for sure. Even Hossa at 6 million leaves nearly zero to sign anyone who's not a rookie. If it comes down to it, Flipulla and Kronwall should go so Franzen and Hossa can both be signed. Ericcson has looked 10x better then Kronwall, who's having a terrible defensive year, just have him as a top 6 guy.

Man I feel bad for Franzen. He's a bloody machine, and the Wings need him. And really he should stay, because he will do better, score more goals, and he plays with Datsyuk. BUT on the other hand, he does deserve 3-4 million a season, and he might not have another chance to really get paid in his career if he signs a long deal. I hope Hossa signs for less, like real less, he's made his millions, and sure he deserves millions, but so do these other guys who've been playing amazing, for basically nothing.

I lose faith so easily Then i remember the Wings have only lost 15 times this season. We are so lucky to have such a quality team.

Are you saying that the saves Biron has made are easier shots to save then the goals Ozzy has let in? As far as I've seen, Biron has had MUCH tougher saves to make, around 20+ more equally difficult saves. And it's really irrelevant how difficult the save is. If you face 10 difficult shots a game, and let 3 in, you're a terrible goalie. It shouldn't matter. You have to make the save no matter how difficult it is. Osgood's Save% is the worst in the league because he's the worst goalie in the league, not because he magically gets more impossible saves then the 29 other teams in the league. It's completely baseless. Detroit gets 20-30 quality chances a night, you don't see opponents letting in even close to 15%. Detroit doesn't give up any better chances then any other team. They just seem impossible because they always go in.

It's the goalies playing worse, or you could believe all 6 D-guys and 12 forwards are worse defensively, even though the Wings are giving up the same number of shots. The goalies suck, the D is about the same.

Look at Biron, he's not even a good goalie and he can shut the Wings completely down. We need a real goalie!!!!

Philly has had 12, shots, Ozzy has let 2 in. I mean come on. His Save % isn't because of the D. Most goalies can stop 10 shots before they let 1 in. Ozzy isn't NHL material anymore. 95% of the goalies in the league have a Save% better then 0.900.