TheOwl

What's the big deal about national broadcasts. For the most part, people like a team they live close too. And for those people, they can watch almost every game on their local sports channel. And for the people who don't like the team closest to them (like me) they watch the streams, or pay for Center ice. Sure I'll watch a random game if it's on, but if the NHL thinks their going to grow the game by broadcasting a Rangers-New Jersey game (or whatever) every week, it'll never work. And pulling the plug on Phoenix is not a "failure" for the NHL. It's just good business. If a team isn't making money, and has never made money, then relocate it, or just remove it completely. Less teams isn't a bad thing. And a few national telecasts isn't going to magically increase the revenue for these dieing markets.

^ Zetterberg seems like he'll be the next captain, just because he can communicate better. Some guys don't really excel in a captains role anyways, too much pressure. lol @ the guy who thinks Flipulla is better then Hudler. Leino is better then Flipulla, and he's only played 3 NHL games.

How would Pittsburgh ever of even signed Hossa? Crosby at 8.7, Malkin 8.7, Hossa 7.4?, and Fleury at 5, Gonchar at 5. Not to mention Staal, who they wouldn't of let go at 4, and the host of other secondary guys making around 3 million. They could've never afforded him, unless they traded away all their D guys. Pittsburgh right now is right up against the cap, with Malkin's salary going up 5 million, and Staal's going up 2 million. They basically need to strip away 7 million worth of cap space. How do they expect to sign Sykora, Fedetanko, and Satan? The Penguins are in a world of cap trouble. Their history is starting to look a lot like Ottawa's. They make it to the cup final, next season they barely make the play-offs, and next season their going to be screwed. Too much focus on expensive forwards, not enough on D. Penguins are going to be a laughing stock for the foreseeable future.

Osgood has zero trade value. Probably couldn't get a 7th round pick.

Mason's play has dropped off quiet a bit, he'll still win the Calder. Malkin or Crosby won't win the MVP if they miss the play-offs. Green won't win the Norris. The fact he can score doesn't mean he's good defensively. It could be Boyle, Chara or Lidstrom. Thomas will probably get the Vezina, Kipper and Backstrom will probably be runners up.

haha Kids, calm down. Can't take a joke. You guys need to lighten up a bit, makes you guys look like tools.

I kind of want Ozzy to play, just so he can prove he can't be a starting NHL goalie anymore.

Well two of the three loses were in OT/SO, so they really didn't lose two many points. The difference between beating San Jose, and losing will come down to goaltending. You could argue that their D and our D are equally good, and perhaps our offense is a little better, but goaltending, anyone would take Nabokov over Conklin or Ozzy. And out scoring San Jose doesn't sound like a great plan for a 7 game series. Conklin and Osgood need to step their games up big time, bad D or not. A week from the trade deadline, if Ozzy and Conklin still are letting in 3 goals every game, Holland has got to make a move. Things aren't going to magically improve overnight.

A cheap one season rent a goalie would be a good idea. If Ozzy or Conklin completely breaks down, a 3rd guy with experience would be huge. Howard doesn't seem to bring to much confidence.

If Osgood was playing tonight, we would've lost 9-8 in OT.

I hate just about every team except Detroit. One of the few teams who doesn't trap. I don't mind Calgary, Minnesota or Washington though. I really don't understand people who cheer for a team just based on where it's located. Most teams are boring to watch, but what can be more exciting then watching Datsyuk, Hossa and Zetterberg every game?

Just adding Leino to the 4th line has improved it so much. Maltby and Draper look a lot better playing with someone with talent. Leino must stay! Screw Kopetsky!

Our D has been anything but stellar. Even still, a stellar goalie doesn't need to cost 7 million a season. A top 10 goalie in this league can be bought for around 3 million a season. Trade one of our "stellar" D guys and get another goalie. Or get rid of one of the under performing forwards. Either way, look down the leader board in Save%, GAA, you won't see very many of the highest paid goalies their.

Stats mean everything. The stats don't lie, the stats aren't biased. That being said, Zetterberg is better then Franzen. But for the last 8 months, the stats say they are both playing more or less equally well. 3.5 million for 22 goals? Come on. Cleary is getting 3.5, Flipulla is getting 3.5. And neither of those guys has even had a great season. If those guys weren't around, yeah I would say 3.5 would be a discount. But why should the Mule, the second top goal scorer, and the top goal scorer last play-offs, take as much money as two bench warmers?

Hossa is already a multi-millionaire, lets all hope the greed won't take over. Franzen and Hudler are playing for next to nothing, and whether in Detroit or somewhere else, deserve to make some big money. In a dream world they could trade Cleary and Flipulla and sign both Franzen, Hudler and Hossa. Get those under-performing guys out of here. Turn Detroit into a European all-star team!!

4-3 Blues. Ozzy will let in at least 4. This game will be interesting, worst team in the league versus worst goalie in the league.

Except the stats don't say that at all. Franzen, 22 goals in 43 games. Hossa 24 goals in 49 games. More or less equal. Franzen has a better plus-minus. Franzen has more game-winning goals. Hossa is the better play-maker, but not as good as Datsyuk. I'm not saying Hossa isn't great, but for this team, Franzen is a better fit. Big bodies are important. Look at Homer, Franzen takes his position perfectly on the 2nd unit. All I'm saying is, if Hossa is a 7.45 million dollar player, Franzen is at least a 4-5 million dollar player. And signing either one would be difficult for Holland at anywhere close to that if they don't get rid of people. Is Hossa better defensively? I don't think so. The stats don't think so. And that -4 the other night didn't help. If you really look at the cap hard, Hossa taking a discount at 6 million is nearly impossible, again unless Flipulla is traded. If it's the choice between Hossa at 6, Franzen at 4, it should be Franzen all the way. The guy scored more goals per game then any other forward last years play-offs. He's severely under-rated, while I think Hossa is slightly over-rated. He's no 90 point a season guy.

Osgood sucks this season. No one can argue against that.

Can someone point out why it would be a better idea to keep Hossa over Franzen? Franzen will probably be around 2 million cheaper, he's just as good defensively, he's scored 22 goals to Hossa's 24, he fits in better on the powerplay. Hossa is too much like Zetterberg, while Franzen, a big strong forward uses his body to make plays. We can't have a whole team of skinny fancy Europeans, we need some brute force goal scoring. And the main reason I would take Franzen over Hossa is, it's a lot harder to shut Franzen down then Hossa. It's a lot easier to stop people like Zetterberg and Hossa making fancy plays and passes, then stopping the Mule. Keep the MULE! Not to mention the fact Franzen just started getting good at the end of last season. It'll be a huge mistake if Detroit just ignores the goaltending situition and re-signs Z, Hossa to 6 million dollar contracts. The supporting cast is just as important, and re-signing the cheaper guy will leave a lot more cap room to even out the lines with decent players.

^ The 2 AHL guys are a few years down the line, probably wouldn't even be ready for next season if absolutely needed. Howard is ready to be an NHL goalie, but probably not a very good one. A quick fix for 1-2 more seasons is needed. Conklin could use a back-up, and if Ozzy fails to come around then he'll just be bought-out.

Holland should get rid of someone (Flipulla) just so these two guys can stay with the team the rest of the year.

It's not that big of a problem. If Hossa wants too much money, let him leave. Getting rid of a few players (Flipulla and Kronwall) could easily clear enough cap room to sign Hudler, Franzen, Conklin and Backstrom. Replace the rest of the positions with 700k rookies. The Red Wings have a D problem, and a goalie problem, getting 1 good goalie is a lot easier then waiting for 6 mediocre D-men to get healthy. One player can ruin the whole party, so get rid of them. Past performance should be meaningless when a team is playing this bad. And don't kid yourself, the Wings are playing terrible. Our record is only good because of offense. And look at today, all that offense, and boom 4-2 loss. You think the Wings will be scoring 3,4,5 goals a game in the play-offs? Not a chance, other teams will just lock us down. And seeing how easy it is to shut Hossa and Zetterberg down these days, we should make a major move to get a goalie. Ozzy won't recover, and even if the D does, we won't make it past the second round. The D can't be improved anymore, we are paying those 6 guys an insane amount of money. What we have is what we have, except in the goalie department.

Maltby, Kopetsky and Flipulla all have to go. Replace them with Leino, Downey and Abdelkader. Flipulla's cap hit is a huge waste of money. I would also like to see Kronwall and Osgood benched for 5 or so games. And when they come back from their 2 weeks of thinking, pondering and working out, if they play poorly, get rid of them as soon as possible. How long can you really give players the time to play better? They've been playing poorly the entire season. The all-star break didn't help, the winter break didn't help. Bench them, and if they can't improve, trade them. Because theirs a lot better guys who could be doing a lot better of a job.

Trade a bunch of 3rd/4th liners, one of the top 4 D-men and Osgood. Dead weight gone, more cap space. Replace them with rookies who actually want to win, add another goalie. Done, cup winners again. Wings won't win with this current roster, it's been playing bad all season.

Maybe adding a new face would help the situition, because our defense, probably the highest paid defense in the league, is playing like the worst in the league. Not to mention Sammy, Kronwall, Lidstrom and Rafa were brutal today on the powerplay, missing most of their shots from the blue line. All I'm saying is, this roster as it is now, will not win the Cup. I'll be you any amount of money. This isn't a slump, they've been playing poorly the entire season, minus a few weeks in December-January. Only this time, the offensive couldn't bail out the D/goalie. The majority of the Wings are playing pretty brutal hockey, minus Datsyuk, Homer and Franzen, or whatever the top line happens to be. The Wings need to forget about last season, and get rid of Kronwall, Flipulla, Kopetsky, and Osgood. All 4 of those players are playing awful, and could easily be replaced by some rookie, like Kindl, or Leino and Abby. That frees up like 8 million in cap room, minus 3 or so million for the 3 rookies, and their you have 5 million, to get a damn goalie to go with Conklin. Get it done Kenny. We need new faces, and less dead weight.