Broken 16

Why do you care? I'm not in panic mode yet. Not even close. I think a little line juggling will go a long way. I thought we out played them badly in OT. We seem to be able to enter their zone at will. Our breakout and transition game is still strong, even without Rafalski. Our 4th line looked outstanding. Providing energy and scoring chances. Like I said, a few minor tweaks to the lines and we should be fine. A lot of Duck fans seem to think that the overtime loss will deflate the Wings. Not gonna happen. This team has been in this spot too many times before. They will come out firing in Anaheim.

He's been better than any of our forwards. I'd say if they were to hand it out today, he would deserve it.

Great word.

This... I would love to see Leino called up. Helm/Leino/Kopecky would be amazing fun to watch.

That's a little harsh. The Wings have dominated nearly the entire overtime. Hillar is the one keeping sorry butts in it.

Any chance of cloning Helm?

Why does Babcock refuse to mix it up and put D and Z together every now and then? Would it kill him to double shift them once in a while? Jesus...

So safe to say that the problem lies with Babcock for not finding a proper place for him. I will agree that I would much rather see him centered by Flip or playing with Hudler. I'm not prepared to say that he is bringing Datsyuk down, as you claim. If you want to focus only on point production, you have an argument. To me, Datsyuk isn't moving like I normally see him move. Up until this most recent penalty kill anyway (Hossa was out there with him, by the way). Hope he gets it going.

Ok... so not only does Hossa have a better shot, as stated by you, he's also faster. Any other things you want to add to further seperate him from your initial comparison to Sammy? Just curious.

I see. So Hossa is a cancer that is eating this team alive. Got it.

C'mon... not this again. I'm sure they will focus on a Wings player during the second intermission. Take a breath. It'll all be ok.

Datsyuk played off and on all season with Hossa. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about...

Hard to say. He definately doesn't look like his normal self.

Y'know... Pronger is such a likeable guy in interviews. Why does he have to be such an ******* on the ice?

Nobody ever said consistency was one of the NHL's strong points...

It gets down to retaliation. Another thing, aside from head shots, that the league isn't particularly enthused with these days. Brashear lost his temper and retaliated. That retaliation ended up seriously injuring someone. Seriously, these are apples and oranges.

I'd say that it's because Brashear reacted instantly in an attempt to retaliate. On anybody close enough. He homed in on the puck carrier and made zero attempt to play the puck. I know that there are rumblings that the Ducks were pissed because Hudler did this and Hudler did that, but Brown's hit wasn't an obvious attempt at retaliation. That's my best guess, anyway.

If you took your homer glasses off for enough time to compare the videos, there are subtle differences. Brashear was clearly head hunting. He recieved a hit he didn't like and looked for someone to deliver instant payback on. As he was hitting, he swung his arm in an upward motion. This was an obvious and blatant attempt to injure. Mike Brown's hit on Hudler came in the flow of play. Brown already had him lined up while he still had the puck and was already skating towards him at high speed. Brown hit him hard enough that Jiri got cut from his own helmet. No massive elbow. No butt end. He got his clock cleaned. Not the first time he's been caught like that. Of course... you know more than the league regarding what construes intent to injure. Must be another case of The Man trying to hold the Wings down. Right?

Ya... very odd to see anything Magic related here at LGW. Almost forgot where I was for a second. At least something cool came out of this useless thread.

Believing they are identical is pure homerism. But that's fine.

How many teams has he been with since the Wings? If he was a true "rock", as you claim, he would still be here. I have nothing against Shanny. He was one of the best aquisitions the Wings ever made. Fedorov is deep in our history and tradition and deserves his jersey retired. Period. He is the proto-type for what this team is today. He set the bar. Stevie Y had to work to become what Fedorov already was. Truth hurts but there it is. I'd even go as far as to say that Steve wouldn't have become the captain that he was without Fedorov's influence. The early Scotty Bowman era is easy to forget. Fedorov is a ******* HUGE chunk of this teams tradition. As much as it kills me to see him schooling Ovechkin, I'm glad to see him getting his due.

So sick of people comparing what Brown did to what Brashear did. They aren't the same. Brown targeted the player with the puck... Brashear targeted whoever was close enough to nail. They are entirely different scenarios, so let this go already.

Shanny is like a 1 or 2 season guy. He plays amazing his first couple seasons with a new team then sorta seems to float the rest of his time till he gets traded. That's the way I see him, anyway. He can't keep that up forever.

I understand the point you are making and I agree with most of it, but you are going a little far if you expect us to believe that you understand EXACTLY what was going on when the incident occurred. We're talking about micro-seconds here and your talking about making a pass, swivel your head and take an ice inventory. Get real. It doesn't matter if it happened late, early, yesterday or today. The league has made it known that blows to the head will not be tolerated. Period. End of discussion. Just like guys sticks flying into someones face isn't tolerated. Brown f***ed up and paid the price. Moral of the story... make damn sure you don't hit someone in the head or there is a good chance you and your team will pay.

1) Hockey 101 - Be sure that you've cleared the zone and haven't commited a giveaway before heading off for a line change. 2) Fandom 101 - Realize that Jiri got up and skated off only to come back in the very next period, like a man. 3) Fandom 101.1 - Realize that a head shot is a head shot and that players, wether you have a man-crush on them or not, are responsible for their actions. Kinda like accidental high sticks. I also find it amusing that you actually have the balls to question Jiri's manhood after Pronger fell like a bag of bones after a little shove from Holmstrom. How embarrassing. Seriously.