Buppy

Sorry, but anyone coming into a retirement thread to bash the retiree is a moron. Regardless of your opinion of the player, now or in the past, this isn't the right place to express it. Maltby played a significant role in establishing the standard of excellence to which so many Wings fans now feel entitled. We should all repect the man enough to wish him well now, or at the least, not say anything bad about him in his retirement thread.

I agree it's the Ducks for now. Avs rivalry died years ago when they started sucking. But I predict that come January when the Ducks are out of playoff contention we'll switch over to the Hawks. The Avs speed worries me. We don't defend well against speed. They played last night, so maybe that will slow them down. They've allowed 38 shots in each of their first two games. So I'll say we pump 50+ on them. Wings 6-4. Hank x2, Pav, Homer, Mule, Kronwall.

:beerbuddy: Cheers Malts. Best wishes in your retirement. Just the type of role-player every championship team needs. It was time, but still a little depressing. It reminds me that in the next two years, we could possibly see the end of Draper, Homer, Lidstrom, and Ozzie as well. The end of an era approaches.

I'll say one thing for Flip, he's by far the most hotly debated Wing I can remember. And it always seems to boil down to around 5-10 points difference in perceived potential. Everyone loves him, but if anyone values his offense 10% higher or lower than you they're a moron. Great stuff.

I'd love it, but we can't afford him either. The Devils will have enough to re-sign him, they'll just have to fill the rest of the spots with cheap guys.

I don't really want to make this any more political, and for the most part I agree that the NHL shouldn't be suspending people for gestures, but in this case I wouldn't mind. If I were to make a similar gesture at my work, I'd be fired on the spot. The same is probably true for anyone who works in an even semi-professional atmosphere. He'd for sure be suspended if he called someone a ****** or made any other racist remark, and this is really no different. I understand it was a joke but it's also hateful at its core. Consider that the city of New York just recently saw three men tortured and beaten for essentially the same homophobic sentiment. Pretty sad that in this day insinuating that someone is *** is still considered an insult. I guess I'd still say the NHL shouldn't suspend him, but the Islanders should. [Case in point. The N-word is apparently considered so offensive it has to be auto-censored on an internet forum. But you all think ***-bashing is appropriate for live TV.]

Kind of a long drive from California though...

Advertising doesn't effect the integrity of the game. Aesthetics are not at all integral. I can understand complaining if you find it ugly or distracting, but I can't understand being offended by being forced to look at something.

I liked the defense pairs. Salei looks like he'll fit in nicely, and Ericsson looked fine in his short time. Pinches were almost always well timed, though overall I think they weren't as involved in the offense as we've come to expect. Maybe Ericsson's injury made them play more conservative. The whole team was quick getting to loose pucks and applying pressure, and they recovered quickly when they got beaten or caught out of position. Jimmy was excellent when he had to be, can't hope for better than that. All four lines looked very good I thought. A bit too fancy at times on offense, even Hudler passed up a shot he should have taken. Eaves and Bert were invisible, though not surprising given their injuries. Cleary was a beast and Pav and Hank just belong together. They showed a lot of grit when the Dicks started gooning it up, nice, but I'd rather they just try to ignore that kind of stuff like they usually do. Fortunately, there aren't many teams as thuggish as the Ducks, so it shouldn't be a problem. Especially now that the rest of the league knows that nonsense isn't going to bother us. All in all, it was a great game, but it was also against an Anaheim team that really isn't very good. Tonight's game should be fun, and probably more accurate, though I really won't make too many judgements until after about 20 games or so.

I don't know about $8-9M at his age. I could maybe see Weber or Doughty getting that much, especially if the cap goes up again, but that's pretty high for a defenseman in his mid-30s, even if he is one of the best. This averages out to $6.5 (under the new rules, only the first 6 years of this will count in determining the average, so the actual cap hit could be between $5.6-7.5), which still makes him one of the highest paid defensemen in the league. It's a nice deal for Boston, but it's also plenty fair for Chara. With the new rules for long-term deals, I doubt he could have gotten much more in free agency, at least not for more than a year or two. Funny note, depending on what happens with Weber and Doughty (or other FA idiocy I guess), Brian Campbell could end up having the highest cap hit among defensemen in the league. (He's currently 2nd to Chara, which is already hilarious.)

Meh. They don't bother me. Even jersey ads wouldn't bother me, except in that I'd have to stop making fun of the Euro leagues for having them.

I hate having important games be the 2nd half of a back to back. But at least we should have some good confidence after tonight's game. Pav gets a regular hat trick this time. Wings 5-3.

I was doing fine for the 5 months since the last meaningful Wings game, why does it now seem like 7:30 will never get here? Is it too late to petition the league for a matinee start?

I'd love to see Malts play. To be honest though, it's only half because of Maltby, and half because I don't want Bert on the 2nd line anyway. Even though it would turn the 3rd line into a defensive s*** pile, I'm still hoping we swap Bert and Cleary. 2nd line needs more speed.

Wings fans celebrating an Avs win. I guess the Mayans were a couple years off.

Friday, October 8 Minnesota at Carolina San Jose at Columbus Dallas at New Jersey X2 Anaheim at Detroit Buffalo at Ottawa Washington at Atlanta Saturday, October 9 Phoenix at Boston Columbus at San Jose NY Rangers at Buffalo Dallas at NY Islanders Montreal at Pittsburgh Ottawa at Toronto New Jersey at Washington Atlanta at Tampa Bay Philadelphia at St. Louis Anaheim at Nashville Detroit at Chicago Los Angeles at Vancouver Sunday, October 10 Boston at Phoenix Los Angeles at Calgary Florida at Edmonton

With the bonus cushion, we actually could have afforded it. Would have only left us with around $150K, but it was technically possible. I would swear Draper had a no move clause though, but according to capgeek it's just a no trade, so again, technically possible. Not that it would have been a good thing to do either way. This board was all over Chicago for dumping Huet, now some want to suggest we should have done the same thing to Draper?

Nick and Rafi Kronwall and Modano That much is pretty well set. I like the move. Probably because I still like Ericsson. One thing though, while line combos do change often, Babs hasn't really shuffled the D pairs since Stuart was acquired, other than for injuries. Raises the magnitude of this move a bit in my mind.

Mountain out of a molehill. I would have preferred Ritola over Miller as well. Oh well. The chances of either being anything more than a footnote this season or in the future is fairly small. As someone else already said, we have only a few forward spots opening up in the near future, and quite a few better looking prospects in the system, as well as potential FA signings. Quincey is an interesting parallel. Quincey never would have been anything here. His chance basically ended when we re-signed Stuart. At best, he would have done well for one season and played himself out of our price range. More likely he would have continued as a borderline NHLer fighting for a roster spot. At best, Ritola might have played himself into Modano's or Bert's spot in the next couple years, maybe make Flip expendable. More likely I think is that he would have ended up foundering in the 12-14th spot. I don't think Miller will do anything more, which is why I'd rather have kept Ritola. But is it really worth making a big deal about it? Even if Ritola turns into an all-star this year, so what? As of right now he doesn't look any better or have more potential then Miller. No one can say it's a bad decision at this point. Holland isn't a gypsy. He doesn't have a crystal ball telling him the future. Stop acting like he has to be perfect in every prediction. Miller is only a little older, only a little more experience, and is a better player right now. That's a sound enough reason for keeping him, even if I don't particularly agree.

No, that's not at all biased. I'd say: True contenders: Wings Vancouver Washington San Jose Chicago Pittsburgh Close, could surprise and/or make a deadline move: New Jersey LA Philly Dark horses, mostly on account of goaltending: Boston Nashville Buffalo And after that just pick names out of a hat because none of them have much hope of winning anything.

That's true, but it is nice to see an unbiased evaluation of the talent in our system. Considering where we typically draft, having 4 of our guys get a 26-100 ranking is pretty impressive. I think Kindl could possibly get a top 25. Pulkkinen would surprise me that high, but I'm also a little surprised he wasn't already listed. Consider that Toronto, Atlanta, and Philly don't have anyone in the first 75, Edmonton, SJ, and Min all have only one and all ranked 96 or lower, and Carolina, Dallas, and Columbus each only have one as well. We're looking pretty good. Looking forward to seeing the top 25.

Hmm... So you're not saying an enforcer is needed, but you're saying it hasn't been proven that an enforcer is not needed either. What's the point of that argument other than maintaining of the possibility that enforcers are needed. One or the other is true, either you need an enforcer or you don't. If you don't beleive an enforcer IS needed, you have to believe that an enforcer is NOT needed. But for some reason you're just not willing to commit to either answer, or at least, not willing to say the words. Instead you just pussyfoot around it, saying 'well, we don't need one, but we haven't won without one so maybe we do'. If you want to argue just that having an enforcer can be valuable, just do that. You countered my specific point asserting that enforcers are not needed. Why do that if you agree with it?

Of course he isn't. But if we happen to win the Cup just watch the revisionist history. This will somehow become a tough team. The 97 and 98 Cup teams were soft compared to the rest of the league. There were debates exactly like this back then. Kocur was too old. McCarty wasn't a real heavyweight. We never should have gotten rid of Probert or Grimson. Lapointe and Primeau didn't fight enough, etc. But from the talk about them now you'd think it was one of the toughest teams in NHL history. People talk like McCarty was a fearsome enforcer in 02. The 08 team had the mighty Drake who apparently won us the Cup all by himself. The Wings are a soft team. We've been a soft team for years and years, and we've won despite that. You are saying we need an enforcer to win the Cup. And that is your only argument. You say we need one, I say we don't. I think it's hilarious that you all are so terrified to admit even the possibility that a team can win without an enforcer. I bet you were all relieved when we lost in 09. And that's the difference. I have no problem admitting that having an enforcer can have its usefulness. I'm just not going say it's an absolute necessity. It isn't. Games are won on the scoreboard. Fighting may help, but it is far from the only way to score or prevent goals. Simple kindergarten logic tells you then that it is absolutely possible to win without fighting. But you all act like making that simple concession would be like admitting that fighting has no value. As for Holland, let's see what he's really done. He had McCarty when he became GM. McCarty happened to also be a pretty good hockey player. Always a regular in the lineup. Maybe if Holland didn't have that luxury he would have signed someone else. Or maybe not. McCarty left after the lockout. We didn't carry an enforcer in 05-06. Didn't carry one in 06-07 either. 07-08 we added Downey. 08-09 we had nothing. Downey and McCarty spent the majority of the year in GR. 09-10 we added May, but he was originally signed to play in GR, but got a spot due to injuries. Once the team got healthy, he was waived and sent back to GR. That year we were also jammed against the cap and could only afford a minimum wage player. Thus far this season we have no one. So, 4 of 6 years with no enforcer, 1 with an enforcer for half the year only because of injuries, and 1 year with an enforcer as the 13th forward, who wasn't taking a spot from anyone better. Yeah, Holland really gives that role a high priority. We already have a full roster. Too many players in fact. We don't have any room for an enforcer. We don't need an enforcer. An enforcer won't put us over any edge. We have one of the best teams in the league, and we are capable of winning the Cup. With no enforcer. Come back next season when we have a couple spots open.

So basically, you're arguing against something you believe yourself on a technicality. Anyone can tell we had a team capable of winning the Cup in 09. That does, whether you want to admit it or not, prove that it can be done. We have people who can fight. Everyone on the team can fight, in fact. Just not particularly well. Not much different at all from any of the past 15 years, considering we've been one of the softest teams in the league over that span. If we do win the Cup it will be funny to see Abby being labeled an enforcer for fighting (and probably losing) six times this year.

If you really think Downey or McCarty were the difference between 2008 and 2009 you are certifiably insane. While the team has almost always had someone capable of fighting, the majority of our teams have featured no one better than McCarty, who wasn't scaring anyone even in his prime. And again, consistently at or near the bottom of the league in fighting majors every year for the duration of our current reign as perennial contenders, and over that time posting more Cups, more wins, more points, more playoff wins, and more playoff series wins than any other team in the league. I haven't actually added it up, but I'll bet we have the fewest fights over that time period. But if you really want to believe that the 10-20 fights we usually have in a year have been the lynch pin of our success, I guess no one can help you.