Theophany

I have 5 jerseys, though I really only have two that I care about and wear. The first is a Lidstrom 2010 Olympics replica, yellow with his captain's C: The second is a Lidstrom Winter Classic authentic: Related to this thread but not a jersey is my 2002 Stanley Cup Finals puck signed by Lidstrom:

If anyone ever wants to see Homer laugh and cry at the same time, try showing him a video of that Orr "goal".

Yeah, Stuart plays on the edge...the edge of stupidity. I don't disagree, but last game was just one colossal f*** up for Stuart.

The first line isn't really a scoring line right now, either. Two goals in four games isn't quite the six that the second line has. (The third line has two goals as well, both scored in the opener; Cleary and Modano.)

I'd rather Stuart stop sucking--taking two penalties that lead to goals and being in prime position on the other two. If Stuart wasn't taking stupid penalties, last night's game could have been a lot different.

I heard the same thing and was confused. It lasted the rest of the game, and I'm still confused. I've met Fil before, and he's smaller than I am. And I'm not that big (6'0, 180).

Thanks for doing these, Matt. Nothing else graces the screens of my computer during hockey season.

Really? So the fact that I'm not from NY prevents me from judging the pizza if I go visit? What an asinine argument. I grew up in Chicago, I can sure as hell pass judgement on whatever pizza I want.

I'd throw my personal choice of Stuart in, but everyone seems to have a hard-on for him, despite him never picking up guys in front of the net.

"With a sellout crowd of 18,087 and both teams using much of their "A" lineups, the $321 million arena opened with an almost regular-season intensity." Much of their "A" lineups? Err, we were missing Hudler, Datsyuk, and Zetterberg, and played Ozzie in net. That's not really our "A" lineup.

All of those guys you named other than Lidstrom and Homer have less Cup rings than Draper and Maltby.

Having both used Sportacular Pro and the ESPN Scorecenter app, I greatly prefer the Scorecenter. Then again if you have an iPhone 3G or the 1st gen, I would rather shoot myself than use either app because they're so slow. But Scorecenter on the iPhone 4 is pretty unbeatable. It's an incredibly easy app to use.

Signed it because I like the idea of having the Nordiques back in the NHL, and I love free t-shirts.

The odds of any girlfriend of mine liking hockey has dwindled to an extremely low number ever since I moved to Seattle. Then again, I moved about six years ago, so the likelihood of a girl liking the Hawks (or god forbid the Wings) back then is probably lower than a woman liking hockey out here. I've had a few comments on Wings jerseys, shirts, and hats that I wear, but usually it's Canuck fans flirting with me in a mean way.

lolwhat Seriously? Tell that to the football players that work harder in the offseason than many hockey players do in the regular season. You obviously have to have passion for a sport that requires QBs to be 210+ lbs. Guys don't just get to be 225 lbs overnight with the percentage of body fat that WRs and QBs have. I can tell you frankly and honestly as someone shooting for just 200 at 6'0, you have to have passion to even get into the weight room as often as they do. If they didn't love what they were doing, they wouldn't have the drive to play at the NFL level.

Nope.

Yeah, I read it and had you read my entire post, you'd have seen that I read yours, too. Regardless "three major breakdowns" doesn't prove a player is bad. Hell, I can think of one terrible one Lidstrom had that led directly to a one-on-none break from our offensive blue line, and he's still one of the best defensemen to ever lace 'em up. Overall performance is what we should be looking at, and Stuart isn't that good, hence why I said he's a #4 defenseman at best. Not saying I'd take someone like Lebda or Ericsson over him, but he's overrated and overpaid.

Too expensive. He was making nearly $3m in Chicago last year. We have space at the moment, but still need to sign Abdelkader, Helm, etc. It's possible he'd take a discount to play with a solid team, but I doubt it.

1. $3.75m contract on a #4 defenseman at best: Kronwall is a $3m defenseman and is far superior (more upside on offense and less prone to catastrophic breakdowns on defense). 2. -12 last season, only matched or beaten by Ericsson and Meech. Hell, Ville Leino and Jason Williams couldn't beat him, as hard as they tried. 3. Kronwall played in 48 games and put up 22 points. Stuart played in 82 and put up 20. Rafalski, a guy most people like to criticize on his play, put up 42 in 78 games. I could go back and find game footage of some of his massive breakdowns in front of the net (not lifting sticks, not going to the body on a guy in front), but that would take way too much time. You can go back and take a gander for yourself if you really care about being objective.

Rafalski ended with a higher +/- than Lidstrom. Just sayin'. If you ask other teams if they'd take a defenseman that can put up 42 points and have a +23 for $6 mil, you're gonna get a lot of teams that are interested. Compare him to Lidstrom's stats, who placed fourth for the Norris this year: 49 and +22. Granted Nick is better on the defensive side of the puck, but try imagining our first PP without Rafalski on the blue line next to Lidstrom. Expecting him to be as good as Lidstrom is completely unrealistic.

So basically you're saying that Chicago and Detroit are different because the Wings got bandwagon fans in 97/98 and the Hawks got them in 09/10? Good argument. I know far more Wings fans from outside of Detroit, and I'd have to say that that holds true. It's probably due to having to actually search for info on the Wings, rather than just being able to hear about it on the evening news.

Literally the exact same thing could be said for any team that's had success in the past 5-10 years in the NHL, including the Wings. I know far more retarded Wings fans (including people on this very forum and IRL) than I know logical/smart Wings fans.

No, I'm not tired of the Hawks. They deserve their time, just like we've had four times since '97. I grew up in Chicago, so most of my friends have been texting me (knowing I'm a huge Wings fan) and stuff. I just remember who's texting me and how often and I'll text them just as much when we win our next Cup. Some of my friends have been gracious about their win; they tend to be the real hockey fans, not the retarded bandwagon Hawks fans.

Drinking less would probably help more than getting broadcasting skills.

With Hudler and a more experienced Howard, you don't think that we could do just as well? Especially if we don't have s***loads of injuries and play a 6-8 seed and then a 4-6 seed? There are a few players I'd like to see gone: Ericsson, Cleary, Williams, Bertuzzi, and Stuart. Those players should free up enough cap space to get someone on the offensive end of the puck.