Theophany

To be honest, we need a 6th defender to take Lebda's spot, and a new backup goalie to take Howard's spot. I don't care what the conditions are, Howard shouldn't let in two soft goals like that THIRTEEN seconds apart. Getting rid of Bertuzzi would be nice because he hasn't done crap on the ice and he's almost older than dirt (and not fit like Chelios), but I know it's not gonna happen. At this point, I'd just be happy with having Larsson up instead of Howard. Let the failure go.

Uh, no. There wasn't really anything that could have been called that wasn't. If they did, it would have been a nitpicky call. Zetterberg not playing up to par? Eh, yeah, I guess. You try playing with an injured groin, though. (I have news for you: that muscle is VERY involved in skating.) Leino is playing just like he did in the playoffs last year. We'll be fine. The Blues are a good team this year, and this game proved it. We need to tighten some stuff up, get Helm back, get Z healthy, and we'll be set.

Don't even joke about that.

To be honest, I took that more as SJ sucking, not the Avs being a great team. They're average, IMO, if they keep playing like they did last night. They definitely DID have more fire, though. SJ looked like they had just woken up from a 48 hour nap.

Definitely. The Olympics (especially being only 1 hour ahead of EST) will bring in huge amounts of money. Either way, I doubt it changes much for us.

That kid Duchene looks really, really good. Hard to believe he's 18 with how he's been playing tonight. Also, LOLTHESHARKSAREBAD.

Dude, replying inside the quote is really tough to read. Just say what you wanna say outside of the quote. If people can't figure out what you're replying to, you're either bad at English or they're bad at English.

Corey Perry. 'Nuff said?

You can hope and wish all you want, but it isn't gonna happen, bar a natural disaster of epic proportions.

LA and Columbus finishing ahead of the Wings? St Louis finishing that low? Don't make me laugh.

Uh, Ozzie wasn't dead-last in GAA and Sv%, even during the regular season. http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/statistics?stat=nhlgoalies He wasn't just "solid" in the playoffs. He was #2 in GAA and #4 in Sv%. By contrast, MAF was #9 and #10, and he was the guy holding the Cup, all said and done. Give up what we need to in order to get an elite goalie? Alright. What are they going for, $5-6 mil, if not more? Let's just give up Zetterberg and bring in someone like Abdelkader to fill his spot. That's really the only way we can swing an elite goalie; give up one of our guys that's ~$5 mil or more in cap space. If we start giving up guys like Helm, Filppula, Cleary, Franzen, etc, for an elite goalie, pretty soon we'll end up like Pittsburgh or Columbus. We'll have a few superstars, yeah; we'll still have the Euro Twins, Lidstrom, and maybe one or two others, but we wouldn't have close to the depth that's made us so dominant in the past 15 years.

If he can't, there's no other worthwhile spot for him on the roster. That's really the only line that can handle him. And the guy is only 35; keep that in mind. He was injured in the playoffs (like that's shocking), so yeah, I think he could play 5 on 5 getting first line minutes.

Dats - Zata - Homer Franzen - Filppula - Cleary Hudler - Helm - Leino Maltby - Draper - Abdelkader The only change I could see in this is Dats centering line 1 and Cleary moving to line 3 for Hudler to move to line 2. The centers for lines 2-4 are pretty much set in stone at this point, IMO. Edit: and Homer will be used on line 1 90% of the time because Zata and Dats are the two players that can make up for the cons to having Homer on the ice, as opposed to any other line; also, having Lidstrom and Rafalski blasting shots from the blue line is reason enough to have Homer on the crease. All depends on his health, though.

Learn to read, please.

Hossa doesn't dictate what goes into the contract, FYI. That's why it's a contract. If the Hawks didn't want to give him a NTC, it's unlikely that he'd get one. If there was a NTC involved, we'd probably know by now, since it's one of the biggest signings of the day.

Hossa doesn't have a NTC; I wouldn't be surprised that he signed with the potential to be traded to another team if the Hawks start having cap issues that can't be solved.

The main question is: will he keep 81, since 18 is retired on the Hawks (Denis Savard)? This was the excuse I was waiting for to buy a Hawks jersey.

I scored 40 goals, 65 assists, and was a +125 getting the Calder, Norris, and Conn Smythe in NHL09! Sign me up coach!

Ew, Hudler centering line 2 over Filppula?

Well yeah, that's kinda what I meant. If you look at pictures of him on the street, he's usually in a nice suit or something. Add that to having a nice car (or two, or three) and it really doesn't matter what you look like 9 times out of 10, when you have an athlete's body.

He's a rich athlete. Do you really think it's that hard to get a hot girlfriend when you (potentially) drive a Lamborghini and dress in expensive suits? I mean, he's not as popular as Ovi, but Ovi gets ridiculous amounts of ass and he looks like a retarded hillbilly.

Actually, he's probably leaving Detroit because he and Ken Holland (via Hossa's manager) can't agree on a contract number. Well, not that they can't agree, Hossa just wants more money than the Wings can afford.

I hear Red Wings draft picks always play in the NHL immediately after getting drafted. Oh wait, no they don't. We're not the NY ******* Islanders. You guys are hilarious. Didn't you realize what Detroit ALWAYS does? We trade to get prospects. It's a percentage move; we plant more seeds so our odds of getting ripe fruit is that much better.

Love some of the people posting in this thread. "Our team sucks so much, I hope we change the system that has made us the most dominant hockey team in the salary cap era and go in the complete opposite direction!" You guys are hilarious. Pretty sure that Mr Holland knows what he's doing.

I like this. I just found a new favorite team in the East. Mainly because I want to see Pronger check the s*** out of Crosby.