Opie

All I can hope is that Wings fans DO NOT bring whistles to home games!

You would think teams would learn, when was the last goaltender signed to a 7+ year deal to actually play that whole contract out?? I am going to call my study of this "the Dipietro hypothesis on contract length as it relates to rate of injury and GM stupidity! "

The battle the Wings are losing is goaltending. Rinne is playing like Thomas did last year. This kid is phenomenal. Great glove hand, tall kid takes up a ton of net space, I have no idea how in the hell he gets all of the low screen shots that he does, intuition? I love Howard and hope he is here for years to come, but this is the same old story friends. Wings hit a hot netminder and can not get past him. Nothing new we have seen it many times around these parts!

Parity has been a part of hockey for a few years now. Great if you are a fan of small market teams like Phoenix who is bankrupt yet won their division. Horrible if you are a long time fan of successful larger market teams like the Wings. I miss the days of spending until Mr. I's checkbook was crying. If you look at point standings for the past couple of years parity is pretty clear, 3 point games don't help that much either.

Where is shanny's vid explaining the non suspension/fine?

Great line, great imagery. I voted no, because this is indeed the type of hit that should be kept in the game, this hit should be showed to players over the summer.

I thought this too. I think the one thing that may save him from a lengthy suspension is that it looked like he was actually trying to avoid the hit, but lost his balance. He looked kind of like Ahmad Bradshaw scoring that last touchdown for the Giants. "Oh no stop! Oh s*** I can't!"

He is back at it: puck daddy article http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6IF4mQ-AYY8

This guy? Edit: I am a tool and couldn't get it embedded

In the future I would recommend putting the Swede part somewhere near the title of either the poll or the thread as both appear before your OP. That was what got me a tad confused.

None on that list. I think Suter is a better replacement for #5, both he and Weber are cornerstone guys. I just think Suter's style matches Lids more, I think of Weber as a more talented Stuart. That more physical game, as opposed to Suter who plays a more comparable style to Lids. Either would be my top choice, also included in this "fantasy" would be Doughty as another one not on that list. The only partly interesting name on that list to me is Enstrom.

What is the relevance of 15:15?

I think Babcock in general all year has had a bug up his arse! He appears meaner behind the bench, maybe that is his way of dealing with the lethargic play of this team. I think he has one of the harder coaching jobs in Sports. These guys start to take for granted this team will be good. How many games do they lose because they are trying to play on skill alone. Howard has really been great for them and I worried when J-mac and Conks were going to be the tandem. Babs has the whole team playing a little grittier and meaner. Abdelkader has finally realized that he will not be on the first line and started playing the way that got him on this team.

This man is the luckiest unlucky man I have ever met heard off. If he were to sit down next to me on an airplane, I would get off and walk to wherever I was going! Edit: never met the man.

Of those teams 3 (4 if you include both from STL) have had Goaltenders that are tops in the league so far, and Chicago (no intention on bagging on their goaltending) is winning with offense being second in the NHL with Goals. STL is the biggest surprise to me. Followed by C-bus, I thought they would at least be in the discussion for postseason with the moves they made. But by far the toughest division in hockey.

I remember his first was start against Dallas, he lost 2-1 or 3-2 I think and made like 40 saves. Didn't it take two or three starts to get the first W, for some reason I am thinking like 5 starts, but not sure.

Lets say this does happen: Hypothetically wouldn't it preclude Pho and NJ from being trading partners? The league tried to force the sale of the yotes and that worked poorly. Atlanta goes to Winnipeg easy as pie though? This is confusing and makes me want to join the Bettman is stupid and needs to be removed group. I mean by no means am I a fan of the guy, but some very good things have happened for the NHL under his watch. But there are some things where his stubbornness is a huge problem.

I love that this thread is still alive. Thanks for the link, I for one am not ashamed to rock my knock offs!

Quite simply this team needs a straight up scorer. Not a solid two way forward. A sniper who can pot 35 - 40 goals. This team struggles to score consistently. Mule is becoming the epitome of this team. On fire one week, a ghost for 3.

With the way Jimmy has been playing the wings are what 15-4-1 (a guess I didn't look it up) in the last 20 and are still only in 4th in the west. With all of the 3 point games it has become much more difficult to make up ground. This also makes Oct and Nov games as important as Feb and March. Lets say he plays Conks, and Conks doesn't improve (I hope he will), if he gives Conks 10 games the rest of the way and Conks goes 2-8-0, what then? And the Way Conks has played I would be surprised if he could get those two wins I gave him. There is also only 9 points seperating 1st in the west from 8th in the west. The Red Wings goaltender situation right now is 1 and 4, not 1a and 1b. The only NHL ready netminder the team has based on this years play is Howard. Just like last year when everyone was crying for Ozzie. Babs and the coaching staff realize they have one netminder they can rely on. Now Conks could go on a tear and all of the sudden look like an NHL goaltender, but as of yet he has shown nothing even close to NHL caliber play.

Yes but what other choice does babs have.

The very next time they played Lucic took Gaustad to the wood shed, btw.

I really like the new (last couple of games new not brand new: for clarity) first line!

Predicting a Wings win, will be a close game, but 4-2 wings with an EN