Opie

Every time I see one of these it makes me smile, I think of all the crap I took by saying they weren't the favorites to win the cup. I know it is early and they can turn it around, IF Selanne comes back or they are able to trade for a major player, or they could turn it around on their own. So how is that best Defense in the world, or that pp that was supposed to make teams feel like they were player 5 on 3!!!! Top 3 players are gone and now they are losing to the Yotes during a losing stretch(not streak there was 2 W's in there). That is important, losing to the Yotes during a winning streak is a little bit more excusable because your players probably underestimated them, when you are looking to try and turn things around and get some momentum going you need to bury the Yotes. Not let them score 6 on you. That is 5 g to Dal and 6 to Pho, that is not a good sign on a team with that much money on D and in net. BTW how does Shane Doan get the game winner in OT and end up the second star to a guy who also had one goal, but didn't have the assist Doan did?

If my beloved Cam Neely is in the HHOF than you have to put Lindros in. Was he a bust no, he was overrated because the way he came into the league. Demanding a trade, he was Eli Manning before Eli Manning, I guess that would mean Eli pulled and Eric!

I have a ton of respect for Mike Modano, love the guy, the way he plays and what he stands for. The Stars took the C away from him, I think it was mainly due to his wife, well more specifically her mouth. She didn't really make the headlines until after the C was gone, but she was yapping a lot and I think the team expected their captain to say "ease up a little." Congrats to him on setting the record, he is a great player and one of the last of a dying breed, a player who spends his entire career with one organization. I know as fans of Detroit we have come to expect that of wings players and of the org to make it happen, but not a lot of players and teams do it.

Took the words off from my screen!!! Another question: After watching last nights shoot out and thinking back to previous shoot outs I had this question in my mind: The game is in a shootout, you have one player to choose to take the shot, Do you choose Dats or Z? I actually go with Z, he has the Forsberg backhand move from the olympics, a twisted wrister, and that move last night made Mason look like he belonged in the frozen food section at Star Market!!!! I am not saying Dats doesn't have the better moves, or is worse I am just saying right now, Zeta. His nickname should be changed to Clutch or however you say it in Swedish. This year and most of last if you looked up the word clutch in the dictionary his picture was next to it. I am so excited these two are on the wings (hopefully for a long time) I just wish I could watch more games!

In that picture Miller's mid section looks like it is the size of his two leg pads side by side if not bigger!!!

Funny you bring this up, just last night I was reading Blood Feud and got to this point. If you remember Lemieux was injured the first 2 games of season against the wings, abdominal strain. The third game Draper and Lemieux squared off but nothing came of it. That was when the media really started to get on Detroit about being owned by Col Especially Woody Paige. The 4th game was the brawl, Larinov (of all people) and Forsberg started a fight, then everyone chipped in. Foote and Devorski were holding back McCarty until Shanny grabbed Foote away from Mac and the ref let go of him just enough for mac to spin away. He faced Lemieux, looked him in the eye and then cold cocked him. That sent Lemieux into Turtle mode. Mac decided he would get as much of him as he could. Another funny point is in the book Devorski talks about how after the fight he should have thrown Mac from the game, he didn't and Mac scored the OT winner. Also Mac wasn't beating him to inure him (as in end his career or make him miss games) he was hitting him to deliver a point, the book even mentions that Lemieux only needed 10-15 stitches. Bertuzzi attacked a man skating down the ice who didn't want to fight him after fighting multiple players already. Bertuzzi hit him from behind with intent to injure him (make him miss games) and then was going to follow him to the ice to proceed to beat him more (no pun intended). Bertuzzi's actions were not as bad as Simon, McSorley and other stick wielding maniacs (yes Jesse Boulerice I am looking at you) but what he caused was worse. And in the end that is always what weighs heavily in the courts. Drunk driving penalties are a lot stiffer and harsher if you injure another as opposed to being caught at a road block.

Thunder Priest: On this team there is a big difference between 3rd and 4th line and it is minutes played. The 4th line has been seeing about 5 minutes of ice time.

NN I have no problem with a suggestion that he be moved to the third line to make way for Huds or Mule, I believe they are more talented than he is, however to say he should be on the fourth line with scrubs is a little overboard for me, especially with a guy like Maltby grabbing 3rd line minutes. But I will agree with you that Huds deserves the 2nd line minutes over him, neither of them should be relegated to the fourth line with Maltby still in the starting line up. If you have to be so anal and specific that you have to go to the score sheet to find out how he got his assists to say he is not using his linemates than I think you are being overly critical. How well are Draper or Cleary using their linemates? Like I said before if you want to say you don't like him or his style of play that is fine. But then again I am getting a little defensive with the way people around here bash the players on a team that is 11-2-1, and unfortunately because I think you are one of the more respectful, logical posters on here I held you to a higher standard. The only complaint I have with Sammy is him playing the point on the pp. He is getting better but I still get very nervous when he has the puck and is being pressured at the point.

I see how what I wrote looked like I was attacking Richards, my intent was to take a shot at the Flyers as a whole. They are playing dirty and (I didn't know the things about Richards) they were not willing to take their medicine for being dirty and cheap. But if you are going to accept the challenge with him, do it, like Koci did with Chara. He had a broken nose and knew one shot would bust it open again, did it stop him, nope he went in there got his nose re-broke but still threw punches and did his best. I should say though that after the way this season started I have developed a strong distaste for everything Flyer. I was not a big fan of theirs before and now I am even less of a fan.

GS&T what if that guy were Homer, and every time the wings played Philly Hartnell went after him every time Homer stepped on the ice. Because they thought some thing he did was wrong. Remember that hit Moore laid out was not that horrendous of at hit as much as it was Naslund being in a very vulnerable position and Moore taking advantage of the situation. Naslund was leaning for the puck and was exposed, do I think Moore should have let up, damn straight I do. But Moore's hit was not the same as Lemieux. And even Lemiuex had a statue of limitations on how long the wings went after him. Another thought is what if Col thought he had paid the piper with 2-3 fights, but Van thought he should have to deal with it for the season. Now Col is in the mind frame that Van has crossed the line and goes after a Van player, on and on we go on the merry go round of when enough is enough. If you want to deliver a message you send your tough guy out to whoop his ass, you hit him hard when he has the puck, you make sure you follow through on every check. You do not sucker punch him from behind, that in my book is worse than the hit that Moore laid on Naslund. Even if Moore gets up the second after he hits the ice, punching a guy from behind is dirty and there is need to do it. Remember a sucker punch from behind is what started a lot of the issues with Lemiuex, he sucker punched Kozlov and that is where the s*** began.

I agree with Eva, He had at least 10 years left, and suffered mental and physical trauma, I say he deserves around 10 mil. Which is why his attorney asked for 15. Then after negotiations it would be around that 8-12 mil range which I think is fair considering his earning potential before that. Also think of the what broke his neck this way: If I fire a gun at a target in the woods, the bullet hits a tree and ricochets hitting an innocent person walking their dog, it paralyzes them. Am I at fault for pulling the trigger, yes. Even though my intent was not to hurt some one, that is what happened. Another example: I run a red light, hit a car into oncoming traffic, the people in the car get seriously injured, am I at fault or the driver of the car that hit them last? Bert's intentions were to pick a fight with the guy, Moore chickened out. That does not give Bert the right to punch him in the back of the head and then tackle him. When watching the video it looks like Moore's neck breaks at one of two points, when his head hits the ice, or when Bert lands on him. Either way it is still the fault of Bert. Now lets say, it is not broken but he is pinned under the weight of Bert, then the pig pile happens. Due to the fact that Bert knocked Moore out putting him in a position where he could not protect himself, Bert is still to blame. Osgod: You seriously have never seen a guy drilled into the boards and have their neck broken? See the following: Travis Roy!!! I have seen it happen to two kids from my high school. It happens a hell of a lot more often than people jumping on each other causing it does. Football games they must have 15-20 big piles a game. People celebrating after winning a game in any sport. Bert is at fault because his actions caused the injury.

I would wager to say they lost their 3 best players, yes Neids could come back but Selanne and Penner took over 2/3 of their offense with them. And even when/if neids comes back he is going to need some time to acclimate to the game again. They could be in for a world of hurt, or the youngsters really need to step it up for them.

Equipment is way bigger than it used to be there is no denying that. The Hockey News did an article on this showing the pads Roy used every year of his career, they are nearly 3x the size they were when he started. Shrinking the pads would allow for more goals, except for against the elite and agile goalies. The slower goalies and less flexible ones would not be able to make the saves they would if the pads are smaller. Or they wold be forced to cut the angle off more to cover the area that used to be covered by larger pads. Thus creating more back door opportunities. Having bigger pads is essentially the same as cutting down the shot, it is all about angles. Do the goalie's pads cover the whole net, No. However if the pad is an inch thicker than it used to be, step out a couple of feet and what was once an inch of covered space is now a matter of 4-6 inches of covered space. Enlarging the nets makes no sense when you can shrink equipment. I agree I think the D system is the biggest factor in this but the padding doesn't help. I am not saying a guy like JS is the only one this impacts, I think all goalies pads are too big. Go back to the late 80's early 90's and look at the leg pads and shoulder pads these guys had, they make today's goalies look like giants.

Look at how the Rags play, everyone stays in the zone, blocking shots and lanes, the shots Lundquist does see are easier saves for a goalie of his caliber. The Rags are weak on D so they stay in the zone dumping it out now and again catching one of their forwards streaking or they use the power play. Last night on VS they interviewed Lundquist, and asked him what he thought about the D and how at the start of the season everyone thought that would the teams glaring weakness. Lundquist even said the forwards are helping out extra in the zone. It was exciting hockey for a little bit when Philly was just taking the dumps into the neutral zone and turning it into potential offense, then it became redundant and boring! This is the same hockey that the Devils used to win the east so many times. To me it is boring, I liked watching last years Buffalo team and the offensive explosion that was Ottawa, but this is getting boring. All the efforts that were put in the game to make it more exiting and fast paced have back fired and now teams are thugging up to beat up the better teams and playing 4 guys in their own zone at all times until they catch a break or get a pp against equal or lesser teams.

NN I am surprised at you, bashing on Sammy without anything to back it up. Again I say this with no answer from any of you who bash Sammy all of the time. Doesn't use his teammates? He has 7 assists and only 2 of them coming on the PP, so where does this "doesn't use his teammates" come from. [sarcasm] Oh I know, the scorer had no one else to give the assist to and the first person to skate past his field of vision got the assist. [/sarcasm] I can understand people not liking him because he doesn't fight or hit, because that is a preference, some of you prefer to watch physical hockey with a lot of fighting, I prefer to watch my team win. Sammy helps the team do that. Try explaining your posts instead of just throwing out statements, in your research you may just find that your opinion is a little off base. People bashed on Lang because they were not happy unless they were bitching, it is the same with Sammy, Huds, and to a lesser degree with Kopecky, but Downey can go out have a fight in 4 minutes of ice time, and he is the team savior. He is the reason why the wings will win the cup. However a ROLE PLAYER goes out and does his job, is building chemistry with two brand new (this year) linemates who are in their second year, and he is a bum who needs to be relegated to the 4th line. You people amaze me!!!

SWEWINGS: I was in the same camp about not getting him, we posted about not wanting him because of injuries because of posts like this, and this is only the first couple I came across on the front page of this thread.

So I ask of you whom on the wings roster right now do you know that isn't on the top line or top D pairing that puts up the numbers Sammy does. Whom is going to replace him, you say Franzen but can Franzen put up Sammy's numbers. I am not a Sammy lover, but I like to consider myself a realist, his stats (to re-use my post 3 above this one) Sammy is 6th on the team in points with 9, 5th in +/- at +6, and 5th in assists with 7. Edit: clarity

PSST Sammy is 6th on the team in points with 9, 5th in +/- at +6, and 5th in assists with 7. [sarcasm] But you are right is worthless and should be traded for a bag of pucks or a goal mooring, you can never have enough of them around, but sometimes one Sammy is too many. [/sarcasm]

I try not to put too much weight on those scouting reports. I mean what is Chris Mason's scouting report, or Peter Budjai for that matter. As long as he is still a 1, whether it be 1a or 1b it is still the best prospect the wings have had for a while.

I wouldn't mind seeing a Cleary Draper Huds line, thus leaving the 4th line with any combo of Drake/Ellis/Kopecky/Downey/Maltby

What will it take for this board to respect the games that Sammy and Huds play. Sammy and Huds are very talented 6-9 forward, not very talented top 6 forwards, but unfortunately this team needs them to be top 6 forwards. The wings right now have 2, count them, 2 legit top 6 forwards. Huds Sammy Flip are building a lot chemistry and are starting to play really well as a secondary scoring unit, the team is on a tear and yet, people still bash players on this team, trash them like they could find a better player at the same salary or cheaper just hanging out on the corner of the street. Huds Sammy and Flip will be critical to the regular season success of this team and if a top 6 forward is not signed at the deadline they will be pivotal in the playoffs.

Well the lay off and the fact that the Sox were the best team in the league, but yeah the layoff hurt for a game or two, but the other two the best team won. That is why the games were a lot closer than the first game.

I think Babs will have them take a day off early into the layoff and then have them busting their asses up until the day before the game and have a light skate around. He seems to be able to motivate guys to work hard, and the team seems to be responding very well to him. I think what helps him the most is that his Superstars are just as hard working as everyone else. If Lids, Dats, Z were taking practices off, or dragging ass through practice it would be harder to get some of the younger guys to work harder. That Yzerman attitude seems to be very prevalent in this team, something that we have seem glimpses of in the recent past but not a season full of it from the team, from some players yes, team not so much!

*cough* http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=46228 *cough* I know the title doesn't exactly scream the topic out, but it does exist already. I get stuck in that some times I try to make a creative thread title and then others repost the same thing with a much more normal thread title.

I love this story http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=153091&hubname