Lidstrom for life

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The logjam on center will mean that one of them will be bumped down to the third. Given that Filppula is the better two-way player it might be him but like I wrote earlier there will be a fair amount of switching around as the season goes. I guess we agree in principle though.

I seem to recall Hudler playing on the third line in 2008, he doesn't exactly fit the bill of tough. I think Bertuzzi is the best player we have a realistic chance of getting in the 1.5 million range so I hope we get him.

I seem to recall Hudler playing on the third line in 2008, he doesn't exactly fit the bill of tough. I think Bertuzzi is the best player we have a realistic chance of getting in the 1.5 million range so I hope we get him.

I recall a third line of Hudler-Filppula-Samuelsson in the 2008 SCF. Granted, we will never be able to get that kind of depth again but I think the addition of Hudler adds more balance to the Red Wings.
The problem in the playoffs was our bottom two lines stunk. Two energy lines doesn't cut it, even when the top six forwards carried the team like they did. We need a third line next season that is an offensive threat. Whether that means going with Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Filppula each centering their own line or Helm developing more of a scoring touch, something has to happen if the Red Wings want to contend for a championship next season. I think Bertuzzi will be back with the Red Wings, but in doing so they almost have to play him with Datsyuk or Zetterberg to make the signing worthwhile. A healthy and productive Cleary will go a long way to bolstering some offense on the third line.

Someone mentioned this in another thread, and I thought it deserved its own post - aside from the 02 squad of hall-of-famers, even in the pre-salary cap era, most of our stanley cup championship teams have NOT had a scoring third line. all of these teams have had A) two great scoring lines, B) tough and reliable 3rd and 4th lines, C) great defense, and D) great goaltending.
A) two great scoring lines: check.
Filppula-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Hudler-Zetterberg-Franzen
B) tough and reliable 3rd and 4th lines: the problem here is that we seem set on resigning bertuzzi. but he is not a 3rd or 4th line player. he is a liability defensively and he doesn't hit anyone. he's essentially a poor-man's holmstrom at this point in his career. i think that we should use the rest of our cap space on acquiring a cleary-like player for this role. any ideas?
Cleary-Helm-???
Miller-Abdelkader-Eaves
Draper
(Ritola)
C) great defense: great in skill, but we lack toughness. hopefully the new 6th/7th defenseman brings a little.
Lidstrom-Kronwall
Stuart-Rafalski
Kindl-Ericsson
Lilja/???
(Janik)
D) great goaltending: imo, check.
Howard
Osgood

I dont get all the Bert hate. The guy pretty much ran the team when EVERYONE was injured. He plays decent defense, impossible to know off the puck, and likes to bang bodies every now and again. I love the guy and hope to god he stays, and id be happy if it were for another 2 years. I dont think another "cleary type player" will do much. Cleary was pretty invisible all year last year. I like him, but he didnt play like we are used to seeing him play. the only thing that cleary does better than bert is speed in my opinion.
I say keep Bert and try and get the best bang for whatever buck we have left. I'd love to see afinogenov here, but i dont think we wil have enough to get him, so try and fill the third or fourth line with a cheap free agent somewhere. Keep miller and eaves too in my opinion.

his breakaway goal was 5 fistpumps out of 5

i appreciate him choking in game 7 of scf 08-09

Actually, someone out there might be willing to bite on Huet if he comes with a free Versteeg. Versteeg would be payment for them eating Huet's brutal contract and would probably be just the kind of thing someone would be willing to do just to get Versteeg. A team like Atlanta might do something like that just because they have the cap room and Versteeg is a good young player.

I think its funny that he would comment in a Detroit Red Wings forum and then say its funny that we are talking about the blackhawks...

And Detroit played all elite teams in their 08 run?
My count is 0 with an honorable mention to the Penguins that year. Topped with mediocre Nashville and half an Avs team and you got yourself a pretty nice road to the cup.

Thats the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. So because chicago won the cup they get an extra 2 million to pay out for possible more talented people in the free market, giving them a lot better chance at winning the cup again the next year. It also means teams like florida, toronto, islanders who are getting good draft picks won't be able to make the finals due to a lower salary. Time for this topic gets thrown in the trash.

A 1 vs 2 match-up in the WCF's? That doesn't seem lucky to me. Ya, they swept them... maybe that was the lucky part?
Sorry. I guess I just don't agree with the whole notion of trying to discredit another teams accomplishment by looking for instances of luck. I'll find another thread.

And I'm saying that you can take every Cup run from any team that has won the Cup, dissect it and point to probably half a dozen occurances and say "Man... if that wouldn't have happened, they wouldn't have won the Cup".
On paper, Chicago was one of the best, if not THEE best, team in the playoffs. They met expectations and got lucky along the way. Like everyone else that has won a Cup.
You say their road was easy and I say it was a lot easier because they had a good regular season and were rewarded by having to play lower seeded teams. So is it luck that they finished strong enough in the regular season that they were able to draw easier opponents? I say no. Sorry.

Every team that wins the Cup gets a little lucky. In fact, most get a lot lucky. Luck played a part in every Wings Cup.
So... yes.

To me, the 2009 Red Wings, 2009 Penguins, and even the 8 seeded 2009 Ducks were all better than the 2010 Blackhawks.
Dont get me wrong, the Preds and Canucks are nice teams but they arent elite by any means.. The Sharks series was impressive, but come on, they are perennial chokers. The Sharks were outscored in a series against a Wings team decimated by the salary cap. Lastly, the Flyers made a cinderella run in a very weak conference.
Maybe Im underestimating them, however I just dont think they had to beat any elite teams this playoff,and I still think the Wings of last year would have beat them pretty easily.
I think this was the easiest road to the cup in the last 10-15 years? What do you guys think?

look at the Penguins. They won and people in the media threw the dynasty word around. Crosby and Malkin's huge contracts kicked in and they had to let go of 'role' players like Gill and Scuderi. They are still a good team but not as good as the team that won the Cup, and i think if they were in the west they would have barely made the playoffs. Its going to be the same with the Hawks. They won't tank, but they won't be the most stacked team in the league. in fact, chicago has worse contracts than the pens
Its funny how many (not on this board though lol) now think Quenneville is a good coach with this win. The truth is, he was given the keys to such a stacked and loaded team that it would have been harder not to win the Cup this year.
Such stacked teams don't come along often. In the salary cap world, this only happens when you have superstars that are still on their entry level contracts.

I don't think he would be too happy with those numbers since he is only 23 now and would be making peanuts in his prime. Gonna have to be a lot longer than 10 years. 15to18 years might work???????

Ryan will take big bucks ($5,500,000 a season minimum unless you sell him on an ultra long term contract) to sign. If you get him to a contract Anaheim can't match you can expect the compensation in picks to be crippling. Now if Holland has magic hands and somehow works out a sub $4,500,000 contract that the Ducks can't match I'd have to mail him my first born.
And if he does take that number there's even less than zero chance the Ducks don't match it.

i heard on the radio

Memo to Chicago
Re: July 1.
Just a samll reminder: birthday party going on in Canada on this date and most businesses will be closed. Try to get your contract offers out before that then. We wouldn't want to see someone be re-located to another position...again.

In then end I don't really know how screwed they are.
They just won the cup.
They'll still Toews, Kane, Hossa and Keith.
Unless all the GMs in the NHL are going to bully the Hawks into being over the cap next year and having to forfeit every game I don't really see all that much bad.

toews avoided getting points in the finals as much as possible for a reason

I think there's a thread about the Hawks if you're looking for a change of pace.