teebo

2nd best team in the conference, top of the division, while playing with some key injuries.
Not the end of the world, not having any luck around the net.

Lets look at the bright side...
Joey played pretty well
Helm played good
Ah, who the f*** am I kidding... We sucked tonight

You cannot win a game scoring 0 goals!

You can't fire a face like that. You just can't.

F**k the ex players.
What the hell do they know about hockey that could be so interesting? Nobody needs their insight.
Besides, NBC sucks at covering hockey. This probably means they won't start airing games until January.

Oh, how quickly they forget the Brian Lawton-Barry Melrose era of 18 months ago. We're lucky they didn't fold after that reign of error.
They've gone from being worse than Toronto last year to being second in the conference and on top of a very competitive, underrated division. Geef the man hees manny.

Smith makes $2.2m and is signed past this season.
$2.2m - $500k = $1.7m
Yay simple math!
How?
He has acquired a skilled scoring forward (Gagne) for next to nothing, he has significantly improved the team's goaltending for next to nothing.
What exactly were your expectations of Yzerman in his first season as a GM? That he would build the Bolts into a team that would win the Cup by the All-Star break?

Be a mod if you like nitpicking threads so much.

Who pissed in your Chelios?

How can you NOT love Stevie Y?

The poor bastard in question was Biron. Emery is insane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xqUbxr1Fbg
He fights Peters after Biron and has this bats*** insane Joker grin the whole time.

a game like that will never happen again in the NHL, all of these players would be suspended and the fun ruined for everyone. slowly softening hockey up, sickens me.

That is so sad... I'm glad you'll never be the Red Wings' GM. But please, be anyone elses.

Exactly

that was my favorite!

Not surprised at much of it..though I would have though for smartest player, Lids may have been at the top. That's one of the main things you always hear about him.

People keep saying they would rather have Lilja... you guys talking about post concussion Lilja? Cuz the pre-concussion Lilja doesn't exist anymore. And from what I saw, post-concussion Lilja was more or less useless.

Well, now that we're to the All-Star break, what's the verdict on Salei from LGW?
Quick numbers:
0g 7a 7p +3
70 hits (2nd on Wings defense)
72 blocks (3rd on Wings defense)
13 takeways (3rd on Wings defense)
23 giveaways (4th [highest] on Wings defense)
36 PIM (2nd [highest] on Wings defense)
5th in TOI/G for Wings defensemen
4th in PKTOI/G for Wings defensemen
Salary: $750k (1.1m cap hit; hit $350k bonuses)
Personally, I think we're getting what we pay for with the guy: A gritty, experienced, reasonably responsible bottom pairing d-man who can eat a fair chunk of minutes and play well on the PK. His defense isn't lights out, but it's solid enough. His offense isn't much, but I can't say I was expecting much other than about the pace he's on right now. And his PIM totals are actually lower than I expected.

Did Toews get hit by someone to hurt his production as the rounds went on in the 2010 playoffs?
You cannot disagree that the role of the enforcer is lessened during the playoffs. Things get locked down, time is rationed, and fights are less apparent.
Of course this is all moot considering the entire argument is based on "team toughness", which there seems to be enough for the bottom six. The fourth line seems to do very well in the other team's zone and the third line is effective as well.
Having a core of Abdelkader, Helm, Eaves, and Miller for bottom 6 guys isn't half bad. A bigger, more nasty player wouldn't hurt on the grit department, either. However it's not like Detroit is really "needing" more of the gritty aspect on the team.

Wow... people are still citing that hit on Hudler as a sign of softness?

Kessel has scored 19 goals this year, the way people talk about him you'd think he's scored 5.
His defensive game sucks, but to be honest he's a HIGHLY talented player. Possibly top 10 in the NHL.

Each league will probably steal the fantasy draft idea from now on.

Lidstrom assembled a defensive fist team. In fact it is quite similar to what Detroit would be if we would have no cap restriction

His highest totals were 20 goals (04-05) and 45 points (99-00). He only cracked 40 points four times in 16 years and he only played all 82 games once. I liked his contributions to the league, but come one, man...

This isn't true.
Mason was lights out, had a ton of shutouts.
You just like second guessing every decision made.
Z probably should have won that year, but Jackman played very, very good hockey. I thought watching him that he was going to be the next Pronger, he hasn't really panned out but he still played great that year.
I would love to have him on Detroit instead of Salei