wings-fan for life

I've asked around, and no one seems to have a definitive answer. I've heard sometimes, (and by sometimes, say on occasion) they are open to the public, but it isn't often. Apparently morning skates are almost never open to the public, since they're optional. Sadness...

I was watching Wingspan on Fox Sports Detroit, as I usually do when I have the time, and they were talking about morning skates on game day. They said morning skates always happen at 10:30 on game days, and I was wondering if anyone knew if they (or practices) were open to the public. There seemed to be some random people around in the stands, but not many, and I wasn't sure if it was real people, or just people who worked at the Joe. Just wondering, as I'm going to a game next month, and it would be great to see them at a practice, or skate like that. Thanks for anyone who knows or has any information!

Zetterburg, was at least my understanding as well, for the next Captain. As for people to wear the "A", can we not have three if we want? (With Dats, Z, and Draper now?) If so, I'd say Dats, Cleary, and Kronwall...but I could see Franzen and/or Filpulla being rotated in.

Didn't this same sim last year predict Detroit losing in the first round to Columbus? These are clearly for novelty purposes only...and I laughed hard, so mission accomplished

I'm still fairly bitter over it myself, but I don't believe in the refs giving the series away, or even in an NHL/Bettman conspiracy theory. It still hurts like hell, but I'm not letting it run my life or anything. I mean, the league DID gave the Pens game 3...say what you want about officiating, but the late 3rd period interference call on Ericsson was bull, as stated my ESPN, TSN...I remember not seeing anyone or anything agreeing with that. Just think, had that played out on it's own and we win that game, we win the Final at home in five games. I did recently rewatch games 6 and 7 on NHL network and I wonder about thinks, like how the first goal in Game 6 wasn't waved off due to goalie interference, or how the first goal in Game 7 wasn't an icing as Stuart got down the ice to the puck first. Wishing Kronwall's shot in the 3rd would have been 1/2 an inch lower, wondering if Lidstrom would have faked Fleury out and passed to the right for the tie, if Cleary had tied Game 6 on his breakaway, etc...but I mean, we made mistakes too. We blew Game 4 after being up 2-1 halfway through and again, a win there gives us the win at home after Game 5. It's just another thing we have to get over. I'm ready and excited for this year! Go Wings!!!

I got one too, here's mine: http://games.espn.go.com/fhl/clubhouse?lea...p;seasonId=2010

I like these lines, except I think Bertuzzi should play with Leino, they seem alike and I think they would have good chemistry. Z and the Mule together is obviously great as we saw last year, and move Filpulla up to take Bert's spot on the Dats line. I'd switch Cleary and Holmstrom too I think, but that's not a big deal.

The Wings won in 98 and 02, which were both Olympic years, and Carolina took the Cup in 06, the most recent Olympic year, so we obviously can and have done it before. My predicitons... Canada Gold, Sweeden Silver, Russia Bronze Wings win the Central, but by four points or less Nashville will be the only team from our division to not make the playoffs...again The Kings and/or Panthers will make the Playoffs this year Pittsburgh won't make the playoffs San Jose will NOT lose in the first round of the playoffs this year Wings-Ducks Conference Final Flyers-Caps Conference Final Boston and New Jersey will both be stunned in early rounds by a low seeded team (again) As for the Wings themselves Datysuk and Z both score 40 (or more) goals, yet Z will score more goals yet have less points than Datsyuk Datsyuk, however, scores 100+ points, Zetterburg makes 90+ Franzen scores 35-38 goals and makes 85-88 points Filpulla, Helm, Cleary, and Bertuzzi each score 20 goals (or more) and of course, we win the Cup and my bold one....Rafalski outscores Lidstrom in Goals and in Points this year (not by many, say 2-4 goals, and 5-7 points total)

I saw and commented on the thread about ranking the Decade's Cup Winning Teams, so I thought it might be interesting to see what people thing about the teams that weren't quite as fortunate. 1. 00 Stars 2. 01 Devils 3. 02 Hurricanes 4. 03 Mighty Ducks 5. 04 Flames 6. 06 Oilers 7. 07 Senators 8. 08 Penguins 9. 09 Wings In order, from best to worst, 1. 04 Flames 2. 01 Devils 3. 06 Oilers 4. 09 Wings 5. 08 Penguins 6. 00 Stars 7. 07 Senators 8. 02 Hurricanes 9. 03 Ducks The only justification I'm giving for this at present...04 Flames should have won the Cup, like I said on the other thread, the officials screwed them...03 Ducks are the worst simply because of Giguerre and the whole goalie pads situation which even prompted the League to change the rules about their pads the next year. Any other comments or concers, just ask

1. 2002 Red Wings 2. 2001 Avalanche 3. 2003 Devils 4. 2008 Red Wings 5. 2000 Devils 6. 2007 Ducks 7. 2006 Hurricanes 8. 2009 Penguins 9. 2004 Lightning Here's my bit of reasoning...in my mind, the 07 Ducks are better than the Hurricane and Lightning Cup teams, ditto for this year Pens team. The 06 Hurricane team was solid, if only in Cam Ward, and the only reason I put the Pens team this year above the Lightning is because Calgary should have won in 04, but the officials were on the Lightning's side...so even though I'm NOT a Flames fan, it isn't nice to see a team get screwed out of a Cup, as they were in 04.

I'm going to throw out my opinion here. As I saw earlier, Helm and Ericsson have me the most excited. Helm for the entire season is great, I think he could easily score 20 goals or more even just centering the 3rd line, and if he gets some PP time, it could be 25 or more. Ericsson I think will be awesome as well, and should be on 2nd line PP I think alternating with Stuart and Kronwall. Datsyuk and Zetterburg should score 30 goals again each, and both have the potential for 40, and ditto that with Franzen. We should be able to get at least 90 from the three of them (30 a piece, obviously) and each at least have the potential to be 40 goal scorers. Filpulla moving up to Top 6, most likely second line still hasn't reached his potential, but with more time and more minutes, he should do better too. I think Filpulla will go 20-25, but think he could score 30 goals too. For top two lines I'm thinking Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Filpulla as Dats and Filp have played together well, and I see a lot of Datsyuk in Filpulla. Second line Cleary/Zetterburg/Franzen like we saw a lot of last year. I think Eaves has potential to do well also, and probably has the most likely chance of remaining after the season (at only $500k). Just my opinions...comments?

The first 5 were the embarass Tim Thomas show it seemed, and then there was one on Fernandez too, but I so knew Datsyuk's on Harding was going to be number one before I even started watching. It was still fun to watch

Jonathon Toews and Pat Kane are both RFA's at the end of this coming season, and does anyone here think it would be incredible, or even possible for the Wings to sign Kane in the off season this coming year? With the $5 million plus they are paying Hossa, plus all the extra they will have to pay Toews, who won't leave as he's the Captain, and what they pay Huet, I can't see them paying for Kane too unless he takes one heck of a paycut. Duncan Keith, also a RFA I would guess would like to stay if he can, but he'll want a nice raise too. We could have some extra space if we let some of the older guys go (Maltby, Draper, and who knows how the cap will move for next year?) Thoughts?

That would be a no, and keeping Conklin, even if they have to go up to say $1 mil for him from what he made (it was $750,000 I think...) should certainly keep him, at least for the year. Howard was eaten alive in the game he played against the Wild, and I just don't think he has it. I'm not trying to bash him, but I think they need to cut their losses with Howard, and focus on Larsson and/or Mccullom.