unsaddleddonald

Veteran presence in the locker room is a good thing,but when you add Alfie to the group of Hank,Pavs,Bert,Kronner,Miller Cleary is simply not needed anymore.

Convince me otherwise please. I'm seething right now.

"Durrrrrr Cleary had the 2nd most points in the playoffs....Durrrrrr"
By that rationale, we could say that Cleary was better in the playoffs than Datysuk.......right?!

"Durrrrrr Cleary had the 2nd most points in the playoffs....Durrrrrr"
By that rationale, we could say that Cleary was better in the playoffs than Datysuk.......right?!

Outside of Howard none of those players played 4 years in GR. Howard wasn't exactly lighting the AHL on fire either.
So if they ask Tatar, one of our top prospects, to spend year number 5 in GR then Tatar has a right to be pissed.

"Durrrrrr Cleary had the 2nd most points in the playoffs....Durrrrrr"
By that rationale, we could say that Cleary was better in the playoffs than Datysuk.......right?!

Tatar deserves to be on this team
Cleary does not
end of story

WTF is up with the Cleary signing? We already have TOO MANY FORWARDS!!! We are OVER THE CAP! And he STILL had to be signed? My God. I can't, and won't, support this move. We are going to lose a more talented player (and I don't know who) because we just had to have ALL OF THEM. They are hockey players, not Pokemon.

wow you guys are a regular abbott and costello eh?
here's what i don't get - the training camp lines yesterday already had tatar fighting for a spot on a line as he was slotted in on the 5th line. that was even without cleary. so why are you guys mocking the very real possibility that signing cleary pushes tatar down another spot on the roster?
regardless of ones opinion on cleary, tatar, or anyones contract, this is a very real subject, and one that is worthy of a conversation.
yet all you guys can do is mock the topic? i would hope for better here at lgw.

I'm nostalgic, so I still like "Hey Hey Hockeytown" for the first goal and "Get Ready For This" for the subsequent goals.

I'm nostalgic, so I still like "Hey Hey Hockeytown" for the first goal and "Get Ready For This" for the subsequent goals.

On the bright side, I don't see any ugly vertical stripes that are predominating (ruining) NHL jerseys right now.

There's no doubt we all love what Shanny did for us. The guy was Wing royalty for almost ten years. But alas, retired numbers should he reserved for very, very special cases. There will be lots of fantastic players playing for the Wings. I feel like you have to really define the Wings to be retired. Yzerman and Lidstrom did, perhaps Shanny didn't.

This.
I trusted his slap shot over everyone's at the end there.

I think he was joking, but it's obvious selection bias to come to an internet forum for discussion of a particular NHL team and remark how popular hockey seems to be around these parts...
There IS a problem of waning popularity with the Red Wings in metro Detroit, however. In the late 90's (when it was a very special time to be Red Wings fan), we could look to cities like Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, etc. and it was easy to feel like we were "Hockeytown". Those cities have excellent fanbases now.
It will be interesting if moving to the East has any impact on the appeal of the team. Detroit was already a fixture with the national media, but will be moreso now that we'll play and compete for position with the likes of NYR, TOR, MTL, BOS, etc.
The mid-2000's, unlike the 90's, had us playing a huge chunk of games against recent expansion teams in crappy markets, namely Nashville and Columbus. Who was our biggest "rival" in the 2000's....the Ducks? You could argue it the Hawks later, but they didn't get the upper hand on us until the decade was over. The Penguins "rivalry" only applied to two consecutive finals.
Think about East Coast markets that have flourished recently, and all of them have several huge rivalries that seem to matter even when one or both of the teams aren't that great (PHI/PIT, NYR/NJ, NYR/WAS, PIT/WAS, MTL/TOR, etc.) Detroit had nothing like that dating back to Colorado, and I think that really hurt the interest.

Not really sure why people feel the need to disparage other sports, but to each their own.
As far as 97.1 goes, what makes good radio is conversation and controversy. You can only take so many "the Wings need a big tough defenseman/tough power forward" calls. Other than that, really, what is there to talk about? Winning is boring and if there's nothing to complain about, it doesn't leave much room to discuss anything. I know that's been my own personal experience. Still a fan and love the Red Wings, but it's just hard to get too worked up over anything after winning 4 Cups, especially when you thought you'd never see one. A regular season loss used to leave me seething for days. Now losing in the playoffs leaves me only slightly disappointed until the next day.
I do think the foreign players do play a role in it. It's hard to get to "know" them and let's be honest, watching paint dry is more exciting than listening to an interview with Nick Lidstrom or Henrik Zetterberg. I think the fact that many of the foreign players don't live here year round plays a part in it as well.

I think that is a great point. You could even take that a step further and suggest that a part of the reason that hockey is so disrespected is because NHL players don't make negative headlines.
Obviously, that is a very backwards statement. I hope I'm wrong, but if I'm not, what does that say about us as a society in general?
Again though, point the finger at ESPN who likes to talk about talk more than anything. They will take a controversial subject and beat it to death.

I think popularity is great amongst the State. I mean, I can find random people at events and speak some good hockey with them. I can always run into atleast one person that actually is knowledgeable about the team and sometimes I can find someone whom can really speak about the pipeline and future. It may not be at the same level it was prior in the 90s but it certainly is still there. Look at USA Hockey, we're second in registered players only down by like 2,000 IIRC to Minnesota, aka the State of Hockey. After Michigan and Minnesota it drops off pretty nicely and then it goes within "divisions" basically. Hockey simply doesn't get it's full due in America, so it always will take the backseat in media coverage and what not.

I agree, but that is my biggest problem.
The Michigan public drools over a bunch of L-O-S-E-R-S!!!

97.1 was talking about this today.
The consenus is that the Lions and Tigers are (much) higher on the food chain than the Wings.
I completely agree, but I hate it. What does it say about the state of Michigan where the majority of us support arguably the worst run franchise in sports with bumbling idiots running around and yet we take for granted arguably the best run franchise in sports.
Factors that I understand to be true:
Winning has made Michigan sports fans lethargic ESPN tells people to love the NFL and pay no attention to the NHL, so people love the NFL and ignore the NHL Unfortunately I can't make everyone think logically...

Well at least the Wings are more popular than the Pistons. You know you've got a s***ty product when your sport (which is played everywhere) is constantly losing ground to a sport played almost entirely above the Mason-Dixon.
Anyway, hockey is the most intense, physically demanding sport there is, and baseball is the most cerebral. As such, they are the best. Anyone suggesting an opinion to the contrary is wrong. Yes, I said it, your opinion is absolutely, positively, scientifically verifiably, wrong wrong wrong.
"But...But...But...Kip, the NFL has hilarious commercials, sensationalized drama, and tons of play stoppages. You don't even have to pay attention to the game to enjoy it"
Shut you face biotches!

It's getting a little weird in here with all of this "manhandling" that has been going on...

$4million per for Stephen Weiss is too much.

I somewhat disagree with pretty much everyone.
IF IF IF IF......Big E could fetch us a scorer the way Goligowski fetched Pittsburgh James Neal, then I would definitely consider it. It all depends on what we get in return.

Right, he hasn't had enough success to command big dollars.......but he's going to.
That's why signing him is a pretty decent risk.