plopster

Exactly. Shanahan and lapointe are probably the best examples. Those guys racked up points in Detroit and penalty minutes to go with it. It's not rare at all. I'm pretty sure doughty and brown would be up there with them in a scrum. It's about wearing the other team down. You can't just skate up and down in this league and hope to score unless a mistake is made or there's just bad goal tending. And you do t get in the playoffs doing either of those a lot. You have to bang beat and wear the other team down. Especially the defense on the forecheck.

Hell Yeah, Larionov and McCarty back on the wings!

OMG I knew it, thats why he couldn't stay with any of those chics he bragged about banging, cuz he tried to bring another guy in on it and they weren't down with him giving the other guy all the attention. Sucks bad for elisha cuthbert. Jeez

Well you can have an enforcer that is skilled too. It doesn't have to be like an Aaron Downey. And you do need guys that will drop the gloves and not get their ass handed to them because if not then the other team won't respect yours. They will get away with murder. Just like lucic did and does. He needs his nose broken the other way and he might think twice about it. You just need the threat there and people won't be so apt to have their way all the time. Keep people honest. Everyone knows the wings don't like to drop the gloves. And they know they can f*** with franzen all day and he won't do a thing.

Does he play?

I'm not saying there's an exact number, but you need to have grit and toughness to go along with the skill and finesse, you need more determination with a decent amount of talented players to go with the skill sniper players. The fact that the red wings don't have the threat of enforcer is what allowed the Bruins to do what they did to the wings. 10 years ago if that POS had done to a wings player like Dekeyser what he did we wouldn't be crying about a suspension. We would be anticipating an ass whooping the next game. The wings don't have that threat so people have their way with them.

Mitch Callahan. He likes to throw down. But not until Babcock is gone which he will be by the time Lemieux plays.

No, but look at the Kings. 4 Europeans on that roster, 4. Bruins had 7. The hawks had 10, and got handled pretty well by the kings, they just found a way to steal a couple before being eliminated. The kings whiffed on some chances to score goals in those last two games they lost, and Crawford, the canadian, stood on his head those games. I'm sorry but yeah, the Europeans have the skill and craftiness, but to go deep in the playoffs, you need size strength stamina and endurance to go with the skill. We all know the North Americans have the size and strength over the Europeans. Its just a Snapple Fact. Toss in the skill of a Kopitar and Gaborik and you have the formula to run deep and possibly win it all. The kings very well could be a three peat champ this year had they beaten the hawks last year.

It was probably just to hell him not to piss off the wings or he would get his ass beat just like his daddy and the whole team did.

Wait, they aren't doing Hockey Night in Canada anymore?

Not trying to say anything, but look at the ratio of North American players to Europeans on the teams that recently won the cup and look at the wings roster. There's a trend here. http://kings.nhl.com/club/roster.htm http://bruins.nhl.com/club/roster.htm http://blackhawks.nhl.com/club/roster.htm?location=/roster http://redwings.nhl.com/club/roster.htm This is the wings 2008 roster. http://m.hkref.com/m?p=XXteamsXXDETXX2008.html&t=all_roster 20 North Americans and 13 Europeans. It's been downhill since the gritty North Americans have been departing. Osgood, chelios, draper, maltby, McCarty, rafalski, drake, Downey, and Stuart. Again, Stuart was an acquisition that season in February. Holland making moves to improve an already fairly stacked team. Something he should be doing more of.

I can't imagine a better feeling in the world than to win that trophy. I get choked up every time those guys skate with it. That commercial "no words" is the epitome of that. Watching guys like Brett Hull, Chris Osgood, Darren McCarty, Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, Temu Selanne without words to say gets me every time. That's a hell of a mountain to climb and much respect to the kings right now. They took the hardest route there until they faced New York, and even then it wasn't easy. They were just too relentless to be denied. You have to have a kind of desire that can't be described and those boys showed it all post season. There is a fire there, and I saw it in the hawks last year and the Kings and Bruins before that. You have to really really dig deep and just by sheer will and determination over come your opponent because they want it just as bad. I think finesse and style go out the window in the playoffs. The game has to be played as a complete hard nosed grind and just rip the game away from the other team. Full speed and hard charging. The wings need to get that back. I haven't seen them play like that other than in the first game against Boston. And it seemed like it tired them out. They need to get that grit and tenacity and stamina back. I hope the kids were watching. I hope holland was watching. Because those were men out there not kids. The "kids" aren't going to win a cup. Big physical hard nosed battle tested men win that cup. Holland needs to do his job like the rest of the team.

Who wants to bet the ice girls in LA make sure the crease is nice and clean the next game? Think that was a coincidence that their goal crease was soft and chewed up?

That's great. Made me laugh. Worries me why someone would spend so much time on that though. Just sayin.

Well I was talking about Phoenix during the season this year. And I meant trades in general for picks like the kings did. But holland feels good about his team. True they may have gone farther with less injuries. But signing all these old f***ers to contracts needs to stop. Bertuzzi should have been dropped years ago. Lids and holmer were the few that got a pass for that, but they were still pretty good at what they did. It was just so hard to watch the games this year. Their play was not very crisp. One and done in the offensive zone. The forechecking was pretty bad. The power play was worse. The defense was bad at the end of games, how was mediocre at best. It just kills me to watch the wings look so bad after watching them own the 90s and part of the early 2000s and seeing the s***ty moves holland makes.

I want to see more of this http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QuwsVEE_7Yc Less of this http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KbZNKYMaexU

Well it seems odd that when holland would pull the trigger at the deadline we would make deep runs to the playoffs and to the finals. Made it with Hossa, drake, hasek, hull, and shanny. Grant it, those previous years they could spend money forever, but acquiring serious skill at the deadline seems to be working. And none of those guys you mentioned have exactly been tearing it up in the nhl yet. Bertuzzi? Really? He hasn't even been called up yet. I'm just really irritated with the way they have been running things the past few years. Paying old washed up guys, not making trades, not spending all their cap space. Over paying for guys or handing out too long of a contract. It's just ridiculous. Hollands plan for keeping things going sounds a lot like just keeping up appearances and strategizing to have one really good season every 5 or 6 years and they are getting their asses handed to them by the bruins, hawks, and hell, they could hardly beat the coyotes this past year. It just seems like a lot of mediocrity for a very proud franchise and fan base.

Fixed No, but there is Ericsson, dekeyser, quincey. And I don't mind giving up second or third rounders. How many of those have worked out recently anyway? I remember seeing a thread with a post about how guys that we have passed up on in the draft have turned out a lot better than the guys the wings picked.

Very true. This isn't like baseball or basketball where you have opportunities to over come bad calls. Poor officiating like that can really break you. It's sad and pathetic. Not surprising. When they announced ohalleran was the official I knew some bulls*** would happen. That guy is an asshat.

Hey look, that guy is 37 and giving 100%. Too bad guys like Franzen don't do that.

Apparently it's this guy. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pete-renzetti-strength-and-conditioning-coach-of-the-news-photo/160230061 And apparently they never had one before http://kuklaskorner.com/tmr/comments/fox-sports-detroit-gets-pumped-up-with-red-wings-strength-and-conditioning

Yeah, I don't know who is doing it now, but The wings conditioning has severely dropped off.