cmonster

I don't think Halak will really be in the picture for us. Right now I see Osgood/Howard splitting time till Ozzie retires. At that point we evaluate if Larrson or McCollum are ready to back Howard up/split time. If neither are ready than another vet will come in to back up Howard. But, reallistically Ozzie will probably be here untill McCollum or Larrson are ready to split time with Howard.

Does anyone think that Stuart will get consideration for Team Canada? He has been playing pretty good this year.

pretty sure that Yzerman said that the training camp wasn't the end all be all for the roster and that guys could play their way on or off the roster. Regardless, if they were invited to the orientation camp. I just thought that maybe Stuart would get a look b/c he has been playing pretty good, and being a Red Wing in the same organization w/ Steve Yzerman doesn't hurt.

C: Zetterberg A: Datsyuk/Cleary/Kronwall Stuart might get an A if there is an injury. Rotation between Datsyuk/Cleary/Kronwall. Assuming that the three are here when Lidstrom hangs them up.

He is a 1.5 million dollar 3rd liner! Bertuzzi is on pace for about 12-15 goals, which I think is about right for him. And for those saying Bertuzzi sucks, your context is wrong. If you want to compare 2002 Bertuzzi to 2009 Bertuzzi, yeah I'll admit he is now where near it, but if you compare 2009 1.5 million Bertuzzi versus other 1.5 million players I'd say we'll probably get our money's worth. And from what I've seen he's been skating better now than the last 2 previous years and his defense is improved. Yeah, he has had some boneheaded penalties but he was committing boneheaded penalties in Vancouver. And finally, yes Bertuzzi has some flaws, but its not like we are paying him an exorbitant amount of money, imo he represents a pretty good value.

Actually, If I am not mistaken our record is better when the other team scores first.

For the most part, this team can be good. But what I have found is they lack focus. For example, Babcock sits Leino down for a few games, he comes back and plays a good game. I think the biggest thing is challenging players and pushing the right buttons. Like Bowman used to do with Shanahan and Federov.

As a fan of the Red Wings, I say no way in heck can he be traded. The Red Wings are like a family and if they dump Datsyuk now while he is slumping, it ruins the family atmosphere and reputation. The organization would have zero credibility in any future negotiations with rfa or ufa talent. I think, as bad as this might get flamed, give 3-4 games off. Remember, its not like we have really been winning with him in the lineup so resting him, and giving him time to clear his head might be good. From a business perspective trading Datsyuk would be difficult. The first reason would be that he is slumping. Another team would only trade for Datsyuk right now if they thought they could somehow end his slump. Which probably in all honesty require a team with top level talent, and how many of those teams would have the cap space? Second is cap space, a team trading for Datsyuk would most likely be sending a player back with a similar cap hit, diminishing the talent on the team he goes to. Third a slumping Datsyuk in a trade is not going to fetch a talent that could replace him. Realistically, there are only a hand full of guys who could replace his two way skill. Fourth is the fact that when trading him you eliminate half the league as trading partners b/c no way in heck Ken Holland ships Datsyuk to a Western Conference team.

I think one of the problems of people expecting miracles is that the Red Wings were so far ahead for so long that they began to coast b/c nobody was close to matching them talent and skillwise. They could flip a switch and blow any team out. Now everyone has seemingly caught up and maybe even passed the Red Wings in talent and skill that they can no longer dominate like they did. If they are within striking distance of a playoff spot come March and April they will be in an absolute dogfight to get in. And if they make they will probably be a 6th, 7th, or 8th seed, but a team that no one will want to face in the first round. Patience and lowered expectations are something that every Wings fan will have to get used to b/c, newsflash, Ken Holland is not going to do something drastic this year during the season. The Wings will continue to play the cards they are dealt. Best case #1 Wings make the playoffs and go deep. Best Case #2 the Wings tank royally and get a high draft pick. Worst case they make it and flame out in the first round screwing themselves out of a high draft pick and the cup.

We need offense desperately. From whom are we going to get it is the question. The thing that really irks me is that Jimmy Howard played darn near a perfect game, the only thing he could have done to help more was get a shutout. But if your only option for winning seems to be your goalie getting a shutout, your offense isn't doing crap. St. Lous scored one goal. Just one and we still lost. We need offense bad. I just don't know if we can get it during this season. It might have to wait till the offseason.

I really think that Kronwall and Stuart would make a solid 1/2 pair on the blueline. My concern is that it seems that we always lack that stay at home, physical, shutdown guy on the blueline that will log a lot of pk time. A guy like Lilja or Lilja himself really is what is needed. The Red Wings tend to draft puck moving defenseman who have more difficulty than normal clearing the crease and get physically beat up in the corners. It would be great if we could find a Chris Pronger style defenseman w/o the goonish tendencies. Or for those who detest Chris Pronger, a Konstantinov like defenseman. One guy I wouldn't mind going after is Jack Johnson in LA.

Zetterberg Datsyuk Frolov 6.083 6.700 4.500 Franzen Filippula Leino 3.955 3.000 0.800 Draper Helm Cleary 1.584 1.000 2.800 Abdelkader Miller Eaves 1.000 0.750 0.850 May 0.600 Lidstrom Rafalski 4.250 6.000 Stuart Ericcson 3.750 0.900 Kronwall Kindl 3.000 0.884 Janik 0.600 Osgood 1.417 Howard 0.717 Larsson 0.850 Cap Geek says roughly 800k of cap space assuming that the cap stays the say, the rfa's sign for the amounts listed, Lidstrom accepts 4.25 mil, Maltby and Holmstrom retire. I think Frolov would be perfect for the Red Wings at 4.5 mil, any more than that would be tough to swallow. I think he would be the perfect sniper for the top 6. With the lines above every line has two centers except the 4th as well. Each line has good balance of offence and defence. As for the defence, It serves no purpose to have Kindl sitting in the press box as the 7th defenseman. I say we let him play. But notice the D pairings are a little different to accomadate having Kindl in the lineup. Ericcson and Kindl's inexperience are covered a bit by Stuart and Kronwall respectively. And for goalies, I think were stuck with the current situation of Ozzie, Howard, and Larsson trio at least until Ozzie retires.

With the recent play of the Red Wings I am not so sure that we will pull out of this tailspin. So, for the time being, if we are going to suck we might as well salivate over who we might get in the draft. http://www.tsn.ca/draftcentre/feature/?id=11944 Tyler Seguin, John McFarland, and Erik Gudbranson are probably the three most exciting prospects for me. There is one other that I would keep my eye on and that is Riley Sheahan. He is the 15th ranked prospect at TSN.

It's fitting you posted this b/c I believe that the key to Datsyuk's frustration and slump is Filppula. When we get him back we now have a legit 2nd line center. With that, we can put ZDH back together and hopefully create some offense. On a sidenote, does anyone think that this offense funk is due to our defenseman? It seems as though guys like Zetterberg and Datsyuk thrived when we had puck moving D-men who did tape to tape passes. It seems as though are players are skating in mud and I think the lack of crisp passes from the D-men are slowing are forwards down leading to frustration.

I think both will be busts. Leino IMO is a tweener. Not enough talent to play on the top 2 lines, but too much to play 3rd/4th lines. At least on Detroit anyway. On Detroit it seems as if there is a large gap in talent levels between 1st/2nd lines and the 3rd/4th lines. And if you fall in between, you'll get lost in the shuffle. Neither have lived up to the hype so far. So I see no need to swap one problem for another.

How about Kronwall? 3mil for a guy who could be a #1 Defenseman on a lot of teams? I like his contract.

Datsyuk ($6.700) / Zetterberg ($6.083) / Frolov ($4.500) Franzen ($3.955) / Filppula ($3.0) / Leino ($0.800) Cleary ($2.800) / Helm ($0.850) / Eaves ($0.750) Draper ($1.583) / Maltby ($0.675) / Abdelkader ($0.850) May ($0.500) Lidstrom ($4.250) / Rafalski ($6.000) Kronwall ($3.000) / Ericcson ($0.900) Stuart ($3.750) / Kindl ($0.883) Janik ($0.500) Osgood ($1.417) Howard ($0.717) Larsson ($0.850) 13 Forwards 7 Defenseman 3 Goalies 23 Roster Players $55.313 Payroll $1.487 cap room left Conditions: Lidstrom accepts less than ~5 mil Homer retires Frolov accepts ~4.5 mil and RFA's sign for suggested amounts

Yeah for the most part you're right. You can draw circles and ellipses. Engineers can't draw unless we use boxes like rectangles and squares, or triangles. If you ask us to draw anything else and its time to call in the architects. On, a more serious note I have a lot of respect for architects. They can do some amazing work.

I think the suspension is "fair". And I use that term loosely. The difficulty that most people are going to have with this suspension is that Montreal loses a goon scrub for 5 games. Someone who on more nights than not is going to be a healthy scratch anyway. Detroit loses its #2 defensemen for 4-8 weeks. Roughly 12-20 games. I am just speculating on that number btw. Don't know the exact number, but you get the point. We lose a #2 defenseman for 12-20 games and Montreal loses a goon scrub like Laraque for 5. The value just doesn't seem equal.

Engineers have no-costume Halloween parties. Every been to a party with Engineers? BTW I'm an engineer. I have a right to make fun of myself. Engineers lack creativity. And if we are creative, it usually results in something nerdy.

I don't mind the retro jersey's that Montreal has. The problem is they wear probably 10 different jersey's every year counting the standard home/away jersey's. I'm waiting for them to have 82 different jersey's. A different jersey for every game. Personally, I think the "vintage" jersey's should only come out when they play Original 6 teams and the other team wears a vintage jersey as well. When Montreal wears these vintage jersey's and the other team is wearing a standard jersey, Montreal looks like the idiot who wore a costume to a non-costume Halloween party.

I was under the impression that when Janik was called up last time that he was called up because Kindl was hurt? I can't be 100% certain, but I thought that was the reasoning. IMO I would rather have Janik up anyway. Lids/Raf Stuart/Ericcson Janik/Lebda (or Meech both are average at best) Those are the D pairings that I would like to see.

I was really hoping that Mike Babcock would refuse to send out players until the goal was re-reviewed by Toronto. Refuse to play until the ref pulled his head out of his ass.

In layman's terms the ref is a moron. The fact that he pulled the intent to blow the whistle rule makes him an even bigger moron. That rule, the intent to blow the whistle rule, has taken the game out of the players hands and put it in the hands of the referees. A ref could theoretically make an entire game disappear b/c with 1 second left he could say he had an intent to blow the whistle 1 seond into the game. It gives them carte blanche. Now, what really irks me is that if a goal or no goal call can be determined by the referee why have goals reviewed by the so called "war room" in Toronto? Why is the referee given the power to determine this? Why can't the guys in Toronto overrule a ref? It messes up the power structure of the NHL. Play till the whistle blows, not to when it was intended to be blown. I seriously hope that the Red Wings brass files a formal complaint. And I hope that ref gets his butt handed to him. Fine, suspension w/o pay, whatever. Just something to show that refs are accountable for their mistakes. But knowing the NHL, nothing will happen and they will claim that he was in the best position to determine whether it was a goal or not. They will hide behind the POS rule book. I was really hoping that Brad May would have just punched him in the face. Acts of stupidity should be punished accordingly. At the minimum, I was hoping the ref got hit with an "errant dump in" (*wink*, *wink*).

What if the salary cap was like environmental carbon credits? What if a team could trade draft picks for cap space? For example say a team had 3 mil in capspace, you trade them say a second round pick for 2 mil of their cap space. So in exchange for their cap space, you give them a draft pick and gain 2 mil in cap space. Small market teams who can barely afford to make the minimum payroll figure could trade cap space to a team like Detroit willing to spend the money. If payroll represents a certain percentage of revenue, and its not used its virtually wasted when it could be used by teams who could support the extra payroll. It's sort of a redistribution of the cap space. Any thoughts or comments are appreciated!