Miller Brew

Abdelkader- Ritola-

Is Dick Axelsson coming back or is his chance done?

Yeah, Lang was invisble more times than not. I am very excited about Andrej Nestrasil, I hope he's got desire to play in the NHL and not be a flake like Hudler, Ryno or Axelsson. His weakness is suppose to be his speed and acceleration. I didn't see him skate hard because he seemed to always be in position and the puck seemed to stick to his stick like Velcro. He seems like a very intelligent (hockey sense) and solid player.

He's more of a Henrik Zetterberg than a Robert Lang style player... and he's not even a Zetterberg style player. I'm just saying this kid looked amazing.

I must be looking at this wrong then. I see 5 season where he was a minus player. http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/899/ca...eoFL4pAR6ZivLYF

^^ That is not Robert Lang -estique. I'm not sure if Nestrasil will have Lang's offensive touch when Lang was at his best. Not sure if Nestrasil will be a 80-point guy... but I very much doubt he'll be a minus player. Lang was a defensive player? I don't remember Lang be defensive what-so-ever. I remember him being lazy and invisible. But Lang did score nice goals, I give him that. Lang is a nice/clutch goal scorer and set up man.

Lol. Not even close. Robert Lang? Seriously?? This kid was not invisible in world juniors. He was Czech's best player. He did it all from PKing to Power Play. He logged a ton of minutes. He was noticeable whenever he was out on the ice.

I'm watching the World Juniors right now and this kid is amazing! He does it all, he kills penalties, he scores goals (had a goal in the WJ), plays on the Power Play and he's logging a ton of minutes. He Czech's best player on the ice. His passing is crisp and complete and his vision of the ice amazing. He's extremely skilled defensively. He's relentless on the back-check and fore-check and is great at take-aways, and he dominates along the board. I can't find any flaws in his game. This kid will be a top-six player on the Red Wings. Holland stole this kid with the 75th pick. Did I mention he's huge at 6'2 @ 200ibs. I don't know what player in the NHL to compare him to but he's a complete and all-around amazing hockey player. He was Czech's best player tonight imo.

Nestrasil seems to be playing lots of minutes. He's a relentless backchecker and looks to be defensively sound. His shot is extremely hard and fast; his shot RIPS! He strong along the boards but I'd like to see him drive to the net more. He seems strong @ 6'2 and 200ibs. Seems like a good skater for his size.

Abby has more offensive upside than Ritola... and has 6 points so far this season. I know Abby brings more to the game than just points. I honestly hope Abby stays up when Wings are healthy.

I thought we were talking about points??? Are we talking about 4th line grinding and hits or are we talking about Points? I'm confused. You said Ritola would have more than 6 points right now in the NHL. My point was Abby only has 6 points centering the 2nd line and PP. What are we talking about? Points or grinding? I agree, Ritola would make a better 4th line grinder than Leino.

That's totally off what cjm502 and I are talking about. We're talking about how cjm502 thinks Ritola would have more than 6 points this time of year if he had Leino's spot. We're talking about points. Not anything else.

I don't know the details about how he played for his team. I read that his GAA was bad because the team in front of his sucks. But I don't watch Swiss hockey so you would know more than me. But what I saw from this kid today, I would not be upset if Detroit picks him up with a late pick. He was fun to watch and stood on his head. At 17 years old, he'll be a "work in progress", just what Detroit likes. His reflexes was lighting fast. His vision was on. He didn't seem to get rattled. His positioning was questionable on a few shots, but that's to be expected with a kid. He stopped a couple of break aways and he was ready. I don't know, I really didn't see many flaws in his game today.

And Ritola is projected as a 3rd or 4th liner according to redwingscentral.com. It's also stated that he's "Skilled, but may not have enough to be a scoring-line player". You said he'd have more points than Leino and I'm saying that doesn't seem very logical since Abdelkader isn't even putting up very many points despite getting some quality top line minutes with offensive players... Plus centering the 2nd Power Play unit. Did you forget that Leino is just as much of a rookie on this team as Abdelkader? I'm not arguing that Leino should sit, I'm just pointing out that your statement Ritola would put up more points than Leino or Abdelkader in 35 games is really stretching things.

Wasn't Hiller older tho? I think Conz is only 17 or 18 years old and was totally peppered by USA's offense. That kid stood on his head.

Anyone watch the Switzerland vs USA game? USA won 3-0 but I must say Switzerland's goalie named Benjamin Conz is a freaking stud! He's undrafted but this kid was totally fun to watch. He didn't seem to get rattled even though USA was peppering him during their Power Plays and 5-on-3's. He made some highlight saves. I cannot believe this kid is not drafted yet. He went undrafted last year. He should definitely get picked up by somebody in 2010 draft. He's going to make a solid (and fun to watch) goalie. He's very athletic and some of his saves reminded me of Hasek style. He had very quick reflexs and held his rebounds very well. USA pretty much dominated Switzerland and the game should have been 9-0 if not for Conz.

Oh damn, I missed it. What number is Nestrasil? EDIT: Hes' number 11. He's quarter backing the PP when I saw him

You can't say that. Justin Abdelkader only has 6 points in 35 games... and he was centering the 2nd line and centering the 2nd PP unit. Abby even had time with Bert and Cleary (before Cleary went down).

2.5 - 3 hours probably. Not that big of deal, really. Though the weather is really, really crappy today. We just got dumped on with heavy snow....

Deep bone bruise is something doctors can't put a time on, which is why he's listed "out indefinitely". Deep bone is much better than a torn ACL/MCL injury. So I'm grateful it's only a deep bone bruise. I'm "guessing" he'll be out 3-4 weeks (I was hoping for 2-weeks, but that hit looked really bad). He'll be rusty but won't need to rehab.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/injuries/

Per Mlive 20 minutes ago. Red Wings recall forward Mattias Ritola, likely to replace Ville Leino for Columbus game By Ansar Khan December 27, 2009, 4:13PM DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings recalled forward Mattias Ritola from Grand Rapids. He likely will replace struggling Ville Leino in the lineup for Monday's game in Columbus, though coach Mike Babcock said after Sunday's practice that he hadn't decided whether Ritola will play. “I don’t have any idea what I’m going to do yet,'' Babcock said. "After the game last night we just went through our lineup and thought maybe here’s a guy who can help our team, so we called him up. We’ll decide what we do tomorrow.’’ Leino has just three goals and three assists in 35 games, but the lack of production doesn't upset Babcock as much as his lack of competitiveness. Ritola practiced on a line with Valtteri Filppula and Drew Miller, while Leino was the odd-man out. “Anytime someone comes in and moves into the spot you were in and now you don’t have a line, I’d say that’s a message,'' Babcock said. "But it’s not about sending a message anymore. We got to be better. You get so much opportunity and if you don’t take advantage of your opportunity, somebody else gets the opportunity.’’ Here are the lines they skated with: Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Ritola-Filppula-Miller Draper-Helm-Eaves May-Abdelkader-Maltby (Leino working in) Lidstrom-Rafalski Lebda-Stuart Meech-Janik Howard (starting at Columbus) Osgood http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/20...ward_matti.html

Fronger just signed a big deal with the Phlyers. I think our odds of seeing him here is slim to none. Needless to say, Flyers are not out of the playoffs yet, they are only 4 points back with a game in hand.

Puck Fronger!

Put these in the order that you think are best: "The Great One" Wayne Gretzky "Cujo" Curtis Joseph "Super Mario" Mario Lemieux "The Grim Reaper" Stu Grimson "The Dominator" Dominik Hasek "The Rocket" Maurice Richard "Mr. Hockey" Gordie Howe "The Russian Rocket" Pavel Bure "Knuckles" Chris Nilan "The Hammer" Dave Schultz