ogreslayer

I always hear this in my head as Pavs skates away with the puck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKm5xQyD2vE

Getzloaf looked like Flip going for a drop pass instead of putting that puck on net.

Why I called Selanne the fakest classy player in the league in another thread. Just because one's played a long time does not make one "classy".

Want to see Mule get a hattie tonight

I'm going with it's pretty easy actually to knock him for that.

Crying as a broadcaster when the Blackhawks won it all I assume. And he had his chance to be on the 2002 Cup team but turned it down like the jackass that he is.

Another PP

Charging call to Koivu on the hit on Kronner at the end of the 1st. Wings need to keep it clean the rest of the way. Ducks will be diving left & right trying to get make-up calls. Well, that & pout when they don't get them.

They could have Roenick on calling Hank & Pavs baby and chicken stealers for all I care. All that matters is the scoreboard, not what a few talking heads in a studio have to say.

Use the regular URL & use video & /video in brackets I believe.

Comments from Jiri Fischer this spring: “Every game I’ve seen him, he was the hardest competitive guy (on the ice) and he’s got the heart of a lion,” said Red Wings director of player development Jiri Fischer. “He’s in people’s faces, he’s taking people’s space away thanks to his skating, and he makes great outlet passes. He’s had a great year and we’re really happy with his development.”

I would be surprised if the next captain of the Wings after Hank hangs 'em up is actually on the roster right now.

Cleary= UFA who won't be resigned Sammy= Amnesty buy out Plus Nyquist, Tatar, & Andersson will all be up with the big club next year. No room & definitely no need to transition the Wings top pairing d-men up to forward.

I'm in for: $5 per series win $5 per series sweep $5 per Kronwalling $2 per Jimmy shutout or fight $2 per Tootoo goal or fight $2 per goal scored by Mule or Brunner

Have to figure that if there's any grooming to be done internally, the next in line is Ryan Martin.

And poached Curt Fraser from GR last summer to be an assistant coach.

I don't think he's outright said it but the speculation is that he hasn't even worn a pair of skates since he hung them up for good & it's largely due to the osteotomy he had done on his knee. I wouldn't be surprised if he's there in some capacity, but I wouldn't count on him being on the ice during the alumni games.

Switch to decaf & take off the tin foil hat. From Craig Custance: "Red Wings GM Ken Holland likes to joke that Lidstrom's retirement press conference will be followed shortly by his own" From Bob McKenzie: “DET GM Kenny Holland always used to joke, at least I think he was joking, that he would retire five minutes after Nick Lidstrom retired.” From Kevin Allen @ US Today: "GM Ken Holland used to joke that he was going to retire when Lidstrom retired" And strung along? The same man who was at the top of pretty much every team's wish list that had an opening the past couple of years, was given opportunities to interview for them, & turned them all down due to the fact he wanted to stay in Michigan as his wife was battling cancer? The same man that was paid as much as GM's throughout the league & was on record saying that he loved the autonomy that Kenny gave him to do his job? That's being strung along? In the immortal words of Sgt. Hulka, "Lighten up, Francis". Good for Nill. He's ready to move on to the next step of his career & run his own team and good for the Wings to recognize it's time too, just like they did with Stevie.

So you understand incorrectly. Franzen's contract (as well as Hank's & Kronner's) is covered by the Cap Advantage Recapture clause, also known as the Roberto Luongo Rule, in the new CBA. If a player signed a 7 year+ deal prior to Jan 2013 & retires before the expiration of the contract, the potion of the contract that was considered a cap advantage (years where actual salary exceeded the cap hit) is recaptured over the remaining years of the actual contract. So for example, if Franzen were to retire after the 2015-16 season, he would have been paid $36m over the course of 7 seasons but the cap hit was only $27,681,815. The difference would apply evenly over the course of the final 4 years of Franzen's contract, meaning the Wings would take a $2.08m cap hit for Franzen starting the 2016-17 season & he would finally come off the books after 2019-20. You can find a really easy to use cap hit recapture calculator here: http://www.capgeek.com/recapture-calculator/

No changes in the lineup for the Wings: Helene St. James ‏@HeleneStJames4m Mike Babcock says no changes to #RedWings lineup tonight. I'm going w/ #22 with the winner to put the Wings in the playoffs for 22 years straight 2-nite.

I'm thinking it has something to do with the fact that he doesn't have a contract with the Blackhawks. His $5.625m a season contract with them ended after the 2011-12 season. That was also under the old CBA where teams could bury players in the AHL & keep their cap hit off the books. That was eliminated under the new CBA.

Memo to the Avs: THIS is how you want to end your season tomorrow. One more loss on the Suck for Seth train means less than one big win for some pride dammit.

You mean he has to cozy up to & become best buds with a much more talented player?

I am seriously considering starting a "The Wings should have never traded away Paul Coffey" thread every time I see Hossa's name pop up in conjunction with Franzen's. It's been almost 4 years now, get over it. People treat it like it was an "either sign Franzen or sign Hossa" situation & it wasn't. Don't forget that Franzen signed for a total of $43.5m while Hossa wanted & got $62.8m in Chicago or respective cap hits of $3.95m & $5.275m. And don't forget that the Hossa/Chicago deal was almost "Kovalchuked" by the NHL too. I doubt Kenny would have pushed cap hit circumvention that far so Hossa's cap hit if he stayed in Detroit would have been higher. For example, Franzen's deal only back dives to $1m per season for the last 2 years where Hossa's does it for the last 4. So the situation really was either Hossa at a cap hit of $6m+ or use that for Franzen & to give raises to retain other players that season or after i.e. like Helm, Abby, Big E, etc. And on the topic of "well Franzen's cap hit may only be ~$4m a year, but his actual salary this season is $5.5m"... Don't care. The number that matters to the NHL & to the make-up of the team is cap hit, cap hit, cap hit. I don't give a s*** what his actually salary is this season. Not one bit. He's got the 3rd highest cap hit among forwards on the team right now, 4th highest overall & he happens to be 3rd in scoring on the team this season, 4th last season, and 4th in 10-11. Seems about right to me. Say the Wings do buy out his contract this off season like some around here want, signing a UFA that provides similar production is going to cost them much more than a $4m per season cap hit. So yes, Franzen at a cap hit of ~$4m a season is a bargain to me not only now, but it was at the start of this season as it was last season & the season before.

I would consider Bert over Cleary if I could get a sense in practice that his conditioning wouldn't be an issue & that he could take heavy contact. If not, I wouldn't risk putting him out there & lose him to a cross check in the back within the first couple of minutes of the game. As far as Sammy, that's a straight no there. And as far as White or Cola over Smith, I really don't see either one of them as much of an improvement over Smith given that they would be coming into the last game of the regular season fairly cold/rusty themselves. Easier to hide a rusty forward among 11 others versus hiding a rusty d-man by overplaying the other 5. ("Rusty foward"... Is that a sex thing?)