McAwesome

I hope this is not official, I don't think the matchup is very compelling, and as has been stated already, Philly has already been in a winter classic, and since they do not feature a certain player who shall not be named, they should not be in another one so soon, although I do think the Rangers should be involved, the only US original 6 team that hasn't yet. I would like to say though, the mock-up Flyers jerseys are pretty sweet, I would consider buying one even though I am definitely not a fan of the team, way better than the ones they used in Boston.

Not mine, I found it on the Facebook page Vancouver Riot Pics: Post Your Photos

For those questioning his work ethic, remember our series against Phoenix in '09 he was an absolute beast, not only scoring but he was hustling his butt off, going into the dirty areas to make plays, and playing more physical than I thought he was capable of. If we could sign THAT Wojtek Wolski for around 2-2.5mil I would be all for it. His being traded twice in the past 2 seasons is mainly due to salary (Colorado had already given up on the '09 season and were sellers at the deadline, Phoenix signed him to a contract that later didn't fit into their self-imposed budget), and name me a Rangers player outside of Ryan Callahan who hasn't been called out for supposedly being lazy under John Tortorella. I vote yes, I would even be willing to trade Hudler for him if the Rangers don't end up buying out his contract.

That's a good point too, maybe the league is already aware of another struggling franchise that is unable to find a local buyer and are trying to do a better job of keeping it under wraps.

Anyone else think the league is holding off on realignment until 2012 is because of possible expansion? I am not trying to spark a debate about the pros and cons of expansion, but it has been brought up in discussions at work and the theory that it is due to the schedule already being close to finalized is pretty weak IMO, they could hash out a new schedule in a week or two if it came down to that, I think there is something bigger in play.

I mentioned this in another thread, but trade Hudler to NYR for Wolski, there has been talk of his last year getting bought out anyway. Sign Wiz at $4mil, re-sign Lidstrom at his current price, re-sign Eaves at a modest raise (as Holland has said he wants to do) re-sign Osgood and Draper to cheaper 1 year deals, and add a 5/6 D-man for less than 2mil (I used Anton Babchuk for arguments sake, don't really have a preference, but someone to take Ericsson's place) and voila, I give you my 2011-12 Detroit Red Wings: CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR FORWARDS Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) Johan Franzen ($3.954m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Wojtek Wolski ($3.800m) Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) / Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Jan Mursak ($0.550m) Patrick Eaves ($0.900m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m) Kris Draper ($1.000m) / Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.200m) / Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) Brad Stuart ($3.750m) / James Wisniewski ($4.000m) Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) / Anton Babchuk ($1.750m) Doug Janik ($0.512m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Chris Osgood ($1.000m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $59,400,000; CAP PAYROLL: $58,179,544; BONUSES: $0 CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $1,220,456

Actually neither, but I admit I haven't been reading all of the UFA threads, since half of them were cleverly veiled as blueadams line threads.

Hudler for Wolski? At the very least it would improve our shootout record. Speaking of shootout specialists, isn't Jussi Jokinen a FA too, what about him as a top 6 scoring winger?

Not taking sides in the debate, but the Moose played in Winnipeg Arena for 8 years before the MTS Centre was built, so its not like they waved goodbye to the Jets and turned right back around and built the Moose a new stadium.

This. The Red Wings need a guy who has an edge to his game. The whole thing about his "gesture" to Avery was blown way out of proportion IMO, some overly sensitive parents with sticks up their butts made a stink about it, and the league overreacted. Now, if Wiz had tried to fight Avery after a little snow shower to the goalie, yeah that would be poor decision making. As for the Seabrook hit, it was only illegal in the sense that Seabrook was not playing the puck, but neither a headshot nor worthy of more than a minor penalty. I hope he will take the hometown discount to come play for the Wings, he has the tools to fill multiple roles in our system, is young, and doesn't take crap from anyone, the more speculation I hear about Wisniewski to Detroit, the more I like it.

If we can add either of Wisniewski or Bieksa I will consider that an adequate replacement. I realize that Rafalski's offensive output and instincts are hard to truly replace, but in either of those two we obtain a right-handed shot capable of playing the power play and putting up decent offensive numbers, and we add to that the missing ingredient that this team has obviously needed the last 2 seasons, a defenseman who will clear the crease and stand up for teammates.

Anyone else notice a surprising number of empty seats? It looks that way on TV, and the crowd noise wasn't as loud as it has been, even after a goal.

If Atlanta moves west, and Detroit moves east, then someone is going to be moved into a division that doesn't make a lot of sense geographically. Florida, Tampa, Carolina, Washington, Philly? Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Boston, Montreal? Detroit, Toronto, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Ottawa? That might work, but as many have already said, the rest of the western teams count on the extra money when the Wings come to town, so if the move does end up happening, it would probably be Nashville moving to the Southeast, Minnesota moving to the Central, and Winnipeg moving to the Northeast. What we really need is to move 2 teams from east to west (Panthers to Seattle anyone?) so that Detroit and Columbus can both move east (preferably with the BJs moving to Quebec), thereby ensuring that all teams in the Eastern time zone are in the Eastern conference. But I digress...

I follow almost the exact same formula, that's spooky It just flows, now if only Paul Ysebaert was still playing for them, it would be absolutely perfect! My preference is for either Eastern team to win the Cup, I can't stomach the thought of Jumbo Choke touching the Cup, nor do I want to have to hear from all of the Canadian fans if Vancouver wins.

I was about to reply with a resounding no, but then I realize I was confusing him with Stortini. I agree with everyone in here, Peckham is the kind of player we need on our 3rd pairing, maybe even 2nd PK, he is one of the harder hitting defensemen in the league, and while I would not want him to be primarily an enforcer, he is not afraid to drop the gloves and handles himself pretty well in a fight. He needs a bit of work on his hockey sense from what I've seen, and with McCrummy as the defensive coach I wouldn't count on that improving, so hopefully he will be replaced with someone better (Chelios anyone) and that part of his game can improve in Red and White.

That's awful, my heart goes out to his family, friends, and teammates.

Don't know if there will be any Photoshop threads created for series in which we will not be playing, but here is a new logo concept for Vancouver:

I can't stand the thought of either San Jose or Vancouver winning the cup, so I really don't care which one advances, as long as they lose in the finals, hopefully the Yzerbolts have some magic left and can show their finned foes how to play with dignity and class.

Amen brotha, no one can say that this team doesn't have heart, what an absolute battle to get back in this series, just came up a little short. Oh well, there's always next year. I guess the Bolts just picked up a lot of short-term fans.

Although in defense of our collective nervousness, Hudler laughs at everything! START THE GAME ALREADY

Just grabbed the first one I could find. Not entirely related, but: I sense a theme emerging

Taken from the comments below this article: That's reassuring

So freakin nervous for this one, hoping for an early blowout, ala '02 Colorado game 7, but I have a feeling it will be a nail biter like the rest of the series. Go Wings, no giving up, no mercy, no regrets. +1 for the Firefly reference

I think they are hilarious, imagine if they were around while Shanahan was still playing, he mocked a few fans while sitting in the sin-bin in his day, he would probably have something planned for them IMO.