McAwesome

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Posts posted by McAwesome

  2. Posted · Report reply

    Kinda scary stats, even though a small 2 game sample.

    Toews (26 draws) - 73.08%

    Crosby (37 draws) - 67.57%

    Bergeron (11 draws) - 63.64%

    Thornton (23 draws) - 60.87%

    Getzlaf (28 draws) - 60.71%

    Not only a small sample size, but those two games were against Norway and Switzerland. Expect those numbers to level off after the USA game tomorrow, and as the tournament advances and they start playing better caliber opponents.

  4. Posted · Report reply

    I don't know why people think Jagr is a lockerroom cancer, IIRC that talk started when he was on the Rangers, and that entire locker room was effed up, basically it was a collection of overpaid underacheivers with no real leadership, and Jagr as the captain of that squad took more than his fair share of the blame.

    That being said, if Jagr were to take the kind of money we could realistically offer (3-4 million), he would be a great addition, and as others have said every forward on the Red Wings does not have to be Selke-quality, we have just gotten used to that over the years.

    I doubt it would happen, but I would not be opposed to seeing #68 in a Red Wings jersey (though Kolosov would have to change his number in training camp)

  6. Posted · Report reply

    You can decline the penalty shot and take a power play, already.

    I didn't know that either. I guess it's not a decision that is made very often, I can't remember ever seeing a penalty shot declined in favor of a power play.

    BTW, do you know where this is in the rules? Not doubting, just curious.

  7. Posted · Report reply

    I agree with the OP, the way NBC has handled the coverage is atrocious. I thought that the whole point of the Olympics is to showcase the best athletes in the world on the biggest stage, yet they are locking a significant part of their potential audience out altogether, driving business away and encouraging piracy. If they were to make their streaming available to everyone rather than requiring that you have a cable subscription (which is stupid because if people have cable, then they generally don't need to stream the games in the first place) they could show all the advertisements they want and I doubt anyone would really complain. In the instances where I have been near a TV that gets CNBC or MSNBC, the OP is also correct that they are joining games in progress, are late coming back from commercial breaks and intermissions, and just generally lessening the overall enjoyment of the games with their cut and paste coverage on all of their networks. I hope that the Olympics sign with Fox when this contract is up, and I also hope that the NHL goes with another network nxt time around.

    /rant

  8. Posted · Edited by McAwesome · Report reply

    I am definitely not among those who advocate trading Filppula, but I think that with very few exceptions the argument for trading him is twofold:

    1) he is one of the few players who is not in the last year of his contract and does not have a NTC, and 2) he has the best trade value among those who can be moved, meaning he would yield the best return.

    If it could help the team, then trading Filppula is a viable option, though I personally would be disappointed because he is my favorite current Red Wing, and I agree with those that have said that moving him could end up being a move that would come back to haunt us.

  9. Posted · Report reply

    With the systems being what they are today, there is simply too much of a gap between the elite-level national teams (Russia, Canada, Sweden, Finland, USA, Czech, Slovakia) and the rest of the world, money and population being the two biggest factors. That being said, I agree that Denmark is going to be a team to look out for in 2014, they are starting to get a lot of good players, being drafted by and actually playing for NHL teams (look for Frans Nielsen of the Islanders to be an All-Star next year). If the NHL players cannot participate in the Sochi Olympics and countries are having to rely on their national league players to fill their rosters, that will definitely hurt NA teams, but could work to Russia's advantage, especially if they keep luring big-name players back home with these big contracts (you could realistically see a mass exodus of Russian-born players jumping back to the KHL in 2013 for that very reason).

    As cool as it would be for a country like Switzerland to shock the hockey world and medal, I don't see it happening.

  11. Posted · Report reply

    I want at least 1 Red Wings player to come home with a gold medal, especially after that little pre-game ceremony they had on Saturday.

    That being said, my team of choice this Olymics is Finland. My favorite current Red Wings player is from there, plus a lot of my favorite non-Wings play for them (M. Koivu, J. Jokinen, T. Ruutu, funny how they all have brothers/namesakes that I don't like).

    Second of course will be Sweden (My wife will be pulling for Tre Kronner for Franzen).

    Would be cool if USA medals, but I can't bring myself to cheer for any team that has Patrick "20 Cent" Kane in the lineup.

    I could probably cheer for Canada if Stevie Y were still playing, but there are just too many hated players on that team (Crosby, Pronger, Niedermayer, Perry, Getzlaf) for me to stomach.

    Looking ahead to 2014, look for Denmark to have a strong squad and play spoiler.

  12. Posted · Report reply

    The great thing about sports is that (for me at least) it is a form of both escape and release. No matter what is going on in my personal or professional life, for 2 1/2 to 3 hours on game day I can put aside the cares of the world so to speak and allow myself to live or die figuratively with the fortunes of my team. I do my best not to let it spill over into my daily life, but my wife can usually tell without having to ask how the Wings did on a particular night. I realize that there are weightier matters in life, but as I said, sports are my escape, and win or lose, the Red Wings are my team and I will always have high expectations and will be disappointed when those expectations are not realized.

  13. Posted · Report reply

    I need to stay away from the GDT from now on. I closed it shortly before the puck dropped and we had perhaps our best overall game in over a month.

    This should do wonders for the psyche of the non-olympic players, entering the break having not only won but dominating games like we know they can. Not to mention lifting the spirits of this board, I don't even want to think about the amount of negativity, venom, and mudslinging that would have ensued had this game gone differently.

    Here's hoping no one gets hurt in the Olympics (and that Franzen gets to play)

  14. Posted · Edited by McAwesome · Report reply

    Typical NBC.

    No wonder their channel is last amongst the major networks.

    I wonder if the game will be on some cable channel or something?

    Russia/Czech, 12:00 PT (3:00 ET), NBC

    Canada/USA, 5:00 PT (8:00 ET), MSNBC (WTF?)

    Sweden/Finland, 7:00 PT (10:00 ET), MSNBC

    What were they thinking? I know the league likes to promote Ovechkin almost as much as Crosby, but how can they possibly justify putting what could possibly be the highest-rated single event this Olympics on MSNBC?

    That being said, supposedly nbcolympics.com is going to be streaming just about every mens Hockey game, which is lucky for me because I don't have cable, but this is ridiculous, NBC will be showing a grand total of 4 hockey games.

    Edit: Just went to nbcolympics.com to check out the streaming quality of the Sweden/Swiss women's game, and apparently you can only watch their videos if you are a subscriber of a Telco partner of NBC Olympics. Looks like I'm going to have to rely on someone here for streams of the important hockey games.

  16. Posted · Report reply

    Wow, I didn't even notice that.

    That sucks, between that and the back-to-back in the SCF last year, it's hard not to believe there is some bias against the Red Wings among the league brass (I know realistically there isn't, just saying).

    How many Olympians do the Avs have?: 4

    Ruslan Salei, Belarus. Yeah, like he's going to be playing at all in the 2nd week of the Olympics

    Peter Budaj, Slovakia. Likely the backup goalie anyway, and he doesn't even start for the Avs

    Milan Hejduk, Czechs. Outside shot at the medal round, but doubtful

    Paul Stastny, USA. Likely to make the medal round, also likely to log a lot of TOI

    How many Olympians do the Wings have?: 7 (possibly 8)

    Brian Rafalski, USA: Likely will be one of the top TOI on the team, and USA will probably advance to at least the semis

    Valtteri Filppula, Finland: Another country likely to advance to the medal round

    Pavel Datsyuk, Russia: Definitely going to be playing for most of the tourney, possibly on the 28th

    Niklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom, Niklas Kronwall, Sweden: Better be playing on the 28th

    Again, at the risk of getting caught without my tin foil hat on, that sucks that we have to play the day after the Olympics end.

  17. Posted · Report reply

    I agree that the Red Wings need to start playing like they actually give a crap and want to have some control over their own playoff destiny, but in our current situation, we definitely need a little help from above. I think that both Calgary and Dallas will lose, but I am not as confident in our chances of beating an unexpectedly dangerous Ottawa team.

    That being said, I think that if Lilja and Kronwall can both go tomorrow, that will be a tremendous boost at both ends of the ice, Lilja will make our PK better with his shot blocking and improved positional play over Lebda/Meech, and Kronwall gives us another physical presence and helps our inexplicably anemic 2nd PP unit with him at the point.

    Here's my lines FWIW:

    Zetterberg/Datsyuk/Holmstrom

    Franzen/Filppula/Bertuzzi

    Draper/Helm/Cleary

    Williams/Miller/Maltby

    Lidstrom/Rafalski

    Kronwall/Stuart

    Lilja/Ericsson

  18. Posted · Report reply

    LED strips with special Kevlar clear plastic should replace the ad's on the boards that way they can rotate unlimited ad's. I like how soccer has them all way around the pitch.

    Please no, then they would actually become a distraction to the action on the ice. I don't want to think about what it would be like for the players to have to look at electronic billboards when you are trying to keep your eye on the puck along the boards.

  19. Posted · Report reply

    You are quite wrong.

    Actually it was Dec. 11-17, 4 game winning streak. Since then, we've only had 2 back-to-back wins.

    Still, that's over 3 months ago, and we have 22 games left, and like someone else already said, we probably need to win about 15 games to put us in a position where we may be able to control our own playoff destiny, the way we are playing now we will be watching the standings on a daily basis relying on other teams to take out the teams ahead of us in the standings, and that hasn't worked out too well for us lately.