MulesWillFly93

Well, you don't want to work on your glove hand too hard...might get hairy.

Congrats to the Howard family!! Aww, I hope his son and Ozzie's can be little buddies. Gonna ignore whatever's going on above me and just hope Conklin can have a good bounce back day.

I think they should wear them. With sticks and pucks flying around everywhere, even if you're careful, stuff is going to happen. All it takes is one fluke; look at the Leafs-Flyers game that was just on, where a strangely high number of guys got hit in the face with a stick. Does that usually happen at games? No. But if you're Chris Pronger, all it takes is to be on the right team, standing in the right place at the right time. Do you REALLY want to risk losing an eye because you don't want to get used to seeing through a visor? Come on. I don't know if the NHL should make them mandatory or not, but I definitely think everybody should just grow a brain and wear one anyway.

Ah, so that's what happened - I wondered if he got hit in the eye since that seems like it'd be the one thing that would make him react like that. Hope he's okay - I don't want to see anybody in the NHL lose an eye (or anybody else, for that matter...except maybe Hitler, but he's kinda dead now). Still don't like him, but y'know.

I've been asking myself that for a while now. My conjecture is that something's bothering him injury-wise, but that's nothing more than a guess. He just hasn't been himself, and it's a bummer to see him struggle.

Well, um, that wasn't fun to watch. We had an unlucky first period, and then two just plain bad ones. Was gonna say I wish Miller had played instead of Emmerton, but I'm pretty sure we would have lost anyway, so whatever. I hope Conklin's night was just a fluke. I'll forgive him this time, but pleeeaaase don't do that again. I'm glad we're playing the Sharks the game after next, so we can get a better feel for how we're doing. So far we've been playing a bunch of teams like the Sens and BJs, which doesn't tell you much unless you lose.

I noticed him...getting knocked over left and right. This guy definitely needs a year in the minors to toughen him up. We know the guy's got skills from what we saw in the preseason, but it's going to take some hard work/experience before he can use it at an NHL level again.

That'd be cool, but I was thinking more about the Wings winning the Cup.

Ha, that's great! I wonder what the heck caused it... I did see a car the other day with a Whalers sticker on it - maybe we really are in a time warp! As long as it's the 1996-97 season, the last season they were in the league, I'm okay with that.

^ Happy birthday! Can't wait! Last night's game was great, and that was just against the BJs! Someone's going home tonight un-undefeated...I know where I'm putting my bet. I hope Cleary gets a little payoff tonight; he looked good last night, but the puck just wasn't going in the right direction for him. I know Pavs will be great anyway, but I hope he really puts on a clinic in front of Ovechkin, hehe.

I bet they don't have MUSICAL Tesla coils!!

Agreed about Thornton - I want him to stop being a horse's behind, but I don't want him to win the Cup, ever. As for Perry, if you'd asked me after the 09-10 season if I wanted him to be on the Wings, I would've said no way in heck, but if he's going to keep scoring like he did last season, then you bet - I don't care what kind of attitude he has. I wonder if he'll keep it up...

I don't like the numbers on the fronts of the Rangers jerseys, but other than that, they're both fine. Not exactly exciting, but I think we've have quite enough excitement in the last couple of years (still trying to erase the Pens' last one from my mind).

Yeah, I feel the same way. At least the Ducks are just flat-out jerks, instead of a bunch of little floppers, cheap-shotters, and whiners. I can soooorrrt of allllmost respect a guy like Getzlaf who makes life difficult for the other team with his tough style of play, rather than with his high diving marks or ability to suck up to the refs. Heck, even Perry's learned to shut his trap and just play some hockey. Pair that with Pronger and Niedermayer being gone, and I can't say I really hate them with a burning passion like I did just a couple of years ago. Of course, the Sharks did lose a touch of classlessness now that Setoguchi and Heatley are gone, but still, nobody on the Ducks currently irritates me quite like Joe Thornton does. That's saying a lot because Perry can still be a turd when he wants to be, and even though it irks me to think he's got a Cup ring, the Hart trophy, and the Rocket Richard trophy, it irks me even more that Thornton doesn't have squat to back up all those theatrics, and yet he just keeps doing it. edit: had "even more than Thornton" - oops

Well, that would TOTALLY fix the problem! Instead of having Winnipeg in the SE, which obviously makes no sense because of its northerly location, let's put Detroit in the SE - it's WAY closer to the southeastern United States than Winnipeg is! I don't know why I'm wasting sarcasm on this because I really don't think this is going to happen. This just seems a little too illogical even for the NHL. For as many bonehead moves as they make, I still don't think they would waste their time on something so ineffectual. Whatever...not going to waste time trying to understand it until it happens.

Yeah, I never realized how much I dislike the Avs announcers. They ramble on and on about absolutely nothing...it's okay to shut your piehole once in a while, you know? Non-Wings fans complain about Mickey rambling, but at least he has some good "back-in-the-day" stories and stuff. These guys just spew random stats nobody cares about or, like Behind Enemy Lines said, keep repeating "Polly want a cracker" -- oops, that was supposed to say "Varlamov makes the save," and they never. shut. up. Congrats to Conklin on getting a shut out in his first game of the season! I love it when there's not another game for a while, and you have something nice like that to think about instead of stewing in your pot about what went wrong.

I liked our 5 goals; I didn't like their 3 goals. More PK practice for everyone. Anyway, a big heck yeah to Bert for scoring the first goal of the year; ditto to Lidstrom looking like Datsyuk, White looking like Lidstrom, and double ditto for Emmerton and Hudler pleasantly surprising me. GAWD I'm glad hockey's back!!!

Well, shoot. I hope he does the best he can, then, and stays as healthy as possible. Sorry to hear that, though.

Abdelkader - Fewer dumb penalties. It'd be nice if he upped his offensive production, but I don't expect huge things from him. Bertuzzi - Moar goals!!! You can dooo eet! I can't believe I'm asking Bertuzzi to improve when he's already improved so much, but it's only because I believe in him! Brunnstrom - Be fricking awesome. Earn a permanent spot on the Wings, please. Cleary - Just...don't hurt yourself. Or let Hudler hurt you. Datsyuk - I don't want to jinx him, so I won't mention any trophies by name, but you know I expect pure greatness. Also, no injuries; that sucked. Eaves - More goals, more mojo with Helm. So pretty much what he's doing now, only a little more. Emmerton - Eh. Whatever. I'd much rather have Mursak being the possible lineup cracker, but whaddya gonna do? Filppula - Shoooooot. Franzen - No injuries. Exist on one plane at a time (no floating). Helm - You know that picture of Darth Vader playing the guitar that has the caption, "No matter what you do, you'll never be as awesome as this picture"? I want Helm to be that awesome. No pressure, buddy. Holmstrom - Do whatcha do. Hudler - Shooooooot. Oh, and bite some ankles. But stay away from Cleary. Miller - Keep on keepin' on. I don't expect him to turn into Datsyuk any time soon, and that's okay. Mursak - Heal. Zetterberg - More goals. I don't know what the actual situation is, but if I had to guess, I'd say something was bothering him last season...I hope he's got whatever it is healed up now and can go back to whoopin' butt. Commodore - Don't screw up too much. Use that physicality. Ericsson - Ditto, pretty much. Kindl - I don't know...just, get better. Sorry, I'm running out of effort here. Kronwall - Like everybody else said, just take it up another level. He's already good, now let's see if he can be great. No injuries would be helpful. Lidstrom - Psh, like I'm going to tell Nick what to do. Okay, actually I will: come back next season! Stuart - Fewer...oddball screwups. Most of the time he's pretty solid, but every once in a while, he makes me frown at my TV screen in confusion. Less of that, please. White - Despite everyone saying he's not a Rafalski replacement, it wouldn't be bad if he was! Conklin - I must be the "sky is falling" type, because I feel less than enthusiastic about our goalies after watching them in the pre-season. I know anything can happen once we get going, but since you're asking right now, I can't really say I'm feeling optimistic at this time. So, I guess I hope he's at least as good as Howard, so we don't have that "which one's going to muck it up worse?" situation to think about. Howard - Keep some of that playoffs pep going into this season. I know it's hard because the playoffs have a whole other energy level, and you've had all year to get into the groove, as opposed to the beginning of the season when it's been a while since you've played a game, but I at least want improvement over his performance at the beginning of last season.

Very nice tribute - good on ya, Jimmy.

Word is he played in the Red and White game today, so it looks like he's good to go. Phew!

Probably, but from Babcock's point of view, it tells Commie exactly what he thinks of him and where he stands without having to lecture the guy like he's 5 years old. I'm sure Commie has already put 2 and 2 together and knows he's in the hot seat, but I think it's important to have that communication directly from the coach. The more input, the better, and when it's this kind of input, the gentler the delivery, the better. I don't think Babs would bury anybody right off the bat without seeing what they can do. It'd be kind of pointless to waste a potential asset to the team before you've even seen if he's turned over a new leaf or not. Lingering feelings or no, he has to do what's best for the team.

Well, he'll definitely liven up the joint! Which is why I'm bummed that he won't be back on the VS. intermission report...he was a nice change of pace from Keith Jones (god, what a lump on a log). Plus, on the other end of the scale, his brand of nuttiness is way more endearing than Roenick's. I've never seen the show, so I'll at least give it a shot, knowing he's going to be on there. I've watched that other show about the shop in Las Vegas a couple of times, and it's okay, but I've heard this one is less...tame, so we'll see. Glad to see he's keeping busy, anyway. Not a bad gig - getting paid just to be yourself all day. ...Gotta say, I would've been a little more excited about the "video," too.

This is pretty cool - Datsyuk is going to wear #24 during the pre-season in honor of Salei. Very nice idea. http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Pavel-Datsyuk-switches-numbers-to-honor-late-Rus?urn=nhl-wp12767

I heard on the news this morning that a plane went down in Russia this morning, which was sad enough, but I didn't know until I got home this afternoon who was on it. I couldn't figure out from the headline on Facebook why Lidstrom was commenting on the Russian plane crash...until I started reading. I don't know what to say, other than that I feel so sorry for the team's family and friends. I can't believe I just saw Salei and McCrimmon in March...I don't think this has sunk in completely yet. Why did this have to happen?