Joseph Franks

I think Mr Carlin about sums this up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rIPe5akN48&feature=related Second half of the video, but it's George Carlin, so obviously it's all funny as hell I'm counter-suing for the emotional distress you causing him, has caused me.

Yeah, except, Detroit was mostly the same team as they were the prior few years, with minor changes, and a s*** ton of injuries. They didn't switch out half of their roster during an off-season, and hope to do well the next year.

I don't know, but i ******* want some. You cannot just dump half your team, and expect to go on the same way. Especially not in a league where career players are bred to play with each other. They did what they had to do to win, and now.....they keep on this trend and they'll be lucky to make the playoffs. Great trade....yeah my ass

You're stupid. grinders winning cups is so 1990's.

All over NHL.com, and the hockey world in general are statements like: "Blackhawks embrace change!" "Blackhawks revamp!" "Blackhawks really look up right now!" Heh...bulls***. They changed out half their team, because they were the first team to really "buy" a cup under the salary cap. After watching them work this post-season....I now realize.....they're desperately just trying to fill holes that they could not afford. Bottom dwellers? Likely not. A Stanley Cup competitor? Yeah sure, maybe, anyone can be. But next year when they say "The defending Stanley Cup Champions!!!!!!" I will simply laugh, smirk to myself, and say, "Yeah, a few of them." At least Pittsburgh, after losing in the finals, primarily kept the same team. Chicago...one hit wonder.

Well, we've certainly "raised" a good core of players under the salary cap era. But I think it's hard to compete with situations like 2002 where 1) If you had the money and 2) If hot prospect players thought you had a chance at a cup....you could basically buy whoever you wanted. I Think the cap drives even more interest in the team, because instead of having all new players bought out of FA every year, you get a lot of guys who come to Detroit as rookies, and develop over time. Essentially it creates more of a "Hometown Hero" feeling than you use to get, back when suddenly one day you just randomly have Brett Hull in your lineup overnight (Just an example). It's better to watch a team of guys you've watched grow up on the team go on to win a cup, than it is to watch a smattering of random talent picked up in the off season do it, IMO

Why would Nabby take a huge pay cut, instead of just going to the KHL? Why would we want him? Osgood has 3 cups (Two he can legitimately call his own), and Howard was as good as Nabby last year, if not better during some stretches. Nabby is a proven playoff failure. Not to imply he isn't a good goalie, but he belongs on a team that needs an upgrade in goal tending, not here we're he could easily end up outplayed by a hot streaking Osgood, or a consistent Howard. The trend is to get away from aging high priced goalies who remain unproven in the playoffs late into their careers. I remember the mistake of taking on Cujo. That really seemed to go well for us. Hasek panned out for a year, but if you look at the team that was in front of him, it put the Hawks 2010 team to shame. All due respect to Nabby, but this is a ridiculous rumor.

Modano would not be a bad pickup IMO. He's no first or second liner anymore, but as a third or fourth liner (Depending on his production) he could do some good with the younger guys on the team. You're crazy if you wouldn't want guys like Helm, Abby, Eaves, and so on learning for a year with Modano as their center man. While I agree he's not what this team specifically needs, if he comes at a price of 1 million he's still going to put up a few points, he still has cup experience, and it's fookin' Mike Modana....one of our very own Michiganders and clearly a hall of famer. He had 30 points last year in 59 games. Draper had 22 points in 81 games. Flip had 35 points in 55 games playing along side Zetterberg of all people, and we're looking at him to center our second line. Modano had more goals than either of these centers. One way or another he's going to get the puck to the net from time to time, and if we could find him a chemistry a little better than what Dallas was giving him, I bet he could easily pull off one more 40 point season. Understandable that given a slew of choices, there are far better pick-ups than Modano out there, but if he was willing to come center a 3rd/4th line for a million, we'd be almost stupid to pass that up. His only intangible is if he can stay healthy. People rant and rave about how we could do well to pick up a 4th liner than could tally maybe 20 points and add a little grit. Modano did as well last year as our second line center, and we'd likely be using him to center the third or fourth line, and run on a second PP unit. To me, pending his health is good, Kenny would be crazy to shoot it down if Modano agreed to a low paycheck, and bottom six ice time. Someone said something above like, "If Modano doesn't mind being benched", as if to imply any of our bottom six had a higher PPG percentage than Modano last year? Edit: PPG = Point per game, in this instance.

Considering the hockey and basketball seasons run concurrently, it would be a scheduling disaster if the Wings moved to the Palace.

This type of debate reminds me of when I was about 7 years old, and the kid across the street argued with me. "My dad's arms are bigger than your dads!!!" He argued "No they're not! My dads are way bigger!!!" I retorted. And every time I see it raised, I think....oh great, here goes the kid wars again. My opinion on the matter. Yzerman was better in his prime than Sakic. Sakic was more consistent throughout his career than Yzerman. Injuries and what not aside, that is how the stats lay out. But each had different teams, and different obstacles, and combined they won 5 cups. They both dealt with adversity, and they both had some great teams beneath them. I bet Yzerman's legacy will last a lot longer in Detroit than Sakic's will in Colorado though. Hell in Colorado half those people don't even know they have a team still

Maybe a little more power on the 2nd line, but less size. Flip needs some size to buy him room. He's a great player, when he's not being shut down going into the zone every single rush. Putting a small player on his right wing, leaves only Franzen to fight into the zone. Like it or not, Bert can muscle his way into a zone. What he does from there is where it gets questionable, but he can certainly still get into the zone with a little force. Helm is tenacious, but no where near ready to center anything but a fourth line. And with Bert and Cleary as Wingers to Helm.....well, I guess you liked the outcome of 2010 if this is what you propose. You're lineup basically promotes top 6 scoring, and leaves us with nothing bottom 6. Helm cannot center Cleary, and Bert would just be a mess on that line. "Whoever" will be Draper. And they won't have Draper play wing. He's a faceoff guy. Again, to me a worthless line. I think....And I dunno....I'm no pro here....but I think somehow Babcocks' ideas are better. I get the feeling he is a bit more qualified at this.

I like it overall. Our top line will be banging. Datsyuk has missed 100 points a couple of times in his career by only 3 points. United with Z most games, and healthy, he'll crack it eventually. Zetterbergh hasn't gotten as close as Datsyuk, but given this line setup he certainly has the potential to break 40 goals, if not 50. It has been a long time since they played together for the majority of a season, and they're a hell of a lot better now than they were back when they did. I see line one as a highly skilled puck possession line. The second line will be carried mostly by Franzen, but you'll have two big bodies out there with Flip, and the added room he'll get to work might just lead to a breakout season. But all of them can score in the right situations. If Bert can up his physical game a bit it will be a very powerful line, IMO. I see this line as being a drive the net over and over line. And it certainly leaves some scoring depth potential on three lines. Hudler is probably too good for a third line winger, but Abbey isn't fully tested yet. Cleary is sometimes a bit sketchy. But if that line gets on fire, it will have more production potential than most teams second lines will have. I see this line as a bit of an ace in the hole line. Abbey's tenacity will match up against most teams grinders, Hudlers skating, speed, and skill will take advantage of playing on the third line (Where he won't have 6'5" defenseman on his ass all the time). And Cleary, well, I guess it's up to him how good he wants to do. Fourth line looks like....a fourth line, heh. But we have a lot of options to mix and match it, until the right chemistry is found. I see our forth line as more of an experiment, where guys can be pulled up for a few games, or put down for a few games, meanwhile being centered by a veteran in Draper. His ability on the face-off will make this line dangerous in offensive zone draws, and all of our 4th liners have at least a little scoring potential. Heh, if anything draper has the least scoring potential, but we all know what he does out there isn't trackable in stats. Lets see if Howard can walk the walk. In summary: If Datsyuk and Zetterberg stay healthy... If Homer does what he always does... If FIip can get some room to work... If Franzen drives hard... If Bert gets a little more physical... If Hudler fills the shoes we bought him for... If Cleary finds himself again... If Abby is all that we're hoping for... If Howard is the real deal that he looks like he can be... (Alternatively, If Osgood has an "On" year again, if Howard falls through) And IF we stay healthy..... This team has a better shot than I've seen in a while. Not to mention we've drafted large players, and are inviting bigger guys to our training camp. What does that mean? Jack squat, aside from perhaps down the long stretch we'll be able to juggle in some size onto that fourth line. Now drop the puck already!

I'm in Germany right now, in the military. Don't know if you're military or not, but if so AFN televises the majority of the playoffs. Granted, the games are on at like 1-2AM, but they also replay many of the games at a normal time the next day. Otherwise, I used NHL.com streams to watch a majority of games this year. There are cheaper (Even free) feeds of most of the games, which you will find posted on this forum. But I find that NHL.com offers the best quality streams of the nearly dozen different streams I attempted. Of course, you have to pay for that service. Again though, many games are televised late, as Germany is 6 hours ahead of east coast. So a 7pm start....is a 1am start here. On weekends it wasn't much of a problem (Combination of the fact that staying up late wasn't much of an issue, and the fact that many games are around 1300 on Saturday--or 1900..7pm Germany time) Otherwise, I used letsgowings.com, and nhl.com to keep up to date. Blackout will kick you in the nuts on NHL packages as well, but MOST of the games are televised. Just seems like they're really piss poor about letting you know early enough which ones. Can't count the number of times I was prepped for a game, beer in one hand, popcorn in the other, only to find it blacked out. Most blackout games will still be streamed somewhere on the Internet though. A lot of "rogue" sites will stream the games straight from FSN, at s***ty quality unfortunately, but the will be there. With a will, you "could" in theory watch most redwings games from Germany, you just have to research it a bit. Hope my tips help point you in the right direction. Edit: And yes, preseason games are a blast. Catch a few at the Joe if you can. Even one......going to a game is always insanely fun. Combine pizza with beer and redwings hockey, and you never fail.

I agree. I don't expect the Hawks to plummet out of the playoffs or anything, but they did by and large sacrifice a great deal to put together the cup team they built. I'm not taking anything away from them....god knows we did the same thing in 2002. We just happened to have half our team signing up for nursing homes the following year instead of being traded off. But all in all I think the Hawks had a talent "one-up" on most of the league this past season, and the team they have next year will be more on par with the rest of the league. The only thing I wonder is....would they have made it if they didn't have Buff this year? He did SO much for them during the run that he gained the exclusive attention of Chris Pronger all finals long. It wasn't Toews or Kane that they stuck Pronger on, it was Buff. Would they have taken the cup? Sure, it's a possibility, but the odds against them would have been much higher. Not having Buff in their lineup would have been like us not having Franzen's breakout in 2008. For the Wings, I'll think we'll have a much better season. But we've got a lot of variables. We can rest assured that Pav and Hank are going to do well. Howard will likely get back on track. It's some of our older guys that will make or break it. Lidstrom will be a star defense-man as always, but I'm pretty sure his Norris days are behind him. Holmstrom is ever effective, but it seems less and less notably so each year. Bert could go up or down on a whim. Then our new wave of guys, while none of them entirely new....I'm referring to Flip, Abby, etc. A little breakout season from them could be the difference in getting the Presidents trophy or not.

From the video it looks like a few things: 1) He isn't afraid to jump into the play and shoot. His numbers indicate that maybe he isn't the greatest shot though. 2) He stayed positionally perfect for the 3 seconds that we got to see him. 3) One guy on that team looked exactly like Fedorov 4) The girl in the stands was hotter than most American hockey fan girls :-p Obviously would need to see more of him (And her) to make an accurate judgment, but those are what jumped out at me at first glance.

Toews, fine. Two years in a row a BH on the cover? ***. Kane ever getting it in the first place? Retarded.

Lol, It's so funny, but that chick would be opening her own peanut butter jars for quite a while. I would have broken up with most of my girlfriends for doing this to me, without a second thought ;-p Was kinda funny though. Good thing she's cute. If she wasn't cute, I bet she'd be sleeping outside that night

Lol, so you blame the cab driver? You say he deserved to get punched over 20 cents by a multi-millionaire? Man some of you guys are lame. What Kane did was still pretty ******* ***. It's not a joke really. It's one thing to repspect another team. It's entirely another to become a complete special ed student, to prove how "worldly" you are. Kane punched him over 20 cents. Forgive...sure. Forget....sure. But justify it? You're just retarded. Why don't you go kick kittens or something, when they claw up the couch. You seem like that kind of person.

Don't care so much about the fights. Wouldn't mind seeing a fighter on Detroit, but hits and shots blocked are critical to todays game. I'd be happy with Nystrom of that list. Not the greatest number of hits, but his shot blocking would be useful in the playoffs, pending he can step up that aspect of his game when it counts. It's tough to find "good" shot blockers these days. We did? No for real.....yahoo fantasy league doesn't count.

/agree. We certainly do not have that right now. We really have no fighters. Mair isn't much of a fighter anymore though. Few concusions takes the fight out of you, speaking from experience myself.

That's why I love forums. Guy scores 40 goals in the season, leads the team. We lose game 7 overtime of the Stanley Cup Finals, and people talk s*** Sure, lets blame it all on Hossa He's been to the finals 3 times in a row. No Detroit player can lay claim to that What if we had made it to the finals this year....and lost. Guess we'd have to pick someone else to blame Sure, hes been a poor playoff performer the last few years. But he's in the finals again, and all of our "playoff performers".....are playing nhl 2010 on their playstations.

Well the team with the dirtbags is still playing hockey, aren't they?

In the playoffs right now, I'd rather have 1 Leino, than 2 datsyuks. Now if we were playing golf, Datsyuk clearly has the head start.

Oh what ever. It's easy to bash a questionable character when they're on another team. No team, or semi-intellegent hockey veiwer on the planet would hate to have Pronger on their team. Well, unless you prefer "losing with character" over....just winning. Pronger is pound for pound, one of the cockiest, irritating hockey players on the planet....but he's also one of the best. If detroit signed Pronger, I bet we'd be in the finals. It's hockey. If you guys want a "nice" team, go watch tennis or something. I personally think we could use a few more cocky dirtbag questionable players

I somehow think you're being cynical 98 run to the cup was about half as hard as 97 run to the cup. Probably could have lost 2-3 other guys and took that one.