Nevermind

Brian Gionta Martin St. Louis Nathan Gerbe Ray Whitney Danny Briere Steve Sullivan Et Cetera Those are players around Hudler's size. All much faster though, even if not in their prime. Name me one player in the NHL in that size range who skates as poorly as Hudler. The fact is, being smaller doesn't make you faster. But smaller players are almost always faster because that's their way of compensating for their lack of size. Hudler compensates not with speed, but with his hands. But, when he's not scoring or consistently creating chances, what are his offensive skills good for?

I would never want lazy Leino back. But, Hudler I'd trade for future considerations even. Future considerations don't concuss other effective players. And $2.9M can help go towards a player that can actually skate and be counted on defensively. How the hell can you be so small and skate so slow at the same time?

Even though it's pretty saddening to think about right after the season ends...here's my dream, absolutely unrealistic roster for next season. 1. ) Trade Hudler for a bag of pucks. 2.) Let Ericsson, Miller and Modano go. (I like Miller, but I think Emmerton and Mursak can't clear waivers anymore. And I don't think Miller's shown quite enough to warrant giving up either of those two guys) 3.) Lidstrom doesn't retire. And he takes a nice discount to stay for $4.75M. How insulting is it that Rafalski would make over a million more in this case? But, I don't Nick would care. 4.) Let Osgood return as back-up if he wants to. I think we owe him that much. Draper can come back if he understands he may be in a Maltby type situation. Both of them can take $650K to help out the team. 5.) Resign Eaves for a few years at around $950K. 6.) Add a cheap veteran defenseman for $750K. I wouldn't be totally against it being Salei again. Now for the unrealistic parts.... 7.) Sign injury-prone Simon Gagne to a one year $5.75M deal. I don't think he'll leave Tampa and Yzerman or be willing to take a one-year deal, but I would kick the tires if he hits free agency. Maybe he'll make a Hossa-like contract decision and actually show up for our playoffs. He's always had rotten luck with injuries, but I think he would fit nicely in our top six with his speed and great defensive play. He could work well on Datsyuk or Zetterberg's wing and maybe revive some of the goal scoring ability he had with Forsberg. 8.) Sign Kevin Bieksa to a multi-year deal at $4.5M per. Either VAN resigns him or other teams will probably dramatically overpay. But, if he's willing to come here for around $4.5, it may be worth it with Rafalski's contract coming off the books after next season. This would leave the lineup as follows. FORWARDS Simon Gagne ($5.750m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) Johan Franzen ($3.954m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m) Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Patrick Eaves ($0.950m) Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m) / Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / Kris Draper ($0.650m) / Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($4.750m) / Kevin Bieksa ($4.500m) Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / Brad Stuart ($3.750m) Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) / Brian Rafalski ($6.000m) Veteran ($0.750m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Chris Osgood ($0.650m) The total cap hit would be a shade over 63 million. So this dream would assume the cap jumps to at least $63.5 million

Without knowing Lidstrom's decision, the only thing I know is that Hudler needs to be traded and Ericsson let go. I wish Rafalski wasn't making $6M. It's too tough to think about how to change the team if Nick retires.

No one can question the heart, grit and effort of the Detroit Red Wings. I'm just as proud of this Wings team as those that won Cups in years past. Maybe even more.

It's unfortunate...I think we would have won the game had they played. But more importantly, I hope--for them and their families--that they're gonna be ok.

I know we all know this. But it can't be said enough. Hockey players are generally far-and-away superior to all other athletes. Hockey players are better. Right after the Wings game last night, as I was still in my blissful excitedly frantic state, I came back and saw my friend watching a baseball game. I just caught a glimpse and saw two players from different teams sharing a cordial story or two and some laughs during the game. I joked that you would NEVER see that during a hockey game. In my all years watching hockey, I have never seen that happen (save for All-star games). And, of course, never anything remotely close to such a thing in the playoffs. But, I've seen similar things happen in the Superbowl and NBA playoffs. And my reactions were exactly the same. Hockey players are better. They care more. My friend didn't understand my point, so I tried to explain to him--something not so easy to do in words. It's more of a feeling/emotional thing really. But, I pretty much said that if you're so emotionally engaged in the game and truly care, two players from different teams just don't act nice to one another. It doesn't make sense. It just doesn't seem right. He argued back that you 'don't have to hate the other players' and that baseball players/other athletes care just as much as hockey players, etc. It was a lost cause anyways, so I let it go. Bear in mind that he's similarly disagreed with me before when I claimed that hockey players are more humble and hard-working. Something I think even other athletes can acknowledge. But, in thinking about hockey, I don't know any other sport where a home crowd can jolt the players so much. That just shows how emotional a game it is. Come playoff time, it's all about will, grit, determination and emotion. The rewards of hard work are immediately and readily apparent. When you look in Pavel or Nick's or Hank's eyes, you see a fiery spirit there. A will that won't give up. Just from their body language, you can tell they genuinely care. I simply don't get that same feeling from a lot of the players of the other 3 majors sports during their grandest stages. It's like win or lose, it's just a game to them and they still get their paychecks (or paycheques, for my Canadian friends.) More so than any other sport during the playoffs, hockey players sacrifice anything and everything for the team. Not their stats or egos. They have to in order to win come playoff time. You just don't see that kind of cohesion within a team in other sports. Maybe it's why hockey players hug after scoring a goal. There's a powerful camaraderie between hockey players that's absent in other sports. Regardless of what happens Thursday, I'm happy that my beloved Wings proved once again that they care just as much as the most die-hard of fans. Even further, there's no doubt in my mind that our star players simply care more than San Jose's. Could you imagine cheering for a team when you feel like you care more than some of the players? In my opinion, whether they realize it or not, I think most people do just that when watching other sports. Hockey players are just better. Everything I said has been said before. But if you agree with me, I thought it might be worthwhile to pause and appreciate how lucky we are to be fans of the greatest sport in the world. Hockey is just better.

Apparently two people disagreed. You had a minus two for some reason. I still didn't think you would want the minuses, so I gave you a plus.

No, that's totally related. I should steal it and add it to my original post.

Cleary epitomizes a gritty hockey player. And you can't have enough of those in the playoffs. I don't remember any turnovers, but I remember him battling along the boards and grinding like crazy down low. Sounds like you're still frustrated over the breakaway. Try and remember his goal in Game 5. But, I agree on the last part though...Abdelkader's penalties are causing me to break my own fingers.

The world just seems like such a nicer place right now! And I'm not annoyed by a blueadams thread. But, yes, Pav and Fil should be together.

I saw the date was May 9th, and I've always remembered this day as being Yzerman's birthday. It's always nice to see the Wings still playing on his birthday. So happy birthday! The Lightning are on an incredible run right now. Well...back to thinking/anticipating/worrying about our series. Game 6 can't come soon enough.

Either that or a sniper's in the building. One with a gun, I mean. Not a hockey stick.

Thank you for saying what I should have, but didn't.

Is you being able to stop making threads like these an option? It's not even the off-season.

No change we can believe in. Probably the most realistic though.

Yeah, that would be an interesting way to hurt the team.

Franzen's a humble guy...he'll probably sit out understanding it's best for the team. I'd put Modano in and keep Hudler out because of the pretty big difference in skating abilities. Better skating=more grinding down low=superior forecheck. Anyways though, what a game! Really proud of the team tonight. Pure will and determination in that third period.

Link We're down 3-0. I'd put Modano in the lineup. But, that's just me. Not because he's a future HOF, but since he might actually bring something to the lineup. Whatever...at this point in the series, it makes me sad to even complain about anything.

I'm sure he'd play with some interest tonight.

In a game we pretty much absolutely have to win, how the hell do Salei and Ericsson get more even strength ice time than ******* Nicklas Lidstrom? It's like Babcock thinks Lidstrom's a powerplay specialist now or something. If anything, that would be $6M man Rafalski. Nick wasn't out for even a second of the penalty kill (which let up 2 goals...coincidence? Probably not when your best penalty killer isn't on the ice.) Kronwall and Stuart probably spent too much time killing penalties compared to the others--obviously wearing them out. I haven't really felt the need to criticize Babcock so much before. Even if Lidstrom's lost half-a-step and isn't perfect anymore, he's still the one defenseman in the league I would want out there in any given situation. What was the point in limiting Nick's ice time all season? I would think it would be so he could play over 30 minutes in games like these. EDIT: Also, I just had to mention how I loved seeing Flip, Mule and Hudler suck on the OT powerplay for 1:30 while I don't think Pavel and Hank even got the first 30 seconds. It was only the most important powerplay of our season.

But he's playing well though. I honestly think it's just Babcock mismanaging the ice time. I remember being mad when Babcock didn't put Yzerman out there for the last minute of Game 6 against Edmonton in '06. Even though Yzerman was playing well, it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyways. But in this case, for total ice time, I think more of Lidstrom and less Salei, Ericsson and Rafalski could have changed the outcome. Well, it's done now. But since Game 4's an actual elimination game, let's see if the ice time distribution changes at least a little.

Yeah, I was getting pretty sick of it during the game. I mean, if it's a blatant penalty, call it. Otherwise, let them play--it's supposed to be the ******* playoffs. Hockey is meant to be played 5 on 5. It's the only way a team's lines can get into any sort of rhythm. Regardless though, the Wings got to play a hell of a lot better.

Let's go Red Wings! I thought I saw 500 before?

His backcheck may occasionally start too late. Link But really, I think Weber and the Preds are going to give the Canucks more than they can handle. And the guy who wrote that has way more time than he can handle.