PavelValerievichDatsyuk

Looks like Ozzy could play a role in the Dirtey Crosby.

These are really weird comparisons to use. Maybe you're thinking of Jari Kurri? Messier didn't play on Gretsky's line. Messier also had plenty of success in Edmonton and NY without the great one on the team. Helm played on Datsyuk's wing for about 2 half seasons. He had about the same amount of points as his other seasons.

Missed the whole game, but turned it on just as AA slid into the corner after the goal. Scary situation. Very brief update, but it has a quote from Lack saying "Everything looks alright" so that's good to hear. http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/hurricanes-eddie-lack-stretchered-off-allowing-ot-winner/

I am the man with the bloody finger! Can I please get a penalty?

Babcock has rubbed some players the wrong way (Commodore, for sure) and does have the reputation as someone that is tough to play for. He's done well with his style, though. People will played for him if the team is winning. There's a couple things wrong with Chelios' line of thought that this might bring more vet free agents: - Probably the biggest complaint around here has been the number of over the hill free agents we've brought in the last 5+ Babcock years. You can say he meant the big free agents, but there's many other reasons that seem more likely for the big names that passed up offers (Parise, Suter, Niskanen, etc). - Many bigger vet free agents came in Babcock's tenure: Hossa, Alfredsson, Hasek's return, Rafalski, Bertuzzi - We now have a coach who - by most accounts - has a very similar style to Babcock and we've had some hints that he's already rubbed some players the wrong way as well. But regardless of style, from what I've seen, the big free agents make their decisions more based on whether it's a winning team or sometimes due to personal ties.

"Green's been really prevalent tonight!" Haha. I think those guys below them are trying to give Mickey and Ken a second hand high.

mark of Z!!!!!

Mantha protecting Larkin.

But even when we're contenders, they would build up games where we'd have a chance to knock a rival out of the playoff race. It might be more fun to be a spoiler sitting pretty at the top of the standings, but I hope everyone on the team still especially wants to beat the team that has knocked them out the past few years. It would be more beneficial to lose out, but you want the team to keep the winning spirit. Lethargy can be highly contagious and can last beyond the year. Anyway, I don't think anyone on the team's really tanking. I do hope we're making decisions and giving opportunity (minutes) based on long term growth rather than short term wins at this point of the season. That can have some residual effects that some might see as tanking. It is a fine line to walk.

Torn better the necessity of tanking and the joy of playing spoiler for Tampa's playoff hopes. They're 3 pts. out with a game in hand. Anyway, Just want a good game from Mrazek and a goal from one of the young guns: Mantha, AA or Larkin.

But Lilja's over 40. It would have been surprising if he was still playing. For other former Wings, Gustavsson only played 7 games for the Oilers this year, had some horrible stats, and was waived a couple months ago. ...and - you can curse me if it starts the old, tired debate - no one's mentioned Hossa yet...

So, I googled it to see if anyone else came up with this idea. No such luck, but apparently someone tried to build this thing: I think maybe winged tanks just aren't meant to be, haha

Nice move by Mantha. Great to see DK to Mantha for the win. Always encouraging when the guys are the ones who play a big role. ..and I got my win in Montreal. We can put the tank back on tomorrow.

MAANATAHTAHATA!!!!

I'm here and having been watching on and off. I know we're kind of playing for the high pick, but a win over the Habs would make my day here in Montreal much easier (and more fun with one particular friend and Hab-fanatic). So come on Wings!!!! let's get that one back.

First of all, a motivation for signing local guys could be that they are more likely to re-sign when free agency comes along since they have family etc as motivation to stay there. It should be a consideration to a certain extent in the modern 'parity' salary cap NHL where you can't buy players like in the past and a lot rest on keeping your own developed talent. It's a different thing than giving preference to a nationality. But, anyway, I think there's only a couple instances where you could say that the team chose players over others due to the local tie. Larkin being available that late in the draft was great luck. He's outproduced everyone lower than him in the draft other the David Paternak. Who would you rather take? I doubt they would have skipped him if he was from Helsinki. It was great that we were able to pick up DK. The fact that he's from Michigan played into Dekeyser's side of the decision; not the team's. They weren't like "I guess we'll take this star college free agent that everyone wants, but only because he's from here." Glendening they picked up partly due to Red Berenson's praise. If you want to count that as local bias, fine. Abby was a low pick, maybe local ties were a factor.

Oops, wrong thread

Cale Maker is a new name to me. What jumps out to me is that he's playing in the AJHL which is the Tier II league that is below the WHL in Alberta. He's 6th in scoring there as a Dman, so makes you take notice, but I don't how much you should take the league into account. Seems many great NHL players played in that league (Messier, a lot of Sutters, Hartnell, Vernon, Heatley, and more), though a bunch of those only played there a year or 2 before they graduated to higher junior leagues. Apparently, the WHL's Medicine Hat Tigers did draft him, but he chose not go because: “I was a pretty small guy at the time,” Makar said. “For my development’s sake I thought a longer career path was the way to go. I thought that the college-AJHL route was the best for me.” http://globalnews.ca/news/3196026/brooks-bandits-cale-makar-has-chance-to-make-history/

I think it's clear they're trying to get him a goal by playing him in those kind of situations or when they put him on the PP a while ago.

Woooh! 21 for #21. A few weeks ago, I wasn't sure if we'd have any 20 goal scorers.

pretty good period. Some good chances. Mantha's got to put that lose puck in the net.

I don't think it's a late hit by NHL standards. NHL player safety defines a late hit as 0.6 seconds after the player gives up the puck. Due to youtube's slowdown feature, you can see the player shoots the puck near the end of the 3rd second of the video and the check happen just after the 4th second starts. Not exact timing, but seems definitely under the 0.6 to me. But maybe the KHL has different standards. Also, by slowing it down, you can see the elbow is down, but he does follow through with it.

It's often hard to pick out which one is the evil twin. Here, not so much.

Everyone knows that Kronwall's playing injured. There's a chance he plays out the remaining 2 years, but I think that it's likely he won't. We should definitely plan for the situation of him going down midseason. If Franzen's still on LTIR, I don't think we get cap relief so It should be in the plans to trade Mule's contract to prepare. Wasn't mentioning it in the sense of forcing him to LTIR. I'm definitely not hoping that on him and I think he's still a good 2nd pairing guy for us. It would open up space though, if it happened. I was just mentioning other routes to cap space beside trading one of our best young D men.

To me, DK is one of the building blocks. Not a top pairing Dman, but a solid #3 guy and since he's fairly young, he can definitely still be a part of the future. The last 5+ years should be a lesson on how hard it is to find young top 4 Dmen. He's slightly over-payed, but really not by much. If we're making space by dumping bigger contracts it should be older players than won't be part of that future like Howard, Ericsson, Kronwall (LTIR probably at some point), Nielson?, and maybe one of Abby or Helm (Helm can be traded due to the clause in his NTC - I know others can't) I know that those guys probably wouldn't bring a 1st like you were thinking with DK. But there's really need to hurt the team for another 1st rounder, especially when everyone says this is a draft without a whole lot of 1st round elite talent. I don't think that we're suddenly going to be a contender next year and I think we'll get more than one shot at the high draft picks. There'll be other ways to get some extra picks (Green deadline trade next year? Howard trade at some point? Some were interested in Sheahan apparently)