HelmFan

Can someone please pm me a link to the game tonight?(drumnj hasn't accepted my request yet, and it's been almost a week) I'm on the road, and I would hate to miss Helmer's first game of the season. Thanks

I got stuck watching the Blues feed last night. Those guys are horrible to listen to. My thoughts,questions and comments on the game (in no particular order): -The Wings have games like that every year, but they sure didn't give us any glimpse of hope for this year, did they? -The Blues continue to win by out working their opponent. This seems to be the way to win in the new NHL. The Wings can't rely on their experience and veteran savvy to win games anymore. You gotta work for it too. -Are we still supposed to be a puck possession team? What type of team are we supposed to be? -Abdelkader, Miller and Ericsson played their usual games and were the best looking Wings out there. -Quincy got embarrassed, twice, by a rookie. Speaking of which, how many times a year does a guy score his first NHL goal against us? it seems like it happens quite often. By the end of the game I found myself cheering for a Tarasenko hat trick. -The special teams picked right up where they left off last year: *******, embarrassingly awful. -The first shift was the best shift of the game. -Franzen worked hard,and finished his checks for his first few shifts. -The Blues knew that the Wings planned to have "active" defenceman and exploited the hell out of it. -Jimmy didn't stop one break away. -The Wings passing was very sloppy. -SNL had a few good skits last night. It's a pretty rare night, when the Wings are more disappointing than Saturday Night Live. I still haven't seen a good band on there in a while, though. (probably cause I'm in my 30s now) that's not all, just everything I can think of right now.

Babcock sounds a little pissed at Helmer for not being in shape.

Just to correct you: the WHL is part of the CHL. the WHL (western hockey league), OHL (ontario hockey league), and QMJHL (quebec major junior hockey league) all make up the CHL (Canadian Hockey League). Here's the wiki leak: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Hockey_League It's the same as how the NL and AL make up the MLB

If this happens, I'm going to throw my name into the free agent pool. Maybe I'll get signed during the intial mass chaos.

Without looking into it, I going to guess that Minnesota and Michigan would have the two best American teams.

Stupid f***. I have family in Detroit. Please don't kill them if you make it to the Big League. Does anyone know how this affects his future travel into Canada?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the owners first contract proposal include a clause to limit player contracts to 5 years and less? Now we've already seen two long term contracts handed out this week. (Hartnel and Hall) Shouldn't the owners show a little more soliditarity at times like these?

I wonder if they'll be a little burned out from last year. The whole team worked their butts off every night to get them to where the were. I'm interested to see if Hitchcock can get that work ethic out of them two years in a row.

We need another bottom 6 centerman badly. Emmerton and Abby just didn't cut it last year. Is it possible to put Miller at 4th line center? He did score 14 goals last year. That's more than any of other bottom 6'ers scored.

I can't blame them for wanting to live and work close to home. If we can't get them, then I'd rather they go to Minny than to Pittsburgh or Chicago. Also, if we miss out on Suter,we can make the same pitch for Weber next year. We just might have a tough go of it this year, though.

I don't, but the LA Kings do, and it seems to work well for them. Does anyone who defends Franzen by using stats actually watch the Wings play?

If he started skating, back checking, and generally stopped playing like a ***** he would get paid more. I wouldn't have a problem with that at all. I don't think anyone would.

Abdelkader had two comparable seasons, both not great. He also had no points the last two playoffs, and was a minus 9. Statistically he's comparable to Miller, but he's going to cost twice as much. We have to decided if we want to have a gritty 4th line. If we sign some tough guys to help back Abby up, then it might be worth it to keep him. If not, let's give the cheaper skilled guys a chance (Nyqyist, Brunner, Eaves, MIller, Mursak.) What we were really missing last year was two solid centers for the bottom 6. Emmerton/Abby/Helm is not comparable to the Flip/Helm/Draper we had the last few years.

How' bout these new sexy lines?: Parise/Datsyuk/Bertuzzi Brunner/Zetterberg/Franzen Cleary/Filppula/Nyquist Miller/Helm/Eaves

I'm in the "it's too early to tell" category but... Abdelkader's only selling feature right now is "I'm the best 4th line centre you got". With Babcock's announcement today of "Brunner could play top 6", Abby fell even farther down the depth chart. Dats,Z,(top 6 ufa winger), Franzen, Fil,Brunner,Nyquist,Bert, Cleary,Helm,Miller, Eaves, Abby, Mursak, Emmerton. Now, that's 12 guys ahead of Abdelkader assuming Hudler leaves and Eaves comes back. And if Homer comes back that'll be 13. Most people seem to agreed that Abdelkader is better on wing too. Meaning we don't have a bonafide 4th line center. Abby would just "have to do". I hope that Holland is out looking for ways to get a real 4th line centre, or another 3rd line centre to push Helm back to the 4th. Then there would be a battle between Abby, Mursak, Eaves, Emmerton and maybe Homer for that last playing spot on the Helm/Miller line. In that case it might be a good idea for Abs to take a little less just to stay comparable to those guys.

People, myself included, rag on Franzen because he is the absolute opposite of "determined". He is the laziest, softest player on the team. He also complains about being bored. Franzen has never shown an ounce of determination. I'll gaurantee you that nobody on the Red Wings is inspired by his play or his attitude. We really should get rid of him, before he does become an influence on the next generation of Red Wings.

and a few months ago every Nashville fan (both of them) would tell you that this was their year to win the cup. Why? because that's what they were being force fed by team management/advertising. They're all just sheep. Soon to be very disappointed sheep.

What would we have to add if we offered Franzen for J Staal?

This post is classless and not nearly as intelligent as you had hoped. Normally, I wouldn't care, but Mods shouldn't be taking personal attacks against other posters. And big deal, he would prefer Weber over Suter. So would I. Can you ask Ken Holland to send me a sarcastic letter?

that's easy. Take the # of games he decides to show up for x 4.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but was it not you that said that Helm was not worth 2 million? But now today "he's the third most valuable forward on the team" I agree with you today. Helmer's our bottom 6 MVP. He will get 2 million plus. And he won't be holding anyone hostage get it. You guys putting him down for less than 1.5 into your cap geek calculations are in for a let down. Ps left winger: I loved the earlier version of your dream roster. What happened?

That's not a bad idea. I'm curious to know if it's ever been considered by the league.

any one think that if the Preds lose again Radulov doesn't show up for the 4th game with some blatantly transparent "excuse" of why he couldn't play? f'n pre-modona.

is that around the time your Dad starting courting his cousin?