Matt

Considering the results of defending Stanley Cup champions the following season over the last 20 years with only Pittsburgh and Detroit repeating I'd say that yes, it does exist. Don't forget that the other repeat champions also dealt with fewer teams, no salary cap and in an age where you're geographic location played a large role in the talent you had on your roster.

By the same token you're saying Mike Smith has great defense in front of him in Tampa? Osgood's been average.

QFT. If that record was closer to 6-6-2 (and we've been there with that 5-5-2 start a few season's back) I think you'd see more of a sense of urgency. The 9-2-3 record just masks the lack of any form of consistent effort and commitment to go 60 minutes. The "you got pushed around by Anaheim" line was shoved down their throats most of last season and they turned into a team that could spin you into the ground with their dazzling moves or punish you with a grinding effort. They looked at opponents and wanted you to pick your poison, because no form of attack worked. This year's team, through one month? All they've heard all summer is how great they are, while what they've shown on the ice is that they don't want to work hard enough to earn it. They know they can out-skill 29 other NHL clubs on any night and they're using it as a crutch.

The worst crime here is forcing people to listen to that god-awful jingle when opening that website...

I'm still calling $7.3M for Hank.

Some members have reported trouble in validating their account when they register on the forums here, usually it's the forums failing to send the validation e-mail. To help alleviate this problem, I've been regularly reviewing the accounts helped up in the "validation" queue and pushing those through into regular "Member" status when I get the opportunity. This also follows true for those that are changing the e-mail address associated with their account. If you've registered recently and are having problems, please check your member group -- your account may have been already pushed through to regular "Member" status. As always, if you continue to have any problems you're encouraged to contact me directly at mattschwartz@gmail.com. Thanks!

Considering some of the Wings' young talent ready to burst onto the NHL scene, I don't think that going next season without Hudler, Samuelsson, etc., would be a tough pill for Holland to swallow. Hossa's been incredible so far this season and if keeping him meant losing Franzen I'm definitely comfortable with that.

Re-pinning this thread as this deal is STILL AVAILABLE! We currently have a group of around 55 people that have taken advantage of this offer at the site, so there's going to be a large LGW contingent in Sunrise for this game. If you're interested you can e-mail me at mattschwartz@gmail.com!

All I want to know, redbird2008, is what to actually call you here: - redbird2008 - TheRedWingsFanboy - Screenbird - 4051RedWings1393 - red_wings_girl - RedinTexas I would ask you to clarify that for me, but judging by the previous accounts your only goal is to spam the forums blasting various players under a different alias. Have fun finding another forum to pull the little act on -- the run here is over.

Click Here to Go to the Download Page Enjoy! Apologies for the slight delay -- I've been battling a pretty bad headcold over the last week. When I'd get home from work I'd be pretty tanked for the rest of the night. Feeling a bit better as the day wore on today, but I hope I didn't blow it by staying up so late to finish this!

Click Here to Go to the Download Page Enjoy!

Even if Franzen were to go on LTIR the Red Wings would to good to not call up anyone in order to preserve even more cap space. But since they're on an extended road trip and calling up players is more troublesome than a drive down 94, they may anyway.

Absolutely love it. I'd have a personal preference to reverse it (obviously since the Wings are the road team that's not possible), but that isn't going to stop me from grabbing one of these up. Ideally i'd do without the "Winter Classic" patch. Love it!

They'll be available online and in retail locations in December, according to the press release.

Keating just flashed a scrunched up one before the commerical break... It's got a tie-up. (YES! Always wanted a Wings' sweater with a laced collar.)

The moderator selection has certainly went in the tank. That's been the general consensus for a while now it seems.

The too many men penalty call can't get more textbook than that. If Voros doesn't play the puck there's no penalty. Pretty simple. How one team gets "robbed" after giving up 45 shots is beyond me...

I believe he was referring to the slight delay before Hudler shot the puck that allowed Lundqvist to somehow lunge back and get a portion of the puck with his trapper. (i.e., the delay actually allowed Lundqvist an attempt to make a play on the shot -- something he couldn't have done on the Samuelsson and Holmstrom goals.) That Lundqvist even got THAT much of the puck on that play is mind-boggling.

Beaten to the punch -- damnit!

Except that Babcock has said he's going to stick with his top two 5-on-5 lines as his top two power-play units, save for a swap of Stuart for Samuelsson.

Here's the shifts: Start of Detroit PK: Cleary and Filppula. - Datsyuk and Hossa 1:30 left in PK - Zetterberg and Franzen 1:00 left in PK - 44sec left in PK - Penalty on Vermette 1 shift of 4-on-4: - Cleary/Filppula start - Datsyuk and Zetterberg at 12:30 mark of 3rd (FSD had no 4-on-4 time indicator on the screen) - Holmstrom comes on for Draper when his penalty expires. It's pretty clear Babcock wanted Zetterberg/Datsyuk together with the extra open ice on 4-on-4 and to be out on the short PP opportunity initially. Holmstrom has been on the bench for a while because of the PK/4-on-4/PP stretch so it's natural he'll come out first. The Franzen-Flip-Hossa line comes out for the last 15 seconds of the powerplay, basically out of necessity because of the shuffling of the lines during the uneven play.

Okay, just watched the DVR of the purported powerplay line where Z-D-H were together. This was the short power play because Draper was already in the box, and in the sequence that it happened 1) Hossa was on the ice helping kill the current Detroit penalty the shift earlier and 2) at the tail end of the 4-on-4 Datsyuk and Zetterberg were already on the ice during 4-on-4 play after Cleary and Filppula started it. I'd hardly call that a "change" the power play unit considering Hossa was out just shift earlier helping kill a power play and Holmstrom was sitting on the bench the entire time. Again, when Babcock has a faceoff and trots out Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Holmstrom together as a unit is when we'll talk about Babcock actively "changing the lines to get a spark". It wasn't tonight.

Again, I'll have to back to the DVR to check for sure, but if I remember correctly that happened some time into the power play itself and was the result of a partial linechange. The Franzen-Flip-Hossa unit came out at the tail end and was still on the ice at even strength. It was necessitated by Z-D-H being out there and not changing long enough it didn't make sense to keep Zetterberg on the ice to keep him with his line.