Matt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QphT0Wg9-58

Ryno confirmed: http://redwingscorner.blogspot.com/2007/06...-prospects.html

Pot, meet kettle. Good selective reading on the post, by the way, since my response was elaborated upon. So I guess that would've been my "point" that you so eloquently missed.

He's not tradable at this point in time.

Kevin Connolly, is that Lou? *Edit: Fixed.

Ah, looks like we've got our regular own Zoltar here. People could've said the same thing when the Wings plucked the Konstantinovs, Holmstroms, etc., out of the later rounds, too. :rollleyes: People bitching about our drafting (no matter what "style" they play) is, well, looking for something to ***** about. The drafting that this franchise has done over the last two decades has, by and large part, helped maintain its success for such a long period of time.

Funny story about the cake thing... She was real sheepish at first in terms of just destroying it, so I came down from my perch with the camcorder and took a fingerful of icing and put some on her face like eyeblack for football players... It was all over after that. From that point on she took the cake and used it as some sort of twisted compact, or whatever you women use, on the lower part of her face. About the bar photo, yeah... that photo's begging for the "Oooo... I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE" caption in big, bold letters.

VladyIBELIEVE16, myself and the wife at the bar for my birthday a few months back [attachmentid=443] Ella (turned two on Sunday) demolishing her birthday cake with extreme prejudice [attachmentid=442] Little sister Ava (10 months) sporting her pink fur hat (fro?) that's waaaaay too big. [attachmentid=441]

A quick knee-jerk reaction would be this: Markov, Schneider, Chelios, Hasek and Bertuzzi will be back. Two free agents that intrigue me would be Ruslan Fedotenko and Michal Handzus. Slava Kozlov is interesting, but I think the other two "fit" better and will be cheaper.

Babcock's future here is solid -- as it should be.

Oh, believe me, the end of this year was -- outside of a Cup win -- the best it could be. You wouldn't have wanted to be around for the first-round ousters, SUPER-FANTASTIC GOALIE WAR I and SUPER-FANTASTIC GOALIE ARMAGEDDON II over the past several seasons.

He's been known as a pretty heavy smoker since he came into the league. Hopefully sharing the same owner as the Tigers doesn't lead to a close proximity to Jim Leyland or he'd really be in trouble.

I forgot to also add that coming next season I think we'll do more ticket contests (and other memorabilia) since those were a resounding success even when there was no lead time before they started and games (sometimes) were the next day. I think it was a huge hit. The other thing I wanted to mention was how GREAT it was to meet so many regular members here over the past year or so. I'm sure I'll be short on this list, but it includes: vladdy16, VladyIBELIEVE16, Rival, rage, Jedi, betterREDthandead, timothy1997, Vladiator, HOCKEY MATTERS, SouthernWingsFan, Muse, NeverForgetMac#25, WildWing44, rossco, auxlepli, and more I'm sure. Good times were had for New Year's following the Wings game at Cobo Joe's, the Rose Bowl gathering, Cheli's Chili, the Yzerman retirement ceremony and several regular season Wings games and a handful of Playoff game-watching at my place -- it was fun! If we can get a large enough group assembled here locally I'm sure we could work out something with a centrally-located bar where a large contingent of us could close the place down. And thanks to those SoCal Wings fans, especially VladyIBELIEVE16, who made sure to spread the word among the Hocketown expatriates while infiltrating all three of the Anaheim home games for this playoff run! Thank you all!

Thanks for the comments, everyone. It has been a long year and it had its ups and downs but I hope the site was a pleasurable experience for everyone involved. A big tip of the hat to the moderators here as they truly have a thankless job but have been great at helping maintain what this place is all about. Another tip to the Community Supporters -- without their support the site wouldn't be what it is today. It's always humbling to see someone donate some of their hard earned dollars to help support this site. A final tip to the rest of the memberbase -- you're the lifeblood of this site. Over the summer I'll be using the time to help optimize the site and the server a bit with Trey, as it was a struggle at times to keep up with the growing wave of traffic. (As an example, when the Bertuzzi trade was first announced on here there was an average of 50 database requests coming in per second -- try doing that math!) As the Wings advanced further into the playoffs it was difficult to handle the post-game traffic which, unfortunately, the issues surrounding that were largely resolved shortly before Game 6 was over. For the last TWO YEARS I've promised a "new site" aside from the message board community (which I continue to keep up to date), and it was close to happening this season, should be up this summer. An attempt to get it finished during the playoff run proved too daunting. (That and two little girls -- one turning 2 *!* on Sunday -- have gobbled up most of my time.) Missed deadlines and broken promises are getting pretty old, I'd say. So, in closing, I want to say "Thank YOU" for a fantastic year. I know the moderators and myself can't keep everyone happy, but we try our best -- here's to following the future 2008 Stanley Cup Champions!

Any guesses on the number of walking wounded? Obvious ones out of the way: - Kronwall (sacrum) - Schneider (wrist) Playing hurt: - Zetterberg (back - worse than he's let on) - Bertuzzi (back - same as Hank) - Calder (broken bone in hand?) - Lebda (ankle... would've been out a couple more weeks if it was the regular season) The News *somewhat* speculated on others: - Lidstrom (back) - Samuelsson (knee)

It was a fun new endeavor this season -- I can't even begin to count the number of times I laughed my ass off looking at some of these submissions. Kudos to everyone that contributed!

Based on what, exactly? A few early-season call-up games? Please.

Judging by the reported conditions of the trade, the Red Wings have given up their 2007 2nd round pick. Bertuzzi played in 2/3rds of the Wings games but was not one of the team's top five (Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Cleary, Samuelsson, respectively) scorers. If the Wings advanced to the SCF it would've been a 1st-rounder regardless. So, as it stands today, it's Shawn Matthias and a 2007 2nd-rounder. If Bertuzzi re-signs later you can add a 2008 2nd-rounder to the final tally.

Let me just say that I don't think Howard would be *bad* if he played with the big club next season but I think he has far more to gain by playing another season in the A. He was spectacular for long stretches last season with the Griffins but suffered through a minor "sophomore slump" this season for a lesser Griffins team. He finished strong and put up fantastic playoff numbers, but I think another year of seasoning would do wonders for him. He may get his chance next year, anyway, if Hasek re-signs and can't stay healthy the entire year.

That'd be Jimmy Howard, if his development continues as planned. The key here is that he isn't quite ready to make the jump just yet and ideally needs another year of seasoning. Hence why, at this stage, it's a good idea to bring back Hasek if he's willing to hold off retirement for another season. He was tremendous for long stretches in the postseason and I strongly believe if he's paced during the regular season with starts from Osgood (save the odd Howard call-up) we'll be in good shape. IMO, the Wings aren't a Cup contender next year without him, because I don't see this team making a big free agent splash between the nets (due to the limited market, and price of those that are there). I can't see a Howard/Osgood tandem winning a Western Conference title -- let alone a Stanley Cup -- when you're dealing with teams that are backstopped by the Roberto Luongos, Miika Kiprusoffs, J.S. Gigueres (assuming he re-signs), Nabokov/Toskalas, etc. that reside in this conference.

Howard's not ready.

He should've shaken hands.

FWIW, he'll either re-sign or retire. I don't see him shopping himself on the open market at all. I'm sure there's some form of standing offer from the front office to return next season with a one-year deal and Holland & Co. will give him time to figure out what he wants to do. Technically, the Wings don't need to get an answer until June 30th, anyway. Gut feeling here is that he'll be back.

Cool it, fellas. Either end the cat fight or take it to PM. I know tempers tend to be high around now, but there's no sense getting yourself suspended in the heat of the moment.

It's not the first time...