SouthernWingsFan

It really isn't all that hard to understand actually. Forseberg still has a desire to play and feels he has enough gas left in the tank. DISCLAIMER: Before people yell at me, no I am not suggesting the Wings get Forsberg. All I am saying is I agree with YoungGuns that I admire Forsberg for not giving up and probably listening to the masses saying he needs to hang up his skates. If he wants to make an attempt to comeback and he feels he can be effective somewhere, more power to him.

Try the NHL section of this Yahoo store. I bought a Wings jersey a little over a year ago off here and was very satisfied, good bang for the buck. http://www.sportsk.com/nhljerseys.html

Datsyuk has the "I'M A SCARY MONSTER!" face going. Lovely stuff there.

Simple as that. This is why I rarely ever get into discussions like "If referee A called this and missed this call, the Wings probably would've won 5-3 instead of losing 4-2!" Sure, referees are going to dictate the outcome of a game to a degree, but there are plenty of other things that determine a game outcome as well far out of the refs control. I laugh and get so annoyed when I've read soapbox posts on here saying the refs intentionally screwed the Wings or there is a conspiracy against the Wings because they are always good and junk like that. Both teams, regardless of the sport, will eventually get their share of good calls and/or crappy calls. The only two calls/no-calls that I can recall in recent memory that I have beef with is one of the regular season games against San Jose where the puck just barely went out of play off the netting above the boards, and the Sharks scored from that. Also, the Holmstrom "interference" call in the playoffs game 4 against Dallas which resulted in a no-goal for Datsyuk. I'm not so much upset that the refs made/missed those calls after the smoke has cleared and we're not in the heat of the moment watching the game, again it is a matter of judgment and human decision, it is never going to be perfect. Lord knows when I reffed college intramural games at a much slower pace I still made my share of horrible calls in different sports. I'm more upset that there are no rules in place to have an official review for such things. That is why I like what they do in college football and the NFL now. Sure, the coaches have their challenges and yes it is annoying sometimes from a fan standpoint that the game flow is interupted, but more often than not if there is any doubt whatsoever with a play (other than a penalty flag thrown I think), football refs will review it and get it 100% accurate or close to 100% accurate as possible. Now I'm not suggesting doing that every single time for the NHL as games would take forever to end but I don't think you see that kind of detail put in as much for in reviewing iffy calls/situations in the NHL, only on questionable goals every now and then.

He's one of the best faceoff men in the league. That is far from worthless. And for people suggesting to call up Howard, at least from what I've been reading he hasn't even been outplaying the other goalie in the minor league system, and there is suggestions to call him up to replace the current two goalies when he cannot outplay at the LOWER LEVEL? I have nothing against Howard personally but that just doesn't seem like wise decision making. The only way either of the other goalies get called up is if Osgood or Conklin get injured, or in an absolute extreme circumstance the play of either goalie just goes so far in the crapper to make such an extreme decision. Nobody is even close to that point yet. Osgood and Conklin are far from incompetent just to forget how to play. Blame goes all around, not just to the goalies. They are a part of the current defensive struggles, but so is the defense as well turning pucks over and leaving them out to dry every now and then. This team will make the playoffs barring just something astronomically wrong, so there's no need to do anything overly dramatic or extreme.

I guess he thought it was an atmosphere similar to last call at the bar and didn't want to be kicked out without going all out.

On no I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! This doesn't hurt!

Like everything else and like in every other game or sport, it is a judgment call by the refs, no more/no less, and in any game there will be human error involved, because humans aren't perfect. No matter what a referee does or does not call, he is going to catch hell 99 times out of 100 by a player, coach, or fan of some team where the call didn't go that team's way.

I certainly don't, no more or less than you do, but suggesting trading one of your better wingers right now for a backup goalie while a team has no cap room and to now have 3 NHL-caliber goalies on the book just doesn't seem like a smart idea.

I used to when I was actually fairly good at it. I couldn't just enjoy playing unfortunately, I had to do well at it, and for nearly a year before I hung up my clubs I was just absolutely struggling trying to fix my golf game. I was miserable playing and not having fun. I wasn't expecting to shoot even par everytime or drive the ball 300+ yards like Tiger Woods, that's not possible for me. I just wanted to play and shoot around what I was realistically capable of doing, and I was absolutely nowhere close to doing that when I was struggling. After a miserable round 2 summers ago in July where my swing was so f'ed up I could barely hit the ball off the ground, I hung up my clubs for good and am not sure when/if I want to play again. The person below me has given somebody the Englewood Jack recently.

I'm all for the big hug theory, but I my solution is entirely different and more exciting for the struggling goalie. Give the struggling goalie a private room with some dark lights, some good Vodka, a stripper and a few lap dances (but nothing more ), and the struggling goalie will be feeling like a new man and better about himself assuming he's not too drunk from the Vodka. Sorry, I was going to go with a combination of both a struggling defense and goaltender as the culprits as I don't like playing the scapegoat game. However, the middle of the road take is pretty bland sometimes so I often use bad humor and sarcasm for some of my posts and solutions. *shrugs*

How do you even know Florida wants Hudler to begin with?

I'm probably repeating ideas of other people but I haven't really read initial responses in depth, so I apologize in advance... Ties are not a bad thing to me in the regular season, and assuming that shootouts and definite wins/losses didn't exist today, I wouldn't mind going back to the old W-L-T system. But I do like shootouts. And I would definitely change the current point system as I don't like a guaranteed point in OT/shootout even if you might not win. It's a charity point to me, even if they may make the standings more exciting at the end of the season. 0 points for a loss at any point in the game, no if's and's or but's. 1 point for a win in a shootout. 2 points for a win in overtime. 3 points for a win in regulation.

You've already received great advice from others here, and you are currently at the game, so all that is left to say is hope you have a blast!

I'll also be going to my brother's house as well, so that's 2 cool places that doesn't count. The person below me also thinks that Samuel Jackson Beer is some good motherf**king beer.

Negative. The person below me sometimes wanders why the ball doesn't just go home and why the ball is too good for it's home.

Meh, wouldn't be my personal preference but I understand why some games are played to open up a season in Europe, for more popularity and the like. It's not like my objection would stop them from doing it.

A lot of Wings fans these days are spoiled, that's the nature of the beast for being consistently good for a lengthy time period. It is annoying at times to see/read but a good track record winning does that to fans, regardless of the team/sport.

Why not? Hugs are always good, especially the goofy awkward kind. Never. Especially if I don't have to shave, I can get ready for the day in 10 minutes if I wanted to. The person below me as a kid wandered what the hell that open thingy was below our stomach before we figured out that it was a belly button.

Trade Draper for Tucker was always a popular/annoying/repetitive trade solution on here that never was going to go anywhere.

I've been a basketball and a soccer referee at levels much, much lower than professional. The game still happens fast and you have to focus on a bajillion things to make sure the game is called as fairly as possible. Granted I'll still get a little bonkers at the TV if I think a referee made a bad call, the first basketball game I ever officiated I gained a whole new respect for what referees of any level go through. Nobody will ever be happy, somebody will always complain to them about a call/no-call, they got to deal with stupid fans and even worse I think, parents of kids if it is a high school game or something, and they have to deal with so much action on the playing surface. Also, take into consideration I think it is a lot easier to see possible fault in a call when you are in the crowd or on TV as opposed to a ref on the playing surface. But, refs aren't going to be in the crowds anytime soon, so that idea would be thrown out the window. I pretty much accepted a long time ago that pretty much any game you have the officiating isn't going to be a perfect science and will be inconsistent due to human error, which is why I rarely go on to say that officials have a major impact or are the ultimate deciding factors in the outcome of a game. And that is why I cannot stand it when I see stuff like "The referees want my favorite team to lose" or "Referees are having a conspiracy theory to make our team lose on purpose!" Do referees have an outcome on a game result? Without question, but so do a myriad of other things as well outside of the control of referees such as the teams playing the game, weather conditions if you are outdoors, crowds, etc.

I don't care if we win games 10-1 or 6-4 or 2-1. In an 80+ game season you're going to win some ugly games, you're going to win some tight one-goal games, you're going to demolish some teams as well in convincing fashion. There's rarely such thing as a perfect win and we know the Wings need to shore up some things obviously in defense and/or goaltending et al, but if they win in spite of some things, more power to them. In the end at least to me, wins are what is most important and in standings or playoff results it doesn't matter how good/ugly it might have looked, a win is still a win.

I wouldn't be surprised if nobody was really thinking about the whole Ribeiro/Osgood incident during the game and if it's more/less "in the past" to them now. Not enough of a serious incident to lose sleep over or to seek "retribution" months and months down the road I think. No injuries happened. I know this is probably not an answer you want to here, but I think we as fans remember things like these and put more stock into them over the players themselves.

Yep. I don't like Pronger all that much, but NO MATTER WHO THE PLAYER, it is about the logo on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back. I probably wouldn't feel much differently about Pronger if he were a Wing, but I'd deal with it given that he is still one of the better defensemen in the game today.