SouthernWingsFan

Well, Terri Frei knows a few things about Todd Bertuzzi, otherwise he wouldn't have written this article explaining both the bad of him as well as the plusses that he still could bring given that he could still have a few years left in him if he can shake the injury bug, giving both a postiive and negative analysis of him. Todd Bertuzzi is a hockey player. Frei works for ESPN. That means somebody that works at ESPN probably knows a few things about hockey, maybe more.

It doesn't matter if he was black, white, Asian, Puerto Rican, yellow, purple, gray or whatever other race he was. He played a major part in this role. I want to see somebody get fair justice for such a crime regardless of their race. If the person gets fair justice and serves his/her time fairly, hopefully he/she gets rehabilitated and can get their lives back together. Vick needs to serve his time fairly, then hopefully he can figure it out that he f'ed up and can get another chance at playing football again on some level (NFL, Candian Football League, AFL, etc.).

It's definitely a nice story to share with people on what Yzerman has gone through not just in the '02 playoffs and throughout his career, and I have little doubt that it was damned hard to go through. Just like how you want people to realize that as apparently messed up Cobain was in the head, he was still a very talented artist and musician, which was definitely true as well. If he wasn't, he and his band wouldn't have had their spotlight in fame, even if it might not have been as long. Nobody can ever take that away from Kurt Cobain, and nobody can ever take away from you personally what you learned from him. I'm sure you already know this, but something good to keep in mind I think. Anyways back to the Yzerman knee injury and Woods knee injury. As much as we idolize Yzerman in here for what he has done in the past and what he went through, why does Tiger Woods' PGA Tour victory and his knee injury have to "suffer"? The two sports are different sports, two completely different scenarios on how to win or do your best, two completely different situations with Yzerman and Woods in terms of how they won their championships and knee injuries. What Yzerman went through does not tarnish or make any more or less of Woods' PGA Championship trophy or knee injury, and vice versa. Yzerman was never going to play in the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods never going to play professional hockey. Two different sports/situations. Both are great athletes and two of the best to play their games and the accomplishments and/or injuries of both athletes does not make one athlete better or worse than the other.

Anaheim Ducks would come close to me, but I don't really get all too much into rivalries or just absolutely loathing players 24-7 or things like that. No one team is just that annoying or loathesome. Only individual people that might fit in this category right now would be guys like Chris Pronger, Brian Burke, or Claude Lemieux.

Yes they do, otherwise they wouldn't be covering it on TV or on the Internet and hockey fans wouldn't read sources and journalist columns and the like from their site. The ridiculous hatred and bias against ESPN on this site continues to humor me every time. And before there are responses with, "Well are those the only standards that are needed to know hockey?" or "But so many other sources are better than them you dolt!" or "Why do you even watch ESPN?" I get it, so save your keystrokes on the typewriter.

Did some of you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? Lighten up, good grief.....

Maxim Kuznetsov!!!!!!!!!!!

Interesting this topic is started this evening, as ESPN.com's Terri Frei put an article on Todd Bertuzzi today as well. Yeah yeah I know, ESPN doesn't know squat about hockey blah blah blah, for the love of god let's not go there for the millonth time... http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/stor...&id=3483260 Frei's pretty much on target with a try to consider everythingl perspective. It starts out doom-and-gloom and that he wasn't the player he once was which is true, but he also talks about how it's time for few people who are still extremely bitter over the incident Moore to put it behind them five years later (though not forget it obviously) and move on, and that there's still a window of opportunity for him to meaningfully produce, since he's still in his early 30s with a fair amount of years left in him if he can finally stay healthy. I'm rarely a bitter person and can easily move on from things more often than not so I have no ill will towards Bertuzzi whatsoever, in terms of his game or his "incident" or whatever else. Is he a risk with all the baggage/injuries? Yes. But, as stated in the article, does he still have potential to produce? Without question, although probably in a much lesser degree than his good Vancouver years. While I question how he will be welcomed in Calgary, I hope he can turn it around.

Waivers. I'm betting it's all about the waivers. Howard can go up/down from Detroit and Grand Rapids without having to worry about clearing waivers, but even then he'd get a lot more playing time be numero uno for Grand Rapids than being backup playing just 20 - 30 games professionally. I'd like to see what he can do on the professional level on a consistent basis as well, but it's not like there is a huge rush, keeping waivers and his young age in mind. He still has plenty of years ahead of him.

Now all we need to figure out is what a comment is, and what a response is. I am responding to your original comment here. But I am also commenting myself. God this is all so confusing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's go drink some beeeeeeeeeeeeeer!!!!! A very annoying yet catchy song... :chug:

The Commodores - Brick House

Burke and Lowe need to hug it out...

It is a LOCK that I will LOCK my doors before going to sleep tonight for the 934532th straight time. *shrugs*

I think you got caught up in the excitement there. I don't care what kinda roster you have, 68 wins in 82 games is extremely difficult, if nearly impossible to accomplish. I'd love to see it happen, but it's not a realistic bet me thinks.

Ronnie Hudson - West Coast Pop Luck http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7UwtElWe9o

Nah, it's true, more often than not no one specific thing about hockey or the game really gets me all jacked up and things like that. Doesn't matter how big or little the game is, whether it is regular season or playoffs, I usually just watch quietly but intently. I'll react to stuff in the heat of the moment obviously with an ooh or ah and that kinda stuff, but I'll rarely just jump out of my chair yelling "KICK HIS A**" or "TEAR HIS HEAD OFF" or "DEKE THE SNOT OUT OF THE GOALIE" or whatever else. I went up to Detroit for game 2 of the Wings-Avs series with the Franzen hat trick and even seeing a rare playoff hockey fight for a game that just didn't completely fly out of control. Was the hat trick and the fight as well as the outcome exciting? Without question. But even then, other then the normal quick "YEAH!" or whatever else after a goal scored, I just didn't react to much or make noise. During the McCarty fight, I stood up like everybody else, but didn't think much of the fight one way or the other or ramble on that "McCarty is the freaking man for making such a comeback or getting in a fight!" for 3 minutes straight. Nor was I like "Franzen is a god for his hat trick he rulz the universe!!!!!!!" That's just not my style of "cheering" or "support", I just don't show emotion one way or the other all that much. No, I'm not saying it's "bad" by any stretch of the imagination, I'm just rarely emphatic when watching sports (when I have played it's another story obviously), even if it does include a team I really like.

And sometimes it is good to know when to appropriately stop pushing buttons... To the original poster with Zetterberg and the recent poster with Datsyuk at the store, I apologize that the stories you wanted to share got drowned out inappropriately, and I'm glad you both got to experience this and have a great day because of these things.

At ease there. It doesn't matter if Scotty Bowman, one of the brightest minds of hockey ever, said something like this or if it was my 5-year old nephew. He's just stating an obvious truth. Whether it is the NHL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, or the District-5 Pee Wee Hockey League. It is damned difficult to repeat as a champion no matter the sport or league. I know there are acceptions to this such as Roger Federer winning 5 straight Wimbeldon Titles or the Boston Celtics winning 8 straight championships a few decades ago, but I think you see where I'm getting at.

$4 million a year for Fedorov at the part of his career and him under-producing since going to Anaheim is an overpayment. Yes I get that he can bring leadership, yes I get he still shows flashes of dynamic play, and yes I like Fedorov, but he has under-produced over the past few seasons. That being said, I hope he does well this next season and it'll be interesting to see if he and Ovechkin play together.

I barely even touch soda now. Helps plenty in time if you are patient and realize you aren't going to lose 15 pounds overnight obviously. I'm peeved though. I was on vacation last week but actually spent just about every full day of vacation with a good bit of it weightlifting and running, but I got sick over the weekend and haven't been able to exercise at all the past few days due to the flu constantly going back and forth on having fever. I want to get better soon because I do not anticipate having to do any big traveling for nearly 3 months and I'll probably be able to set into a consistent work and personal and workout routine and I want to try to shed a few pounds consistently down to around 145 pounds.

Maroon Five - Harder To Breathe

If you want Chelios to retire simply b/c he is "old" and has nothing else to prove/offer the game for HIMSELF, I totally undertand that. But, that is not likely happening, and I do not understand other reasons why some are up in arms about this when Chelios will be making a minimal amount and will probably be the 7th or 8th defenseman on the roster like it has always been planned since the Wings won the Cup. Pretty much the entire defense roster is the same (am not sure of Lebda's status if he is a free agent or not, I'm not good with keeping track of that stuff), which meant that young guys in Quincey or Meech or Ericsson didn't even play to start when everybody was healthy. It'll likely be the same thing this upcoming season assuming the defensemen are the same, and this is even without Chelios expected to play a whole lot.

Fighting was never gone to begin with. I like fights, but I get just as excited and appreciate such things as nifty stickhandling, a hard slapshot, one-timers, deflections of the puck into the net, etc. just as much as fighting. However, that and me saying I don't think enforcer-types are of the utmost importance does not make me one who is completely against them alltogether.

I think it is time for a change of a pace in this thread. Wings aren't even going to make the playoffs. Yes people, I am joking.....