SouthernWingsFan

Looks to be a home game. http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/20...ing_toward.html (towards bottom of page)

Round that guess up and it is close enough. Just over 9 pounds when he was born.

Ouch! *Crosses fingers to potentially playing Minnesota or LA/Anaheim in January/Febraury for a possible vacation*

I would hope you and your sisters are the same people in both pictures. Otherwise, you are good at making people guess who you are or the both of you have costumes of each other............or something. Seriously though, good pictures of the both of you. Myself with my recently born nephew a few weekends ago, his first weekend not inside a human person. He is now about 3 1/2 weeks old. I apologize for looking all scary with the squinting.

Earth Wind and Fire - Can't Let Go

When you win the Stanley Cup and it looks like at first glance that most of that SC winning team will stay intact, you hope there will be little or no drama in the offseason in terms of any player shuffling (not trying to sound like a Captain Obvious Jerk, sorry if it came out that way). With that being said, if Brad Stuart returns out west or the Wings have trouble re-signing him, I'd think whatever little drama there is at present might increase in the hunt for a middle-tier defenseman. When this happens though, who knows. And while I'd love to see Flipper have an insane season with 70 or 80 points, I think we need to come down from Cloud-9 a little bit. He needs to shoot a lot more first and is still young developing, and I just don't see him ever consistently producing to what Datsyuk and Zetterberg seem like they'll be able to do for years now. 20-25 goals, 50-65 points might be a little more realistic ceiling.

Good. Fight fans or LGWers that like enforcers, help me out with this and tell me if I'm just totally naive or off-base or too generalized here. I'm all for carrying an enforcer or two to keep people honest on a 3rd or 4th line role. I know they will probably provide little scoring and the like but they have their role on a team, and I think that role is important. To what degree of importance I don't really want to get into, but I understand the justification for such a player, even though I don't go ga-ga over them like some in here seem to do. With that being said though and enforcers more often than not providing not much offense/points stats, why would we worry about which enforcers to re-sign or getting one over the other, if we don't take age or health or a few things out of the equation. If pretty much all enforcers do is hit or fight, what is the huge difference b/w one enforcer over another, other than possibly wanting one that is a "good fighter?" Is this a fair assumption or am I just completely saying something out of left field? While it won't kill me if they don't re-sign Aaron Downey, I'd definitely like to see him back as he was as close of an enforcer as you can get for the Wings for most of the season, has a great personality it seems and a great locker room guy. I remember hearing a post-game interview with him after the Cup win that Modano really was lobbying for him to stay in Dallas a few years ago. That tells you he's probably a really good character guy.

If anybody outside of the Michigan area is still having problems ordering the book due to filling out the online form, I finally got mine today in a bit of a soggy state due to rain, or how I like to say it Mother Nature acting like a *****. I was out of town early this week so I might have actually received it on Monday or Tuesday. I called the 1-800-338-5226 number I believe about a week ago, left a message to call me back and a rep got back with me the following morning. So, give it at least a 1/2 week to ship and the like. I'd try the 1-800-WINGS-25 number first but then try the other if all else fails. Between my college football magazine, one of my Michael Crichton novels, and this magazine now, I'll have plenty of good reading material when I'm on vacation in about a week!

These people think it's serious business as well! (DISCLAIMER: Language and goofy stuff...relax it's just the words that are "goofy stuff" ) Seriously though, I agree with the CopenhagenWing in that I don't like the flavor of the month/week/day threads where the Wings should get player A one day, then B the next day etc., and I want these threads to be at an absolute minimum as well and they can be a pain in the butt since it is probably a safe bet the Wings won't get those players or there is little/no interest for all parties. What can you do though? As long as the discussions remain down to earth and there aren't any personal attacks/spamming or whatever, technically nobody is doing anything wrong I think. I think another point trying to be made was, the Search feature is your thread in case a player/topic has already been discussed recently, or just skim the first few pages of general discussion as some players will probably be hotly debated since it'll be a busier time of hockey talk, even though it is off-season.

The Blackbyrds - Rock Creek Park Great 70s beat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UxdI0jh8Uk

The current roster more or less... Last numbers for each player are their ages. Other than Chelios, nobody over 40, and I got a hunch that Drake might be retiring. A few veterans obviously in their later years of age such as Lidstrom, Draper etc. but the Wings aren't as "old" as typically perceived this past season, and for now at least.

Chelios works out like a freak. Sure he's not like he was in his 20s and not as fast, nobody was. But him in his mid-40s is a lot like veterans in their mid/late 30s. He hasn't got top line minutes in forever and shouldn't, he'll be in a reserve role. There is no harm in this, he can mentor one or two of the younger guys into more of a full time role like has been suggested already.

ABBA - Take a Chance on Me

How so? How would you spend the available money that is probably going to be planned to sign a guy like Downey or McCarty to a contract?

He's obviously better and more developed offensively since he left Detroit, but he has too much baggage. People say guys like Chelios or Draper or Maltby would keep him in check. Well, the Rangers had a few veterans on their team with Avery as well (Shanahan, Straka, Jagr, etc.) and Avery still was a distraction or drama queen or whatever you want to call him as well. I understand paying him a few million based on his skills/potential skills on the ice, but paying him so much to risk being a potential distraction. Besides, I think (I don't know or am not stating this as "fact", just guessing) that he wouldn't get offered as much to come back to the Red Wings, if he was offered and contract, and could get plenty more to be a consistent 3rd/potential 2nd liner.

If he can't play, then the Wings would've had a helluva time winning the Stanley Cup Finals with just 5 defensemen! Again, he's far from my favorite, when he messes up sometimes it is sometimes of the extreme variety, but the Wings aren't going to pay him to be a top line defensemen. He is decent for a 5th or 6th d-man, and is a solid PKer and shot blocker.

Get rid of the instigator rule and let players be accountable for their actions, fighting, responding to opposing team's enforcers, etc.

Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4R2F6ecKeQ

If we didn't give a damn about these guys, why are you talking about them? And Barry Melrose was all about the Red Wings praise for most of this playoffs, especially starting in the Conference Finals. He has picked against the Red Wings in the past but picking the Red Wings to win/praising them doesn't really seem like "hating". Don Cherry picked the Red Wings to win it all from the start of the playoffs. That doesn't seem like "hating" either. Not everybody who isn't a hardcore Red Wings fan hates them or is completely against them. As for Melrose coaching Tampa Bay, he has said in the past he would love to get back into coaching again. Is it about publicity for the Lightning? Perhaps, but I don't go into conspiracy theories or go into side stories all that much so I refuse to believe that is the reason or the only reason. It'll be fun to see how he performs and if he can possbily make them into a playoff contender after the team finished last in the conference this past season. If that does happen though, I'll be pointing and laughing (inside of course) at many people in this thread.

Foreigner - Feels Like the First Time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zliv2BnT7RI

Stuart's wife, from what we have all read and heard, likes it out west. It's not just a Brad Stuart decision, it is a Brad Stuar family decision in all likelihood. Living out west has its advantages outside of hockey. And I think it is a safe bet Lilja will not get top-lined minutes, he rarely ever did. Yes he makes some brainfarts from time to time but coaches and players always are complimentary about his shot blocking and penalty killing. That isn't me making this up, that is the coaches and players saying this numerous times. As a 5th or 6th, maybe even a 4th defenseman, he's not as bad as some people flip out about him here.

I went to school in the Metroplex area and I absolutely loved Reunion Arena the few times I went to it. It was far from "modern" or "fancy", just a basic bowl-shaped arena, but it was tightly compact and no bad seats anywhere you sat and it could get loud in there quick. But $6-million hit on the arena, that's kinda hard to justify not closing it down then.

I highly doubt McGuire is intentionally writing articles and the like that are aimed to "get or beat the Red Wings".

*Shameless thread bump/all about me bragging* I do mean to toot my own horn here (), I certainly did my part in terms of the fit category today. I rode 40 miles today bike-riding, the most I have ever done in one setting. Below are a few links of a bike/jogging path not to far from where I live that I try to ride at least once a week and that I cycled a portion of this morning. Over the next few weekends I'm going to try to ride the entire path, which would probably take anywhere from 60 - 70 miles to do if I start from my house and take the normal routes I take. We'll see how full of s**t I am if I actually go through with this in a few weeks. http://www.tammanytrace.org/ http://www.tammanytrace.org/tracemap.html

He was being neither. It isn't completely an "All-Star Team", it is more of a role-player type/tough guy type team.