kipwinger

Aha, thanks for the clarification.

Isn't the move to Barclay's only temporary while they build a new arena? I vaguely recall hearing that, though I don't know for sure.

I actually like the whole "Brooklyn" thing. Don't get me wrong, I loathe New York City, and all NYC related things. But I love when sports teams actually embrace and represent the community in which they are located. The Detroit Tigers don't have a Tiger on their hat. They have a "D". And that's become a symbol, not just of the team, but of the city, the heritage, the people, the culture, etc. These teams are first, and foremost, representatives of their city. So who really gives a s*** if somebody else has a hard time identifying with them because it says "Brooklyn" or "Detroit" or whatever? The Islanders will be the team that represents the city of Brooklyn. If you're from Buffalo, or Ontario, or wherever, you've got your own team. If you don't like your team, you're welcome to root for the Brooklyn team. But make no mistake about who it's representing.

It's more likely that they change the name to the Brooklyn Islanders. Brooklyn is ON Long Island for those of you that are geographically challenged.

Dang, sounds like a rough couple of minutes for Reilly's brother. Hope he's alright. That Smith-Dekeyser defensive pairing is too vital to our continued success...err...yeah.

We're not shooting. And we're spending all of our time trying to stop them from shooting. Seems like we're executing Babs' game plan perfectly.

Sooo, if I'm understanding this correctly Eric Lindos wants to prove he's not a douchebag by suing someone? Good plan numb nuts. Lol.

Jonas Gustavsson couldn't push James Reimer out of the #1 spot in Toronto give copious chances. I'm not sure he's going to outplay Jimmy over the long haul.

You're right. We're much better this year, and despite the final outcome of the series looking lopsided (4-1), I actually thought we were in pretty much all those games last season. I think we'd spank the Bruins this year. Healthy Dats, Z, Helm, plus improvements by the kids, Quincey, and Jimmy means we walk away with a series against the B's IMO.

Yeah, I'm really in the same boat here. Now, admittedly, I haven't seen a ton of the guy, but I just don't see him being much more than a right handed Smith. I've heard him described as everything from "much better than he looks" to "much worse than he looks". But to me, the biggest thing is, he doesn't score. He has no offense whatsoever. Why bother "upgrading" the defense if you're not getting more offensive potential? We're already super good at stifling shots and playing defensive defense. That's not really a need for us.

Losing 4-1 is more irritating than trying something creative to address it. 99 times out of 100 if you're losing 4-1 in the third, the game is over. The coaches, fans, and players know it. So why not try? Maybe you get one quick and your boys liven up a little bit? I don't see how losing 5-1 on an empty netter is worse than losing 4-1 because your guys have called it quits for the night.

This game reinforced a worry of mine. I'm hesitant to draw too many conclusions from one game, but I've had this sneaking suspicion that without another big winger capable of playing in the top six we'll be too easy to push outside and forced to play on the perimeter. LA is a hard team to draw conclusions from because they're big, strong, AND fast. I wouldn't worry about this against a team like Boston. They're slow. Our transition game will eat them alive so no need to play in the crease. But LA can stop our transition AND keep us out of the crease. That ain't good. As much as we need a good puck moving d-man, I still think we need a big winger that can play in the crease. Another Abby. Also, kudos to LA for being awesome at puck retrieval. If you go into the boards with a King, he's coming out with the puck. Those are some tough sons of guns. Yet another reason why I want a pit bull like Wisniewski.

I'll recommend the same things I always recommend people do when heading to Detroit. Get food at the Sweetwater Tavern (the wings have been ranked among the best in the country), Slow's BBQ, or Lafayette Coney (not American Coney, you heathen). Or better yet, all three. Drinks at the Atwater Brewery are a good choice. The beer is excellent, good atmosphere, and the prices are better than at the commercial places. Cobo Joe's is a fun place to grab a beer immediately pre-game because it's close to the Joe (and because of the aforementioned fire breathing hotties). I'd also recommend trying either of the two newer breweries, Detroit Beer Co. or Motor City Brew Works. Michigan is home to some of the best beer making in the world (true, look it up), so that's never a bad choice. This is just a personal opinion, but I'd stay away from Hockeytown Cafe or Cheli's. It's always a madhouse on game night, it's packed, the service isn't great, and the prices are beatable. IF I go to these places it's usually after a game or night out, when I don't mind the crowd so much on account of the fact that I'm drunk too.

I absolutely love 80's hair metal. No bulls***. And I think Kip Winger is a SUPER underrated musician. But I obviously picked the name based on the relation to the team.

Only one piece of advise... Keep your head on a swivel. That's what you gotta do when you find yourself in a vicious cockfight!

Agreed, Dats in amazing. But how insane is it that Ovechkin is ahead of a world class player like Datsyuk and he's only 29? Dude is an absolute freak of nature.

Why? Because it's more fun to negative about it? Holland said on a number of occasions that he'd make a move ONLY if it would upgrade the defense. If Quincey is out for the season, and Kindl is in, our defense is noticeably worse. As such, it'll be more likely to require an upgrade. When your defense is pretty good, only a few guys qualify as an "upgrade". When it's not very good, a lot of guys could be an upgrade. Sadly, unless it's a real slam dunk trade, you're probably only getting back to the level you were at with Quincey in the first place.

Tonight is the night that Tomas Tatar learns to put the Red Wings on his back. He's been trying to be too good of a teammate lately and defer to Dats, but not tonight. Tonight Tatar has 2 goals and a helper for Helm (a helmper perhaps?). It goes without saying that we win on the basis of this performance (and by an additional goal from Stephen Weiss. Thine will be done. Also, I heard tonight was also the night when some dude was dressing up like a Red Wings loving Nikki Sixx. Just a rumor, but I hear it's got legs.

All the guys you mentioned were depth AND stopgap signings. The fact that they didn't have a huge impact isn't really that big of a surprise to me. There's nothing wrong with this team's pro scouting. Holland and co. are the best in the business at managing a roster. Which isn't to say that he cant make mistakes, but when he does they're typically MUCH less harmful than the mistakes of other GMs.

Howard gets beat glove side high in the shootout. It's his achilles heel. If we go to a shootout tonight, Howard will get beat glove side high. It's the nature of things.

I'll donate 100 dollars to a charity of your choice, if in addition to your Winter Classic sweater you dress up as Nikki Sixx otherwise. Sort of an East meets West thing. The ball is in your court. Edit: For clarity's sake, I'm talking about Nikki Sixx circa 1983. Obviously.

Yes. He is.

Xenophobia. The word is xenophobia. "Canadian" is a nationality, not a race. So defaming Canadians, or any other nationality, isn't racism. It is, however, stupid and wrong.

I'm not ready to anoint Silfverberg some sort of shootout wunderkind just yet. Even your best shootout performers hover around 50% over their careers. He's currently shooting at 69%. Eventually he'll regress back to the mean. A few years ago it was Wojtek Wolski who couldn't miss in the shootout. There's a principle in physics, I don't remember the name, which states that even when you know the probability of something happening, you don't know WHEN each instance will take place. So, even if you know that good shootout performers only shoot about 50%, you don't know whether all the misses will come at the beginning, middle, end, of their careers or whether they'll be evenly dispersed. Flip a coin a hundred times and you might start out getting 7 heads and 3 tails, but you'd be wrong to assume that the likelihood of flipping heads is 70%. And you can be sure that it will even out later.

The research shows that after a fight there IS an offensive surge. For one, or both teams, and not necessarily for the team that starts, or wins, the fight. Both teams get amped up. I never said guys didn't get amped up after fights. Sure they do. But it doesn't reliably make your team play any better, AND it might actually make the other guys play better. Secondly, I certainly agree that chemistry and comraderie are important. But there are tons of ways to develop chemistry and comraderie. The Wings are always near the bottom of the league in fights, but don't seem to noticeably suffer from a lack of team cohesion, while a team like Edmonton (which fights much more often) does. Given how many other methods there are to accomplish team unity, and given that fighting doesn't seem vital to achieving it, I'm going to err on the side of caution and suggest we dispense with the method that kills people's brains slowly.