kipwinger

(Spoiler alert: I'm going to talk about James Wisniewski a lot in this post. I'm not pining for him, or lamenting any past decisions. I'm just using him as an example to explain why we should pursue Niskanen. If your response to the post is, "Wisniewski suckz!" you missed the point). I don't want to get into the weeds too much on this issue (that's what this summer is for), but I do think we should sign Matt Niskanen. Sure you'd have to overpay (a little) for him, but we've got the money and he fills a TON of needs. He's an up an coming young, right handed, top four, puck mover, who's very good on the pp. He's also coming into the age were d-men finally hit their stride. All summer everyone will nitpick and find reasons to not like this move, just like they did back when we were all debating about whether to acquire Wisniewski a couple years ago. They'll say the contract is bad, they'll say it's an overpayment, they'll put a microscope on each and every one of his shortcomings. But at the end of the day, the amount you'll overpay will less than what you'll pay all the scrubs you'll bring in trying to find a cheap alternative. Think about it this way, using Wisniewski as an example. Let's say he's getting paid a million more than he's worth (he'd be worth every penny of 4.5 million for his pts., aggressiveness, and pp shot alone). Over the life of his contract you overpaid him by six million dollars. How much did we pay Commodore, White, and Colaiacovo total? A good bit more and got worse players. At the very least the 51 extra points and physicality might have been nice this season.

When are teams going to stop promoting franchise greats to be their GM's. It almost never works. There are only a couple times in recent memory when this has been successful (It remains to be seen whether Sakic pans out).

While you're at it, ask the Capitals how great forwards and average defense works out. If you want to go to extremes then any position is absurd. I voted for defense first, but the truth is, there's no exact recipe for success. I would, however, venture to guess that every Cup winner in recent memory was pretty good at both (even L.A.'s offense picked it up in the playoffs).

I've heard that that David Legwand has an extensive knowledge of wines and is quite the conversationalist. TOTALLY worth it! Wait, we're talking about dating him right? If not, then no, no he wasn't.

Backus? I wouldn't trade Emmerton for him. That guy is terrible!

I understand and agree with your overall point, but I will say that after watching most of that series, Fleury is being hung out to dry. Columbus has some quality offensive players and they're allowed to basically walk in on Fleury any time they've got the puck. That team has, so far, skated the Pens into the ground.

Blowing a 2 goal lead was a game, and series changer which actually happened in reality. Speculating about whether we'd have scored on a powerplay that was ultimately negated is just that...speculation. There's a lot of reasons why we're being mauled in this series. The one you just mentioned ranks pretty low (mostly because it's predicated on something that didn't even happen. e.g. scoring on that PP).

I agree. He looked good. Kudos to the old man.

You seem to be contradicting yourself here. In the bolded sections above, you suggest that Babcock's coaching "steered" the kid line, and the success of the kid line got us into the playoffs. And you use this as evidence to suggest that Babs is a great coach and isn't responsible for the loses in the playoffs. But you don't mention that Babs broke up the kid line after making the playoffs (as well as the Nyquist-Franzen-Legwand line), and they didn't play a single shift together against Boston. If putting them together was a smart move by Babs, which ultimately led to success and the playoffs; then breaking them up and not having success would be a bad coaching decision which negatively affected the team's chances of winning, and Babs would ultimately bear responsibility for that decision. Again, the same is true of Nyquist-Franzen-and Legwand as well. We didn't overcome a 3-1 deficit against Chicago. They overcame a 3-1 deficit to beat us.

I truly hope Bert has one last insane series left in him and he propels us past the Bruins. Just so that everyone who talked s*** about him all year (including me) can suck an egg. Also, so that he'll get the Cup handed to him first before Alfie.

I heard they were doing something like this...

What's been more ineffective about him than anyone else? (note: this is not a rhetorical question, I missed large chunks of games 2 and 3 and I'm wondering if you noticed something I didn't)

I'm only ok with the roster change if Bertuzzi does this to Lucic...

Can't wait for the inevitable Bertuzzi scapegoating tonight, as if he'll be the reason we play terribly. Talk about setting a guy up for failure.

Well at least Babs has finally identified the source of our goal scoring problems and taken steps to mitigate the issue...(puke).

And Pittsburgh would have to beat Columbus, which is not a guarantee.

If Columbus doesn't blow two third period leads this series is over and Crosby's back in Halifax (or wherever the hell he's from), cod fishing and playing tiddlywinks (or whatever they do there).

Look back over the posts. It happened just like this. I criticized Babcock more misusing Legwand and got a "23 straight playoffs response". Be as combative as you want, but in the future maybe look back over what was said before climbing your soapbox.

I don't dictate the market. Supply and Demand does. And there aren't a lot of 50 pt. centers on the market. Expecting Legwand to make the same money in a thin free agent class after putting up 51 pts. as well as being a quality veteran, leader, and 2 way player is silly. If you don't think so, I don't know what to tell you. You're right, I don't know why Babcock is playing him down there, but I do know that Legwand looked plenty comfortable with Nyquist and Franzen when that line was singlehandedly carrying us into the playoffs.

I certainly don't mean to suggest (or sound like I'm suggesting) that there's something wrong with making the playoffs, or that it's not an accomplishment. I'm saying that failing to acknowledge (and to the extent possible, rectify) existing issues or mistakes, simply because we've made the playoffs, is not an especially productive way to approach getting over the hump. For instance, if I say "I think Holland and Babs have an issue because one keeps acquiring players that the other doesn't use", and you reply "Whoot! We made the playoffs didn't we? 23 Baby!", then a real issue is glossed over which could potentially cost us. In this instance, the problem may well have cost us a very promising young prospect for nothing as I'd be amazed if Legwand resigns given that he waived his NTC to come to a team only to be demoted to the fourth line after having (nearly) career best year. But nobody seems to give a s*** because hey...23 Baby!

Even know my irritation with Babcock is at an all time high, I've got to admit this is pretty awesome... "Pavel Datsyuk didn’t skate because his wife delivered a girl. Niklas Kronwall’s girlfriend is expecting. Coach Mike Babcock expects both to be in the lineup for Game 4 of a playoff series Thursday against the Boston Bruins (8 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit). Boston holds a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. “I would assume that they’re both playing,” Babcock said. “They’re not giving birth. Their wives are.”

How does Legwand look bad against Boston? If you demoted Datsyuk down to the fourth line, moved him to his unnatural position, and gave him 15 shifts with Miller and Glendening as linemates I imagine he'd probably not make much of a difference either. Doesn't mean he's bad, it just means he's been put in a position he can't possibly succeed in. Also, he has an awful lot of points for a "3c at best".

Why in the world would he play on the top line, the coach just demoted him to the fourth line and won't move him despite the team's obvious offensive struggles? You think he's going to take less than market value, coming off one of his best years ever, to play for a coach who treats him like a scrub? Good luck.

If I were David Legwand and I just got demoted to garbage minutes on the fourth line after I put up more points than anyone on the Red Wings team, waived my no-trade clause to come here in the first place, and centered the team's highest producing line of the year, I'd tell Ken Holland to go f*** himself if he called and asked me to re-sign with no raise.

Here's hoping, because the Wings definitely look like a team without a Captain. Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Abby Franzen-Legwand-Nyquist Tatar-Sheahan-Jurco Miller-Helm-Glendening Yes please.