kipwinger

Awww, poor Bill Buckner. Great photoshop but I can't help feeling bad for Bill after watching ESPN's 30 for 30 on him and Steve Bartman.

If MacDonald is worth 5 million dollars as a stay at home defensive d-man then Ericsson is worth fifty millionty zillionty dollars for being the same thing only bigger, strong, and faster. Macdonald is a good player, don't get me wrong. But he's basically the Ryan Callahan of defensemen. A little engine that could.

Columbus plays a playoff style all year long. They're plucky, get timely scoring, good defense and great goaltending. If they skate hard and make Crosby work for his ice I think they could give the Pens trouble. I'm rooting for them, but in the end I don't think they beat the Pens...unless Fleury is horrible.

What, the Flyers overpayed for a hockey player? YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!!!!

I actually agree with your thoughts here. But a Stanley Cup playoff series against arguably the best team in the league isn't exactly the time to be hashing out chemistry issues. We already know that Nyquist can score with Franzen and Legwand. Leave him there and let him produce immediately. We're going to need it.

Not I said the fly. When Nyquist is on a line with Dats he doesn't seem to produce. Leave him with Legwand and Franzen and but Dats with Alfie and Abdelkader until Z gets back. Nothing about Dats and Nyquist playing together thus far has been a success, the only reason everybody likes it is because they're mesmerized by the thought of the two together...regardless of the cold hard reality.

What a save!

Let the media circus and public condemnation begin.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire for Shanny. He traded the second most scrutinized job in hockey for the first most scrutinized job in hockey. Geesh, we get it already, you're not afraid of the pressure!

He's not complacent, he does lots of things to improve the team. Your problem with him is that you don't agree with those things. In the past three years he signed Alfredsson, Weiss, Gustavsson, Tootoo, and Samuelsson, and traded for Quincey and Legwand. Conservatively speaking that an acquisition of three top six forwards (Legwand, Alfie, Weiss), two bottom six forwards, and a backup goalie who's currently playing better than our starter. He also locked up Datsyuk for the remainder of his career, and signed Jimmy, Smith, and most of our young guys to cap friendly contracts. That's a s*** ton. If you don't like it, fine, I'm not here to convince you. But don't mask your objection in this "he's complacent" language because it's demonstrably false.

Yeah because making the playoffs is horrible. I think that would fall under the "successfully help build your organization to the pinnacle of your industry" part. He was the head of scouting before he was the GM. Given how good our scouting was during his tenure (Fedorov, Lidstrom, Osgood, McCarty, Konstantinov, etc. etc. etc.) I'd say his work qualifies as "helping build the organization".

Successfully help build your organization to the very pinnacle of your industry and then keep it there for 22 years and you might.

You think people here like him because of what he has or has not done as a GM? Maybe. But my guess is people like him because he's Steve Yzerman and they're in love with the idea of "the Captain" coming back to Detroit. As such they'd likely be in favor of him coming back no matter whether he was any good at his job or not. Also Yzerman most definitely had something do to with a trade demand that was directly linked to his (Yzerman's) actions. I think you're being a little loose with your history if you think his hands were tied on the St. Louis trade, and I totally disagree that Lecavalier was a "franchise player". Maybe once, but not anymore. Good move on Yzerman's part for buying him out, but it's not like he was trading Gretzky in his prime or anything. Lecavalier is and was done.

I agree with most of what you're saying, but if you look back at my post you'll see I said Pittsburgh had more injuries to "equally important players". I'm not trying to say they've had a tougher row to hoe, but they've had as much adversity as we have. Furthermore, I don't have any idea what value those two have, but you bring up a good point.

Can Yzerman win something...anything...before we go anointing him the next best thing. He's only made the playoffs twice in his tenure, hasn't won a conference championship, and hasn't ever made it to the Cup finals. You'd think the Lightening were absolutely dominant the way people bestow praise on him. I know all the homers love the thought of Stevie Y coming back to Detroit and being a Wing again. I love that story too. But what if he comes back and we're worse? What if Holland's just that much better? What if Stevie isn't capable of finding those late round gems (lost in all this "Holland Sucks" talk is the fact that he drafted Jurco, Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan, Marchenko, Sproul, Quellet, and Mrazek lately)? What if Steve's only ever the thing he's been up till now, a .500 GM at the playoff level? Not so romantic now is it? Until he wins and proves he's a qualified candidate, I don't want him anywhere near the Detroit Red Wings General Manager's Office.

I've never liked the whole "coached the team well despite injuries" argument. By that rationale Blysma should win it, considering Pittsburgh has more injuries to equally important players, and has a better record.

I'll agree with the part about having a better system, in the sense that we at least try to make our forwards be defensively responsible. However, my position on Babcock is well known. He's a good coach, but I don't think he's the best. Blysma's not any better, but he's not any worse either IMO. They've both benefited early in their careers from inheriting otherworldly talent that won them a cup a piece. I guess maybe you'd have to give Babs the nod for taking that Anaheim team to the Cup finals, but I don't think it's as clear cut as everyone else does. Edit: And even if Babs is better, every year since 2010 we've seen what a Red Wings team with few horses and good coaching can do in the playoffs. Admittedly, we've got more up front than we've had for four or five years...but we've also got worse defense and goaltending. I just don't see coaching overcoming our weak blueline.

Yeah from what I understand they're going to be back for the playoffs. Giving them Letang, Martin, Orpik, Niskanen, and Maatta...(I have no idea who their sixth d-man is). That's a far and away better defensive corps than we're fielding, even when we're healthy. Edit: Their sixth defenseman is Scuderi...I forgot. Yikes!

Jimmy Hoffa has a better chance of playing in a Red Wings playoffs game than Jordin Tootoo or Mikael Samuelsson.

You don't think Pittsburgh's defense is better than ours?

I love Backes, but this is pretty indefensible. Boo to him.

You weren't talking about his attitude. You said he didn't play defense. That's just not accurate. Now you're trying to change your tune and make it about his attitude or motivation or something. I'd agree with what you said about Shanny or a young Stevie Y not playing defense. But Fedorov was one of the most talented two way forwards in the history of the game and his defensive skills have never been criticized by anyone (other than you). I don't know what else he'd need to do defensively if you aren't convinced by the two Selke Trophies or the fact that he actually played defenseman for three different National Hockey League teams.

When you talk about Fedorov are you talking about the two time Selke Trophy winning Sergei Fedorov? The one who learned to play hockey in the Soviet Red Army system which essentially created the "two way forward"? That Sergei Fedorov?

Yeesh, Iginla is getting old. There was a time when he would have murdered Rinaldo.