kipwinger

That he did, on a pretty nice wrister too. He was easily their best player all game long. Jurco looked good too though.

With the exception of me, everyone one this thread unanimously thinks that Mike Babcock is the best coach in the NHL. If the best coach in the league (pains me to say this) won't even give Smith a sniff on the PP, and would rather use Kindl, Sammy, Dekeyser, Eaves, on the PP point, then maybe...just maybe...there's a reason for that. And if I had to guess, I'd wage the reason why he isn't used is because he's pretty bad on the PP. Which is not hard to believe considering you need to make really good passes and have good decision making to be effective on the PP, and throughout his tenure as a Red Wing Brendan Smith seems utterly incapable of doing either of those things at anything above a Special Olympic level.

If there NHL players aren't allowed to play in the Olympics he wouldn't be getting a break. He'd be playing every other night in the NHL, which is even more physical than the Olympics is. So, it seems like what everyone really wants is for NHL players to participate in the Olympics, but not Red Wings players. That way every four years our guys get a vacation. Seems a little unrealistic to me.

I didn't say that playing hockey doesn't affect his back. My point was that playing OLYMPIC hockey didn't hurt his back any worse the the NHL already does. His back has been hurt all year. If there were no Olympics he's just be playing with a hurt back in the NHL. The Olympics had nothing to do with it, so those suggesting that he'd somehow be healthy if not for the Olympics are missing the mark. I thought that was pretty clear from my original post.

Wow, some of the responses in this thread...unbelievable. His back has been injured all year. It's not like he injured it MORE by playing in the Olympics. If he wasn't playing in Sochi he'd be playing in Detroit, and he'd still be getting injured because the NHL game is more physical. Are you people just dying or a reason to b*tch or what?

Wow, did someone just talk trash about the USA team? The team that beat Slovakia 7-1? That team? USA is a juggernaut suckas!!!!!!

So, is there any doubt that skating is going to play a HUGE part in these hockey games?

Wow, I really thought Slovakia would hang around a bit longer

Hmmmm, this is going to get out of hand at this pace.

Kane to Kesler. NBD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's the only time I ever want Tatar to NOT score.

Good for Carlson. If I have to hear one more think about the "unproven" defense of Team USA I'm going to puke. Like Faulk, Carlson, and Shattenkirk aren't playing 25 minutes a night in the National Hockey League. Anyway, good for Team USA, right where they should be. And good for Slovakia too, they actually fielded a pretty good squad all things considered. This might be my favorite post...ever.

So, I work in Washington D.C., and apparently NOBODY can deal with snow down here. So pretty much every employer (including mine) cancelled work tomorrow because of the (slightly) above average snow storm we're currently receiving. Soooo, while you suckers are toiling away at work tomorrow I'll be watching USA hockey. And while you suckers are sleeping tonight, I'm getting loaded. Working for the gov't is AWESOME!

I found about 2 million streams, and the god damned server at my office blocks them or something. Soooooooo disappointed right now. Edit: Also, when Henrik Lundqvist has an assist you can be pretty sure Erik Karlsson just went end to end.

You think every time Smith tries to hand Abdelkader a beer he turns it over to Andersson instead? Haha, I can't stop thinking about Red Wings beer drinking metaphors now. I bet Abdelkader works SUPER hard to get his beer open and then shoots it wide of his mouth when he finally tries to take a drink.

If you can produce even one article I'll concede. As for the opinions of fans, being a member of LGW has taught me nothing if it hasn't taught me that most "fans" are irrationally gossipy and prone to serious lapses in judgement and analytical reasoning. Hell, there are currently a bunch of "fans" in another forum pontificating (poorly) on the principles of democracy, constitutionality, and representative governance. Nothing about "the fans say so" is convincing to me.

I have not seen or heard one single source suggest that Stewart has played "lazy". If you have I'd love for you to share the info, because until you do it's just speculation.

Where did this come from?

Yeah, for real. I actually don't think he's got an attitude...any more. Even if he did, that dude is about to light it up for the Americans and bring us the gold. I'd gladly watch him punch ten or twelve cab drivers so long as I don't have to feel like I did four years ago.

Haha. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter I suppose. I guess I just don't understand the thinking is all. Which is nothing new, since I find most modern thought utterly befuddling.

What's the point of picking a team in the Olympics if you aren't going to pick your national team? That's literally the ENTIRE point of the Olympics. Unless you're a German hockey fan and don't have a horse in the race, it's completely absurd to root against your country in an event which is specifically designed for nations to compete with one another. I could understand not caring who wins, and only caring about seeing good games. But that means that you would be just as happy to see your team win as any other. But to actively hope another team is better than your national team makes no sense to me. Would you root against our home country's world junior team? How about your hometown high school team? Silly.

I agree that Nyquist, Smith, and 1st is too expensive for Edler. However, Pulkkinen, Backman and a 2nd is WAY too low. You'd get laughed off the phone. If that's all you'd be willing to give for him, then why bother? Why not just say, "Edler's not worth anything more than unproven b-level prospects and garbage" and leave it at that. Either Nyquist + 1st, or Smith + Pulkkinen + 1st would be about fair for Edler at this stage of the game. Secondly, I don't know where you get the idea that Stewart is "bone-headed", takes "dumb penalties", or doesn't bring it. He puts up very big numbers for a guy getting third line minutes, leading one to assume he does in fact "bring it". Also, he's only topped 100 penalty minutes twice in his career, and in each instance a significant portion of those minutes were for fighting. It's not like he's out there taking all kinds of hookings, slashing, tripping, etc. (bad penalties). He takes fewer penalties per 60 minutes than Abby does, and produces about 50000000000000000% more, while still bringing the physical part of the game that presumably makes Abby so valuable.

Dude, I'm going to call you out...I don't want to...but I HAVE to. Our very lives depend upon the telling of the truth. You were on the Smith bandwagon HARD all summer.

Perhaps you're forgetting about a secret little weapon known as Jan Mursak. BOOM! How's it feel to have a bomb dropped on your a**?!!

Because we've got plenty of defensive scoring without Yandle or Byfuglien and we needed players who could actually play adequate defensive defense now and again. Byfulgien is TERRIBLE defensively and putting him out there against Canada or Sweden would be tantamount to handling them the Gold Medal. Yandle is better than Buf, but still why pick him when Suter, Fowler, Shattenkirk, and McDonagh are all scoring as much as he is this year AND play defense better too?