kipwinger

You're spot on, but it's not like he's been bad either.

Right, which is why you're obviously in favor of seeing Cleary and Sammy over Tatar and Nyquist this season yeah? Gotta go with the known, the consistent, and not the unknown, short term success of the "sexy package". Franzen was a young(ish) goal scorer on the rise in 2009. Hossa was a known commodity who wanted more money. Holland gambled. It's easy to say he gambled incorrectly, but it's not like the deal has turned out bad for us. Franzen has been a good player. Just not better than Hossa.

I was being sarcastic. Cleary is obviously much better than Eaves. And that's coming from a HUGE Eaves fan. It's really no knock on Eaves. Eaves is a good player. But he's very close to the same type of player as Miller and the Wings just re-signed Miller, so you have to assume that he's in the plans for the foreseeable future. I love Eaves and have for a while, he does all the gritty stuff that is super important and nobody cares about (pk, shot blocking, etc. etc.). But so does Miller and he's been re-signed recently so I imagine the management likes him more. Too bad for Eaves, he's a stud, but he'll land on his feet.

He had every opportunity last night, and he got shoved off by Crosby without so much as an argument. Smith is a moderately tough dude, but even so he's no kind of tough guy. And thank god for that. I'd hate to be without Smith for several weeks.

As last season proved.

He's definitely whiny, there's no denying that. But I didn't see anything wrong with how he acted in the altercation with Smith. If I were a superstar, and some kid got in my face after a legal play, I'd probably do the same. And as previously mentioned in another post, the result turned out a lot better for Smith than it would have if Crosby took it seriously and Engelland had to get involved. Yikes!

I disagree. There's always the tendency to believe that putting player x with Lidstrom, or Datsyuk, or whomever is the recipe for success and it's simply not true. Kronwall, Ericsson, and Kindl all developed, in spite of never pairing with Lidstrom, because they were brought along slowly, paired appropriately, and eased into responsibilities over time. Bringing Smith up before he was ready, and placing him on a top pair with Lidstrom, would have only made Lidstrom less effective and our team defense worse overall. Playing s***ty (or not ready) players with superstars may make that player look better, but it also limits the effectiveness of the star. You don't see Boston putting third pair guys up with Chara, or Nashville doing it with Weber. Lots of quality defensemen have developed in the NHL without being spoon fed by Nick Lidstrom. Brendan Smith needs to learn to make good decisions with the puck, and be responsible for his man in his own end. I think he's MORE likely to learn that now than he would be if he had Nick covering on all his f*ck ups.

I thought that was pretty clear straight from the jump? Cleary wasn't re-signed at the expense of Tatar, no matter what the pessimistic half of LGW thinks. At 1.75 million, Cleary can be stuck on the fourth line if necessary...and in spite of what anybody says, Cleary is a MUCH better bottom six option than what we've had in the past, or what other teams have in the present.

I can see why people would say it, Smith did jaw at him a bit about it. However, the best evidence I have to support the fact that Smith didn't try too hard, is the fact that that Deryk Engelland didn't beat the hell out of Brendan Smith last night.

Tatar > Brunner. Weiss > Filppula. Cleary = Cleary. Alfie is icing on the cake. Not really sure how we're worse off for this? Brunner is a good player, but I think we'll be just fine without spending big money for him. I am curious to see whether NJ will use him on the PP point, or put him on the side boards like he should have been in Detroit. Utilized correctly I think he'll be MUCH more effective on the PP this season.

I offered to help out last night and got about 35 pm's in a two minute span haha. Any separate thread would immediately set a record on LGW for most posts per minute in a single thread. That much activity would likely destroy the interweb and potentially tear a hole in the space-time continuum as well. We'd better steer clear.

I agree with most of your assessments Crymson. I mostly focused on the young guys, and you're right, Mantha and Jarnkrok were overwhelmed while Ferraro and Almquist did well for themselves. Mrazek looked good, and actually I thought he faced tougher shots than did Howard (except on Sutter's goal). In response to other posters: the homer announcers didn't call Tatar's goal an interference. It was a clean goal and they recognized it as such. Also, Smith did not "try to go with Crosby", Crosby upended Smith on a non-penalty play and Smith tried to get in Cindy's face about it. Crosby dusted him off the way any veteran superstar would if an unknown kid tried to challenge you on a legal play.

I'm hoping I can find a stream somewhere. I'm really itching to see Alfie and Weiss. The other squad looked real good last night. I think my favorite part of the exhibition games is watching the young guns and trying to pick up on their tendencies. Last night I tried to zero in on Mantha and Jarnkrok, tonight (if I can find it) I want a look at Sproul, Ouellet, and Frk.

I think this is actually a really good fit for both parties. NJ needs scoring and because they're already full of solid, two way players, Brunner's defensive lapses won't be the end of the world (while he continues to learn).

This kid is lethal from the point, atta boy Almquist!

Laser of a shot by Almquist, atta boy kid.

Everybody doing ok as far as watching the game goes? If not, PM me.

Too bad Cleary is absolutely, positively, without a doubt going to bump Tatar off the roster. Am I right, reactionary half of the LGW community?

I completely agree with you, there's a couple of guys with GR that I am really excited about. And I think that we definitely will see some names come off the books in the next two years so we're good there. I saw previously you'd posted about Frk and Jurco and I think those are the two I'm most excited about as well. I see Frk as a Vanek type player, and I can't remember the last guy Detroit had with that kind of size and skill combination. Hossa I guess.

Well I've generally tended to believe that Abby doesn't have enough upside as a point producer to justify his top six presence, and that may well turn out to be the case. However, everyone in the organization seems to believe that he still has another level to his game. So I don't really see the problem with putting him up there. If he works out, great. If not, Bert, Sammy, or Cleary can do the job until someone better comes along. Personally, I still think Bertuzzi can be dangerous in the right role. He can hang on to the puck down low, he passes well, he's serviceable defensively, and he'll go to the high traffic areas. On a line with Z and D he'd give you 10-15 goals, and 20+ assists. For me those are fine numbers for your third forward on the top line.

I think this whole "overripe" things sort of ebbs and flows depending on the composition of the team. I mean, for the last five or six years it's certainly been the case, but only because the team had a pretty solid nucleus of young(ish) players already in place. So there were fewer spots up for grabs. But prior to that, we brought along prospects relatively quickly. Zetterberg, Helm, Abdelkader, Hudler and Filppula were all 22 when they started seeing regular time with the big club. Datsyuk was older when he started the development process to begin with, and was already playing pro hockey when drafted, so no over development there . Ericsson, Howard, Kronwall, and Kindl where all older when they finally got their starts, but as noted time and again, goalies and defensemen take longer to develop than do forwards.

Haha, I'd imagine even if we caught you slow roasting a crow with stuffing and potatoes in the oven you'd still try to find a way around it. I suppose it's part of your charm.

What? Ken Holland said Tatar will be on the team in spite of what all the doomsday prophets around here said was going to happen? Anybody willing to eat a little crow publicly or no?

Of the forwards you listed, Jurco is a lock for a top six spot one day, and Sheahan will probably play a bottom six role. They're the only two with the necessary size and skill for me to feel comfortable predicting their futures. All the rest have question marks. Defensively, Sproul and Ouellet are pretty safe bets, while Nedomlel is, was, and will continue to be my darkhorse candidate.