kipwinger

It's not that he's not a good player or anything. And it's certainly not like he won't continue to improve. I just have a problem with teams giving big contracts to people who haven't earned them yet. s***, if you're ok with this contract, then why not sign Brunner for the 3.5 he was asking? I mean, he's only going to get better right?

Well it's probably something Winter Classic related, or something like that. I doubt seriously it's a personnel move because the Wings aren't likely to call a presser to announce a trade and shame the outgoing players like that. My guess is they'll announce tweaks to the Alumni game roster or something.

He also brutalized Scott Hartnell as well. And I LOVED that very much. What's that tough guy Scott? Wanna fight a European and show how badass you are? Right. Scott Hartnell = Phoniest "tough guy" in the NHL.

Text book example of why salaries are out of control in the NHL most of the time. Owners give him that kind of money and term based on his career 76 points in 102 games. Obviously the kid will continue to improve, and he might well be a super-fricken-star one day. But today isn't that day, and he just got HUGELY overpaid based on potential and draft position alone. Hell, Rick Nash won the Rocket Richard Trophy his second year in the league and didn't get paid like this on his next contract.

Damn shame, he's looked good so far too. Hope he steps into that kid the next go around. I keep waiting for Kindl to figure out that he's huge. Kinda like Jiri Fischer did.

Isn't Don Cherry one of their biggest fans? Case closed.

Keep dreaming! You'll get this guy and like it.

Hasn't Chris been the de facto decision maker for Ilitch Holdings for quite a while now? I know Mike and Marian write the checks, but if I'm not mistaken Chris has been the go-to guy for a few years. If so, it's basically just making the situation official in spite of the fact that it's been the reality for quite a while. Edit: Just looked it up, Chris is the President and CEO of Ilitch Holdings and has been since 2004. So I wouldn't worry too much about any changes to the way the team does business.

B-b-b-but I thought the East is a big, scary, monster that's going to steal our lunch money and fondle our women folk? I know it's a preseason game and all. But I ain't afraid of no ghost.

Yep, you totally got the point. I obviously think Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, and Dan Cleary are all just as good as one another. Case closed Columbo. Or...I could have been making the point that keeping a known commodity over taking a gamble on guys with promise, but who are still unproven, is not always a good idea. It may have been in the Hossa/Franzen case, but time will tell whether it's a good idea to keep Cleary and Samuelsson around over "unproven" alternatives like Tatar and Nyquist.

Wasn't the case closed the other day when he said the exact same thing?

McCollum actually hasn't looked too bad, but man oh man...Subban...yeah...definitely the future in Boston.

Weiss is still learning the system, so his offense hasn't come around yet, but he's good on the faceoff, good on d, and distributing the puck well. The rest of his game will come along.

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.