kipwinger

Let the East rack up penalty minutes against us, so long as our powerplay is better than last year I'm ok with it. I'd be more pissed if we responded with similar goonery. This whole debate reminds me of the Pittsburgh/Philly series two years ago. A million penalty minutes, a million fights, and million goals and arguably the worst playoff hockey since the 2005 lockout. Embarrassing. I'll take our "soft euro" team any day rather than watch Scott Hartnell try to act like a bad professional wrestler (and even worse hockey player).

Huh? p.s. I'm question what you're trying to say and also how you're trying to say it.

This is a little bit over the top. Expecting to win out against good teams in your division is unrealistic. We won zero games against the Hawks last year and zero against Columbus and still made the playoffs. We don't have to beat them every game, we don't even have to split with them. Obviously I'd prefer if we did, but if not, it isn't the end of the world.

I'd say Miller or Eaves have the ability to put up 20 goals on Pav's wing, they've shown some offensive capability even without playing with Pav. Abdelkader simply hasn't shown that so far in his career. I'm not saying he isn't useful up there as a thumper, but I think anything like 50 points is expecting too much given what he's shown to this point in his career. Could he break out all David Clarkson? Maybe, but nobody saw that coming either. Playing the odds I'd say max he's capable of what Bertuzzi did two years ago on Pav's wing, 14 goals 24 assists. And that's on the high end. As I've already stated, if you look back through his season last year you'll notice that he really wasn't a scoring threat despite leading the team in even strength goals. 3 goals in one game, three others bounced in off his body by other players (two of which came in one game). So realistically 50% of his production came in two games and a full third came via just standing around in the crease. Again, kudos to him for getting in front of the net, but it's not like he's tipping in shots or banging in rebounds. Edit: I was wrong on two posts in this thread. Abdelkader's first goal of last season was an empty netter, not a deflection off his body. Just to be accurate, though I still think my point is valid.

All I'm saying is that Holmstrom outperformed Abby offensively at every single stage of his career. He was a more prolific scorer as a rookie, a more prolific scorer in his second year, third, fourth, etc. etc. etc. He played with D and Z in their primes and didn't score 50. Abby is playing with them on the downswing of their careers, and Abby himself is has not shown that's he's offensively capable. As such, he's not likely to score 50 just because he's playing regularly with them. Not that nobody could, certainly Corey Perry could, or any other player who goes to the net and has consistent offensive capabilities. I'm just saying Abby won't, because he doesn't have offense, and they're too old to drag him along offensively.

In the 2008 and 2009 seasons, with Datsyuk and Zetterberg in their primes and having their best career offensive seasons, Holmstrom never had 50 pts. Contrary to what some believe, neither Datsyuk nor Zetterberg are the same players they were then. Those guys will be good this year, but they aren't going to squeeze blood from a stone. I'd love it if you're right, but Abby has not shown the ability to produce even as consistently as Miller at the NHL level, and D and Z aren't at an age where they can still make anyone around them look that good. Hell Franzen has consistently played on Datsyuk's wing for a couple years now and only gets 50-60 pts. And whether you like him or not, Franzen is about 2,000,000 times the offensive player that Abby is. Playing with Datsyuk or Zetterberg is no longer a way to get more out of less. At their age we should be acquiring complimentary pieces to help keep their numbers up, not the other way around. I would have loved a shooting winger for Datsyuk, and to see Zetterberg on Weiss' wing. In my opinion that would be a better dynamic than once again asking those two to play their game and half of everybody else's as well.

I'll be happy IF Sammy is on LTIR for the entire season, IF Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Alfie don't play their age, IF all the kids perform as well as they did last season (or better in Smith's case), IF Jimmy continues to steal games for us and make our defense look better than it is, IF Bertuzzi and Cleary can be effective, IF Franzen has a very productive year, IF Helm are Weiss are healthy and regain their form, and IF we find goal scoring from guys we didn't know had it in them. There are a lot of question marks going into this season, just like last season. Contrary to what I said all season, Babcock had a plan and got a lot out of a little. He did well. I hope he can do it again because I don't feel really comfortable going into a hockey season in today's NHL when none of our best players are in their prime and all of our young guys haven't show that they can help shoulder the load. It puts way too much pressure on guys like Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Kronwall to carry the load and none of those guys are going to produce the way they have in the past.

In 2010-2011 Tomas Holmstrom scored 18 goals and had 19 assists, at the age of 35. I don't expect Abdelkader will ever have an offensive season that productive, first line or no. This isn't to say that he can't help up there, or that he's bad or anything else. But I don't believe that he's offensively capable of anything like that. If we recall, of his 10 goals this season, three came in one game, two others were scored in one game when Datsyuk banked goals in off Abby's body, and his first goal of the season was banked in off him as well. Kudos to him for going to the net, but it's not like his "career year" was some sort of coming out party. He played 23 games before he scored his first goal, and then finished strong with a little help from his friends. He was barely an offensive threat for the majority of the games this season and might just as easily have ended with four or five goals as opposed to ten. He's on the ice to clear space for Datsyuk to be better offensively, not the other way around. He'll finish next season with ten or less goals and twenty or less assists, after being replaced by Bertuzzi or Sammy on the top line. Ugh.

Thank God, for a second I almost thought we'd have a young, high energy team. I. Don't. Understand.

Best case scenario we're way deeper than last year. Worse case scenario? Weiss doesn't recover from his injury and provides no more offense than Flip did, and Alfredsson plays like he's a 40 year old. Again, it could be worse (I especially think Weiss will be good) but just once I'd like a slam dunk at the trade deadline or in free agency. The type where I don't have to play "what if" constantly and can rest assured that in all probability player x will produce for us.

...and still no goal scorer. I long for a goal scorer. You know, the kind that consistently scores goals. Other than that, happy about Weiss and not thrilled about anything else. I guess we'll have to see how things go, but again...goal scorer?

I'm not mad about today, but I don't really understand it. They could have signed Weiss, let Flip, White, and Colaiacovo go, and kept Brunner. This Alfie thing makes no sense to me. Can we go a year without spending money on a retread? They fail far more than they ever work.

So here's the deal, I've been camping all week and have no idea what lead up to all this. Why no Sammy buyout? Since when were the Wings interested in Alfie and why? Has Brunner signed somewhere else or is he just taking his time? What's the news on the RFAs? Why aren't they signed? All I know is that we've got 2 goalies, 7 defensemen, and 42,000 forwards. Something's got to give right?

This is just a negotiation tactic. I read somewhere last year that Suter's agent (same as Brunner's) always advised his clients to go to free agency and wait it out. I obviously haven't followed this dude's career or anything, but it looks like the same bag of tricks. Push them to free agency, and wait to see how how teams will go in the scramble. I doubt Detroit goes any higher, but Brunner might well find that he's better off where he was after this all plays out.

I'm happy with gaining Weiss and losing Flip and Cleary. However, I'm not happy that Alfie is on the team, or that Sammy is still on the team, or that Brunner isn't signed yet. So on balance I'd say I'm about 50/50

The same is true for every single free agent ever. There's always the possibility of that. But can't trade every potential free agent that "might" leave. You'd be the Philadelphia Flyers, and look how well that works out for them.

I'm not trying to talk you out of anything, and I don't want to argue. But I really, really, want to know what you like about Smith. You can message me if you want so that you don't have to argue with anyone else. But I've got to know why he's on that list.

Next year Kindl will be second in defense scoring on this team, just behind Kronwall. And it will be closer than anyone thinks. He's made the 2nd PP his own, and had a knack for timely production. He's also improved in in zone coverage tremendously. He's still got some work to do on his first pass, but otherwise he's really made strides. I have no idea what's not to like about that for 2.4 million. He probably just needs to punch someone and the naysayers will get on board.

No.

Now I'm curious what kind of money Brendan Smith is going to make. Hmm...

Well good deal. If you can skate and you've got that kind of size and attitude you can help someone in the NHL. I'll have to follow his development a little more closely. Thus far I've pretty much focused all my attention on Richard Nedomlel as our future blueline tough guy. But he's more like Volchenkov and less a fighter.

Considering he's the third best defenseman on our team I can't complain too much. He'll be more productive next year as well. I've always sort of pulled for Kindl too so I'm happy with it. He really stepped it up last season and I think he's still got another level above what he accomplished this year. There were times when he was a legitimate threat skating the puck out of the zone. Once he can do that consistently I think he's a second pair puck mover easily. Edit: Good point by Crymson too, I think he clearly had the best shot on our defense this season too. He finds open shooting lanes...if he gets a little more accurate with it he'll be a real good point on the PP.

I'm not mad about this contract, but I really believed he'd get less. Damn this free cap space sure does go quickly doesn't it?

How does McKee skate? That pretty much will determine the rest of his career. A big lumbering goof who likes to fight won't make it in today's game. A tough guy who can skate a quality shift has a future however.

He doesn't want to play on a team of chronic underachievers? Oh wait...