kipwinger

Har har, I get it...the Penguins and Bettman are in cahoots. In the future if you're going to insinuate that there's some sort of league wide conspiracy in favor of a team, you should at least pick a team that wins relatively frequently. Given that Boston has been to the finals two of the last three years wouldn't they be a more logical choice to support this whole "league wants team X to win" idea? Furthermore if the league does want the Pens to win, and they still get pathetically beaten, then the conspiracy isn't worth talking about because it's so utterly unsuccessful. This Penguins/Bettman conspiracy talk is getting SOOOOOOO old. Ditto to you.

Which is worse, getting blown up by the Flyers last season in an utterly pathetic 1st round or getting swept by the Bruins in the conference finals after trading for Iginla, Murray, and Morrow and winning a zillion games in a row this year?

I saw today that Ales Hemsky is being shopped. McTavish came right out and said he and Horcroff are on the block. Considering Detroit has been rumored in the past to be heavily interested in him I'm going to have to cross my fingers and say my prayers to ensure that they stay clear the hell away from this guy. This would seriously take the wind out of my sails come July 5.

With the exception of one or two teams, I am willing to bet that this is pretty much what you'd find with every team in the league. Boston maybe not, but other than that most of them are probably right around here.

There are a lot of big skilled first rounders this year. As such, at least one guy like Mantha, Gauthier, or Zykov, could realistically fall down to the 20-22 pick. If Detroit wants a big, strong, skilled, winger this is the year to get it. There's absolutely NO REASON for them to take someone like McCarron in the first when they could get a legit power forward for that in this year's draft with minimal effort. If they don't take one in the first, it's because they don't want one...which should be telling.

The team that beat us wasn't. All their biggest guys were on the bench. Mayers, Bollig, Hayes, were all benched. Bickell was it, unless you think Handzus (and his rugged bruising style) made the difference. Everyone else that played against us was smaller. Hossa is the same size as Cleary. 6'1 210, to Cleary's 6 ft. 208. Franzen is bigger than anybody in their top six aside from Bickell. Abdelkader is bigger than most of their guys, including Toews. Bolland, Kane, Sharp, Shaw, and Frolik are below 200 lbs. Stalberg is above 200 but was benched against us for most of the series, and was a non factor the rest of the time. So really, the only big guys they had that were effective were Bickell and Handzus. So when you say they're big and tough you're really only talking about them, and it's not as though putting those two on a less skilled lineup would make a difference. Chicago wins via skill, to say otherwise is misleading.

Shaw's 5'11 I80 lbs. Yeah he's got an attitude but he's hardly a "big body", which around here all too often gets confused with being chippy and playing an aggressive game. Now, I'm all for the Brandon Prusts, Jordin Tootoos, etc. because they can still play the game and they bring that element of attitude like you're talking about. But I'm not all for changing around a system that has worked better than any other system for the last two decades. We draft skill, we play puck possession, and we rely on good overall team defense. It works. Not need to go changing into the Boston Bruins just because we haven't won the Cup in a few years. I've always hated the "big for big's sake" argument because it willfully ignores the fact that we're a skilled team that wins more often than everybody else, and it's not like there's ANY correlation between the size of your team and how much success you have (Anaheim). Also, Chicago ain't all that big either. Their biggest guys where all on the bench when we played them, and the remainder (outside of Bickell) are the same size, or smaller, than our fowards. Here's their roster, check it out. They're by no means a "big bodied" team. http://espn.go.com/nhl/team/roster/_/name/chi/chicago-blackhawks

There are two big tough teams left and two skill teams. One of each is leading their series. It's not like being big and rugged is some guarantee or something. Skill wins as often as not.

Just coming here to ask the same thing, anybody got the highlights?

Stephen Weiss wasn't on the list, which I think is an oversight. He's a good 2nd line center, but above all else, Detroit was rumored to have been interested in him at the trade deadline. I think if Flip walks, then the Wings are even more likely to pursue Weiss than they already would have been. He's the kind of guy Kenny likes too. Good two way forward, scores goals, plays good defense, and is good on the PP and PK. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he ended up wearing the Winged Wheel come July 5th.

I like the Dallas sweaters better than the Carolina ones, but to be honest they both look like something you'd make up if you were creating your own team on some hockey video game...and you were 13 years old.

I guess Boston, though I don't really like them either. If they were playing just about any other team I'd be rooting against them too, but watching them brutalize the Pens makes them my pick.

I liked this one a lot. Most of it is spot on. If I had a nickel for every "How many cups", "Cleary and Abby in the top six", or "Bettman wants us to lose" comment I've read (on this forum alone) I'd be a rich man. What's the difference between us saying it to or about each other and someone else doing it? Good satire is funny because there's an element of truth to it. We do have a comparatively s***ty top six. Many Wings fans are bangwagoners from the glory days of the nineties, and we do go on and on about conspiracies. But in the end those are all relatively transient and therefore insignificant aspects of an otherwise storied franchise. Who cares, just laugh it off. A far more damning criticism of the Detroit Red Wings would be if their fans became humorless d*cks just because they didn't win the Cup ever year. Then we'd truly be the Yankees of hockey.

I'm not basing it on hope, he was injured most of this year and played on a garbage team. You look at his numbers and he's trended upward, consistently putting up 20+ goals the last three seasons. Plus his stats show that he produces more with more ice time, kills penalties, produces on the powerplay, plays solid defense. Basically he's Filppula but can score, on the market he'll get at least what I'm giving him, probably more.

CAPGEEK.COM USER GENERATED ROSTER My Custom Lineup FORWARDS Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Justin Abdelkader ($1.800m) Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Stephen Weiss ($4.750m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m) Gustav Nyquist ($1.500m) / Joakim Andersson ($1.000m) / Damien Brunner ($2.500m) Jordin Tootoo ($1.900m) / Darren Helm ($2.125m) / Danny Cleary ($2.300m) Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) Kyle Quincey ($3.775m) / Jakub Kindl ($1.200m) Danny DeKeyser ($1.350m) / Brendan Smith ($1.200m) Carlo Colaiacovo ($2.500m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($5.292m) Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m) ------ CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $63,904,545; BONUSES: $850,000 CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $1,245,455 Ok, I tried to be realistic and not make too many changes as that's not really Holland's way. So I gave all the kids the raises they deserved. I waived, traded, or bought out Emmy, Sammy, and Lashoff. I let Flip walk and gave the money he wanted to Steven Weiss as he'd already been on the Wings radar and is the kind of second line center that Holland likes. Finally, I resigned Cleary at a slight decrease in pay, though there's cap room enough that either he wouldn't have to take the cut, or the kids could each get a little more money.

People don't EVER trade first rounders for negotiation rights. The rights to James Wisniewski were traded for a conditional seventh round pick, the rights for Brad Stuart were traded for a conditional seventh and the negotiation rights to Andrew Murray. Unless you're suggesting a sign and trade for Filppula there is exactly zero chance we get a first for him, maybe at the trade deadline, but not now. And even then, when has Ken Holland ever signed and traded anyone?

Isn't Stephen Weiss a UFA? Wings were rumored to have interest in him at the trade deadline, and one has to think that he'd get a look as a Filppula replacement in the offseason. The guy's got second line center written all over him if you ask me.

My team is cap compliant, has a good mix of youngsters and veterans, it can't be scored on, it puts up goals, and you would DEFINITELY not want to cross the blueline against it... Lucic, Backes, Doan E. Kane, Carter, A. Stewart Abby, Helm, C. Neil Kaleta, B. Boyle, Clutterbuck Kronwall-Orpik Dekeyser-Wisniewski Yemelin-Volchenkov Vokoun Mrazek Blueadams, my team would eat yours for lunch.

2.5 mil per year for two or three years. And I'm thrilled about it. But a little weight on this guy and build up his strength and I think he's going to be a whole lot better. He's already noticeably better defensively, and a full training camp will only improve that as well.

Clearly, as every indicator of performance suggests Kindl is the better player (right now). And it's not unlike Babs to give guys ice time based on anything other than how they are currently performing.

That argument is a wash because it goes both ways. Maybe with more ice time and better teammates Kindl increases his stat advantage even further. And I'm not simple talking about Kindl leading in points or goals. He also hits more, has more blocked shots, more takeaways, fewer give aways, more shots, fewer misses, and on and on and on. He was simple the better player this year.

As I said, he leapfrogged those guys, and got more icetime, and played much worse with that additional ice time. It still doesn't make him the better player because he played more. With the exception of goals, Kindl was better in every single statistical category than Smith was during the playoffs. Ditto for the regular season (where Kindl led in the goals category as well). I don't know why Babs loves watching Smith f*** up, but he does and that's why he plays more. Not because he's the better player, as every single fact suggests otherwise.

He did average more time than Kindl, he also averaged more goals against than Kindl and more turnovers than Kindl. All while scoring less often, in spite of the ice time, and in spite of the fact that he's an "offensive" defenseman. As I've said all along, he shouldn't be traded, and he will get better. But I'm tired of this "he's a rookie" excuse. He IS a rookie...a particularly bad one this season.

Brendan Smith got a lot of minutes this season because there was nobody sitting in the pressbox who was a better option. Our defense was much better when Kindl, Ericsson, and Kronwall were rookies and so there was no need to play them that much. It's obviously much harder for a guy like Kindl to crack the lineup as a rookie when Lidstrom, Stuart, Rafalski, Kronwall, Ericsson, and Salei are head of him, than it is for Smith to crack the lineup with Kronwall, Ericsson, Quincey, White, Kindl, and Colaiacovo ahead of him. However, that doesn't mean he's the better player. You're right on one point though, he did get thrown into the deep end. And he sunk. Here's hoping he'll be better moving forward.

Cue Brian Burke's comparison to European soccer.