kipwinger

Sucks for Kent, he played well for us and I wish him the best.

Yzerman played with no knees, so I think Stone Cold's probably got a one good run in him. As for how good he is on skates...can you imagine receiving a Stone Cold Stunner from an Austin in skates? He's ******* devastating in skates dude!

Not really, Sharp AND Hossa were both out for that 7-1 ass beating we took earlier this year from the Hawks. We'd need Toews and Seabrook to be out for the series, and possibly have Stone Cold Steve Austin playing power forward for us, in order to win a series against that team.

awww how cute, he uses his accomplishments as a player to validate his management screw ups. By that logic Wayne Gretzky should have been the greatest coach ever.

Well I think it's safe to say whoever did it is in for a real s*** storm. Which is why I'm hoping it was the jerks responsible for the "Zero" candy bar. Those confectionery necromancers need to be taken down a peg or two for trying to pawn off that sugary frankenstein on an American public who only recently began to tolerate dark chocolate as "something a little different". Note of clarification: Dark chocolate isn't some sort of alternative chocolate wizardry. It's just what chocolate is supposed to be like. Milk chocolate, the kind we've come to accept as regular chocolate, is (historically speaking) the new kid on the block having only been mass produced since the turn of the century. As such, when the Milky Way Midnight (read: dark) debuted in the late 1990s the company was really only giving you what would have been a regular old Milky Way prior to 1900.

The thing is, we were less and less competitive before all of our major losses. We had two early exits from the playoffs before Rafalski retired and three before losing Stuart and Lidstrom. They were already trending downward before the losses and they're continuing that trajectory in the wake of said absences. In one sense I suppose you're right, we're close to making the playoffs so we are competitive to an extent, but on the other hand I have a hard time feeling like we're all that competitive when we're competing with Dallas and Columbus for a playoffs spot and we're barely above .500. I'm not trying to be contradictory or anything, obviously no other GM has Ken Holland's resume, but to say he's currently the best GM in hockey is sort of a nod to his cumulative career and not because of anything he's done recently...which, of course, is nothing.

The good news for us is that Kenny will finally be able to acquire Ales Hemsky to add to his stable of small, skilled, versatile, pass first European forwards. God knows we need another one.

I obviously don't ever want the Red Wings to lose, and if I had a magic wish it would be for a Cup. But magic isn't real, and the reality is that our team probably isn't going to beat anyone in a seven game series (even if we do make the playoffs). So if my choices are win the cup vs. don't win it, then I obviously want to do that. If my choices are make the playoffs, keep the streak alive, and lose early vs. miss the playoffs, get the highest draft pick possible, and light a fire under a complacent management's ass...I'll take the latter. But I'll say what I've said all along: It didn't ever have to come down to that.

Howson was responsible for bringing in Bobrovsky during the offseason, before he was fired. Actually he was responsible for every major move the team has made since 2007 (except the Gaborik trade) including bringing in Dubinsky, Anisimov, Aucoin, Wisneiwski, Johnson, Prospal, Umberger, Tyutin, Foligno, Nikitin, Letestu, and Erixon. So pretty much their entire team was acquired by him in one form or fashion, and they're playing well right now, so credit where it's due. Also, says something about how woefully inadequate their drafting and development is if you've got a team made up of this many trades and UFA signings. Edit: Wisniewski doesn't make 7 million dollars, so you might want to brush up on your fact checking a bit

They didn't really help us out. We're not competing with St. Louis. We're competing with Dallas and Columbus.

More meaningless platitudes from our fearless leaders... "You are what you are, and this is what we've earned this year," coach Mike Babcock said. "This is what our team is. We're no better or worse than what we are and we're a team that's battling to get into the playoffs. "Win a game, that's all. We take the same approach we have every year. Try to win games and get better."

He does delay a lot, but I think he'll improve in that area. He's only going to learn that there's very little time to make a play like that over here. I'd like to see more of those one timers and I think we will going forward. Probably not this season, but definitely next. Brunner's going to be a real good goal scorer for this team, he's exceeded expectations so far, and is only going to get better as his strength, conditioning, and comfort improve.

"Some guys score goals and some guys don't, and we got a lot that don't" -Mike Babcock "No sh*t" -Planet Earth

I wasn't suggesting that Couture could do it on a regular basis, I'm saying that when skill players get lucky its spectacular. Considering we've got very few of those types of guys, we don't see it really often. Also, while you "really doubt" it, it's only reasonable to assume that Datsyuk occasionally pulls something off that he wasn't sure he'd be able to do. Just like every other player in hockey.

Haha, I watched Brendan Shanahan's video explanation of the incident. According to Shanny every player is responsible for their own tongue, and much like their stick, they must be held responsible for ensuring its proper use. Additionally, while there was clearly intent to lick, no penalty was assessed by the on ice officials. Furthermore, it must be taken into account that Jeff Halpern was not injured as a result of the incident and was able to return to the ice later that period after squeegeeing off his visor. In Summary: Clearly intent to lick No "licking" penalty assessed Halpern was not (physically) injured; no mention of the psychological effects Because of this the Department of Player safety has decided to issue a warning to Buffalo's Steve Ott. He will be considered a repeat "licker" going forward.

Reputation aside, Semin signed with Carolina on a one year deal. So even if he hadn't turned it around, it still wasn't any kind of risk. Also, I don't think he was any more of a risk than the contracts we took on. There were definitely big "if" questions surrounding whether or not Sammuelsson or Colaiacovo could return to previous form, and management itself suggested that taking on Tootoo was "outside their comfort zone". They were willing to do it with three cheap plugs but not one elite level goal scorer. Also, it's management's job to scout these guys and determine whether or not Semin's reputation was his alone or because of Washington's system. I managed to get it correct before the season started, if they didn't, then I'd be glad to take on a scouting position for the Wings at half the price of whoever they're paying now. Where did you get that they wanted Brunner in return, got a link? He was traded for the equivalent of Flip, Tootoo, and Lashoff. No goal scorers went the other way in the Gaborik deal. Of course there was a lot of luck to it, I imagine that a lot of the insane things that Datsyuk does surprise him too. But their skill level allows them to, occasionally, make something out of nothing. Luck or no, pretty sure Emmerton or Abby don't pull that off a thousand times out of a thousand. When high level players go above and beyond, insane things happen; when average players go above and beyond they just look like good players.

Steve Ott is a total clown, but I still like him because he once did this...

He doesn't need to be "perma-banned", but I do think his ice time ought to be reduced. He's been consistently outplayed by Kindl all season and yet he still averages more ice time each and every game. He's a rookie and he's playing like one, and that should spell third pair for him. But he's one of Bab's guys and so he'll continue to see considerable playing time. Back when Ericsson and Kindl were young and sucking they were out of the lineup every other night, but Babs loves him some "Smitty". Haha, it's been so long since we've had a goal scorer that we forget what they look like and what they bring to the ice. Couture buried that because that's what he's on the ice to do...put the puck in the net. If only there had been any goal scorers available at all in the last four years...oh wait...cough...Alex Semin...cough...Marian Gaborik...cough cough.

Did Eaves just throw like six hits in one shift?

Did Abdelkader, or anyone else on the team for that matter, pay any attention to what happened when he drove hard on the net against Anaheim? It's like that little nugget of success just somehow got lost in the fray.

Haha, Mikey going the extra mile to sell that relatively weak call.

At the very least reduce his ice time, he's consistently playing more minutes than Kindl who has only been outplaying Smith for the entirety of the season, in every conceivable way. Then again, "Smitty" fought a guy once this year and he's got more "upside", whatever that is.

Well if that one goal doesn't completely vindicate Ken Holland and Mike Babcock then I don't know what does.

jesus, finally.

Nope, couldn't have. He did everything he could do and in the final analysis the only thing he could do to improve this team since 2009 was acquire Quincey, Cola, White, Sammy, and Tootoo. That's it. There were absolutely no other options.