kipwinger

If we're going to let the game police itself when it comes to guys taking runs at one another, spot picking, dirty hits, etc. why not do the same thing with diving. If you're playing a team with a notorious diver and he does it in the game, send a tough guy out to deal with it. Every time Kessler or someone else on Vancouver dives I'd make it Jordin Tootoo's mission to punish someone, and let it be known what the reason was.

Lions fans have truly lost it, they're almost like those sad sack Cubs fans who have somehow convinced themselves that there's something noble in losing all the time. I can't imagine the kind of nerve it takes to boo a successful executive from another team in your same city. What martyrs they must all feel like.

did he get demoted for poor play or did they not explain it?

How did Brunner look?

Pig-headed idiot, that's much better than "ranting, xenophobic, out of touch, old muckraker". I actually like yours better. I'm sure Don can think of dozens of good Canadian boys who can put up 160 pts. in 107 games. And I'm sure the owners and league administrators only allow foreigners like Yakupov to play out of the goodness of their hearts and not because superstars like Yakupov bring much needed revenue, prestige, etc. to these rinky dink junior hockey programs.

You're right. Obviously Canadians can't be dirty on the ice because their league executives and owners (off the ice) decided to allow non-Canadians to enter the leagues. Genius. Edit: Also, how can you honestly think Yakupov should just shut up and then be against the owners in the lockout? Believing that Yakupov should shut his mouth because he receives a lot of benefits from Canadian hockey leagues is not too much different than believing NHL players should shut their mouths because they owe the owners for all the money, fancy hotels, marketing, trainers, etc. etc. etc. Good to see you have strong consistency!

I'm not sure I follow. Yakupov says the Canadians are dirty. In order to prove that they aren't Cherry talks about team and league administrative decisions that are made completely off the ice? Cherry is a retarded dinosaur. Stop listening to this old curmudgeon Canada!

For those keeping track Brunner and Omark had a goal and an assist each, in last night's game. For the first time in a long time Zetterberg was kept off the scoresheet. That brings Brunner up to 24 goals and 29 assists in 30 games. Calling it right now, this kid is going to be the real deal in North America, prep time or not.

I always like Ryan Smyth...and Colton Orr.

Maybe, but not necessarily. There's all sorts of strategy involved. Perhaps you want to use Datsyuk, then a shooter, and then Bert to keep the goalie guessing. Flip doesn't really have a shot to speak of so while he might have better moves than Hudler or whoever else, he might still be kept back. Or as I said before, if you're anticipating that both goalies are going to man up and make at least one save, then you'd better have an option left after the first three. Having at least one back means your chances of winning don't dramatically decrease if someone misses in the first three rounds. And given that these are professional goalies, the likelihood that your first three shooters all score is pretty small. Speaking of, where did you find that stat? I wanted to look up Filppula's career shootout stats and couldn't find it. Edit: Nevermind, found it.

Yeah I completely agree. There is no guarantee that Brunner will turn out, and if he doesn't then you're right, Tatar will be the next up. However, given that there is no guarantee that Brunner will translate his success to the North American game, I think based on his skill set he's as likely as succeed as almost any Euro I've ever seen. He's got the skating and the shot, and considering he's not going to have to toil away on the bottom two lines but will instead go straight onto a skill/scoring line I think he'll do just fine. Check out this goal at 1:15... It reminds me a lot of this one, which bodes well for us given the quality of our centers...

I don't think the issue is his skill set or his work ethic. The kid's got both in spades. The issue is, he's probably not going to crack the top six for a couple of years given that Nyquist and Brunner are both ahead of him on the depth chart, and given his size and style he really doesn't fit on the bottom six. There's no reason to keep him in the AHL when he's NHL ready and with no room for him, I see them trading him sometime soon.

Funny how it's completely devolved isn't it?

Yep, I just read the story on TSN and looked it up. Same goes for the Brassard link. Bummer about the JLA pic, it really is like rubbing our noses in it.

Aaaand, here's to you Derick Brassard, Tobias Enstrom, Derek Dorsett, and David Clarkson for taking the hard right over the easy wrong, and in the process showing the owners that real men honor the contracts they sign! http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=411949

And here's to you Evander Kane, for dim-wittedly destroying any good will the players might still have in the minds of many fans. Nothing says "we're the good guys" like flaunting your stacks of money in a Las Vegas penthouse. Atta boy.

I like Filppula in the shootout, he's slick with the puck. But honestly I prefer him in the 4 or 5 spot in case one of either Datsyuk or Bertuzzi misses. Having one more guy back is always good in case something goes wrong. You don't really want to front load it because if you tie after three you've got nobody left.

Is there such a thing as Special Olympic hockey?

Kronwall is actually handy in the shootout. I remember watching a game against the Wild a couple years ago when the shootout went seven or eight rounds and Kronwall finished it for Detroit. It was pretty sweet.

Point taken, however if you look at most professional sports leagues (or maybe all of them) there is some sort of revenue sharing agreement. The fact that some teams lose money does not mean the league as a whole is unstable. One could easily say the same thing about the MLB where the league is doing just fine, but A LOT of teams lose money.

Arguments on the other thread aside, I honestly think Andersson will play more games for the Wings than Tatar will. I just don't know where Tatar fits in. He's too unfinished to beat out Nyquist or Brunner, and by the time he gets a shot guys like Jarnkrok, Jurco, Tvardon, and Frk might be ready to go ahead of him. I think he'll get traded sooner rather than later.

Nyquist or Brunner.

No, what got us going is that you said you'd sell the heart and soul of our club because better players would be available, which I called classless and trying to buy a cup. You focused on the second part because you thought you could make a better argument. However, the fact remains that even if I were willing to concede (which I'm not) that Ilitch didn't buy one in 2002 (and try in other years), it still wouldn't change the fact that you seem to favor buying teams and would gladly sell off all the players who worked hard and stayed loyal to the club for a bunch of free agents. Remember, only one of us said that the only two players he'd keep were Datsyuk and (maybe) Helm. And so I'll say again, it's classless and cheap and I hope I never hear you say another thing about class, loyalty, or tradition in hockey because it clearly doesn't mean a single thing to you.

You know which Cup winning team wasn't comprised of more that 1/3 free agents, contributing a sizeable portion of it's playoff points? The 2007-08 Wings. You've made your desire for "superteams" clear before. Again, that's good old fashioned hockey if I've ever seen it.

When more than a third of your playoff roster accounting for some 45 playoff points comes from free agency you sure as hell didn't draft/develop the team internally. What would you call it? Note: HAHA, I didn't even read the rest of your post above where you said the only players you would keep are Datsyuk and (maybe) Helm. You don't give a damn what I'm saying, you've already admitted you'd piss away every other player that we've developed and buy new ones. Why am I even talking to you about this, apparently you not only don't mind if an owner buys a team, you've admitted you'd do it yourself given the opportunity. Classy dude, good old fashioned hockey at its best.