kipwinger

Well to be fair, and I know this won't make me any friends around here, there's just as much obnoxious and demonstrably false Blues bashing around here as well. Everybody knows that this is a Wings forum, and that talking up anybody else will be met with a certain degree of hostility, but I can't count the number of times I've read "St. Losers" or the like. And then once that ball inevitably starts rolling you get "Oh yeah, well the Blues are better this year!" to which we get "Nu-uh, how many cups huh?...huh?...huh?...that's what I thought...4 in 15 baby...4 in 15!" Which is all entirely beside the point which, to the best of my knowledge, is that the Blues are a better team this year (so far) but nevertheless, this is still a Wings forum.

Haha, Oh you didn't know that unless we win the cup every single year the entire team, including coach and GM are worthless and need to be replaced by overpriced free agents and unproven AHL prospects? Yeah...me either. Which isn't to say that there aren't ways to improve ANY team in the league, but that those decisions become a hell of a lot easier to make in hindsight.

Pittsburgh 2008-2009. 19-15-6. Boom!

I like the Blues in the first round much better than I like anybody in the Pacific Division, and maybe even the Canucks. LA are chokers in the playoffs, San Jose isn't even in the picture now, and neither Dallas nor Phoenix have enough depth to go too far. Blues are fairly safe in the first.

Very few "30 goal guys" play all 82 games every year. Rick Nash is a 30 goal guy and he's only played a full season once. Here's a link to what a 30 goal guy looks like. Certainly not Franzen, I don't care how many games he plays. http://espn.go.com/n.../1569/rick-nash Correction, Nash has never played a full season and yet averages over 30 a season. That's a 30 goal guy. Last I knew we didn't determine a guy's worth by his projected stats.

Johan Franzen has scored 30 goals or more once...once!

I agree with you. Unlike many on here, I don't think Cleary is past it, or washed up, or whatever. I think he's just been playing hurt for a really long time and I agree that it would probably be better for him to sit right now rather than try to struggle through it and be ineffective.

I'd like to see him work on a line with Helm and Miller, and give Abby, Mursak, and Holmer the fourth line. I don't see Nyquist as a top six on this team. He's too unproven and I definitely don't want to see two guys in our top six weighing in below 180 lbs.

Here's a better one...http://www.firstrowsports.eu/watch/113050/1/watch-los-angeles-kingsvs-detroit-red-wings.html

Thank god none of those three are hurt. That's our whole offense.

Yeah we're missing a few more guys than just Datsyuk, but way to over simplify.

aaaand that's why he's a rookie folks!

Agreed.

Am I mistaken, or was this the slowest burn of them all?

Well if the Kronwall hit and non-suspension was any indication, players won't skate with their heads down at the NHL level for too long.

I completely agree. I'll see if I can find where I read it last, it was only a few days ago. Update: Check the last page of the "Smith Watch Thread". That was the most recent reference, but I've seen it here many times before.

Doesn't it sort of defeat the purpose of the salary cap if you constantly increase it enough that high profile and quality teams can spend as much as they want in the offseason? Giving 7 or 8 million dollars each to the NYR or the NYI does not put those teams on equal footing.

That is sort of funny. I don't recall Leino ever racing for a puck in Detroit, so it's sort of hard for me to work up a mental image for all of this.

This whole thing was sort of silly. I get that St. Louis has a better record than Detroit, if you think that makes them a better team then o.k., I guess that's one reasonably legitimate way of coming to that conclusion. But the justifications here are absurd. Trading away Adam Oates was a bad trade, but I certainly don't see how it did anything positive for St. Louis. Additionally, I don't really see how Chris Stewart or Shattenkirk are more important trades than Quincey, and I definitely don't see how Brad Stuart losing a fight is proof that St. Louis has Detroit's number. As a matter of fact let me go on record as stating that BRAD STUART HAS NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER BEEN A FIGHTER IN THE NHL! I hear this silly s*** all the time around here..."well back when Stuart used to drop the gloves..." He has never been the type to drop the gloves...period. Anyway, sorry for the rant, this article is fairly dumb, and that's coming from a guy who sort of likes the way this St. Louis team plays hockey. Go Wings! p.s. Why does every sports writer or "blogist" in the country feel like it's necessary to blatantly rip off Mitch Albom's style all of the sudden? Not every blog or article needs historical narrative you mooks!

Who knows? I don't ever have a clue what's in Holland's head so I'd hate to even speculate on what he's thinking. Suter is a good defenseman, but I don't think he's as good as the money that will get thrown at him, so personally I'd rather not see Holland chase him up in the 7-8 million dollar range. All I know is that I'm happy with the defense we have for the remainder of the season, and that's with any one of Smith, Kindl, and Ericsson as the 6th guy. I also think our powerplay and pk will start shaping up once everybody gets healthy. Finally, I have been more than happy with the way several guys have been stepping up and playing better in the absence of our key guys. If we can keep that up I'm pretty pumped about this team moving forward.

I know the kid has a load of talent, but I think he's got a long way to go before he's an upgrade over the most defensively responsible d-man, on what I consider to be one of the top defensive corps in the league. The kid may be that good one day, but aside from point totals, Stuart is either the best or second best defender on this team. Just have a look at Kronwall's plus minus if you don't believe me.

Any chance that the reason you think the defense looks better is not necessarily that Ericsson is out, but rather that Quincey and Smith are in? Quincey and Smith is a better pair than Ericsson and Kindl, or Ericsson and Commodore. Not because there's a problem with Ericsson, Kindl, or Commodore, but that Quincey is just better than all of them?

I know this will probably be unpopular around here, but I think our police, courts, and municipal administrative units have more important s*** to be doing than this. The teams, coaches, schools, and league should have been able to figure out a way to remedy this problem, fairly, without bringing the law into it. I know there's a temptation to ticket every dips*** who does something borderline harmful and most definitely stupid. But I have a sneaking suspicion that mostly the reason we're happy to see this guy get hit with a charge is because he's obnoxious, not because he's a threat to public safety. Anyway, redo the third period of the game or whatever, but it would probably have been enough to let the guy go home in shame, with both teams and their fans knowing that his dumb ass is the reason for the whole ordeal.

I agree. I love our defense corps moving forward. Obviously I'd prefer to have both Lidstrom and Stuart coming back, but even if we don't, we have the best defense corps under contract in the league.

Was there ever really a doubt that he would. Though some were heralding the demise of Henrik Zetterberg, in the not too distant past (one season ago) there was a guy who scored 80 pts. and was top ten or fifteen in the league in scoring. But have one slow season and the past is forgotten and all the "fans" hold you over the fire. Good on Zetterberg, but again, was there ever really a doubt?