frankgrimes

http://www.tsn.ca/video/connor-mcdavid-conversation-1.94816 A very well spoken, level headed down to earth guy. McKenzie - as always - did a great job asking respectful but also funny question. Highlights: - hates players who put themselves over the game - feels extremely lucky and fortunate to be in this position - owes his mum and dad everything - is a bit superstitious 8/10 - thinks Jack Eichel is a great player - believes Finland wasn't the best team on paper but they were the best team because they've played as an unit Impressed with how mature and well spoken he is for a 17 old.

Won gold with Canada and no matter what people are thinking, it's not easy to get a superstar loaded roster to buy in into a 200 ft game. if it would be that easy Canada would win the WJC gold every year. Another talent is knowing when to unload on players and when to be kind. I think the only other coach who could have gotten this roster into the playoffs is Darryl Sutter but other than that no one would have been able to pull that of, so yes, Goose was amazing but so was Danny.

1. Yes it does but other teams had injuries too as sad as it is, it's part of the game. In my mind Goose absolutely exploded expecting him to repeat such a performance over the course of a season is unfair. Counting on a fairly healthy roster is nice but at the end of the day older teams are more prone to injuries. I prefer to look at things realistically and by expecting a bad season (for Wings standards) they can only surprise me in a positive way so I guess it will lead to more fun watching the young - hopefully - soon stars play. But given the chance I honestly prefer watching Bruins - Habs, Maple Leafs - Habs, Canucks - Flames , Flames - Leafs or Flames - Bruins I have a feeling those games will be more entertaining than Wings - Florida, Buffalo, Isles ... 2. Tatar completely changed blew my mind not only with his play but also with his unreal mindset (playing after this horrible story) and scoring a goal, so I hope he explodes ala Goose. Yes, Weiss has looked a lot better and kinda bulked up a bit ? but please keep in mind it's only the pre-season. In terms of Goose I fully agree with you if he can score 20 - 25 goalson a regular basis that would be absolutely huge he [Goose] obviously has the talent to do it. The other teams aren't stupid I'm sure they've done their homework and now know how good Tatar, Goose, Danny are which is bad for our young guns but could also mean more space for Z and Pasha. 3. In my mind the Bruins played really bad against the Habs, Rask looked shaky compared to Price and Boston never found a way to replace that Chara - Seidenberg combo but if they meet again I would still bet on the Bruins they are much (or at least should be) a much better and more likeable team. The defensive core does have more problems than just getting the puck to the forwards and running the powerplay, they aren't phsysical enough. Other teams don't pay a price for standing in front of the net and screening Howard or the monster, do that against Boston and Chara, Lucic and McQuaid will make one thing very clear ...stay there and prepare to get pushed of forced out! Sadly the drop off after Danny, Kronwall and Ericsson is huge and I really don't think Oulett, Sproul or Jensen should be trusted to be heavy hitters or playing QB at their first pro-season (if they even make the team). At the end when I'm looking at the last 3 years as an example it is clear to me that the Wings are rated where they should be, it's up to the team to proof experts, fans and the media wrong. We are just fans we can't control anything so it doesn't matter what we think the team has to perform to their abilities will it be good enough for a 24 playoff berth ? Maybe maybe not but like I said, I prefer to look at iat rationally and of course being bad in a McEichel year isn't the worst thing in the world :-) How about his calm down words for Tatar ? He could have absolutely unloaded on him but instead told him to keep his head up and not worry about the mistakes. Carlyle on the other side yelled at his pl ayers to "compete" without ever mentioning what he means .

Oh yeah did forget it damn

Same and it's hard to blame him the guy's job is getting harder and harder each year, because for whatever reason his GM doesn't help out. Babcock is in the absolute driverseat here, other teams would be firing their coaches just to get a chance to hire him. The only way I can see him staying is pay the man a ridiculous amount of money, a sum that Burkle and Super Mario - both are hockey crazy - won't be able to match otherwise I think he is as good as gone. The only question to me is, would be the Penguins fans accept him after our last Stanley Cup Final in my eyes the "rivalry" between Pittsburgh and Detroit is long gone.

If someone would pay 1 $ everytime that stupid injury thing is used, I'd be able to buy my own team by now. The Wings are exactly rated where they should be, even with Babcocks heroic coaching and some young players (Goose, Tatar, Danny !!) taking over they barely made they playoffs. Even healthy this team didn't set the league on fire, the last 3 years have provided a very good example on where this team stands where it's going to be, period. This is the exact same roster as last year just one year older and it's unfair to expect the young guns to carry the load again, because a. other teams are now aware of their skills - same goes for the MacKinnon's - and they might face better defenders b. sophomore slumps are going to happen wheter we like it or not. Boston exactly and even Chicago showed how you've to play against Wings ...bring a heavy game, intimidate them and be done with it.

No, most have realistic views of this team : - downhill since the last scf appearance - injuries are part of the game and will only increase as teams are getting older - potential but yet unproven talent - no playstyle identity - no PP - bad defense Given all that they are exactly rated in where the Wings are << treading water and hoping that some prospects are turning out much better than expected...

So basically an agitator ? I don't want him to fall as low as Marchand - have fun being that **** without Thornton - , Andrew Shaw onb the other hand would be nice

Wow are those guys maybe starting to train too hard ? That's a lot of and some serious injuries maybe the NHL should crack down on the amount of p re season games.

I've often asked that myself, yeah the team can't practicce knee on knee - or at least shouldn't but you can't train how to absorb hits and when to expect them. Nope note in the masterplan otherwise the team could dish out some hits and make others pay...

Probert (RIP big man) was the best enforcer ever and I think by the old standards DMac was still a heavyweight. Players weren't that big, strong and over the top trained back in the days. Charas father is a wrestler and the guy is tough but he is also somewhat of a spotpicker - just like Shea Weber - I've yet to see him fight against a legitimate heavyweight (Orr, Engelland and Scott ...), his fights are basically a hug match where he gets the take down and thats that. That being said guy is country strong and an absolute freak of nature. I'm looking for a short summary of the match but can't find anything on tsn thanks to the new format *gr*

Pasha, Mantha, Nyquist like Goldberg would ask "who's next?"

Keeping the other team honest can be correlated to less injuries. Hockey is a physical sport there is no way to 100 % prevent injuries but there are ways to force the other team to clean their act up. One of them is to finally get a another Downey, DMac to take care of business. Yes it's easy and cheap, yet it hasn't been done since our last cup (needless to say the Wings haven't one anything since then and are losing out on top UFA players also). The Wings were never a free agent destination ? False, there was a team when the Wings could almost dictate the terms and free agents still died to come here...I know it seems like forever. Ehrhoff went to a much better Stanley Cup contender for 4 million that's an absolute steal! The funny thing is those so called "meatheads" are playing a very clean game they know what their job is and they execute it well. I really can't think of any cheapshot by the likes of Colton Orr, Brian McGrattan (guy even gives other enforcers a second chance to guess if they really want to go with him!) or Frazer McLaren. Also in my mind Tootoo is more of an agitator than an enforcer, yeah he will fight and provide some energy but agitators often need enforcers because they aren't feared, their job is to get under the skin of the other team. For everyone saying getting g etting a tough guy is low priority...well the team also failed - like GMR 1983 mentioned - to land top pairing or top 6 guys and some of them don't even want to come here so that doesn't leave a lot of options other than hoping for some prospects to turn out much better than expected, otherwise neither Pasha nor Z will see another cup with this team. And personally I'd rather watch an entertaining team than pussysoft one that gets pushed around and have their best player missing time due to ellbows, hard preseason hits...The rematch against the Ottawa Senators was embarrassing.

Wheter people like it or not the mental mindset also plays a huge in hockey. If I'm a bigger team I'd love to play the Wings: - hit everything that moves ... at worse case a non existant powerplay big deal kill it off and keep hitting - go after their star players and no response - star gets injured ? Well we don't have to fear anything because the team is pussysoft and won't fight fire with fire. Downey used Laperiere as his punching bag and the whole team came together in such an amazing fashion. I'm starting to wonder what would happen if someone pulls a Keczmar against Pasha, Z business as usual I guess ? For everyone saying oh we don't need tough guys we need skill, this team hasn't won anything since they've lost toughness (sure the Wings also lost a ton of FO and on ice skill too) but that's the fact. Players want to feel safe outthere and play there game, without having to worry about rats. How is Calgary too tough ? They might add a 160 lbs !!! player would people like it to feed someone like that to the wolves ? The rats - who are now taking over - would absolutely take advantage of him and intimidate Johnny Hockey at every opportunity they might still do it, but then have to be prepared for the wrath of Bollig, McGrattan, Engelland, Yonkman... Last season 1 guy stood up for Pasha and it was Sam a guy who doesn't and shouldn't fight. Yeah the Milan Lucic type doesn't grow on trees but it's not that hard to add guys like Colton Orr, McGrattan heck McLaren, Frazer, Steve MacIntyre were on waivers and could be had for nothing. We are talking about 4 line players here, there job isn't to score goals or prevent them they have an average TOi of ~ 8 minutes their job is to keep the other team honest and making sure that people pay for taking advantage of Pasha. If we had MacIntyre or McLaren on our team, Scuderi would have thought twice about hitting Pasha and Cowen would have kept his damn ellbow down. Injuries are not something that will go away so the last thing this team needs is the added factor of more injuries from hard hits in PRESEASON games. Get rid of the instigator and let's see if the Marchand's, Cooke's and Lapierre's of the league are still so "brave"

I highly recommend the Puckpodcast, Eddie Garcia and Doug Stolhand are excellent hosts and they are covering all the news. Puckpodcast.com Sent from my BlackBerry

Maybe I'm in the minority but I liked the columns. All they needed to do is making the site wider for desktops, full HD mobile devices and move the news column to the right. Maybe a news filter could have helped also. Have the right column split into two rows one for the videos and the other for more news problem solved Reminds a bit of gamespot they've had a fast, responsive Web site but got rid of it just to look modern, and now it's only a huge mess. I just don't think that content and design should stand in the way of each other.

Nice explanation thank you

I like the design just not the structure because of all the scrolling. Also note a huge fan of the nhl like box score style. Wow the site speed on my tablet is really fast so maybe they've had mobile experience in mind when designing it. Must have been a lot of work to tree design their style sheet

Agreed the instigator needs to go. It's not just fighting that's missing here its the whole physicality stuff. Teams like Boston, LA and the Blues are so feared because they can play every type of game (skilled, physical,wait and see...) the Wings used to be able to do that too and they haven't one anything since going soft. @Atlantawing that's something I've been wondering a about Cowen have elbowed Pasha in the head of he had McGrath an on his line? I don't think so World Scuderi have gone full in knowing he might have to answer - whether he likes it or not - by either dropping the gloves or getting hit equally as hard? I highly doubt it. We are just fans sure but I would love to hear how Pasha is feeling about a beefed-up team? BTW Staal's injury just Sucks guy had no luck

It's actually growing a bit on me as I'm getting more used to it. But instead of all the Twitter stuff they should have kept the right video column. Yeah I don't like the one fits all look also. I fully agree about the scroll bar it's equally as annoying as that stupid load more button. The funny thing is the new SN site now looks a bit like the old tsn one lol

Loving it but it shouldn't even be news. I mean it's a long summer the players have a lot of money and maybe rich families so they should be able to attend some MMA training too. But of course it must be nice if guys like Gillies, Bollig are willing to teach them how to defend themselves. Feels like yesterday when everyone thought the Flames would be a pussysoft, undersized team and now look at them, guys like Chara won't be laughing like they did against Abdelkader.. Personally I think guys like Pasha, Nyquist, and Tatar would welcome the addition of someone who has their back. Here is my Brian McGrattan on the addition on Brandon Bollig (reporter asks him about the added size and toughness on the team): it's actually security for our young players to go and play as freely as they want...without having to worry about anything. I would LOVE if someone on this team would say the same thing about Pasha, Z, Nyquist and guess what I think they would welcome it too. The days of having the PP as an enforcer are long but gone. I don't know about some of the anti-toughness fans but personally I would love seeing the skilled guys on this team doing their thing as freely as they want...

Thank man it's a lot of click, scroll, click, scroll, click , scroll hate that

Monahan made the Flames and could focus fully on hockey, nobody took cheapshots or borderline hits against him and guess why ? People FEAR McGrattan as every cheapshot artist = rat should. The point of the matter is this Pasha is by far the best player on this team he is wasting his last years on a team that doesn't stick up for each other and where the FO doesn't bring in guys that could help out. It's not just about fighting it's that whole "anti physicality" mindset that I'm questioning Downey said it best himself "hey you can hit our players but if you try to take advantage of star/weaker/smallish players someone sneaky will come around the corner..." The last player who took liberties with Kessel was a behemoth called John Scott nobody else has done so, because nobody wants to answer to Colton Orr, Frazer McLaren. Phaneuf told Crosby to keep to clean his act up or else he would hit him in the same manner...nobody on our team is doing that and maybe just maybe there is already too much complacensy... Ok Scuderi laid out a clean hit fine, where are the guys that say "ok it's preseason and they are playing this like regular/playoff season in terms of physicality let's hit Maataa, Kunitz ...in the same manner" there is freaking nobody. Things like this are also a bounding experience for team they rally around each other and know everyone heas each others back.

That trend is very sad and alarming but your can be sure other leagues are having this problem too. When I'm looking at lesser leagues (non KHL, SEL, NLA, FEL), there are sometimes top 6 lines without one home grown player.. It's simple disgusting and personally I've almost stopped following my national league thanks to that. Sweden and Russia should follow the Swiss model and start limiting the number of foreigners a team can have. BTW. How can the KHL boss be OK with this? Isn't the khl mostly a Russian league? So they should focus on developing and helping their own clubs instead of paying millions for public traitors like Jokerit (fu Hajarmo). I would lose a lot of respect of Teemu signed there.

Fully agreed with almost everything. Like I said players don't need to fight Scuderi just have someone who will and can hit him - or Crosby, Malkin - equally as hard (but clean) should there be a fight after that ? No, absolutely not if it was a clean hit but keep in mind there is also a fine line. I fully agree with your statement about someone getting Cowened he should have gotten absolutely smoked or challenged to fight after that and that's exactly my point the Wings need to be a tougher team to play against. One where others know what goes around comes around.