DickieDunn

We should have expected this season to be kind of a clusterf***. Lidstrom retired, they lost Stuart, then a third of the guys they expected to play on the top 3 lines all went down early. That's a lot of shuffling and guys playing new roles, with no camp and only a short season to get used to the changes. Kronwall had to adjust to being Nik instead of just Nik Jr., Ericsson needed to adjust to being #2, and they were working Smith in. There wasn't a single defenseman who had a partner they'd spent any significant time with before this year. It usually takes time to build chemistry and get your communication down. If you add Zetterberg having to adjust to being the captain and working 3 rookie forwards in too, that's about 3 normal offseasons worth of changes they had to make with no camp. Throwing Kronwall under the bus for "playing worse" as a #1 than he did as the #2 guy is kind of harsh. I expect him, and everyone else, to be much better next season after a full training camp and half a season of the changes.

Define true #1.

There are probably a couple dozen, and sometimes a team gets 2 at once. Suter and Weber in Nashville, Lidstrom and Vladdy, Lidstrom and Murphy, Lidstrom and Chelios when he first got here.

Kronwall is a #1 d. He is not top 10 in the NHL though. We just got spoiled by having at least one guy seriously considered for the Norris every year since Folgers was here. Coffey, Lidstrom, Konstantinov, Murphy, and Chelios were all fantastic players and Kronwall just isn't in that class. That doesn't mean he's bad it just means he's not Hall of Fame material. And yes, I know Vlad won't get there, but if Gnida had waited until later to get baked, he would have gotten there.

Brunner is probably signing with NJ. As Wings fans we now have to hate him and do voodoo spells so he plays terrible and send diseased hookers to his hotel when they come to Detroit.

UFAs come first. There's no rush to get the RFA guys signed immediately, and a GM can only do so many things at once.

Alfredsson on a 1 year deal is far better than a lot of these long term deals other guys signed

If they roll 3 scoring lines and a check line the 9 guys will be Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Weiss, Alfredsson, Tatar, Nyquist, and 2 of Helm, Abdelkader, Samuelsson, Bertuzzi, and Anderson. That's pretty good.

They don't need another player now. Dump 2 of Bertuzzi, Samuelsson, Eaves or Emmerton if Helm is good to go, dump one if not and they're set with 3 good scoring lines and a check line

Tatar cannot be sent down. Nyquist can but if he is it won't be for more than a couple weeks while things get sorted out.

If his agent let him sign that deal he'd never get another client. $2.5 isn't bad to pay a #5 and the assumption is Smith will be a good second pair guy at least.

Given Brunner didn't want to sign what would you have done?

Between him and Rask he's shelled out a lot of coin though.

A guy breaks into a house and hears a voice day "Jesus sees you.". He looks around and doesn't see or hear anyone else so he goes about his business. He hears the voice again, "Jesus sees you, and he's getting angry.". The robber shines his flash light around and sees a parrot, who looks at him and says" Jesus sees you and he's VERY angry now." The guy laughs and says "what's your name birdie?". The parrot says Moses.". Guy says "who names their parrot Moses?". Parrot says "the same people who name their Rottweiler Jesus."

Wasn't the Bruins' owner one of the ones insisting on the lockout because of how high salaries were getting?

I think he'd go back home before that happens.

Wonder if this gibes Luongo any ideas?

The 3 years before he signed that deal he had 2 seasons with 50+ points and his full season pace the other year when he was hurt was 52. If it was another player his size with those exact stats and abilities people would have liked that signing.

If they don't get their crap together the Jets will continue to suck and once the "we got our team back (OK we really stole another team but who's keeping track)" excitement is over they'll be right back to a being a fringe team that can't compete.

Where did you see that? It hurts them on the ice, but financially this is the best thing that could happen to them. It frees up a bunch of cap space, and it saves them a crap ton of cash over the next few years, which they need. they can still get some decent players in free agency, and they didn't have the money to re-sign Clarkson for that kind of cash anyway.

Oh yeah... RWC doesn't do that

Not if you use tapatalk. Btw I like this post.

Quincey and Kronwall were the only d men who played both PP and PK.

You can't compare eras, so greatest of all time will always be conjecture. D men used to never score and before second assists were given their assist numbers were way down. Playing styles and equipment changed too. The best way to gauge it if you insist on making the argument is how much did they dominate their peers? Eddie Shore, Doug Harvey, Orr, and Lidstrom are the 4 best ever. Beyond that there is no right order. Btw, if you want to know who the best goal scorer of all time is, Joe Malone scored 44 goals in the NHL's first year of existence. He played 20 games.