redwinger4747

...........yes that is the topic of the thread and what I said, what is your point?

While true, this ABSOLUTELY should NOT affect the atmosphere of the games and attendance! Us die hard Wings fan who expect them to win 50 games in a season should STILL be at the Joe in force, screaming our lungs out for the Wings like most other arenas, especially the Canadian ones. As for tonight, It was NOT fine, half the lower bowl was empty as always and the crowd was dead like always And this is not fair to the players, who win most of the home games. More Wings fans come to away games than home ones.

Is there an update as to how many slots have been filled?

Hey Matt, Checking into my account information, I realized that my listed email was one that I no longer had, so I had to change my email address to the one I am currently using and re-activated my account accordingly. Would this pose a problem to my eligibility? Evan

Haha nice, great post I think Nick got his chance to play in the Olympics again, why didn't they ask him "Hey Nick, would you like a chance to score the gold medal-winning goal in the 3rd period of the Olympic Championship game against bitter rival Finland? Yeah? well don't worry, its gunna happen!"

Watched it tonight, boy I love Nick. It was easy to forget all the accompishments Nick has had until this progam laid it all out. World Championship Gold Medal Olympic Gold Medal with the winning goal 3 Stanley Cups Conn Smythe (not to mention that he won it on a team with Yzerman, Shanny, Feds, Hull, Hasek, Luc, Chelios) 4 (soon to be 5) Norris Trophies (wil be tied with Bourque and behind only Orr and Harvey) Captaincy of the Wings (after Yzerman, this is an honor) 9 All Star Games 7-time all star first team ....and to come: more Cups (hopefully) more Norris Trophies #5 retired Hall of Fame when he is done, he will be one of the best defensemen of all time.

Either you need to check your math or your not including OT losses or something because none of the stats add up to the correct number of games played. For Broduer: 487 (wins) + 258 (losses) + 119 (ties) = 864 games played, not 879 For Roy: 551 (wins) + 315 (losses) + 131 (ties) = 997 games played, not 1029 For Broduer's adjusted: 570 (wins) + 369 (losses) + 119 (ties) = 1058 games played, not 1029 something is wrong

Check out this video of Barry Melrose, he says Lidstrom is his pick for the best player in the NHL. A little surprising but aweseom to see Lids get more praise, which he doesn't get enough of compared to Crosby and Brodeur (dont get me wrong, they are great players). http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/nhl/index click on the viedo labled "Penguins staying in Pittsburgh" with Barry on the front.

I have to say I like a lot of the guys on the Wings and think we should resign Hasek, Schneider, Markov, Calder, Cleary, Dats of course, and even Maltby (for the right price) and Bert if he does well. We could drop Lang and use his salary to make room for everyone else. That would make next year's roster and projected salaries (in $millions) look like: Forwards: Zetterberg 2.65 Datsyuk 5.5 (hopefully not too much higher, but would be worth 6-6.5) Bertuzzi 3 Holmstrom 2.1 Calder 2 Cleary 0.7 Draper 2.1 Franzen 0.9 Samuelsson 1.2 Hudler 0.52 Filppula 0.7 Kopecky 0.45 Maltby 1 Defense: Lidstrom 7.6 Schneider 3.3 Lebda 0.55 Lilja 1 Markov 2.5 Kronwall 1.5 Chelios 0.85 Goalies: Hasek 0.75 Osgoon 0.85 Total salary 41.72 - This is a good lineup for this salary - we have skill, grit, great defense, good goaltending, with youth and verteran leadership. Since the cap I heard will be more like 45 mil, we definately can still afford Dats at 6-6.5 and Bert and Calder if they want a little more or will have room come deadline time. What do you guys think?

Suite yourself but I don't think "Grit" is synonymous with savage violence. I'm glad Bert is on our team, but that isn't the kind of "grit" I want from him.

Really? I didn't know they averaged contracts like this for the salary cap. My bad. Why the increasing salary then? Why not just pay him 3 mil a year?

I agree that playoffs are what matter, but if we don't do well what would you do? Who should not be back? Datsyuk? Yeah so we lose in the first round, let Datsyuk go as the scapegoat, break up the Z-Dats-Homer line and we......are a better team then??? Or get rid of Schneider because a 50-pt defenseman with a good shot on the PP is easy to find? We all know that playoffs are what matters but how can you justify just getting rid of good players because we go out early? How would the team become better from letting Dats go? Unless we sign Ryan Smyth, im pretty sure Dats is a great player who is hard to replace and yeah has struggled in the playoffs. Don't break up a winning team to make it worse just b/c we got out early again.

No, Kronwall will be 1.5 next season http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2674554 Homer may be 2.25 I'm not sure Calder had a bad season in Phili and Bert was injured all year. I really don't think they will command that much value as UFA. I'd definately see Calder down to 2 and Bert might be 3.5-4, but I'd be surprised if it was higher than that. As for the playoffs, I'd say get those guys signed now and prepare for next season. Waiting until after the playoffs is lose-lose. If player play well, like Dats and Bert, their value may go way up, If they do poorly, I'd be afraid that Holland might panic and let them go. Even if we lose in the first round, I'd keep this team, It should have a sucessful regular season next year and will have a chance at playoff success as always. I think people need to realize that playoff success is very hard to achieve and just because we get a winning team that loses in the first round to a team that goes all they way to game 7 of the finals (the last 3 teams that knocked us out all did this), doesn't mean we should break the team up. People say, "but we've only won one series in the last 3 years!" Yeah, playoffs are hard, name me the team that goes to the conference finals every year. Truth is no team in the NHL can expect to have regular playoff success (if you define success as conference finals) every year because only FOUR out of THIRTY teams get there. So oh well, we havnt been to the conference finals in a few years, we don't panic, we don't break up a team that wins in the regular season every year, we keep making small adjustments and keep trying.

Cleary is locked up for next season I think. Also I think Hasek might sign again for a low base salary with bonues.

Take a look at the TOI and Shift Chart from last night and its interesting what we are doing with all the injuries. Dats lead all forwards with 24 min and Calder and Filps each got 22. Meanwhile Hussy, Ellis, and Langfeld each had their last shift of the game before the midway point of the 2nd period. They were just sitting and watching for more than half the game. Interesting how lopsided the ice time is, but makes sense.

I'd like to get some retired numbers mini banners myself but I can't find them anywhere on the internet. I've checked ebay and nhl shopping + googling it and can't come up with anything. Maybe they will begin selling some soon since the Yzerman retirement resulted in all of them being redone.

C'mon!!! This is getting ridiculous, Hasek, Bertuzzi, Zetterberg, Cleary, Sammy, all injured??!?!! Seriously, how much more can we take?? watch, next it'll be Lidstrom, the one person who never gets injured!! Ugg....

Who do you think will mature into the future stars of the Wings? hopefully Fillps and Hudler can get there, a sleeper in my mind is Evan Mcgrath. He had 114 pts in the OHL last year, I think hes one of the best North Americans in our system right now. How has Kindl been doing?

Meet Lidstom and the Detroit Griffins! f*** THIS AHHHH!

Now Chicago leads in everything. How is that happening?

Lidstrom 1 assist, +4 for the night, He is quietly the steadiest player in the league!! +42 now on the season, wow!!! Zetterberg is one of the most gifted, go Z!!

Guys are getting really hard on Cleary and especially Williams a lot lately. I think it would be a mistake to trade either of these guys. Williams is definately having a down year, but he's shown he has great skill with the puck, epecially on break aways and shootouts. Last year he put up 21 goals when playing with better players and I think he would do the same if he had a better center than Lang(who should not stay next season). These two are 28 (Cleary) and 26 (Williams) years old and hold a valuable part of our future. They might each be 25 goal scorers with a good center and are our only good young north American forwards on the team right now. I love Europeans like Dats and Z, but I think you need a mix to win the cup.

In case you hadn't realized just how hot Henrik Zetterberg is right now, try this: The Red Wings have won 7 of their last 9 games. In those 7 wins, Zetterberg has been the #1 Star in EVERY ONE of them!! Thats right, he has now been the #1 Star in the last SEVEN Wings wins. In those 9 games, he has 11 goals, 12 assists for 23 points.......in NINE games!!! You have to go all the way back to January 28 in our 3-1 win over Colorado to find a Wings win in which Z was NOT the #1 Star. If you don't belive me, I've listed the 3 stars from the last 10 Wings games going back to Jan 28. This guy in UNBELIEVABLE right now!!!!!!! Feb 17 4-1 W PHX 1. ZETTERBERG 2. Datsyuk 3. Zigomanis Feb 14 3-1 W DAL 1. ZETTERBERG 2. Smith 3. Osgood Feb 12 1-6 L PHI 1. Forsberg 2. Umberger 3. Richards Feb 11 7-4 W CGY 1. ZETTERBERG 2. Lidstrom 3. Datsyuk Feb 8 0-1 L STL 1. Sanford 2. Jackman 3. Legace Feb 7 4-2 W PHX 1. ZETTERBERG 2. Joseph 3. Holmstrom Feb 5 4-3 W NYR 1. ZETTERBERG 2. Datsyuk 3. Hossa Feb 2 5-3 W STL 1. ZETTERBERG 2. Holmstrom 3. Draper Jan 30 4-3 W NYI 1. ZETTERBERG 2. Lidstrom 3. Kronwall Jan 28 3-1 W COL 1. Datsyuk 2. Holmstrom 3. Franzen

Z for Hart 08!