chaps80

Maybe they should try him at forward. Can't hurt at this point. lol

Missed the game. Another loss I see. Shutout by Philly..mannn.

Having one doesn't stop dangerous attempts on skill players anymore alot of the time, and hasn't for years, because there's an instigator rule. Just because the enforcer wants to fight, doesn't mean the offending player has to oblige him. He can skate away behind the refs and it's done. And then if the enforcer goes after him next shift, it's penalties and suspensions. Before though, if an opposing player pulled that crap, they'd get a beating then and there or the next shift regardless of if they wanted to fight or not. How many players took shots at Stevie while Probert and/or Kocur were on the team, Or Gretzky when McSorley was with him when he played for the Oilers and Kings? One of Gretzky's conditions of agreeing to the trade from EDM to LA is that McSorley go with him. He was that valuable to Gretzky. Gave him space to do what he had to do and kept the flies off him. Nowadays he'd get run all the time, because the rules protect the cheapshot artists from retalition instead of deter them. And if there is a suspension given and a star player is the offender, they get maybe one game.

Possibly. Since he came into his own during the Cup season of 2007-08, he hit 34, 29, 28, and 27 goals in the seasons where played in most of the games. Had he been completely healthy his whole career, it's not unreasonable to think he could have hit 40 at least once. He didn't need to once he signed in Chicago. With Toews and Kane there, the spotlight isn't on him, so he can slip under the radar and kind of chill and do what he wants. lol Plus he's playing on a 10 year deal. He gets paid no matter what he does. In Detroit it was a one year deal, so he had to perform.

Mrazek had an off night no doubt, and if he allowed two stinkers, that's on him. But after he was pulled, the Wings only allowed 7 shots the rest of the way. So were they playing worse defensively for the first half than they were for the rest? I didn't watch the game, so I don't know, but two sloppy goals shouldn't sink a team with more than a period left to play.

Yep, was rough for sure. That loss was what initiated the trade for Vernon though. Osgood had to take on the starting job before he was ready because Essensa turned out to be a nightmare after the Wings traded Chevy for him. Vernon came on board to take over and mentor Osgood. So it turned out alright eventually.

Same. I was there for some s***ty years before The Streak. Hell, even during it there was some rough times. First round loss to SJ where Osgood gave Game 7 away in the final minutes comes to mind.

56 games dressed is quite a few for a guy who was nothing but an enforcer. He had an impact. Ask George Parros.

Dude..did I mention you? Your still here posting, no? I'm talking about actual bandwagon fans, ones that love the team when they win, but can't be bothered at all or deny being a fan when they lose, or they change teams all together. They also don't know hockey from a hole in the ground. I know there are true fans who don't want to watch or post during s***ty times, but guaranteed quite a few of the registered users here are bandwagon and have ditched the team and now like the Habs or Pens or something.

Downey played 56 games in 2008. 0 Goals 3 Assists 116 Penalty Minutes. I seem to remember his presence made other teams play a pretty clean game in a season they won the Cup.

They did play a 5 show stint at the Hard Rock in Vegas earlier this year....

Haha yes, they probably would. It's bad when Z leads the team at age 36 and half of his former self.

Oh I agree the product sucks right now, but Gary and the owners wanted this. It's the price you pay for "parity" in the league I guess. But if people stuck through for the Cup draught from '55 to '97 and the painful "Dead Things" era, I figure sticking through this will be easy compared.

True. I still enjoy watching though. And if this team makes you depressed, then you must have been depressed for awhile now. This is the Wings unavoidable down period in the cap era. The Kings won the cup one year, then missed the playoffs the next. That's the nature of the league now. I remember when the cap was first introduced everyone was saying the Wings were gonna be at the bottom of the league in a couple years because Holland didn't have an open vault to lure free agents anymore. Three seasons after that they won a cup and nearly another the next season. Then the decline slowly crept in, but it took quite awhile to reach this point. We Wings fans are pretty lucky.

It's not just Friday's. Of course people have other stuff to do on weekends. It's every night, every game. No interest here anymore from most it seems.

Agreed.

You have'nt been watching the past 5 games I guess. 3-0-2 and .930 sv%. 8 out of 10 possible points. Bad night tonight, but it happens. And Hammond had a good end to one season. Other than that, not much. I don't recall Reimer or Lehner ever being hyped.

That and I figure alot of the posters here were just bandwagon for the most part. Grew up as kids watching from the mid-90's or 00's when the team was always winning alot of regular season and playoff games and four Cups and made six trips to the Finals. Even if they didn't always make it past the first or second round in the playoffs, always knew they'd be in Cup contention again the next season, so it was something to look forward too. Now that there's nothing to look forward too for a few years, they've scattered as fast as a flock of birds after a gunshot.

I wasn't only talking about Hossa, I should have expanded on that. Other guys on the team were scoring alot more goals the season when Hossa hit that mark too. Dats, Z, and Mule all had over 30. Hudler had 23, Samuelsson 19, and 5 others had 10 or over. Z had 43 the year before. And yes, the 2002 team leader was Shanny with 37. Fedorov had 31, and Hull and Robitaille had 30 each. Then a few in the mid-low teens and a bunch with 9, 8, 5, etc. Everyone was chipping in. Last season Larkin lead with 23. Only one other player hit over 20, which was Tatar with 21. Then Abby with 19 and 6 others with 10 or more. Goal scoring is a huge issue right now. We are missing those 4 top guys. Our scoring leaders only hit secondary marks.

Mrazek gets pulled the first game Howard is back on the bench after a streak of great games while he was injured. I wonder if Howard's presence has something to do with the bad outing? While Howard was gone and the starting spot was all his he was fine. There's no excuse for him to be rattled like that, and it's not Howard's fault, but that stuff can happen. Yep. I remember how pissed Habs fans were when they traded Halak and kept Price and he struggled for a few years. There's A LOT of them around here so I heard a lot about it. Now if you ask them about that, they're tune has obv changed tenfold. Halak barely holds on to the starting role with NYI while Price is arguably the best in the world.

No one has hit 40 goals in a season in Detroit since Hossa in 2008-'09. That was 7, going on 8 years ago now. Long time. Most since was 29 by Franzen in '2011-'12 and Tatar in 2014-'15. That's pretty damn bad.

Yeah that's horrible work. I'd be looking for another artist to fix it. I dunno why he hasn't yet.

The Oilers already brought in guys to help protect him.

Ya the 2nd and 3rd pairings are looking real s***ty tonight. Kronwall-Lashoff on the third. Blash is such a great coach.

Just noticed the bottom two D pairings. Whyyyy? The third is especially bad.