Seraph

This is so random. Random bottles of soda with pictures of Chris Chelios chilling the eff out on them.

Too me it sounds like Holland has given up on Hoss. It would make much more sense to get Hossa signed, and give Franzen, the one who seems way more eager to stay, a contract with that's left over. Because you know he'll be willing to stay with whatever trades, shuffling needs to be done. He'll wait. I feel Hossa will have too many people throwing themselves at him this summer.

That Colorado announcer said "another right" three times for each right. What a tool. I always hate watching the version with him announcing it. It doesn't nearly bother me as much that Ozzie lost, just that that idiot is relishing and exaggerating it way too much. And Roy would have killed Hasek, no question. Have you seen how skinny Hasek is? He'd get thrown around like a blow up doll.

I'm Jiri Hudler. I'm exactly his height. I kind of have a weird look to me when I'm out there, but I can still manage to play well. My shot is better than a lot of people's. I am never the star, but a guy you can count on to take advantage of all the ice time he is given.

Man, I got my money all saved for an away 81 jersey. I just need Kenny to pull the trigger. Go go go, before the playoffs.

You make a great point. But the fact is that we're in a new age now. Information, entertainment, and knowledge are more dynamic these days. The respective industries need to realize this and adapt along with changing times. The music industry has done this to a degree. Now instead of relying solely on the hard copy, CD sales, they are offering the ability to buy songs online. Something similar should be done for sports and TV. In the end, even what the music industry has done will fail. Information is just too fluid these days. These corporations need to rethink their market strategy completely and come up with a new way of making money. Because enforcing the old way just won't work. I'm still watching streams online for free. Nothing has changed. And in a few weeks, a new site will be up that'll provide the same feeds. They can only delay it, not destroy it. Sure, you can talk about ethics, and whether it's right or wrong to watch games online for free. But the fact of the matter is no one cares. If something is free, it'll be consumed by at least someone, whether it's legal or not, right or wrong. A fundamental change needs to occur to accommodate this truth and allow these companies to also make a profit.

Don't be crabby, dude. I'm sick of seeing a bunch of whiners on these boards. If you're gonna discourage this site from being a forum where you can exchange ideas and create discussion, you're not really being helpful.

Absolutely not. You're getting your sentiments mixed up with your judgment. You want McCarty to be hanging next to Howe? This team has had a great cast of players with wonderful personalities, but retiring a player in Detroit requires the type of person who not only helped the team win, but also influenced the very game of hockey. It requires league-wide recognition. #5 is a candidate. #91 would have been if he'd stuck around for more cups.

There's no question that Franzen is at his peak value right now. Probably more than ever, this is his opportunity to sell himself for a lot of money. He will for sure get a buttload more somewhere else. That's not even a discussion. This also makes it seem like he won't stay. If this is his only chance to cash out, a good investor would go for it. He may never have this high of value again. And cashing out with the Wings is at this point impossible. Would you swallow your chance at millions to stay "loyal" to your team if it was possible you could never do it again?

I like that he's told them he can only sign one of the two before the playoffs. It's gonna be incentive for each player to give the club the best deal. Very smart move (although I understand he can't sign both anyway, but it's good politics). I don't think either will want to go through the playoffs not knowing where they'll be next year.

I always wondered how much the guys cared when they lost. I'm glad to hear they're PISSED. Sometimes it felt like when they went out there and couldn't get anything done, that they didn't care. This is refreshing. I love that this club is so infused with a winning tradition. It's contagious. It brings out the best in everyone.

The people in the Draper camp are effing crazy. He's so slow. He had mad wheels in the 90's. But he's nothing incredible anymore in the speed department. Maybe a step ahead the average player.

Put Downey on our fourth linefor good. Our fourth line does nothing but win faceoffs, and then not do anything with the puck. They seem to just take up space while the big guns are resting. Might as well put Downey in to punish some bodies while that happens. There's my 2 hundredths of a dollar.

I am in between both camps. Osgood is a proven goalie in my mind. I will admit I was a skeptic before, but I have never felt so confident in a goalie in the playoffs as I did when Osgood stepped in. He was a man on a mission. I am sure he still has it in him. On the other hand, he needs to take more responsibility for his game. Sure, we can't expect him to go out and steal every game, but I'd like to see him make an honest try. I want to see him frustrate the other team and get in their head. I also want to see him bring confidence to his team. He has failed miserably at this so far. It IS concerning. For those of you who have blind faith in him, this is a concession you will have to make. After 50 games, we haven't seen the elite play we saw last year. But to compliment your judgment, we must not abandon him yet. We have two goalies that won't lose it for us, will play solid, and allow our other players compete for the win. By any means there is no reason to panic. If Osgood hasn't stepped up by the playoffs, we'll start him in good hope and pull a switcheroo if he blunders like we did last year, only he'll be on the other end of the stick.

Nothing to get into a tussel about. We're winners. We're better than them. That's why they hate us.

You can tell from the way he answered the Datsyuk/Lidstrom question that he's on a total power trip... They are "apparently" injured. Come on buddy. He's talking about them as if they are little kids. Be a professional. I could have respected him if he'd just said: we set up the rules, and these are what the rules said. But don't chide the players.

He is their ambassador. It's his job to represent these people and along with it, take any criticism of how things are done. Or would you like us to list all the owners each time we talk about them?

You are completely right. Based on the way Bettman said things should unfold, suspending the players is the correct course of action (seeing as how they won't show up for off ice stuff). What is bothering most people is that Bettman is a complete idiot for making this a requirement. He is also an idiot for trying to force the players' hands to attend. Players should come because they want to, not because their arms are being twisted. Lidstrom and Datsyuk are already doing so much for the game. Why make them do all that extra traveling with lingering injuries to take a few photos? It's just stupid. It's fairly clear that Bettman suspects these players are feigning injuries. He wants them to come attend off-ice events and make them feel stupid for not lacing up. Don't waste injured players' time. They already spend enough time away from family and friends. And also, as it has been mentioned, if Bettman could actually get his s*** together and create an ASG with some rhyme and reason, and not a complete farce with fans sabotaging the vote, then maybe there would be some sort of sanctity to the game that would compel these players to respect it. It's his own damn fault for letting the integrity of the ASG fade away, and he is an idiot for trying to twist arms to get players to attend. Rather, try to make the ASG something worth attending so players will maybe even consider playing through injuries to attend. Datsyuk and Lidstrom should not attend this worthless event. Go ahead and suspend them. We'll win that game out of spite.

Fedorov was something else. My feeling from watching both was that Fedorov just had more natural ability, whereas, I feel Datsyuk has polished himself into an amazing player. There was just something extra to Fedorov's step. He literally flew down the ice as if that was what he was designed to do. Every time he had the puck, you felt like something amazing would happen, and it often did. Datsyuk is an expert playmaker, and he gets the job done amazingly. You see him toil and you see his hard work pay off. He would be the one to build a franchise around. Fedorov, however, when he wanted to play, was ahead by a good margin. Everything seemed so smooth for him.

I saw you guys!! I was wondering why your girl was wearing red during the competition!

Hey fellas. Good game tonight. I just got back from it and thought I'd share a story about Cheli. Haha. Well, where I was sitting, there was a particularly hostile group of Kings fans that were very aggressively banging and taunting any wings players that skated by. Especially Conklin, when he was skating around before faceoffs, they were really loud and basically annoying to. And you know how most of the time, all the players completely ignore the crowd? No one minded them until most of the game was done. But then skates Chelios around the corner. And he skates down the line of Kings fans, looks them in the eye and gives them a half sneer/half smirk with a smile in the corner of his mouth. It was hilarious. The fans immediately got up and kept banging away on the glass. Classic Chelios. Hahaha.

Honorable mention: Carolina.

These things get passed around on sports teams too. And no, not in a steamy locker room sort of way. But with water bottle sharing and stuff like that. Hopefully there won't be an outbreak. Haha.

ooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww. They probably put up the Gary Bettman signal after that, and he's gonna swoop down and save the game from this.

That wouldn't be our style. We build up our team differently.