LeftWinger

problem is, if Lids doesn't retire, we won't get anyone to score either... hang em up Lids, please! (or re-sign for league minimum....)

thats it. game over. say goodbye to the playoffs. I bet we lose to Nashville AND Phoenix this week...

And we don't need Kovalchuk why?

biggest game of the year thus far and Datsyuk/Zetterberg decide not to show up....

Wow! What version of NHL are you playing right now? You better turn the cheat codes off...

talk about laughing hysterically! Kronwall? He can't keep healthy enough to become number 1. Ericsson, maybe, but he has to play with Rafi and Stuart for the next three years. During that time, Stuart WILL be our #1 defensman. Kindl? Kindl? kindl? This season half of our defensive corps were griffins and he couldn't even keep a spot here! Kindl is a bust and will never be higher than a 5 or 6 on this team... Lidstrom needs to retire or resign for CHEAP. We need the cap space to try to better this team. I didn't say Lidstrom sucks,I said he needs to hang em up. He'll be 40 in April and he is showing his age a bit. Great if he comes back for cheap, but if he dilly dally's around too far past July 1st, he'll be doing nothing but screwing Holland out of quality UFA's. The Wings need a sniper. The reason I said Hudler won't be back is because someone said he'll be back next year. I simply said not for less than half of what he is making now minus taxes as well. He's making US $5M TAX FREE and he was only awarded what, $2.7M? then take taxes off of that, ya, sure he'll be back next year... Ok, go back to laughing hysterically. It IS entirely possible to offer kovalchuk $8.9M which is what Crosby makes. If he wants more then good on him, but if he would accept it while being the top paid Red Wing, that would leave $4-$5M to re-sign our other FA's. We'd have to bid farewell to some, including Lids, but he is gonna eventually retire, Kovi is only available once, the next contract he signs will probably be one of his last, if not the last one, unless he does a 1 year and out signing somewhere. We love you Lids, thanks for the memories, but we need your salary to make this team a legit contender again.

ok, I will take him. What would it take to get him? People comparing him with Lebda. Difference? Lebda career on downswing, Johnson on the up still. He could be a nice fit with a third pairing with Ericsson. Maybe try to aquire him after the season. Not sure the Kings would deal us something that would help us considering the current playoff race going on, but maybe in the off season. Johnson would be awesome on the Wings.

not only that, but with the apparent battle between himself and Babcock, will he see enough games this year to get his 400th? He only needs 4 more wins, I certainly hope Babcock plays him enough to get it and hope he performs well enough to get it! He deserves it....

Miller, 100%! Leino may be good in Finland, but he has busted his opportunities here. For Pete's sake he was given a #1 line spot for a few games during the peak of the injuries and he couldn't hack it. He will be the healthy scratch, if Babcock was gonna put him on the third line when all players are back healthy, why wouldn't he be playing now instead of Miller? Miller is better that's why... (at least here in Detroit he is....) Unfortunately someone is gonna sit, Abdelkader, Helm, Miller & May are ALL on two-way contracts so take your pick to which one(s) go to GRR to make cap room when Franzen returns. Leino won't get demoted, but if they can fit him under the cap, Miller will be in the lineup while Leino sits. From a business standpoint, you cannot lose Leino to waivers, so you'd have to demote Abdelkader first since their salaries wash each other out. Nothing personal, just business...

No. Not as long as the Sharks are up top. Re-sign Bert/Eaves/Miller and then make a pitch for Kovalchuk. Lids retires, Homer retires, Maltby retires. Maybe score a mid-range defenseman with your top 4 being Rafi/Stuart/Kronner/Ericsson. Kovalchuk WAAAAYY better than Marleau...

What bait? Lids needs to hang em up, we need the Cap space.

Draper STILL has 1 more year on his contract. Homer for less than $1M... Maltby has to go Lids needs to hang em up, we need the cap space. (or sign for $2M and we know that wont happen)

First of all, Hudler won't be coming back, not for less than half the money he is making MINUS taxes as well. Lidstrom needs to hang em up. The RFA's will get a modest raise, since none of them are really tearing it up, yet they desever a raise because of all the work they've done this season. We will need to sign a couple of D to replace Lids, Lebda, Meech & Lilja. Willie Mitchell is a UFA and so is Derek Morris & Aaron Ward. With that, I am not sure if we can afford a Kovalchuk, he is rumored to wanting the max, and Detroit is no longer the discount warehouse it used to be, it will take some money to get some folks here. I would still love to steal Andrew Ladd and or Hjalmarsson out of Chicago. Rafi Torres is a UFA so is Fernando Pisani, those could be some cheaper talent to try to get. Kovi is definately the cream of the crop UFA this offseason, there are plenty of teams that will be able to throw the max at him. I just hope he doesn't go to Pitts, they have $15M available next season, although they only have 2 defensemen signed next season though. I can't wait to start hearing all the Mike Grier talk around here again! BARF! edit: When it comes down to it Stuart needs to be your number 1 priority to keep around. Rafi should retire in three years, his contract is up the same time Stuart's is. If you can swing Mitchell for a few years that'll give you a top 4 of Rafi, Stuart, Kronner, Mitchell, with Ericsson #5. edit: If Lidstrom retires (using the OP's modest rasise to RFA's) we should be able to get Bertuzzi at the same or less than now and throw a big contract at Kovi. But that pretty much removes Mitchell from my plans (unless he takes less money, but I am not gonna start going in that direction.) I gave Abdelkader $1M, Bertuzzi $1M, Helm $850,000, Miller $525,000 & Eaves $500,000. I then gave Kovalchuk $8.9M (Crosby cash since like it or not, he should be the benchmark) which leaves $3.3M to sign two or three defense, since only 4 guys remain signed into next season...

as long as it is for $1.5 or less. We NEED the cash to sign a sniper and two defense when we cuts ties with Lidstrom, Lilja, Lebda and Meech.

and to think, Ken Holland chose Jakub Kindl over this guy. Hmmmmm........ Guess it was more important to have that softy than a good ol' Canadian boy....

Need a sniper....... can't hold a lead..... can we worry yet?

NHL conspiracies aside, it's painfully obvious that this team cannot score like they used to. We were ALL excited last off season for the likes of Abdelkader, Helm and Leino to be in the lineup full time. We knew we were gonna miss Hossa's 40 goals, Hudler's 50ish points (well not me ) and Sammy's production. Of course the injury bug has taken it's toll on us, but really, do you think Franzen was gonna put it 40 or more? The point being, sure Ott's shoot out goal was a killer, as has been a ton of games this year where they called off the tying goal or allowed another teams non-goal to stand, but if the Wings could score some freaking goals, we wouldn't be in the situation where one goal would matter. Zetterberg is a non-factor anymore, every player in the NHL has Datsyuk figured out and Bertuzzi cannot carry this team on his own, Helm has been Kris Draper, Leino has been Miroslav Frycer and Abdelkader has been Kirk Maltby. At what point do you become that BUYING team in order to make the playoffs and give yourself the chance to win the Cup? Even when Franzen returns, he is not gonna turn this team into a contender. Jason Williams won't either, neither will Kronwall. This is an odd place for Holland to be at this point in the season, but I have a feeling if the Wings don;t make a splash at the deadline, they will miss the playoffs. Even after the season, they need to make a huge splash in the UFA market, the kids that everyone thought were ready to be in the NHL, obviously are not who we thought they'd be. Sure they are rookies, but this is their year to prove they belong and other than Helm and Abdelkader, the rest are just wanna-be's. (of course Howard is here to stay, I am not including him in the disappoinments.) So what does Holland do? Stand pat and miss the playoffs? Or is it time to trade some assets for a sniper or two? To me, Zetterberg has been a huge let down after signing his life-time contract. It's gonna be ugly, especially if we miss the playoffs. Does Holland REALLY have what it takes to rebuild this team? We will see, but I believe it's time to trade some future for the now. Of course, who are we gonna trade? Kronwall? Filppula? Leino? Meech? Who would want them? We might have to go back to trading first rounders to teams.....

Exactly. People seem to think that Franzen is gonna be the savior. IT won't be that way. If the Wings haven't solidified a playoff spot by the time Franzen returns, he is gonna do very little to help them into a spot. Trade deadline is upcoming, we must get some scoring. Teams are killing the Euro-twins and that's our only threat. And like I said, they are playing crappy anyhow. Soon, we will become buyers, but not without selling some assets. Who goes? It's time for Holland to prove to us that he is the best GM in the business, time to play lets make a deal, come on Kenny, make your magic happen... or lose it's your choice.

Are we still talking about the NHL or the USA?

Is anyone even surprised by this? Of course the NHL can change the rules in the middle of the game, this goes back to Malkin's instigator in game 2 last season, as soon as the NHL realized that by it's own ruling that Malkin would be forced to serve a 1 game suspension, thus all but handing us another back to back Stanley Cup Championship, the NHL changed the ruling on the ice to NOT instigating. And this once again, the NHL allows to refs ruling to be overturned because this ruling benefits them. My God, that ref' head was so far in the net he almost blasted himself as he came around the net! Nobody can tell me that puck actually crossed the line, he knows it wasn't in, Howard knows it wasn't in, from what we are hearing now, the NHL knows it wasn't in, but went with the other guys (ref & linesmen) opinion that they believed it was in. Forget about the ref who's head was further over the crease than the puck! Maybe we should go to computer chips in the red line and puck to signal goals, nah, then NHL could just trigger the chip to go off whenever they wanted to. This NHL has become a huge farce. If I were Ilitch, I would be hoppin mad and start putting my money elsewhere.

Winner! Sorry, all out of cash, gonna have to have in store credit...

Sorry, but that would be "Red Five Standing By..." This is "Red Seven Red Seven" followed up by "Hot Route Hot Route" (there's a little hint for ya)

Well, not sure if it has been used before, but, referring to our "emergency room" season, how about: CODE: RED ...or maybe after limping through this season and hearing all the negative press about us, how about: WE'RE SEEING RED or just SEEING RED! or OUT FOR BLOOD! or RED SEVEN! RED SEVEN! (a million points to the user who knows this reference!) or RED WINGS 9-1-1 or In The End, We ALL Bleed RED!

We can expect Bettman to take away the rule that says you have to send all angles to Toronto. He will say that you have a choice to take away the best view and the worst view, stating how much he likes the way most schools allow you to take away the best and worst grade to get your GPA. "This practice works very well with todays youth and we should everything we can to involve todays youth in our game." Ya that sounds very Bettman-like... "It's an instigator penalty? It's a automatic game suspension? Well just take away the penalty then, we can't have him suspended then those nasty Red Wings will go up three games to none and repeat as Champions, then my ugly step child will lose again!!!!!"

as was Primeau for Brendan Shanahan.... Get Kovy!