LeftWinger

I'll give you 50:1 Pitt is NOT....

First of all, welcome! You will quickley find this IS the standard for sports forums on the WWW! Much like the Detroit Red Wings are THE model franchise in ANY sport! Second, Cinci, eh? I dated a girl that lived in Erlanger for a long time! Spent a few long nights at Big Bone Lick State Park with her! (To anyone who doesn't know, that is the REAL name of the park.) Now, on to topic, pens fans are mad at us because we aren't as upset as they were last year about losing the Cup finals. Although we regard the Stanley Cup as the highest and hardest Chalice to acheive and hold on to, we really don't care that they won, aren't that upset anymore that we lost and are already talking about 2009-2010. Oh, and unlike the 40 of the 50 states, we aren't on our knees bowing down to Cindy and his girls. We know him for who he really is and they cannot defend it, they just want us to say he is God and the Pens will have the best dynasty ever seen in the history of the NHL. And we won't say it, because we know its not going to happen and can give them reason why, ligit reasons why and all they can say is, "pens rule!" "Crysby is God!," "We ***** slapped you!" "Injuries had no bearing on the result!" "No way Bettman helped us!" Yadda, yadda, yadda, etc, etc... They cannot stand the fact that we are over it, because we know we'll be there more in the next 5 years than they will. When all they did was cry, cry, cry (much like the San Jose Kid did on his broadcast) last season and are mad that we are not doing the same. They cannot understand why we don't think the same of Cindy as they do, they don't understand why we can't say they beat us fair and square, we can't say that Malkin is better than Zetterberg and Datsyuk, because even though they know these statements are false, they believe their own rhetoric and the crap the NHL/Bettman puts out there and actually believe they are going to win every Cup until the end of times, and cannot believe that we don't agree with them. That should help you out a little, too bad most of them are gone now, they went back to the pens forum with the ego's bruised, back to where everyone agrees with everyone and they have noone to tell them otherwise and they can walk down their narrow hallway never seeing the truth right in front of their eyes. (sorta like when the President spews his garbage to his sheeple.) Bottom line, they are mad because we aren't, and they cannot understand why. They are just Gary Bettman's sheeple, and like the lambs to the slaughter, they will feel doublecrossed next year when one of Gary "Next Ones" get their Cup and they are left wondering, what happened t our Dyansty?. My guess is it'll either be Chicago or Washington (or both in the finals.)

doesn't matter, he makes it, and the market dictates that Hudler, having similar numbers, that he is worth that as well, AT LEAST, on the market. Unless Hudler tells Holland he'll stay for his current salary or less, the $3 million Filppula makes will be a starting point for his agent.

I am telling you, the Wings have to make a serious offer to get up to #1 or 2 to get Hedman. Our 1st and 2nd, rights to Hudler, include Kronwall and maybe another prospect... Anything short of Z, Dats, Abdelkader and Helm...

I was looking over the top 60 according to McKenzie, and at #60 is Ryan Bourque.OMG, can anyone look any more exactly like thier father!?!?! Ray could not deny him if he wanted to!

Hmmmmm, sign Bouw and then trade him to Tampa for Hedman..... NIce!

how come I have a feeling this is gonna turn into a Pens dyansty thread?

agreed, but the market dictates and his agent doesn't have to look far to use a contact and stats to compare to. And near the end of the season, Filppula was gettting more icetime than Hudler so he could even use that to say, his client gets more points with less ice... ...I say no thanks to another contract like Filppula's. Flip is already signed and if Hossa returns, he has shown that they can flow pretty good together. Let Hudler go, or sign and trade him at the draft (include out 1st and 2nd AND Kronwall) to get the #2 pick and get Hedman... (if Tampa would do it...)

our 1st& 2nd picks, sign and trade Jiri Hudler, include Niklas Kronwall to Tampa for their #2 and select Victor Hedman. (that is IF the Isles are set on Tavares, which it looks like they are.) Hedman would step in right away into Kronwalls spot and if Lilja is back, all of a sudden we have quite possibly the biggst D in the West, if not the NHL! (definately the most Swedish in the NHL!) Lids - Rafi Ericsson - Stuart Lilja - Hedman Lebda I would do what it takes to get that pick (short of trading Dats, Z, Abdelkader or Helm.)Of course, since they have NTC's I won't mention getting rid of Rafi or Stuart, besides I think they are too important to this team.

Look at this bust of a draft for the Wings, 1988! 1988 NHL Entry 1 17 Kory Kocur Saskatoon 1988 NHL Entry 2 38 Serge Anglehart Drummondville 1988 NHL Entry 3 47 Guy Dupuis Hull 1988 NHL Entry 3 59 Petr Hrbek Sparta Praha, TCH 1988 NHL Entry 4 80 Sheldon Kennedy Swift Current 310 49 58 107 -15 233 1988 NHL Entry 7 143 Kelly Hurd Michigan Tech 1988 NHL Entry 8 164 Brian McCormack St. Paul's (High-NH) 1988 NHL Entry 9 185 Jody Praznik Colorado College 1988 NHL Entry 10 206 Glen Goodall Seattle 1988 NHL Entry 11 227 Darren Colbourne Cornwall 1988 NHL Entry 12 248 Donald Stone Michigan Yikes! Followed up this dandy of a draft, 1996! 1996 NHL Entry 1 26 Jesse Wallin Red Deer 49 0 2 2 -5 34 1996 NHL Entry 2 52 Aren Miller Spokane 1996 NHL Entry 4 108 Johan Forsander HV-71 Jonkoping, SWE 1996 NHL Entry 5 135 Michal Podolka Sault Ste. Marie 1996 NHL Entry 6 144 Magnus Nilsson Vita Hasten, SWE 1996 NHL Entry 6 162 Alexandre Jacques Shawinigan 1996 NHL Entry 7 189 Colin Beardsmore North Bay 1996 NHL Entry 8 215 Craig Stahl Tri-City 1996 NHL Entry 9 241 Eugeny Afanasiev Detroit L.C. Midgets 20 players drafted, 2 players to make the NHL with a total of 359 games played. 49 goals 60 assists for 109 points with a -20 rating! 1997 wasn't that amazing either! 1997 NHL Entry 2 49 Yuri Butsayev Lada Togliatti, RUS 99 10 4 14 -13 28 1997 NHL Entry 3 76 Petr Sykora HC Pojistovna IB Pardubice, CZE 12 2 2 4 -1 6 1997 NHL Entry 4 102 Quintin Laing Kelowna 43 1 6 7 6 10 1997 NHL Entry 5 129 John Wikstrom Lulea, SWE 1997 NHL Entry 6 157 B.J. Young Red Deer 1 0 0 0 0 0 1997 NHL Entry 7 186 Mike Laceby Kingston 1997 NHL Entry 8 213 Steve Willejto Prince Albert 1997 NHL Entry 9 239 Greg Willers Kingston ...the draft is fun to watch, I remember being so pissed for the 2005 lottery (fixed) draft with the players they skipped over and selected. Kindl has yet to break in, but I am fairly happy with Helm and Abdelkader!

I certainly hope he takes McCrimmon's place! If not, then Thanks for everything Cheli! Not only did you bring strength and professionalism with you. Thanks for 10 years (already?) and two Stanley Cups! And two awesome restaurants! I hope they stay here after you leave, and I hope you come back to visit once in a while! I guess if he goes elsewhere, we'll hear just how Babcock treated him for real!

Thanks! Yeah, I started looking around at about 11 pm and finished sometime after 4 am. I noticed that there was a lot of views coming, but no replies. I guess something like this doesn't really warrent any replies, just a read to get away from the pens and "if I ould have a UFA" toipics. It was fun, but yeah it was a lot of research... glad you enjoyed it.

he probably means, getting rid of McCrimmon and makin Chelios assistant coach.

LIDSTROM Gonchar? Seriously? Gonchar? Crysby? 3 point Crysby? Please see the pic post above for the effect Crysby had on us, and how he is perceivd around the NHL... It's only Epic to you because Pens won, was it epic for you last season? Doubt it... EPIC? The only thing Epic about this year is the Epic luck and Epic Bettman rules the Pens had... Here's a reminder of Master Cindy: Oh, and the special Bettman Instigating rule for the Pens: And while we're at it, so much for penalizing players for stick swinging at heads: Oh, and for all of you that say Talbot's spear on Osgood was a tap, look at the bend in the stick, pretty hard tap...

Malkin maybe, but Cindy would never makeit on this team. This is a hard working, blue collar team, points evenly spread out, no egos, no special treatment, no crying women... Sorry, but if Detroit had that lottery fixed for them.....err, I mean were lucky enough to get that #1 pick, Holland would've probably traded it... or drafted Bobby Ryan (of course then that would've meant Anaheim would've taken Crysby, another reason to hate them! I would've liked a shot and Jordan Staal though the next year...

Has he called Lidstrom yet to apologize for the misunderstanding? Decent? Respectable? No Excuse to Hate him?

My point being, if the Wings went up 3-0, then they probably don't get passed game 5. Sure the Pens earned the other voctories the got, the bounces weren't going our way after games 1 & 2, Players, other than Crysby actually played with heart and desire (Scuderi, Talbot, Fleury, Orpik, Kennedy.) The injuries were too much to overcome, yet we still only lost by one goal in game 7. That doesn't make Pit ANY better than Detroit, if anything, Detroit is still the better team when 100% healthy. I commend Pits defense (although Scuderi will be gone the July) but in the end, Pit was given every chance to win by the NHL (I don't mean 100 powerplays either) and they were luckier, healthwise and crossbar/post-wise... You got to be lucky to be good, and good to be lucky, but this OP needs to come down off the pedastal. Comparing this team to the Islanders and Oilers? I wouldn't even compare this team to the 91 and 92 Penguins who had REAL superstars. Not crying women... Anybody and their brother would take a Mario and Jagr at 21 over Cindy Crysby and Beano Malkin EVER... Add to that Kevin Stevens, Mark Recchi, Paul Coffey and Larry Murphey and the 2009 Penguins look like the NanTucket Ice Roaches...

Possible? POSSIBLE? Haven't we all been told already by you guys that the Penguins are going to win every Cup from 2009 to the end of times? My God! They have Master Crysby, Malkin, Staal, Fleury, Scuderi (oops, only til July), etc... They are the only team to beat Detroit at home in a game 7! (except of course for Toronto and San Jose (most recently).) They ***** slapped us by beating us by one goal in game 7! They have the NHL in their back pocket (proven by NOT suspending Malkin, thus giving Pitt the BEST chance to win(even though the rule is cut and dry and he did try to send a message.) This team is never going to lose again! Oh yeah, forgot that we were also told by a pens fan that if they had the likes of Franzen, Lidstrom, Hossa, etc... on their team, they could've have gone undefested the entire season! Wow! Dude, GTFO! Your team was handed the Cup by the dabbling of the NHL. If Malkin doesn't play game 3, Detroit goes up 3-0 and we'd be talking about the chances of a three-peat. Face it, Crysby choked worse than Hossa in the finals. Bettman allowed Malkin to play in a game he shouldn't have, where he had the primary assist on ALL three goals. That fact alone taints your Cup. IF the roles were reversed and lets say our guy didn't get suspended, oh lord, the controversy! You and your fans are the ONLY ones thinking you could repeat the Islanders feat of four in a row. The 1997 and 98 and 2002 Wings were 1000 times better than your young core, yet he 90's Wings couldn't win more than 2 and the 02 Wings couldn't even repeat. Get a life, get a clue and get real. Often people complain to us because wear the rose color glasses, well look in the mirror and give me back my glasses!

Chara? Norris? Thats a laugher!

About Stuart and rafi, I think more so people are looking for ways to fit Hossa and the griffins under the cap. a neat little note on Holmstrom, I flew to Chicago yesterday and got to sit with Homer. His wife and 3 kids were in first class and he was in row 6 right next to me! Didn't chat too much about the season (figured he didn't want to talk about the disappointment) just told him like, you guys had a great season, almost won it, shouldn't feel bad, etc... He was connecting to a flight to Sweden for a family trip back home. Very very nice guy, didn't want to tell him he should retire, I enjoyed the opportunity just to be friendly with him. Not a lot of people recognized him. The flight attendants knew who he was, of course a few others did, but they didn't bother him at all on the flight. Besides the few words we exchanged, he pretty much just looked through the inflight magazine with his headphones on. It was only a 44 minute flight so not much could be talked about. Cool guy, made the flight a little nicer sice we were packed in a little DC-9... Sounds just as funny in person as he does talking to the media. BTW, in reference to an earlier thread, he is also intimidated by the size of Katrina Hancock! LOL! But says she is a very nice person to deal with...

The Wings tried that once with a very physical/dirty but great player, and we see how that worked out. See: Derien Hatcher... Yeah he got injured, but it still didn't work out siging a once elite defenseman near the end of his career...

It comes down to coaching. McCrimmon needs to be let go. Hire someone like Lemaire. We'll be fine. As soon as the Wings sign a Adam Foote type d-man, the penalties will get called on us. Not like they aren't already being called on us and not on them. Ie. Zetterberg goaltender interfernece game 6, same scenario gmae 7, same ref, no call on pit. That being said, is Foote available?

I know, I only used them as an example of getting low balled for someone who is obviously worth more...

Bottom line, Bettman gave Pit a better chance to win by recinding Malkin's instigator that would've resulted in a game 3 suspension, in turn, giving Detroit an unfair advantage because Pit's leading scorer wouldn't be there to get three assists that night, one on an offside non-call and one shorthanded, directly after Pit should've been whistled for having six players on the ice and instead of calling the penalty, the ref simply yelled at the player to get off the ice for 20 plus seconds. As a result, Bettman and the refs handed the series to Pit. Considering that most experts say the non-call and short handed goal was the turning point of the series... Ilitch (and 28 other owners) sees the crap, and without saying a word, showed how disgusted he is with Bettman. He is watering down the league and ruining the sport. Not very wise Gary to get your voted best owner in sports on your bad side, who do you think the rest of the owners (besides Pussei Lemeiux) will side with when it comes time to vote on essential items? NUmber 1 being new ownership of the Coyotes, "oh Gary, we'd lke to keep them in Phoenix, but No!" Sale approved, back to Canada they go! Voila!

Ya, but Fedorov will make more than $1.9 million. And that is just too much for our wallet. Now, if Fedorov would come here for $1million or less, bring it!