BlueMonk

Hehehehe... neck "sprain." I can't believe how many people posted that at once. I see it's been cleared up as a strained neck since then.

Responses to this thread are the ultimate "is the poster male or female?" litmus test. I can tell who the men are and who the women are just by the replies.

Not much of a difference between being on the receiving end of boos, and having human s*** hurled at you? I should ban you for making this statement.

As far as this subject goes, this is my choice for post of the year. I don't boo him (I don't boo anyone, period, it's just not my style) but I'm at the point where I am starting to feel sorry for him. He f**ked up and he definitely knows it now. The whole way he handled his contract situation, the booing in Detroit, even the booing on his home rink, all of it. He went from playing in the playoffs every year on a top team with a strong following to complete failure. He arrived in Anaheim and they instantly became worse, going from the Stanley Cup Finals to the lottery. Now he's in Columbus, where hockey isn't all that popular, the team sucks and he's playing defenseman and everyone's talking about how the Blue Jackets need a top center for the Nash line (ouch). Seriously, I've begun to feel pity for the guy. I don't know if he deserves it or not, but he's learned a hard lesson and some sort of basic compassion is creeping into my feelings about the guy. Which makes me uncomfortable. Honestly, I would like to see him come back and finish his career in Detroit. As people have said, the reason for the booing (which players or former players, like Mickey Redmond, can never really understand) is that they do care about him and he did leave them feeling betrayed. He'd be welcomed back in a heartbeat and it would be nice to see him retire a Red Wing.

The Wings played like sh** for 2 periods, I can't believe they won this game. Hasek carried them on his back for 40 minutes and then they finally showed up. Very pleased with Calder and Bertuzzi. With Franzen and Markov out there too, they're a much harder team to play against.

I don't agree with that at all. Brashear's style isn't very entertaining, but he's still almost unbeatable. Don't get me wrong, I can't stand the guy, he's everything an enforcer shouldn't be. But I don't see any decline in his fighting skills. He's very impressive. He goes only 6'0" and 185 lbs, I think. But he's fighting the big heavies and doing really well.

Hehehe, I was trying to make a joke about you scoping out potential moves for YOUR team, the "Predators."

Already scoping out the Predators' potential roster moves for next year, eh, Andy? That's a die hard fan for you. I can dig it.

One thing I've been thinking about is how happy I was to see the Wings face Edmonton last year. Edmonton played uptempo hockey and I liked that matchup for the Wings. Then, the playoffs come, and Edmonton traps and suffocates the Wings with a totally different style of hockey. I think the Wings are better prepared for that type of switch this year, but it's possible that any of these teams that looks like an attractive matchup (say, Dallas) could wind up playing a totally different game in a playoff series.

He's not nearly as stupid as he used to be. He's been a great acquisition so far for the Rangers. I've never liked him, but you gotta hand it to him. He's cut down the dumb penalties, he's fighting and scoring. Hard to complain, and he's a bargain at that.

What I'd love to see a study of, but don't have the resources to do myself, is the correlation between shots on goal against and scoring chances against. Because it seems like teams that allow very few shots on goal allow a disproportionately high number of good scoring chances against. Which penalizes goalies, at least in terms of save percentage, for facing very few shots. My guess is that the fewer SOGA that a team allows, the higher the percentage of those shots that are good scoring chances. But I can't prove this. I wish someone would.

The rumors about Datsyuk and other players not being happy with what the coach seem reasonable. Look at the team defense they're playing. You think the players came up with that on their own? Hell, no. It's a lot of work. And a lot of star players, players exactly like Brett Hull, don't believe they should have to kill penalties and backcheck. They feel like they're out there to score goals, not play defense. They'll do what the coach asks, but they don't have to like it. The thing is, this Wings team was taking on an arrogance and a sense of entitlement about what they should and shouldn't have to do over the past few years. And the veterans like Shanahan and Hull were a part of that. Hall Of Famers aren't as impressionable and as easy to mold as young guys still trying to find a place in the big leagues. The coaching staff knew they couldn't impose their will on a bunch of old timers the way they could on a hungry, young group of guys. Even Yzerman sensed this. So you have a different team now, one more inclined to follow their head coach, who has a "my way or the highway" system. Will this be a successful long term strategy for Babcock? I don't know. But teams that win Stanley Cups play this kind of hockey. That's why dynasties are so rare. And in the post-lockout NHL, they're only going to be more rare. You win while you can. Datsyuk will have to decide whether playing for a team that is committed to winning is worth putting up with a ball busting coach. The transition with Datsyuk this year is noticeable. I think he's becoming a more complete player this year. It's like he's turned some kind of corner. You remember people talking about how this team's young stars would never reach their full potential or leadership until Yzerman and Shanahan and some of the older vets left? Well, I think there was truth in that and you're seeing evidence of it now. Datsyuk has become a two way player, like Yzerman had to become for the team to win. It's up to Datsyuk how much all this is worth to him. The winning, the growth as a player, all of it. It could be easier, and maybe more lucrative, to play somewhere else. But there's a tradeoff.

Check it out. Hilarious: What’s the best thing about your job? 1) Living dream/playing/adrenaline/sold out buildings, etc. (111) 43% 2) Friendship/Teammates (32) 12% 3) Money/Lifestyle (26) 10% 4) Travel/other cities/road trips (25) 9.7% 5) Times off/Summer (22) 8.5% 6) Playing against best/competing (11) 4.2% 7) Everything (8) 3% 8) Fans (6) 2.3% 9) Women (5) 2% 10) Naps (3) 1.2% 11) Winning (3)1.2%

I'd like to see the Wings get home ice for a couple rounds of the playoffs, but I actually prefer their chances of starting a series on the road in some cases. For the first two rounds, I like home ice. For potential WCF and SCF matchups, I'd favor the Wings starting the series on the road, so the other team can have the pressure of having to win 2 straight to defend their home ice. What I don't want is: The #2 seed (terrible jinx) or facing San Jose in the first round.

I really liked them today. Not your typical gushing about the star players, they actually call guys out and criticize. It's just opinions and shouldn't bother anybody too much.

Ferraro talking about the Wings beating up on St. Louis, Columbus and Chicago all season. Except they haven't beaten up on St. Louis or Columbus.

Did you finally stop talking to him at that point?

Lebda's goal was on a one-timer. That's one thing I'm surprised the coaching staff hasn't emphasized more, is quick shots, especially from the point. Teams were taking away the shot from the point early in the year, and the Wings worked on getting the puck down low, which made sense. But now, they've swung too far the other way. The defense move around a lot with the puck trying to elude the shot blockers, but they have a very hard time just getting a quick shot off. Lebda did, and it worked. I think they need to keep doing that.

At least it's not the Columbus fans. So, Pierre calling out Lang for being lazy. If he had used the word "sucks," I could die happy.

Blue Jackets 13, Red Wings 2 Asked about Andreas Lilja deflecting 7 pucks into his own net, coach Mike Babcock replied, "Lils really stepped up his game today. That's what we were looking for today, especially without Lids, although we probably should have explained to him which team he needed to step his game up for." Sergei Fedorov was booed every time he touched the puck. But the gifted Russian centerman had a different take on the chants from the JLA faithful. "Those weren't boos. They were saying, 'moooooovers'." Detroit GM Ken Holland explained about the injury suffered by defenseman Nik Kronwall as he read from a medical report. "Nik suffered a broken sacrum, which is right next to his coccyx, which... hey, wait, what's going on here? Is this someone's idea of a joke? Is this someone's idea of funny? Who wrote this medical report? We'll see how funny he thinks losing his job is for inserting juvenile words into this medical report and trying to make me look like a fool!" Holland then slammed the report down and stormed off. The divide between the coaching staff's prognosis for Henrik Zetterberg's return to the ice and the prognosis of Zetterberg himself continued to grow. Coach Mike Babcock: "Hank? Hank was on the ice in the last game. Yeah, he's fine. He's been back since the Dallas game. What, you missed it? That's your problem, not mine. Yeah, he's 100%, that's why he's back." Henrik Zetterberg: "I'm done with hockey, I'll never be able to play again. I'm thinking of opening a Dairy Queen in Southfield."

I had high expectations for Kronwall this year. I don't know whether it was injuries or difficulty adapting to the NHL, but he's been a big disappointment this year. He's the only defenseman on the team who isn't on the plus side of plus/minus. He has shown no ability to contribute to scoring. He is mobile and he does have a knack for hitting and blocking shots. But I think we all expected more from him than that. We keep looking at what this does to the Wings' chances, but remember, all teams are facing injury situations, and many of them are more damaging than this one is to the Wings. It's just a fact of life in this league.

I'm really pissed I watched the damn Nashville game waiting for a scrap and instead all the excitement is happening in the Canucks-Flames game. Tootoo was f**king brutal. Took a ton of stupid penalties that turned out to be really costly. Whoever said he gets treated like a rock star is right. Those whistles and all the attention he gets, man.

Barch is dressed, so here's to still hoping we'll see something. It's a close enough game that they might be waiting it out. I think Nashville wins this game. The Stars failed to convert a 2 minute 5 on 3. Very, very hard to win a game when you do that.

No fireworks or anything yet. In fact, the Predators have looked pretty sleepy out there, not much energy so far.

"Vokooooouuuun, Vokoooouuuuun, Vokooooouuuuuun... YOU SUCK!"