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Joey MacDonald. Drew MacIntyre. Norm Maracle. Kevin Hodson. Need I continue?

If Winnipeg were to get an NHL team, be it the Coyotes, another team moving, or an expansion team, they would likely have to either build a new arena or expand the MTS centre, where the Manitoba Moose currently play. Speaking of the Moose, did you know they only draw 53% of capacity and are second in attendance in the AHL, with Hershey ahead by a wide margin? In comparison, Grand Rapids draws 64% of capacity. Yes, it's a much smaller arena, but in raw numbers it's 1,003 seats sold per game. Can Winnipeg truly support an NHL team? Due to the deals Phoenix has been running for many of their seats, Manitoba's ticket prices are not much different than Phoenix's. Phoenix has averaged about 4,000 more fans per game, and has averaged 67% capacity. Is Winnipeg truly that much better an NHL market than Phoenix? Past numbers and recent numbers seem to suggest it's questionable at best. Also, 2002-03 was the last season until this year that Phoenix averaged fewer than 14,800 fans per game in a season, a mark I don't believe the Jets ever actually cleared as a season average. So no, this year doesn't prove that hockey doesn't belong in Phoenix any more than 1995-96 proved that Jim Carey was a HHOF-worthy goaltender.

For those of you who are of the mind "Chris Osgood sucks, Jimmy Howard should play 90 minutes a game" I have some information for you. In Jimmy Howard's last ten starts, here are his stats: W/L/OTL: 5-4-1 GA: 27 SA: 265 Sv: 238 SO: 0 Mins: 597 Sv%: .898 GAA: 2.71 SAPG: 26.6 And an inordinate number of the goals he's given up recently have been 'weak' goals. So claiming "Playing Osgood will ruin our season!" after the way Howard has been playing recently is ignorant, biased, or both. If Osgood is stellar against Philly, I wouldn't be shocked to see him get two of the remaining games after that. If he gets a shutout in impressive fashion, maybe even all three. Doubtful he can do anything at this point to change Babcock's mind on who the playoff starter is, but he might earn a couple extra regular season starts with some strong play.

Rafalski is a good defenseman. He's not what he used to be, but he's still good. Top 20 in the league definitely. He's no Lidstrom or Ohlund defensively...but that's a hard argument for anyone. If you took all 30 GMs and had them completely redraft their teams from current rosters, Rafalski would almost certainly be somebody's #1 defenseman. He might not be picked until the 3rd or 4th round, but that's because most GMs would likely want to get a solid goalie and top forward in place, possibly even a top forward pairing, before they look to the blueline.

I want to see Ozzie play four of the five remaining games, winning all in impressive fashion. I don't care which games they are, but I understand the Howie vs Nashville/Ozzie vs Philly decision. I would also like to see Chicago lose their next four games, while Detroit wins their next four. This would make the final game of the season for the Central division, Detroit at Chicago on April 11th, the division championship game.

I'll remind everyone that Winnipeg was consistently among the worst teams in attendance in the NHL, causing them to be severely in the red, and that is the primary reason the team moved. Winnipeg also *gasp* tended to perform poorly, winning exactly two playoff rounds and making the playoffs in eleven of seventeen seasons. The team never won the regular season crown in their division, and only finished higher than fourth six times. By comparison, Phoenix made the playoffs their first four seasons and five of their first six, but has missed every year in the six seasons since. The Coyotes have finished higher than fourth in their division four times. So comparing the two, they have had fairly similar success. Especially, if you take the years from 93-94 on and use the 'top-four' playoff system, the Jets only make the playoffs ten times in seventeen seasons, while the Coyotes make the playoffs nine of twelve. People are so intent on bashing the Coyotes and saying they should be moved because they're in the south, yet they have had as much success as the Jets ever did.

Hudler scored 97 points in 76 games in the AHL. That projects to 105 had he played the other 6. Yeah, he'd put up good numbers. His 61 assists are a club record, and had he played the full 82 he would have the points record also. If Hudler were to play in the AHL he would score probably 60-70 goals and 100 assists, and if he spent additional seasons there he would blow out Michel Picard's career scoring records. Yeah, I know you aren't interested in having an offensive whiz who is an excellent playmaker with very good finishing skills and if played on the top two lines will almost certainly be a point-per-game player, and having him signed for two seasons at a cap hit under $3 million. What a terrible thing to happen to the Wings. The only thing worse would be trading Holmstrom to Tampa for Stamkos, and Tollefson to Edmonton for their #1 pick. I mean, those things would be horrible moves for the Wings. Outperformed talents who would still be first-liners in the NHL like Jagr and Fedorov... Oh wait, NM.

You don't think Wings fans would rather have Hudler than Williams? Because that's basically what it comes down to. If Maltby and Holmstrom retire, we're basically looking at replacing Williams, Homer, and Maltby with Hudler, Abdelkader, and a guy like Ritola, McGrath, or Oulahen,. Tell me how Wings fans would be unhappy with that change. And "wasn't amazing before" is arguable given the fact that Hudler's 08-09 stats, not even factoring in ice time, tied for 73rd among all forwards in points, tied for 70th in goals, and tied for 60th in assists. Most players who put up similar kinds of numbers are generally worse than Hudler defensively if not far worse, and generally no better physically. So what exactly about Hudler wasn't amazing?

I meant other than this past game. And we won, DESPITE Howard's play. Because we scored FIVE GOALS. Teams that don't score five goals don't win games when their goalies have save percentages of 80%.

We're not building a roster. We're picking the ten best players. If we go by your logic, Helm would be in the top-ten Wings over the past two seasons. And that is, well, an insane suggestion. He's very popular, but nowhere near the top ten. If we were building a roster from the best wings over the past five or ten or twenty years, sure we'd include guys like Draper and such. But that's not the topic.

Kris Newbury is also a UFA at the end of the season. If the Wings want to sign him and he chooses to come here they can sign him. The Wings are not restricted to their own UFAs, even if they traded them away.

When's the last time you've seen a goalie give up his 3rd goal on under 20 shots, after having already given up 2 in under a minute, two of which were due to bad decision making, and being the primary reason a team that was up 4-0 and dominating to being up 4-3 and barely holding on score-wise and in terms of the play. When's the last time you've seen a goalie give up two weak goals in the first five minutes of the game three games in a row and no get yanked in any of them? I've never seen that happen with any other goaltender or coach. Babcock and Howard is the first occurrence I have EVER seen of it.

Well, if Hudler is done with Dynamo, that's good news for us. He still has a year left on his contract with them, aside from the opt-out clause that allows him to return to the NHL. This means either he is leaving the KHL entirely and going to a DIFFERENT European league, or he's back next season (most likely) and Wings fans will generally be pleased. So with Hudler back, the current SIGNED Wings roster for next season: Forwards: Datsyuk $6.7m Zetterberg $6,083,333 Franzen $3,954,545 Filppula $3m Hudler $2.875m Cleary $2.8m Draper $1,583,333 Defense: Rafalski $6m Stuart $3.75m Kronwall $3m Ericsson $900k Kindl $883,333 Goalie: Osgood $1,416,666 Howard $716,666 Total cap hit: $43,662,876 Cap space (assuming no change): $13,137,124 Forwards on the active roster who will be RFAs this summer: Helm, Eaves, Miller Other notable RFA forwards: Abdelkader Forwards on the active roster who will be UFAs this summer: Holmstrom, Williams, Bertuzzi, Maltby Defensemen on the active roster who will be RFAs this summer: Meech Other notable RFA defensemen: Kolosov Defensemen on the active roster who will be UFAs this summer: Lidstrom, Lilja, Lebda Other notable UFA defensemen: Janik All of the signed players I listed above will likely play on the regular roster, with Kindl possibly rotating in with Ericsson and whoever the #7 is. The Wings need to sign five forwards and one defenseman to their everyday roster, plus anywhere from one to three spare players. If Lilja continues his pro career, he will almost certainly be re-signed. If not, he will probably be replaced with someone who would most likely be RFA Meech, who has solid potential as a two-way defenseman, is quick and versatile, and is very cost-effective. Assuming Lilja returns, he likely rotates in with Kindl and Ericsson to get them as much playing time as possible. No we're looking at Lidstrom. Interviews have suggested he'll return. He probably takes a pay cut, likely down to tha $4-5m range. If he doesn't return, that's probably about what's spent on his "replacement". So having determined that the Wings probably spend about $7m on their defense at the top end, figure the Wings will then see about $6m left to spend on six forwards. Hudler returning throws a wrench in keeping scoring forwards, and Bertuzzi is out unless he is willing to accept a similar deal to what he has. So let's focus on the cheaper guys, while leaving open a spot for what Bertuzzi would have to accept. Abdelkader is a darn good player, but he likely won't see much of a raise. Figure him in at $900k. Eaves and Miller can be seen at $750k each, and Helm at $1m. That's $3.4m, leaving $2.6m. Still left as UFA from this season's roster are Holmstrom, Maltby, Williams, and Bertuzzi. Williams is probably gone with Hudler returning. The Wings would still need to sign two forwards, so that they have 12 regulars and a spare. With his season-ending injury, Maltby may choose to retire after the season. If the team wins the Cup or comes close, it's highly IMO likely both Maltby and Homer are gone. This would leave about $2m for Bert and another $500k to sign that last guy, perhaps even a guy like Evan McGrath or Ryan Oulahen who has been waiting for a chance. Keeping Kris Newbury as the spare forward is another potential move the Wings might make. But if the Wings were able to keep Bert while losing Homer, the forwards would be: Zetterberg Datsyuk Franzen Hudler Filppula Bertuzzi Cleary Eaves Miller Helm Abdelkader Draper Newbury (?) Lidstrom (?) Kronwall Rafalski Stuart Lilja Ericsson Kindl Which projects lines out to, keeping lines that have shown chemistry recently: Hudler/Datsyuk/Franzen Filppula/Zetterberg/Bertuzzi Miller/Abdelkader/Cleary Draper/Helm/Eaves Newbury (?) Lidstrom/Rafalski Kronwall/Stuart Lilja-Ericsson-Kindl Howard/Osgood PP1: Hudler/Datsyuk/Franzen/Lidstrom/Rafalski PP2: Filppula/Zetterberg/Bertuzzi/Kronwall/Ericsson-Kindl PK1: Helm/Miller/Lidstrom/Lilja PK2: Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Kronwall/Stuart PK3: Filppula/Cleary That's kinda scary good, actually. And if Homer doesn't retire, it probably shifts the lines around somewhat as Bertuzzi is likely not to take the $2m that keeps him on the roster.

Rebound control is exactly whan I've been saying all season. He has improved it noticeably, although he does still at times make some fairly bad positioning decisions (2 of the 4 goals against Edmonton were because he did so) he definitely is showing the potential we have been expecting and hearing about.

And think of the fact that Vezina voting is a 3-place ballot, and usually there are between only 8 and 12 goalies who actually receive votes. So in at least three seasons that I am aware of, Osgood was considered a top THREE goaltender by enough voters (the 30 NHL GMs) to finish in the top ten among all goalies. Voting isn't "Rank the top 30 goalies in the league" or something like that. It's "pick your top three" and Osgood has been considered in that group a few times. A lot of "elite" goalies can't say that.

Howie gave up a couple bad goals. Giving up an unscreened five-hole goal from the top of the circle is weak. Enough of this s***, though. Babcock needs to play Osgood. Yes, Howard has had a much better season. But at the same time, we are one injury away from going into the playoffs playing a goaltender who hasn't seen a start in over 25 games. Granted, he's been the best clutch goaltender in the NHL over the past two seasons, so I would be fully confident if that happened, but do we really want to risk that kind of rust?

The top 10 Wings from 1990-91 until 2009-10? Steve Yzerman Nicklas Lidstrom Chris Osgood Sergei Fedorov Dominik Hasek Henrik Zetterberg Pavel Datsyuk Vladimir Konstantinov Brendan Shanahan Tomas Holmstrom That took some doing for my last few inclusions. Hard to cut out guys like Chris Chelios, Ray Sheppard, Slava Kozlov, Igor Larionov, and others. One thing I will say is that including McCarty, Draper, Maltby, or Kocur on this list is a ridiculous idea. Yes they have been around and yes they have been important at times. But this is basically about "Who was the most important Wing the most often over the past 20 years" and to be dreadfully honest, Draper and the others were RARELY the most important guys on the team, especially with so many skilled defensive forwards on the team then and now. They brought grit, yes...but their defensive presence was and is redundant.

I didn't see it, but I'm assuming this is basically how the post-game conference went: Reporter: "What is your take on giving up a four-goal lead?" Babcock: "Well, nobody ever likes it when that happens." Reporter: "What was your take on Jimmy Howard tonight?" Babcock: "I thought Howie played unbelievably incredible, one of the best performances I've seen. Too bad the team let him down by only scoring five goals and allowing 26 shots, most of which were poor scoring chances. Osgood should have done more to stop Edmonton from getting the chances they had."

What you are seeing is not that Pittsburgh or Chicago has negative cap space yet is working cap magic. What you are seeing is their contract setup for NEXT YEAR and the fact that the players they currently have signed who are slotted for the NHL roster exceed the salary cap. If you look at the links on the right hand of the front page, you will see the cap calculator, which allows you to mess with next year's numbers, as well as the salary cap chart, daily tracker, and known clauses. If you choose salary cap chart it will show you payroll, bonuses, cap space, players signed, and average cap hit per opening (for a 23-player roster) for the 2010-11 season. If you choose daily tracker, you will see information for this season. For example, the Wings have virtually no cap space and can make no moves that increase the team's salary. Toronto actually has negative cap space, but as it's bonuses it will carry over to next season. Vancouver also has negative cap space, but is ok due to cap relief.

If finishing top ten in Vezina voting at least three times, and being considered for the Conn Smythe three times, means you have never been looked upon as a premier NHL goaltender...then the following current notable goaltenders are not and never have been premier goaltenders: Ryan Miller, Miikka Kiprusoff, Marty Turco, Nikolai Khabibulin, Tomas Vokoun, Niklas Backstrom, Ilya Bryzgalov, Marc-Andre Fleury, Roberto Luongo, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Evgeni Nabokov. And of course Jimmy Howard. Other big names fitting the bill of 'not a premier goalie' would be Dominik Hasek, Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck, Tom Barrasso. Osgood may never have been considered by a majority of fans and writers as the BEST goalie in the league...but he was definitely considered among them during the second half of the 90s.

Balsillie's offer was to purchase the team and move them to Hamilton. But moreover, he was trying to get the judge to force the League to allow him to purchase the team and allow the move, despite the fact that the League bylaws state that the League must approve all purchases and all moves. Balsillie was trying to basically backdoor the League rules just to get a team in his hometown. His whole "Make It Seven" campaign as total bulls*** also, because he only cared about a team in Hamilton; he didn't want a team in Winnipeg or Nova Scotia or Quebec or Saskatoon or anywhere else. He would only settle for Hamilton. He simply wanted to rally Canadian support behind him. Lets look at some realistic stuff: Bettman, and therefore the NHL Board of Governors, has said that if Phoenix moves, it would be back to Winnipeg. More realistically, let's see the League add two expansion teams; Seattle and Winnipeg are notable cities with quite a bit of hockey history behind them. So now we would have 32 teams. Perhaps... 1))Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver, Winnipeg 2)Chicago, Colorado, Detroit, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Toronto 3)Boston, Buffalo, Montreal, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Ottawa 4)Atlanta, Carolina, Columbus, Dallas, Florida, Nashville, Tampa Bay, Washington Admittedly, it's not perfect for travel. But it's only four divisions, compared to the following eight, which might be more travel-friendly: WEST 1) Anaheim, Los Angeles, Colorado, San Jose 2) Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle, Vancouver 3) Dallas, Minnesota, Phoenix, Winnipeg 4) Chicago, Columbus, Nashville, St.Louis EAST 1) Atlanta, Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay 2) Boston, Montreal, Philadephia, Pittsburgh 3) Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa, Toronto 4) New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Washington

The Wings' most recent "legit stud goaltender" was drafted by the team and is currently on the roster. That's not waiting too terribly long, given that some franchises have never had a "legit stud goaltender" as you would put it.

Based on what Babcock said the other day, Osgood is about the fourth most likely Wings goaltender to see a start the rest of the regular season.

Carey's story is actually an interesting one. He skyrocketed to stardom with the Capitals, being named to the All-Rookie team in 94-95 and winning (wrongly IMHO) the Vezina in 95-96. His play slipped in 96-97, as did the entire Capitals team. He was traded to Boston in a blockbuster deal as they handed over the reins to future star Olaf Kolzig. In Boston, he was inconsistent and ended up spending part of his only full season there in the minors due to the impressive play of Byron Dafoe. The following summer, Carey signed with the Blues. He would play four games and perform unremarkably before being sent down for a conditioning stint. While playing for Cincinnati, Carey would sustain an inner ear concussion. After sustaining that injury, Carey did not play another professional hockey game.

Babcock is more taking a shot at Osgood than he is praising Howard. Howard has been extremely good, but Osgood was a legit Vezina contender despite only playing half the season, and then went on to ramp up his play to lead the team to the Stanley Cup, and was arguably just as deserving as Z of the Smythe. Osgood's 07-08 season was the best goaltending the team has had since Babcock has been here, whether he recognizes it or not. He can be angry with Ozzie's recent regular season performance, but indirectly calling him out in the media for his current performance by underrating his past performance is a new low. After this comment, I doubt we see Osgood the rest of the season unless Howie is injured or gives up 3 goals in the first 2 minutes of a game; and even on the second one I think Babs probably keeps Jimmy in, as he did with the multiple games in a short period where Howie was giving up 2 quick ones right away.