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Sammy is a good player, and I have always liked him for his two-way and all-around play, but... In Detroit the past couple seasons he was rarely on a line that did not include one of Zetterberg, Filppula, or Hudler. Underrated shot, definitely, but the guy is overacheiving this season.

I'm disappointed. The FIRST name that should have come up was Anders Myrvold. By far the greatest player to ever wear the Winged Wheel.

If Lilja returns, it is because of one of the following situations: 1) One of Stuart, Kronwall, Ericsson, or Kindl has been included in a package to replace Nicklas Lidstrom, who has retired. 2) One of Stuart, Ericsson, or Kindl has been traded for another reason, or has suffered a long-term injury. Neither Kindl nor Ericsson will be used as a seventh defenseman. So it's either Meech or someone else just like him. In other words, 95% Meech, if Nick comes back.

Carman, I understand you support the Pens as your second-favorite team after the Wings. But this hit has the following properties: The only contact made is shoulder-to-head. -Cooke hit Savard from behind; if Savard saw Cooke at all, it was only after he took his shot. -Savard was never actually the puck carrier, and Cooke was turning to initiate his hit before the puck was within "legal" range of Savard. -Cooke's intent was clearly to hit Savard in the head; a very physical player like Cooke won't "accidentally" nearly miss a stationary target. This hit should have received at the very least a 2/5/10 and game, plus a suspension. As for comparing it to the Mike Richards hit on David Booth, Booth was the puck carrier and was entering the zone along the blue line. Richards moved to lay a legal shoulder to chest check on Booth and Booth dumped the puck away, but also attempted to move to the right, out of the way of the hit, lowering his head directly into Richards' driving shoulder. The idea that Richards' clean but unfortunate hit on Booth is similar in any way but results to Cooke's blatantly dirty hit on Savard is a joke. And for reference, Marc Savard is listed at 5'10", David Booth is listed at 6'0", and both Cooke and Richards are listed at 5'11". And usually, players are listed taller than they actually are. Regardless, Cooke and Savard are close to the same height based on the video, and the same goes for Richards and Booth. So whether they are leprechauns or giants, they are about the same height and it's not a consideration if anyone is thinking of saying "Well, Savard IS a midget."

Howard has let in a lot of "it was just one softie, nothing to worry about" goals this season. People seem not to have noticed this. Yes, he's outplayed Osgood, but he's not nearly the brick wall or perfect tender the Howard slappies have been acting like.

One bad game? Here's Howard's numbers over his past ten games. 575:38 Mins, 291 SA, 264 Sv, 30.3 SAPG, 27 GA, 2.81 GAA, .907 sv% That doesn't really come close to the top of the league, does it? Granted, Howard did have the Olympic break in the middle of that stretch, but his performance was only slightly affected by the break. Now, let's compare to Osgood's last ten games, which include two relief appearances, and no appearances within seven games of each other since the games of November 23rd and November 27th. The earliest game included is November 20th, for those of you who were wondering. Osgood's numbers over his past ten: 537:56 Mins, 229 SA, 200 Sv, 25.5 SAPG, 29 GA, 3.23 GAA, .873 sv% Yes, Ozzie's numbers have been worse; but given the lack of consistent playing time and the fact that the Wings have been playing FAR better recently than they from November through January...Howard's numbers don't really look so good. Either Howard needs to step it up, or Ozzie needs to get more of a look. Give the guy some consistent playing time and see what he puts on the ice.

Vehicular manslaughter is also known as vehicular homicide. Heatley was charged with first-degree vehicular homicide and pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide in order to avoid trial. He was sentenced to three years probation. FACT: Saying Heatley is a murderer is legally accurate, as he has a homicide conviction on his record.

Hudler completed arbitration; he has a contract with Detroit for a cap hit of $2.875m for two seasons when he returns to the NHL. He cannot sign a deal with another NHL team, and should he ever return to the NHL he is bound to the contract he agreed to in arbitration regardless of when he returns, even if the salary cap is no longer around. Furthermore, looking at the 2010-11 Wings' potential roster if you include Hudler's cap hit, the Wings will have the following roster setup: F (7): Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Filppula, Hudler, Cleary, Draper D (5): Rafalski, Stuart, Kronwall, Ericsson, Kindl G (2): Osgood, Howard Cap space, assuming no change: $13.137m This is with at least 6 forwards and 2 defensemen to sign or promote, plus potentially one more skater. So we'll slot the current RFAs from this year's roster at these salaries; Abdelkader ($1m), Eaves ($750k), Meech ($500k), Helm ($875k), Miller ($750k) and take away four forward slots and a defense slot. This brings us to 11 forwards, 6 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders with $9.26m available cap space. The obvious names who are still free agents from this year's roster are Lidstrom, Bertuzzi, Williams, Maltby, and Holmstrom. Lidstrom should be able to return at $4m. Holmstrom, although he has had an impressive season, would likely take a cut to $2m to return. This leaves $3.26m to sign 1 forward and if possible an additional skater. Bertuzzi and Williams are still available, and either could be had under that price. Maltby could be had for $500k if he doesn't retire and the Wings choose to retain his services. Or that $3.26m could possibly be spent on a forward who is better than Bertuzzi or Williams.

The thing is...Weber was no more offensively effective than Keith. And Keith was on the ice for zero goals against. Zero. Just based on stats, it's hard to argue Weber was better than Keith. Maybe he was more flashy...but so was Ryan Suter.

If the league decides to make Patrick Kane the face of the league for marketing, I might decide to give up NHL hockey. Better American faces for the league: Bobby Ryan, Zach Parise, Paul Stastny, Ryan Kesler, Ryan Suter, Ryan Miller, Jack Johnson, Dustin Brown, Tim Connolly, Ryan Malone, Brandon Dubinsky, Keith Yandle, Erik Johnson, Matt Carle, Drew Miller, Justin Abdelkader.

I didn't say the US was never allowed to get away with anything; I said it largely favored Canada in the calls that weren't made. If all of those cross-checks that weren't called are called, who knows what happens? If Brown's offsides is called, does the US still tie it up? The game is over, so we'll never know. But it was not even officiating.

This is the kind of comment I don't really understand. If a penalty is committed, it should be called. If your team commits a penalty, the opposing team should get a power play because of that. Not calling valid penalties, meaning a game is played more at even strength and thus "not decided on the power play" does not mean it was good officiating. You are sitting and wondering why I say that? Because if a team is allowed to commit penalties, trip and slash the opposition, hook them, interfere, etc. not making a penalty call on the penalty is the same as calling a penalty on the team that should have the PP. Do you comprehend that, or are you too busy thinking "Let people cross check other people in the back and no whistle be blown on the play"

I counted at least 5 cross checks to the back or head by Canada during regulation that were not called. There were also a couple slashes either way not called, and Dustin Brown being offsides on Ryan Kesler's goal. Luongo was given the quick whistle even when the puck was loose near him, while Canadians were allowed to whack away at Ryan Miller, and the US was called for a questionable crease violation when an American player was in the crease for a fraction of a second early on, but Canadian players were not called when entering the crease later in the game. How does that rule work exactly? Interference was another call that was ignored; when one player would pass the player up out of the zone, and another player would try and skate around an opposing player to get to the puck and be hit there would be no call. That happened all night. The officiating was one of the worst called games I have seen in years, both from one team getting more breaks and from inconsistency throughout the game.

Keith was tied for second in defense scoring and was not on the ice for a goal against for the duration of the Olympics. Not only should he have been on the All-Star team (Miller, Rafalski, Weber, Toews, Parise, Demitra) he should have been named best defenseman.

Second best. Duncan Keith was better.

I suppose you didn't see him skating around with the Canadian flag and the "I won the Olympics!" look on his face. With the kind of attitude Crosby has, I wouldn't be shocked if Crosby (and Pens fans) feels that he carried Team Canada to the gold, when he was actually one of their least important players.

Helm didn't replace Kopecky in '08, and Abdelkader didn't in '09. Fixed that for you. Kopecky is not a star player. But he's not the scrub you guys are making him out to be; he's a good NHL-level player with strong all-around talent.

Hmm... Saying a player is a useful third/fourth liner and has the potential to develop into a solid two-way top-sixer with good physical presence is having a giant hard-on for him? At the time, it was accurate scouting; He was as good or better a checking line forward for the Wings than Maltby, Miller, May, Draper, or Eaves have been the past couple years. Kopecky's contract with Chicago is a result of that top-six potential if you don't recall. He's not a Darryl Laplante, a great skater with stone hands, a weak body, and poor hockey sense. He has decent hockey sense, a strong body, decent hockey sense, good hands, and decent skills that he has been developing. He's also willing to play any role the team asks him to.

Lidstrom/Kronwall Rafalski/Lilja Ericsson/Stuart Meech

There is little evidence that the alteration of the point system opened up the offense. The point system changed at the same time as many other rules intended to open up the game's offensive flow; giving credit to the point system and saying it would be back the way it was is ludicrous because there's absolutely no evidence of such. What realistically should happen is one of three things: 1) Kill shootouts and go back to the old point system with ties 2) Keep shootouts and go to a three point system where it's 3 for the win and none for the loss until the shootout, and a shootout takes away a point from the winner and gives it to the loser, providing a consistent number of points per game. 3) Keep shootouts and go to a straight win/loss system, eliminating points altogether.

Instead of no-touch icing, make it an automatic delay of game penalty with the faceoff coming all the way back-similar to shooting the puck over the glass. Agree on all those points. One thing; Specifically, I would say mandatory FULL shields. f*** Don Cherry and anyone else who wants to ***** about it. 9. Add two expansion teams and make the league four eight-team divisions or eight four-team divisions.

If Lidstrom signs at $4m, and Jiri Hudler returns from Russia, then the Wings will have 7 forwards, 6 defensemen, and 2 goalies signed for next season with about $9.14 remaining in cap space based on this year's cap. That leaves 5 forwards to sign, plus up to 3 spares. Notable RFAs include Derek Meech, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Drew Miller, and Patrick Eaves. Notable UFAs include Andreas Lilja, Brett Lebda, Doug Janik, Tomas Holmstrom, Jason Williams, Todd Bertuzzi, and Kirk Maltby. This means four defensemen and eight forwards who will be considered for the remaining spots, leaving at least four guys out.

I still say Fedorov should be centering Ovechkin. That was a money combo in Washington and Fedorov is just as good now as he was then.

Unless I have my information wrong, the BoG specifically voted during the lockout in 2004 to give Bettman that power with regard to those negotiations only. And the BoG doesn't need to vote terribly often; that kind of decision making for the league doesn't really happen very often. As I said; Bettman is a face that represents the League's interests and negotiates for the league with the NHLPA, TV networks, IIHF, KHL, whatever. That's his job. He is not a dictator, nor will the BoG vote to give him or anyone else that power; the President once had that kind of power and since then has had his powers stripped due to abuse and favoritism, among other things.

With regards to the Canadian Olympic team, they are much better set up for success because the team is better put together with regards to roles being filled, and Yzerman taking the background role the GM belongs in with a strong coach who can control any oversized egos (hello, Sidney?) rather than jumping into the spotlight and trying to be in control while also choosing a coach who, while capable, was not willing to take the reins and push Gretzky aside, which provided a leadership issue. As for the Detroit situation, Holland's future is going to be much like Devellano's. He'll continue on as a GM until he decides to retire, at which point he'll become a VP of something or other. Jim Nill may or may not have moved on by then, and Stevie may or may not even truly be interested in the GM job at the NHL level. But it's more than likely Yzerman is behind Nill in line for Detroit's job, and while possible, unlikely Yzerman would leave the Wings for another team's job.