betterREDthandead

Has Chicago really improved? Hossa's very strong defensively, so they get a boost inside their own blueline and in the neutral zone. Offensively, what's changed? They swapped out Havlat for Hossa, basically, which is pretty close to a wash. Other than the ongoing maturation of Kane and Toews, they really won't be much different offensively.

I'm OK with not waiting. I think a lot of those guys would be re-signed, and there will be too many teams with cap space and not enough marquee guys once they've re-upped with their teams. The absolute worst thing that could happen is to trade away a bunch of quality parts for cap space and be stuck not using it. I think Joe D probably feels the same.

Coffey and Duchesne were on the downswing of their careers when they left here, what's that prove? And we traded Sheppard, it's not like he up and left when we wanted to keep him, and besides that he still had a pretty solid career after leaving. I don't get this. Besides, Hossa's not suddenly going to suck next year. What kind of sour grapes is this?

I guess they don't really want to keep both Kane and Toews in a few years.

Can't sign Tanguay if there's not room for Hossa.

That would be weird.

Wonder if he'd have taken the deal if we'd have won the Cup.

There's got to be someone in mind. Joe D has never fired a coach without a very clear idea of who's going to be next. The only thing even resembling a coaching search was the one after Larry Brown was fired.

I like the idea that one of the commenters on the article had, to tack on a fifty-cent surcharge to every ticket as soon as a new arena opens in order to start paying for the next one. Probably would need for that to be more than 50 cents, that would only collect about $12 million over 30 years, maybe more like three or four dollars a ticket. I bet most people would be willing to pay three dollars extra per ticket if it meant the city didn't have to use public money to build the next arena.

Still better than "boogity boogity boogity". Minus that and Digger, the TNT broadcasts are a breath of fresh air from the Fox ones.

How can you say "he hasn't shown anything" in nine games over four years and claim that's all you need to go on to decide he's not good enough?

Conklin will probably command a raise on the open market, so it saves a little money. Besides, it's not fair to Howard to tell him for four years to just be patient, your shot is coming, and then shove him off to the side at make-or-break time with two years left on his contract. Not the way the Wings do business. Howard deserves his shot, and the nine games he's played in the last four years do not count as his shot.

Exactly - this is why, to me, the Ray Allen deal didn't make any sense. If the Pistons trade for that kind of cap space in summer 2010 it should be at the deadline when you'll have a better idea of who's available and who's bidding. My bet is that at least a few of these superstar free agents will sign with their original teams, since they can bend the cap to do so and get more money. The worst thing that could happen is to blow things up in anticipation of 2010 and then be left out in the cold.....it would set you back two or three years.

Too many defensemen. The Wings aren't going to keep eight on the cap. You can take one of the cheaper defensemen and turn that into a cheap forward instead, so really it's two more forwards that they need.

I recommend waiting til the Confederations Cup is over so you don't get driven to the funny farm by those god-awful horns.

I have never fully trusted Rodney with the ball.

Ah, how could I forget that? It takes a pretty special person to come from a rival like Chicago and win over the fans here. Cheli's a legend of the game; I'm glad he chose to hang with Detroit as long as he did. I hope he lands with a team that plays a game at the Joe next year so we can give him the standing O he richly deserves.

I think you'd have to assume that if there's an offer, it's in the style of the Zetterberg and Franzen offers where the very end of the contract is a way low number to bring the cap number down. Hossa is going to sign for the rest of his life or not at all.

What's wrong with Flyers/Bruins? Great old-school matchup if you ask me. I like it. If NBC thinks they can get more people to watch, great: the better the ratings, the better for the league. Maybe the average sports-but-not-hockey fan can't name any Flyers, but then again the average-sports-but-not-hockey fan probably thinks of the Capitals as a crap team (because that's what they've been during most of their existence) and the Flyers as a really good one (same reason.) And reading between the lines it sounds like they're not gonna do a second game (very smart) so I think the league is headed for a show almost as good as the one at Wrigley.

I wouldn't even worry about some other team's free agents til we know what we can do with our own. I can't even begin to think about what we could do on the open market without knowing how it'll turn out with Hossa.

I've sorta been taking it for granted that Sammy'd be gone after the season, ever since I realized how the cap was gonna shake out for us. I think Sammy provided a lot of value and brought a lot to the table, but also not a great deal more than a lot of other players can bring. Nevertheless I'd almost guarantee he'll make more next year than he made this year; wouldn't surprise me at all to see him double his salary.

Curious, what you have against the other six besides Shrub? Most of 'em come off to me as pretty bland, mildly likeable but hard to hate. Especially Kenseth, Biffle, Hamlin, and Ragan. If there's one criticism I have it's that they're too bland, but it's hard to hold that against 'em. Hornish, I can sorta see just because he really seems out of his league in Sprint Cup and should probably go back to IRL. But I pull for him a little bit 'cause I always root for Penske cars.

I read that Red Bull is thinking of switching from Toyota to Chevy next year. Awesome. I'm all on board with any team or driver that leaves Toyota for someone else. It's part of the reason I like Tony Stewart's new outfit.

It would have been Yzerman's fault if the whole team was lazy and sucked, which is what you claimed originally without referring to any one player.

You questioned "the team"; Nick Lidstrom is on "the team". Ergo, you questioned Lidstrom. Besides, he's the captain. The team is a reflection of him. You can't question the team without questioning him. And he wasn't the only one playing hurt. Are you going to go down the list and do this a la carte? "Well, Datsyuk and Lidstrom were playing hurt, but I definitely think Cleary looked healthy and lazy." Who do you think are to judge like that?