betterREDthandead

By the way, SoCal folks, I'm in San Diego at the moment and saw the game in its entirety. So I suppose it must have been an LA thing only.

I've only ever met one Wing. But I got one that NONE of you got Steve Chiasson used to live down the street when I was in, oh, third grade or whenever, and we'd go trick-or-treating at his house. Gave out little individual bags of candy, it was always a worthwhile trip I've met more Norfolk Admirals than Wings

Why should something be wrong with us if we have different sports tastes from the rest of the world? I resent that. Maybe something is wrong with the rest of the world in that football has not caught on there.

Enough to equal what he'd have made as a player?

No, the worst argument ever is, "Well, I would stop playing, so everyone should stop playing." Very holier-than-thou of you to assume everyone should feel the same way you do. What it would do for me is that I probably would remember it every time I pulled up to a red light, and thus would not ever run it again. Lemme ask you this, Mr. Conscience. If Moore can't play again, he's got to have some kind of other way to pay off his medical bills. Bertuzzi is the likely source of income - it's his fault Moore can't play and had to have all this surgery and stuff. How is Bertuzzi supposed to atone for what he did and pay Moore what he owes if he quits playing?

ZINNNNNNGGGG!! I would figure Rex as well for the usual third spot. But I think someone like Cleary would get a look too.

If you're late for something, run a red light because you're in a big hurry and don't have time to stop, and broadside another car and cripple the driver, would that make you stop driving?

Why is it a stupid rule? Fighting is fun, but this isn't a UFC cage match. Grabbing jerseys during fights is really what has allowed fights to go on all these years anyway - without the ability to do that, it's boxing on skates and people are going to be seriously hurt.

Minnesota isn't finishing any higher than third. Not with Liriano out for the whole year with shoulder surgery. Radke's gone too - they've got too many holes in the rotation to keep up in a division like this. I really don't think there were too many Tigers that had what could be considered career years, at least not in the lineup. What we got out of Maggs, Inge, Pudge, Guillen, etc. is about what we should expect. Add Sheffield to the lineup and expect that Granderson will cut down on the K's, and things should be OK there. What I would worry the most about is Verlander - second-year pitchers like him almost always suffer a setback. Prime candidate for a sophomore slump. That said, there's no reason to expect that Kenny, Bonderman, Maroth, and Robertson should have similar drop offs, and the rotation will be as strong as ever. Still a nasty bullpen, too. I think Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit will be the three-horse race for the division title. The Twinkies just won't be able to keep up. Their model of success was always kind of based on the fact that they played in a weak division. A return to the playoffs ought to be in the cards for the Tigs. No guarantees, of course - not with Boston and New York still looming large, and Toronto, Oakland, and Anaheim looking tough as usual.

Foster has got to be better than the lineup of swinging gates we've used on the O-line in the past. Denver has a very demanding system and it's possible he was benched simply because he couldn't meet those demands. A different system might suit him fine. The Hall trade, I read after I posted, was because Hall would have been cut anyway because he was owed a roster bonus. I guess a 5th is better than no comp at all. Anyway, trading Bly for a decent package like they did was a decent move....in fact it's the kind you look at and wonder if Millen really was the guy behind it, but the Lions are still going to suck unless they can sort out that offensive line. They've got all the offensive talent in the world. Tatum Bell is a good back. They've got receivers. Kitna can run the offense. All they need is an offensive line that actually blocks people.

I've actually always thought there should be such a rule - obviously with a "clear intent to injure" clause however. Length of the injury, plus five games. But capped at a year. Granted it would indeed be a difficult rule - for it to work it'd have to be filled with all kinds of definitions and clauses and such. And there would be a dilemma of, lets say Joe Thornton loses his temper and injures a fourth-liner Duck; what's to stop the Ducks from claiming their player is hurt much longer than he really is and deny their main rival the services of their best player? So yeah, it'd probably have too many obstacles to really come into play - but, still, I hate it when a guy like Marchment or Bryan Allen can get a chintzy five-game suspension for deliberately causing a knee injury that ends a season in November. I suppose it's only fair that Bert pay a monetary compensation of some kind - after all, his actions did result in the end of Moore's career, even though Moore's injury was fluky. But ban him from the NHL? No, I would say that's not necessary in any case like this unless the player in question were a repeat offender and/or considered too dangerous to be allowed on the ice. I very much doubt that's the case with Bert here.

Leyland knows what Maroth can do, and if he has a so-so spring, it won't be indicative of his talent.

Also the Lions have traded James Hall for a 5th rounder. That's three 5th rounders now, Millen must think the 150th best player in the draft is gonna be a doozy. I like the Bly trade, but the Hall trade is a clunker if you ask me. Hall should have fetched more than a lousy 5th.

I love this.....I think it's the ultimate compliment: "Before Detroit games, [the meetings] are always longer."

The organization is counting on Howard, I believe. They haven't drafted a goalie in a little while, so I wouldn't be surprised if they do this year, just to keep the pipeline stocked. But Jimmy Howard is clearly the one being groomed for the position. For next year, as has been mentioned, Osgood is still under contract. What happens with Hasek is still totally up in the air, but I can't imagine Hasek retiring just yet, not if he thinks he can still play at a high level. If the Wings don't bring Hasek back, I think the Wings would let Ozzie start and bring Howard up to back him up.

Friday: Pittsburgh @ Carolina Toronto @ New Jersey Ottawa @ Atlanta Chicago @ Detroit Montreal @ Buffalo Columbus @ Dallas San Jose @ Anaheim Saturday: St Louis @ NY Rangers Nashville @ Los Angeles Montreal @ Boston Buffalo @ Toronto NY Islanders @ Washington Tampa Bay @ Florida Columbus @ Phoenix Calgary @ Edmonton Sunday: Philadelphia @ Pittsburgh Colorado @ Detroit Carolina @ Atlanta Ottawa @ Chicago San Jose @ Dallas Boston @ New Jersey Nashville @ Anaheim Minnesota @ Vancouver

We're not tied to Bert long-term like we were to Krupp. Therefore, if Bert's back gimps up this year, we're not stuck in a long-term relationship with no hope of getting out. Plus, if Bert signs a longer term deal and then can't play, the CBA allows for cap relief, which means the money isn't tied up and we're not stuck with a deadweight spot on the roster.

Wanna trade all that wonderful regular season success for our Cups? We don't. Being the Buffalo Bills of hockey is not something to brag about.

thanks dude.....I just call 'em as I see 'em..... Yeah, we don't always realize it, but Maltby is HATED around the league. In my opinion it's for the right reasons - he's not a dirty player or a knee-hunter like Bryan Marchment, he's not a bigmouth like Sean Avery (well.....off the ice anyway.....I'm sure he knows how to say the right thing to an opponent).....Maltby's just an agitator and a damn good one - in his best years he'd throw teams so far off their game, get them so mad, and skate away like nothing happened. And we clearly see Homer through red-colored glasses, that make us think he's just standing really really close to the goalie and never touching him. What all the other fans see is a brutal assault on a goalie's personal space By the way.....sometimes I too am surprised at the "vitriolic venom spewed forth at some of our players".....on THIS forum on the one hand it gets really annoying to see the ten uberzillionth I Hate Lilja post.....on the other hand, it's nice to see that we do focus on our opinions on improving our own team rather than constantly blasting hatred at our rivals.

"Wrongly"? Sounds like all that envy again. In fact, yeah, sounds bitter to me. Original Six is the universally accepted name for the six NHL teams that have been around longer than any other - only somebody who's bitter about having an O6 team as their biggest rival would disparage the name. It's funny how full of contradictions this post is, anyway. Montreal has a "much much much more storied and rich and successful history" than the Wings? Why's that? More Cups, in the era where winning a Cup with only six teams in the league was......well....... So which is it? Easy time to win a Cup, or storied legacy? Anyway, ask Blackhawk and Bruin fans how easy it was to win a Cup in the O6 days. Those would be the teams that prove you wrong about every team having "a number" of Cups. Well, technically, 1 is a number, which is the number of combined Cups the Blackhawks and Bruins have during the six-team days. I suppose I'll finish with this: If Montreal has a "much much much" better history than the Wings, with 14 more Cups and about 15 more years in existence, what does that say about the Wings-Blues relationship, with the Blues having zero Cups and about 45 fewer years? What it says to me is that a Blues fan has to use the Habs to try and bring down the Wings. Kind of like an Astros fan using the Yankees to bring down the Cardinals. Envy? Bitterness? In spades.

Well, that's where there's just a basic disagreement on the definition of grit. eva's idea sounds suspiciously similar to mine which is the ability to impose your will on the puck, occupy the space on the ice you want, and prevent the opposition from doing the same. Because after all, highlight hits and fights are fun, but what's the point if you cough up the puck or take silly penalties in order to do so? And I'm sure your definition and my definition are just two of many. Which is why I get so damn sick of the flood of complaints saying "we need more grit!!" When people say that, they can mean anything from "we need more fighters," "we need more bone-crushing hitters," "we need our scorers to be bang-and-crash guys rather than skill guys," "we need size," "we need checking defensemen,".....the list goes on and on, but all anyone says is "we need grit."

No, actually this is the perfect example. Blues fans already hate Wings fans, just for being Wings fans. So they latch on to the least intelligent comment they can find, call it an excuse to hate Wings fans, and trumpet it far and wide as representative of the whole group. As for why Blues fans hate the Wings themselves, it's been gone over quite a bit already. Blues couldn't hack it against the Wings, no matter how many times the two met in the playoffs. That kind of dominance leads to envy. And in any argument about which team has been better historically, the Blues don't stand a chance of winning.

BINGO. My definition of toughness, grit, etc., has always been the ability to impose your will on the puck and occupy the space on the ice that you want to occupy, and the ability to prevent the other team from doing the same. Grit is whatever it takes to do that.

I don't mind people posting Eklund rumors. At the very least, it eliminates possibilities I just wish they would post them in the Mill and not GD. I love how Eklund got scooped by one of his blog readers on the Calder trade

That was five years ago, and I don't think Cheli would have advocated picking up Bert if he held any grudge.