betterREDthandead

Why?

Yeah....if it worked the way the OP proposed, everyone worth signing would be signed to these 100-year contracts, the last 80 of which are at the minimum salary. Pay Sidney Crosby $25 million a year til he's 38 and take a cap hit of like $2 million. It wouldn't pass the smell test.

Yeah, exactly (although 32 is not twice 21), and the point is that it's silly to measure someone by those two numbers alone.

Hmm, Babcock and Murray. Also, Scotty Bowman probably glared at him one time over dinner and said some things to the media he didn't like, and I hear Jacques Demers cut him from his peewee team and said some things to the media he didn't like.

I like the way you put that. Sometimes I think people are too ready to misplace or sacrifice their loyalty on the altar of never ever losing. Oh....I also like that the Wings are hated. We'll just keep winning and having the model franchise and lots of Cups and awesome uniforms, and they.....won't.

That was sort of the "official" reason given, but you notice a lot of other teams (Colorado, for example) with the A and C plastered right over top of a seam, and in Colorado's case, over the piping that goes along the seam. So I'm not too sure about that. Anyway I like it. It's a little uniform quirk that's uniquely ours that we can have without resorting to silliness like striping in weird places.

I wouldn't say they did OK. I mean, yes, the season turned out OK. February was awful though, and it culminated in a lot of no-account stupidity round these parts when the trade deadline hit.

Entertaining stuff, actually.

Because a player's value can be completely and totally boiled down to two numbers. Yes, that makes perfect sense. It's why this board is so totally in love with Samuelsson

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

Anecdotal evidence. Still a pretty good correlation between high-shooting teams and teams high in the standings. No accident that the three highest-shooting teams are Detroit, San Jose, and Washington.

I agree, on-ice fireworks are unlikely. But the fans won't have forgotten. I hope he suits up. It's just the thing you need to spice up an otherwise mundane Wednesday night game in February. I hope someone splats him in the kisser with an octopus.

Because in the WC/WJC's of hockey, victory margin counts. And it varies from sport to sport. There's a fine line between disrespectfully running up the score and disrespectfully not trying. In basketball, I think it definitely crosses the line to be running a full-court press when you're up by that much.

And with good reason. Trade him? Y'all must be crazy. Lost your minds.

Is it really necessary to overanalyze one lousy game on a Tuesday night in the dead of January? I'll be concerned if six goals against becomes a trend. It's that nasty West Coast swing. It happens every so often over the course of 82 games. And besides, this is what Game Day Threads are for. Discussing the game. This is essentially a duplicate thread and will be merged.

Oh, he did plenty in Syracuse. He ruined it. But I'm not worried....he's not being hired as the head coach. He must have had a pretty damn strong resume to get hired at Syracuse in the first place, and that's the role he'll play at Michigan. That's what I'm going off of.

Amazingly enough, there are differences of opinion. And I could give two s***s what other boards say about us. They can't say this:

Which I'm not against; I just don't think it's as critical as others do. We got a damn good team as it is.

Downey is an enforcer. Enforcers fight and then also try to play hockey. Drake is a hockey player who's willing to drop the gloves, but doesn't have to fight to be useful. Give me the latter any day.

Well, scratch one more team off the list of ones that haven't been to a Super Bowl. I believe that leaves 5: the Lions, Saints, Jaguars, Texans, and Browns if I count 'em right.

Agreed. I really, really hate to say it but Maltby isn't really useful any longer and Draper is fast approaching that, if he's not already there. It sucks, because those two have been Wings through and through and it's hard to imagine the team without them, but I think we'd be better off breaking in some of the Griffs like Helm.

Drake is not an enforcer. Sure, he got into a couple fights....so did Lilja, and Drake's last fight was January 2. I'm all for having a little-things guy like Drake, but that's different; he's not an enforcer, didn't play that role for us, and didn't fight at all in the playoffs.

REGULAR season, yes. We certainly don't need an enforcer to make it to the playoffs.

Isn't this what we heard all last year after losing to Anaheim the year before? How we need an enforcer otherwise we're never winning Stanley? Didn't convince anyone that's not true?

Only if Swift Current qualifies as a "big city". Oh, and if you're going to call me an idiot, spell things correctly. Let's be honest with ourselves, the point of the Winter Classic is not nostalgia. That's fun and all with the throwback jerseys, but it's not the main thing. It's about making money for the league and increasing exposure to a wider audience. It's about giving the league a marquee event on a marquee day, something it didn't have before. I don't disagree that the league should take it slow and not get too far ahead of itself - my biggest worry is that they'll try and kill the goose and have like two or three of these each year. Vegas in 2010 seems like getting ahead of itself - I think the best way to go is a Bruins-Rangers or Isles-Rangers game in New York next year. In a couple years, though, Vegas would be a phenomenal venue.