betterREDthandead

I would definitely miss the troughs and calling the place "the Joe"....and the sightlines from the upper deck can't be beat because there are no suites in between....a lot to lose if the Wings move. But for the sake of the city, a new arena is a must. The land the Joe sits on is sorely needed to expand Cobo Hall. A new Wings arena behind the Fox would revitalize a large, neglected area of downtown. The outside atmosphere is nonexistent because the location is pure suck. It takes ages to go anywhere after the game because there's a freeway and a big-ass convention center in the way. And the building looks like a damn warehouse.

It would probably result in a short-term attendance boost. Most new arenas do. It only lasts a season or so though. There's a natural curiosity about seeing the new digs, but for most people, one time is enough for the novelty. However, there are plenty of other good reasons that a new arena is sorely needed, besides the one-year boost in attendance.

Not a fan of stooping to the Stars' level.....and then digging lower.

I think that's the most classless idea I've heard since "hey, that's Kris Draper in front of the bench there and he doesn't see me.....let me just shove his head into the boards right quick." How do you expect to make an issue out of the crappy things Turco is doing if you run up and do something worse? You're advocating goonery for goonery's sake. What are we, the Bryan Marchment All-Stars? Ridiculous.

Travel expenses would go up for teams on the coasts and down for only one group - the Central Division. Everyone else would pay more - it won't balance out. And if in fact the league is doing well (which it is, revenue-wise) why blow it on increased travel costs? That's not sound business practice and it would lead to more labor issues as the PA would argue (and rightfully so) that the league seems to be more interested in paying for fuel than its players.

Love it. Right up there with Turco at the border.

As we've seen, the NHL is unlikely to ever approve a lot of things that would improve the game. How to schedule the regular season is always the trickiest thing, and no possible way leaves everyone happy. A way around the problem you mention: Add a third home-and-home in the division (six extra games) and then remove the extra two against the permanent rival and one of the three in the rotating division. Or remove six of the twelve against the rotating division and have the top two teams play each other twice and the bottom two teams once, and vice versa (another scheduling trick borrowed from the NFL.) Either way opens up a couple new things that make someone unhappy. Bottom line is to have the 8 divisions of 4 and the new playoff setup. I think it's a great way to promote divisional rivalries, and the reseeding ensures the best matchups later on and makes the regular season count. And the whole thing means more old-school matchups all around - the Wings playoffs run through teams like Nashville, Anaheim, and San Jose and we aren't usually likely to see a good old-school matchup til the Finals.

Pshaw. My plan kicks both your plans' ass Since we are promoting ideal plans, this one is better: Expand to 32 teams. Divide into 8 divisions of four, like in the NFL. NO conferences. Play 2 home-and-homes with each team in the division, for 12 games. Play one home-and-home with every other team in the league, for 56 games (68 total) Play an extra home-and-home with a permanent out-of-division rival for 2 games (70 total). Say the Wings had a division of Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Buffalo, then Chicago could be chosen as the "permanent rival." (and Chicago's would be us.) Each team would have one. Play three games against each team in another division on a rotating yearly basis for 12 games (82 total.) Top two teams in each division make the playoffs. First round is within the division. Each round thereafter reseeds by record. You get geographic rivalries, like Bettman wants (and it's not a bad idea) only built through the playoffs where it actually works. It's not so much travel - you only have to make one trip to most places, so EST teams like the Wings would get stuck with only one West Coast swing in most years. In Olympic years, the rotating divisional games can be lopped off the schedule. The only issue is how to award the Campbell and PoW trophies - my suggestion would be that the higher-seeded team to make the Cup Finals gets the PoW every other year, and the other trophy goes to the other team. Then switch each year.

Throwing an octopus at a hockey game in Philly is a vast improvement over throwing garbage at the football games.

No-touch icing would improve the flow of the game, but getting rid of the instigator is a very close second. Kind of a biased poll thanks to recent events though. Guarantee if you'd asked this after the '03 playoffs, "smaller goalie equipment" would have a roaring lead instead.

I'm not really too upset over that one. The refs blew the whistle because from their angle, Turco had covered up the puck for a stoppage. I thought he had it covered too. Replay showed he hadn't, but I'd rather the refs be a little bit quick with the whistle than swallow it, have a goal scored, and have this big fuss over whether or not there was interference. More consistent that way.

He spent this last season playing in Russia. I think he'd make a fine second-line option for a team looking to make that jump into the lower playoff seeds, or from the lower seeds into some contention. Somewhere like Atlanta or Phoenix. Someone with less to lose, because investing several million in the guy is probably risky.

Let's be honest - Brett Hull never built his career on his stunning athleticism.

Likewise, Dallas is the last team in the league that should ever ***** about someone scoring a goal on them that had anything to do with intrusion into the crease The statute of limitations doesn't run out on that til they get another Cup. Might be a while.

The Freep made the very excellent point that it would not really be ideal to go into the Cup Finals with the pressure of a win streak that everyone would be talking about. Plus it increases the likelihood that Franzen will be available for the Finals.

Well, you're not the first to think of the idea, but the major roadblock is, how do you penalize a team whose coach got the challenge wrong? In football they lose timeouts, but hockey teams rarely use their one timeout and its loss isn't a big deal anyway.

The exact same is true for the Wings: Dallas Drake is the only Wings forward without a goal these playoffs. Game winners have been scored by Zetterberg, Draper, Franzen, Lidstrom, Hudler. 73% of our points have come from somebody other than Datsyuk or Zetterberg; 69% of your points have come from someone other than Crosby or Malkin. I think our secondary scoring matches up pretty damn well.

Damn....it took 2:18 for Russia to pot 2 goals on the Swiss. I wish I could see the Russia-Canada matchup that we seem to be on a crash course for.

402? I didn't realize the Sarnia Sting were paying their players so much....someone should have the OHL investigate (my snide way of pointing out that you have your Ontario freeways mixed up and probably meant 403.....which doesn't go downtown.....in fact neither does the QEW, it's the Gardiner Expressway that the ACC is next to.....man you're just ALL screwed up )

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs2008...&id=3392173 A solid list of memorable Wings playoff games. 4 of these 10 are on the Champions DVD set. Unlike Dallas, we have enough playoff memories that we don't have to have a loss on our list Covers games from 1936 all the way up to 2008.

A former Wing. I didn't know he'd had such problems. Anyway, congrats to Norway. Definitely a fantastic showing for them. I've always wondered how hockey got so big in Sweden and Finland and passed Norway by.

He is right. The link actually used to be more informative, but it's not there now. The CBA says something to the effect that one year's salary may not be any more than double or less than half of the previous year's, and the salary of a third year may not be more than double or less than half the average of the previous two years, and so on. The contract started at about $2.5 million and went all the way up to $6M+ (practically $7M) in the fourth year and then back down again. No way Erat signs a contract if the team comes to him and says "well, now that the league has rejected the other one, we'd like you to take $5 million less over the course of the deal." Nuh-uh. And hopefully the Preds don't do business like that. (Actually, hopefully they do, but it's a poor way to treat your players.) He'll in all likelihood get a new deal that will probably still be 7 years, $31.4 million, but it will be more evenly spread out. The link used to say that, too, but it no longer does.

This has been a thoroughly special season from the get-go. We might earn some arrogance points for it, but on the other hand I'd hate to look back on a Cup season and realize I wasn't enjoying it.

Trust me: no matter who wins and who loses at American Idol, we'll hear a LOT more from them in the next year or two. Much more than I'd like to, anyway. But the Wings are only in the Cup Finals every so often. Just a hint at where priorities should lie

Morrow and Modano banged up. Dallas has never led in the series. Stars show completely inexcusable lack of focus on Wings two third period goals in Game 3. This does not add up to a good game. I honestly believe the result will be more like Game 4 of the Avs series than Game 2 of this one. Unless the Stars put themselves in the right frame of mind sometime between 00:00 on Monday night and 60:00 tonight, this one is going to be ugly. Because the Wings may be skilled, physical, great offense, even better defense, hot goalie, but their best asset now is the consummate professionalism they've shown ever since the playoffs began, and you can bet they'll come out ready whether or not Dallas does. And even if Dallas does, it may not matter.