betterREDthandead

Exactly. Which they couldn't have done if they really were tired. They'd have started strong and finished weak, not the other way round.

The answer is Hakan Andersson. Period. You could make the case that he is the one person most instrumental in the Wings' success. Any time the Wings unearth another Swedish diamond in the rough, and sometimes outside Sweden too, it was his scouting that did the deal. If not for Hakan Andersson, we don't have Z, Datsyuk, Franzen, Flip, etc.....he scouted those guys.

I got a better idea. Finish off your opponent in less than six games and four overtimes, then you won't have to worry about fatigue. Oh, what's that? Dallas had a tougher opponent than the Wings? Fine, then play better in the regular season, earn yourself a higher seed and easier opponents. Nothing about the Stars' current predicament is due to forces beyond their control. To be clear I don't think the Stars are complaining about this, guys like Modano and Morrow are too professional to let them. I suppose the Stars should consider themselves lucky the NHL doesn't schedule like the NBA does - the Pistons finished off the Sixers in 6 and then had to roll right into Game 1 two days later without any break. Anyway, if you want to know why the fatigue factor is bulls***, once and for all? The Wings jumped out to an early lead. If fatigue was the real concern, the Stars would have played well to begin and lost in the third when tired legs caught up with them.

It's in both the Freep and the News. No, the possibilities are not endless. RR is not going to change the helmets and such.....don't get so worked up. And really...it's kind of a misnomer that a WR has to earn the #1 jersey - Braylon was the only one that didn't wear it starting as a freshman. But it is a WR tradition. I do hope Braylon's phone call convinces RR to make the switch, especially since there are conditions attached to the scholarship that Braylon endowed. But c'mon....don't make it sound like it's such a mess that the winged helmets and everything are in danger. The Buckeyes can have J****n B***n. He's no Wolverine.

Boo hoo. Here's an idea: 7 penalties = bad. Simple, right coach? It wouldn't even have been a 5-on-3 if Norstrom hadn't taken a dumb penalty thirty seconds prior.

Got the win, 6-4. But that injury to Thomas really hurt our medal chances. Anderson's just not the goalie Thomas is. P.S.: Having beaten both Germany and Latvia, USA has now clinched a quarterfinal berth. Canada too has clinched. All about the seeding now, although the fact is whether you're seeded 3rd or 2nd makes no difference. My guess is we're headed for a quarterfinal game against Finland.

Not so fast....it's 4-3 now. It's Switzerland that's receiving the unholy beatdown at the hands of the Czechs.

Wow.....Norway beats Germany to make it to the qualifying round, and now Slovakia has to battle Slovenia to avoid relegation. Even more amazing...Norway's currently third place in Group F and with a decent chance to make it to the quarterfinals. Kind of a topsy-turvy tournament so far....Slovakia facing relegation, Switzerland topping Group E (for now) and Norway making some noise.

Eklund will be running with this one any day now.

OK, but you're still talking about an extra $1.5 million for Flip, $2.5 million raise for Franzen, maybe $4 million more for Hank, plus Kronwall's due an extra $1.5M and Cleary is getting another $2M. That's $11.5 million, right there. Rough figures, but about right, and that takes us over $56 million. No room for re-signing Stuart. And Drake, Mac, Downey, Hartigan, Lilja, and Chelios are UFA's this summer as well, so some decisions will have to be made. That's about $4 million that can come off the books, but some of them will be back. Fact is there's just no room to be big players in the FA market. No Rafalski-type signing this year. There might be $1.5, maayyyyybe $2 million to squeeze in a second/third line type forward, but none of that will happen unless Holland is sure he can take care of his own first.

Salivate over re-signing the guys we have now. Flip, Franzen, and Z are all due big fat raises. That'll eat up most of that available cap room, and there's the question of whether or not Stuart is brought back. There are a few salaries that will come off the books that might make room for a mid-level type signing, but with Kronwall's and Cleary's already-scheduled boosts, plus what we're gonna have to pay Flip, Franzen, and Hank, we're talking more about keeping this core of players together rather than a big splashy free agent signing. The nice thing is there will be room to do it, because without this boost in the cap we'd likely have to say bye-bye to someone we'd rather keep. This way, probably not.

Oh, I know Do you mean Game 1? Anyway, I'm not taking anything away from Turco's performance in that Game 6. 61 saves is phenomenal no matter how you slice it. But it inflated his stats and his reputation from the rest of the playoffs. His career SV% is .913; his playoffs SV% without that Game 6 is .912, which is why I figure Turco hasn't done any better this year than normal. And you can't take anything away from Ozzie just because the defense in front of him is better than what's in front of Turco.

Also, there's this: Before that 61-for-62 performance in Game 6 against San Jose, Turco's SV% was a good-not-great .912, which was exactly what it took to get Martin Gerber swept out of the first round. In other words, Turco has been nothing more than his usual pretty-good self this playoff season. Now he's going against a team that doesn't particularly like to dump the puck into the zone, thus nullifying one of his great advantages which is puckhandling. Remember this stuff when people are wondering what went wrong with Marty Turco as the Wings take a 3-1 series lead back to the Joe where Turco is still winless.

We will see about this so-called Turco advantage. He's faced 27 shots per game, the third-lowest of any in the playoffs so far. (Who's allowed the fewest? Yeah, the Wings.) Dallas has allowed 27 shots on goal per game. The Wings have fired 39.3 SOG per game at the other goalie. Even if Turco's excellent SV% stays exactly the same, those extra shots mean an extra goal per game. From two to three. Dallas' defense is pretty good at limiting shots on goal, but then again the Wings are pretty damn good at generating them.

If he's wrong, he's not too far off. The PA already figured a cap of about $56 million based on projected revenues, and it was already known as well that the cap floor would likely exceed the old ceiling. Here's an older article: http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/Spect...0809_Salary_Cap

Thanks and welcome aboard!

ahhhhh s*** gave up the fifth goal with less than a minute to go. DAMMIT. Can't even get a point that way. Well, it gives me some hope for the next rounds. I like the looks of this team....with teams like Sweden, Finland, and Slovakia looking a little rough, our chances of a medal are still pretty good. Next round is likely to be games against Finland, Germany, and Slovakia....all very winnable for good positioning in the quarterfinals.

WOOOOOO tied up. USA! USA! USA!

The US is like the only country in the Championships without TV coverage. Feh. I'm not paying that absurd amount of money to watch that online stream, it's usury.

Add me to the list of those pleased to see Grapes on ESPN. If it means publicity for the NHL in the US, it can only be a good thing. And I like Grapes. I wish he and Charles Barkley could be on a set together, it'd be a dream matchup.

Russia might be able to add Nabokov. I forgot that his team was eliminated. Heh heh. If they do, they'll be even scarier than before. I wish the American team would look into adding Chris Higgins now that the Habs are done. It wouldn't hurt.

About the world rankings, the top 9 teams after the '08 Championships get an automatic berth to the Olympics. Right now the big 7 cannot fall out of top 9. Teams 19 through 30 will play a qualification tournament in November '08 - the top three will join 10 through 18 in a second tournament later on, and the top three from there qualify for the Olympics. Russia, by the way: Screwed. Only one healthy goalie left on the roster. They're not going to medal with Mikhail Biryukov in net. (Who? Yeah.) That powerful offense should probably carry them to the quarterfinals but they may well lose right then and there.

Wings in 3. Turco will melt down so thoroughly in Game 2 that the league will have no choice but to award the Wings two victories. Stars will consider trading for Jose Theodore, impressed by his Wing-stopping abilities.

USA knocked off Slovenia in Red Wings fashion....outshot them 37-12 in a 5-1 game. Good early start. Tuesday's gonna be big. Interesting: Denmark didn't seem to have much trouble with Italy. They seem to be starting to make a name for themselves in international play.....might we see the Danes in 2010 in Vancouver for their first ever Olympic tourney?

I wouldn't really even call it a rumor....just a compliment to Zetterberg.