betterREDthandead

Sharpe was a second-rounder. The Sonics (as they were at the time, anyway) drafted him for us, and we drafted D.J. White in the first round for them. Basically we got their two second-rounders for our first rounder. Not a bad deal, actually - if you can drop juuust out of the first round like that you do it, because there's no sense binding yourself to the guaranteed contract.

Gotta give 'em a few more years, I think, to see what they can do. But I agree - the standard should be tip-top, and I love Homer to death and he's been a great example of a dedicated Red Wing, but no way should his number be retired. No-brainer there.

First - educate yourself: Montoya's not Mexican. I get your point but you come across uninformed like that. What is this, a world where everyone with a Spanish-sounding name is Mexican? Second - where did I say I hate a driver because he's in a Toyota? This goes back to that thing where you don't read what I say, except for the parts that are convenient. I gave you plenty of reasons why Kyle Busch is a cockhole, and in none of those posts did I say "Toyota." P.S. Reason #47: he thinks Tony Stewart "dumped" him when the whole damn world, including his fans, could see Kyle's wreck was Kyle's fault. But no, in Kyle's world, nothing is Kyle's fault. Third - when did I say it was about "jobs"? Is every American vs. foreign thing about "jobs"? I guess I'm supposed to hate the Wings, in your book, because of all the Swedish guys coming over and playing on an American team. Fourth - Ford doesn't "race" the Fusion - you ought to know by now that none of those cars are Fusions, Impalas, Chargers, or Camrys any more than they're Greyhound buses. By now the labels on the cars are the same thing as every other label on the car: advertisements. The engine is the only thing; and that said, hating Toyota means rooting against them so those advertisement efforts go to waste. It doesn't mean I hate the driver, like you seem to think: it means I want the company's efforts to be wasted. Sorry for the driver, but oh well. In your world, I guess I'd be a Kyle fan if JGR switched back to Chevy. Sorry, no dice.

Travis Moen will make up for the 88 goals all by himself, probably by the Olympic break. Then he'll karate chop Chuck Norris in the face, and re-sign for $500,000 because he considers himself blessed to be a Wing.

Man, if there's one thing for sure, it's that every offseason, LGW will fap off to some moderately useful player who may or may not be a threat to score and may or may not turn out to be a defensive liability, because he's soooooo "gritty." Would Travis Moen be a perfectly useful addition to the team? Probably. Would he bring anything that can't be found in at least a dozen other players around the league? Doubtful. The Wings have 10 forwards that are a sure bet for the team next year, and Kader ought to be the 11th. I see no reason why there shouldn't be a chance for another Griffin to make the team out of camp as a 12th or 13th forward, and if the Wings do sign another forward as seems likely, they're beyond retarded if it's for any longer than a year.

Yeah, it's kind of ironic we're laughing at Chicago's salary cap hell when we spent all year debating Hossa vs. Hudler/Sammy and our own cap hell situation meant we didn't keep any one of those players.

Various reasons. Primary among them is that I'm a loyal Detroiter and no loyal Detroiter worth a damn ought to be rooting for a Toyota car to win a race. I hate Toyota cars themselves, they're bland, style-less appliances IMO. And their racing heritage is a joke IMO. Check out the pace cars. Whenever Chevy supplies a pace car, it's a Camaro or a Corvette. Ford pace cars are Mustangs. Dodge pace cars are Challengers or occasionally Vipers. Toyota supplies tracks with a hybrid Camry. A Camry? Why shouldn't I hate Toyota, really? It's no different from the old ways of NASCAR which still exist for a lot of people to this day, where there are Chevy folks who wouldn't dream in a million years of buying or rooting for a Ford, and vice versa. In my case it's American companies vs. foreign ones.

I can't really be too upset at Gilliland for that even though JPM's my driver. A small part of the reason I like Montoya is he did that same thing to Shrub last year at New Hampshire. I don't mind aggressive racing, even over-aggressive racing. The difference I guess is that Montoya pulled his stunt under caution, and Gilliland wrecked Montoya under green when it had no bearing on the winner. Honestly, I don't really fault Shrub for driving the way he did, nor Stewart either. "That's racin'," as they say. If he drove like that without the attitude (and not in a Toyota) I might actually be a fan. Yeah, the wreck was his "fault" but I don't think NASCAR drivers should settle for second for the sake of avoiding a wreck. Oh, and yes: Stremme's a yutz. Penske's got cash: he ought to have been going hard after someone like Keselowski, or tried this year to snap up Truex before MWR got to him. I was disappointed in the Stremme hire the moment it was announced. I really want to see Keselowski in a full-time ride ASAP; Penske would have been smart to try. Actually what I'm hoping for now is to see Keselowski replace Truex in the 1 car for EGR. (And for EGR to stick with Chevy. I'll be beside myself if I have to go find yet another favorite driver because two years in a row my favorite ends up in a Toyota.)

That's basically the death sentence for the franchise. If the owners can't even get a loan without using the whole shebang as collateral, there's no way they'll have any money to get this thing back on its feet next year.

The Blues' logo. It's simple, elegant, and, yes, imaginative. The same holds true for the Winged Wheel. And I also really like the Wild's logo, as well as the Capitals' shoulder patch. Funny you mention the Carolina Panthers - that's also excellent logo design, the shape of the panther is supposed to resemble the Carolinas. Basically what you're telling me is, no new logo can be good until it's been around for 30 or 40 years, and at some point it changes from "futuristic" (i.e., bad) to "traditional" (i.e., good.) I would like the leaf a lot better if they took out the ugly TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS wording in the middle of it. Cause most of us already know it's a bird? (They do have some of the absolute worst uniforms, though. Good God, how many different colors does a team need?)

If you're asking me to draw a decent Sabres logo, I'm not a graphic designer, so nothing I come up with would be any better. That's why I don't like the old logo. I could come up with that. The shoulder patch logo is better, and the best logo the Sabres ever had was the one they had when they wore black and red. Put that logo in the proper Sabres colors of blue and gold and un-stupid the striping patterns and that'd be their best look. I don't know why you're bothering to quote the O6 logos at me. I don't recall ever mentioning them. The Leafs' logo is as lame as it gets. On the other hand, I have yet to hear you actually defend the Sabres old logo, hm? You've set up a fine army of straw men by acting like I talked about the Rangers logo or something, but why is the old Sabres' logo so great?

Did you even bother reading? I don't know if I should even respond, because you seem to pick and choose what you pay attention to. Here, let me spell this out for you loud and clear: Get out of my way, I'm Kyle Busch, and I don't care if I put you in the wall but if you do it to me I'll go cry for a reporter. I don't mind drivers who wreck other drivers. I like drivers who get in wrecks because they're driving like NASCAR drivers should. You might notice who I've been rooting for all year: Juan Pablo Montoya. I like Montoya because he's an aggressive driver. But when Montoya gets wrecked by someone else, you don't seem him getting interviewed and complaining about it. Shrub gets taken out and it's nothing but "waaaahhh waaaahhh waaaahhh that guy shouldn't be out there he should get out of my way waaaahhh waaaahhh." That's if he doesn't stalk off the track in a hissy fit like he did at Daytona this week. Dale Sr. didn't stick his nose into a microphone after getting taken out and cry about it.

I hate him 'cause I'm scared of him doing well? Dumbest thing I ever heard. :rotflmao: I don't hate him because he's good. I hate him because he's a spoiled little ******* who smashes trophies, and basks in the glory of how awesome he is when he wins and pouts and hides when he loses. He'll wreck anyone, anytime, and sit and whine when someone else does it to him - if he talks to the media at all. Usually he just stomps off to his trailer to suck on his pacifier. Anyone who likes being hated the way he does - there's a problem with that.

Don't ask me to defend the Stars' logo - it too is lame. But in the rest of those cases - at least someone designed those. Put some actual effort into it, like. You're a self-professed Sabres fan so you've got no objectivity, and there's nothing wrong with that. But speaking as someone without any emotional connection, the Sabres' old logo is one of a family of thoroughly uninspired '70s-era logos (the Isles and Oilers would be the others) that honestly were probably designed by the suits and not real artists. (In the case of the Islanders, this is actually true.) Their only appeal is that they're old. Sure, the Patriots' logo is a patriot. Compare their old patriot and their current one and you see what I'm talking about.

One of the best logos in sports? Ugh, the old Sabres logo was lame. Zero imagination. Let's see, we're the Buffalo Sabres, so let's have.....a buffalo! And some sabres! In a circle. I don't like the Buffaslug either but at least it doesn't look like management cut the budget for a graphic designer and glued cutouts from a magazine onto a paper plate. Lame. I don't know what you're complaining about with the navy blue.....the Canucks have a lighter blue than the Sabres used to. Which was originally pretty dark anyway, so it's not like they suddenly switched.

Who was it that the board was all over his nuts until he got himself into a hit-and-run? Was that Mark Bell?

Um, "assuming Hudler prices himself out of here"....??? Leaving the Lidstrom argument aside (and it's insanely presumptuous to assume that he'll take a more than 50% pay cut just to be a nice guy) who here is expecting Hudler to quintuple his salary?

Yes, because Travis Moen would have been all the difference in that Game 7.

Yeah, agreed. Seriously: if Holland said, well, I'm not really bothering, I just want to re-sign the guys we have, he loses all his leverage with those guys. Next we'll be hearing that the video guy is out collecting and editing videos, and here we all thought he was racing go-karts in Monaco.

Daytona never disappoints. Helluvan exciting finish. Tony Stewart gets a win - very cool. JPM moves up into 11th place - very very cool. Plus any race in which the #18 car ends up a smoking pile of unrecognizable metal is a success in my book. Shrub actually ought to stop by the Petty garages and thank Kasey Kahne: if the 9 didn't smack him, I don't think he'd actually have finished the race. Oh, and further proof NASCAR deserves major kudos for driver safety: Logano hit Shrub's drivers' side door at 170 mph - after Shrub's rear wheels were in Kahne's windshield - and no injuries to anyone involved. People will naturally harp on the dangers of plate racing, but if it produces races like that, and wrecks like that, and nobody's hurt, I say someone is doing something right.

Man, everyone has an idea that we should go after this guy or that guy. Probably half the league has a "what about player X" post on the board right now, and my answer is the same for all of them: Let's worry about our own guys first. If we sign the guys we should and promote the guys that deserve it based on their playoff showing, we don't need other teams' scraps.

Scotty is probably destroying things at this very moment. With his eyes.

Well, given that Hudler and Leino will probably command about $4.5 million in cap space for the pair, and we still need to squeeze Helm in there, Sundin would be signing for something south of a million. Probably more like $700,000. If he'll play for that, then I won't doubt his motivation to play. That makes this kind of a no-brainer - anyone who would turn down someone of Sundin's talent for that little money is retarded. But none of the games. He's actually got to want to be here and play all year.

I cringe every time I see someone call a grown-ass man "Huddles." Anyway, I used to be a big fan of Sundin's, but a little less after he pulled that Brett Favre s*** last year. I'm not sure his heart's in it any more.

One suggestion, TS: part of the attraction of the Olympia is the facade, but you've shoved the facade up against the street behind some buildings where it's hard to get a look at it. Suggestion: move the building to the wedge of land between Grand River and Cass with the front entrance on Elizabeth and the building at the corner of Elizabeth and Cass. You could then have a Red Wings Plaza or something in front of it, between Elizabeth and Adams, with the new Olympia on one side and the GAR building anchoring the other end. Open spaces like that make for a great atmosphere. There'd be room between the stadium and freeway for a loading/players' entrance, space for another open plaza with trees between Grand River and the stadium, and then parking garages where you've got the stadium now. Edit: here, this is what I mean: Obviously you know better than I what the correct stadium size is, nor have I given much thought to what land the Ilitches actually own or could really get, nor what buildings are in the way (there aren't many, although I did spare the little church there.)