betterREDthandead

I don't really want Colorado (not from an "easy opponent" standpoint anyway.) Too many close games against them this year and they're likely to get all their big guns back in time for the first round. Don't want Vancouver, let someone else deal with Luongo. I'd take Phoenix. Maybe with some luck Dallas will slide back to 8th.

Agreed. We all love DMac, so the last thing we want to see is for the Wings to give in to sentiment, put him out there before he's ready, get all amped up to fight Pronger and get his face bashed in. People are soooooo psyched for him to fight Pronger. Well, Pronger has five inches and about fifteen pounds on DMac and, unlike DMac, is in perfect game shape.

Agreed. Wings don't need Blake, especially for the price the Kings are likely to ask for. Which might come down after the injury, counterintuitively making the injury make Blake more desirable, but really, Blake isn't the kind of trade the Wings need to make. For starters I'd much rather see them trade for a forward at the deadline rather than a defenseman.

Hooray! Granderson signed a five year extension worth about six million a year and a club option for a sixth year. Great news. Link below. ESPN

If an all-star team of CHLers played an all-star team of NCAAers, I agree, I think the CHLers would win. However, if the Memorial Cup champions played the Frozen Four champions (it'd be the Vancouver Giants vs. Michigan State) I think I'd lean slightly toward MSU. College teams have more continuity because the players can't be traded, and staying at one junior team (or even in juniors at all) for four years is nearly unheard of, especially with the best players. I think that'd give a college team an advantage.

I don't really think it's a huge problem with the time zones. It does kinda suck for the Wings, but somehow we won three Cups that way, with trips to Vancouver, Anaheim, Denver, etc. along the way. So I think we'll live. Ideally, I'd add two more teams then get rid of the conferences entirely and split the league up into eight divisions of four, with the sixteen playoff berths going to the two teams at the top of each division. That way, travel would be spread more or less equally (although the closer to a coast you are, the worse it'd be) and no division would be spread over more than two time zones.

That'd still leave an EST team in the Western Conference. Two teams would have to move.

Kind of reflects how many first rounders the Wings actually use instead of trading away.

If they were to change to my ideal playoff format it would requre expansion and massive realignment. Til then I think what they have going now is just fine. No changes. No expanding the playoffs.

Both Columbus and Detroit are in the Eastern Time Zone. It would take two expansion teams out west or two moves.

I think the number of total posts is much higher than 500,000. The link to the post above indicates that it's post #1235390. Lord knows how far back that goes. That probably includes posts that have long since disappeared from the server.

Friday: NY Rangers @ New Jersey Buffalo @ Atlanta Vancouver @ Florida Colorado @ Detroit Anaheim @ St Louis Dallas @ Edmonton Saturday: NY Islanders @ Montreal Chicago @ San Jose Detroit @ Boston Ottawa @ Toronto Los Angeles @ New Jersey Anaheim @ Philadelphia Atlanta @ Washington Minnesota @ Columbus Carolina @ Pittsburgh Florida @ Tampa Bay Phoenix @ Nashville Colorado @ St Louis Dallas @ Calgary Sunday: NY Rangers @ Montreal I would, by the way, prefer to implement the drop-three-worst rule.

Can't make divisional arrangements based on what's closest to just one team. Giving Nashville a division with Atlanta and the rest of the teams closest to Nashville would then cause the Florida teams to have to travel farther. Anyway, being physically close is far more important on the West Coast than the eastern side of the country given the much longer travel distances. An hour of time change is less important than two extra hours in the air.

The 2001-02 Red Wings were the greatest assemblage of talent in one NHL locker room ever. It was never seen before and it'll never be seen again. Period. I don't care if "it couldn't be done under the cap," fortunately for us there was no cap and we got to see 9 absolute giants of the game coached by another giant of the game.

Ties. Anyway, Yzerman, Robitaille, and Hull are absolute guarantees. Probably Leetch over Larionov because Leetch is a North American, but Larionov will be in eventually, no doubt. So thus the process will begin of inducting the 2001-02 Detroit Red Wings into the Hall of Fame.

Canseco actually tried to blackmail Maggs. He's not only a douchebag (of the highest order, BTW) but apparently a criminal as well. Pity Maggs didn't decide to press charges. Hope his book flops.

So the time that Yzerman could have spent giving to a kid with actual problems, which is now lost forever, is of no bearing to you.

About a thousand hours of community service at a children's hospital would definitely be a fitting punishment. And if that doesn't show him the error of his ways, an ass-kicking from this guy, brass knuckles authorized, no firearms. Might be a cathartic experience.

Um.... Brunnstrom-Filppula-Zetterberg? Brunnstrom-Datsyuk-Holmstrom? Brunnstrom-Drake-Kopecky? Brunnstrom-Smith-Jones? Brunnstrom-Crosby-Ovechkin? Brunnstrom-Caesar-Augustus? Who knows? Who cares? If there's one thing that has been true of the Wings ever since Scotty took over, it's that no line is sacred. All the switching of lines this year proves it. People get hurt, lines go cold, certain combos get hot, everything changes five or six times during the course of one season. Players get acquired, players get traded. Line-combo-guessing, especially for a player who isn't even signed to a contract yet, is the most futile exercise ever. "well I think he should play with so-and-so because blah blah blah" gets shot down the moment Babcock starts tinkering. It's never worth it to care.

Franzen was not only the Wings' 3rd round pick that year, he was our first pick.....three spots after Edler. Holland would have had to trade up to get him.

Is that anything like how Pavel Datsyuk was a measly 6th round pick and didn't make it to North America til he was 23?

Within the division, and with teams that are in the middle of a heated race for playoff berths? Columbus is tied with Colorado for 8th. They've never made the playoffs. If they can even sniff a playoff run, they're likely to do whatever it takes to get there. Columbus will be a buyer, not a seller. What's crazy is to assume that every single time a scout takes in a game, they're automatically looking for trade possibilities.

Downey and Drake are here to do something other than fight?

Again - I think it's hilarious that you all think they were scouting trade possibilities. You do know the Wings have game scouts who watch the other teams for tendencies, weaknesses, strengths, in order to formulate a game plan. Right? We have a combined eight games left against CHI and CLS, which is a hefty chunk of the schedule. It's silly to try and turn this into a trade rumor.

Why?