betterREDthandead

The main factors, IMO, are the following three things: - Osgood is playing lights out. - Secondary scoring question has been answered by Flip, Rex, and Cleary. - Third, and most important, attitude. They're playing more of a 60-minute game against all challengers. They learned in last year's playoffs that they can answer the toughness questions and don't have to be seen as a soft team that will fold when you challenge them. Adding Downey and Drake have a lot to do with that. Rewarding Flip with more minutes and a regular role does too.

He's someone who has a damn good point. It's kind of sad how desperate some people are to get McCarty back that they'll take Cheli's opinion as front-office gospel and completely ignore Mac's play in the past few years besides. Chelios is a hockey player and an ex-teammate, not a GM.

Must be nice to be Kenny. "Another trip to Sweden? That's four in the last month!" "Just checkin' out prospects....and models."

The Wings have an "ultimate tendency" to bring back players who can help the team. Them being former Wings has nothing to do with it. McCarty can no longer help the team. Frankly, it was kind of sad just watching him skate with Calgary. He was completely invisible - if he was even in the lineup. I don't care if he's Swedish or Kenyan. The Wings are not going to bring him back.

Always wear your colors to road games. Always. I generally set a few rules for myself - be vocal but only in support of my team, never heckle the enemy, that sort of thing.

The sooner you give up the notion that Darren McCarty will ever play for the Wings again, the better it will be for your mental health. Anyone who is even holding on to the tiniest glimmer of hope that McCarty will come back to the Wings is living in Lollipop Land. Sadly deluding yourself.

Tonight marks the halfway point of the Wings' season. 41 games down, 41 to go. Just a little something to sum up the Wings' accomplishments and put in perspective where they stand.... - They have a record of 30-8-3, for 63 points. This puts them on pace for 126, which would be their best regular season since the record-setting year of 1995-96 when they racked up 131. - They have scored more goals than any other team in the league and given up fewer than any other team in the league. - Red Wings are likely to comprise one-half of the Western All-Star Game starting lineup, and if there were justice in this world, it'd be two-thirds. - The power play scores nearly 1 out of every 4 chances. (We are used to this.) We the fans of Red Wings Nation demanded they get tougher. They now have two players who will drop the gloves to protect the star players, and one who will drop the gloves for no apparent reason whatsoever (the Pain Train does not make scheduled stops). We wondered where the secondary scoring would come from. 41 games later, we have endured a stretch without the #1 and #3 scoring forwards and the team hasn't missed a beat. Rex, Cleary, and Flip have officially answered the bell. We wanted to see Nik Kronwall finally live up to his potential. He is on pace to be third in defenseman-scoring, which is perfectly understandable given who's ahead of him. We expected Jiri Hudler to get more ice time and shine with it. He is averaging approximately 5-6 extra shifts per game and is on pace for over 50 points. We expected Hank to have a breakout year. Yes. And then there's the shots-on-goal differential. The Wings are singlehandedly skewing this stat. They shoot more than any other team and allow fewer than any other team. They have a differential of +11.6 per game - no other team even surpasses +5. Because this must average out somehow, there are 4 teams with a worse than -5 differential. Their goals differential per game is 1.3. The next best is 0.79 - every other team is below 0.5. The Wings have a dominant goalie tandem, a suffocating defense, and an explosive offense. They play to perfection the puck control game they're famous for, and they have added on an uncanny ability to go get the puck when they don't have it. They've shown hustle, grit, and talent. This isn't a season where the Wings have ridden a few lucky bounces to a record that puts them in contention. They aren't sitting back on cruise control and letting their talent carry them through games against a crummy division. In 26 games outside the division, they are 24-1-1. They're playing 110% from the drop of the puck to the final horn. They're dominating every shift, and they're not backing down from any confrontation. Tonight's game against Dallas - perfect example of this season. They made the Stars look like they didn't belong in the same league. They thwarted every Dallas advance into the zone. They attacked relentlessly and stepped on the Stars' throats every chance they got. They fought. They hit - hard. They pelted Turco with shots, and quality ones. They scored pretty goals and they scored ugly ones. They dispatched the Stars with brutal efficiency - and Dallas is the second best team in the Western Conference. Bottom line: I cannot remember the last time I saw the Wings playing this well. They look great. Not great like "this is a great hot dog." Like, Steve Yzerman great. Gordie Howe great. I am not afraid to say this and risk jinxing things. This team looks hungry. They look like they're on a mission. I am going to savor this whole season, because the Wings are giving us a rare treat.

Transformers, a rubber ducky, braces, and to top it off.....a The Cheat t-shirt......D-O-R-K kidding of course....I got my brother (college student) the same t-shirt for Christmas last year. He loved it so much he bought me a Pinky and the Brain DVD. Who needs maturity? Any job where t-shirt and Tigers hat is proper attire sounds like the kind of job I need to find for myself.

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

All the reason you need right there. They really should do this Winter Classic every year. The NHL need not be worried that it's going to get old and stale if they rotate it. Off the top of my head I can think of 12 workable locations. Maybe 14.

Everett Silvertips. See location This year was the first time I've ever seen junior hockey. It's fun.

We can indeed agree on that fact. However, I take very strong offense at you claiming I'd rather have a team full of fairies. I like fighting and grit and toughness as much as anyone, and it's obvious you can't win with a soft team. You find me where I said I want a team full of slick-skating 5'8" 160 pounders that don't hit anyone. The difference is that I think we have the pit bulls we need and while I wouldn't complain about the right trade, we certainly don't need to go breaking up the team just to add some big lug whose only talent is fighting, just so we can climb higher in the fight standings.

Thoroughly impressed with this game. The Wings just made the 2nd best team in the West and 3rd best in the league overall look like the Iowa Stars of the AHL, not the Dallas variety.

'Cause Tootoo won't fight anyone who actually wants to fight him back.

No, by thickheaded thugs I mean cement-heads like Ivanans, not "guys who will stick up for their teammates." Downey and Drake have both talked the talk and walked the walk in that regard. Why do we need more? What are they, chopped liver? And if you think this team is soft, you need to go watch some Tampa Bay Lightning hockey. The Red Wings are not soft. Not this year. You want to lead the league in fighting majors? The Anaheim Meatheads are, and they're also teetering on the brink of not making the playoffs. They're tied with Calgary, both in the standings and the fighting category. Flyers and Bruins are next, and they're in the same precarious position in the standings. If you judge a team's toughness by how many fighting majors, you have a terribly misguided view of toughness.

Would it make you guys happy if the team was composed of nothing but thickheaded thugs? Ivanans isn't a gem, he's a goon. We have Drake (who I kind of wish was named Dawson for awesome movie connection purposes) and Downey. The Wings have more fights this year than they've had for years, and still you people aren't satisfied. I'm perfectly content with Kopecky, because the Wings need people to grind after the puck more than they need people to throw punches. We have punch-throwers. We need Kopecky more than Ivanans.

We got two guys that are happy to drop the gloves to protect their teammates and have stated as much. That's not even including the Pain Train, who demolished Stephane Robidas tonight with a terrific hit. That's exactly what we've all been pining for, for the last three years at least. But no. More toughness dammit!

Nothing surprising about that. The Packers have owned the Lions' faces for almost two decades. It's why I hate the Packers on a level with the Cowboys and Yankees. For me, the North team that I don't mind is the Bears, mainly because they're the one team that doesn't often give the Lions much trouble.

I could never just jump bandwagons like those KC Royals fans that sell their loyalty on eBay. Cute stunt, but it wouldn't work for me. However, I did follow the Texans this year, up until Matt Schaub got hurt and Rosenfels took over. If Schaub turns the Texans around and has a nice long run as their QB, and the Lions continue to suck fat monkey balls and continue to hire the king of sucking monkey balls as their pitiful GM...... Well, I don't know if I would switch loyalties, or even if I could. If I did it'd be pretty gradual. If I did, though, that'd be the scenario where it'd most likely happen, and over the course of several years. It's sad though that I've actually found a way how it could happen - in the past it wasn't even conceivable.

Gotta put it in the proper perspective. Suppose Michigan had beaten OSU four straight and sent the seniors out winless. Were OSU fans rooting for Michigan to win the national championship in the midst of the Cooper years? When Michigan was reguarly winning in the rivalry, and often going on to bigger and better things than the Buckeyes, I found it fairly easy to root for OSU in their bowl games and whatnot. Seems OSU fans feel the same way now. It's a lot harder to root for them when they're always beating us. So, as for me, I won't be watching the game. I don't want either team to win. Hence the aforementioned wish for a giant sinkhole to swallow the stadium. If OSU wins, well, the SEC can suck on it then. Yay Big Ten. If LSU wins, we can start calling them the Ohio State Bills and that's kind of fun too.

I wish I could argue with or deny anything you just said

So Martz is out, and the Lions have promoted Jim Colletto AND Kippy Brown to take his place. Colletto will carry the titles of offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, and Brown will be assistant head coach, passing game coordinator, wide receivers coach, and running backs coach. In essence, there will be two offensive coordinators. One, only the Lions could manage to screw up with a Super Bowl-winning offensive coordinator, and two, only the Lions would hire two people to screw up the offense instead of just one. Frickin' Mickey Mouse organization.

Another plea (since it was on the previous page) for a DVD copy of the game tonight! Pretty please? Anyone? (And maybe a donation to the Buy Me A Better Tivo Box Fund?)

Lilja is the winner the moment he drops the gloves because he is LILJA. The rest is just ceremonial.

They both actually have a huge staircase - the Joe is more or less symmetrical. But if you get lost because you're confused about "the one by the river" as opposed to "the one not by the river" then I don't think we can help you