norrisnick

#4 can go up during a joint ceremony with #91.

IIRC they tied us points-wise. Then we had a stretch very similar to what we have coming up with the Hawks with 2-3 games in a little over a week and they were back by double digits in under a month.

Malone, Gomez, and Drury have never touched what Z has accomplished the last couple years. And even if those GMs in particular might be gunshy about big money contracts you have to believe others will be frothing at the mouth to sign a guy like Z. Franchise caliber center that put up 90+ points in a Selke worthy season and topped it off by leading the playoffs in scoring in a Conn Smythe effort. Teams will be falling all over themselves trying to sign him.

How much of a discount to you expect him to take? -$2M/yr? -$3M/yr? -$4M/yr? On the open market Z is going to see $10M/yr offers.

Fil is neither capable of taking over for Z, nor is he earning a 2nd liners' salary. He is being paid one (by cap hit anyway), but not yet earning it. In your dozens of usernames you've never once managed to use reason. You're an irrational one-trick pony and that's a dead giveaway every single time. Til we meet again...

Bingo.

That it will. The Wings attack is going to give him fits.

Two things. Weber is 5th on his team for PK duties. Boyle isn't the Sharks' #1 defenseman. No way can the Norris go to a guy that falls in either category.

The forward lines are the least of our worries.

The hilarious thing is that we aren't even losing games.

The age rule only applies to players who signed after 35 year of age IF they signed a multi-year deal and only after the first season of the contract. Cheli and Mac are on one year deals.

Hudler doesn't play in the 3rd period. Babcock for some reason seems to believe that playing the type of hockey that got you a lead in the first place can't continue to work so he goes "prevent" defense and we sit back and get scored on at will because we no longer attack. Puck possession defense is entirely dependent on trying to do something with the puck. We suck at sitting back and trying to defend. Wings defense when working perfectly is not allowing the opposition to have the puck. We don't do that in the 3rd. That's part of why our 6on5 defense is atrocious. It is way too passive. Be aggressive on the puck and get it out. Don't kill the time in your end. Kill the time in the other end.

I can't find any of the good summaries of how it all went down, but did find this snippet from a TSN article.

That organization is also smart. Ask Willy how loyal the organization is to players that don't live up to new contracts.

Like I told someone on another forum who suggested that with Hudler being on pace for 30-ish goals and 70-ish points we probably can't afford him. Hudler scores 30/70 you tell Fil to f*** right off and let Helm play 3rd line center next year. Unless he's scoring at least 50+ points, there is nothing Fil can do defensively that will trump 70 points from Hudler. EDIT - Same goes for Cleary for that matter, but Dan had the foresight to get a NTC in his contract.

I'm guessing that the guy that gave him $3M/yr did. And I'm guessing that he hoped Fil would assert himself enough offensively to force Babcock's hand to give him some PP time. If he would do anything remotely dangerous offensively you bet your ass that Babcock would split PP time between Fil and Hudler. As it stands one is tied for the team lead in PP points and the other is tied with the one-eyed man in offense. The one-eyed man that has played 8 fewer games.

Wings were the first team to ever ice a starting 5 man unit of Swedes. It's only a matter of time before Larsson gets at least a cup of coffee to bump that record up to all 6. Which begs the question, has there ever been a complete starting lineup all of a single nationality (besides Canadian of course)? Though if you want to include Canada you could limit it to a single province like 6 Quebecois, 6 from Ontario.

Did you not read any of those stories of Holland telling the tale of how he landed Hossa? Nick IS the godfather in this case and would have had to give the nod had Marian not told Holland not to bother calling the godfather. Kenny promised Nick that if he took a hit for the team that he wouldn't pay anyone else more than him. Marian was asking for more, Kenny told Marian he'd have to ask Nick, Marian asked how much Nick made, then said don't bother just give me the same.

Fairly young? Todd Bertuzzi (same birth year) is fairly young?

Every single Detroit defenseman makes that pass on the PK. It's the standard "out" for them if they win a puck battle in the corner because 99% of the time the PP players will hug the board to attempt to smother a clearing attempt. So the Wings just make a quick pass to the slot where a Red Wing forward should be.

The playoffs up to that goal was the best that Lilly had ever played. He was our 2nd best defenseman behind Lids. He was leading the playoffs in hits through the conference finals. He was awesome.

Hudler and Hossa share the team lead in PP points.

"When you're ahead in this league, you're always getting a penalty. You just know it. I think it's written in the rules now." That's Babcock.

When it happened I made some comment that Mac probably needs to take a shower and a nap as he's probably spent for the game. The fight was 46 seconds from matching the time Darren spent on the ice last night.