norrisnick

Why is what the Wings have done for the last 10-15 years suddenly not matter? Under the vision of Scotty Bowman fighting and guys with a primary focus on fighting are disappearing from the roster. Yeah he brought back Joey in '97 but not as an enforcer. He semi-retired because his hands were wrecked and wasn't much use as a fighter anyway, but Scotty felt he could contribute on the grind line because he's won the cup before. That was the key factor of his acquisitions. Murphy had won before and Joey had won before. Before that we didn't have a skater that had won the cup. Mac played because Maltby and Franzen were in and out of the lineup with injuries. Completely healthy he doesn't get on the ice. Now I'm going to guess that one of the "expendable" players you alluded to before didn't miss a game in our Cup run. Strange that. Getting rid of full-time player for a part-time player. Makes sense... I wonder how many of them complained that Downey wasn't on the ice in the playoffs?

If you ain't first, you're last! Nut up and accept it. If you're going to be a Wings fan you need to be crushed by failure not "ho-hum I don't really care either way so long as we try our best." The District-5 comment speaks volumes. This isn't pee-wee. Anything but the Cup is a failure.

Fighting has absolutely NOTHING to do with being a soft team or not. The fact that most enforcers don't play in the playoffs makes them by definition expendable.

Yup. Lidstrom is the clear #1 for the last 15 years. And Fedorov is ahead of Stevie as well, IMO. 1. Lidstrom 2. Fedorov 3. Yzerman 4. Shanahan 5. Osgood 6. Konstantinov 7. Draper 8. Zetterberg 9. Datsyuk 10. Kozlov Z and Pavel are clearly going to rocket up this list in the coming years. Osgood might skip by Shanny too.

There's more to defense than standing someone up at the blueline. He's very scrambly in his own end. Runs around too much. And once he has the puck doesn't always get it up ice safely.

Except of course for the most important one. Defense.

Datsyuk is a 90+ point elite two-way player that will likely eclipse 100 points in the near future. Draper in his heyday was a 30-40 point Selke candidate. Even if Fil becomes a 50-60 point two-way center, he's closer to Draper than to Datsyuk.

We all need to send Darcy Regier flowers! Dan Paille solid young two-way player. Same age and size as Filppula. 77 games 19 goals 16 assists +9 Paille's stat line. 78 games 19 goals 17 assists +16 Filppula's stat line. Paille signed a two year deal. First year at $900K. Second year at $1.35M.

Fil took a lot more faceoffs than Franzen did last season. More often than not he was the center of the 2nd line (when he wasn't up with Datsyuk). Filppula may have the potential to be a playmaker, but he hasn't come close to being one thus far. In the long run he'll be closer to Draper than he will be to Datsyuk. A fun side note. Holmstrom had more assists than Filppula last season.

Cleary makes more and Franzen undoubtedly will as well once his current deal is up.

Find me a cheaper top line winger that puts up 20-30 goals and is pivotal on the PP (whether he gets on the scoresheet or not). In the cap world, Homer is an incredibly cheap player. Ryan Malone is making twice as much and I'm hesitant to say he's better at all.

Slava Kozlov was centering him, I believe.

I don't put them back together. If it's a late game we need a goal right ******* now sort of situation we stack the hell out of the top line with Pavel - Z - Marian and the 2nd line is irrelevant but probably would feature Franzen - Fil - Hudler or something like that.

I just think that it's painfully obvious that if you add an elite natural winger you let both of our elite natural centers actually play center rather than doubling them up and letting a lesser center handle the 2nd line. And you don't add a guy like Hossa and stick him next to Filppula. It just doesn't make sense. Like '06 when Draper was on a line with Datsyuk. It was painful.

Fil centers #3 and Draper centers #4.

So you've got Z, Pavel, and Fil. That smells like 3rd line center to me. Filppula does not have NHL level scoring line playmaking ability. If it were a matter of wingers he'd be on the 2nd PP, but he's not (unless someone ahead of him is hurt). Fil is a defensive center that can carry the puck very well, but his offensive instincts are lacking. He can handle a 2on1 fairly well, but offensive zone passing when it's set up and knowing when to pass or when to shoot, just isn't there. Sure he'll put up points on a stacked line, but said stacked line would be far better off with a center that can maximize the offense.

What makes you think a line with Z in the middle is any more likely to struggle than one with Fil in the middle?

I think Fil will be used as our 3rd center with the two of Sammy, Cleary, and Hudler that don't make the top 2 lines.

Hossa is not going to play on a line with two guys that had a combined 28 assists last year. You don't add an elite goal-scoring winger and hope the center magically turns into a playmaker. Or think that because he's putting up assists via osmosis that that's a good thing. Marian will be on the wing of one of our big boys. Likely Pavel. Anything else would be a waste.

Because he's the best skater we have, is defensively sound, and doesn't treat the puck like a hand grenade.

A loss in the WCF would be easier to swallow. No way we shouldn't steamroll whoever comes from the East. Barring massive injuries of course.

You mean touched in his special place?

Sid got touched. Z steamrolled him in game 1 as well.

Beats me. I wouldn't go so far as to say stupid, but I will go so far as to say that Bowman (who was the driving force behind the passivity of the Wings) is smarter than everyone else.