norrisnick

You're asking for a 5 minute PK with the refs tonight. peace

He's in Manny's head. If you read the post-game stuff from last night Manny was second guessing the breakaway last night from watching too much video. No doubt he was still thinking about it just now. peace

Fun Fact, as of this moment Schneider is the leading goal-scorer among defensemen. Nick is three points shy of the overall scoring lead among defensemen. peace

Crap, Nick and Cheli in the box at the same time is not a good thing. peace

He's a two way. You mentioned though that he's somewhat similar to Williams in that he's a scoring line player and not well suited for 4th line duty, right? Is McDonell the chippy one or does Don have any sort of physical presence to him? Lots of random questions, but I know you know the guy (more than anyone else would). Any NHL upside or has that passed him by? peace

It's like the Griffs are taking turn with the scoring. It was Hudler's line for the first month and a half, then the Kopecky, Fippula, Bootland line, and now Maclean and his line. Maclean was a Wings two-way signing right? Or was he a purely Griffins player? peace

The 1st is way too valuable for landing Witt and I don't think Pettinger will be dramatically better than Franzen anyway, if at all. I wouldn't do that deal. Though I would like to land Witt somehow. peace

Holy crap, I forgot all about Igor. I was locked in the prospects from GR mentality. IMO Igor makes the full jump to the big team. He's mature at 23-24, solidly built at 5'10" 215lbs, fast, and skilled. peace

Those and Hudler (too much skill to write him off). If they start looking outside our system who knows. We have a lot of NHL, or near NHL, ready forwards that need to get utilized. Lang being moved (this season or in the offseason) isn't out of the realm of possibility so that may be another spot. Hank needs his center spot opened up. Who knows maybe one of our youngsters will have great chemistry with Pavel so he won't need Hank on his hip anymore. Would have been nice if Babcock would have tried Jiri and Val a bit more on one of the scoring lines. I think Jiri might have had 4-5 scoring line shifts (he had a nice screen on a Lidstrom PP goal) but other than that it was the 4th and the bench for the two. peace

Oh I know he won't be on the Wings. Or do you mean even in the system since he has to be re-signed this offseason? I don't think Holland is as enamoured with Rivers and Woolley as you think. Rivers was a decent depth guy last year but the new game passed him by, hard to forcast. Woolley was brought in solely as a puckmover because Kronwall went down and they weren't ready to trust Lebda. With Kronwall coming back and Fischer down he has a different hole in his defense. I think he'll address it. peace

I think Stevie will retire. He's played well when he can get on the ice, but I don't think he wants to go through the risk of all his groin troubles again. Sammy and Shanny, IMO, are no-brainer re-signs. I'd take back Cleary as well. Kirk and Kris won't be around forever and Cleary and Franzen could very well be a reincarnation of their PK/defensive magic. Will is the one that scares me. He had a hot start on a hot PK unit and hot line but has tailed off and the holes surfaced. That and Babcock seems to have a soft spot for him. I don't think he brings enough to the table to automatically lock up a top 6 roster spot. Mowers is only on the team because of a loophole, he won't be back. That should give us two, maybe three holes to fill. And 4 guys that could realistically make the jump. peace

That cheap we could afford both, I believe. It would go a long way to retool our top 4 for the eventual departure of our vets. Plus our best defensive prospects are mostly of the skill variety besides Quincey and the longshot, but mean as hell and I hope he makes it, Kolosov (he changed the spelling when he came over). peace

Big strong and young body to replace the one we lost. I'd sign off on Komo. And with his salary I don't think we have to create an cap space so a pick or something might land him. I doubt they have any interest in our prospects as their strength (skill fowards and goalies) match ours. peace

laundry is no fun... peace

I doubt he can find a more cost-efficient FA that fits our needs up front more than Modin. If he can land him with minimal cost, he should. He's huge and does his best work down low and at $2.2M is by no means costly. peace

According to Jim Nill's comments it sounds like Kopecky is the next guy in line for a call-up. And he's more in charge of the team make up (as the assistant GM most responsible for our prospects and dealing with the Griffins) than Babcock is. peace

He has good chemistry with Kovalev. So does fellow center Koivu. If the Habs would bite on Lang, I'd go for it provided we get defense back. And no, not Dandy! peace

As for Lilja I'd sure hope so considering he's our #3. Cheli has been great, but his being 44 worries me that he'll break down before our season is over. Kronwall is coming back as a surgically repaired rookie with 20 games of NHL experience. He's not going to be anywhere near 100% at any point this season. He'll still likely be our #3 but I am hesitant to put that much pressure on him coming back from surgery. We need a big strong, preferably mean, body back there that can play 15-20+ HARD minutes a night. We need a player to take Fischer's spot. Had we had Fischer and Kronwall healthy all year long, I'd stack our defense up against anyone else's. Without Fish and Kronwall coming back from ACL surgery, not so much. peace

We have one great player, one good player, and then it gets sketchy with the 44 year old Cheli, Lilja, and the rest weren't even supposed to be playing for us. His agent is Gary Greenstin. Gary doesn't seem too keen on keeping his players in NHL gigs. Sushinsky left the Wild due to "homesickness" and then there was that documented mess with Datsyuk during the summer. He likes to leverage RSL contracts against NHL teams. With Bykov he openly commented that if he doesn't get what he wants he'll just play over there for decent money then try again with the NHL when he's UFA, which will be this coming summer. peace

No Griffins made the Canadian team. peace

http://www.theahl.com/AHL/News/2006/01/10/1387795.html Hudler was voted a starter. There may be a Griffin or two on Team Canada. peace

Beware of black cats today, might kill ya. peace

Very astute of you. Biron isn't any better than Osgood. We have zero need for Numminen. That 2nd and Hudler are far more valuable than the return from Buffalo. peace

http://www.nhl.com/nhlhq/cba/index.html Rest easy, B52. peace

Doesn't he have to clear waivers though? He would. EDIT - Actually, I don't think he can play in the NHL at all. He's an RFA that wasn't signed by Dec. 1st. Granted we didn't try, but there is that new rule that RFAs have to be signed by then or be barred from the league for the remainder of the season (to stop holdouts). peace