C-TownWing

I think we can get Luongo for Samuelsson. ...oh wait.

Great post...my thoughts as well. It'll be awfully tough to win this division, so if we have to settle for a 4/5 seed, I can see that, but missing the playoffs isn't even a possibility in my mind. We do have to get better than what we showed this weekend, but we will. Chicago and Washington next week won't make it easy to do quickly though And for those of you freaking out about the goaltending, two words: Brodeur, Luongo.

That guy doesn't represent the board, trust me on that one. Nothing but respect for European fans coming from this corner. I have no idea how they pull it off...good team, bad team, hockey, soccer, whatever, they're always armed with insane levels on enthusiasm and coordination. Pure awesome. Anyway, solid win to get things revved up for Friday. Howard was great, which is obviously nice to see. Third line, especially Leino, was great. Bert still has hands. All in all, great way to spend an afternoon at work!

Same here. I think that's all you're supposed to hear though. Works out well for me being at work, I'd probably have to pass on the audio anyway.

There's a link on detroitredwings.com right now as well where the top stories are. Can't miss it. When you click it, it says it'll be live at 12:50.

That's the thing...Philly's basically building their team around the idea of matching up with Pittsburgh. I'm just glad that we don't have to deal with Pronger on a regular basis. Hate the guy, respect his talent. I say there's no way the Pens get by them three years in a row. Last year, I said that the Pens would be hurt from losing their best wings (Hossa, Malone) and I turned out to be right until they went out and got Guerin and Kunitz. This year, I'm saying that they'll feel losing Gill and Scuderi more than most people think. Scuderi did a great job on Ovechkin for a lot of that series, and Gill was frustrating for us to deal with. I look at their D right now and laugh at the idea that they might shut anyone down.

Yup. Personally, I don't believe in the whole rally around one player thing ("win it for Hossa," "win it for Drake") unless that one player happens to be wheelchair-bound from a limo accident or comparable. The bitter taste of defeat, combined with the intense will to get back what you feel is rightfully yours, is universal and something that touches everyone who played in Game 7 last year.

I tend to agree with this. There's a lot of variables out there. What's the cap going to do? I remember hearing all last year that this would be the year the recession would really be reflected in the cap. It could go down, and by more than slightly. What's Lidstrom getting? My guess: you're going to be disappointed if you expect his number to be lopped in half or something like that. Helm and Abs are RFA and get a bump if they play well this year. You can tell Maltby and Holmstrom to take a hike if you want, but you still have to fill their spots. Basically, our off-season purge got us in a great position. We have some flexibility, we're not screwed if the cap goes down, etc. But I think a big, big name (without also dumping a large salary) is unrealistic. Think about how screwed we'd be if we had signed Hossa.

Very good player awarded legend status by the Toronto-centric hockey media. I guess that's not completely fair...being the all-time leading scorer for a franchise as storied as the Leafs is nothing to sneeze at. Obviously, I'm conflicted about what his legacy should be. Mostly though, I'm just glad he figured it out, even if it was a year too late.

IMO, the points are realistic, but I doubt he plays 73 games. Just a gut feeling. If he does play 73, I think you can add about 10 to each number. 65 points on Z's wing seems about right if he stays healthy for the most part.

I considered them my favorite East team pre-Crosby, and really didn't mind them up until 2008 when we played them the first time. Now, not so much.

I used my last pick in my league on him last night and felt slightly stupid about being a homer and taking a personal fave. Today, I don't. Go Clears!

I did a little looking back at regular season vs. playoff finishes since 1995. It actually splits up pretty nicely into 3 eras. While there was a period in the middle where we were disappointing in the playoffs (2002 excepted), it's over now. Regular season is first, playoffs second. 1995: 1st/2md 1996: 1st/3rd-4th 1997: 5th/1st 1998: 3rd/1st 1999: 6th/5th-8th 2000: 2nd/5th-8th 2001: 2nd/9th-16th 2002: 1st/1st 2003: 3rd/9th-16th 2004: 1st/5th-8th 2006: 1st/9th-16th 2007: 2nd/3rd-4th 2008: 1st/1st 2009: 3rd/2nd

Agree...we won the division by 8 points this past year and were a better team on paper then (as opposed to now), while the Hawks are a better team on paper now (as opposed to then). I went with 4th seed, but with triple-digit points, and Mule, Z, Dats scoring 30. Want to be fair and give the kid a chance, but I'm not tremendously confident in Howard if Ozzie leaves his game in the playoffs again. Where would we have been without Conks last year? The Sweden thing worries me too--pretty much every team who's started overseas to this point has admitted to a hangover afterward, and it's probably supported by the records. All of that said, that tag "best 8 seed in the history of the universe" thing we threw on the Ducks comes to mind. We'll be a tough out in the playoffs just like they were.

How Raycroft continues to be employed by an NHL team is baffling to me.

Nice calls on Bouwmeester and Kipper, I agree on both. Bouwmeester, IMO, is one of those guys that gets overrated because he's available--you see it every year at the trade deadline and with UFAs. If you're the best of what's available (even if what's available is a giant pile of mediocre), you get treated like an elite player. Partly a creation of the media (gotta get eyeballs on TSN Tradecentre), partly a creation of fans hoping that the guy someone else didn't want is the last piece to a Cup team. Anyway, Wings easily, but now that Pronger's in Philly, Flames have a solid case for #2.

Good point. See Heatley, Dany.

Much less actually. LGW collective mancrush or not, I'll be pissed if we spend $2M on him.

That's the way I see it. If it was a complete lost cause, we would've traded his rights for a few rolls of tape. No action means they're still talking IMO, and if they're still talking, it means they think something might get done. We shall see. Also, thanks to everyone for handling this waaaay better than Pens fans last year, however it turns out.

Honestly, I'm sort of the same way. I never rate Yzerman's goal in 1996 that highly, because I can't forget what happened after that. Everything that's been mentioned so far was certainly a great moment, but ultimately, I define playoff runs by the end result, and 10 years from now, I'll probably still be cursing Max Talbot, but I might have forgotten about Havlat getting laid out. That said, I'm going with the WC, particularly Datsyuk's "wind-aided" goal. That's the kind of thing we'll remember for quite a long time, a rarity in the regular season.

True enough, I wasn't really thinking when I said that...I have a quote from an anonymous scout in the THN draft preview saying he showed a lot of the same game in the playoffs that he did at the WJHC, so maybe he had it figured out at the end of the season.

The first three attributes listed on his THN profile were skates well, thinks the game on a high level and has a consistent work ethic. Yup, sounds like a Red Wing.

First two picks have made it clear we're sticking to the formula, that's for sure... Anyone know the story behind the 15 points this year? That's kind of a red flag.

Yep...the Caps are great to watch but really, can you do better than this? These teams have about 40 years of shared history trying to be the meanest kid on the block--the Big Bad Bruins and the Broad Street Bullies. Maybe the two strongest team identities in the league. With these last two games, I almost want a do-over on the first one. I mean, it wasn't horrible, but 2009 and 2010 are off the charts good.

Both had a cap hit of roughly 1.1 million this year, in case anyone was wondering. I was. We made it to post #11 before we had a Chris Neil mention. That has to be some kind of record.