akustyk

knowing Holland and his refusal to take part with players he developed as cornerstones of Wings - I'm quite sure it point will point not point happen point but if I was him and saw that 2008-09 will have huge part of Wings budget locked in Dats+Zet leaving much less room to sign quality players - I'd strongly consider moving some assets now and making a real run for the cup A.D. 2008. it's not Holland style but with Sundin on the line I'd most certainly consider this. Sundin is worth this price for us and there's no doubt this deal improves Wings now. if this means a cup and then some tough years I'm fine with that. I'd feel better with this 4th Stanley than yet another President's Trophy. my 0.02 EUR

the thing is, you can't have it all under salary cap. and our D is deeper than forward crop. Sundin does not only bring scoring etc., but he also comes with huuuuuge boost in leadership and experience. this is more important void to fill for Holland, because once the opposing team learns how to shut down ZDH line (and you sure bet every single team will focus on learning them and putting their best D-mean on ice to not let Hank and Pavel generate offence) we're left pretty flat. not to take anything from Hudler, Franzen, Cleary etc., but they're not exactly the most skilled guys out there and most certainly not ones who change the game by their sheer will. now Sundin is. he is definitely capable of changing the fortunes by his play. hiss skills, charisma, example, etc. you can only dream of having such a guy on your roster heading to playoffs. its definitely about his knowledge, experience and leadership. playoffs where the real competition starts - that's his game. and this is where he excels. speaking of Quincey... he did play last year and if not spectacular he was pretty reliable in his own end. he actually was better in this aspect than our regular D-man Lebda. sure, Lebda 2008 might be better than 2007 but same can be said of Quincey.

this is a fair deal, even if us, Wings fans have it difficult to admit it. Sundin is worth this much as a rental. the other question is if Wings are in the position to do this trade and sacrifice some future for just a rental player? IMHO, yes, Wings are in position to go for the cup this year and Sundin sits perfectly good for our plans. I'd say: yes, Kenny, go for it. sure, Kronwall is future top-2 defensemen for any other NHL team than Wings (and Ducks with Scotty *cough* All-Star back in lineup). and sure, 1st round picks don't exactly grow on trees - even more those of supposedly deep draft. then again... Stanley Cups don't come for free and you have to take the risk sometimes. we collected talent and picks for few years now - time to use them to get a big fish and ride it all the way down into playoffs. Wings 2008 are better than Wings 2007 and they're worth this risk

not so sure about this. Scotty has a name for himself but Perry is not a big name yet. he might be because this brat has the capacity to, but it's not there yet. and Rafalski actually has a name. and if you take into account the fact that he's American and the league is badly trying to kiss-ass US audience...

speaking of Niederwhiner... why did they actually pick Perry for the ASG if it could've been Teemu? I mean... come on... he could've always dressed for a single regular season game prior to ASG just to shut those guys who yap those "he's supposed to be 2007-08 season star" complaints? anyway, I'm glad Zetterberg is off this dumb event. let him have his All-Star game in June and fetch some more valuable hardware that's all I care about

:puke: this dirty red-head Perry in All-Star Game. jeez... how low it got when all NHL real stars jump off this stupid event

good move but if it brings major change of fortune - we'll see. I'd rather go with that old joke: so is it this year?

jeez... one bad game and ppl whine like crazy. just put yourself in Maple Leafs fan shoes and think how usual is it when your team loses and how much joy it is when it finally wins a game once in 2-3 weeks seriously - they lost. didn't play that bad initially, but after 2 goals it all went downspiral. it just is this way sometimes. neither this is going to continue nor is this important at all. they still sit comfortably atop West and don't need to fire at all cylinders every single game. right?

oh come on... Swedish Twins? they're myth and they speak such a nice English

I too disagree with Parros. this guy is unique and looks pretty cool, although I'm having hard time to imagine a girl wanting to measure his stick curvature or whatever Mike Ricci doesn't count, because the pretty boy has already left the game leaving NHL with huge drop in TV sexappeal Pronger on the other hand... just look at him and you know what he's trying to compensate with endless dirty hits and dumb smies afterwards

not necessarily so. if I was the coach of SC team I'd not like my entire roster to put too much effort into an irrelevant game if I knew there's more important hockey yet to be played. which is what I wrote right at the start of previous post. I'd not mix up the likelihood in this also. probability is a tough ***** and is not to be dealt with such small and flawed samples

except for the fact that if it was real competition the Stanley Cup team would smoke that "Best of the rest" team if it put any effort in such game. hockey is a team game. where the "team" is most important term. talent alone is worth nothing if you don't have guys developed chemistry and bought into coach system. you can take pretty average roster talent-wise and under good coach it will develop into a real contender who can beat the hell out of just about every mix of superstars who have no idea how to play team game. and with Stanley Cup winning team usually boasting good quality roster and keeping core players who define chemistry and team spirit... no chance in earth those best of the rest can beat Stanley Cup team other than in skill competition or shutout

tough call. I liked Lilja much more than Lebda in playoffs. but Lebda is still a young d-man and he has yet to reach his full potential. that might be worth keeping him rather than trade for playoff rental. I'd love Holland to grab some gritty second-liner to help scoring but with playoff rentals prices being such inflated Wings may not be able to afford one simple like that. Holland might chew on some overpriced once-been like Samsonov if he feels it's worth a roster spot. such guy would not demand big return value and will only cost us money and not picks/prospects which is not the problem. and that might actually prove to be a good solution.

I think we could use Blake if the price was right. with rental players prices being ridiculously high I don't see Holland going for it. it's really better to leave prospect/draft pool intact rather than spend it for Blake. as for defensive problems - we most certainly have some. Lilja's and Rafalski's turnovers being the most important, and some lack of physicality being another one. on the side note: bent u een Amerikaans of een Nederlander?

I was only able to see 1st period (which ended 1:40 in the night anyway) and Wings looked pretty lousy. they didn't play their A game - if you compare this game and i.e. recent Avs game that'd be two completely different teams. now Sens seem to have been much better - more focused and playing with more heart. they certainly deserved to win this game. I'm not sure if this is the best they can do but they certainly looked sharp. what is the reason why Wings didn't show up? I don't know. I think this all comes down to coach (and team management) and I never ever considered Babcock to be a guy who gives s*** about media hyped games. he's focused on entire season and playoffs rather than making ppl on tv "buy" his Wings. you have to give credit to Sens who played a good game and took 2 points from this game. but if their fans think this makes Sens better than Wings or if those fans claim Wings would not get 70pts in East (as some ppl on TSN say)... you really need some reality check. if Wings brought their A game to Ottawa those Sens would not necessarily have won.

that sucks. hope he's back in their lineup as soon as possible. their team and the league needs his skills

is it typical for CBC to not be able to name a single player on non-Canadian team? I mean... seriously... did they start broadcasting NHL hockey yesterday?

nice job by Sens organization. very classy! f* but their team scores.

what I actually meant is not about doing some strange things, but just to have some legal way to rest core players and make legit place for pickups. and since those upper/lower body injuries happen to usually occur in the middle of the season and lead to teams picking youth for trial and having rested vets come playoffs... if I recall correctly Wings do tend to have more injuries around December/January... and it's often the same with other teams who have built comfortable Conference/Division lead and can allow to rest players and try their young talent. if I was Babcock I'd definitely do this to check my assets now having comfortable position in the standings

that's OK I think. bringing guys from AHL for less than a week (so basicaly just 1 or 2 games) doesn't make a lot of sense, either

but isn't it what you have those "upper body" or "lower body" injuries for? rather than sending guys down you may as well "injure" them and use free spots to put AHL players

he has one. it's called retirement pension :hockeysmile:

but it's not the numbers that play on the ice. Zetterberg has 16 quality guys to play with (I don't count Lilja ). Ovechkin... has Semin and Greene, and that would be it this is pretty much incomparable. Zet is serving different role with Wings than Alex is with the caps. and he has different ppl around

good point. oh, they did very much fit this description last year, and even this time not many ppl expected Wings to be that high above competition. it's halfway through the season but if it continues I see no reason to not give Babcock the trophy. in 2006 he took a team full of GR pickups and young players, decimated by the departure of old core players. in 2007 he took it to the WCF and in 2008 his Wings are class of itself. with that being a team much, much shorter on talent than what Wings once used to be

13 years, $124M jesus someone wake me up and tell this is post-cap NHL with people who saw what happens when hockey's gone for an entire season because of money arguments...