akustyk

that sucks for him. Leonsis won't build a successful team for Alex to really show what he's capable. and playing for an AHL quality team for the next 6 regular seasons... that would mean a hell lot of time to play golf

won't happen. as of recent, Burke doesn't sign guy who never wore Winged Wheel now seriously: Pittsburgh seem logic. Sundin's trade value is high and any team fetching him will have a huge increase in cup chances. Sundin's value is his leadership and experience which is exactly what young teams need and what they have in return for JFJ: young talent and high draft picks. Pens are legit candidate. they should make it to the playoffs and will definitely be looking for veteran experience. Sundin is perfect for their needs. and they also have assets to move in such trade to give Fergusson what he's looking for in this trade. other teams. if Blues continue playing good they may try to scoop Sundin. other than them: maybe Dives, maybe Ducks (depending on their cap room). Sabres? Philly? dunno...

Babs Murray Vigneault Wayne? very long shot fact-wise. reality-wise, that is: knowing how the NHL is doing it's "best" to advertise the game with famous names (read: milking Sidney Crosby cow all the time, so that 99% of die hard fans already want to puke hearing his name mentioned) - that might happen. a casual American fan who knows s*** about hockey would pee his pants hearing a once great player is now labeled great coach. and you sure bet this fan wouldn't even ask the question if that's earned. and the media hype would make you forget there were quite a few guys who deserve the trophy more

I think it's more about the coach for such incidents to happen. and Stevens doesn't seem to be the guy who want his players to murder other guys. if that was guy like Ruff, Crawford, Sutter or even Playdirty... with Clarke in background that would stink like a huge murder-poo. thanks god, those are employed in other places

unfortunately, many other teams have much deeper talent pools and have more pressure on winning something. and Fergusson(sp) is not that dumb to not milk this cow properly. it all goes about what Sundin want's with his clause. he's aware what Leafs nead and may as well allow Fergusson to fetch some talent, thus waiving his NTC. he'd then have a chance to play for some real team and contend for the cup and eventually return to better suited Leafs. and that makes a lot sense.

or Lang is lazy and he sucks

there's but this distinct difference between having a gun and shooting people it in Philly it's become way too easy to play dirty rather than focus on winning games. with Ducks... they were pest at times but it was mostly controled because they knew there are more important things going on the ice. you don't win playoffs because of tough guys. you do play them if they give you clear advantage over the other team which is missing toughness (read: Wings) but you can never forget this is a part of the story. much more important is your quality in goal and forwards up front. not to mention: doing some real s*** in playoffs often hits you in behind because you risk giving the other team extra motivation. see: Noodles on Franzenstein or Hatcher on Sykora (back in 2000). or the very ***** Claude on Drapes

f* Bobby Clarke. his goons are nevertheless gonna suck and miss playoffs yet again. as happens with most goon squads nowadays

i know it's not very likely, but i'd love Chelii to net one

good luck Mac, you rockstar!

it's beyond me why this crappy popularity contest is scooping so much attention. does it win you anything valuable? or is there anything interesting in a game that is clearly about showing dumb tricks and making hockey-playing kids pee? I mean... I'd rather see Hank and Pavel have some rest than taking part in All Star Game. speaking of starters... in the East there were better choices than Alfredson. not to take anything from him as role player, but his not the flashies and most skilled guy left out there - read: where are Ovechkin and Kovalchuk. and Phaneuf... puhlease... I guess it was about voting according to media hype not logic. this guy hasn't done much in his career to prove he's worth the hype not to mention he was invisible in playoffs. but of course, it's Canadian fans and their firm belief whoever played for their team is the second coming of Jesus Christ.

exactly my first though. either he lacked vision or determination, but he pretty much screwed all that Eddie Jordan achieved and then jumped off the ship. I sure hope he doesn't get his hands on the Leafs. yes, this franchise sucks as of now but it can be even worse, and Shnaider is one of those ppl who can make it worse

don't see him back at the NHL level but if it happened and he played in Winged Wheel... I'd love it.

as far as icing would not go penalized I think they could give it a try in AHL. with penalties for icing this could easily translate into mor 5-on-3 powerplays. which unfortunately fits Bettman understanding of what US viewers need. you'd either see guys going into the box for shoting the puck to far or over the glass. I'm definitely not sold on this area. that would mean much more PP hockey and therefore we'd very likely see dead tired teams in 3rd periods, and overtimes would most likely be dog boring with players only wanting to have shootout. IMHO if you want to make game better, just stop putting piles of hockey equipment in front of the net. if those rules allow monsters like Giguere then it's not some rocket science to say what is the problem with scoring, huh?

I'd say Perry is "she" in their relation. and Getzlaf seems to like it rough truth being said I don't get what he sees in such lousy whiny ***** like Perry

touche

there is a second option here called: rental player. but there's 2 factors against this option in Wings case: 1. Holland won't shop for players he doesn't see in Wings roster for longer time, and 2. rental players cost draft picks, unless they're a dump like Samsonov. in both cases Holland will not and/or should not be interested in such guys. truth being said, I'm pretty sure Holland will use any spare money to improve Wings or even Griffs. but there's no doubt Hank is No. 1 priority and his $7M+ deal for 2008/09-... is as good as done now.

I'm afraid money cushin won't help us a lot unless we fish for some overpaid guy from waivers which is obviously no sexiest option most trades will be done for draft picks which seem to be the crucial trade ware in the NHL nowadays. for me it seems like the rule now is basically: flush your depth and go for the cup now. since we don't have too much depth (we are the buyers here) we can't realistically expect to land a top-tier player in the middle of the season. they'll be too expensive for Wings assets. I can see us landing some Calder type player and that would be it. but I obviously wouldn't mind to see Kenny doing some great shopping and bringing some great player

I'm afraid we might see Panger's butt with some "I love Crosby" tattoed if the later happens to score the game winning goal. and Emrick (is it him on NBC?) screaming "Sydney Crosby is god" live for next hour. dear NBC, please stop this. thank you

with this snow covering ice surface it's going to be more of a "snow wiping" contest than actual shootout. Sid Crosby may even miss his goal in such condition and with all the marketing behind this game and his name, that's not the best way to end BTW: and they showed the puck carying move from 1st period once again :puke:

on a side note, by a hobby photographer http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.a...ventId=76074528 in rush hour they have like 10 minutes lag between the actual occurence and photo of it published and accessible for news agencies all over the world. this is: from taking a photograph to its publication on the web including detailed description (with particular players' names!). and we're talking of files having easily 20 MB each wow! simply wow! I'm not going to compare this to the ancient film days but even for digital age this is fast. and it's no wonder Getty has the edge in sports photo sales and yes, of course it says: Sidney Crosby all the way :hockeysmile:

every team that makes it to playoffs. Round 1 is for obvious reasons: low seeded teams often don't aim to go deep in playoffs but want to "show'em" and beat the better (on paper) team. therefore they fire on all cylinders and if your team is not putting all the effort (sparing some forces for later rouinds) this can get painful or end up with disaster. Round 2 is usually a bit safer because you face a team that is already more bruised and if it's one of those flukey teams it may also be less eager to win more. still, there's no easy win here Round 3 used to be the cup-winning round for strong teams in West. this doesn't have to be the case again but should Wings meet a "bold" team in WCF this is the ultimate moment to put all effort and fire on all cylinders. in this case healthy and motivated Wings are basically unbeatable. maybe the Ducks have some chance here but it depends on how they build chemistry before playoffs. for now it's the Wings. SCF: I think Wings win it if they get that high. at this level they're just to good and too experienced to lose. bruised Wings may lose to Marty Brodeur if Devils find their groove but other than them... it'd take a really hot and flukey team with some goalie pulling a Jiggy to challange Wings. sure, no one can be taken lightly at this stage but I'd definitely put my money on Wings once they go that deep. they have this mental strenght to reach for the ultimate prize not just win the West.

I'm actually far from saying Lebda is the cleanest D-man in this league. and I definitely don't buy many of his checks from playoffs - so at this point I agree with you. as for Blake's check on the vid - it might be clean from the rulebook point of view, but Blake is running with his butt for the bottom part of skater's body. maybe not going that low to attack knees but it's still aimed at the vulnerable part of body. not to mention this is a straightforward way to launch attacked player into the air and send him headfirst into the ice. legal? maybe. dangerous? definitely. delibarate? looks so. anyway. I was not calling Blake dirty because of this incident. I've seen him doing some real crap couple of times. my comment about video was only about it being pretty bad example of a D-men I'd like to see in Winged Wheel. and we had like 2300+ PIM back in 90's. now it all goes constantly down to reach just 1000 PIM in recent seasons. and I see zero reasons to believe this trend is going to reverse soon with current formula being succesful. nor would I enjoy it as I like the product current Wings bring on the ice. yes, I'd like to see them being tougher but there's no free lunch in salary-capped NHL and I'd rather see skill than bullying. sorce: http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/teamseasons.php?tid=34

if you are among those hockeyfans who enjoy dirty D-men going for forward knees then Blake may be the guy to follow. I'm definitely against such crap. even more against aging dirty guys who take big bucks. definitely doesn't look like a nice check to me. Perry's a ***** and he deserves some beating but I'm refusing to enjoy such attacks which may look innocent but are aimed on hurting the other guy.

jeez... what a bummer from Rafalski