Nightfall

I like what I see from the Kings this playoff season. Hot at the right time? Yes! Good goaltending? Yes! Healthy? Yes! Getting some puck luck? Yes! The Wings got NONE of these things in their series against Nashville.

This really could backfire against him. If the Preds win, then the Trotz will be hailed as a genius. If the Preds loose though, odds are they will lose the series. Trotz is not immune to being fired thats for damn sure. I would really think long and hard about this decision. At least if he played his star players and lost, the press won't tear into him too much. There is just too much to lose at this stage.

Johnz96 = 15 posts and a -26 reputation I believe that says it all.

I have said it before and I will say it again.... The team that wins the Stanley Cup will typically be healthy as well as get some puck luck. We got neither of those things in the Nashville series. It was going to be an uphill climb for the Wings, especially when Helm went down with injury. That is like Nashville losing Legwand, who is a 2nd or 3rd line player who has scored a few game winning goals for them in the playoffs.

They won't buy out his contract and have all that money count towards the cap when they can just bury him in the minors, pay him his salary, and have it not count towards the cap at all.

That really is the only thing I fear at this stage. The negotiations haven't even started yet, and that scares me.

The defense of Nashville was all over Detroit, which was a mean reason why the Wings were shooting it from bad angles. The shots came low and high, but bad angle shots are still bad angle shots. This series has really shown another side of the Nashville team. The Nashville team that played Detroit was stifling defensively. They didn't really press up and take risks. They always had 2-3 people back. They kept the shots to the outside. So far, in this series, they have been playing reckless. The Yotes have taken advantage of many of their odd man rushes and opportunities to score. I believe its less about being "exposed" and more about just not playing what made them successful in the first round. The preds don't look like they are going to make it out of the 2nd round.

I remember him winning battles in the corners. He doesn't have the size, but he does have the desire thats for sure. I think he wins at least half of his battles in the corners.

Same thing happened in 2010 when the Sharks beat the Wings and then bowed out in the Conference Finals in 4 straight games against the Hawks.

This! The series is really taking on a life of its own. In the series against Detroit, Nashville was allowing nothing but perimeter shots and bad angle chances. In this series, Phoenix has been capitalizing on odd man rushes and prime scoring opportunities. I remember this goal for instance.... Can you remember Detroit getting prime chances like this? I really can't. Now you can blame that on Detroit not being hungry enough, but I look at how hard Nashville played that series. In this series, they appear to be on cruise control while Phoenix is fired up and ready to play.

STL/LAK: 4-3 PHX/NSH: 4-2 NYR/WSH: 4-2 PHI/NJD: 4-2

What we need are more wanna-be GMs commenting on what they think the Wings need. What we need more than that is for Ken Holland to get to work and retool our team for next season. That probably won't happen until the new CBA is signed.

Some players do play for the Stanley Cup and take less. Detroit has been signing players like this to deals where they could get so much more from other teams. Yet they come here to play for the cup and take less. Hell, if I had the choice between $2 million, or $1.5 million to play in a place that would contend for the cup, I would contend for the cup. Same goes for a player like Rafalski, who took $5 million a season instead of the $6 million per season that the Devils were offering him.

Please re-read the first sentence of what I typed. That goes straight to what you said. The rest of it goes to other people who posted before you. Sorry I didn't clarify.

This is the kind of dysfunction that Nill doesn't want to deal with. You know that the Wings treat him very well, and he loves working for Detroit.

Thats why I am glad that we have Ken Holland, Jim Nil, and Mike Illich in charge of this team. If it was up to the jackass fans on this website to build the team, we would have a team full of enforcers, no skilled players, and we would be going on 20 consecutive seasons of missing the playoffs.

Based on his salary, he is performing up to what he is paid. Does he have deficiencies? Every player does. At the same time, if you are expecting the world from this guy at a sub $4 million dollar cap hit, you have been hitting the bong too often. These things you are mentioning I would expect from Dats and Z, at over $6 million each, they should be backchecking and doing all the little things that you talk about. Do I think that Franzen could pick up his game? Absolutely. Do I think he could be more physical? Absolutely. Which is why I say a B is fair. I guess we can agree to disagree on this one. I am just here to point out that the expectations that people have of him are way overblown, especially for his pay grade.

Thats funny. He wasn't like Brodeur, Roy, or Hasek, yet the numbers say differently. He has more cups that Hasek, and just one less than Roy and Brodeur. I wouldn't classify him as a second tier goalie, thats for sure. He was definitely a top tier goalie in the NHL. The numbers speak for themselves. You have proof of that statement or are you just making that up?

I think the expectations should be reasonable. He was brought in to be a 30 goal guy, which was slightly under where he landed in the end. I agree his playoff performance wasn't good, which is why I think a B would be fair to give him.

While I agreed with most of your grades.... I stopped reading when you gave our leading goal scorer and +/- leader a D-.

Hrm.... 10th overall in the NHL in Wins with 401 8th overall in the NHL in playoff wins with 74 3 Stanley Cups to his name How is Osgood not a first-tier goalie? Does he have to be in the top 5 to be a first tier goalie in your mind? If so, the only first tier goalie playing in the NHL right now is Martin Brodeur.

Franzen's contract is actually very reasonable. He was the top scorer on the team for crying out loud. Can't argue with Gomez, Boumeester, or Mason though. The others you mention are suspect.

The crowd behind the celebration is looking at the kings fan on the stairs more than the celebration on the ice.

Right now, Vancouver is hoping they get some kind of "contract forgiveness" opportunity with the new CBA. That would be the opportunity to take one player off the books at no cap hit. I don't think this will happen, but it would give each team a chance to rethink those horrible deals they entered in with crappy players. Like Wade Redden in NYR, or DiPietro in NYI, or Luongo in VAN. I don't think it will happen, but its possible.

You mean like in 2005-2006? The presidents trophy winners have only won the stanley cup 7 times since the trophy was awarded back in 85-86 season.