gcom007

Los Pollos Hermanos, where something delicious is always cooking!

Yep. Can't imagine a trade not on the immediate horizon given these signings. I think Suter's coming, but I think Nash might be too for Flip and Franzen and xxx. Nash's cap will be offset by Flip/Franzen and that still leaves room for Parise who might be more inclined to come with Suter and Nash joining as well.

McKenzie never said that. Eklund and someone else misquoted him and McKenzie actually pointed it out.

With all of these forward signings, I'm expecting a trade. Flip/Franzen are likely gone for Nash if I had to guess. Still not counting out Parise, especially if we sign Suter.

Wow. Interesting to see how people around here respond to him now that he's on our side.

Ick. $3 Million? I haven't followed him that closely but I can't imagine he's running as strong as he was a few years ago, and I don't think he was worth $3 million then. Oh well.

When I saw that he was a UFA yesterday, I had a funny feeling he'd find his way back. I don't mind this at all if it's cheap. He had a knack for coming up with some clutch goals for us when it counted most.

I was talking about his amazing monument to mediocrity at www.hockeybuzz.com. I forgot he even had a Twitter. Most of what he seems to post on his website today comes a few minutes after McKenzie or Dreger says something. It's amusing.

Isn't Eklund mostly just ripping off the TSN guys Twitter feeds these days? He's got to be one of the silliest if not the silliest voice in hockey these days. Before he just posted utter and complete random drivel, now he seems to just rip off people with some small semblance of credibility. It's sad that he's making money doing that.

Who in the hell would we really have to give up for Nash? We know Flip or Franzen will be gone and they'll prefer Flip if they're smart. Hell, it might take both of them considering that we're "rivals..." Helm, Abs? It'd be good in some ways to unload Franzen, but it's hard to imagine him being a draw except for the fact that he's dirt cheap by today's standards. Flip's a wildcard as he's a UFA next year. He could go back to Wings or end up costing $5 million easy on the open market, more if he has a solid, injury-free year. In any event, I've had a feeling for a couple hours now that Parise's going to the Pens to play with Sid, so the Nash news makes sense. I'm not holding my breath on either though at this point. I'm thinking Parise to Pens and the Jackets will likely take less from other teams to deal Nash to anyone that's not the Red Wings.

If Holland can't make some serious stuff happen this offseason to put a good team on the ice come October, it'll likely be the start of a multi-year skid where we struggle to make the playoffs and/or exit early. If that happens after he also blatantly sat on his hands the last few offseasons likely because he didn't want to make moves for emotional reasons as opposed to hockey reasons, his legacy will be hurt, no doubt about it. Let's be honest, Scotty Bowman had more say than Holland in putting together the '97 and '98 Cups, in '02 we had the Yankees on ice in the non-cap era and Scotty Bowman influence, and then in 2008, we still had the Scotty Bowman influence and many of the original guys that Scotty Bowman helped bring along. And I can't say that it's not interesting that we haven't done as well in the offseason at signings or during the season with trades since Bowman left the organization. Maybe he had nothing much to do with it at that point, but it's none the less intriguing to me. He goes to Chicago the following season, they sign Hossa long-term (which Holland should've and could've done) and they win the Cup in 2010. (Yes, I know the Chicago argument is a stretch...) But in any event, Holland is clearly setting up his own legacy at this point and has been since the shadow of Scotty Bowman left for good prior to the summer of 2009 I believe. That was a terrible offseason for us, much like every one since. We've not gotten past the 2nd round since then either. We lost in the 1st round last season! The signing of Franzen long-term (especially considering the Hossa angle) is looking more and more questionable. He has to basically replace the core of our defense, no longer building around one of the greatest players in history, but around Kronwall, who's a good to great player at times no doubt, but he's no Lidstrom. Howard had a great year last year up until injuries (and likely made the skaters look a lot better than they were for much of the season) and he never fully got back to form, but if he struggles this year (you never know with goalies...) coming off that funk hanging around all summer, he's suddenly got a starting goalie issue on his hands too. Bottom line, he's got a lot to prove this summer, and if he fails to put a competitive team on the ice, we're likely going to be stuck in a rut for awhile. Dats and Z aren't getting any younger either and our young forwards aren't goal scorers. Given the huge likelihood for struggles on D, the mild uncertainty surrounding a younger goalie who still hasn't fully proven himself and an offense that struggled to score goals when it counts most last year, Holland is going to need a miracle to come out looking clean. And if the legend is worth it's while, maybe he'll pull one out of his pocket. But at this point, it's likely that anything less than signing Suter and Parise is going to be viewed as a failure, because you need both of them to come close to making up for losing a guy like Lidstrom at both ends, and Lids only played D! And even if he secures them both, he still needs another 2/3 defensemen and a solid backup goalie with more NHL experience so Jimmy can get some breaks and stay healthy and positive. I'm hoping for the best, but I wouldn't be shocked if this was an ugly offseason. I also wouldn't be shocked if Ken Holland wasn't the Wings GM in 1-2 years. If he blows it and we don't make the playoffs, I could see him being done. If it happens again the year after, he better be fired. It's time for Holland to prove he can do more than be the first guy to sign superstars to long-term creative contracts that circumvent the cap. We'll know a lot more by next Monday.

Unless we could pull off something crazy to get Weber via trade, he's not worth it. But, I would love for that to happen. I don't give a s*** what happened to Z, and I doubt Z does either. Weber's a tough player who wants to win, and he got carried away. That's hardly his typical style. I said the same thing the night it happened, but I'd love to have Weber on our team pushing someone's head into the glass because he was that intense in the moment. It wasn't a great move and I'm not condoning it, but the level of intensity he had that lead to him making an uncharacteristic move like that was the difference between the Wings and the Preds. He's hungry. He's all in. I'd love to have him on our team at some point. If we can't work out a miracle trade this year, I say we go after him hard when he's a UFA. Again, for the love, Chris Chelios ended up playing longer in Detroit than any other city! Chris Chelios! If you don't realize how big of a deal that is, you don't know your Wings history too well. All I'm saying is that I think we can handle Weber just fine.

Stuart leaving is a bigger loss than most realize. He takes a lot of crap around here from some who fail to see just how good he was overall for four years here. Sure, he wasn't perfect, but there aren't many who come even close to great, let alone very good, and Stuart was without a doubt very, very, very good and a very important part of the Wings defensive puzzle over the last four years. Losing him and Nick in one fell swoop is rough. If Holland can't make some big things happen, we're likely to have a rough season ahead of us. Thankfully, for once, I think Holland knows he has to be more pro-active and aggressive than he's had to be at any point in his career. If ever there was a sink or swim time for the Wings management, it's now. Also, not expecting this pick to hang around for long. Whenever Holland trades for the rights of one of his big targets, this will be in the package no doubt.

Exactly. I expected serious changes this offseason that would give us a more playoff-ready team. I figured even if we didn't win next year, we'd probably add guys that would at least give us the potential to make a far more serious push than we did this year, and I'd be fine seeing Nick leave on that note. But yeah, after going out in the 1st round, I just remember thinking that there's no way he can go out like this. My bet is he doesn't trust that they're going to make the moves necessary to be competitive or hopefully, that he just feels like the money would be better spent on signing a guy who'd be a long-term asset. I'm hoping it's the latter, but either way, this is terribly sad news.

Not sure how I feel about Zetterberg as the captain. Wouldn't be terrible, but I don't like that he's our best choice at this point. He's got 95% of what it takes to be a great captain, but there just seems to be something missing. I'm not even sure what it is, but something about it just doesn't feel right to me.

Well, I guess I'll be getting drunk while bemoaning the Red Wings new terrible lot in life. This...is just THE WORST! And I'm being way more articulate now than I was earlier when all I could get out was "we are f***ed," over and over and over again while my body slipped into a shock-like state. I honestly did not see this coming. I really expected it to be next year. I was emotionally prepared for next year. This year? This is just...THE WORST!!!

It's been very obvious since the end of June that Babcock wasn't happy with Holland's approach lately. He's all but said it for quite awhile now and it's getting pretty overt at this point. Hopefully Holland finally responds, but I'm really not holding my breath. It's one thing for Babcock to say it, but unless Illitch steps in and tells Holland to make s*** happen or else, I think Holland will drop the ball. So hopefully Illitch steps up to the plate along with Babcock and puts some pressure on Holland.

I'm fine rooting for the Preds, the Blues and the Bruins. I feel a lot better about losing to the Preds than I did San Jose. They got it done and battled. Can't take anything away from them. Even their cheap stuff was heat of the moment, hard-fought emotional hockey if you ask me, and I've got no problems with Shea Weber in general. I'd love to see him on the Wings.

I'd be laughing if one of our guys did it, and I'm kinda laughing at Legwand doing it. Cheating? Sure. Fine. Whatever. Lots of little things happen, and I have to say I'm somewhat amused when a player finds a way to cover his ass in the heat of the moment. You've got to give him credit for thinking fast on this one. I'm a Wings fan and I'm laughing. I'm right with you. Anyone who wants to make this into a bigger deal is just throwing punches underwater. We got beat and some. This little play had absolutely no bearing on the fact that Nashville was the better team and bound to win this series.

Absolutely not. The guy crumbles under pressure. At least with Hasek, even though he didn't win, he was carrying weak teams as far as they could possibly go and still almost won on almost sheer force of will. Luongo arguably is the reason why his team hasn't been so successful in the post-season too many times, and has some incredibly embarrassing must-win games to his name where he didn't just lose, he got blown out and benched. Why in the hell would we want a guy like that on this team?!?!?!?

I haven't given up on my team, I've just given up on 2012.

1) Stop sucking. 2) Stop sucking. 3) Shoot less, think better, and stop sucking.

June 30: work on my "shocked and surprised" face for when I pretend to have had a plan that never really existed, I mean, a plan that was "incredibly sound," but fell through due to wholly and completely reasonable yet unforeseen reasons, blah blah blah, make something up on the spot about whatever happens. Russia, too expensive, irritable bowel syndrome, whatever it takes. It's time to shine.

Fighters are losing their role in the game across the league, it's not just Detroit. Hard to justify a roster spot for a guy who doesn't bring much of anything else to the table especially when the other teams aren't carrying pure fighters either. They just need some guys that are hungry. I'd settle for a hint of chippiness at this point. I really don't give a s*** about fighting one way or the other, I just want guys who are willing to do whatever it takes to win so much so that they sometimes do something stupid. I'd ******* kill to have Shea Weber on our side smashing some other team's star's head into the glass at the end of a game that's clearly over in your favor. I want a team that gets fined because they want it so bad that they make some stupid mistakes like that. Where's the tenacity on this team? It's absolutely non-existent.

I mean, I'll give you that he hasn't been playing at the level you expect your goalie to be at in the playoffs. Maybe it's injuries or maybe he is struggling in these odd, lopsided affairs which find him seeing no shots for long stretches followed up by an odd-man rush out of nowhere thanks to blown coverage. But he's playing no worse than anyone else (though at times much better) and maybe that's part of the problem too. Everyone's focus just seems off. Everyone seems frazzled. I don't feel like high shot totals is ever a good sign for this team, because it often means that we're scrambling and less focused on quality and more on quantity, sheerly out of desperation and blind hope for a fluke. But anyways, with so many problems up front and likely in the locker room, perhaps it's just wearing off on Howard as well. Any way you shake it, top to bottom, these Wings don't look like a playoff team. There's just not a lot of poise, and the desperation looks far too frantic as opposed to, I don't know, focused insatiable hunger perhaps? No one on this team has figured out how to push them over the top yet. Still tough for me to fault Howard. I think he may be a bit off from what he's capable of, but I do think he's capable of it, and I wouldn't be shocked if he rose to the occasion when the rest of the team did as well. In my mind though, absolutely no goalie would carry this team of skaters to the Cup at this point. I don't care who it is from what era, this TEAM has far too many issues to make a Cup run.