YoungGuns1340

Whats funny is, our economy was doing better last year, yet attendance was lower. Our economy worse this year, attendance higher. Regardless of that, Strachan is an idiot. Theres a reason we have the salary cap now and its so teams like Nashville can thrive. Worse comes to worse and the Wings become a team who gets the better of the salary cap system, as Nashville does now. Whats more, is that IF the Wings weren't able to support themselves, you can be damn sure that the salary cap would be going down with it, which would only help the Wings in terms of viability.

Michigan's economy is totally out of Granholm's hands. The auto industry has been heading for a nosedive since the days of Engler, and the only people who should've taken note and tried to fix a few things are the guys whose companies are going in the s***ter right now. Any smart businessman has been aware of the American atuo industries troubles for a long time, and as such, no company is going to invest in a city or state whose entire economy is precariously resting on the future of the auto industry.

Going bankrupt and going out of business are two totally different things.

Its the Sharks. Many on here were bitching about how Nabokov "doesn't face a lot of hard shots...hes not that great, hes just got it easy." (Sound familiar?) They're like the Wings - they don't depend on elite goaltending to pull out win. They should be fine with Boucher. The only thing I question is Brian's ability to play a lot of games in succession. Hes an awesome goalie when hes on his game, but theres a reason hes never been a #1 in his career - and thats because he can't hold the spot down long-term. With that said, this is why I love Ken Holland's goaltending philosophy. If you have a decent team, theres no reason to have an all-star goalie. Instead going with two good goalies - Osgood and Conklin in this case - is just as good and leaves you with more bases covered in situations like this with the Sharks and Nabokov.

19 points in 12 freaking games.

Yup. He was never any more than good, and hes been steadily declining every year since getting his shot with the Wings. I thought he was good in 05-06, decent in 06-07, okay in 07-08, and now hes just plain bad.

I was sure this thread was about Keith Tkachuk's good start.

I would've liked to see this break come about 3 weeks later. The Wings JUST played their most complete game of the entire year, and their best game defensively, and now they're not playing for 5 days. Would've been nice for them to establish a healthy rhythm of defensive play before having to break. Not to mention, 12 games isn't much when you consider the season is nearly 7 times that long.

Never a bad pick up if he comes cheaply.

My thoughts exactly.

1. Trade Lebda for a mid-late round pick, because I need to think about cap space for call-ups once Cheli comes off of LTIR. 2. Initiate talks with the agents of Zetterberg, Franzen, and Hudler. 3. Investigate trade possibilities for a guy in the vein of Curtis Glencross, Chris Neil, or Jamal Mayers, dangling Mikael Samuelsson.

Wrong. Check out the archives on RedWingsCentral.com. Babcock was quoted as saying he demoted Hudler because he didn't like the way Hudler took fewer shots and tried to be a playmaker on a line with Zetterberg and Franzen, which itself is a bulls*** excuse. What do you expect a player to be inclined to do when hes playing on a line with a 40 goal scorer and a near 30 goal scorer? The fact remains he didn't give Hudler even the slightest chance to adapt his game. He was demoted after 2 games, so even if Babcock told Hudler to shoot more after the first game, 2/3 of one game to make the change is hardly a fair amount of time to adjust. As for Hudler, he is just fine in his own end and Leino has done nothing to show he is better or even as good in his own end in the real NHL. Have we forgotten Leino has yet to play a real NHL game?

Outside of the incredible number of soft calls in this game, I only have one problem overall. What the f*** was with Babcock taking Hudler off of the third line in the third period of the game? Hudler made several great defensive plays during the game, came up with two assists, and was even in +/-, the best you can possibly be with no even strength or short handed goals scored. So why the f*** does he get demoted in favor of Kopecky who, despite having a good game by his standards, has never proved to be anything better than an average 3rd/4th liner?

Not when his center is Kris Draper. Hudler is a waste with Draper or Kopay centering him.

The only issue I have with Babcock is the way he holds players accoutable. That is to say, he holds some players accountable for their play but not others. Example 1: Jiri Hudler gets demoted not 2 games into the season after things apparently "weren't working out", yet Brett Lebda, as our #6 Dman, has been atrocious. Wheres the accountability there? Meech is every bit as good as Lebda, yet Lebda gets the minutes. I just don't understand the reasoning. Example 2: A few games ago, Mikael Samuelsson finishes with 3-4 minutes more than Marian freaking Hossa? Thats downright unacceptable. Samuelsson, a streaky scorer at best, has gone cold and hasn't been able to put up much more than penalty time lately. Does he get reprimanded for it? Absolutely not. Also, I have no idea where he gets off keeping the same defensive pairings together for basically all of the past 11 seasons despite how atrocious they've been. They've ALL looked terrible. Where's the risk in shaking them up? Why did it take him all of 2 games to mix up his 2nd/3rd lines yet he has yet to change up his D pairings through the majority of 11 games? Mike Babcock is a great coach, and I dont think its his fault that we're playing this way - we know what our players are capable of and at this point the apparent root is work ethic and lazines, nothing else. But he doesn't have immunity in my eyes. I'm nitpicking of course, but I'd like to see him address the above issues with more frequency and more fairly than he has up to this point. At the end of the day, however, its nice that these are the only criticisms I have of him.

1. Caps fans and others say Semin has more raw talent than Ovechkin does. 2. Hes working with a translator.

Thats the thing though. He said Crosby was talented. He just said Crosby wasn't interesting. I'm pretty sure what he means by that is its not about 115 points and being a great offensive player. Its about gettting 80-90 points and being able to pull off sick moves, dangle and deke.

If its half full, then its also half empty. And the Wings are #2 in GFA....and #25 in GAA.

This is God's way of telling Holland to trade Lebda to the Thrashers.

My biggest issue is how hard those guys work when playing against the other teams 4th line. If I'm not mistaken, there have been several goals scored because our 4th line got outworked by the oppositions line. Ideally, the 4th line outworks every time they play. Thats the nature of getting few minutes - you need to use that extra energy to take it to the opposition with hits, forechecking, and puck battling. Wear out whoever you are playing against. Hell, I remember a day when the grind line would take on the other teams top line just because they would work the opposition to the bone. Thats the biggest element I miss from our team right now. As for Kopecky - yeah hes been better, but we dont need another guy acting like a wannabe offensive forward. Hes huge and yet his hits are for the most part weak and inconsistent. His play tonight was nice, but again - thats not what we need from our 4th line. Leave that to the big guns and take it to the other team with your body, not your stick.

I think Sean Avery would disagree. A little controversy goes a long way... Besides, Babcock DID just say the Sharks were better than us.

Keating and Murph need to stop using the "played last night" excuse. On the bright side, I thought Stuart and Kronwall had a better game.

The only hate I have is for homers who criticize the Sharks for the same s*** I couldnt stand hearing from other teams fans from 2003 through 2006.

Probably something like: *Enters Locker Room* "What the f*$# were you doing out there Hoodlu?!?! You useless ()$*%()*$!!! God, Jiri I dont even #%)@$$ know why I play you. You're complete s***.....MIKAEL!" *Turns to look at Samuelsson* "....you'll be getting all of Hudler's ice time next game." *Goes to leave Locker room* "Good effort tonight, lebs"

Wow. You are so superior to all those fans of other NHL teams who said the Wings would just get beaten in the first round for that three season stretch between 03 and 06. Congrats. Tell me when the Wings win the cup because they went three years being pumped to win the cup and couldn't accomplish crap, right?