YoungGuns1340

Its not like he was creating turnovers that lead to goals right and left. He wasnt an easy run for the opposition. He had some bad moments, but he had some good ones too. For the most part he just played the game as a depth player would..

Wed have a better chance of getting something for him now? No. We wouldnt. Wed get more for him after hes been seasoned behind Chris Osgood for a year and has valuable NHL experience. Howard is lucky if he can play 20+ games?? Yeah youre right. Because Osgood has played anywhere close to 60+ games recently. Except not. Osgood has played over 60 games all of 4 times in his entire career. And he hasnt played anything over 43 in 4 years. Not to mention, Im sure Babcock is going to want to play a 36 year old for 60+ games when its practically a give that the Wings are playing the extra season every year. In fact, only 14 goaltenders in the entire NHL played more than 60 games. And yeah, it would sure be great coaching to have a rookie goaltender as your 2nd string only to have him ride the pine for over 75% of the season. In fact, all of the rookie goaltenders who were playing back-up (not third string) this season played in at least 23 games. Not to mention..theres this thing called the cap. Sure. Right when Hank is up for a new contract, lets sign a goaltender whos going to cost easily 3x as much as Howard, and if its Miller were talking about, then well over 6x what wed be paying Howard. But first, lets trade away a legit goaltending prospect who will *maybe* land us something that could make an NHL roster or could be a depth player...and lets do that before we even know how good he can be. No really..overall, its a great plan. Im sure thats why we're all hearing about how Holland and co. are clamoring to send off Howard "while he can get a decent return."

Im not saying 5M, but looking at the overall numbers for those goaltenders is deceiving in it of itself. Ryan Miller as of now is on par with Rick Dipietro in terms of would-be salary and performance. He did not by any means have a strong year this year and there have been some complaints about him in the past from Sabres fans. I think hes a good goalie, but hes still far from elite and has done nothing to prove that he deserves a big paycheck similar to that of Kipper, Giguer, Lundqvist, etc. Those guys are Vezina material. Also, if Miller were to sign with the Wings, I cant see him getting any less than a 4-5 year contract. Hes not a liability in terms of age and he doesnt have an injury history, so it would be a no-brainer to lock him up longterm. I think lack of material success (nominations, trophies, playoff wins) in conjunction with the fact that he would be locked up long-term means it wouldnt be far out of the question to see this guy get something in the 5-5.5 million range. I really think he lacks the wow factor that got a lot of those goaltenders their contracts..

San Jose wouldve been atop the Eastern Conference with their 108 points. San Joses offense was all but existant for 75% of the season and their defense was headed by Vlasic of all people. This isnt the New Jersey Devils. They didnt have a strong team system to cling to. They had Nabakov and he was a beast. He kept San Jose in the race the entire year. He was absolutely phenomenal.

Possibly the smartest coaching move Babs has made all season in terms of goaltending. I dont care who you are or how few games you play, how many shots you face, etc. It is DAMN hard to only let in 1 gol in 2.5 games worth of playoff hockey. This is shaping up to be a storybook playoff run, with Mac and Osgood having stand-up roles in this run..

Yeah, because AHL goaltending behind of a non-competitive AHL roster = NHL hockey behind the Red Wings. And you KNOW every NHL GM is going to be clamoring to trade for a young goaltender with a handful of NHL games experience. Surely his value is through the roof right now.

I think thats the point here. There is absolutely NO reason to go after Miller until we know where Howard stands. Should Howard flop, we still have Osgood. Should Osgood flop, we still have an incredible defense. The Wings arent exactly a team that lives and dies with their goaltending. Both our tenders would have to be abysmal for it to have an incredibly detrimental effect to the success of our squad. We need to have a better idea of where this Osgood/Howard goaltending tandem stands. We need to have a better idea of our cap situation. We need to know if Lidstrom re-signs and for how much. And by that time, Luongo is a UFA as well. IMO, it would be terrible cap management to go out and trade for Miller when we could have just as strong goaltending for 1/3 of the price in Osgood/Howard. This is an era where you have to give your young guns a chance to shine. Id hate to see Detroit handicapped by a huge Miller contract when his play this past season hasnt even been that of a Top 10 NHL goaltender..

No grinding? Abdelkader is the next Maltby and Helm is the next Draper. I dont think theres gonna be space for both next year, but you never know. I expect Drake to retire, especially if we win a cup and you never know about McCarty. I could see him replacing Downey as the 13th forward if he sticks around. Either way, I think its safe to say that we'll have no use for guys like Ellis and Hartigan next year, with Abdelkader and Helm hanging around. I would love to see one of Abdelkader or Helm replace Drake, personally. I think a Abdelkader/Helm-Draper-Maltby line would be great.

Thats a sick 4th line, and exactly the type of line you see on Cup-winning teams. Simply not seeing Samuelsson in the lineup makes us look a lot stronger.

Knowing Babcock, Hudler will be the one benched.

Has this made anyone elses YEAR in terms of hockey? I'm so god damn happy right now. There were TWO things I wanted to happen this year. 1) Detroit winning the cup 2) Anaheim getting shamed out of the playoffs. Somebody break out the black Sharpie for this checklist.. I've said it before, and Im standing by this claim. I have nothing against the guy, but I think any team that has Todd Bertuzzi on it will never win the cup. Karma is for real.

Slightly off topic, but does it annoy anyone else when people spell "Avs" as "Aves". First of all, that would be pronounced ayves, and secondly, living in a spanish-speaking country and speaking spanish for 90% of my waking hours, whenever I see "aves" i think of birds..

Fernando Pisani syndrome?

You should try reading the recap! Last time I checked, when one team makes an intelligent play, and the other team can handle it, thats good hockey.

I dont like to nitpick, but I noticed it too. Basically, every game we won this series was either luck or officiating. Cause clearly the Preds got screwed in both those regards.

Kronwall was ridiculous. If this were any other NHL team (aka any team without Nick Lidstrom), Kronwall wouldve been the best defenseman on the ice for the Wings. Id have liked to see Datsyuk score some more when we needed him. Hudler cant be overlooked here. Franzen was a little wishy-washy for me. Lidstrom was his typical self, but I was a little disappointed in his offensive presence too. Osgood may have been our MVP had he played more than 2.5 games. Still, no matter how you slice it and regardless of how well the defense played, 1 goal in 2.5 PLAYOFF games is something to talk about. Props to the Wings for a team effort.

COME ON WINGS !!!

How can we miss these rebounds? Ellis does not have good rebound control.

Where is Zetterberg through all this by the way?

Where the hell is Babcock? Is he just not going over video with the Wings? Stevie Wonder could pick out what were doing wrong in this series. How come none of the Wings can figure it out??

Shades of Anaheim 2003

..to win the cup. A Euro has never been the captain of a cup winning team.

Actually, Sammy taking horrible shots and turning over the puck is a lot more likely than a poster being full of crap.

The Preds start the 2nd period with a PP, on a fresh slab of ice.