YoungGuns1340

"This would be fill" in not correct grammatical syntax. Thanks.

Yeah. The Flames, Canucks, and Avs are likely going to be the 6-8 seeds, and theyre in that order now.

Yeah I can see it now. Detroits winning 4-1 in the series clinching game against Anaheim...and by the time the game is over, Travis Moen has already picked a fight with Hudler, Cleary has gotten hit from behind by Rob Niedermayer, Marchant has taken out Franzen's knee, and Pronger has purposely reinacted the Zednik-Jokinen incident with Zetterberg. Yeah. No thanks.

Are you saying that Filppula is injured?

My point exactly. Even though the standings arent set, Im banking on Colorado being the 8th seed. Personally Theo and Stastny scare me a lot less than Luongo and Iggy.. But thats just me.

You dont have to feel lowly. This about the fact that San Jose is hot, and Detroit is luke warm at best.

Yet theyre middle of the pack since the ASG...interesting...

This isnt about the presidents trophy, this about matchups. Dallas has had a rough go and the Ducks are without Pronger. Its a lot more likely that either of those could drop to 7th, than they would drop to 8th. Unlikely, yet still possible. And its also very likely San Jose and Detroit face off in the WC Finals. Personally, Id prefer 4 games at home instead of having to cross back to San Jose one more time if a game 7 arises.

Yeah, the Ross...which you could theoretically win without having scored a goal... I love the Richard and I think goals are a great reason to have a trophy. After all, no goals = no Ross. Its even more worthy when youre a cut above the rest of the pack. Its not out of the realm of possibility for Alex to be 10-15 goals ahead of the next closest guy. Hes been scoring goals at nearly a goal per game pace for the last 30 games. Right now hes 8 ahead of Kovy.

Just out of curiosity, but did the Oilers beat the Wings in 05 on your playstation? Cause Im pretty sure thats the only place they were seen playing come playoff time in 05..

Actually, I think Hasek would be a terrible goaltending coach for Howard. The last thing we need is a young goaltender in todays NHL playing the noodles style.

That doesnt change the fact that the only time there have been few times this season where the Wings werent rotating. A month into the season, Osgood was the clear #1. And even when Hasek was not injured, the Wings were still rotating, despite many stellar, game stealing performances from Osgood.

Yup, youre right. And now that theyre both healthy, he's going with Osgood. Lets see. 9 games left. Osgood - Hasek - Osgood. Still looks like a rotation to me.

Psst. Injuries or now, they still have rotated. Dom doesnt play back to backs. And as evidenced by WhiteLightnings post, he continues to rotate even both goaltenders are healthy.

I always hate it when people choose some arbitrary date and decide that thats a great indication of a team/player over an entire season. I saw the other day that Johnathan Cheechoo has the most goals since January 15th. Why am I bringing this up? Because you can choose any arbitrary date throughout the year and use it to show that your team or your favorite player has been better than everyone else. Tell me, who in their right mind is going to say Johnathan Cheechoo must be a better goal scorer than Alexander Ovechkin because he has more goals than Ovy since some stupid date in January. How bout you try factoring in injuries and scheduling to that bulls*** time period and see how it goes. Lets define Colorado only by the part of the season when Theo was playing well. Lets define Anaheim over the part of the season where they were more or less 100% healthy. Lets define Detroit by the part of the season where they had the worst rash of injuries. Fact of the matter is, with the personnel that the Wings have, theyve put up better numbers than anyone in the league. Stats change all over the place throughout the year. Rosters change little.

Thats funny because, if I remember correctly, Cleary, Filppula, and Franzen all played their best hockey of the season in the playoffs last year.

Our 2nd line has also been a mixture of 8 forwards all season. Its no surprise that since Babcock has more or less gone with 2 cemented lines of late, were getting production from everyone. Confidence in all players has come and gone because Babcock cant decide whos gonna get Top 6 minutes, and whos gonna be squandering their talent on the bottom lines. That messes with your confidence, and your line chemistry. If he stops f*cking around with the lines, our top 6 will go places. Flip - Datsyuk - Homer Cleary - Hank - Franzen Datsyuk and Hank are both centering decent talents, and both Franzen and Flip get confidence by being given an All Star center to play with. Chemistry, Consistency of linemates, Confidence. Thats whats gonna get us places in the spring.

You really think a different goalie coach is going to do a lot when neither of our goaltenders is under 35? I cant imagine that a new coach would change much of Hasek or Osgoods game. My only problem with Babcock are his lineup decisions. For example, I think our goaltending would be a lot better if he just made up his mind to go with one goaltender. I dont care which. But personally, I think our biggest issue with goaltending is that he rotates the guys to the point where neither can get a groove going, or get any confidence. Not to mention, what kind of message are you sending to your goaltenders? Neither Osgood or Hasek has to play out of their mind, cause the goaltending rotation is set. If Im Osgood/Hasek, Im probably well aware that whether or not I play out of mind, or I suck absolute ass, Im still going to be starting the game after next. Babs needs to stop being fair and go with the hot hand..er glove. If Osgood/Hasek stands on his head and steals a game, he should start the next game, and the next game, etc, if he keeps up his play. Switch goaltenders when one guy starts to play poorly for a couple games straight.. Defense for me is the least of our problems in terms of coaching. In my opinion, our biggest D problem comes from our lack of varied personnel, meaning, our defense is small and has a hard time containing power forwards and the like. But as far as Im concerned, Lidstrom is our defense coach. He runs the back end, and being that the Red Wings have such a particular system, he more or less controls the play. And outside of our defense being small, the only other problems are see are the brain lapses that some of our players make from time to time. You cant control how somebody thinks in every individual situation under pressure. As for the forwards, I question his lineup decisions as well, but I dont question how he coaches our forwards one bit. Sammy on the point is a disaster. Sammy getting anything more than 3rd line minutes is a mistake. Keeping Hank and Datsyuk split up when we desperately need goals is a mistake. Things like that I dont agree with, but those are very very small things to complain about in comparison to other coaching staffs around the league..

I would make more sense if he said, but hopefully they are defending Stanley Cup Champs

The rookie max is some 800k, and the bonuses can be deferred a few years I think. If thats the case, and the Wings really wanted him, theyd likely defer the bonuses til '10 when Lidstrom will likely either retire or re-sign for a few million less than he makes now. Just a thought.

No. Many people thought he would have 30 goals this season.

No thats not how it went. Holland talked to the Swedish players about Samuelsson's game. They all agreed that he played some decent hockey. Apparently (according to the Detroit media), Zetterberg said something to the effect of "you can put him on my line." Ironically, Sammy did play on Hanks line. And Both Hank and Sammy (and Homer) had career years that season. But one good season does not a good player make.

When Yashin wanted 3+ million per year, on top of making millions from the Isles buy out, he showed his true colors. He plays for the money. Its really sad, cause the dud(e) has tons of talent, just doesnt wanna use it.

Honestly, looking at the roster next year does nothing but bring me down. Because in reality, itll look almost entirely the same. Maybe Dmac instead of Drake if hes healthy. Thats it. And that depresses me, because its been a long time since we had a dynamic, varied top 12. What will next years Red Wings look like? The same roster we have this year. Except we'll probably lose Stuart as he scurries back to LA. What do I WANT next years Red Wings to look like? Datsyuk - Zetterberg - Franzen Cleary - Filppula - Rolston Holmstrom - Kopecky - Torres McCarty - Draper - Maltby Downey Lidstrom - Rafalski Kronwall - Commodore Chelios - Ericsson Meech Osgood Howard Trade for Torres. Trade off Hudler, Lebda, Samuelsson. Im not a huge fan of the latter two, so they can go where they please, but I dont mind Hudler and I think hes got a lot of talent. I just dont think he should be wasting away in the bottom 6 despite being capable of being in the top 6. Id like to see him go to a team that has some big forwards in their top six who Hudler can play on a line with. He deserves it. Homer is one of my favorite players, but it seems like his age is catching up with him. No, I dont think Franzen has replaced him on the PP, but I do think Franzen should replace Homer 5 on 5. Franzen is better in terms of skating and has better hands. Id like to see Homer in a more limited role 5 on 5, but still hold his position on the 1st unit of the PK. I shouldnt have to explain my Torres choice. Hes a beast of a hitter and a pretty clean hitter at that. Hes also good for at least 15 goals on a full season, and two times (out of only 3 full seasons) has he put 20+ goals. Hes got some underrated hands, and he would be a fan favorite. He had a knee injury this year and last Ive heard he was a guy the Oilers wouldnt mind trading. Hed be absolutely awesome on our third line and would really add that North American grit we really lack. Not to mention hes only 26 years old..

Doug Weight got his contract when he was still an effective guy and one of the faces of his franchise. Tim Connolly is worlds better - clearly youve never seen him play or youd know the only thing keeping him from being a 60-70 point got is his injury history. So youre 1 for 3. And thats not the point at any rate. Weight and Connolly are, or were when they got their contracts, top 6 guys. Sammy never was. He still isnt. Look at it this way. Would you want Sammy over any of Flip, Hudler, Franzen, Hank, Datsyuk, Cleary, or Homer in an offensive role? No. Would you want Sammy over any of our bottom line players in a PKing/Physical role? No. Sammy has no place on a team like Detroit. Hes a waste of a roster spot. And where I think all the Sammy bashers/haters and the Sammy supporters diverge is that all the Sammy suckers seem to think that we all want an explosive Ovechkinesque guy to take his role for only 1.2M. WRONG. People ***** about Sammy because he offers nothing of what we dont already have tons of. Ask any (knowledgeable) Sammy basher, and he/she will tell you that Sammy is a waste of a roster spot that should be used on a Mike Grier/Chris Gratton/Raffi Torres/Chris Neil/You-get-the-idea type player.