YoungGuns1340

That would be sick. Thats the kind of line that playoff folklore is made of. That kind of line looks like the type that would bring the energy, but also come up with clutch goals.

Haha, well played.

Holy f***! HOW DID CHELIOS SKATE THAT FAST???

Caputi. Haha.

Hank + Datsyuk = Money. Where are the Pens fans? That place is dead.

Sammy isn't Cole. Cole is much more physical, faster, and scores garbage goals. Sammy is more finesse and can play the point. Not really comparable in many ways. That said, this trade is HORRIFIC. Value for value, Osgood/Roloson and Sammy/Cole wipe each other out, so we basically give Filppula away for free to a team that could use him.

No. Sorry. Hossa's overratedness just went through the roof if you think Hossa is in any way comparable to Fedorov. Hossa has a quicker release than Fedorov, and thats it. Feds had the better overall shot (wrister, slapper), faster wheels, was better defensively, more creative, more versatile, just as good a goal scorer (yes, he was), and was about 10 times the passer Hossa was. No fan that watched Fedorov throughout his entire or majority of his career - Yes, the Red Wings were around pre-97/98 - would say that Hossa is even close to what Fedorov was in his prime.

1. You contradict yourself twice here. First you say that NN is being too near-sighted, not looking at Flip's potential in 3 years, yet then you deride the notion that Helm can replace Filppula, despite the fact that Helm is 3 years younger and has never had a regular spot, whereas Filppula has barely earned half his salary in 3 years time. Then you go on to say that the Wings should trade Stuart or Kronwall, yet say that the Wings won't trade Filppula because he signed long-term, despite the fact that Kronwall and Stuart both signed 4-5 year contracts. 2. The Wings can't afford to be far-sighted with 3(4 including Leino) forwards that need raises/new contracts who have all proved to be more useful to the Wings than Filppula has. Yeah, he may warrant that contract in 3 years, but the Wings will have sacrificed too much in that time to make it worthwhile. Not to mention, keeping Flip means little chance or re-signing our big goal scoring wingers. If you watch Flip closely, you'll note how, unless hes serving time on Datsyuk's wing, a la last season, he can't score. He gets his points, at this point, from setting up Franzen, Hudler, and Hossa - at least 1 or 2 of which will be lost at Filppula's expense, which not only weakens our offense, it weakens Filppula's game as well. 3. Name for me the last time the Wings operated in the salary cap world, were damn close to the cap ceiling as is, and had a slew of players to re-sign who warrant additional cap expenditures.

Kopecky is -1, yet hes NEVER on the ice in key situations. Thats why his +/- is better than Draper and Maltbys. Babs will double shift Cleary or Filppula with the 4th line if its late in a game. Yes, he is our leading forward in checks, but they're pathetic as hell, and he usually takes himself out of the play, because he falls down after a check more often than not. The fact that you're using a guy's career +/- of 0 says everything about Kopecky. And no, even as of now, Helm is the much better player. Helm may make mistakes, but thats because he works himself into the play. He skates, backchecks, plays the body, works the neutral zone well, and more. Kopecky, on the other hand, will let Draper or Maltby take over on the backcheck, on man to man coverage, or along the boards. Helm is better than Kopecky in every regard. You don't get brownie points just because you don't do anything bad. Which is the argument you're making for Kopecky.

No way on earth does Leino take a 3 or 4 year deal. The best the Wings can hope for is a contract identical to Hudler's. 2 years, 1.05 per year. It shouldn't be hard to work him under the cap. Leino takes Sammy's spot, Helm takes Filppula's spot (if its required to re-sign Franzen/Hossa).

How did Conklin look? He was giving up some rebounds, but I only caught the last 12 minutes of the game. Any concern with him?

Exactly.

Nice deflection, Leino.

I swear to god. If Samuelsson were to only shoot the puck on his backhand, his shooting percentage would actually be respectable. His backhand is money, which is ironic.

SAMMY!

How was the first goal on Conks? The 2nd and 3rd goals didn't look too bad.

The Wings should be forechecking harder. This Edmonton defense sucks at controlling the puck.

Way to wipe out your goalie, Lilja.

Holy overrating! Eva, thats the nuttiest thing you've ever posted. Kopecky is NOT a better player than Helm right now in any way shape or form. Kopecky has minimal assignments and can't even carry those out. In an NHL lineup, Helm is already being given more responsibility, and can fulfill what is asked of him swimmingly. There is NO contest as to who the better player is. Helm wins that show in a landslide.

But Lilja provided something. He was always a good PKer at the least, and had shown bouts of strong hitting, shot blocking, and even fighting on occasion. Kopecky, on the other hand, isn't even good at staying on his feet. And I don't think I've ever been wowed by a Kopecky hit. And his reluctance to drop the gloves is pathetic. The only argument people have is that Kopecky would be cheap. But how many 4th liners aren't cheap? I can think of about 20-30 names off the top of my head that make around 500-600k on the 4th line and actually fulfill the requirements by hitting and/or fighting. Kopecky does neither, which is disgusting, considering hes bigger than well over half the guys in this league.

QFT. There is no argument for Kopecky. He doesn't play his "role" well, and he doesn't do anything else well either. Hes more useless than Mowers or Devereaux ever were.

Haha, I LOLed at that.

Among all the angst and anger, thought I'd bring up an outsider to talk about. Ovechkin just scored a hattrick today. That gives him 5 goals in less than 24 hours. Just an incredible guy, and I'd take him over Crosby or Malkin any day of the week. Discuss.

Interesting segment. Thanks for posting. But honestly, I don't like Ozzie's attitude. He makes it sound like Phoenix was a rare poor performance, when in fact it was a run-of-the-mill effort this season. And frankly, all that "we won with so and so" talks reminds me of the 03/04/06 runs. Yeah, we won with Hasek, too. Same thing with Hull, Shanny, and Yzerman. It still doesn't mean some changes didn't need to be made.

Thats because Eklund has new "info" all the time. He throws s*** at the wall and sees what sticks. Spector, on the other hand, reports on legitimate rumors and then actually gives some input as to whether or not they make sense. Just because Eklund may have "sources" doesn't mean the "rumors" he hears about actually have any value or make any sense. A "source" could tell Ek that he overheard Jim Nill saying "yeah, it would be nice to have a guy like Souray on the blueline" and then suddenly the rumor mongers are obssessing about the impending "Souray to Detroit, e3" rumors. Its ridiculous.