haroldsnepsts

Mule gets one off a fortunate bounce. hopefully this will remind him how fun it is to score goals.

How quickly people forget Lilja.

His daughter is in Russia so he doesn't really get to see her during the season. A lot of family and friends too but in some thread people posted articles about him talking about his daughter.

Ah, just saw that O'Byrne did get the 10 minutes. It seems to me like they so rarely call the instigator in these situations though. So I think the refs got that one right. And I do agree about how they're using the instigator and ten minute misconduct so far this season to stop fights from willing participants before they even begin.

No kidding, but Probert was. And Gallant would go with anyone too if he thought there was a reason. As would almost any of the d-men on the ice. And as others mentioned, Perry is a spotpicker. To compare him to Shanny is a stretch to put it mildly, especially when going after a guy because he hit your teammate isn't old school. I prefer the days when hockey players weren't such babies that they could take a hard hit without 3 of their teammates jumping the guy who did it. Instead they'd get up, shake off the cobwebs and get the guys number. And these fights after clean hits they rarely give the guy a chance to square up before they start throwing haymakers. Hard hits are part of the game. Jumping a guy because your teammate got caught with his head down should get a 10 minute misconduct tacked on. Then if guys don't like the hit or it's borderline dirty, they can lay on a beating but it's probably gonna cost them. But it would at least eliminate the garbage after perfectly good hits. Like I said, these muggings that go on after hits do more to take hitting out of the game than anything Bettman does.

huh? I want the instigator penalty removed. I like fighting in hockey. But I've been watching long enough to remember a time when guys took a number after a hard hit to get the guy later in the game. They knew it was part of the game and they're all big boys. People act like somehow mugging guys after they hit someone is a tough code, but it's the opposite. Like the guy getting hit is a delicate flowers who can't handle hockey so their teammates have to suckerpunch the guy who hit them. Part of the idea of hitting is to separate the guy from the puck to gain an advantage. Even if you knock a guy silly and he's stunned for a minute, that's an advantage. The muggings that go on after clean hits stop the game and erase that advantage. Stevie was protected by Probert and Kocur, but even they would get guys later in the game. It was rare they'd jump someone right at that moment for running Yzerman. Then again, Yzerman had his head up enough to avoid a lot of the big hits. And fighting isn't legal. It's why you get a penalty for it.

Fighting after a clean hit is one of the only times I think guys should get 5, 2, and a 10. I know it's a little different because he's the captain, but i'm so sick of guys getting jumped after clean hits. That's more of an attempt to take hitting out of the game than anything Bettman does.

It's somewhat about sample size, but with Franzen it's a peculiar case because those three years are so radically different than the ones around it. That's what makes me think we'll know in a season or two more which was the real Franzen and which was an aberration. I'd call those players you mentioned consistent playoff performers. If you look at Yzerman's numbers there's only a couple years you could even say were below good. He managed a .944 playoff PPG over 196 games. Zetterberg I would call a consistent playoff performer. Dats had that inexplicably poor first few playoffs but has been consistent ever since. And don't get me wrong, I'm far from saying Franzen is bad in the playoffs. But in comparing him to other players it seemed like people were remember his beast playoffs and making it sounds as if he's done that every year. That's all.

I didn't see the game but it's good to hear Kindl was using his size a little. I'm hard on him because he plays so much smaller than he is. At 6'3" 216 lbs. he's bigger than guys like Kronwall, Quincey and Smith, all who are more physical. He's about to turn 26 so is not really a youngster and is going on his third full season in the NHL. Plus he was taken in the first round at #19, which is the highest draft pick the Wings have had in years. He has a lot of great qualities but can't seem to get it together. The most frustrating to me of all is not only the lack of using his size but how timid he is going in to corners. I've seen him bail out of a play to keep from getting hit way too many times. Hopefully he does get it together because the Wings will need all the help they can get this season on the blueline.

That's hardly my representation of Mule, but keep taunting me, please. Honestly most of my criticism of Franzen is for lack of consistent effort, not production. He's definitely a good value for his contract but it's frustrating when you see how he can play to watch him take shifts off. So let's deal with some stats and not your misrepresentation of my point. 5 GP 1 G 0 A 8 GP 2 G 1 A 12 GP 6 G 12 A 23 GP 12 G 11 A 16 GP 13 G 5 A 18 GP 3 G 4 A 6 GP 1 G 2 A I'd say 2008-2010 were great playoff years. The last two were disappointments. And the first two were average. If you read my post and the one I was responding to it was pretty clearly in the context of playoff scoring. You can make all the excuses you want but his resume is a little short of what I would call a consistent playoff performer. That's not to say he sucks, or he's a playoff no show, or any other exaggeration you'd like to make. It's just too small of a track record for what I would call a proven playoff performer.

It's worth noting that the title of the article is also NHL Rumors. And that link doesn't mention the numbers you stated as fact. Not to say Subban isn't asking for that, but it's still all just rumblings. Which are especially suspect to me since it involves Montreal. I haven't seen him play a ton, but he's only 23 years old and has a lot of talent. I can't see him getting Doughty money though, if only because of the new CBA.

If one young player does that every once in a while, totally fine. I'd only be concerned if more and more players started skating away from their teammates to draw attention to themselves in celebration. Hockey is already getting like soccer with all the diving.

I only saw the highlights but in one of them the PK guys were all within arms length of one another in front of the net. That seems way too close even for the passive box.

Agreed. Not that I'm saying sign Brunner long term and dump Mule, but Franzen's playoff performance is getting misrepresented. Three monster years isn't the same as consistent playoff performer. He's had just as many mediocre to bad ones.

Because of the lockout I'm guessing he's only had a couple weeks with the guys. Time shall tell. And as Axe said, getting Ericsson back will help. The PK suffered without him last year.

Going by the NHL Network highlights there was no fight and no hitting in this game.

I didn't get to see any of the game against Dallas so I guess in my head it didn't count.

If we're only supposed to say positive things about the Wings then it's not really a discussion forum, it's more of a cheerleading club. And frankly I'm not interested in that. I like talking hockey and of course a part of that is going to be speculation. So if reading posts where people complain about this or that with the Wings upsets you, then I'm afraid you're going to be upset a lot of the time you're here. No one needs to get over it to satisfy you. We're the ones talking hockey, even if it seems like whining to you. You're the one trying to quell discussion on a discussion forum and steer it to content you approve of. Not to mention we're 3 games into the season. This is the first time in 20 years the Wings haven't had Lidstrom in the lineup, so now seems like a completely appropriate time to talk about the moves management did or didn't make to prepare for this day because we're finally getting to see them actually play games. I certainly don't expect Holland to be perfect either, but two of the biggest challenges and priorities of his career as GM are/should have been transitioning to the cap world and preparing for the day the Wings blueline no longer has a 7 time Norris winner playing 25 minutes a night.

In the video it shows him clearly airborne before impact is made. I picked Stevens because he's the most famous of that era, but I could've said Vladdy and plenty of other guys. And no, Stevens didn't explode up like guys do today. Players used to crush guys while still having their skates glued to the ice. Then over the years this "exploding up" became acceptable because their skates were on the ice most of the way. Kronwall has certainly been guilty of it, though he corrected it last season. And Zetterberg has been guilty of it on occasion too. With Z though it's usually a half-hearted hit that he's turning to protect himself, not to crush someone. Guys can learn the right way to hit again. It's been done that way for most of hockey's history.

Like the OP said, I could see maybe 2 for charging. He came a long way to make that hit and did the Kronwall-esque exploding up into it (which I think should be penalized). I don't really understand the suspension though. Here's the Shanaban video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvRFtggbhCI Honestly after hearing the explanation, if they're doing this to get rid of the exploding up kind of hits, I'm okay with it. The games hardest hitters used to crush guys without jumping. I'd rather we get back to a Scott Stevens style hitting and keep in the game then have everything being penalized and watered down because players these days can't keep their skates on the ice.

Relatively low risk, high reward. It's hard to think he'll go on a dry spell like the last one. I haven't seen much of Gomez the last couple seasons though so i can't really speak to what the hell happened to him.

Agreed. And also if he's not going to fight, he needs to knock it off with the gloved punches, suckerpunches and whatnot. If he's going to start that crap in a scrum, he should back it up.

Homer retired. Then O'Halloran waved it off.

Ha! Just saw I got beat to the punch on the joke. He must type faster than I do. Need more coffee.

Murphy's law? That no one dollar hot dog will go uneaten? Seriously though, these injuries are getting nuts.