haroldsnepsts

I'm guessing they don't. But they should (and probably do) care about getting their fare share of the millions of dollars people pay to see them play. No one walks around with Holland, Burke, or Bettman on the back of their jersey.

That would take a long time to produce, but I also find it hard to believe the league didn't work up a mock schedule for their own purposes when debating this issue. When concocting this plan, they must've at least done a rough workup of the travel consequences and schedule.

Honestly though I don't think that's the best analogy because we're talking about entertainment, and the players are the talent. And elite talent at that. It's like making major changes to a very popular tv show without getting any input from the stars on it. The Datsyuk's of the league are why people buy tickets. I think the league forgets that sometime.

I don't agree with his logic. because they hadn't been in the past that means they shouldn't now? The league never had a salary cap before either. I think it would've gone a long way to set a better tone had they involved the NHLPA. Instead Bettman basically came off saying "we don't even need to ask them at all." The players are the talent. The league could at least pretend to treat them with respect on occasion.

To me the NHL are a bunch of idiots for not involving the players union in the realignment before that. It starts things off with a very exclusionary tone. It's like they sometimes forget who people pay to see. And that the players will be the ones doing the traveling and playing the actual games.

as I said in the other thread, if they lose a season or even half a season, Bettman needs to be canned. It would be the third time the league has lost games under his reign in less than 20 years. And even back in 94 his big battle was about the cap. After basically breaking the union and getting a cap, they damn well better be able to work this out without a lockout. I know it's not all his fault but Bettman sets a very combative tone publicly that everyone gets their hackles up before negotiations even begin.

Maltby was an agitator and wouldn't fight, but he's still a long way from Avery. From everything i've heard Maltby was a great teammate and didn't do any of the crap Avery did in the press. I'm okay with guys having personalities other than the humble canadian "it's all about my teammates" schtick, but Avery pulled the kind of crap that is part of the reason I don't watch the NBA, and an element of the NFL I don't like. It's too bad because underneath all the douchery, he's a good player.

Lilja has lost more than one fight. The best he ever did was fight to a draw. I doubt he instilled fear in any legit fighter. I'm being totally serious when I give him a lot credit for adjusting his game to try and provide what the Wings desperately needed, but to act as if Lilja was a legit fighter to be feared just shows how far the Wings have gone from having players who can really go.

I give Lilja serious respect for trying to fight at the NHL level when he clearly had not grown up playing that way. But he was an awful fighter and sometimes embarrassing fighter (grabbing a guy's leg to take him down?) culminating in Weber knocking his screws loose. I know it's become a running joke but I don't think anyone feared Lillypads in a fight.

I would've given him another game. He gets a stick in the face and is clearly pissed about it, then boards then next player he sees.

Kings are my second favorite team so I watch these games somewhat conflicted. I don't want the Wings to lose, but the Kings sure can use the points. General thoughts: Kopitar is a badass. He's a very Zetterberg like player. I'd love for the Wings to ****** him up somehow. Brown has a lot of great qualities but tonight is a perfect example of the mixed feelings I had about the talk of him going to the Wings. The diving is a friggin embarrassment. He's the biggest diver on the Kings. As for the Wings, ugh. The PP and PK is going to kill this team in the postseason unless they figure it out in a hurry. Glad Q is ok after going headfirst into the boards like that. It looked pretty nasty.

The Blues are having a great season, especially considering how they started. But you have to realize that being a Blues fan on a Red Wings board, the subtext of most responses you get will be along the lines of: Maybe quell your erection until you win a round of the playoffs. To be clear, you're absolutely welcome as a fan of another team. It's great to hear about other teams from their fans and get an outside perspective. But at the same time if you're expecting a lot of people here to go out of their way to compliment the Blues, you're probably going to be disappointed.

If we lose another season of hockey, or even half a season of hockey, I don't care what else he's done, Bettman needs to be shown the door. That would be three lockouts that he's responsible for in his tenure as commissioner. Bettman and the NHL have the dubious honor of being the first North American league to lose an entire season due to a labor dispute. In the last lockout he got the salary cap he's wanted since 94. He should be able to negotiate and get a CBA finished without locking players out.

It'd be funny if they ended up making the playoffs. The power of the thread karma.

People talk about Stuart's days when he used to fight? He's been in about one per season, and usually they're not even really traditional fights where guys square off. It's usually more like scrums where finally someone throws the gloves off.

I got bored after the first paragraph, honestly. Having not made it out of the first round of the playoffs in ten years, I get that you guys are excited there and post things like this. But as the Wings have learned from painful experiences over the years, stats and the President's Trophy don't count for jack in the postseason. Home ice advantage yes, but that's it.

Not surprising from Avery. I mean, after all, what's the game ever given him?

Let's keep it to over-analyzing hockey, not each other please.

Probably. Honestly I don't know how Radulov will transition back into the NHL, but you're right that he's probably more likely to be at the Hudler end of the spectrum. But I do believe that overall it probably has more to do with the kind of player and level of professionalism than it being something inherent in that league.

On the flip side, Jagr is making the transition look pretty easy, especially for a 40 year old. The level of play in the KHL isn't as high as in the NHL, but I'm guessing the bigger factor is how hard you train/practice/play over there. It's probably easier to take nights off and remain in the lineup. Something tells me Hudler wasn't hitting the gym in his KHL days as much as he does now.

STAY ON TOPIC. If you want to discuss why people neg or don't neg someone or feelings about each other as members here, take it to PM, or at least the water cooler. I'm having to clean up this thread for a second time now because of personal attacks and getting way off topic. Next time people will just be getting time outs from the site. Even if your post is partially on topic but contains musings on other people's posting habits or the +/- system or anything else wildly off topic, the whole post will be deleted. If you want your thoughts to remain in the thread, just keep it to something remotely related to the game. Thanks.

Please stay on topic about the actual game. This thread will be cleaned up and a couple of you should check your PM's.

So the defense looks better overall without Lidstrom and Ericsson in the lineup? Because both have been out the same games. you'd think the defense would be better with Lidstrom in the lineup. Weird.

Do you really think he'd have a regular spot in the lineup if every other play he was making a mistake? He doesn't make mistakes anywhere near that percentage of the time because if he did he'd be out of the NHL. So the pretty clear answer is it has something to do with your perception of things, not Ericsson's actual play. But then I guess we all baselessly bash players sometimes.