haroldsnepsts

He pretty much has been up until they signed Quincey. With Q here, everyone healthy, and Smith playing so well, it'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out. It's a nice problem for Holland to have.

12 points in his last 6 games. 16 points in February. It's great to see Z getting it going at the right time.

At the time of the deal I didn't even realize he's an RFA. It seems like he'd been in the league long enough I just assumed he'd be a UFA. But I forget the guy's only a year older than Kindl and younger than E.

Amazing is overstating it, but he looked very good in the playoffs his first two seasons in the league. Winning the Cup with Anaheim his second. I guess that's when he decided he could stop trying, because he's been an underachiever most of the time since. When the Kings traded for him (and his big contract) I was hoping he could be some surprising reclamation project. Alas, he still works about as hard as Franzen on his off nights, minus the scoring touch.

so IF it was needed because somehow Holland has painted himself into a corner financially, the Wings should demote their #5 defenseman to the minors and potentially lose him off waivers for nothing while also tarnishing the organization's reputation on how it treats its players. Got it. Holland is a guy who let Commie go basically so he could play somewhere and try to get a contract next year, even though it would've been better for the team to have him riding the pine in case there were a bunch of injuries on D, which is the case right now. You're such a big Holland fan it's odd that you'd think he'd ever make a bad move like that, other than the fact that it's Ericsson.

Agreed. And while Quincey may not have been totally necessary this season, he makes the team better and I think it was also a move anticipating Stuart's departure. Even if they had brought Smith up, I wouldn't want him thrown into a role where he's supposed to handle as many minutes as Quincey. I want him up with the Wings, but not totally thrown in the deep end.

Translation: "I'm sorry I got caught." If a grown ass man can't figure out how stupid that is beforehand, it's hard for me to believe he truly regrets and understands exactly what a douchebag he is.

As entertaining as this has been, I think we're done here. When the original post calls everyone here names, it's safe to say the thread won't end well. Also, there are already threads for Franzen and Flip where the few productive posts in this thread can take place. Flip thread Mule thread

Why would the Wings put a solid #5 D man that they just re-signed in the minors? What kind of message would that send to current and future players? That would be an idiotic move by Holland. Plus I think he'd have to clear waivers.

Great job by the Wings to pull out a win. But I'm not sure what point you're making exactly, especially given +/- is about the most useless stat in all of hockey.

Agreed. Though I think Smith has much much greater potential than Ericsson has ever had. As for Kindl, he hasn't done much to inspire confidence. He's shown some promise but seems to have regressed. He's not been awful, but he's not been particularly good either, even as a 6th guy. Actually I don't know that he's even regressed or if he's just been at the same level the whole time, but now I expect more a guy with 100 NHL games under his belt than when he had 10. And to whoever asked, yes Ericsson has a NTC but I don't think the exact details are known.

They don't typically trap (I'm at work and not watching this game, so can't say for sure). But they're 3rd in the league for GAA. They definitely don't make it easy to score. They're also a team who can't really score, so it's depressing they got 3 on us.

Well, I live in California so it's not like it's a random choice. If I still lived in Michigan it'd be just the Wings. And I really do think Doughty is extremely talented, but he definitely has maturing to do. He sometimes tries to do too much and take over a game himself, which can lead to squandered opportunities or taking himself out of position. His shoulder injury earlier this season was from him trying to be Bobby Orr and carrying the puck straight up the middle in the offensive zone, only to get crushed with a good hit because he had his head down. I don't think it's a coincidence that his best year was when he was paired with Sean O'Donnell much of the time.

why ewww? They're having a lot of problems scoring goals this season and seem to have taken a step backward overall, but they're a fun young team to watch. Kopitar plays a lot like Zetterberg. great young goalie in Quick. Doughty is super-talented, if immature still. Good young defensemen in Martinez and Voynov. Young guys like Clifford who will grind, hit, fight and score some goals. Honestly I liked the roster more last season when they still had Simmonds. Their GM has made some panic moves at the deadline picking up Penner last season and now Carter (who will hopefully work out better than Penner). But they're still a fun team to watch.

Holy injury bug. Kings are my second favorite team. I'm pulling for the Wings to win, but if they end up losing at least there's consolation in the Kings getting much needed points to stay in the running for the playoffs.

The funniest thing over on hfboards about the hit is that one of the actual staff there wrote an "article" (blog) condemning Kronwall for the hit. And in the thread about it was saying things like any NHL defenseman could catch guys like Kronwall does and crush them, but they choose not to out of respect for their fellow players.

Considering they announced it the day Carter was coming back to Columbus for the first time as a King, I think you picked the right one. First announcing that Nash requested a trade, now treating a recently traded player this way. Stay classy Columbus. Even if he was a flop there, it doesn't exactly send the best message about how you treat players.

Well, their biggest beef with Kronwall is that he doesn't fight after hits. Any time a player is suspended for a hit, people whine about how they're trying to take big hits out of the game. But having to drop the gloves after a big hit somehow doesn't discourage hitting to them. Though there are people there who feel he somehow should've not made the hit knowing he was going to hit Voracek so hard. I can understand people wishing Kronwall would fight just once or twice after a big hit, but it's mostly nonsense over there.

That's the thing, I expected it to be 100% flyers fans complaining about the hit. There were plenty of fans of other teams who were, but among the Flyers fans it seemed almost 50/50 which is surprising. Especially given the general caliber of posts on hfboards. There's a thread there right now that's about a horribly written "article" about Kronwall by one of the hf staff. It's yet another example of how the staff there are no more informed or unbiased than the average fan there.

I agree. Over on hfboards there were a surprising amount of Flyers fans who thought it was a clean hard hit. They weren't even whining about Kronwall not fighting.

Agreed. I don't think he has much in the way of cheapshots, at least not compared to someone like Tootoo. But Ott gets my vote for the biggest agitator. Burrows is just a cowardly finger-biting hair-pulling douchebag. I wouldn't necessarily call him an agitator. That implies it's an intentional strategy, versus it just being the essence of who he is as a player.

Agreed. I hated him when he played, but that guy was a devastating hitter and afraid of no one. I remember one game against the Wings someone actually caught Stevens with his head down and crushed him with a great bodycheck. He was clearly hurting, but got up laughing. It was fitting that guy played for the Devils.

Are you seriously claiming that some of Scott Steven's big hits were after the whistle? The guy was a devastating hitter, even moreso than Kronwall. And while some of his top ten hits on youtube would be borderline in todays game, most of hits were and still would be legal. He kept his skates glued to the ice and almost always had his elbows tucked.

Agreed. It was pretty clear he was out. Scoring chance or not that's a level of injury the refs need to stop play so the trainers can get out there.

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=123678 NHL video examples of legal hits to the head.