haroldsnepsts

Your argument is basically that you know what is going on in the personal lives of people you don't even know, so I don't need a ton of substance to refute such a badly flawed argument. You can make guesses and assumptions about what their motivations are, but they're just that. Guesses and assumptions. Green may make your world go round, but here's a little secret. You don't speak for everyone. People from all walks of life chose more important things than money. More on topic, it's seeming more and more that Stuart is gone. He was a great pickup and will be missed. Hopefully he's a beast this playoffs if it's his last one in the winged wheel.

I agree except for the OT. Keep it 4 on 4 to open things up, and make it 10 minutes. 2 points for win during regulation or OT. 1 point each for a tie. And I know it's a radical concept to the NHL these days, but zero points for a loss, even in OT. There's a decent article on ESPN about a three point system. Yzerman is in favor of trying the 3 points for a win, Holland is not. http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/15321/three-point-debate-change-the-standings

I love it when people say things like that. As if they've "won" some argument or made some brilliant point. The reality is, you actually don't know jack about Lidstrom's personal life. You may know how much money he makes, even where he lives. But there's no way you could possibly know his mindset as he's deciding what to do with his life and his family. Yet you acted as if it were fact it was all about the money. Same with Stuart. It's easy to sit back and judge people when you have no idea what is actually going on in their lives. Do you really not understand the difference between people speculating about someone's personal situation, and how their personal life actually is? BOOM! *throws the mic down and walks off stage, hands over his head in victory* Just wanted to highlight all the bad assumptions in your post. Pro athletes are certainly human and have faults like the rest of us. But that doesn't necessarily mean they all fit your bitter jaded view of them either.

reaching beyond logic? In what universe do you know anything about what is going on in Lidstrom's family life? You made a huge assumption on what Lidstrom's true intentions were, based on very little information. My logic is solid.

He probably knows as much about your personal situation and job choices as you do Lidstrom's.

I picked PP/PK since they're both mediocre right now. Capitalizing on the PP in the playoffs will obviously be huge as goals get harder to come by. And I picked Mule for the big playoffs. That's more hope than anything else, because I'm assuming Dats and Z will be good. If Franzen has a big playoffs then the Wings are a scary good team to play against.

It seems unlikely but if Lids came back for another season AND Holland somehow managed to sign Suter, the Wings defense would be ridiculous. Lids, Suter, White, Kronner, Quincey, Smith, Ericsson, Kindl??? When Smith becomes a regular in the lineup, with his PP and ES time I'm guessing he'll be slotted above both E and Kindl. I can't see the Wings ditching Ericsson, unless they somehow can get around his NTC. Because I don't know why he'd want to play anywhere else than the Wings. It'd be an overpayment but Ericsson over Kindl on the bottom pairing is stronger than Kindl. Kindl becomes much more expendable with Smith and especially Quincey in the lineup.

He said the defense was better without Ericsson. Lidstrom has been out both of those games as well. But I guess this isn't just more baseless Ericsson bashing and you can somehow determine that the defense actually looks better overall specifically because of Ericsson's absence and not Lidstrom's? It used to be that Kindl>Ericsson, which was wrong. Ericsson clearly outplayed Kindl, who couldn't hold his spot in the lineup over Commie. When that became obvious, you guys shifted to complaining about Ericsson's contract. Now that he's out of the lineup, somehow you can tell the defense is better specifically because of his absence. You guys hate him. That's fine. Certain players are just going to get bashed. But it's not about what's actually happening on the ice, it's silly to pretend otherwise. As for Smith, I'm glad he's finally getting some playing time. I know it's probably for the best, but Holland's "overly ripe"philosophy can be frustrating. I can't wait until this kids a regular in the lineup.

Wideman's is pretty amazing. He didn't just fall down, he managed to knock himself off his feet somehow. It's as if he got checked by a ghost or something.

I like how the headlines say the Wings ended the home losing skid. I guess after 23 games in a row, two home losses is a "skid."

Interesting. thanks for doing the work. I can't stand the loser point but unfortunately I don't see the league getting rid of it any time soon. As you point out, it's forced parity so it keeps more teams relevant towards playoff time. So teams' games are relevant later into the season too, which means better ticket sales and tv ratings. It's about the money and not about what's most fair for the teams involved.

And Lidstrom apparently? They've been out of the lineup the exact same games. We should get rid of both of them.

I thought this was an interesting look at the trade deadline from the perspective of the players and their families in particular. http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/7634661/nhl-families-deal-trade-deadline-moves

That's about as clever as the people who used to say Osbad. Ericsson is better than both Janik and Kindl. I agree with what this guy said about E: Quincey is a nice addition though he makes Kindl even more expendable.

Janik is a steady plug when needed, but Kindl is still the #1 draft pick that I'm sure they're hoping will develop into more than a 6th/7th D-man.

The thing I've not seen from the Wings since '08 was their ability to lock it down once they got a lead. They seemed able to control games and close them out much more easily than they have any season since then. In general they just played like a team on a mission almost every night.

He's a good pick. I can't say he does anything worthy of hating him other than constantly scoring against the Wings.

Setoguchi even dives on the shootout. classy. EDIT: Damn! Just saw I got beat to that joke in the other thread.

that's a drag, especially since we don't have Commie now. And there's the added concern of Ericsson being rusty or taking a step backwards after he had been playing so solid this season.

That's how I remember it too. There were the stars that if you took a run at, you'd likely be answering to someone like Probie or Semenko. But now it's like every good hard hit results in teammates mugging the guy who threw the hit. I looked back at some old hockey vids on youtube, and there were a lot of huge hits--some of them even looked dirty--and the play kept going. Obviously that's a small sample, but it confirmed how I remembered it. Big hits would make the games chippier overall. But they didn't immediately result in having to drop the gloves and fight just because you checked someone, like so often happens now.

I've removed all posts related to personal attacks and ones that did nothing but criticize another member instead of responding to the content of their message. Please keep the discussion relevant to the topic at hand (standings, schedule, etc). Thanks.

Makes sense. Honestly watching it full speed it looked like a textbook headshot. Then on the replay you can see it's not and that Letang put himself in a vulnerable position. Just shows how hard it is for refs to catch this stuff in the game. Good on them for not tossing Nystrom for the hit.

This one I'll kind of give a pass on because at full speed it was hard to tell if it was a headshot or exactly what happened. But overall I agree. It's gotten ridiculous. I've heard people claim that's the way it's always been, but it goes against my memories of watching hockey since the early 80s. Clean hard hits are a part of the game. Having fights after every big hit is yet another way to try to take hitting out of the game, this time by the players themselves.

It wasn't every contract year. I'm not saying there weren't stories of this. I remember it too. But you're assuming it's purely a ploy for more money and not a legitimate consideration of taking his family and raising his kids back in his native Sweden.

Anytime you're talking about the elite level of a sport with millions of dollars involved, there's a pretty good chance performance enhancing drugs are involved. Even if its not to bulk up, I could see players using steroids and other drugs to try and speed up recovery time from injury.