haroldsnepsts

Did you even read the original post or the link? A linesman overheard it and skated straight to the bench. To the best of my knowledge no players are crying about anything. What a tragedy that will be. It's hilarious that you make this post and your username is league integrity.

Well then I agree with you! Seriously though, my memory is that people wanted him here to compete with Jimmy for the starting job. I don't remember many, if any, saying he should be given it over Howard.

I'm confused if you're arguing for or against me. The OP stated that many people here wanted Holland to guarantee Vokoun the starting job to bring him here to Detroit, which isn't true at all. Of the handful of people who were interested in Vokoun coming to Detroit, I remember most of them saying he and Jimmy should compete for the starting job. There's a huge difference from wishing for the dream scenario that Jimmy and Vokoun were our two goaltenders, and actually relegating Jimmy to the backup role and guaranteeing the starting job to Vokoun. So Crymson brings up Jimmy's superior stats as an "I told ya so" for a premise that isn't even true. Was there even one person who actually said they thought Vokoun should be guaranteed the starting job to come to Detroit?

Not sure if that was directed at my post, but I said better leadership. The captain is great when he just plays hockey, but he's a known diver and had several flops that are just disgraceful. He reacts to typical hockey hacking and whacking like he's a soccer player. The Canucks showed their lack of leadership in the playoffs last season. Henrik completely disappeared in the SCF's. Daniel doesn't dive as much but wasn't very good in the SCF's either, unless you count taking punches to the face. Him predicting a game 7 victory only to immediately backtrack was pretty comical too. Then there's Luongo yapping about Thomas's goaltending, after he had crapped the bed a few times in the playoffs. I'm a Kesler fan but he is too much of a hothead and still shows his lack of maturity like he did last night. Then there's the finger biter... The gutless player in Lapierre. They're not totally without leadership, but like I said earlier, it's not coincidence that the Canucks have a reputation for being whiners and divers. Nucks fans can brush it off as envy or hate, but there's also solid reasons behind why many people feel that way. Teams develop a certain personality, and to a lot of people for Vancouver it's an extremely talented but whiny diving team.

Agreed. I was just trying to be extra clear and try and avoid people mistaking this for an enforcer debate. We know how those go.

Yeah, to be clear, this is not an enforcer issue. It's about whoever is on the ice sticking up for Jimmy when he gets run like that. It's what Babs refers to when he talks about keeping the flies off. If players know they can take liberties with Howard by running into him and getting in his face, they will. When you make them answer for it, even if the Wings end up taking a penalty there's a good chance the refs also hand out a penalty for what started it all, running Jimmy.

That's a pretty good list. Honestly I have no ire for St. Louis. They're a good team that's hard to play against. I'm certainly not a fan of the other three for a bunch of reasons, but I'd still put Vancouver at the top when it comes to complaining and whining. I know people hate Crosby and that he whines, but as a team I don't think the Pens are that way, diving included. Thornton runs his mouth sometimes in the press and at the refs too, but again as a team they don't approach the embarrassing crap that the Canucks have done.

You're spoiling the fun with your reasonable response. This is basically an "I told you so/Holland is perfect!" thread. Who knows whether Vokoun needed a guarantee or not, but I can't fault the guy for not wanting to come to a team that already had a very solid #1 guy in Howard. Especially given Detroit's handling of goalies in the past. It could've turned into a s***storm for him. 1A 1B with those two would've been awesome though. As for Howard, it's great that he has become a solid goalie for the Wings and absolutely capable of winning a Cup with the Wings. He was so stellar in college, I think when he didn't tear it up in the AHL it gave people some pause. Then he had some rebound control issues early in his NHL career. But the guy's a stud now.

Agreed. The Wings should be making guys pay a price for being around the net in general, but at the very least if someone runs their goalie they should absolutely have to answer for it. It's cool to see Jimmy so fired up about it, but sad that he has to go Hextall on guys because no one else will help him out. He's been a rock for this team all season. They should have his back.

I don't know how accurate it is but on hfboards a few people watching the game said Laviolette stayed behind to talk to the refs and they had shut the door to Flyers locker room by the time he finished. The shutting the door part seems a little odd, but honestly if it were any other player than a douchebag like Ott, there is no story because the coach simply walks past the players into the locker room. This is all about Ott being an idiot. It's not like Laviolette broke some big code by going down the other walkway.

Either way, Vancouver is once again proving themselves the whiniest friggin team in the league. I sort of hope Kesler will end up on another team. Hopefully in a different environment with better leadership he'd cut out the antics and focus on his game.

To me it's another Kronwall borderline hit. He does the exploding upward thing, when he really doesn't need to. He would've crushed Kesler even without the jump. And my guess is the league is going to be cracking down on these exploding up hits, as it targets a lot of energy towards a player's head. They've already suspended someone this season for a very similar hit where his skates were technically on the ice at the point of contact (can't think of who right now because I haven't had coffee). In Shanny's video for that suspension he points out that even though the skates were on the ice at contact, the height they reached during the hit showed too much of a leap. Honestly I think this should've been a two minute penalty in the game. I have no idea what Shanny will do, and have little sympathy for Kesler when he decided to turn little ***** for the rest of the game. Overall I'd prefer Kronner get better at keeping his skates on the ice so these hits are squeaky clean, because he'll still crush the guy that way.

And Lucic is from Vancouver. Big fan?

I'm confused. Based on how their fans were acting at the time I thought they won the Cup last December.

That wasn't Laviolette shoving Ott so much as it was Ott blocking Laviolette from getting to the lockerroom. Ott's douchiness knows no bounds. He goaded Bourdon into a bad penalty by pretending like he was going to go and then refusing to fight.

Giroux is back from concussion tonight and has 4 points so far. Quite a first game back.

From what I've seen it's mostly Henrik. The guy's an amazing talent, but what a joke as a captain.

Actually I would argue they're better at diving than the Sharks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urIlWcdT6i4 I can't imagine why anyone would dislike the Canucks. They're such a classy team.

Agreed. There's still a handful of players I like on the Canucks (I used to be a big fan years ago), but after watching them in the playoffs, especially the flopfest between them and the Sharks, I lost a lot of respect for them. Including Kesler, who is one of my favorite players in the league. Yes all teams dive to some degree, but it's not a coincidence that it's a largely held opinion that the Canucks have a lot of divers. It's not just hate. Plenty of people hate Boston but I've rarely heard them called divers. Combine the flopping with several interactions I had last season with Vancouver fans, and I don't have a lot of love for that team anymore. That being said, the actual games between the Nucks and Wings last year were always some great hockey.

Aren't we playing the Oilers??

Lucic got one game for the hit. NHL recap and video When referring to Lucic's history of similar hits, fines and warnings, he might as well have admitted "because I should've suspended him after the Miller hit."

Agreed. Though I have a feeling it won't happen until an Yzerman or Laperierre type eye injury (or worse) happens on the ice.

Agreed. Kindl's having a good year and developing nicely. But as you touched on, Smith is much more like Kindl than Ericsson, with a lot more top end potential. If anything this potentially being Lidstrom's last season makes Kindl even more trade bait. Kindl certainly isn't going to come close to replacing Lids, so I don't understand how Lidstrom's retirement affects trading him. (For the record, this doesn't mean I don't like Kindl.) I wouldn't want to see him go, but I also agree that Helm probably isn't untouchable if the right player is available. They don't do it very often, but the Wings traded Kozlov to bring in Hasek. This isn't quite the same but given Lidstrom's limited future with the team, if Holland were ever going to make a blockbuster move this would be the season.

It seems like they should come down to earth eventually. They're leading goal scorer is Brodziak, who has a career high in goals of 16 (he has 11 so far this season). Heatley is doing as expected, but he's not much of a playoff performer for the money, unless he's got a chip on his shoulder from being ditched by the Sharks. It seems like being toward the bottom of the league in goals for and having a mediocre power play will catch up with them eventually.

Agreed. Honestly 5 and a game is probable enough for that hit. But Lucic should be a repeat offender and it's a chance for Shanny to right his wrong on the Miller hit. I wonder if the explanation for letting Lucic off there is Shanny doesn't really believe in the rule about goalies not being hit out of the crease. Because whether people agree with the rule or not, miller was not eligible to be hit, there was clear intent, a blow to the head, and it resulted in injury. That pretty much covers all the criteria for suspension. I liked Lucic when he first came into the league, hoping he would be a power forward in the mold of someone like Shanahan. But the dirty hits, taunting, spot picking is all starting to pile up for me.