haroldsnepsts

No kidding. They're one of the toughest in the league. As much as I don't like either of them, Chara and Lucic should be spot pickers. It'd be stupid for them to take themselves off the ice for 5 minutes just to fight some 4th liner. Chara especially as a defenseman.

You must be going for the record on minuses for one post (I think that stinky fish guy holds the current record). That being said, while I don't think the Wings are necessarily soft I do think they could use more snarl. They would benefit from more intimidating physical players in the lineup, especially on the bottom lines where there's more players of that kind available. And to be clear I'm not talking about goons. No thank you to Avery and Carcillo, but there are guys out there. I also wouldn't include Homer in your list of players to replace. He's getting long in the tooth but he's shown he still has value and his been one of the better Wings so far this season.

One.

Agreed. Overall I think he's been a thousand times more consistent than Campbell. And the transparency and explanations help too. I think his biggest mistake is not even fining Lucic for running Miller. It was a dangerous and illegal hit that resulted in an injury. He's fined Shea Weber and Doughty for the same. And they were hitting players that were at least eligible to be hit. I also felt his suspension on Smith was too severe. Especially when you consider the AHL suspension as well.

I don't think anyone is questioning Pavel's intelligence. Just his fluency in English. EDIT: And I heard Z has 7 points in his last 6 games. Hopefully he's getting on track the way Datsyuk has.

It wasn't even 10 years ago actually. I think being an NHL coach just has high turnover and getting fired really isn't as big of a deal as other jobs. It's like being in advertising. I know people who've been fired or quit multiple times and end up at the same agency. For many teams firing the coach seems like the management equivalent of switching goalies. Hoping it changes momentum or something, but doesn't mean they think the starter is terrible.

I forgot until I saw this article, but it's kind of crazy that three Wings players have had their jaws broken in the last three years. http://detnews.com/article/20111128/SPORTS0103/111280398/1128/rss16

Honestly I think that's the less offensive possibility of what he called Boudreau. Hard to tell from the clip, but I think it's either that, or he called him an f-ing british cigarette. Not sure though.

This is probably the moment where Boudreau essentially lost his job. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbmRKVJWEB8 For those who don't know the story: http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/12488/with-boudreau-out-how-will-ovechkin-respond

I don't see him play enough to really know what his deal is this season, but it's hard not to believe that has to weigh on him.

Agreed. Pavs is hilarious, in part due to how his humor comes across in his broken english. But the guy makes Homer look fluent. As others have mentioned, the most talented guy on the team doesn't necessarily have to be the one wearing the C.

It's about time, but honestly I'm surprised it happened now. When it didn't happen in the offseason I thought they were going to give him another shot at the playoffs. I guess Ovie's sulking finally did him in.

He's had a couple defensive lapses in his own end as of late too. Yes it would've been great if E had cut off that pass on the Preds goal but it was Helm who fell asleep in the slot and let his man cut back door untouched. He's awesome on the forecheck but I feel like there's been a few times this season where he's lost his man in the defensive zone. And yes, the Draper hands he has are frustrating too. Actually that may be an insult to Draper. Overall though good game. Hopefully this will get Z and Cleary rolling. And Jimmy is awesome as he has been all season. And that's a tough break (no pun intended) for Eaves. If it is a broken jaw, that's a long road to recovery. Losing conditioning, losing weight.

They do. But most of them don't involve elbows, or at least a forearm shiver to the head. I'm far from a Crosby basher and have defended him in a lot of threads for the grief he gets around here, but if he threw an elbow like that against a Red Wing player, would you feel the same way? Or if it was Chris Pronger who did it and not Crosby? He preaches about headshots, then goes out and throws a high swing right to a guys face. And it also bothers me he plays tough guy, knowing his teammates are going to maul whoever he's into it with when things get heated. HWSNBN? Did I miss something? I haven't had enough coffee to figure out what awful phrase that must stand for.

That's one of the biggest problems I have when he pulls this crap. He acts like a tough guy, but the reality is he's the teams star player, so he ends up just starting crap and getting in his cheap shots before the team swarms him. He seems to want it both ways. Don't touch the star players, but he gets to lay on crosschecks like he's testing his stick's breaking point.

Crosby is a hypocrite on this one. Like I said in the other thread, I understand that Foligno had run into Fleury a few times. But there are other ways to respond to that then throwing an elbow and a butt end. You turn around and square up. I'm betting this didn't even get reviewed. As I also said in the other thread, Cherry called out Crosby for this elbow and basically said what goes around comes around. Sid is a super talent, but continues to come off like a spoiled little *****. Here's Crosby's response.

Cherry even called him out on it on HNIC. If he wants to play that way, he better expect it to come around his way. And I've done mostly nothing but defend Crosby in this thread. But crap like that is why he's so easy to hate.

It doesn't matter that they were running Fleury. I get the couple crosschecks but the elbow to the head is way over the line, especially from someone coming back from a concussion. The way to handle it is to square up to the guy and go after him, not throw elbows to the head. People can pretend like that's great to see because it's Crosby. Like it's him being gritty and showing passion. But if that were a Matt Cooke or a Steve Ott, it's nothing but a dirty cheap shot and they're likely having a conversation with Shanny

a 14 page thread mostly about how Crosby gets too much attention.

umm... you might want to take a gander at my avatar.

Ducks collapse in the third to lose 6-5 to Chicago.

We definitely won because Howard was awesome. He screwed up on the first goal, but other than that he stole the Wings this game. And it's not a coincidence the Wings were making all the turnovers, Zetterberg's aside, a lot of them were due to forecheck pressure and pulling up short to avoid getting hit instead of completing the pass. When the Bruins stepped up the forecheck and the physical play in the third, they had the Wings on their heels the whole time. As much grief as they get here, the great thing about guys like Homer and Cleary is they don't shrink when the physical play increases. The Wings were turning the puck over and losing puck battles because they were getting out muscled and out hit. Obviously I'm happy the Wings won and will gladly take the two points, but I agree, the Wings do have a hard time with big forechecking teams. They used to have the skill to work around that kind of forecheck, but I think now the skill level has dropped enough that they struggle with it. It doesn't really matter for a non-conference game against Boston, but like you point out, this is really about the Sharks.

That was Doc and McGuire. Maybe Olczyk a little bit. But he kept pointing out penalties on the Wings that should've been called. Like when Abby (I think it was) knocked a Bruiin down and Eddie said it was interference. Except the Boston player had the puck. I like Doc and can tolerate McGuire. But Olczyk really does seem not to be able to set aside his bias against Detroit.

Great game by Howard (minus the miscue behind the net), and Dats. I thought Cleary looked good. Homer had another great game. If Mule were as fearless as Holmstrom, he'd be a 50 goal scorer. Zetterberg alternated from looking good to being awful. He had the great assist on Flips goal, the smart play on Bertuzzi's great chance, and other good plays. Then it looked like he forgot how to handle the puck. Wings definitely got on their heels when the Bruins stepped up the physical game, but they bent but didn't break. Olczyk can suck it. His dislike of the Wings when commentating is palpable. So can Chara. Good on Dats for being fearless and hitting him back. I wish more Wings players followed his lead. And I wish our D men would bury guys like Chara did to Datsyuk. Two stolen point for sure.

bad turnover by Z. It's like he had no idea Bergeron was coming.