haroldsnepsts

Attaboy abby. ah, flames goon it up. 'cmon E! Pound on Giordano. he's running our guys all game.

I'm not sure how I feel about this Ericsson Rafalski pairing. someone needs to put Giordano through the boards.

Dats with the right idea. Shoot the damn puck. Though everyone needs to do a better job of getting it on net.

crap. please don't let Cleary be hurt.

All the line juggling works... until it doesn't. the Wings just look completely out of sync.

wow. that was a pretty soft call on Bert. I know he likes to take his hand off the stick and grab guys in the offensive zone, but I can't even fault him for that one.

shocking.

For those keeping track, check out the highlights from the Caps game last night, look for a #52 half-assing it in front of his own net right before the Flyers score. It was on the Flyers 3 and 4th goal, which ultimately tied the game and led to them winning in the shootout. http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?hlg=20102011,2,287&fr=false

Pretty funny research, if ultimately futile. Mindfly never really acknowledges his hypocrisy or the inconsistency of his opinions. The only consistent thing is the players he likes are never on the Wings, which makes him a sad panda. I still hold out hope that he is actually just a brilliant troll, because the alternative of his posts being serious is unthinkable.

Exactly. If some Wings fans think this hit is dirty, they need to watch some Kronwall highlights that they likely cheered. That's a great hit.

Still doesn't demonstrate in any way that he planned on coming back. Who knows if he'd be back here had Dynamo moscow not folded. The going to arbitration made it even more surprising, as that move sort of unofficially communicates "I want to stay with this team, but I think I should make more money" since it means you no longer can entertain offers from othe teams in the NHL. The KHL offered Hudler a bigger contract and the Wings lost one of their current players to that league. How is that not a competing league? It's certainly not at par with the NHL, but the KHL has poached some NHL talent. That's a competitor. He liked it here so much he turned down $3 million a year to get $5 million a year in an inferior league. I can certainly believe "you don't know what you've got until it's gone" with Hudler, but there's nothing to indicate definitively that Hudler planned on coming back the whole time. In my book, the dick move is going to arbitration, which shows a level of commitment to the team, then bailing for the KHL. As for its impact on his play, I don't think it's because he doesn't care, I just think he played for a season in a much less competitive league and his game went to s***. For someone his size who's that slow, that's gonna show. For the record, I hope Hudler starts to look like the Hudler of old. The team could definitely use his skill, especially on the PP.

Wow is the Kings Bruins game an exciting one. End to end action in OT. oof. A linesman just took a puck to the head.

Cooke spoke out on the matter, saying he was okay with Campbell, though he also did have this to say regarding being called a faker by Campbell. http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nhl/news/story?id=5829728

It would be. I hope they don't do it though, actually, because the Kings are a good young team right now, and I'd hate to see what they'd give up to bring in Iginla, and at $7 mill a year until 2013.

How could you possibly know he was planning on coming back? The fact that he signed a contract for the KHL when he was currently under contract in the NHL, after taking the Wings to arbitration no less, doesn't exactly speak well for Hudler's loyalty. The KHL and NHL have no binding agreement regarding one another's contract, so he basically went to arbitration, then signed with the a competing hockey league. If he ever wanted to return to the NHL, he was contractually obligated to the Wings. That doesn't mean he was planning on coming back.

I miss the ability to negatively rate posts, because you pretended to be optimistic back then... When called out on expecting Jimmy to start every game because he's 26 (even though he had back spasms), you now move on to Lidstrom's +/- rating, in spite of him having a great start to the season. Seriously, seek therapy. I'm not sure why you watch hockey when it brings you so much misery and pain. If it caused me that much unhappiness, I'd avoid hockey like the plague.

Don't you mean Janik? You wanted to start him over Ericsson, remember?

Definitely not a good showing by Howard. He was like a pitchback tonight kicking out the juicy rebounds to the slot. Probably could use a night off, but I'm not sure that's an option at the moment. 4th liners looked good though.

If that hit was considered elbowing, Kronwall would lead the league in PIMs and probably have served a couple suspensions by now. Great hit. As for the thread title, hey, nothing's funnier than killing your friend in a high speed crash!

No kidding. I haven't looked who has the overall most posts here, but it's been like the Jack of years gone by, spamming threads to get his post count up. I don't mind the occasional bad joke, but I know you can talk hockey Jack. I've seen it in the past. As for Hudler, he appears to be coming around a bit, I'm still just surprised at how bad he looks this season compared to when he left. Something tells me hockey was not his number one priority in the KHL (insert hooker joke here) because he's never been particularly fast or strong on the puck, but he could still be effective with his craftiness. This season, not so much.

exactly. I think it'd be good for Iggy to get out of Calgary, but with that cap hit, I don't think the Kings are stupid enough to take him on. What kind of cap room do the Isles have?

Here's a follow up post, where a couple readers connected even more dots that make it look like Campbell is putting the heat on refs not just for calls they've made, but before upcoming games involving his son. It's involves an interview with Dean Warren, who may have an axe to grind regarding Campbell, but is still interesting. http://battleofalberta.blogspot.com/2010/11/another-instance-of-colin-campbell.html

I kind of do. Honestly though the massive obsession with every little move that franchise makes somewhat dampens my obsession. If Detroit were in the Eastern conference (where they belong), I'd probably care a lot more, because few things would be greater than a renewed Leafs-Wings rivalry.

I like Mckenzie and he makes a lot of good points, but his underlying one seems to be the exact point I was making as to why this league won't get widespread appeal because of guys like Campbell. To me, he's basically saying "It's how these hockey guys run things, you wouldn't understand." Which puts the fans on the outside, and as I said before holds back the NHL from becoming a legit major sport. Everyone supporting Campbell seems to make a similar point. "If you knew him, you wouldn't question his integrity." Which is basically, "you don't understand." Yes us fans are passionate, often unreasonable hotheads when it comes to the sport we love, but I'm pretty sure the other major pro sports, football, basketball, baseball, even NASCAR, don't repeatedly give off the exclusionary attitude the NHL does. Every other major sport seems to realize they need to include and address the feelings of their fan base, especially when it comes to scandals. Whether it's Bettman telling us about how we feel about the game instead of actually listening, or Campbell's spinning wheel of justice, I'm getting tired of being told as a fan that I just don't understand.

I would, but I'm not sure I can add a poll to the topic once it's created. Or at least I don't know how to!