haroldsnepsts

It's just too bad that either Miller or Eaves might not have a contract here next year, because they both earned it. It makes Draper's cap hit all the more painful. Eaves with 22 points in 65 games and one of the team's top PK guys, all for 500k this past season. And Miller was no slouch either.

Screw you Leino. Seriously. Where was this guy on the Wings? A strong fart could've knocked him off the puck when he was playing for Detroit.

Not to say it's a sure thing, but the article lists Miller as one of the players the Wings will re-sign. There's a lot to like about Bert, but I wish they could structure his contract so every time he takes his hand off his stick and commits a bad offensive zone penalty, he owes Holland $100,000. Within the first month he'd be playing for free.

I'd limit it to Pronger being a better player than Lids this season. Lidstrom had a slow start, and Pronger for some reason is a beast when he gets traded to a new team. Next year who knows what'll happen. And the guy plays on the edge, a lot of times over it, and the puck stealing thing is lame, but I still would've loved to have Pronger on the Wings. Great defenseman, smart hockey player, and how could you not love having one of the biggest villains in all the league on your blueline? Part of the Wings problem the last couple seasons has been the free passes they give to opposing players around the Wings crease. Pronger would've changed that.

You do have every right to judge and be disappointed in a person you don't know, because he wouldn't give up millions of dollars so you would have a better chance at watching people play a game and win a shiny trophy. The people sitting back and shaking a finger and Lidstrom because he wouldn't play for millions less than his market value is pretty hilarious. He didn't have a gun to Holland's head. I'd like to see you guys in salary negotiations. If you guys are so bent out of shape about it, blame the owners for the salary cap.

Exactly. And how many millions of dollars do you think the Wings have made off of Lidstrom in his career? This deal was made in the real world, one apparently a lot of people here don't live in. If Nick is going to split up his family, and play another grueling year where he could get injured (like getting speared in the balls, for example), he should be compensated at or near market value for that. Boo ******* hoo that he didn't play for millions of dollars less than he's worth. That's not his job. His job is to play defense, and he's proven himself to be pretty f-ing good at it. There are a lot of teams in the league who would've fallen all over themselves to get a 40 year old Lidstrom in their lineup. They probably have already worked out the math on how many more wins that'd get 'em in a season.

Sound familiar? I'm not talking about the attitude on this board. I'm talking about Kopitar not being bad defensively, and him being less of a liability than Hudler is. I'm not saying Hudler is useless or soft, but to essentially call him better than Kopitar defensively is inaccurate.

Have you actually watched Kopitar the past two seasons? or are you just going by his bad +/- from playing on the young Kings team? If you slotted Hudler in Kopitar's spot, he'd have to be the number 3 PK'er on the team. I wonder how that would look? Kopitar wasn't very defensively responsible his first couple seasons, but it's something he's incorporated into his game. He may not be a Selke candidate, but he's definitely not a player I would call a liability. Between Hudler and Kopitar, Hudler is the one to be more worried about defensively. If only for his lack of size and speed.

Like the year Stevie made 8.5 Million and played 16 games due to his osteotomy surgery? The year Yzerman took his "big" paycut, he was basically a third liner with one good leg. And it was the first season after the lockout. Market values were down because all GM's were clamping down on salaries since they had broken the player's union. He didn't take millions less than his market value as a top player in the game, like people are expecting Lidstrom to. To be clear, I'm not knocking Stevie. He was paid well in his career and should've been. But to say he took some huge discount for the good of the team in his final season overlooks a lot of facts.

That's not an apples to apples comparison. Yzerman's last season he was nowhere near the player he used to be. His first half was bad enough he thought about retiring then, but finally ended up playing roughly 12 minutes a game and contributing 34 points. Not bad, but hardly the Steve Yzerman we know. Lidstrom is still a top 5 defenseman in the league. Yes he's getting older, but he'll still likely be top 10 next season. He's the #1 defenseman on the team and played increased minutes this season due to injuries, when he should've been playing less. Yzerman was basically a third liner when he took that contract. It's not like Stevie could've signed anywhere and been offered huge money, like Nick could. A lot of people weren't even sure he would be able to play at all. Stevie was basically taking his perceived market value post lockout.

Sorry, but that's ridiculous. He's looking human, but still like one of the best human defenseman the league has. The way some of you talk, maybe he should go play for Stevie in Tampa Bay and get the money and respect he deserves. Then we'll see how human he looks when he's not on the Wings. It's not Nick's job to manage the money situation. That's Holland's. The reason he gets the huge salary is because he is a large part of the reason this team is good year after year. Some of his salary is one thing, but you guys are talking about millions of dollars.

Lidstrom is still easily a top 5 defenseman in the league, and you expect him to take a $3 million paycut? You guys kill me sometimes. For the good of the team he should play another grueling season for millions less than his market value? If he signs for anything under 6 mill, he would officially be Saint Nick in Detroit.

That's probably my order too. And I hate the current Flyers. But I'd rather they win than the Hawks, at least as long as Kane is in the lineup. Though honestly I could live with the Sharks winning it all. It would suck at that moment, but I'd get over it pretty quick and I bet they wouldn't make it near the finals next year. Plus it would be a California team winning, so the hype would die out pretty fast.

At first I thought this lineup assumed Lidstrom was retiring, but now I see you have him as the bottom pairing?? Lids may have slowed, but I'm guessing he'd retire if he was only good as a bottom pairing defenseman playing 15 minutes a game. Agreed. Ericsson shouldn't be dropping the gloves much, but not be afraid to when necessary. And he definitely needs to develop a mean streak, especially in front of the net. He needs to start hammering guys and take some penalties, then notch it back a little so he can see where that line is.

Why's that? If the refs have been consistent with anything, it's that they love to even up penalties.

Sharks have had a lot of great chances they haven't capitalized on this game. They need to score on this PP because there's probably gonna be a lot of makeup calls going the Hawks way in the third.

I actually don't hate Crosby, unlike a lot of people here. In most of the bashing threads, I'm usually painted as a slappy because I don't contribute to the blind hate. And I never said he consciously decided not to. Way back when it happened, I was pointing out to people that Chelios intentionally skipped the handshake line when the Wings lost to the Ducks in the conference finals, but he got a free pass for it. My point was that Crosby has these string of missteps that sort of contribute to his aura of douchiness. He's a great player and most of the hatred he gets is completely unfounded. But he comes off as just a little ***** sometimes, which makes him pretty easy to hate. Ovechkin has a much greater track record of questionable incidents, on and off the ice, but gets cut a lot more slack because of his personality. In the list of irritations, Crosby not shaking hands ranks pretty low. It's just a small sign of his immaturity that he didn't even think to shake hands, no matter who was interviewing him. I understand why they did it, but honestly I think Crosby was given the C while he was too young.

It's the media's fault that Crosby didn't notice or think of the handshake ritual that happens after every series ending game?? Every captain or star player is mobbed after the Cup winning game. Its not exactly a new phenomenon. And how exactly do you not notice 40 guys lining up at center ice?

Crosby is among the one or two best, if not the best player in the NHL, and a Canadian boy. It's not surprising that the league would be marketing the hell out of him. It's just unfortunate that he has tendencies to be such a little *****. And no I don't think he's a cheapshot artist or any of the other ridiculous claims made in this thread. Many of them are somewhat minor, but he just does these things that make him hard to like and strike me as a lack of maturity, even for his young age. Skipping the handshake after winning the Cup. Rarely if ever giving his opponent credit in post game interviews. At least he moved out of Mario's basement. He needs to go by Sid instead of Sidney, pay attention to the great leaders of the game past and present, and start acting like more of a man. And I'm not talking about growing a beard.

Sharks. Then they lose in the Cup finals in 7 games to Boston or the Habs. Since they beat the Wings, it seems only right. An original 6 matchup would be nice, but I can't stand the thought of that douchebag Kane winning the Cup. With him, painting the Toews mural and signing Hossa, it just seems like they shouldn't win it all this year.

It'd be strange to see Malts playing in another sweater, but I agree that it's time for Detroit to part ways with him. He's had a great career here, but the younger guys have earned the ice time in his role.

Take care of yourself Matt. We're all worried and thinking about ya. I think if any one of us were running the site, we'd put the band-aid up on the front page until you recovered.

Well, I guess Courmier can sit and think about what he's done, and how when he gets to the NHL, as a star player he would've gotten away with it.

I think the Olympics probably has something to do with it. Weren't most of the good hockey markets there last season? Last year it was Boston, Wash, NY, NJ, Carolina, Pitt, Philly, San Jose, Anaheim, Detroit, Columbus, St. Louis, and Chicago. Teams this year that weren't last season were Buffalo, Nashville, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Hardly huge ratings markets. The loss of New York is big. St. Louis is also a good hockey market. Though LA was probably a gain over Anaheim in terms of viewership. Unless I'm missing some teams, I don't think the teams changed enough for that to completely account for the bump in ratings. The U.S. Canada Olympic hockey game attracted a fair amount of attention in the states.

Or maybe it's just his prediction. Pavel Datsyuk scored 27 points less than last year. Zetterberg was about the same with 70, but it was a down year offensively for almost everybody. The Wings don't have as much offensive talent as they did when Hudler was here. He scored 23 goals and 34 assists. Only 6 of his goals were on the PP, which in a way is great. Let's hope his ES scoring keeps up. But 22 of his 34 assists were on the PP, which was stacked last season. It'd be great if Hudler scored 70 points next year. But my point is, in spite of Eva's math, there's more variables at play here. Giving Hudler more ice time does not automatically equal more points. Even if he's the same player he was, the team is different.