haroldsnepsts

ok. I see what you're saying now. Yeah, I'd say Ozzy was overly aggressive on the shot. Not sure it would've mattered, but at least there would've been less of a gaping net for the goal. Like I said, there's some silver lining to me in that he recovered and made some big saves in the third. That's the first time I've seen that from him this season when he started that poorly. And the Wings need him to be stable as a backup for Howard, come playoff time and probably next season.

The only questionable player for me that you guys are mentioning is Bert. He was good for the money this year, but is still inconsistent on the backchecks and takes a lot of bad penalties. I kept hoping he would improve as the season wore on, as they're mostly mental mistakes. But he hasn't. I like his size and he has decent hands, but he needs to play more physical and shoot more. For me at least, a lot will depend on what he does in the postseason.

That makes no sense. If Ozzy plays square on the player in the middle, he is cheating and leaving the net open for the puck carrier. He has to respect the shot but be ready for the pass. Osgood was too aggressive on the shot, but Kronwall and Ericsson also misplayed it badly. Then there's also the point that it was a friggin 4 on 2.

It's always been funny how your overly-optimistic view of the Wings doesn't include Osgood. Nothing approaches game conditions. Ozzy was rusty. He started awful, but got better, and made a few big saves in the third. Osgood played the shot on the 4 on 2, which is what he's supposed to do. Why no comments about Bert's bad decision, Kronwall's awful job playing the pass, and Ericsson trying to cover two Flyers at once and ended up covering neither? Or Lebda deciding to help out Stuart by having them both cover the same man, leaving the entire left side of the ice open? The Wings played below par, including Osgood. But I was surprised at how good he looked in the third. That was about the best to be hoped for after the awful start.

He started awful, but I thought he got better as the game wore on. and this season normally when Ozzy has started poorly, it was all downhill from there. Hopefully if they play him again before the playoffs (unlikely, but still) he'll pick up where he left off. As much as many would like to see him fail and go away, he's already signed through next year, so it'd be better if he can get it together to be a consistent backup for Jimmy next season.

If someone cheapshots one of our players, maybe Jimmy will do what Hextall did to Chelios. He's got decent size, and I think he got in a fight in the minors, if memory serves.

I'd almost rather Jimmy didn't win it, so he can continue to develop without any expectation or jinx as the Calder winner. Not to mention I think Myers is probably going to win it anyway.

I would say Lilja is solid for a bottom pairing guy. It's a different standard than I'd hold a top four defenseman against. He just needs to keep it simple, and make the safe play, and he usually does that. that's it? for starters, scoring huge goals seems like a pretty big deal to me. But beyond that he was also very good defensively. Yes he had some of those Raf brain farts, but overall he looked better than I'd seen him play all season. And he was a leader on that very young Olympic team, stepping up in a big way. That's all pretty special.

Im not talking about offensive stats. I was referring to how he looks out there on the ice relative to Lebda. Raf plays more minutes and faces top talent every night. There's no way Lebda is even close to him defensively. You're wrong when you say there is no defensive upside to Rafalski. If that was the case, Babcock would have someone else paired with Lidstrom because they take on the top lines every night. Yes Lidstrom will make his partner look better, but he's no superhero. Put Lebda on the top pairing, and it would be a huge detriment to that pair. It's your right to feel that way, I'm just saying it's a sort of reasoning that doesn't have much to do with the reality of how these contracts are made. Like Player A makes 5 times as much as player B, so he better be 5 times as good. That's not how it works. Raf can be a frustrating defenseman for sure. I want to see more of that player I saw in the Olympics. But his contract was what it took to get him here at the time and fill a huge hole in the lineup. And overall it was worth it so far.

No he isn't. If the Wings were signing him now, maybe you could say they overpaid. But it's not like you can adjust contracts based on performance throughout the season, or adjust it for what the current going market rate is for his level of defenseman. At the time his contract was signed, Rafalski was paid what his market value was, probably a bit below actually. And Holland was scrambling to fill Schneider's position at the time. I can completely understand getting frustrated when Rafalski makes a bad play, but his contract was what it took at that time to get him signed and to have a number 2 D-man. And it was worth the money. Comparing him to Lebda though. Wow. Raf is on the ice 9 more minutes per game than Lebda (at least when Lebda isn't a healthy scratch). Put Lebda out there for 24 minutes a night, even next to Nick Lidstrom, and you'll see how far apart those two players actually are. EDIT: And don't forget that Lids and Raf are up against the other team's best players every night, whereas Lebda's pairing you try and keep away from the top lines.

No kidding. And I thought we had goaltending drama in Detroit. Ahh, I miss that crazy bastard Hextall though. I think he's working for the Kings? Maybe he can teach Quick how to give forwards the ol' B.C. two-hander.

Agreed. Now I just wish the two of them would start to use their size and play with an edge. With E at 6'4" and 206 lbs, Lillypads at 6'3" 228, they should be knocking guys around out there. Honestly if Ericsson took a penalty for crosschecking someone hard in front of the net, I'd probably cheer.

Looks a lot like Steve Smith's own goal in the '86 playoffs. And if memory serves, that was the game winning goal, eliminating Edmonton from the postseason. ouch.

Just a good song that I think will encompass a lot of the reaction to this news. If you don't listen that closely, it almost sounds like she's singing "Oh my god! Osgood's in goal! Oh my God!"

It was Hossa's. He thought it would be good luck.

I was surprised too. Granted, he didn't get a lot of help from his teammates, but those 8 goals were not some sort of fluke. He was plain bad. And Vigneault apparently was happy to make him lie in the bed he crapped in.

In memory of Alex Chilton.

To me it looks like some little grumpy bear isn't putting his head down for naptime! Actually it's pilates. Good for core muscle strength. Not that I've ever done it. um, I'm gonna go. I gotta go shotgun some beers and bang chicks and beat up guys and stuff.

As much as I remain unconvinced that Phoenix will be a sustainable market, I think they should at least get more than one season of icing a decent team so the fans have time to catch on. If after a few good seasons no one is showing up, then it'll really show just how unlikely it is to ever catch on there. And I'm not super familiar with the Phoenix area, but playing in Glendale probably isn't helping. It says it's only 9 miles from downtown, but feels a lot further. And there's only the 101 to get there. My memory of it is it's not really a fun area to hang out.

Early on with the Wings, Lilja made a lot of those boneheaded plays. But he simplified his game and became a pretty solid defensive defenseman. Honestly, every defenseman not named Lidstrom is going to have some bad turnovers, but it looks like he's resumed his level of play at the level pre-concussion. Not the Lillypads from early on with the Wings.

I'm guessing it's because the Wings couldn't have ever afforded him. He's making something like $4 mill.

I figured I'd pop in from time to time. Though I'm still getting used to the new point system. Like my post about Yzerman being GM of the Wings apparently warranted a -1? I guess because I even brought up the possibility he wouldn't be great?

His quote about Team Sweden, then what exactly is the second? Having the audacity to leave the Wings and seek out a team that had the cap room to pay what he was worth and where he could play a more prominent role? To me that doesn't make him a ******, especially because he was very upfront about why he signed with Vancouver.

How's he being a ******? His actual quote from the article is: I wouldn't expect any player to say they feared or didn't want to play their old team. And honestly I kind of liked it when he spouted off about Sweden not picking him for the Olympics. He definitely deserved to be on that team. It was fun to hear an honest answer.