haroldsnepsts

How am I bashing you? Good lord you are sensitive. I'm trying to point out the inconsistencies in your reasoning. So now you're saying it's the result that matters? Because before it was malicous intent. And several of Ovie's questionable hits could have easily had the same outcome as the one on Tucker. A turn a certain way, a fluke fall... then the guys carried out on a backboard.

Lebda-Ericsson is a bad pairing. Ericsson is pretty good, but he's still played less than 60 games at the NHL level. He's gonna make some mistakes. Lebda however has over 300 games of NHL experience, though he often looks like he's fresh of the bus from the AHL. They need to split those two up. They make for a brutal bottom pair.

Hockey is a violent sport. Tucker shouldn't have put himself in such a vulnerable position. Ruutu had no malicious intent. Or do those arguments only hold up if the right name is on the back of the sweater?

Attacking your character? Oh the drama. 1) Yes, hockey is a violent sport. That in no way justifies what kind of rules should or should not exist, or it would be a free for all. You could use that to explain away anything. Crosscheck to the mouth? Hockey is a violent sport. Charging? don't like it, don't play a violent sport. 2) Even in your own statement you say there shouldn't be a "no touch rule" because a guy is vulnerable, but qualify it by saying "provided the hit comes from the front and such." So you're contradicting yourself, because even in your own example you just described the kind of no-touch rule that you said shouldn't exist. Hitting from behind is illegal because the guy is in a vulnerable position and could get hurt. So I hate to break the news to you, but that kind of "no-touch" rule is already in the game. Sorry you're sick of the "lack of respect" card, but it's something that's been a part of the game for a while now. Like the code with enforcers. Do you think it was the victims fault in most of these cases with Ovechkin? Briere put himself in a dangerous situation by not facing Ovechkin at all times? Brown put himself in a vulnerable position by not expecting to get plowed into when he was nowhere near the puck? The reality is, respect is a part of the game. It's how there can be guys who play hard, fight, and play with an edge, but still have the respect of players around the league. Then there's other players who go over that edge and many of their peers think they play dirty. Not to get all ad hominem on you, but I think the answer to my last question is that you like to argue, because we're getting way off topic here. If you recall, I wasn't ever advocating that Ovechkin get suspended, but you seem to fixate on this malicious intent. The reality is slew footing is unnecessary, outside the bounds of normal play, and puts a player at risk. Ovechkin got fined for it. He also has a history of some questionable hits. Not a ton, but enough to get noticed in his short career.

He slew footed some guy in the pre-season and got fined, plus he had a knee incident last season, so he meets the CBA criteria for repeat offender. Plus his was worse. The player went crashing into the goalie and net.

I can't tell if you just like arguing or you're blinded by your love for AO. When you repeatedly hit guys in ways that put them in dangerous positions, you're eventually gonna get fined/suspended for it. Like I said, this was the least of the bunch, but Ovechkin's zeal for hitting sometimes crosses over into a lack of respect for his fellow players.

He clobbered Brown when he was nowhere near the puck. He blindsided him. That's a dangerous play. Malicious sure makes it worse, but when a player has a pattern of reckless behavior that endangers others, it's still suspension worthy. If you don't control your stick and swing it all over the place, it may not have been malicious but you're still responsible for knocking a guy's teeth out. I really do like AO as a player, but he's racking up too many of these in his career already. He plays on the edge, but needs to take a baby step back.

Gonchar, Briere, Heward, Brown and now Peverly. They may not have been malicious, but they were reckless and could've led to seriously injury. That's a fair amount of questionable incidents for just starting his 5th season. And honestly I think this latest one is the least dangerous of the bunch. I really like Ovechkin, but he further embarrasses himself with the way he acts after the Brown hit.

Looks like a pretty clear slew foot to me. He's got his leg behind the other players and then knocks his upper body backwards. Not as dangerous as Artyukhin's, but still a slew foot. I like Ovechkin, but he's racking up a fair number of questionable incidents in his short career. He plays with reckless abandon that sometimes leads to dangerous plays.

Looks like a plastic surgeon beat you to it.

*cough* goose loonies *cough*

No thanks. Frolov is a talented guy, but you want to talk about Lazy and Sucksâ„¢? He has a very questionable work ethic and a lack of focus during games. It's been so bad he was recently a healthy scratch by the Kings coach. And it's not like they're a team with tons of offense to spare.

Actually, it's not. Him coming into the league at 25 doesn't magically make him younger. It means he spent fewer of his young years in the NHL than most guys. He has been fairly durable, but he's still 31. That's not young. He also missed a big chunk of last playoffs, was injured during the playoffs the year before the Cup win. And was injured to start this season. I don't think it's chronic, but if anything it only confirms what Bucci is saying about older players getting hurt more. Chelios was and is as big of a fitness freak as you'll ever find, but his game still deteriorated every year no matter how hard he trained. There's some aspects of aging you just can't overcome. Fine, you don't like Buccigross because of the few negative things he's said about the Wings. How dare he. He's also said tons of positive things, but those don't get posted here. It's only the criticisms that get everyone's knickers in a twist. He's still more often right than he is wrong.

Did you even read the article? Buccigross is actually better than most when it comes to predictions. The season is long, so Cup predictions at the start of the season are a total crap shoot. But once it hits playoffs it's a different story. I've been reading his column for a while, and he gets it right more than he gets it wrong. God forbid he say something slightly negative about the Wings. The only thing I think Bucci was off about is not being clear about "prime" meaning point production versus "prime" meaning well rounded hockey player. Because most great players do produce more early in their career. they're typically faster, more durable, heal quicker, like he mentions, but they're also often on crappy teams as the only star player, and not as responsible defensively. And Datsyuk at 31 is not relatively young. Zetterberg's not old, but he's not exactly a young player either.

These are grown men playing a tough game. Yes you need to stick up for your teammates, but there was a time when it was just acknowledged to be a hard hit and move on.

They protect players from cheap crap after the whistle or dirty play during the game. It's not like going after star players is a new phenomenon. It just used to be handled better. Tough guys would take a number, and/or they'd go after the other teams star players (cleanly). I don't know if they did or not, but Vancouver should've gotten a power play after that clean hit. I wish the refs wouldn't have blown the whistle and that goal had counted. Mitchell saw an opportunity to hit a guy. It happens so fast you can't say he had intent to injure. That's after-instant-replay kind of analysis. Every hit you go to hit a guy hard. It's not like they want to kill somebody, but they're gonna take the opportunity to rock them, even when he's not looking. If you can say for sure that's intent to injure, than Kronwall does that with just about every open ice hit he throws.

Those are great examples. If the other team had dropped the gloves, the play gets stopped. No goal. They need to start calling instigators for fighting after clean hits. Especially because in a lot of those situations, the guy who threw the check gets jumped by more than one player.

Agreed. the fighting for clean hits has gotten waaaay out of hand over the years. The only thing I don't like about this hit is it was on Toews and not Kane. Definitely a bit of suicide pass, but how often are you expecting a guy to come flying out of the box like that? Still, great hit.

agreed. The only thing that matches the degree to which people trash Wings players here is their inflated sense of outrage if anyone else says something even remotely negative.

What Bucci actually said in the article: sounds pretty accurate to me.

Articles like this one? It's basically a non-story. He's honest about being disappointed, but that's hardly whining about it. And it's not like he's not appreciative. Like someone else said, this is a writer trying to make a story out of nothing. http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/20...ys_not_get.html Also of note from the same article: I can only guess they chose Meech because he's undersized and doesn't fight?

I think there used to be another thread about this as well. But I can confirm similar results. They knocked 50% off Center Ice, then gave me $16 off per month for 6 months, and $10 per month for 6 months after that. So while they didn't cover all the costs right out of the gate, in the end I get Center Ice for free and then some. The key is you have to get to the cancellation or as they call it "retention" department. they're the ones authorized to make these deals in order to keep you.

normally these "fire so and so!" threads are just reactionary, but at some point, you have to consider the option. or at least try and figure out what made the team so much better defensively in 08. The roster didn't change that much last season, but they were a different team on the pk, and not in a good way. And it looks like they're picking up where they left off. Goaltending was part of it, but even when he improved in the playoffs, the PK was still a weakness. in short, what the hell is going on?? someone on the Wings coaching staff needs to find the answer that question.

You totally hit it on the head. Your post is one of the best examples I've seen of a completely off-topic, thread derailing post. Nice work troll! ON topic, I can only hope the team can rally around this and the younger guys can fill this ice time. It's not totally unrealistic. Remember a few years back when half our lineup was the Griffins due to the injury bug? Matt even put a bandaid on the LGW logo.

Except Pronger at least is a Norris and Hart caliber defenseman. Tootoo's main role is trying to brain guys on the other team while taking himself out of position.