haroldsnepsts

Exactly. Even if their contract doesn't have a specific clause about ASG participation, I'm sure it has text about participating in publicity events for the league. Not that big of a deal. Bettman went about it in a dick way, per usual, but the ASG is a massive publicity event (or at least attempt) for the NHL. Barring serious injury, the guys should be there. And if they're so injured that it would be difficult to attend the event, then they'd likely miss the next game anyway. And as others have stated, Bettman isn't forcing them to play. He just wants them to be there for all the other publicity events.

It's unfortunate that a player died in a fight, but honestly if the league is serious about protecting its athletes, the blows to the head are a much bigger threat. The odds of dying from it are pretty low, but how many guys have already had their brains partly scrambled from and elbow or shoulder to the head? More players surely get injured in a season as a result of the hard shelled pads than they do from hitting their head on the ice.

If we're talking purely about Fedorov in his prime versus Datsyuk in his prime, I'd take Fedorov. Dats is great, but Fedorov was still at another level. I can only imagine what kind of damage Fedorov could've done in his prime in the new NHL.

I can forgive them for botching Lidstrom's name, but the Duck's announcers are probably top 5 biggest homer announcers in the league. Everybody's home town crew is at least a little biased, but those two are idiots.

Do you think the Anaheim Ducks board will beat us up?? This board is too soft. Matt keeps letting all these damn non-gritty euros join...

So your argument is that when Ozzy is in net the defense doesn't feel confident, therefore tries harder to play good defense and therefore f***s up? but with Conklin they don't have to focus so much on defense so they play better defense? So in essence it's Ozzy's fault the defense allows more shots on him? The most revealing part of your post is the "and rightly so." It's not only Ozzy's fault for the goals he lets in. It's now also his fault for the defense giving up more shots. That's seriously asinine.

I know! He's invisible out there! It's almost as if he only averages 18 seconds of PP time a game!!

Say the Wings could trade Stuart, who are these other options you'd want for a 2nd pairing? Name me some physical defenseman who are good hitters, would put up more points than Stuart, and costs equal or less than his 3.75 million. And Stuart's primary role isn't to put up points for the Wings, especially paired with Kronwall. Of the two it's usually going to be Kronner jumping into the play with Stuart hanging back to cover him.

Agreed. They should absolutely be protected when in the blue area to make a save unimpeded. But if they come outside of that paint to cut off an angle and a player makes contact (I'm talking about during the course of normal play, not running the goalie), there's no way it should be a penalty. The unfortunate thing is I'm pretty sure in the ruling there's discretion for a ref to call interference no matter what the details of the contact were. If they think the goalie was impeded anywhere in any way, they can call a penalty. No, he's not fair game. He's just unable to play the puck. I used to think that goalies should be fair game for hitting outside the crease and trapezoid, but the reality is even if it was legal, anytime they got hit it would probably lead to an all out brawl on the ice. That'd be fun for a while, but eventually I'd want to watch a hockey game.

You'd trade Draper before Maltby? I'm guessing because of his contract size? I know it's all hypothetical with his NTC anyways, but I'd rather keep Drapes and lose Maltby and/or Kopecky. Maybe I just have a soft spot for the guy, but I think on a decent 4th line Draper will increase his value as a player. That an energized line would pick up his hitting game and puck pursuit. And I'm all for moving Lebda. If someone's going to be making mistakes like him, I'd rather it be a kid with a future like Ericsson.

Then there's that small detail. This isn't directed at you at all NFM, but I think we've all been a little spoiled having Lidstrom on the team. The guy makes a mistake about as often as the Lions win a playoff game. Defenseman make mistakes in games, even good ones. Sometimes they're gonna get burned. When you play that many minutes that many games a year, it's going to happen, especially against a very good team like San Jose. Stuart is a solid 2nd pairing guy with good size and brings an element of much-needed physical play to the Wings blueline. Even if his contract would allow it, trading him would be a mistake.

ok, so who becomes the second pairing guy with Kronwall and takes Stuart's 20 minutes? And the Wings defense just got a lot smaller and less physical. All that's left is Lilja for size and Kronwall for hitting. Plus he just signed a 4 year deal with Detroit. I can't see Holland moving him less than one season into that contract. I'm guessing Stuart wanted some stability with a term like that. Trading him would screw him over and set a bad precedent. If there's any guys that should be gone on this roster it's Cheli and Lebda. The problem is they have no trade value.

Ok, you just got rid of three of our four top defenseman. Now who are you going to replace that 65 minutes of ice time per game with? Lebda? Lilja? Chelios?

Well I see the love affair with Stuart didn't last long. Stuart's known to make the occasional boneheaded play, but I think he's still a good second pairing guy, and more importantly he adds some much needed size and physical presence to our blueline. People can argue if the forwards need to be bigger or grittier or a fighter, but to me there's no debate that you need size on the blueline, especially under the new rules where you can't really use your stick on a guy. You need size to clear that real estate in front of the net. Our top pairing has to be one of the smallest and least physical in the NHL, it just works because one of them is Nick f-ing Lidstrom. Lilja and Stuart are really are only physically imposing blueliners, which adds to their value in spite of their blunders. Especially when you consider some of the hits Stuart throws.

I've always wanted Mayers on the Wings, but I can't see Toronto making that trade since they just acquired him this season. He also makes $1.4 million to Kopecky's half a mill. EDIT: And the only way Lidstrom gets traded from the Wings is if he asks for a trade.

like last playoffs? good god people here have short memories.

Hudler has one of the best saucer passes in the NHL. It's taken me a long time to warm to the guy, but his hockey instincts are exceptional. He always seem to know which fake is going to work, when he should just rip a slapshot instead of finessing it. Why can't he be half a foot taller and 50 lbs heavier?! If Dats focused on developing it the way he has his hitting and defensive play, in a season or two his (already good) wrist shot will rival Ovechkin's. Zetterberg is one of the biggest puck hounds in the league. He pursues that thing like it's made of bacon and he's Homer Simpson.

Based on what happened last year, I'd bet that Babs would start the guy with the Cup rings over the backup, for better or worse. Luckily we've still got some time.

Honestly earlier in the season the gap between the two goalies wasn't that large, in my opinion. They were both sort of up and down (as was the entire team). And often both looked like they were overplaying the puck. It's been fairly recent that Conklin has gotten some consistency. As I said earlier, I think the Wings just need to keep splitting games and hope Ozzy gets his act together. Because I fear what NNick mentioned, that Conklin is a lot like Legace.

I didn't see tonight's game so I can't speak to that. But any time a goalie gives up 6, it's not good. In general this season he just has not been near as sharp as he was last season. It was not the defense bailing him out in the playoffs. Ozzie's not a goalie who's going to steal you a lot of games, but when he's playing well he won't cost you any either. That's how he was last season. Solid. Consistent. Came up with some big saves to keep the team in the game and give them a chance to get into it. I was hoping the break would straighten it out, but last game he looked like he was overplaying the puck a lot. Being too aggressive and taking himself out of position. As for what the Wings do, there's not much to do. Keep playing them both, probably in a 50/50 split and see what happens as they get closer to playoffs. Even with Ozzy's up and down goaltending, the Wings are 31-8-6. It's a concern, but they don't need to panic.

Great signature! when I couldn't see a game, it used to be great to check the GDT to get a feel for what actually went on during a game. Now reading through it I want to set half the people posting in it on fire. I'm not one of the pollyanna folks who thinks you can never criticize our beloved Wings, but the histrionics here is ridiculous. It's good to see there are a few who actually post thoughts about the game and give a reasonable recap. For that, many thanks. For the others, you're a bunch of spoiled whiny *******. Sometimes your team loses. It happens.

Just checking the box score, the Wings gave up 21 shots on goal in the second period?? wtf?! Remember last year when that would be the total they'd give up for a game?

I think you're thinking of O'Donnell when he went off on Flip for no apparent reason. He got 4 for crosscheck. ah, ok. I thought charging was sort of a weird call, but I didn't see how many steps the guy took or anything. Do they not call boarding anymore? Honestly he didn't hit Dats from behind, it was pretty much to his side, but still a dangerous play with where Dats was relative to the boards. From behind or not, you can't just launch a guy headfirst towards the boards like that. McCreary's not perfect, but he's definitely one of the best the NHL has.

Are we talking about last nights game against the Kings? Calder got 2 minutes for charging for that hit on Datsyuk. McCreary is definitely one of the best in the league.

So what is Babcock saying his role is exactly? to eat up ice time and take up a roster spot and cap space? Cheli may have been on the ice for three goals, but in my memory wasn't a factor in any of them. He was however a factor in the two-on-none the Kings had in the first period when Conklin bailed him out. As I've said, hopefully he'll become a factor in the playoffs or something. But right now he does little for this team when you consider how tight the cap is and the logjam we have on defense.