haroldsnepsts

Absolutely agree. even if it's a wash, or the kids aren't quite as good as Chelios, considering they have a future, I'd rather live with their mistakes next year. and it's good to have ya back!

It is when they beat the Yankees in one of the greatest comebacks/chokes in sports history.

I originally had "Where the hell have you been?!" in my first post, but decided to stay on topic and deleted it.

Agreed. It's impressive that Cheli can still contribute at this age, but it's really come to the point where he's taking time from the kids. Even though they'll make some mistakes Chelios wouldn't have, they have a future (hopefully) with the team, and he doesn't.

I lived in Detroit for 25 years. It is nice, but it doesn't beat Southern california. And it's an hour drive to get to the mountains in California, with traffic. You can go surfing and skiing in the same day. Expected high in Los Angeles: 73 degrees and sunny Expected high in Detroit: 17 degrees and overcast (and we're not talking celsius) More on topic, a fair amount of King's fans over at HFboards made it sound like they didn't expect to be able to re-sign Stuart this summer anyway, even though they wanted to. Hopefully he'll enjoy being a Red Wing enough to give Holland that option. He and Chelios can head back to california every chance they get...

Actually it sounds like he'll be 2nd pairing with Kronner, but my point was that he could easily be third if he was second pairing in L.A. Maybe I misunderstood the previous poster.

I agree we needed secondary scoring, but we needed size and some toughness on the blueline just as bad, if not worse. I wish Holland could've brought in both, but at least he got one of the needs. Stuart was the 2nd pairing in L.A. Granted they're a terrible team, but it seems pretty reasonable he could be third pairing here.

Dude, that's totally not true. sometimes Primeau tried to split the defense, lost the edge on his skate and slid harmlessly into the net (without the puck). The Oates trade is head and shoulders the worst one since I've been a Wings fan. In the end it was better for him, but the Wings got nothing in return for a player of his caliber.

Besides great weather year round, the ocean, mountains, and an economy? Not much.

As I said in another thread, because he could've been had for so cheap, and because he has a connection to Detroit, the fact that they didn't get him probably means they didn't want him. Someone else had commented (I haven't heard it personally) it's already been said that they didn't get Feds in part because Babcock didn't want him, based on coaching him in Anaheim.

Do you think Lilja would've ever dropped the gloves, blocked shots, or tried to check anybody if Babcock weren't on his ass about it? Stuart's shown he can play the physical game already, and I'm pretty confident Babs will be encouraging it. As for whipping boy, that I can never predict here. We seem pretty content with sammy and Lilja at the moment, with Hudler ready to step in if necessary.

Meech played over 27 minutes last night, second only to Lebda. The fact that he didn't look terrible out there or get burned on a regular basis speaks volumes about the kid considering he played about 13 minutes more than he typically would.

I pretty much agree with you. I definitely think some people here look for anything that is a slight affront to the Wings so they can get outraged. And most of the time I think Melrose is pretty entertaining and informative. I think calling the Wings losers at the trade deadline is a bit much, but I won't lose sleep over it. As for McGuire, that guy is a d-bag in my book, and not because he dare criticize the Wings. At first I thought maybe it was just me, or a particular game, but virtually every Wings game I've heard him call, or be the color guy between the benches, he seems extremely biased against the Wings. I realize many people think the refs have a conspiracy against the Wings and all hockey analysts hate them, but seriously, this guy has some issue I think. His criticisms of the Wings in the article are pretty spot on, but during games he's intolerable. I've never heard an announcer be so quick to say "ohhh! that was a really soft call!" when the Wings got a power play. He sometimes sounds like a fan of our opponent. It's a lot of little things like that during games, and the occasional asinine statement like "Howard isn't the answer" that qualify him as a d-bag in my book.

We've got to get a jump on the reasons why he sucks and we hate him.

Agreed. The fact that he was had so cheaply makes me think it's more likely Detroit didn't want him in any capacity, especially Babcock who coached him for a year in Anaheim, than that they just somehow screwed up the deal and got outbid with whoever that player is Columbus got in the deal.

Gee, a Hasek supporter coming in here to ***** about Ozzy being overly praised. And I naively thought we might have a GDT without it. silly me.

Lilja's biggest problem is between the ears. I cannot get over the constant boneheaded plays he makes. I can understand as a 3rd pairing a Dman may not be the best skater, might not have the greatest slapshot, hell, might even get beat to the outside a lot, but those aren't why he is infuriating. Lilja continues to make errors in what should be basic plays that he's been through thousands of times. I don't get it.

I could see that. I can understand people being disappointed and that anger being directed at holland. But it's not like he's sitting on his hands, or thinks the Wings don't need offense. It just means he didn't get a guy signed. People seem to think because we didn't sign Hossa, that must mean Holland didn't even pick up the phone.

I hear you. I think a lot of us have post traumatic stress disorder from so many first round disappointments. But I just don't like threads like this. It's easy to root for the worst. And what's the joy in it? So people can gloat if they do get knocked out? The odds of winning a Cup in any given year are very low for any team. I'd rather be hoping for the best (even if in the back of my mind I'm thinking "please not again") and have those hopes, no matter how ridiculous they are, confirmed. I'm not that happy with this lineup, but I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for the team all postseason.

slight lags a few times, but I'm talking about the times where I'm hitting reload every 30 seconds to keep up with the posting going on here. All in all I thought it held up great.

That alone makes this deal worth it.

I agree with pretty much everything he said. But anyone wanna place bets it's truly his last post here? But honestly I didn't expect this trade deadline to fix it. Holland has done an okay job, but under his leadership the Wings have had a slow decline in size, toughness, and yes I'm going to say it, grit. It's why I'm glad to have Stuart. At least that gives a little something to the blueline. Look at the Wings 97 and 98 roster. Think about how many of those guys were big and could play tough and could play the game. I'd love to have a lineup like that again. Replacing those type of players is a much bigger process than any deadline moves can fix.

I don't dislike Melrose as much as many people here, but he considers Detroit a loser because they didn't match the moves by the Ducks of adding Niedermayer and Selanne, both of which were totally unique cases and had zero to do with the trade deadline? I wouldn't call the Wings big winners, but how do you call them a loser when they add a solid D-man for nothing? Hockey analysts fall all over themselves talking about the big player trades, 75% of which don't make a significant impact in the playoffs.

I'm pretty happy with the Stuart signing. I haven't seen the guy play a lot, but he looks like a lot of what the Wings need (at least without giving up a ton in picks or prospects) and they got him cheap. Yes, getting Hossa would've been amazing, but I think that had about a .01% chance of happening. Now it's up to our current forwards (Flip, Hudler and Sammy, I'm looking at you) to pick it up. And hell I'd put Stuart on the point in Sammy's place.

I hope you're not a 911 operator.