haroldsnepsts

Agreed. It's unfortunate if Smith ends up getting the Ian White treatment. He didn't get off to a great start but it was only 4 games and he's only 24 years old. Him sitting on the bench is a waste of an asset. Hopefully he'll get back in and settle down.

What's funny is Cooke talks about it as if he had to adjust some subtle aspects of his technique. As if his history was an inadvertent and unfortunate part of his playing style. When really it comes down to 1) don't elbow guys in the head. 2) don't hit guys square in the numbers and ram them facefirst into the boards, 3) don't stick out your knee to hit another guys leg as you check them. Voila! With those complex adjustments to Matt Cooke's game, 99% of his suspensions would be gone.

Against Boston he took a shift of 1:06 in the first period and 1:14 in the third period. Those are long shifts for a 4th liner that doesn't play on the PK. And as you point out, against Columbus he was out there for 1:22, and he absolutely had opportunities to change. My assertion that it might be why he wasn't in the lineup was absolutely speculation on my part. I didn't dig through all his shifts but it is something I've noticed he does from time to time. And I don't think it was an anomaly.

Rant? I suggest you re-read my post, then compare it to yours and see which one of us is ranting. I simply stated something I noticed about Tootoo from time to time. You citing his average shift length does little to refute what I was saying. Because it's an average of all his shifts, Tootoo could still have a low overall average but take the occasional extra long shift, like he did last night. He was easily out there over a minute at one point. And I never said I expected Tootoo to score goals. I didn't even say he was bad. Actually, I stated that he wasn't bad. I just said I didn't know if he made enough of an impact that Babcock wouldn't try swapping someone else in his spot. Yeesh. I didn't post any false information.

It's not excessive to me as I don't see it as just for that hit. As Shanny points out, Kaleta was fined or suspended 6 times in the last four seasons. Kaleta was suspended 5 games for boarding just last march. We're only five games into the season and he hits Johnson in the head. Plus that hit was the exact kind the league is trying to eliminate. Johnson was moving along the boards at a slow and consistent speed. He was an easy target for a solid check to the body. Instead Kaleta chose to fly by, raise his shoulder and clip Johnson in the head. At the NHL level you don't accidentally miss hitting someone like that when they're barely moving. This wasn't just a suspension for that hit. This was a message-sending suspension to a dirty player like Kaleta.

The awful contract Holland gave Samuelsson rears it's ugly head once again. He wasn't bad but I don't know that Tootoo's 7 minutes really impacted the game enough for him to stay in the lineup either. And I have to wonder if part of the reason he's having trouble staying in the lineup is that he sometimes seems to take extra long shifts and doesn't change with his linemates. It may be fun for Mick to watch as he's running guys, but I'm guessing the coaches aren't fans.

Tyutin should at least be fined for that slew foot. I'd settle for someone beating his ass, but it probably ain't gonna happen.

take that shot next time Weiss.

How the f*** is that not a penalty on Tyutin? Wings should be on the PP again.

How did that go in? That puck was bouncing everywhere.

Oh definitely. On the replay it looks like he actually got that first shot off. I thought he went around Dekeyser but lost control of the puck, then slammed it home off Gus's pad. But on the replay it looked more like a Fedorov move where he actually got the shot off and followed his rebound.

fluky goal. odd bounce then he beat Dekeyser to the rebound.

Does it ever occur to Franzen to use his 6'3" 225 lbs body to knock a guy off the puck when he turns it over, rather than hook the crap out of them like he just did?

Ah. ok thanks.

Abby Weiss Franzen? Or were they just caught in a change?

Good. Kaleta's an idiot. It was such a stupid play too. He could've easily made a solid body check to Jack Johnson, but instead did a fly-by hit and clipped his head.

That's why I wondered why Holmgren said that. Seems stupid on his part. And weird that he randomly says it now. There must be some reasoning behind the timing. Chelios was definitely in great shape. But the league was changing, fighters got bigger and he got older. He was 36 when he came to the Wings and racking up a growing list of injuries. Pronger's last suspension was as a 34 year old, before he was on the Flyers. When he played in Philly he was still mean but the end of his career looked a lot like Cheli's. To me they're very much cut from the same cloth. Agree to disagree I guess.

I don't think Chelios evolved . He just got too old to really get away with the crap he used to do early in his career. He would've had his ass handed to him in a fight. Honestly in his career Chelios did some worse things than Pronger, but I'm handicapping it for the era. I hated when the Wings played against Pronger but I would've loved to have him on the team. The guy was a beast and a great puck moving D-man. He would've been awesome on the Wings.

Pronger didn't do anything worse than what Chelios had done in his career. As others have mentioned, he made the teams he was on better and carried a couple of them on his back to the Finals. I'm surprised Holmgren said that. It's a pretty obvious thing but it's not like Pronger had announced retirement or anything. He'll never play hockey again but hopefully his symptoms improve so he lead a mostly normal life and enjoy spending time with his kids. Last I heard his symptoms sounded awful.

I don't really see what he said that was so awful. He admits to being caught twice and having Quincey save him. kind of admits to being bad that game but thinks he's been good other games. To me, this was the more interesting and cryptic comment from Babcock about Tatar.

This may be old news to all of you who live in the Detroit area, but I didn't see anyone mention this It sounds like a fluke play that paralyzed a high school senior from CC. Players from the NHL have reached out, and Mike Babcock has made multiple visits to see him. He's pictured in the article with an autographed Zetterberg jersey lying on him. http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/9808450/nhl-hockey-community-rallies-paralyzed-high-school-star

From what I saw, Emmerton wasn't bad. He's still a serviceable plug at best though.

Agreed. We're really in "resurrect thread" mode already?

At least not twice.

I have to think that the Wings must've known they wouldn't be able to buy out Sammy because of his "injury." It's hard for me to believe they would hang on to the guy knowing he would be a $3 million 4th liner playing 7 to 9 minutes a game. What a waste of roster and cap space. I didn't see the game tonight but from what I've heard and read, it sounds like they are truly a one line team at this point. It's good that Zetteberg is off to a great start because the rest of the team sure isn't.