Heaton

Based on? Barely a starting goalie? Not his fault he got injured and in turn lost his job to a hot goalie down the stretch.

Yes, but I'm not asking for a comparison of roles or which player is more important to the team. Since she hasn't answered yet I won't speculate, but there shouldn't be a double standard.

Did you feel the same way about Hudler coming into this year?

Go ask some Calgary fans about how the Wings 'ran' Kiprusoff the entire series and how the Wings cheapshotted them multiple times a game. If an enforcer would've stopped the Wings from doing what they were doing they would've dressed Goddard. Funny that they didn't. Ask Minnesota fans how much Boogaard helped out during their series with Anaheim when Kim Johnsson was knocked out of the playoffs by Brad May. Your enforcers aren't always on the ice when the dirty stuff happens, so unless we can find 18 guys who are heavyweights and can play, it's impossible to make claims like would X happen with X player on the ice.

Holland said Calder hurt his finger in the first round of the playoffs against Calgary, but it wasn't broken and that wasn't why his performance declined. "He played real well early and as we got into the playoffs his role was reduced and he probably started to press and it went from bad to worse,'' Holland said. "He didn't have quite the impact we hoped.'' Holland doesn't agree and there has been no report of him having a broken hand.

TODD BERTUZZI Had only flashes of pretty good games in both the regular season and playoffs. Count me in as one of the people who’d like to see him back at the right price. Grades: C+/C+ KYLE CALDER Lost all of his confidence, no idea why, he was given the icetime up until Babcock couldn’t take it anymore and eventually lost his job to a rookie. Grades: B+/D DAN CLEARY His play speaks for itself. Grades: A/A PAVEL DATSYUK proved he could carry the team through the regular season without Z. If he can develop some chemistry with Bertuzzi or possibly Grigorenko next year and they work out, he could become a top 5 forward. Grades: A/B+ KRIS DRAPER Did his thing through the regular season and was good up until the Anaheim series. Grades: B/B+ VALTTERI FILPPULA Very bright future, looks like he’ll be in the top 6 from now on and deserves it. A little work with finishing and he could become a 60-70pt guy. Grades: B+/A- JOHAN FRANZEN Showed that he was a true playoff performer and a guy that needs to stay on this team for years to come. Grades: B+/A TOMAS HOLMSTROM My thoughts on him are already posted on the board, he is a very important part of this team and he’s one of those guys where a lot of his worth isn’t always recognized. Grades: A/A JIRI HUDLER He’s doing his job and not putting his head down. He’ll get his shot as long as he keeps working. Grades: B+/B- TOMAS KOPECKY Grades: Inc./Inc. ROBERT LANG Showed he could still carry a line at times in the regular season, but either is too old or just not motivated anymore. He wasn’t awful like some people think, but he’s also not worth keeping around either. Grades: C/C KIRK MALTBY Grades: C/B- MIKAEL SAMUELSSON Fit in well, but after the whole Jason Williams point debacle it doesn’t seem like any forward will be able to play there without some people thinking it’ll always not work. Grades: C/B- HENRIK ZETTERBERG Hottest player in the NHL from December until he got hurt. Took a while to get started in the playoffs but did his job and never slowed down. Needs to produce on the road next year. Grades: A/B+ Defensemen CHRIS CHELIOS A warrior. Grades: B+/A NIKLAS KRONWALL Played his best hockey around when Schneider got injured in the regular season. Obviously I’m a Kronwall fan, but I cannot see where people thought he was so completely awful during the regular season. He never produced offensively to the point where people expected but at the same time he never had regular 1st line PP time until Schneider went out and when he did he had some great movement and had great chances. Grades: B-/Inc. BRETT LEBDA Played well in the regular season but was completely outmatched in the entire playoffs. I’d like to give him a lower grade but he was injured. Grades: B/C- NICKLAS LIDSTROM His play speaks for himself, he’ll be receiving #5 soon enough. Grades: A+/A+ ANDREAS LILJA Lilja was fantastic in the post season, one mistake doesn’t disprove that. Grades: C/B+ DANNY MARKOV Did exactly what he was supposed to do, hardly any noticeable screw ups. Grades: A-/A- MATHIEU SCHNEIDER Did his job and picked it up a notch in the post season. Grades: B/B KYLE QUINCEY Did his job and showed he is ready for full time NHL duty. Grades: Inc./B Goaltenders DOMINIK HASEK Had some great games and some average games in the post season. Showed he was the Dominator still and showed he wasn’t at times. All in all, without Dom, we aren’t in the WCF. Grades: A/A- CHRIS OSGOOD Grades: B/Inc. MIKE BABCOCK & THE COACHING STAFF Did everything he said he was going to do in accord to making the Wings harder to play against. Got physical play out of the self proclaimed “softest team in the league” from last year and became the type of team who can play against anyone, and win. Has room for improvement obviously, needs to make better adjustments and needs to tinker a little better to find more chemistry, but all in all he did the best job he or anyone else could do. Grades: A/A

Bertuzzi sure seemed like he liked his role, it's just different here and may change again if he gets re-signed. We've not seen Bertuzzi healthy yet, I'd like to see him re-signed for 2 years if we can get him for around 3m each year. The whole thing is, if we don't re-sign Bertuzzi, we won't get another power forward and the same people who cried for him not to get re-signed will crucify Holland for not signing one. It won't be his fault, 6'2 240 lb players with offensive abilities don't come around often.

Hudler (broken heart)

Datsyuk dispelled a lot of demons, but he can still play better, especially on the road. Overall though, he did his job.

He has to be, he really doesn't have a choice.

....

Yes. She's also in the hall of fame.

Not sure if this pic has been posted, but it was after the game last night in Anaheim.

http://www.dailystubs.com/ResultsTicket.aspx?evtid=597469 I know there's a ticket exchange subforum but figured this might get some people going.

No need to wake them up.

Babcock made some awesome lineup changes and it seemed to fix everything tonight.

Lebda has been the worst defensemen all playoffs.

Haha, no they didn't.

It's just my opinion that 4 mins either way isn't going to make much of a difference. We need a lot more other players to be effective before Calder not doing anything should hit center stage. But I understand it's more than right now, it's been a season long headache for some poeple.

If Hudler is played, he should only see icetime on the PP or when there's a faceoff in Anaheim's zone. The last game Hudler played was his worst, he was tossed around by San Jose and it would only be more brutal against Anaheim. I know he plays with a lot of heart and does his best to drive to the net. But 5'8 160 isn't going to make as much of a difference as we need. The whole problem so far has been 5 on 5 and there's been a lot more things that need to get worked out than Hudler coming in for Calder. I like Hudler, but I don't think it would make much if any difference.

Not sure if anyone has said this yet, but this has nothing to do with Versus and everything to do with your cable provider. Contacting Versus is a waste of time, contact your cable provider.

No kidding, short memroies indeed. Before the playoffs anyone who said they wanted Lilja in instead of Kronwall has issues. Obviously Lilja has been awesome this year in the post-season, but no one saw that coming. No one. If Kronwall comes back and is ready, of course you put him in. All it would take would be one solid game from Kronwall and all is forgotten. That's how it works in the playoffs. You should really actually take the time to look up stats before posting them. Kronwall wasn't even 3rd on the team in giveaways by defensemen.

Post from Doubejack over at redwingscentral.com: I told the Wife to please pack an extra pair of undies for me, I'm going to the game! -edit Under the special instructions, I just typed in "please email tickets". I had them within 2 minutes of submitting my order.

I guess under the special instructions, just type in "please email tickets" and they should come immediately.