Feldmarschall

It never really made sense to me that the team lost its forward/PP coach and hired a defensive specialist instead. Was Babcock handling the defense before and has now stepped primarily to coaching up front while McCrimmon takes the D? If McClellan had the offense before and we had the best defense in the league, why did we hire a defensive coach from one of the worst teams in the league after his departure? Where was the sense in all this? There is a definite Cup hangover in Detroit, but so much of the defense just looks like bad coaching right now - the bad passes, weak clearing attempts, bad man coverage... It looks like bad coaching and lazy players. Whoever coached the D last year needs to step it up and start over with the boys - they look like they could use some pee-wee level stop/start scrimmaging.

If this team would just put some MUSTARD on its passes and clearing attempts, the turnovers would be cut by half. They're fancy-tapping it around like it's practice, not gametime.

Giggy turns it around with a shutout. Nice. Too late to save this week's fantasy league matchup, though. S'what I get for picking a Duck.

Helm and Leino will not be retained on the Wings roster when they can be getting massive icetime in GR, barring any further injuries to the forward corps. It just makes no sense for them to be in Detroit if they aren't playing. It's far more likely that Downey or McCarty will be the thirteenth forward.

Hm. Simek looks like a scrub and I'd take O'brien over Krajicek any day. I like what Vancouver gets a lot more.

Hoo boy, you better be ready to defend that one. Not from me, though, I agree. On teams like the Bolts, Yotes, and Thrashers, that pair would get plenty of icetime and actually be a pretty valued commodity. Never a #1 pairing, though.

It would help if more people actually played hockey at a reasonably competitive level rather than just watching it for a pseudo-profession. Accidents happen. People will occasionally hit teammates, refs, whoever. Sometimes those hits are ill-advised and oftentime a player executing a hit like that will know almost as soon as the hit is made that it was a bad idea. You get this sinking feeling just as the other guy hits the boards head-first, kind of a "Ah, ****. You OK?" moment. It still happens. I'm sure it was taken care of by the team in an appropriate fashion. Downey did not hit Flip with the intent to seriously injure him.

You'd think the other girls would just lay off after a while, kind of relax. No need to run up that kind of score. I wonder, did they even dress a goaltender?

It's the same way we have to transliterate names here. For example, not writing the umlauts above certain letters in Swedish names.... same basic idea. It makes things 'correct' for the native language.

Wow, messy interface. What's the point of this site?

The man was an absolute beast in the playoffs. Gave it his all and was a key figure in the Dallas series in particular. I hope he finds his retirement satisfying and enjoyable as a Cup champion.

Wouldn't call him an enforcer. Too small for that. He is still a damn useful player, though.

Backman is a bit of a waste, but Fedor Tyutin is a very good player from what I've seen. New York doesn't need to keep that offense on the back end, Columbus need it to replace Hainsey and inject more life into their PP. Decent deal for both sides.

Huselius is about to turn 30. He's no kid, Columbus knows exactly what they're getting.

Wow. Major bucks there. Eight years?

Speculation. Most any other team in the league would pay this guy to play full time. Two-way deals don't pay full value in the minors. He'd get well under league minimum if we sent him down on such a contract, so there's no reason for him to do it knowing that he'd be getting full money anywhere else. And we can have Jimmy on the roster. I believe current NHL roster limit basically allows for an extra undressed player at each position, so three total spots. If we carry two extra defensemen we can keep a third goaltender but no extra forwards. That's why waiver eligibility or lack thereof is so important. Injured players are excluded from the roster total if they're on 7-day IR. If all your depth forwards are on two-way deals or are waiver exempt, they can clear waivers and keep your team's roster from going over the limit as someone comes back from Injured Reserve.

Yeah, he spent a lot of time in college, first NHL game at 25 or so.

Cloutier?

32 years old. He's a veteran.

It's a one-way deal. No sensible goalkeep with his numbers would EVER agree to a two-way deal. He stays on our roster 100%, sending him down would necessitate him clearing the waiver wire, and there's no way he wouldn't get poached.

I think we will once again have the cheapest cup-winning goaltending tandem in the league. Conklin is a strong positional goaltender IIRC, and his stats were very solid in Pittsburgh last year.

Suppose they'll make Meech a forward full time?

Redden would be solid, yeah. I get the impression that Morris is better off as a second-pairing guy anyway. Redden-Jovo is a nice way to load up.

They've got to be banking on pulling in a big free-agent defenseman, because no GM should be comfortable with that team defense. Their #4 and #5 guys as it stands are Keith Yandle and Matt Jones, while their depth consists of two career AHLers, one of whom couldn't even make it in Toronto, of all places. They look to pretty desperately need a shutdown guy.

I never understood that. I'm 21 and I play in a men's league, and in the summer you get a huge influx of kids, high school teams and college guys that come home and want to play. Too many hotheads. Fortunately I've got a guy like you on the team that's about 6'3, mid-thirties, and a complete moose. Real strong dude, and a solid goalscorer to boot. He steps in when things get out of control, makes a pretty effective deterrent. Proof that even in beer leagues a tough guy can help. Kudos to you for keeping punkass kids under control. God knows I prefer not to associate with my peers when they get like that.