Feldmarschall

I remembered hearing word that the Wings were going to pick him up and give him a shot in North America. He's been real lackluster, which explains why it took so long. Jim Nill isn't at all sold on his decision-making and puck skills, but I guess they assume that the potential is there. Here's hoping he tears it up in the minors.

You guys that claim an enforcer isn't needed in favor of a more skilled player must have some sort of memory disorder. There's really only two points to make, and I don't really even need to argue them. 1) The young up-and-comers don't need to ride pine and get 5:00 minutes a night when they could get four times that in the AHL. It hurts development. 2) A fighter is needed. Team toughness is needed. Grit is needed. The main difference between the Cup team and the lost-to-Anaheim team would boil down to those simple factors, plus some unfortunate injuries. Carrying a fighter as a #13 guy isn't going to hurt, especially given that the young forwards can be pulled up and down as necessary to fill roster spots without clearing waivers. All it takes is for one of the playing forwards to go on IR, given that the team will have eight defensemen. So in short, quit bitching. Having a fighter has helped this team immeasurably, whether you like it or not. Kudos to Wings management for wanting one on the roster.

Good for him and good for Philly to get it done and recoup some of their investment. Tortorella was the only thing that would've kept Vinny out of Tampa if I'm not mistaken. With Torts gone, he apparently wants to go back.

Is that Gianna?

They must be counting on some strong coaching to unscrew that kid in his own zone and instill a proper defensive work ethic. If he can be worked into a better two-way defenseman, he'll do just fine in the league. Doubt it'll happen, but Minnesota apparently thought otherwise.

With Hasek gone, there's not a single NHL-proven goaltender in the system aside from Osgood. It'd be wise for the org to pick up another backup in the event of serious injury to Osgood or underperformance from Howard.

The whole situation is quite the clusterf*ck and pretty impossible to predict. For the sake of discussion, let's assume that Lebda stays in Detroit, as he's locked up through the 09-10 season. With that in mind, everything hinges on three players in our system - Lilja, Chelios, and Stuart. Keep in mind that's 3 of our 7 active defensemen. Pretty significant UFA class, really. If any of the three should leave, it'll mean change. For Chelios or Lilja to go (or both) it means losing an active PKer but getting to keep Meech and Quincey. For Stuart to go, we're missing a #4 guy that plays in all situations, except when Sammy takes his spot on the #2 PP unit. That vulnerability makes Lilja both important (as depth) and expendable (at a projected contract of $1.5 million), because we could use the cap space to pick up another top-four guy. If the Wings can keep their entire roster intact for next season, we'll lose some unproven players in Meech and/or Quincey, Ericsson will spend more time in the AHL, and we soldier on with seven/eight active defensemen on the roster. If not, the org has to decide who is worth keeping, who is not, and what holes have to be filled. It's a business - I'm sure Holland, Nill, and Babcock are capable of handling any of those situations with aplomb. Let's all just try to be patient and wait. For what it's worth, I'd prefer seeing either Lilja or Chelios gone and Meech given time as a #6/#7 guy. He was really great in February and I think he's plenty hungry enough after a whole season as a healthy scratch. Quincey just didn't seem impressive enough to warrant tossing a Cup veteran out for his sake. Edit - Point I'm trying to make here is that there are just too many variables, and it pisses me off.

Thread title reminds me of those crappy "Is this the year?" ads the NHL ran. I had to watch the parody on YouTube just now. Thanks much, OP.

I think most of our lines come down with a standard one-in forecheck, hard backchecking through the neutral zone, and our centers commit deep in the defensive zone, behind our goal line if necessary. There's nothing particularly unique about the setup, it just works better for the Wings because they backcheck so hard and because the defense and weak-side forwards maintain good gaps with their assigned men. It's really simple, but Babcock coaches it extremely well and our players are very hard-working on defense. No system would work if players couldn't win one-on-one battles, and we're lucky enough to root for a team that is very good in that area, regardless of a size disparity. Almost the only 'trick' the Wings use is that offensive man-advantage attack where the defenseman drops the puck to a man behind him at center ice. Basically our defense backs them into their zone, then hands off to a faster-moving player that can get it in.

I don't know what the hell that music is... but damn is it awful.

Better primary schooling that places a proper focus on foreign culture and language. I went through Michigan public schooling and had to wait until I got to college to start picking up a second language. By comparison, Fabian Brunnstrom came to the USA for the first time at age 23 and spoke excellent english during his interviews without hesitation.

The way the play is going, the Rags are done. Shot differential doesn't quite show how bad that first period went in terms of unforced giveaways, lack of physicality, and inability to get any offense together against the Pens.

Only if he picks them up and swings them around.

Doubt any captain worth his salt would miss an elimination game on account of a lingering headache after some idiot teammate ran him into the ice.

I believe their season is done.

This change is all about how we're losing damn never every race to a loose puck in our zone. Lebda tends to get there, whereas Lilja is content to just go back to the front of the net and play good cop/bad cop with Chelios.

I think you're right here. It amazes me that so many teams use a hard forecheck to shut us down (i.e. Chicago) and the team's leadership absolutely refuses to do the same while in pressure situations. Giving up half the ice when the other team's defense still has the ability to make long passes from their redline (and Nashville's defense does this rather well) is just stupid. We've got so many quick forwards that can get in hard on the forecheck and still make it back to our zone, there's no need for a 1-1-3 or a 1-2-2.

Very well put. I actually laughed out loud.

I was rooting for a Dallas-Anaheim matchup all down the stretch, along with quite a few others. That season series is a good stat to look at. The Stars know they can win, and they've got the tools to do it. Mostly, though, I just really want the Ducks gone after one round.

I believe 24 of Edmonton's 77 games have gone to overtime, 18 of those went to a shootout, and of those 18 they won 15.

The excitement is because he's expected to be the next homegrown Wing to make the transition to the NHL roster as a forward. We've got good depth on D these days but very little up front down through the organization. This kid projects as a slightly more offensively-capable version of Kris Draper, though his stock may fall a bit given that we're going to sign a few more of our picks to professional contracts next year.

I've never found her attractive. Must be a generational thing, but fake **** and hepatitis really are a turnoff.

Old article, citing last season when Lang and Willy were still around, but a good one. Nicely timed, too, given the contract he just signed.

QFT.