Feldmarschall

Yeah, his poor performances in the past are undoubtedly staining his value. His percentage and GAA from last year were absolutely brutal. Even in his best season he only pulled a .909, which is still pretty poor by NHL standards. If he maintains this performance over the course of this two year deal, though, he will seriously cash in.

That's good stuff. Everybody watches Pavel. Too bad he hasn't had many highlight moments this season.

Nonsense. There's not a single attempt at guessing what the lines will look like. You're spot on for the rest, though. That is one talentless writer.

The lack of respect for Miller and Bertuzzi astounds me. These claims that Bert can't handle second-line ice are 100% bulls***. The guy outscored Homer and Flip. He produces about a point every other game on average. That's what you expect from a mid-level second-liner. He was also one of the hardest working defensive forwards we saw, five-on-five, and got props from Babs for it on a few occasions. He's a good player. Same with Miller. He's unspectacular but he's effective at what he does and he works his ass off on the defensive side of the puck. Sometimes a team adds by subtraction. Losing Drapes, Modano, and hopefully Hudler, the forward corps loses a couple of its softest forwards and another whose job was replaced by Helm long ago. Equally true on defense. It cannot be said that Rafalski wasn't a defensive liability at even strength. He was just too easy to muscle off the puck. Period. And the back end still has people that can generate offense, even if a big trade doesn't come down. Lidstrom and Kronwall are elite, offensively. Stuart is capable if he gets back into the swing of acting like the defenseman he was in SJ and Boston. Ericsson and Kindl have considerable untapped offensive ability as well. It's all about improvement from within. This team's got a big pile of guys in their twenties right now. If they get better, the team will do fine. If they regress, the team will suffer. At the very least, subtracting its two softest forwards and its softest defensemen, the team will be tougher to play against, even if it's a bit of a loss with respect to top-end skill. I like the change.

When they were originally scouting Datsyuk and evaluating him as a potential NHLer, the bow-legged comments popped up pretty regularly. I know at one point someone (Jim Nill?) referred to him as a "little pigeon-toed kid that the puck followed around."

:blink: Is that a joke? I just woke up.

Turn off NHL '11 and get with reality. The Wings aren't going to magically get a top-three draft pick this year, they're not going to trade Flip for Stamkos/Bogosian/other blue chip talent. It's also not a guarantee that every UFA you want will sign with the Wings if they make the offer. The odds are actually quite low. The most we should expect to see is a couple of small trades or UFA acquisitions, and perhaps a shuffle of the assistant coaches. If Lidstrom retires, things will get more interesting. We will be treated to many more years of Franzen's inconsistent effort, and probably several more years of Filppula not making a difference when it counts. Just deal with it. Can't win the cup every year, and especially not when the team's roster plays like it only has four good players and a boatload of half-assed scrubs.

I have no desire to watch this series at all. Nashville hockey bores me to tears. They're like the Wild were a few years back. "Let's ride a hot goalie and wait for one of our too-numerous pluggers to score a goal, then lock down the game." It may win games, and they could very well beat Vancouver, but it'll probably be too tedious to enjoy.

Babs already touched on the most important thing he's looking at as a coach, and that's forechecking. Both teams have players that can be exposed on the back end - with the Wings, it's the old argument that Rafalski is too small and weak, Stuart, Salei, and Ericsson can be forced into making bad breakout attempts, and so on. For the Sharks, Boyle is the best breakout passer they have but he's no bigger than Rafalski and could look just as vulnerable if a guy like Helm is coming at him on the forecheck. The rest of the Sharks' back end lineup isn't exactly the picture of mobile breakouts, and that'll be a key the Wings are looking to exploit. The teams' forward lineups are a wash. Both have a great combo of depth, size and skill. So If I'm coaching, the key is who can make the other team's defense make stupid mistakes.

Miller was good, but Babs seems to want Drapes around for faceoffs. He really puts a lot of value on having him out there.

Not the sexiest pick, but I like Grabner for it. He scored his ass off on a weak team, and was one of only three guys on the Isles to run a +. Skinner and Couture got some nice linemates - Grabner got what, Frans Nielsen?

Mike Milbury? Probably the single most self-destructive GM in history. His ineptitude never gets old for me.

The fault is on Letang for not keeping his head, hands, and stick up to protect himself. He got caught completely stationary, turned around, watched his pass for a second, forgot about the forecheck in doing so, and got buried. Brule coasted in, hit him front-on, with his arms up on his chest, while Letang was totally unready to get hit hit. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this play from Brule's end.

How the uh hell can uh you uh listen to Paul uh Woods talk? He uh says uh so much he's uh really hard to uh deal with for uh me.

Conkin? Who?

Someday they'll write a Probert-esque book about this guy and we'll see Trotz repeating the Wings' management - "I have never tried so hard on a hockey player as we did with Jordin." Hopefully he's a little more successful than Probie was at beating his demons.

If Shea Weber hits free agency, he will command a MASSIVE salary. Some teams will definitely want to throw untold millions at him because he is a franchise defenseman and everybody knows it. Kaberle is good and I'd like seeing him here but I think it's likely that unless the Wings get into a bidding war (and how often does Holland do that?), our next all-star defenseman is going to have to come from the draft. Hopefully that guy named Smith down in Grand Rapids is the right person for the job.

Thing about the Canes is that they probably want the same thing we do - better shutdown defense. Joe Corvo is a good offensive defenseman, Pitkanen has been stamped with the underachiever tag but has good offensive instincts and doesn't use his size much on defense. White isn't very big. McBain is offensively inclined. The Canes only have two proper defensive guys in Gleason and Harrison and they're just allowing a lot of goals as a team. Only one full-time defenseman on their roster is running a positive +/-. I don't really see them having anything we'd want, or us having anything they'd want in exchange as a D swap. Martinek is no better than anyone on the Wings' current roster. Certainly not worth a second round pick. Previous posters have said it best - we need a better shutdown element, more effort, and better breakouts. It comes down to the players trying harder, and some better defensive coaching would go a long way. Lately, guys have been losing their coverage. There's also very little puck support. The Wings are content to watch one of their number hack away in the corner with two or three opposing players, with predictable results. I'd like to see Chris Phillips here too, if it didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Tavares, Grabner, Hamonic, and Okposo are the only people on their roster right now that are worth a damn, and even Snow knows better than to trade from their small pool of good young players for a rental goalie. It's one sad sack organization.

Some people have recommended taking a beginner's skating or hockey skills class. I have to encourage that, and encourage it some more. Bad habits earned early on in your hockey "career" will be virtually impossible to break later on. I started when I was four years old - I had plenty of time and encouragement to change and grow into the skill set. You won't have that luxury. Get used to doing things the correct way now and you'll benefit hugely, and make quicker progress as a result. Don't get disheartened if you go out there and suck it up, and be man enough to know if you just don't belong in a game - stay with people at your skill level if you join a league of some kind. Your skills won't grow very rapidly if you never get to touch the puck or make a play. It's also been mentioned that you should have good health insurance. I second this motion. I've broken sixteen bones in my life. Half came from playing hockey. The last three years have seen two fairly serious knee injuries as well. If I wasn't covered, this sort of thing would get expensive in a hurry. Other than that, remember to have as much fun as you possibly can. It's a great sport. Enjoy it.

I cannot believe how poor the Griffins' defensive coverage was. That was a sad display. Way too many guys left completely alone in front of the net. Although Tatar looked awesome. Good for him. I like the hustle.

The name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that he was essentially our toughest player for a while but was an absolute pusscake compared to most teams' proper tough guys.

Salei took Lilja's spot when the team couldn't get Lilja to come down on his monetary demands. His window of opportunity with Detroit has closed, at least for this year.

Hey, thanks T.Low, that was kinda cool. And no, nothing similar for the Wings' kids.