Heroes of Hockeytown

Possibly, but does that mean having an enforcer would prevent Lilja from fighting ever again? Otherwise he would still be incurring that risk of getting his brains scrambled. He was fighting dudes when he was in Florida and they had Peter Worrell and in Detroit when we had Downey. So that's just something he does two or three times a year.

I've got no idea what Vancouver is doing all the way up there. They signed Sammy and...? He's a cool dude, but he's not exactly going to put you over the top just by his addition.

That's not really an unusual phenomenon. The Wings weren't very popular when they were terrible either. People won't support a bad product. With the exception of football, which Amercians are ******* bonkers for, myself included.

They'll probably put him everywhere. Wildcat, kick returns, ball handler on gadget plays. Unless McNabb gets hurt I assume he's got no chance at playing QB.

If they gave Homer a point every time the team scored through one of his screens it wouldn't be close. I think you can appreciate the work that he does that doesn't show up on the scoreboard. EDIT: <== slowpoke

It should be noted that he was raised in Boston, however. Remember that he did sign Franzen during the season -- this was before anybody had any inkling of Hossa's impending struggles. He signed the first guy he could come to terms with, and thank goodness that was Franzen.

Beflour/McSorley with the Sharks... At least one good thing happened that year.

Yeah, I facepalmed pretty hard at... Paul Stastny? David Booth? Frolov? Sam Gagner? The mind boggles.

Everyone will eventually play with everyone, either because of an injury, or the team is not having a good night, or just because. That's how Mike rolls. If whatever lines he skates out with on opening night don't work, we won't have to put up with them for long, rest assured.

The objective of hockey, how dreadful.

The population of Canada (just like everywhere else) has increased since 1992 so it's probably a wash anyways.

My bet is the Hawks find a way to sign all three. If they absolutely had to let one go, it would undoubtedly be Kane.

Yeah, I don't know. The line combos don't seem to jibe well. The top two lines are good, but the third line is a mystery. If you split Hank and Pavel up you get more options (even a potential quasi-scoring third line like Eaves-Flip-Williams), but that requires splitting Hank and Pavel up, causing Red Wings Nation to collectively die inside. EDIT: By the time anything important happens we'll have ended up seeing every permutation possible, because that's how Mike rolls, so I'm just fretting for fretting's sake at the moment.

J-Will wasn't signed to play on the fourth line, though. Eaves would definitely start on the fourth and probably Willy on the third. Given that Willy isn't good at a helluva whole lot besides being a decent scoring threat, it's kind of an oxymoron to slot him on the third line with Helm, where Helm has bad hands and can't set him up, and Willy can't check. But if ZDH is back together then Franzen/Cleary/Pavel/Homer are definitely the top two line wingers, so there's nowhere else for Williams to go. Unless they try to bury Helm on the fourth line, which, despite his inability to score, would be a waste of his still considerable talent. Willy technically can play center, but being that center has the most defensive responisbility of any forward position in Detroit's system that's unlikely. I guess the best thing and probable outcome is Helm centers the third line with Willy/Leino like many suggest.

If he's got guys like Franzen and Cleary on his wings all season long it stands to reason he'll have the most of the lot.

I'll take the guy with more Stanley Cup Finals goals than the other has total playoff goals. Or the guy with as many playoff OT winners as the guy with total playoff goals. I wouldn't take either of them on the point. EDIT: Honestly, by the end of his time here there weren't very many people that really disliked Sammy anymore. He was bad on the point but that was clearly Mike's fault then for keeping him out there. Yeah, he put a lot of pucks into shinpads and chest protectors, but then he put some into the net so it was all good.

You're looking rather dashing this evening, Ilya.

Wings continue to assert their dominance against the overmatched Hawks, win Central. Random playoffs are random, I wouldn't make a prediction.

f*** yes it is. I just beat that game on an emulator a week ago, I s*** you not. I didn't realize it when I was an idiot ten year old, but the ending is hella ******* sad. Poor Vivi.

Bert's a big softie.

So long as a few molecules of air collide with one another out of the ice surface I think we can simulate the effect.

In addition to trying to Cleary it and cash in next season, he's also getting that buyout money.

Do you have any suggestions? Keep in mind the Wings still need enough cap space to sign one more player. He is going to make less than one million. If he accomplishes anything at all, it's a bonus.

Maybe, but mostly it seemed that the Wings just kept getting hurt in new and wacky ways. Nick got his nads chopped off, Pavel had his foot broken by a shot (both of these were actually against the Hawks), Rafalski broke his back getting out of his car; I don't remember when Cleary pulled his groin, but that's something that can happen to a player at anytime. What can men do against such rotten luck?