Heroes of Hockeytown

A perfectly mediocre period. Wings could've had a couple but Quick has been good. Ozzie has made the saves he's had to make. I don't know about the rest of the team, but Leino is definitely alive and well.

Leino gets it done. Meech bangs home the garbage.

Kopecky's having a pretty good game. I said it! I can't un-say it!

Woulda gone in if Hossa had shot it.

Pretty decent looking power play. That second unit could use a point guy that has more of a disposition to shoot, though.

True. They had the puck all period and had more scoring chances, but it's surprising that their scoring chances weren't higher considering the edge they had in puck possession.

Seemed alright to me. He was putting them where they should go, to the corners and to teammates.

I've got Lilja, Flipper, Kronwall, and Rafalski each with brutal giveaways. Do as Pavel does, off the glass! Even though that went for icing.

Have I mentioned that I like Darren Helm? What a great job tying up Calder in front of the net.

Jeez, get it out guys. Flipper with the giveaway this time.

Pretty sure every suspension with regards to dirty hits is doled out at the disciplinarian's discretion. The only automatic suspensions usually deal with accumulating X number of Y penalties in a season.

Who cares about handedness and age from a rental Dman? As for their cap hit, the Wings only have enough space to make one move anyways, so if we're arguing about the two it should be done based on the merits of the player alone. That said, if the Wings were going to get a depth Dman I'd rather he be a big bruising stay at home kinda guy. Dandy has got good wheels and I can remember a few plays from him that were pretty great**, but he doesn't really fit that bill. *It was a game against the Preds (might have been in the '04 series) where he ******* reached out from the bench and tried to take some guys head off as he was skating by. It was ridiculous and hilarious and I couldn't believe he got away with it. **Against Calgary in the '04 semis... Picking up the puck and going end to end, faking a cut to the middle of the slot with a head fake and freezing the Dman, then taking it behind the net to feed Stevie in front for the goal. That was one helluva play.

That's awful. However many games this guy gets, it won't be enough.

He averaged 2.5 more minutes a game last season and the playoffs. The Wings have more offensive talent now than ever, it makes sense to ration the minutes and keep everyone fresh, especially when there's such little drop off from lines one to two.

Wow, seriously? That would be downright catastrophic for the brave new world of 6+ year contracts that virtually all of the NHL's locked themselves into.

Both Ulf and Cheli were dirty, rotten SOBs in their day. You can still find some of their finer moments on Youtube involving Cam Neely and Brian Propp... The acceptance of Chris Chelios pretty much insta-defeats any argument against bringing in a former nemesis, as far as I'm concerned.

For the two years following the lockout, they were the most fun, exciting, up tempo team in hockey. In that time I became a Ryan Miller fan. Then, they were demolished by free agency. A stunning victory for the New NHL!

Pens are pretty desperate for a scoring winger, Kunitz is a good guy and solid as a rock defensively. Not sure what the deal is with the Whitney move. Pronger is sitting around with a $6.25M/yr contract and Niedermayer has got $6.75M/yr, while Whitney has a hit of $4M for the next 4 years. I know Anaheim has got to try to re-sign everyone in the off season and Niedermayer will probably retire, and talk of Pronger being moved. Either the Ducks don't like Pronger anymore or they just don't think he's worth the extra $2.25 a year when Whitney is younger and has more years left on his deal. And if they don't move Pronger then they're still stuck in salary cap hell.

Conks will be UFA and will probably get a decent payday somewhere else. The Wings don't have a lot of room to sign everyone they need to, they'll probably roll with the inexpensive Oz plus Howard for league minimum and go from there.

Updates from this morning.

He looks gaunt, like a mummy. And Brian over there looks like a well-meaning but ultimately lame dad. Hank is one hip cat, though.

Well, statistically, considerable = eight at this juncture. And by a not significant margin to boot. I think finishing as the league's leading scorer once and goal scorer twice, and last year's third place scoring finish might have something to do with it.

Babcock seems to think he's gonna be OK.

Whoa, dude, there are things that I can abide and things that I cannot. This will not stand. The man you identify as Captain Dumbf*** is, in truth, Detroit legend and Hall of Famer Robert Lang.

I agree, the fourth line was absolutely beastly tonight. Here's the problem: When Homer comes back, one of those guys is losing their spot. I love Homer to death but I'd hate to disrupt chemistry especially if it's on a line that hasn't been good for most of the year.