Dabura

What's surprising is that the Wings even made that deal in the first place. While he might be a top-4 guy on other clubs, the Wings really don't need him -- especially considering what they have to pay him. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone else go, but it should be Lilja going out the door.

Ozzie is the clear-cut #1 and he's very much capable of repeating. Having said that, he's not the kind of guy who will play 75 games in the regular season and be able to go on a tear in the postseason. If he's going to be the #1 in the playoffs, he needs someone to split time with in the regular season. Howard's job as the future #1 is his to lose. However, I can't blame management for not feeling entirely comfortable with an Ozzie-Howard tandem in light of Howard's inexperience and the point I just made about splitting time. That's where Conklin comes in: his presence should cover for Howard while also pushing him to work hard and play the best he can play, whether he's with the Wings or the Griffins. Realistically, I would expect Conklin to be the #2 for most -- if not all -- of the season. I expect the 'hawks to play the Wings hard this season. They may even make the playoffs. However, I don't regard them as a serious postseason threat (yet). True, they'll probably be the most competitive they've been in quite some time, but this Wings team could be one of the most competitive ones ever assembled, featuring a rock-solid top-4 and a borderline unreal top-6. And that's not even counting the roster's depth, and Ozzie's "reinvention," if you want to call it that. Basically, this is the team that just won the Cup in convincing fashion -- only, now it features Hossa in Sammy's place in the top-6. If we're talking the postseason, I see the Stars and Sharks as the Wings' biggest threats. If the Ducks are a contender, then they're a dark horse. Their glory days are pretty much over. No one in the East worries me. The Pens are floundering and the season hasn't even started. It's trendy to like the Habs, but let's face it: unless they nab Sundin and get a revelatory run out of Price, they're not going to be able to topple the Wings in a best-of-seven series. That may sound cocky, but it's true. (Just ask the Pens.) The Flyers? Even with Sundin, they're a pretty crappy team. Stick them in the Western Conference and see how tough they are.

eva is correct. For what Lilja's making, one would expect his assets to be above and beyond those of Lebda and the scrubs. But they're not. Moreover, having Stuart, Kronwall and an increasingly ready Ericsson makes Lilja's package -- specifically, his size and physicality -- pretty much expendable. Moving Lilja would free up a good sum of $ which could then be put towards retaining the others. For these reasons, I think it should be Lilja -- and not at the trade deadline, but now.

Better yet: "Nordic Trek!" aahhhh Man I'm bored.

"Nordic Track" would've been a sweet title for that article. Wasted opportunity. *sigh*

Icing that unit at any point in a best-of-seven series = No one shaking Babs' hand at the end of the series

He is going to eat. people. alive this season. We should start working on a Hossa drinking game or something.

Hank deserves to make as much as Crosby -- hell, more than Crosby. But he'll take a discount and probably won't earn more than Nick. Hossa -- I'd love to see him stay, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him go, Cup or no Cup this season. It's a money issue. Possibility: he outperforms Mule by a wide margin this season and management decides to let Mule go and bring Hossa back into the fold.

I'd love to see Leino make the cut this season. But it's a long shot.

The thing is, the way he phrased it makes it sound like he's just generally bitter about the fact that the NHL gets all the good European players: "The NHL for 15 years has brought young players from Europe, first and foremost from Russia. I think that it is time to end this. Simply put: (It's) time to stop robbing us." Whether Radulov means it or not, his words basically associate all European expatriation to the NHL with "robbery." Because of this, he comes off like a whiny little *****. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, Rads. The Wings will miss owning you.

So could I. The thing is, I don't know what he wants in his heart of hearts. Does he want to make a bona fide deep-season drive for the Cup, or would he rather make some serious money than be part of a solid push for the Cup? Seems Mats himself doesn't even know. I cited those four options because they more or less cover his spectrum of possible motivations -- so: serious Cup contention (Habs), serious money (Canucks), waiting for a truly palatable opportunity to present itself (sitting out a season), or, well, calling it quits. Personally, I'm becoming less and less convinced that he cares deeply about the Cup. I mean, first of all, if he could have things his way, he'd retire a Leaf. But more than that, he seems to be very wary of the Western Conference. I'm sorry, but barring divine intervention, neither the Pens nor the Habs are going to take down the likes of the Wings, Stars and Sharks.

It's mostly scattered wealth, though. In other words, there's no ultra-loaded collective bent on making a rival league; it's folks like Zhukova and Abramovich, who'd (probably wisely) rather pump their money into artwork than work towards establishing a professional hockey super-league that could (but, really, couldn't) topple the NHL. All the NHL risks losing is a moody, underahieving superstar here and there and a couple dozen Mark Hartigans. imo

Well, I'm certainly not discounting other, decidedly more selfish points of motivation for certain members of the '08 team. But given this team's makeup, I don't expect a significant hangover effect. These multi-Cup veterans are greedy sonsabitches (read: perpetually hungry for another title), the guys who won it for the first time will want to experience it again, and there will be new blood in the form of Hossa (and possibly others). I can't imagine these guys will need a boost of Vladdy proportions to propel them back to the top. It would be one thing if teams were significantly improving all over the place this offseason like the author claims, but the Wings' two biggest WC foes, the Stars and Sharks, really haven't done a lot, at least on paper, in the way of bearing their teeth. In the East, the Pens are already floundering before even getting out of the gate, and the Habs, pegged by many as the Pens' heir apparent, aren't intimidating in the least. I more or less agree with NFM on this one; I think injuries are looking to be the Wings' biggest enemy right now. I imagine that's where the 'hawks improvements will be felt the most. Considering this, the cap situation could, like NFM pointed out, become problematic, depending on how the injuries play out. For all we know, of course, the Wings could escape the regular season more or less unscathed. I'm certainly hoping they do.

He didn't have to in order to be "guilty" in this case, imo. A direct order along the lines of "take care of Moore" and a "slit throat" motion would probably suffice. Let's not forget, this is the guy who climbed over the glass so he could spew venom on Scotty Bowman's face.

His home address would also be appreciated.

Sammy L. Jackson.

Pretty good piece overall, buy I've got some problems with it. Division rivals Chicago and Columbus appear to have significantly improved as have conference rivals like Dallas, San Jose, Edmonton, Calgary and Phoenix. "Significantly improved"? Really? He might have a point with Chicago -- but the rest? Not from where I stand. I'm not sure the Wings have even significantly improved, although they should certainly be even harder to beat than they were last season. Training camp begins in mid-September and the Wings' 2008-09 season begins Oct. 9 and concludes April 12. That's nearly seven months of training camp, preseason and regular-season play, without counting the two-month grind of the Stanley Cup playoffs. In this calendar year, the Wings will have played nine months of hockey, and would face another six months in 2009 if they're to march on to a second straight championship. That's a long, daunting, exhausting grind even for a club as talented as the Red Wings. Too bad they're old and slow and didn't get the summer off and won't be injecting any new blood into the lineup. Oh, wait. So much can happen over that long haul. Hurray for truisms! Motivation could also prove to be the deciding factor for the Red Wings. When the Wings won their second consecutive Cup in 1998 they used as inspiration the plight of teammate Vladimir Konstantinov, whose playing career ended just days after winning the 1997 Stanley Cup when he was crippled in a limousine accident. And when they won it this past season, they cited Dallas Drake as their spark plug, their "well." Now, no offense to Drake, but he wasn't exactly a huge story like Vladdy was. The Wings have basically substituted Drake's huger for Hossa's, and Hossa can force his will on the opposition in ways Drake never could.

What I don't get is why anyone would want to split up ZDH. Historically, Babs has only broken up that line in order to coax more production out of the secondary scoring unit. I think I've talked about this before, but whatever -- having Hossa means the secondary attack can be beefed up considerably while still keeping the league's most dominant primary unit intact. Mule's coming off a monstrous performance, Flip's been locked up, Sammy proved he was born to be a checker -- so bump Sammy down to the third and give his spot to Hossa. Then the opposition has to face the 1-2 punch of ZDH (aka The Best Line in Hockey) and a second line anchored by Marian Hossa.

Markov wanted, what was it, 4 from the Wings? I doubt he'd take 2 from the Pens. It's not like the Pens need him. After all, they are "the best defensive team in the league."

From what I've gathered, it's pretty much "Habs, 'nucks, sit out for a season, or retire."

1. Sammy is not dead weight. A guy like Mac (bless him) fits much more comfortably into that category. Sammy's a checking-line center who's been asked to overachieve (e.g. play on the second line, man the point on the PP). While, yes, he has pissed off every member of the LGW community at one point or another, he has also proven his overall worth and established himself as a tremendous bargain. You may not like his game, but consider what he's getting paid and what Babs gets out of him -- that is, a guy who can competently hold down a top-6 spot and, if need be, step down into the bottom-6 and be a quality checking-line guy (see Drake - Draper - Sammy). Seriously, juxtapose his salary with his numbers -- not bad for "dead weight." 2. You want to talk about useless? That's Homer without at least one -- preferably both -- of Datsyuk and Zetterberg. Seeing as how ZDH is the most dominant line in the NHL, I'm very much for keeping it together. If it absolutely must be broken up (and it mustn't, but who knows -- Babs may get itchy), keep Homer with one of the twins. His net-crashing game is tailor-made for the twins, and the twins' game complements him perfectly. It's a great relationship. 3. I'm not crazy about Lilja, but he does bring some good things to the table -- namely, his size, strength, and willingness to scrap. Let Lebda go before Lilja.

An example of a statement pulled straight out of someone's ass is "If Sammy is not in the top 6, then he's pretty much useless unless it's as an injury filler." Bottom line, Sammy is a checker who, while not a true agitator (yet), has shown he can get to people. I know your story -- you like physicality, fights, "devastating checks," retribution, etc. But the fact that Sammy doesn't throw his weight around all over the place or get into big fights doesn't mean he can't be useful as a checking-line forward and that he isn't capable of agitating. As I've pointed out numerous times, Sammy played the best hockey he's ever played as a Wing when he was put on a line with Drake and Draper. Now, to be fair, I'm pretty hard on Maltby these days. But let's face it: he's over the hill and there are guys like Helm and Abdelkader waiting in the wings. Then you throw Sammy into the bottom-6 mix. s***'s getting crowded, and Malts isn't getting any younger....

And according to you, Sammy's also worthless if he's not in the top 6. Point being: I get that you dislike the guy, but let's not pull points out of our asses here. Anyway, like I said, Sammy isn't a certified agitator, but he's shown a pretty good knack for getting under people's skin. For example, who was one of the first Wings to get in Crosby's face after the whistle in the SCF? Sammy.

Dear Mats, You're not winning the Cup on the Rangers or Flyers. Sincerely, Common Sense

As one of the obnoxious loudmouths who was incessantly calling for Hossa at the trade deadline, I officially dub this picture "*******. AWESOME." This season can't start soon enough.