daniel1

hello all.. i just tuned in to see us up by two I see on the scoresheet Pronger fought Cleary? Can anyone tell me how it went down? Is Cleary ok? NHL.com says he's only got a few minutes played... did he get hurt in the fight?

I don't think he'll leave, but i do think he'll get a nice raise. I can see 2.2 - 2.6/yr for 2-3 years. He's a bonafide 2nd liner now and he'll wanna be paid like one too. Lilja will take 1.5/yr or so... I hope we don't commit to him for any more than 2 yrs though. We do have several young D-men coming up to think about.

Mmmm, Prospal would be a good pickup and at only 1.9m allows for plenty of room should we have a chance at Foote or Blake. Prospal might also be a guy to trade and sign seeing as how he puts up decent numbers for a reasonable salary. He would probably perform well with Flip and Cleary on the second line. He's only 32 so a 2 year deal at 1.7 sounds about right. If we did trade for him it would also make Hudler expendable as trade bait for Foote or Blake.

After watching the Ottawa game I loathe to think about other teams taking advantage of the Lebda/Chelios pairing; one of them has looked 46 in the past few games while the other has been consistently caught up ice and taking the man as well as a figure skater would. I would like to see Foote come over here before Blake because Foote is nastier and may even stick around for another year till Ericsson or Kindl are ready. Foote would make our second AND third pairing stronger by bumping Lilja down to play with Cheli. I'm actually hoping that they call Quincey up and that he plays so well that he bumps Cheli into the press box. I would feel better with Quincey/Lilja as the 3rd pairing.

With Foote being a UFA at the end of the season, Columbus being out of the playoff picture and his salary being a more than manageable 4.6m, do you think he would fit in with the Wings? Columbus will probably want to ship him out for picks and prospects but he does have a no-trade clause so he could veto a trade to the Wings even if we tried to acquire him. I know full well the history and bad blood that existed between he and the Wings when he was with the Dive's but most of the players he scrapped with back then are gone now so maybe he wouldn't mind coming over here at the deadline and making a run at the cup. I think he would be an upgrade over Lilja on the second pairing and he has LOADS of playoff experience and is a serious physical presence as well. Lilja is a turnover (blueberry, lol) waiting to happen and could be bumped down to the third pairing to limit his ice time or even scratched. Would you want him? Would he consent to play here?

While they're at it, why not Wellwood for Crosby and Antropov for Ovechkin? Get real! A necessary part of any trade is that BOTH teams have to willing to make the trade, not just Toronto. I don't think any of the other teams you mentioned would do any of those deals - - ever. This isn't NHL 08 on Playstation bud.

Ducks aren't poultry; they're fowl, and those Ducks are very foul fowl. Your assertion is quite correct though; Bryz saved Gretzky's job in my opinion. The 'yotes still suck though and if they ever want to truly contend I think that Whine Gratesky has to go.

Excellent effort on the GDT; love the pictures and the background color choice. I want to see Z get back to the level of play he was at before his injury. Wings 5 (Hank-2, Cleary, Filpulla, Franzen) Wild 0 (Ozzie rides wave of adrenaline from All-Star selection to an "S" word).

Sorry bud, I wasn't blaming you for JFJ's "creative accounting", and my Tucker/Blake cynicism is directed at JFJ, not you personally, but how that guy keeps his job is beyond me. That Kubina deal is probably the worst one in the NHL right now and you're right about McCabe, his cap hit is only 5mil even though he's paid 7 this year. If he was a UFA this year though I can't imagine anyone giving him any more than 2mil a year. Bob McCown was lobbying for him to be a healthy scratch not too long ago on his Toronto sports radio show.

JFJ? Is that you typing up a storm in the Wings forum trying to save your job, lol? Start sendin out those up those resume's John Jr, if you think Kaberle is a "steal" at 4.25mil and McCabe's deal "isn't bad" at 7.15mil. How the Leafs can suck as bad as they do and yet be right up against the cap (1mil under) is nothing but pure idiocy in the form of Kabina for 5mil, McCabe for 7.15mil, Kaberle for 4.25, Tucker for 3mil and Blake for 4mil. That's 16.35mil this year alone for a top 3 D squad that has given up 133 goals (5th worst in the NHL) and 7mil in forwards who have contributed a whopping total of 12 goals! That's some good shopping there JFJ... boy do I have a bridge to sell you... By comparison, Dan Cleary makes 0.675mil and has outscored the 7 million-dollar-duo of Tucker/Blake by 3 goals. If Ferguson shopped and spent like that at Safeway for our family groceries my Mom would have kicked him square in the nuts.

Oh my god! That made me laugh so hard, I can't believe he said that! I wonder if anyone ever plays it now for him and asks him what made him so anti-wings back in those days? Do you know what year that was taken? He looks so young in that video.. it must be from the 1930's? 40's maybe, lol. Seriously though, was it when he was still with Montreal?

It DOES make sense for a lot of reasons; A - Detroit is close to Toronto, he wouldn't have to uproot his family or move across the continent only to move back again B- He's Swedish and so is half of Detroit's team so I'm sure he knows or is friends with at least some of them C- Detroit is a true contender; not a 7th place team hoping to hang on to a playoff spot D- He fits Detroit's secondary scoring needs; he won't be "THE" guy here; we have two of those already so the pressure on him won't be as much as it was in Toronto to "do-it-all-every-night" E- Neither he nor the Wings will want an extension/new deal as part of the trade; he can play for Toronto next year F- We have a surplus of young, cheap defensive prospects that are NHL ready. (Meech, Quincey) with younger ones on the way (Ericsson, Kindl, Smith, Pyatt) and a solid core now too while the Leafs are in DESPERATE need of decent defence who are also cheap due to the ridiculous contracts given to McBaby and Koughitup, er Kaberle. Red Wings playoff PP lines... 1st Dats-Z-Homer 2nd Filpulla-Sundin-Cleary ...oh how I salivate at the mere thought...

Legitimate as in "meets all the requirements needed to win the award." Draper has won before, so it's obvious he's a "legitimate" candidate based on his PK and faceoff work (2nd in the NHL). Z is 6th overall in points (and climbing now that he's healthy again) while being defensively responsible (tied for 6th in NHL +/-), has won 376 faceoffs (14th in the NHL) and kills penalties. Datsyuk has the 3rd best plus/minus in the ENTIRE NHL (+26) and LEADS the NHL in takeaways (by a wide margin, 96 to 72)) and kills penalties while sitting at 3rd in the NHL in assists. Cleary is on pace for 30 goals and 60 points, kills penalties, can play on the checking line and is a plus 16. "The Frank J. Selke Trophy is an annual award given to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game. The winner is selected in a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association at the end of the regular season." (NHL.com) Defensive aspects: PK, +/-, face-offs, takeaways, turnovers, backchecking, defensive zone coverage.

Wow, no wonder the Wings record is tremendous; there are 4 legitimate Selke candidates on this year's team (Dats, Z, Draper and Cleary) and another one who plays great D without the awesome offense (Maltby). Maybe Holland is on to something with stocking a team full of two-way players rather than pure offense (Jagr, Spezza, Ovechkin) and pure defense type guys. Look at the PK guys we can pair up: Dats, Z, Cleary, Draper, Maltby, Franzen, Samuelsson, Drake, Filpulla... Most teams struggle to find two sets (4) of guys to kill off a two minute penalty. No mystery as to why our PK has been so good recently; just look at the forwards who are great on the PK. Throw in a couple of Norris winners (Lids, Cheli), a should-be Norris winner (Rafalski) a big, tough stay at home D-man (Lilja) and two great goalies means you've got a great chance to kill the penalty off.

Too much. If he's worth 5mil per, what's Z worth? 10? 12? I think they panicked cause Modo's gettin old and Morrow's injured a lot. I don't like the trend GM's are on... Richards contract was too much, Gomez, Drury same thing. At this rate they're headed for another lockout. BTW, the Osgood signing was tremendous; if everyone had the same loyalty/attitude Ozzie has the lockout never would have happened. I mean how much money do you REALLY need to live comfortably and provide for your family? If the average Joe can get by on 100,000$ or less per year, then 1 or 2 MILLION should satisfy ALL pro athletes.

http://www.imagehosting.com/show.php/14883...scotty.JPG.html

In the West: Calgary. With that line of Langkow, Huselius and Iginla they can score at any time and if Kipper gets hot in the playoffs they CAN beat us. Especially if they get in as the 8th seed and we finish 1st. Phaneuf would in all likelihood injure at least two of our forwards by the 6th game. The temptation to look past them and not prepare enough coupled with the pressure of "choking" to the 8th seed if Calgary happens to win the first one would be kryptonite for us. Honourable mentions: San Jose and Dallas In the East: Philly. If Gagne comes back and plays with Briere, look out. Richards emergence as a true leader along with Carter and Lupul's scoring will be lethal if they form a line and follow the Gagne/Briere/Knuble line. The playoff "grit" they have with Smith/Hatcher on the back end and Hartnell/Richards up front seems like it could be money in the playoffs. Nittimaki doesn't scare me as much as Brodeur or Lundquist would but then again neither does Gerber/Emery in Ottawa and they've been hot all year long so far. Honourable mentions: Carolina and New Jersey

Russia.

Toughness additions: Erskine and Malone Skill additions: Comrie and Tarnstrom Let's get Malone and Comrie, some skill, size and grit. We're pretty set on the back end, don't forget we have Quinceywho came up last year and did a pretty good job. Hopefully we don't have the injury bug on D again. A cheap D pickup for insurance might be Aaron Ward if the B's are out of it. He's a UFA next season too. Zata-Dats-Homer Malone-Comrie-Hudler Franzen-Filpula-Cleary Maltby-Draper-Kopecky Downey

Raffy plays a more complete game than Schneider ever did We did replace Markov - with a healthy Kronwall who is better than Markov at both ends Getting rid of Lang made our team BETTER, he was super-slow when he was with us. I think Quincey is actually better than Meech and Babs/Holland know it too, but Meech was out of options and sending him down meant exposing him and losing him for nothing in return. Keeping Meech up allows us to use him as trade bait and then bring Quincey up who showed he is quite capable during the playoffs last year and will make a nice insurance policy as the 7th D heading into the playoffs. We are loaded with D prospects coming up (Ericcson/Kindl) and there's only room for 7 on the club. We're not getting rid of Lebda or Lilja anytime soon cause they're chead - and good too. Lids/Raffy/Kronwall will all probably retire here and Chelios will play as long as he wants as well cause he's a 1mil D-man that plays like a 3mil D-man. So where do we put Kindl/Ericcson? It's a nice dilemma to have, but we're gonna have to make some hard choices in the next couple of years with guys like Lebda, Lilja and Quincey. How bout Meech and a low pick or low prospect for Comrie?

For Sure: Z Dats Homer Cleary (although last year his second half was anemic) Good chance:: Hudler Flip Outside shot: Draper Franzen I think we will have at least 6 and add 1 at the deadline too for 7 total. I would like to see us addone of: Comrie, Sykora, Vasicek, or Ryder after x-mas.

Last year both Z and Dats got off to less than blazing starts yet turned it on about a third of the way through and Z was hands down the best player in the NHL (yes, better than the Crosby-show) in the 2nd half of the season until he got injured. This year they have been racking up the points in the first half to the point where after tonight's (WSH) game they are both in the top 10 in scoring. Wouldn't it be scary if they both "turned it on" in the 2nd half? Could we see the two of them battling it out for the scoring title come March/April? Could they both hit the 100pt plateau in the same season? (I don't even know the last time DET had 2 100pt men in 1 year) Could Z take the Art Ross and the Rocket Richard this year? (he's 3rd and 2nd for those right now) Personally, I don't think Z has hit his peak yet, before he got injured last year he was a threat to score on EVERY rush into the offensive zone, he would either shoot or cycle around the net a la the Florida game and get a great chance. I think he will take it up another notch in the 2nd half and (believe it or not) INCREASE his production. Dats will remain at the same level he has been playing at over the last month and chase Z in points all the way till the end of the season. If we find another top six player (Comrie/Feds/Prospal/Vasicek) after X-mas for the second line so Z and Dats can stay together all the time I predict Z will win the scoring title barring injury. Pavel will go on to finish 4th behind Z, Crosby and Lecavalier, but will lead the league in assists. Oh yeah, and for good measure: Homer gets 40 this year. (If the Z-D-H line stays together and he stays healthy) Which of these predictions do you think will come true?

Imagine if Kovalchuk was on our second line with Flip and Hudler after x-mas... Too bad he's signed through 10/11. The way he's putting the puck in the net, if ATL ever got him a top notch center he might hit 70 or 80 goals in a season. I'm sure ATL fans dream of a Dats-Kovalchuk tandem. That will be something to watch for at the next World Cup or Olympics though.

We can already see what would happen in this case. Just watch Giguere (Michelin-Man) in net! With equipment his size he could survive a fall from a 20 story building. Seriously though, his upper body padding is ridiculous, he already blocks 40% more of the net than he would if we wearing regular sized equipment as opposed to the NASA space suit he dons for every game. After posting this I did some quick research and discovered Giggy's secret is out. Giggy's "new" equipment survey

I thought if he finishes anywhere in the top three vote getters for forwards he starts automatically? If he isn't a starter then the question of competition does indeed come into play and when you stack him up with the other names mentioned in this thread I still say he should be on the team. BTW, does anyone know where I can find the updated vote totals for the all star game?