daniel1

I'm salivating for a Filpulla, Bertuzzi, Franzen line next game... Leave the second line alone and that would give us three dangerous offensive lines.

Did you guys see Franzen absolutely destroy Yelle against the boards during that last PP? The camera's didn't quite catch it but you could see the start of the hit and hear the end of it... Franzen creamed him when he had the puck and then got it out of the zone.

Here come the "even up" calls.....

I'd like to see some verification of this. Article, stats, scouting report etc... He looks lost out there and made a horrible decision to pinch in during the first PP in gm. 1 against Calgary that led to a 2 on 1 for them. Then on our next PP in that game he was forced to play a little D in our own end and took a penalty negating our PP and giving the Flames one. I agree with Nik and Schneids to start for 1min, then Nik and Lebda for the last minute. That means you can come back with Markov and Schneids/Cheli when the penalty ends too. I cringed every time Willy was on the point and I do the same now when I see Sams there. It's a bad idea.

Franzen has been a bull out there, er I mean a mule, er I mean a Bull-mule! Ya that's it!

I think he needed that one! Now he can take that heavy monkey off his back and toss it in the garbage. Good to see Dats go to the net too. Wings PP!!

You know... after seeing useless Willy get caught on so many two on ones and get burned so often when we had him on the point that Babs would LEARN that Defencemen play Defence and Forwards play Forward. Yes, even on the PP, especially in the playoffs. I don't care if Lebda's shot is worse than Sammy's... he should be out there ahead of Sammy on every PP we have. I'm no genius but this seems like the most obvious thing in the world to me, especially after Sammy pinched and caused a two on one the other way and then on the next PP was forced into taking a penalty when he had to play some D in our end.

What the f***? McGooey!!!! Are you f'ing kidding me? That was the worst call i've seen all friggen year!!!

Haha, that call on Dats was BS. We had the puck for a long time before Mcgooey blew the whistle, the only reason he blew it is because he thought we might score when the D walked in for a shot. What a bonehead, he ought to be golfing with Fraser...

just think if you were out in Newfoundland, lol

You make some good points here, but I think we're going to be ok as far as $$ goes. Right now, we could say that Pavel and Nick are our "franchise" players and are paid accordingly. When Henrik's deal is up it's not likely that Nick will be making the 7mil that he is now. You shift some of Nick's salary plus the cap increase over to Henrik and presto, you have two franchise players (Dats, Hank) making nearly 7mil - just like we do now. Also, Lang's salary will be gone this year too and i'm sure we can move Flip up to second line center for a lot less than what Lang is making. Sign another gritty Calder type (and Calder too, but at a reduced price) next year who can drop the mitts too (Bert?) and we're in business.

Well, I do know he was in a collision with Osgood, and hit the ice pretty hard after he hit Osgood too. I think he only played one shift after that. No shifts in the third at all. It's the Chicago feed on CI tonight so needless to say they're really not "all over it".

Eh? Pourquoi en Francais mon amis?

Well I remember back when I heard we had signed Dom again this year; all I could think of was the goalie circus that was Joseph-Manny-Hasek a couple years back. I must admit, i wasn't thrilled to think what could happed if Hased got injured again, we go out and get someone else, then Hasek comes back and Oz has to sit inbetween them a la Manny. But.... Dom has been good, better than I expected even, and despite his antics, has come up huge on many occasions. I'll share some of that crow with you (i like mine rare) and hope Dom can continue into the playoffs. Side note: Osgood has been better than I expected as well. That last Nashville game was a gem to be sure.

Forget about salary, contracts or team loyalty. If you were the GM of a new franchise and had your pick of all the current NHL players, who would you choose for your scoring 1, scoring 2, defensive and fighting/checking lines? Mine would go like this: Scoring 1 = Lecavalier - Crosby - Zetterberg Scoring 2 = Heatley - St. Louis - Ovechkin Defensive = Fisher - Draper - Pahlson Fighting/checking = Neil - Avery - Boogard

Lou - "I'd like to coach the team cause I really don't like you and I enjoy yelling at people" Claude - "So you're saying I get an early summer holliday, I don't have to watch this boring defensive style of hockey we play, I still get paid, AND I don't have to put up with your arrogant rants anymore? How soon can I leave?" Lou - "We packed your bags for you this morning." TSN - "In a shrewd strategic move which illustrates Lamorello's cunning and sheer hockey genius, the Devils GM has fired their coach right before the playoffs and replaced him with... er... himself." Dead-bang on again TSN ice psychics...

No Calgary please. That western travel just flattens us out every time. We take 2 periods to wake up and realize the game has even started. By then, the Flamers have a two goal lead and Kipprusoff is playing out of his mind = game over. That team likes to hit too, and they'll end up putting someone out with an injury over a 6 or 7 game series; better it be a Nashville player than one of ours. From the list of 8 Western playoff teams I think Minnesota would be best matchup for us in the first round.

Avery is only a couple points off Robert Lang's total. Who here wouldn't rather have Avery over Lang? I know this will never happen, but I would LOVE to see a line of Tucker-Avery-Neil. Wouldn't that drive the opposition nuts?

Yes, I think a lot of our problems out there this year have to do with the travel and time difference. The Wings look tired when the play Calgary. I would rather face Minnesota or Dallas for sure.

The two forwards with the least ice time last night against Nashville were Maltby (10min) and Sammy (11min). Give Maltby's penalty parade early on he probably would have played similiar ice time to Draper/Cleary (13-15min). I'm hoping Babs is seeing what the majority of LGW posters are seeing; Sammy has been useless. His "shots" are not the product of good decision making and his physical play has been waning to say the least. Hudler looked good last night as did Flip. Cleary is a hard worker along with Maltby and both can kill the hell out of penalties so their value is a little more than their point totals would indicate. I hope Babs sees what we see and sits Sammy down for a few, he can always change it up if we struggle, but for now Sammy deserves to be the "odd man out".

The same "who" or "what" that caused guys like Tyson Nash and Steve Webb to discontinue their career's in the NHL - nobody wants them. If Tootoo becomes more of a liability or distraction then you can bet Nashville won't re-sign him. I know right now he seems adept at drawing rather than taking penalties, but if he crosses the idiot line (like the McSorley hit on Brashear) and winds up suspended for x number of games then Nashville might cut him loose.

Flipper!!

Best play by Betuzzi yet.

EVERYBODY on the team except Datsyuk is due for a goal, lol

Dats