daniel1

You must be a politician in your "off-line" life, I've only heard them say that much without actually saying anything at all. Hudler is paid to score - and he isn't, and hasn't yet this year. He can't hit or defend worth s***, he doesn't kill penalties, and couldn't check my grandmother at the supermarket. Now if you think he's been playing so wonderful, why would Babs bench him, shuffle him around, and call him out in the press? Liking a player is fine, defending them is great, but being oblivious to the facts is just being plain old dumb.

The "Burke Effect"... when will Leafs management wake up and fire this blowhard ******?

Weber. Whatever it takes, it's worth it. He's the next Pronger and Doughty rolled into one but never gets as much credit as he deserves cause he's stuck in s***sville. Offer him the max, I'm betting he's had enough of Fiddleville anyways and wants to come to a real hockey team in a real hockey market. I doubt Nashville can afford him and he's worth a max contract or some other Holland invention to keep him here for the next 10 years or so.

I like your thinking but Huds can't play defense to save his life and that would take away one of our better penalty killers. With the "hands", or lack thereof that Clears is showing it would be a sick 4th line if we put him down with Helmer and Eaves. Clears is all heart and hustle but I swear he closes his eyes when he shoots the puck on net lol. If we could get a proven high priced scorer near playoff time that would make the Abby/Modo/*Scorer* line really sick and free up Huds salary to address our needs through free agency over the summer. I don't think Babs will sit Modo, even if he does go cold as Modo is Babs 1st choice on the point opposite Kronner on the 2nd PP unit and is a great option to have for a third line center... and he's relatively cheap too. It would really take some of the pressure off of Z, Dats, and Franzen if we could another 30 to 40 goal scorer at the deadline from a team that knows they won't be able to re-sign him. Just checked and the FA's of interest this summer: Justin Williams Brooks Laich Teemu Selanne Steve Sullivan Andrew Brunette Erik Cole Cory Stillman Alexander Semin Alexander Frolov Brooks Laich is on the last year of 2mil/yr deal. He's 6'2" 210lbs, plays physical, can be a net presence, scored 25 goals last year and will be looking for a deal in the 3-4m/yr range, which I don't think the Caps can afford and still re-sign Semin who will want considerably more. Hopefully the Caps will try to get something for him rather than lose him to FA for nothing. He would look pretty darn good on our third line!

You think it's between Huds and Modo? Or Huds and Abby?

Anyone think Hudler gets back in anytime soon? I don't see how you replace Abby with Huds right now when Abby brings a lot more to the table every night than Hudler does. Abby has the same number of goals now as Huds does... and Abby actually know how to bodycheck. I'd love to see us turn Huds overpriced salary into someone that can actually help the team. What do you think the trade value for him would be? Even if we can get back a low cost "depth" defensman that we can either sit or send down then use the Hulder money and wait until the trade deadline to acquire a high-priced soon to be free agent scorer for the playoff push. Abby can do what Huds can do and do it at about a third the salary of the "defector". *Edit* My mistake! Abby now has 100% more goals than the Defector lol I actually thought Huds potted one earlier in the year, but sadly, no.

So true; Brodeur is a for sure Hall of Famer but right now I'd take Joey Mac over him 7 days a week. Going by that idiot's logic we should have traded for Belfour and made him our starter cause he has more career wins and a better chance to get into the Hall right now than Howard does.

Scratch him. Trade him. Loan him back to the KHL... who cares as long as we get the cap relief and have a spot to bring in a Mursak or someone who will COMPETE and do something out there.

Ever since he s***kicked Tootoo he's been a favorite of mine as well. Doubtful he'll ever hit the 30-40 goal plateau but that just reaffirms how awesome Shanny was in his prime; 40-50 goals AND he'd fight anyone, and usually win to boot. He'd throw a vicious elbow and then flash that Irish "what me?" grin in an interview after the game and you'd have to love him. He had the shot, the size, the nastiness and the personality. It's too bad the back injury hampered his physical play later in his career but in his prime, he was the man.

Johan Franzen

Good game overall, nice to see Mursak pot one! Now hope the kids can take it to the s***hawks tomorrow too!

"Am I the only one that respects Gary Bettman?" No; Sidney Crosby respects him too... but then again Sidney uses Bettman's penis as a pacifier. I'm not sure if that applies to you too or not, but in either case, you and Sidney are probably the only ones on this board or in Red Wing Nation worldwide that respect Bettman.

Yep, contraction would greatly help each remaining team's talent level. I think you could fold Phoenix, Florida, Columbus, and Nashville without anyone really batting an eye. Although Trotz would likely stick his neck out for the Preds (pun intended).

Cindy Crysbaby - just to hear him whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine to the ref.

Pass the salt. I like my crow salty. Jimmy wasn't tested all that much, but he made the big saves when he had to. Hope he can carry it over to the desert on Friday when they're all givin him the raspberries again.

Not impressed, he's let in about 4 goals every game. Some of the goals have been suspect at best and he seems like he can't make the "big" save whenever his team gets a little momentum. The fact that Bryz has been equally bad is no excuse; J-Ho hasn't played well so far these playoffs. There are times when he seems to get turned around during scrambles around the net and finds himself facing the wrong direction. He hasn't seemed to be able to raise his game in the playoffs at all. If we lose the 1st game in Detroit (which at the time of this post it looks like we will) then maybe we give Osgood a shot in the 2nd game at home.

Completely agree with you I do. He used to be a mean SOB in the corners, on the forecheck and along the boards. Now it seems like he's afraid to really HIT anyone, I'm not sure if he's worried about getting injured or if his balls fell off or what, but it would be nice to see him crush a few people with that 240lb frame of his. His skating definitely has taken a step back from his Vancouver days but he could still work guys over on the boards and in the corners if he wanted to. He's done better than I expected, but still hasn't sold me on re-signing him next year. I guess we'll see as the playoffs move on if he picks up the physical play and becomes more of a hunter rather than always being the hunted. We have enough little white rabbits out there getting crushed against the boards, what we really need are a few guys to become predators and initiate - Stuart, Kronner, Cleary, Ericcson, Lilja, Abby, Bert, Mule - we are talking to YOU.

Huddles would be a welcome addition to the third line and could be moved up to the second line easily too. I would still like to see us add another physical body - Raffi Torres comes to mind - that can bang, crash, and score too. After seeing what Fil has done with and for Z, I would really like to keep them together as we have a glutton of centers that could take the third and fourth center spot next year. Homer-Dats-Mule Fil-Z-Torres Huds-Helm-Cleary Draper-Abby-Eaves/Miller Not sure what they'll do with Bert next year, I guess it depends on what he wants for salary and if we can fit him in somewhere. Ritola is out of options but didn't exactly tear it up last year so maybe we trade him keep him for a while if there's an injury out of training camp. I really think Abby will be up with the Wings next year as we can see he's better than some of the current Wings now. If Lids returns with a 2.5mil paycut and if the cap rises by a 1mil we can easily afford the forward lineup listed above with Williams salary coming off the books too. Huds is already signed for 2.7. Torres will be looking for somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5/year for two years as well. 1.5 from Williams, 1.0 in cap increase, 2.5 from Lids reduced salary gives us 5mil to play with next year for Huds and Torres.

Odds of these statistics meaning anything whatsoever; 50-50.

Willy is too soft for the regular season, let alone the playoffs. I can't believe how weak he is along the boards and in our own end. Abby gets in over him every game if I'm making out the lineup. There's no shootouts in playoffs and really that's Softy's, er, WILLY'S only talent. Abby had a great playoffs last year and has a knack for scoring that big goal evidenced by his collegiate career. He doesn't disappear in the big game and the pressure won't affect him as he went through it last year. Abby, Helm, and Cleary would make a nice bang/crash third line.

Anyone know of a reliable stream for tonight's game? I couldn't get any of the ones posted for last nights game to work for me at all

Hey what kind you buyin? Just curious as I'm looking too lol.

Anyone know the password for the Red Wings Live feed?

Edit: They are very well built through years of calculated intentional tanking so that they could draft the top picks. What's more impressive is a team that can rebuild/reload while still finishing near the top of league every year and contending for the cup every year rather than after an extended period of suckage and throwing games to garner the top draft picks. This is why I cheer red and white rather than black and yellow.

You've got to be kidding.