Hank

Most definitely laugh. I can't wait to see him get creamed at 8-Mile (which you know he watched 1109234079023840239843 times).

Which I'll be seeing live.

And it's a great opinion. I hope that a number of their guys disappear or get frustrated facing Lids half the games. I'm just saying their offense has to be kept in check. It's very explosive.

I agree with many of your points. The Wings have more depth and talent up front than what Minnesota has. My line of thinking comes from the fact that I've seen the Wings 'top offense' choke in the playoffs when meeting a certain type of defense. The Avs are going to be just as physical, or more so, than what the Preds brought. But they also have a much better defense and far greater offense. Look how close game 5 was and they didn't even have their top 2 centers in the lineup. And their defense isn't exactly a world breaker either. I'm just saying that we shouldn't be so upset with anyone picking the Avs at this point. It's not like this team is a bad squad. They struggled this year because half of their best offensive players were out of the lineup all year. But then they got healthy and added Foote and Forsberg - two great players and tremendous playoff performers. On top of that Theo has never looked better. We can all slap each other on the backs and say how the Wings 'rule' and 'we're the best'. But the truth of the matter is the Avs are deeper in certain areas than we are. I'm not trying to say the Wings have no chance at all. Quite the contrary. I'm just pointing out the weapons Colorado has at their disposal. This will be a very tight and competitive series. And entertaining as well. The better team will prevail and at this point it's up for grabs as to who that team will be. In my estimation, the winner of this series will be the team that wants it more. The team that's willing to take sticks to the face and pucks to the groin. Will the Wings show that kind of perseverance? Lets hope so. They'll need it.

This is only my opinion but I'll take Colorado's top 12 over our top 12 any day of the week: Sakic, Forsberg, Hejduk, Stastny, Smyth, Wolski, Brunette, Hlinka, Arnason, Guite, Laparriere, Jones. Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Homer, Franzen, Cleary, Filpulla, Hudler, Drake, Maltby, Draper, McCarty, Sammuelson They have just as much grit as we do and more scoring. I'm not trying to kiss the Avs behind, but I'm calling a spade a spade. They have a far better and more rounded offense than we do.

Absolutely. The Wild outplayed the Avs overall in that series. However, what scares me is that the Wild and Wings play nearly identical styles. The Avs were able to keep Minnesota to the parameter where they pestered Theodore with a lot of long shots and then blocked many of their quality chances. The Wings have better size up front and a far deeper defensive core. But I think we as Wings fans better get ready to be frustrated when we watch one 40-foot shot after another making Theo look much better than he is. And we absolutely need to stay out of the box. Their PP is deadly.

Nobody can deny that the Avs top six are far better than ours: Wolski-Sakic-Hejduk Forsberg-Stastny-Smyth Dats-Zetts-Homer Franzen-Filpulla-Cleary That's not even close. Our 2nd line looks like most peoples 3rd or 4th lines. In fact, it's probably equal to OUR 3rd and 4th lines. The key to the Wings winning will be special teams. If we can kill their powerplays and score on ours, we'll probably win. Osgood has been very good but Theodore was absolutely unconscious against Minnesota. If the Wings end up losing I won't be shocked in the least. The Avs are a very good team. What the Wings have is the best #1 line and best defensive core left in the playoffs. Will it be enough to beat the Avs? I hope so. But in my mind the Avs clearly have more depth up front and a slight nod in goaltending. And their defense is no slouch either. This will be a tough series. No two ways about it.

I just read this article too. If the league allows this to slide it needn't try to defend itself for being a massive joke. Once again, a handful of GM's have the commissioners office in their back pocket. For the 2nd team to trigger this CBA clause, I would fight to the bitter end that it's also wiped clean from the books. Why is it fair that Anaheim gets away with this but nobody else, here on out, can't? I've always been someone that's defended the league but I can't anymore. Clearly the NHL is simply an old boys club. One that allows it's more popular members immunity from certain rules while others are treated like lepers.

Absolutely. The West is so deep, he should be commended for getting his team into the playoffs and getting his club to play the way they did against the Wings. Trotz isn't the problem. That team just needs a couple more years.

I'll play devil's advocate and say that I don't blame the kid all that much. Playing in the NHL is a special thing with most players only having a short lifespan in the league. He might be looking at it as, "I'm already 23, I want to get as much ice time as possible so I can be the best I can right away". Money's not an issue as I'm almost positive he could make more in the RSL. The kid simply wants to play and play a major role. That being said, I'm not sure why Holland couldn't promise him top 6 time. I'm not going to cry if Filpulla or Sammy have to be on the 3rd line. Franzen-Dats-Brunnstrom Filpulla-Zetts-Homer or Dats-Zetts-Homer Franzen-Filpulla-Brunnstrom

Hahaha. And tell your team that the start of the season is September. I guess Burke won't be giving any of his players extra time off again in the near future.

Burke's powerful but he's no Lou Lamourello.

Better to lose in the first round after winning the Cup than not making the playoffs at all after going to the finals. (Hint: 2004) Giguere's workout for this summer: Add more pads!

Excellent points! The one reason why I would like a Flames series though is CBC. It's always in HD while I don't get HD for TSN or VS.

I'm almost positive that Burke was one of the driving forces behind both Neidermayer and Selanne taking a break before rejoining the team. Burke and the Ducks deserve everything they got this year. AND, if the NHL does force a reduction in goalie gear he would have signed an overrated and unathletic tender to $6M+ longterm. I wonder how he'll like that deal when a slimmed down Giggy is letting in 5 goals a game. Burke might want to reconsider taking that Toronto gig.

You had me until you posted Sammy's stats.

I want Colorado for the following reasons: 1. History. It'll be fun to see another Avs-Wings matchup 2. Theodore is playing very, very well but I'd still prefer to face him over Kipersoff. 3. Calgary's a LOT more physical than Colorado. Could take it's toll on the Wings. However, saying that, while Calgary has better D than Colorado the Avs still have a very good defensive core. And their offense is much better than the Flames. Facing Sakic, Forsberg, Statsny, Hejduk, Smyth and Wolski every other shift doesn't make me sleep well. And their 3rd and 4th lines have some muscle and decent scoring too. Either way, it's only going to get harder.

Don't you people realise that the Ducks losing and Giggy looking like a seive is the worst thing that could happen to the NHL? What do you think Giggy's going to do for next year? He's going to replace his jersey with a parachute and stuff as many sofa cushions that he can up there! He'll have to cut out two holes in the middle of the Ducks logo just to see!!! Giggy's 2008-09 look.

I'd pick on anyone that masturbated to a Phanuef poster nightly too. McGuire couldn't wait to hammer on Detroit when they had that slide in February. Of course, he never bothered to mention that our top 4 defensemen were out with injury. I would love nothing more than to see San Jose win tomorrow night to complete the McGuire-double whammy; Detroit advancing and Calgary's elimination. He'll probably kill himself.

Excellent topic. But I should never be asked this question. I would rather have SARS on this team than Sammy.

Agreed. I don't like the precedence that Selanne and Neidermayer have set. They get a nice rest and the team gets a CAP break. Soon, every team will ask older vets to 'consider retirement' before coming back in February. I'm glad the league is doing this.

I'll fully admit that Datsyuk was on my dartboard for many years. But after last spring I've changed my tune. And he's been dynamite this series so far too. It took him some time to figure out that in the playoffs you have to drive in the danger areas. You would think other players on the Wings would follow suit and do the same thing. Here's to Dats!

I can almost guarentee that Ozzie wouldn't have let those in. And letting in bad goals has nothing to do with who wants it more. In '99 the Wings faced Colorado and beat them handily to go up 2 games to 0. But then Bill Ranford performed his best Tim Chevaldae impersonation letting in goals from everywhere on the ice. Did that mean Detroit wasn't doing their best to win those games? Absolutely not. But it deflates an entire team when they play sound defensively only to have floater or soft goals go in seconds apart. I would also put money down that if we had any of the other 15 playoff goalies, including Ozzie in the first 4 games, we'd have swept this series already. Nashville has outplayed us a total of 30 minutes over the past 120 and yet they have 2 wins for it. In game 3 your crowd resembled a funeral for almost the entire game. If not for Hasek's disappearing act, everyone in Nashville would be whistling dixie at the nearest fishin' hole by now.

That's what he was dealt for. And to a conference rival. The price could have been cheaper for a cross Conference team. Who know's if Monteal would have gotten or asked for the same thing from Detroit? But seeing as how cheap he was had for, who's to say Holland couldn't have made a deal? My guess is that he didn't want to upset the apple cart with Ozzie and Hasek in the same barn. Holland is fiercly loyal. That's a great quality but sometimes it can be a fault of his.

How is he supposed to predict this??? Look at the roster. Anyone can see it and think "grit could be an issue". If Holland didn't think grit and size on the wings wasn't an issue why did he say he was going to address it during the summer? And then again at the deadline? But he did nothing hoping for the best. The Sports-Xpress in Russia is widely known to be one of the biggest peices of fiction this side of The Globe. Russian players are constantly complaining about being misquoted or outright lied about. Where I heard it was on XM204 when Ken Holland himself came on the radio and said it was a 3-3 vote. Seeing as it was undecided they didn't think it was worth the hassle. That part of it, the article got right. But the propsosed deal was not accurate.