Hank

While his message lacks proper grammer and spelling and comes across as rather gruff, everything he said is bang-on. It's for all the above reasons that we will get our asses handed to us in the first round of the playoffs. We're a very easy team to push over. In fact, teams must love coming into Detroit because they know they're not going to have one extra bruise when they leave. Sure, we'll probably beat them, but games are 1000x different in the playoffs. It's about will over skill and our team lacks the former. We watched Philly smack our goalies and our players around without so much as sneezing in their direction. That game was like a playoff game with it's physicality and emotion. If lowly Philly can do that to the Wings what do you think San Jose or Nashville will do to us? Or Heaven forbid we ever meet the Ducks. We'll be hammered through the ice! This team lacks muscle and backbone. It's lacked it for years now and yet Holland continues to turn a blind eye while smiling endlessly at all the useless regular season accolades his team accumulates. The last three playoff exits indicate that we can no longer call it a stereotype. The way we lost in each year is for the exact same reasons. We're bullied onto the golf course. Sure, we always find a way to blame the goalie but we can't keep doing that when we lose games 1-0 or 2-1. Our offense is easily shutdown in the postseason because we have too many race horses and not enough work horses. And I'm sure this guy is bitter because his team hasn't done squat in 40 years. It's the reason why the Leafs put on useless 'celebrations' each year. Lets honour Bjorn Salming. Are you kidding? And now they're going to honour the 67 Cup winning team this year. They'll find any reason to celebrate something because they haven't been able to celebrate anything of signficance since before Disco. The Leafs organization and their fans are pathetic. Sure, we're a pile of p*ssies when it comes to playoff hockey these days but each playoff exit we've experienced over the past 4 years is made a touch easier from the 3 Cups I witnessed over a 6 year span.

I think the biggest worry considering Nashville's attendance this year is that they're having a fantastic year and they're selling less tickets than before. Hopefully a long playoff run or even advancing into round 2 would help.

Legionarre, youre right when you call Strachan a peice of crap. I don't know how this guy has kept a career considering that 90% of the 'facts' he spews are nothing but myths or half truths. I was listening to Open Ice last night and a number of people called in dispelling a lot of what he wrote in his article. Again, Strachan should not even be considered a journalist. He uses his forum as a pulpet for the PA and anything that stands in his way. If you gave him power over the NHL, the league would have 4 teams - LA, NY, Det and Philly. He only wants teams that have oodles and oodles of money so the average salary is $10,000,000. He is a players union slappy if there ever was one. P.S. Regarding the NHL's process of accepting expansion teams, please don't give the league that much credit. They barely look into anything that has to do with TV market, stability, fan base, etc. If you have the expansion fee up front, you're in. Read Phil Esposito's book "Thunder and Lightning"; it's actually quite scary how easy it was for them to get an Expansion bid despite the fact they had no guarenteed investors, no arena and very little tickets sold yet. So why did TB and Ottawa get a team? As Phil put it, they were the only two cities that had no problems paying the $50 million up front. All the other candidates refused to pay all of the money up front. Even Karmanos said that he would pay $25 mill right away with another $25 mil when certain measures were reached. If you look at Karmanos' resume compared to the Ottawa and TB parties, you would have laughed. Phil's book goes into Tampa Bay's journey into the NHL, "Road Games" goes into great detail regarding the Ottawa expansion. In both books you find out that the NHL is being run by mostly 'good old boys' that don't have the furthest clue about big business. In some cases, you wouldn't want one of these BOG's managing your sons piggy bank.

I just saw someone post an interesting fact on HFBoards. A professor of business did an independant study on the financial impact the Preds had on the city. Over the past 5 years, it has been estimated that the Preds have generated $470 million dollars to the city in form of services (restaurants, parking, shopping, etc.) Strachan is a NHLPA groupie who thinks the MLB system is a perfect one. You'll notice that in almost every article he goes out of his way to slam Bettman and the NHL with pro-union rhetoric. It says a lot when Strachan gets canned by the CBC while Don Cherry can remain employed while bashing anyone and anything that wasn't born in Ontario. P.S. I'm not saying that the Preds deserve to be in Nashville. Their attendance has been atrocious. But there's a reason why the city continues to support the franchise. Reasons that Strachan conveniantly turned a blind eye to in a weakly veiled attempt to do what he does best - trash the NHL. P.S.S. It should also be noted that Al Strachan resides in an apartment complex owned by super-agent Don Meehan. Leipold might be a Bettman slappy but Strachan is a NHLPA slappy to the 10th degree. I wanted to add another point to Strachan's propoganda. I love how he makes it sound as if Leipold was the one that shotdown the reform to change the current schedule. 18 other owners shot it down as well. Hardly one mans crusade to destroy the game of hockey. Almost every owner in the East didn't want the change.

Man, I love this post too! I was just talking to a colleague about the old 80's Wings team. We had guys like Snepts, Gallant, Norwood, Kocur and of course Probie. And even Dave Barr would throw them with bad intentions from time to time. If anyone looked at Stevie crosseyed they got a punch in the face. Cross the blueline and get a stick on the mouth. Nobody F'd with the Wings. Now we have a pile of panzy's that run for mommy the minute someone pushes us around. I mean, that was PHILLY for crying out loud that had their way with us. Chris Farley had an easier time behind the woodshed with the devil than the Wings had in the Spectrum last night. And you're absolutely right when you say that Holland doesn't give enough value to toughness and has neglected this obvious need for years now. Cory Cross? Are you kidding me? When the Wings won those Cups they might not have had a goon by tradional standards but they had guys like Shanny, McCarty and Lapointe that would stand up for their teammates. Now we have nobody. Watching the Flyers run our goalie time and time again without so much as a sneeze from the Wings made me sick. And you know that it made Babcock sick too. We're the biggest pile of Nancy's in the NHL and it should shock nobody when we get bullied out of the playoffs in round 1 again. Recipe for upsetting the Wings = physical play with aggressive forecheck on our old defense.

I was watching "That's Hockey!" on TSN last night and I thought I heard Bob MacKenzie say that St.Louis is packaging Guerin with another player and teams HAVE to take both of them. My 3 year old son was being roudy at the time so I didn't get a chance to hear who the other player was. And it might not have been an accurate report to begin with, but if it's true, that might take Detroit out of the running for Billy.

Good post. This team is almost identical in makeup to the ones that got embarrased in the past 3 playoff years. Just like you said, as soon as things get physical this team folds like a house of cards. It also doesn't help when we only have 1 line capable of scoring. And even on that line, only one player is the catalyst so if you cover Zetts you basically stop Detroit's entire offense. Dats has proven that he is ineffective as a point producer if he plays with subpar wingers or if his top sniper is guarded. Look at last year. So many people blamed Shanny for Datsyuk's poor performance but every team knows that if you take away Dat's main target you've nuetralized him from the game. Datsyuk cannot create produce goals without a sniper. And despite everyone hating on Lang the only thing this guy's been able to do this year is make perennial 4th liner Dan Cleary into a 20 goal scorer. This team needs grit and some heart if it's going to go anywhere in the playoffs. This is why I'm loathe to give up any picks or young kids to 'go for it'. Unless this team can bring in multiple players that can hit, compete and score, we're going nowhere. But if we are going to mortgage the future I hope we can pick up the following players: Guerin or Tkachuk, Roberts or Bertuzzi and Lapointe. I know people scoff at the idea of bringing Marty back but this dude is a playoff horse. He hits, competes, pays the price and he scores in the playoffs. Put him with Zetts and Dats and he'll clear enough room for both. Stick Guerin or Tkachuk with Lang and see what this guy can really do. Remember, he once nearly won the Art Ross trophy. Only the trade to Detroit stopped that. And if you put Roberts on the 3rd line you would get some scoring while adding a valuable leader with loads of heart and grit as well as another option on the PP. I'm excited for the future because the Wings finally have some North American kids in the cupboard that have some grit. Something this team has sorely lacked for years now. I would hate to see them get dealt for broken, former superstars who might spend an entire week with the team before he gets injured again.

Did anyone here on TSN last night regarding the going rate for Forsberg? The latest rumour has Nashville giving up at least ONE 1st round draft choice and Radulov. That is WAY too high in my opinion. If Forsberg was 100% healthy and had no history of injury problems then maybe. But if was Nashville, there's no way I'd do this.

But what did the Wings give up for him? Nobody from the main core. I would absolutely shocked if Holland dealt anyone that was a main component of this team. Outside of Kopecky, Franzen and maybe Hudler, he will not deal any of our top 9 forward and top 4-5 defenseman. The closest guy to the 'core' that might be dealt is Leilja. Lang will be employed by the Wings until June 30th. Anythings possible of course, but unless Lang is being a major pain in the dressing room or if Hollands gets a deal he simply can't refuse (eg. Lang for Souray), don't expect him to go anywhere.

If you know anything about the GTA it's that it only supports NHL hockey. The Roadrunners lasted one season. The Marlies draw very poorly and any other pro or semipro team to come through town has done poorly. But you can't argue the passion of the city for it's NHL team. Toronto and it's sister cities are no different than many NHL cities around the league. Look at Detroit; we call ourselves Hockeytown and yet we couldn't keep the Junior Wings around. It doesn't mean there isn't enough NHL fans in the area. Anyway, there was an article recently about all the money that is being held back in the GTA because not everyone can get Leafs tickets. Stories of people who have the money but can't get past the 5000 mark on the waiting list for the Leafs are rampant in the GTA. In the past, when expansion resumes were being taken by the league, Hamilton always shelled out the $100,000 non-refundable deposit to get in the running. And in each instance, the city immediately sold 14,000 seassons tickets. That's more than 20 of the current NHL teams right now. source - http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=179899&hubname= And the only team that would oppose it is Buffalo but rumours have it that the league would kibosh it. If not Hamilton then another team somewhere in Ontario would thrive.

If the last few games haven't screamed to Holland that we need some secondary scoring I don't know what will. If the top line isn't scoring, we aren't winning. We're a 1 trick pony at this point. The 2nd line, and even the 3rd line to a degree, need a scoring winger. Forget Forsberg. Go get Guerin and even Sanderson.

But he's in trouble this year. The NHL only gives out 'relief' to teams that are in small markets and who have a minimum avg. attendance of over a certain amount. Nashville is only averaging approx. 11,000 per game so they won't qualify for relief. It's time to move that team to a city that deserves and can support it. I think it's about time that Hamilton got an NHL franchise.

The first thing I think of is "Eklund". I wouldn't beleive Eklund if he told me Tuesday followed Monday. You have as much information and 'sources' at your disposal as he does. Think about it. Did he mention ONE thing about Stuart to Calgary or Nagy to Dallas? NO. In fact, I don't think Calgary even got a sniff on his "e-ratings" scale. The truth is, if a deal is going to be done, none of the parties will divulge any information. The rest is just hearsay from the water boys to the trainers. I agree. I heard that Ryan Suter is being used as bait to land a big forward for the Preds. How do the wings counter that? Maybe with Kindl. But I don't want to give up a potential top 4 dman (as early as next season) for an oft-injured forward who might only healthy enough for a cup of coffee. It also doesn't make sense to me for the Wings to pick up another playmaking centre over a goal scoring winger. Go after a top guy like Guerin or Tkachuk and then maybe some 2nd tier guys like Roberts, Sanderson or Kapenen.

Everytime I score I feel like a superstar. It was even better when my 3.5 year old son watched me a few weeks ago. He got so excited each time I went on the ice. He'd wave at me and yell "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!". If I got the chance to wave back he'd go bananas. It was awesome! And it totally made me feel like an NHLer for a few minutes in my life.

That's been the problem since day one with this 06-07 team. We have NO good wingers. We had to put two centres together to get any production going. I'm sure if Lang had Guerin along side him all year he'd be a completely different player. Man I wish Holland had listened to me and picked him up! He's on pace for over 30 goals. Just imagine what he could be doing playing with Lang, Zetts or Dats.

They're just rumours so who knows how much truth to it there is. I was listening to XM 204 and one of the analysts they had on there said he heard through the grapevine that Lang will not be signing with Detroit in the offseason because he doesn't like Babcock's style and would like to go to a team where he'd be the #1 centre and get a chance to really use his offensive skills. It really does sound like there's no way on this planet that Lang will be wearing #20 in Detroit next year.

But when were those moves performed? Either at the very beginning of the season or during the offseason. This gave the team almost an entire season to gel, not 6 weeks. And it was well known that Bowman wasn't a Coffey fan and Primeau wanted out. There was no choice but to move them. Name the last time Holland moved a top 6 forward or top 4 dman in February or later.

Unless Lang has been causing problems in the dressing room or with the coaching staff I'd be shocked if he was moved. Like him or not, he's a major cog on this team. Removing him so close to the playoffs could cause some serious damage to the teams chemistry. If the Wings were struggling I'd put more weight on this rumour but chances are we're going to grab one or two free agents while dealing players like Kindl and/or Hudler along with our 1st round pick and possibly others. If the Wings were able to get Forsberg and then deal Lang for a top pick and/or prosect which would then be used to get Guerin or Bertuzzi I'd love it. I just don't see it happening. Holland's MO is to NEVER mess with the teams makeup. Only add, never subtract major parts. There's an exception to every rule and perhaps the rumours about Lang wanting to leave after this year will force a deal. But I don't see it happening.

You can have a roster of 9 players and it costs $1800. I'd definately do this but I don't have 8 other buddies that would blow $200 US for this. We should put in a LGW team. http://www.detroitredwings.com/wings/article.jsp?id=4764

I'm like you Inultus, I didn't start playing hockey until I was a lot older than most. Growing up in Canada that means anything over 10 years old. My family was always a baseball family and truth be told my father, who was a huge Habs fan, didn't want his boys playing hockey because at the time of our birth goon hockey took over the sport and the Habs weren't as dominant. Anyway, while all my friends grew up playing since they were 3 I didn't fall in love with the game until I was 13. I played 2.5 years of house league before retiring to pick up games. But eventually, after college was done and I started working, I got asked to join a mens beer league. I actually had a pretty good year. I scored close to a goal a game and maybe finished with 50 points in 25 games or so. But anyway, we're in the playoffs and in the semifinals. We're down a goal with about 1:10 left in the third period. The puck goes into their zone and our goalie heads to our bench for the extra man. I hop over the boards just as the opposition steals the puck and tries to shoot the puck into the extra net. I get to it just in time and I catch almost everyone on the ice flatfooted. I blow by all the forwards who are still headed the other way, make a move on one dman and then cross the blueline with only 1 guy to beat. He's still slightly flatfooted so I make a head fake to the left and then cut to the right leaving him far behind. With a full head of steam and after cutting to the right, the goalie follows me that way. I let go a hard snap shot along the ice back the opposite way. The puck clinks off the post and IN!!! I'm going crazy and so are the guys on the ice. Too bad the official blew the play down from offsides. I don't know if there was something wrong with this whistle because nobody heard it. We end up losing the game and we're bounced from the playoffs. Afterwards, the guys on the bench said it was a close play but one of our guys was still caught in the zone and took his sweet ass time getting out. He was offside by maybe a foot or less. I know, this isn't really a great story because it ended badly but any other goal I've scored wasn't that big of a deal.

Hahahaha! You sound pretty upset about those little bastards. I played in a tourny last year where a number of teams in our divsion had full custom uni's complete with original logo and names on the back. Talk about taking it a bit seriously. What was embrassing for them was that we were in a 20+ division despite having an average age of 32. And most of the guys on our team only played house league hockey and yet we were able to beat them. Our defense was especially old but very, very good. One guy is in his 40's and I swear he could outskate most Junior Tier II players today. Anyway, one guy on their team was 4 months removed from his OHL career. He was an extremely high draft pick in the OHL and yet he didn't stand out in the least out there. Or at least to the degree that his level of playing should have dictated. It was so bad that our 40+ Dman said to him during the handshakes "You should be embarassed". Turns out the two kind of knew each other but he was right. For the level that this kid played, playing agianst a bunch of houseleaguers 10 years his seniors he should have dominated.

Why don't you send me the money and I'll record the memories for you?

I'd be more interested to see if I could outskate Larry Murphy. Even though he might have been the slowest guy in the league I'd bet anything he could beat most regular joes in a foot race.

I agree. Although I'll probably have to steal the money to make it there. I'm still surprised there aren't more people here who would be interested. I've left a message at the number they supply. I'm really hoping I can round up 8 other guys to do this.

I'd love to do this too. I can't really afford it but it's an opportunity I wouldn't want to pass up. Too bad I don't know 8 other diehard Wings fans who would be willing to pony up $200 US. Imagine if Stevie got added to the list? I'd pay all $1800 myself!