Hatcher#2

Yeah i was thinking that myself but it would be worth a try IMO.

Both would be great but i don't see Holland doing it. If it is Komisarek that Holland wants i wouldn't mind if he tried to get Garth Murray in that trade aswell. That way we have improved our grit in both positions without giving up too much either.

If the Wings don't win the cup this year I dont think Holland will sign them all again, especially if Babcock has a say in it.

Bootland will get his shot Barnes52, Nill mentioned both his and Kopeckys names as the next players to be called up depending on who is injured. The way Bootland is playing this year he is showing that he is ready for the Wings and i honestly believe he will be with the Wings next season.

Komisarek would be good but i would rather Holland went out and got Jim Vandermeer. I think Vandermeer would provide more to the Wings and he is $400,000 cheaper. Vandermeer can play in all situations and he would be the enforcer that has been missing since McCarty left.

Yeah your right RyanBarnes! but i think Angel might just stick around, he played for the Griffs in the pre season and he beat both BigSnake and Charpentier in both his fights at training camp. Ireland said he really liked what he saw from the big guy and from what i heard last night he took his chance. I don't know what happened with Jorde but from what i have heard he was a pretty slow skater and as for Charpentier he hurt his hand in a pre season fight for the Florida Everblades and he has had an operation on it and he has missed all the Everblade games so far this season. Ireland kept Amadio last season so hopefully he keeps Angel this season.

This description of the game was written by Stripe over at redwingscentral. Matt Ellis had a pair of goals, Tomas Kopecky had a goal and two assists, and Valtteri Filppula scored the decisive goal on the last round of the shootout to give the Griffins a 5-4 win over the Wolves. The game started with a nice presentation by the AHL to Clay Wilson for winning player of the week at the end of December. Matt Ellis got things rolling 28 seconds into the game, when he was the late man trailing Nate DiCasmirro to the net. DiCasmirro shot in on net and wristed a nice shot off the Chicago goalie. Ellis right behind him snared the rebound and roofed it stick side for his 11th of the campaign. Thw Wolves finally got on the board just under 10 minutes in when Ross batted the puck out of mid-air at the edge of the crease past a startled Howard, low, stick side. Bootland tried to go with wolves thug Billy Tibbets, but Tibbetts turtled and a frustrated Bootland got an extra 4 minutes. Of course, Chicago scored on one of the penalties, to take a 2-1 lead, Popovic scored his 6th. Captain Ellis tied things up with his second of the night on a rare powerplay shift in place of Bootland. (I didn't get to see this one thanks to the group of people in front of me going on a beer run while play was still on.) Shots on goal GR 8 - Chicago 13. Grand Rapids started the second period with a 2 man advantage, but was unable to capitalize. Just about 5 minutes in, Bootland crashed the net and got off a one-hander. Kopecky jumped around him and had a couple of quick whacks at the puck until finally forcing it past the outstrecthed cathing glove and into the net. The Griffins took a 4-2 lead a minute later when a fantastic individual effort by Himelfarb got the puck in deep and behind the net, leading to a heads up play by Oulahen to bang it home stick side. That spelled the end for Berkhoel, and Chicago put in goalie Barnett who shut things down the rest of the way. Bootland and Tibbetts going at it again, landing both back in the box. Himelfarb in alone on a breakaway, and the goalie just got enough of it to keep it out. Chicago scored their third goal off the rush. Howard was not hugging the post, and a laser by Stuart clinked off the post and into the net. Griffins coach Ireland was irate behind the bench slamming the door and yelling at the officials for an obvious missed call prior to the goal, right in front of the players bench that should have blown the play dead. The physical play really picked up at this point with gritty Greg Amadio smoking Tibbetts with a hard check along the end boards. Shots on goal GR 14-11 CHI. The Wolves tied things up in 3rd when Meech and Martens fell asleep and left Howard all alone for an easy score by Maloney. Newcomer Brett Angel making his Griffins debut got into a big fight with Lessard, and made short work of him. Shots on goal GR 11-9. The pace of the OT was torrid, and despite having a rare powerplay, GR could not score, forcing the shootout. Shots GR 5 -1 CHI For the Game GR 39-34 CHI. The wolves scored on their first shot of the shootout, while Kopecky and MacLean both missed. Then goals by Hudler, Manlow, and the winner by Filppula, offset a goal by Tibbetts. 5-4 win GR Lines: DiCasmirro - Ellis - MacLean Hudler-Manlow-McDonell Kopecky-Filppula-Bootland DiCasmirro/Kopecky-Oulahen-Himelfarb Amadio-Helmer Meech-Martens Wilson-#5 Angel Starter: Howard Backup: MacDonald PP: Manlow-MacLean-McDonell/Himelfarb Wilson/Hudler Ellis-Filppula-Kopecky Hudler-Helmer Filppula-MacLean-Bootland PK: DiCasmirro-Ellis Wilson-Helmer McDonell/Bootland-Manlow Meech-Amadio Observations: After taking a bad penalty in the first, Bootland looked like a player possessed. He crashed the net and played a hard game, very impressive. Tomas Kopecky also played with a lot of fire, and had several good chances. Nice to see that level of passion in his game. Eric Himelfarb looked like he has been shot out of a cannon all night, using his speed and incredible moves with the puck to gain possesion and make plays. Too bad he was not rewarded on the scoreboard for all that effort. Derek meech had another tough night, and is getting to be a nightmare in his own end. besides the ones that ended up in the net, he had a glaring give=away right in front of his own net where he sort of one-handed the puck right into the slot and onto the stick of a wolves player. He needs to bear down more. Brett Angel made his AHL debut and although he didn't play very much, held his own. A very big boy at 6-6 229, Angel won decisive bouts over Robin Big Snake and Bryce Charpentier at Griffins camp, and looked very mobile for a player his size. Jason "Stripe" Kasiorek

Yeah he fights, He fought the Wolves and former Nhl tough guy Francis Lessard tonight in his debut for the Griffins and he handled Lessard easily. Angel over powered Lessard and landed the only punches before he let up and let the refs come in. When both guys came out the box the Griffins bench stood up and showed Angel their appreciation by giving him some high fives. He finished the game with a +1 and played very solid in his own end.

I give credit to Kopecky, he has stepped up his game, but when things get ugly they all turn to Bootland to step up..physically speaking wise that is Exactly

Ok i misunderstood what you typed, now i agree with what you said but in terms of enforcing he has been their sole presence.

Ok gotcha, Barnesy also replied to you for me.LOL Bootland has been playing physical.

What does that mean?

What? He leads the team in fighting majors and is one off the league lead, who else has been more physical.

Thats what i was thinking and what i said above was the reason why i couldn't see how they had some of the guys who havent played in North America above a guy who has NHL experience.

It may be from Holland and thats what i would like to know, is it just the writers personal opinion or is it from Nill maybe.

How do they rank the prospect over at redwingscentral? because there is no way Bootland should be at 17, he is having a great year and they move him down to 17 from 16 last year. They posted an article the other day about how Bootland and Kopecky's next step is the NHL, but they have guys above Bootland in the prospect rankings who haven't even played a game in North America. Out of all the prospects in that list Bootland has the most NHL experience, he has even scored at the NHL level.

http://www.griffinshockey.com/newsroom/news/?id=4459 Barnes52 and a few others will like this guy

The two i would like from Edmonton are Raffi Torres and Jason Smith. Both these guys give the Wings what they need.

Thats fair enough and thats why i was hoping that the Wings would have signed Robin BigSnake this year to play in Grand Rapids, but the Griffs are the leading team in offence in the Ahl this year so they don't need more people to put points on the board, they needed a solid stay at home D-man and thats why they went out and signed Jorde.

He wasn't signed to put points on the board, he was signed to hit and protect his team mates and take some of the slack off of Bootland and Amadio.

Bootland did play well again, did you watch the game Barnes52, that was a sweet left Bootland landed on Aitken to send him down. The fight was over that quickly that refs didn't even see it so they gave them both double roughings.LOL

at that second video! Jorde looks like a tough kid though! About time the Griffins added some more muscle. I hope he stays around. LOL, tell me about it, that was some amature footage there. Yeah he is a tough kid and he is only 23 aswell.

Hatch..many thanks! By the way, I answered my own question about who he replaces, it seems the Griffs have been looking for veteran D-Men because they're running low. A couple of weeks ago the Griffs tried to bring Brad Norton over from Finland and they tried to keep it quite but the Binghamton Senators picked Norton up off waivers before he had a chance to play for the Griffs. I didn't mention this in case it was a mistake but the Jorde signing proves that it was true. This signing has been a long time coming for the Griffs. Amadio has been doing great in the fighting department this year but he knows his limits and this signing should help him and Bootland out a bit. This Hamilton game should be interesting tonight.

Hey B52, no i didn't see it but i was listening on the radio. Maybe the edger can clarify how bad it was but from what i heard on the radio this is what wen't down, Cote tried to swipe the puck out of Legace's glove with his stick once the play had stopped and a scrum started, Bootland went straight for Cote and both came out of the scrum with the gloves off and Bootland was teeing off on Cote with the left with pretty much everything landing, Cote tried a right but Bootland answered with a couple of upper cuts and then some more lefts to finish it. Kaser said it was a complete beating and that Cote would think twice about doing it again. Glad he's in the Minors, Detroit doesn't need a guy like that...right? No, Detroit has Mark Mowers.

Im not sure who he replaces Barnsey but check these out, Jorde vs Ettinger (AHL 02-03) http://rapidshare.de/files/8331699/Ettinge...er_vs_Jorde.wmv Jorde vs Sugden (AHL 03-04) http://rapidshare.de/files/8331854/Jorde_vs_Sugden.wmv ENJOY!!!