datsyukismyfriend

are tickets still available?

or we never had him to begin with... dun-dun-duuun :whoa:

great and interesting read. as long as it was i wish it was longer. such a great insight. we're lucky to have ownership and a management team like we have. they're so committed to excellence. that's why the wings have been the team they've been for so long. yeah, and i'm sure there's a lot more they can't say regarding how they got those guys over here.

yeah, my excitement for grigorenko is pretty much gone. i didn't see much of him, but what i did see was disappointing to say the least. to not even show up to camp in-shape for basically the biggest tryout of your career says a lot about your character. hopefully he'll turn it around with a few weeks in gr, but from what i've seen so far i doubt it. if he doesn't then good riddance.

datsyuk already got the A if somebody went down, i think. maybe chelios did first, but datsyuk was either first or second in line in the event of an injury. anyway, we just have different opinions, no sense beating this into the ground.

i obviously don't know what goes on in the locker room or on the bench but on the ice datsyuk is a leader. his work ethic his team play his dedication. all of that. players see that. when you see the leader of your offense putting forth the effort and working hard and sacrificing and involving everybody in the play, it's likely a guy you'll follow. he'll get respect on skill alone and he'll drive with example. true he doesn't speak english well, but that doesn't mean he can't be a good leader. i for one like the idea of sharing the wealth. not that i think datsyuk is more deserving than either of our current alternates, but i think he's deserving. so is chelios by the way. the only difference is that chelios is winding down whereas datsyuk is the present and the future. this move isn't a slight against z and draper. it's not because they weren't great alternates last season. it's a positive thing. it's not a move meant the show that draper and zetterberg aren't capable, it's a move to show that datsyuk is.

like i said, it's a compromise. datsyuk deserves it. so do draper and zetterberg. i'm sure draper and zetterberg aren't crying over not getting the A every third game.

i think it's a good decision. datsyuk is cornerstone of this team. he'll likely be red wing for life. he's lead the wings in points the last three years and he's a team player. he definitely deserves the a. at the same time so do draper and zetterberg. so i think this is a good compromise. datsyuk should have it and neither draper or zetterberg should lose it, hence the rotating.

good decision

well that sucks

my center ice feed just cut out

i love this center ice online!! i hope they do the preseason free every year.

downey gets his ass kicked way more than he kicks an ass. though it would be nice to have somebody stick up for our boys, i don't think downey is gonna scare too many people.

and shot 3 times as much i've got a hard-hitting body i definitely don't see filppula getting 50 to 70 points this year.

what's the nhl network?

i don't think it was saying that the team is better off with our yzerman and shanny at all. it simply says that the wings had rather big shoes to fill at the beginning of last season and they figured out a way to get it done and carry on the wings great winning tradition. good article, i thought.

does anybody know if all the preseason games are on that site?

wow, this is sweet. are all preseason games on that site?

when kronwall's been healthy he hasn't come close to amazing. kronwall's been mediocre at best to this point in his career. he has potential for sure. but loads of guys have potential. it's whether they can put it all together. and more often than not guys with potential can't quite put it all together. if kronwall can get it figured out he could be a good top 4 guy, absolutely. but i haven't seen evidence that he can put it all together at the nhl level. aside from his propensity for injury, he makes a lot of big mistakes defensively and has done next to nothing on offense. if kronwall gets it all together i will be the first to jump on his "bandwagon", trust me, but until he does, potential doesn't mean dick.

i won't miss schneider too much. truth be told i was getting a little sick of him being out of position on defense and i was very very sick of his worthless shots from the point. rafalski will make up for schneider's points and will more than make up for his defense. our offense may just benefit a little as well without 5 to 10 shots flying into the goalies chest from the blue line every night.

i think offense is definitely our weak spot. i wish holland would have done something to address this. i was excited to see what bertuzzi could do when 100% and more comfortable with his role here. and losing lang hurts, too. although i'm glad to see him go and certainly wasn't his biggest fan while he was here, he was a shoe-in for at least 50 points a season, and right now we have nobody to replace that. hopefully the kids can step it up, but right now we're a one line team that will be shut down. we were pretty much a one line team last year and we've lost our two best offensive producers from that line. and if dats and z are split up we are kind of like a 2 half-line-team , which isn't any better. i think we'll have a good team, but unless some young guys are able to step up in a big way, i don't think we'll seriously challenge for the cup with this lineup.

yo

cool, thanks for the link. chelios is the man!

kronwall's been a disappointment thus far to say the least. people claim that he's unlucky or has the injury bug, but that's not it. he's a reckless player. you can play like he plays when you're the size of, say, chris pronger, but kronwall plays much too big and reckless for his size. i'm guessing he'll have a career full of season ending injuries. that little nugget coupled with his piss-poor decision making and not much offensive upside that i saw at all, and he's not anything i expected or hoped he'd be. only ellis, maltby, and kopecky had worse =/- than kronwall this year. none of that matters because nobody's going to take him off our hands right now for anything we'd want. all that said, he does show flashed of big offensive potential (i haven't seen too many flashes of big defensive potential, however, other than the occasional open-icer), so you never know, he definitely could still turn things around. he just needs to tighten up his decision making in both offensive aggression and physicality, big time. and, as others have said, the wings brass has quite a bit of faith in him, and they certainly are a better gauge for potential or talent than i am, so they probably know what they're doing.

so then go back to the ducks board.