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He went into the boards really awkwardly. It was like his skate was going in backwards but he was twisted so his leg hit the boards sideways. Never good when your leg bends like that. I still think it's a good sign he put as much weight on his right leg as he did. If you just blew out your knee, you aren't putting that much weight on it in most cases.

Yeah, we need Babcock to go over there and tell Quinneville that his dad would be very disappointed in him for that quote. I miss the good ole days of this rivalry.

Yup. The good news was it looked like he was putting weight on his right knee (and when the ref came over to him, it looked like he was putting all his weight on his right leg). That doesn't mean it isn't hurt, but it's a good sign nonetheless. He probably tweaked it a little, got his bell rung, and they're keeping him out as a precaution.

Pssh! Downey has a couple more before he gets tossed If Lappy is still in the game after those (say he gets a roughing double minor like Mac did ) then Drake can have a go. It's too bad the Avs suck. If we saw them in the playoffs after this, it could rekindle the rivalry. We need a goalie fight in there somewhere too.

Holy crap, we scored even strength!!!!!! This slump is nothing that playing Jose Theodore can't fix

That commercial is great!

It is kind of funny that as bad as everyone feels right now, and as bad as the team has played lately, we're only a couple bounces away (and a bad call) from being close to .500 over this stretch instead of 0-5-1. We're gonna be just fine, whether it turns around tonight or not. The defense will improve, we'll get Cleary, Hasek, Raffy and Kronner back, Kenny will get us a couple of scorers and we'll be ready to lock and load

I haven't tried it tonight since I get Versus, but if you use Firefox try using MSIE. It's also possible the stream isn't up yet I guess... The site worked for me during World Juniors, and I know there was something goofy about it--I think it was that I had to use MSIE. Hopefully that works for you. The quality was GREAT during the WJC.

Refusing to play in the AHL was "Trying for the NHL"? I'd be shocked to see him back across the pond again. I could be wrong, but I'd be really surprised if we hear from him again. And if there is a chance he could come back over here and be an NHL player, we'd probably be smart to keep him, since I imagine he has next-to-no trade value at this point. Talking in general again, and not just at the quoted poster: I just don't see us getting anything for guys like Meech, Sammy, Grigorenko, Ellis, Downey, etc. There's a reason we don't mind giving people like that up. They're a dime a dozen (or in Grigs case, he hasn't proven to be worth a damn, and it's questionable if he'll come back). Even if Montreal wants to give Ryder away, I have to believe they'd be able to do better than Samuelsson in return. Even a 3rd round pick has more value at this point. And I'd do a third for Ryder in a heartbeat. Which means they probably wouldn't. You can't exclude our top 8 prospects, pretty much everyone from the roster and expect to land anything at the deadline. To me, Howard should be the only untouchable. I know they like Ericsson and Kindl has potential even though he's been crap this year, but these aren't really the type of players who are can't miss and should be excluded from every trade proposal. If it's the right guy, they should be willing to deal. I don't want to see Holland go Colorado and move every decent prospect we have, but it's not like we're trading Malkin here. Most of these guys--the forwards especially--are very replaceable. I don't want to see us pass up a chance to upgrade our team because we're scared to move Justin freaking Abdelkader. Some of these guys are decent-to-good prospects, sure. Trade value? They probably have some. But they aren't guys who we can't afford to give up. Especially if you're one of those people that things Holland is an amazing GM...Since we'll clearly be able to replace them at the drop of a hat. We've got a pretty darn good team, but they clearly need help up front. We can't be scared to deal because Shawn Matthais might turn into a player. We were a couple bounces away from probably winning the Cup last year. We've got a good shot this year, and with the right moves it could become a really great shot. This is a team that's in its window for winning a Cup--and probably toward the end of that window, though people have thought that for years--you can't be scared to take a shot. I'd much rather slightly mortgage the future and take a REAL run at this thing than keep my fingers crossed, hope we can pull it off, hope some of the prospects we wouldn't deal actually pan out.

Alright I've been thinking about it...I like the idea of getting Prospal and I think Fedorov could help us for a relatively low price. So you do: Hudler + pick for Prospal picks/prospects for Fedorov If McCarty keeps doing well, sign him and waive/send down Drake, Downey, Ellis, whoever What round the picks are and who the prospects are are fairly insignificant to me per my above post. Prospal adds a Datsyuk-like dimension to the second line (not really comparing the two, but Prospal has been a point-a-game player three times) without requiring ZDH being split up to do that. Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Cleary-Prospal-Sammy Flip-Fedorov-Franzen McCarty-Draper-Maltby If you'd prefer to move Franzen or Flip to the second line and drop Sammy that's cool, but I kind of like that third line's scoring & defensive ability. And since we bring back old players, might as well reunite the old-school Grind Line. I think the defense will ultimately be fine. I wouldn't say no to adding Stuart or Modry (a + on the Kings playing almost 20 minutes a night...can't be too bad!) since Kronwall will probably get hurt again anyway, but once everyone comes back I think our defense is fine. And Quincey did an admirable job in the playoffs last year, so we know he could be thrown in in a pinch. My dream scenario is still Minnesota tanking and trading us Rolston but I doubt it happens. I'm really warming to the idea of Prospal. And again, if Montreal is looking to give Ryder away, I'd take him in a heartbeat.

I really like the idea of Prospal. I don't think Gratton is anything great, plus he'd fall under the "no player can play for the Wings and Avs and be remotely useful" corollary. But I could live with him too. I don't think the proposed trade gets it done, but at least you don't have us giving up 14 draft picks in the deal. If the Habs are looking to give Ryder away, I'd take him in a second even though he hasn't done anything this year. BTW, your sig could use some updating. At least 2 of those things have flipped... Random thought out of me that has nothing to do with the quoted post: When the window is open, you have to take a shot. I'd much rather mortgage the future somewhat and give ourselves a better chance to win now. There's no "can't miss" prospect in this organization (even Kindl has been far and away the worst player on GR in terms of +/-). I realize that in the new NHL players on rookie contracts are important, but I have a really hard time believing that Justin Abdelkader isn't replaceable. Especially since the Wings are apparently the best drafting team evar! Howard is probably the only prospect that I wouldn't be willing to trade. Not that I'd get crazy and move all of them or anything, but losing a Kindl, an Emmerton, it's really not going to set this organization back years. Especially if you get a guy in the deal that you can keep. Anything that significantly increases our chance of winning the Cup this year, I'm all for it. Meaning the above doesn't apply to getting Brad Stuart. Not to turn this into a goalie thread, but that is absolutely false. October and November, Osgood was clearly better. For most of December, Hasek was better but both were playing pretty darn well. Christmas til now, Hasek has been clearly better--and by about the same margin that Osgood was better at the start of the year.

Go #29!

Wow did we just make it two whole periods without giving up a goal?

For a young defenseman getting thrown in during the playoffs, that means he was impressive.

What brought that on a month and a half later?

Aww crap. My bad.

They probably should get a top-notch goalie....

I kind of like when Howard plays. Everyone can root for him And he's kind of bad-ass.

I kind of like when Howard plays. Everyone can root for him And he's kind of bad-ass.

If we scored 12 goals a game we'd be unstoppable too. Maybe we should add a bunch of top notch scorers. Fact is, until this little regression, Osgood had the top save percentage in the NHL. Hasek's is still not good because he got himself behind the 8 ball early in the season. But he's been stellar for the last two months, Toronto game aside. And quite honestly, I don't much care if our goalies ARE only posting great numbers because our defense has been so good. Know why? Because this is the defense we're going to have in the playoffs. And if Dom is giving up 1.5 goals per game behind the Wings defense, but he would give up 3 behind any other defense (extreme example), I'm still happy as hell. Because he plays for the Wings.

Oh, and for the record, the reason our goalies never make 40 saves is because we never allow that many shots. You can only stop the shots you face and our guys are pretty damn good at doing that. And FTR, we've given up 40 shots this year 1 times. And we won. We've given up 30+ shots an additional 7 times. And we're 6-1 in those games. s***. Maybe that's NOT the problem....

Hmm, you should probably call Holland and tell him to go acquire one of those top-notch goalies at the deadline. Think anyone is looking to deal one? Crap.

Don't the Wings slump pretty much every year in February? This isn't a major shocker. At least Howard looks really good. It sucks that Ozzie had to get the hook for him to get in there, but I'm glad we're getting a look at Jimmy. We really suck right now. BTW, they said on the telecast that Downey has been pretty sore lately and that's why he's not in. And uhh...congrats to Dom for taking the league lead in GAA, I guess.

Unfortunately it's about as big of a surprise as snow being white or water being wet. We should really start calling him Mr. Glass like Samuel L. Jackson's character in Unbreakable.

I'm just saying, we scored twice yesterday. How does that invalidate the idea that our second line needs help? I'm not saying we couldn't use more toughness on the blueline, but the idea that anyone clamoring for some secondary scoring needs to eat crow because Franzen knocked one in is asinine. Flip's been invisible for a month. Babcock was scared to play Hudler in the playoffs just a year ago. Sammy sucks. Luckily we'll have Cleary back, but our "Top 6" is more like a top 4. And Zetterberg has back troubles. Lidstrom went a whole month without being credited with a hit. It might be a nice ideal that he put the guy on his ass, but it's just not going to happen. For all the talk about how we'll get rolled if we don't get some toughness, we gave up one goal yesterday on a play that maybe could've used it (But with Lidstrom, he's just not going to plant the guy). The bigger problem? We only scored 2. The scoring has been a huge problem as of late, particularly when Hasek's been in net (and I don't mean that in a "let's start a war" way...the numbers are pretty clear cut. Why that is, I have no idea). They've only scored 24 goals in his last 10 starts, and 6 of those came against San Jose. So you're talking 2 goals average over the other 9. I fail to see how that's not an issue.