Packer487

There's an "Anti Hasek Society" or whatever on this site who seem pretty convinced that he's done. Kick him out of the Joe and bar the door. I just find it amusing considering how piss poorly their guy played for a season and a half before getting hooked up to the rejuvenation machine. I've said all along, someone just doesn't lose it like that. Hasek was very good last season, he was very good in the playoffs, damn near won another Stanley Cup (I'm sure I'll get an argument from you on that, but it's cool...we've both got our own position on that one)...he didn't just forget how to play goal or become too old in a four month span. I'm sure his team would be the first to tell you that they hung him out on a lot of occasions (those short-handed breakaways against Chicago, wide portions of the St. Louis game, etc.) He's going to be fine, and he's showing some definite signs of pulling out of the slump he's been in. Those numbers over the last 6 games are very good against some pretty darn good hockey teams. It's been pretty incredible the hate that a lot of people have been spewing at Hasek. It's not even like he did anything wrong this time like come out of retirement to push Ozzie out of the starting job. He just didn't play very well at the start of the year. It happens.

Psst. In his last 6 games, he's 5-0-1 with a 1.78 gaa and a .913 save percentage and 1 shutout. He's coming around. Over the last 6 games for Osgood, he too is 5-0-1, with a 1.97 gaa and a .927 save percentage. And before I get the "Who has Dom played' argument that I know is coming from someone: Yes he played LA and Washington, who are the two worst teams in the league, but he also faced Carolina (T-2 in the East), Minnesota (T-3 in the West, T-4th in the league), and Montreal who is in the playoffs as the 6 seed in the East, 2 points out of second. Osgood has had 5 of the 9 worst teams in the league over that span, plus Calgary, who would be in the playoffs (and would be tied with the likes of Carolina in the East). I guess the point I'm trying to make is that both our goalies are pretty goddamn good. The second goal last night sucked, but Hasek played just fine. Absolutely no chance on the first goal, stopped a breakaway early on, and had a few other really good saves. You can't completely ignore past history when discussing these guys. Yes, if Dom was a rookie he would be on the bench given how well Osgood has played. But he's arguably the best to ever play the game. He's more than earned the right to play through his troubles. And he's been just fine over the past six games, no matter how much people may want to say otherwise. I just think it's funny that people are convinced that a goalie can't improve throughout the season. Osgood sucked for a year and a half before he turned it on around the midpoint of last season, and he's been great this year.

That C looks so nice back on the correct side of the jersey! I'm excited to head back to Michigan for Christmas. I'm gonna have to drop by The Goalies Den. I haven't been in there in a couple of years. I used to live in that store since I worked in that same complex.

Hooray for the Fox Sports re-air at 2 in the morning. Now all I have to do in order to watch the game and actually care about is it to avoid seeing a scoreboard or ticker for 8 hours once the game starts. Easy right? Especially since I'll be watching the Pistons game on ESPN. God damn you Gary Bettman.

It gets even better when you look back at the QB breakdown. JaMarcus Russell? Totally better than Favre. I've been scared to comment on it too much, for fear of jinxing things, but this thread is an absolute classic

I can vouch for the Goalies Den being great. I've gotten at least 4 jerseys done there (Doug Brown, Tomas Holmstrom, Hasek, and my Jack Johnson USA jersey) and they've always been outstanding. For some reason I don't have the pictures of the Johnson on my computer anymore, but they've always been great. Toying with the idea of getting an Edmonton third jersey off ebay and getting the Goalies Den to put Comrie 89 on the back. I've always wanted one of those....

Fun game, it was nice seeing the Caps. Maybe we can do it again in 3 or 4 more years :-P Great save at the end of OT on Ovechkin. How exactly do you lose that guy in that situation.... I wonder if they saw something on film about Kolzig in shootouts? All three guys went to the same spot. Datsyuk's was just too easy. The other two were great shot fakes. Nice to have Homer back. I love 96.

It's fine to type it that way, but I don't think the announcer should refer to a power play as "a PP". Because when you say "We'll be back with the Wings' PP after this" it just sounds like you're a really kinky play by play guy.

Way to make em pay boys. I said "Goal" as soon as that puck left Datsyuk's stick headed for Zatta. Downey/Brashear would be fun. Hopefully it happens.

It's Dom's fault. He's not as good as Ozzie at head-manning the puck.

I'd agree that the first one was on the weak side. That said, Ovechkin with that much time to shoot--even from the top of the circle--isn't a situation I want to see us in. No way to blame him on the second one. Which is unfortunate, because I'm sure some people would love to. Kronwall probably should've gone and gotten the puck rather than hit the guy that had already been checked....

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Santa is going to bring me an Amir Johnson jersey in 8 days. I love that kid...been hyping him since the first game he played in the Summer League. It still blows my mind that they didn't activate him for the playoffs last year. Like we couldn't have used his athleticism and energy at some point? He throws down dunks, he blocks a ton of shots. No, you aren't going to play him 30 minutes in a playoff game, but he could've been good for a couple plays to get the crowd back in it or gain some momentum. But then again, our coach is the same guy that thought it was a good idea to have Hamilton and Billups on the bench to start the fourth quarter in a tied elimination game, when they essentially had 2 halftimes due to clock problems... I'm loving Maxiell too.

You know, if the Lions were going to lose 10 games again this year, they at least should've had the decency to not get off to such a hot start, so we could've been treated to the Fire Millen chants and signs showing up all over the nation at different venues. That was one of the great developments of last year. Nothing like flipping on a freaking Arizona Diamondbacks game and seeing a "Fire Millen" sign in the front row behind home plate. I wonder if there's going to be a campaign for people to wear red to next weekend's game like there was with Cincy & orange a couple years ago. I'm not a Lions fan--and I say this without any sarcasm whatsoever...I truly feel bad for you guys. The city of Detroit has great fans, and you deserve a lot better than this mickey mouse organization. It's amazing that they still sell out games with the turd sandwich they've been asking you all to choke down for the last 50 years (with a few exceptions). It speaks to the quality of fans in Michigan.

Mallett would be fine in a spread offense. He just wouldn't be good at running the spread option. His high school ran a form of the spread. Put him in the shotgun (which he's used to), spread the defense out, and have McGuffie and Carlos Brown available to run, and we're going to be a fun team to watch. RRod has had pass-first offenses before too--he doesn't always need a mobile QB. Though we'll start looking at em now. But Pryor would be huge for the future. I'm just geeked that our defense will be seeing the spread in practice every day. Theoretically that'll help em stop it finally.

I love the thought of the spread offense coming to Michigan--especially since we just hired the guy that invented the current form of it. Great hire, thanks to Mary Sue Coleman for taking the reigns on this one. Supposedly Les Miles was going to meet with MSC and Bill Martin on Thursday but decided that there was nowhere they could meet where it wouldn't leak out--and he couldn't afford to have that happen. But it does sound as if he as still in play after the title game. Really, really nice hire though. It's a hard offense to stop and he'll be able to get some athletes at Michigan. McGuffie is a great fit, and if he can bring in Terrelle Pryor....man. And though they don't traditionally have a great defense at WV, they were #4 this year. I'm happy, happy, happy about this. And now I can have my life back, since I won't be hitting F5 at The Wolverine over and over all week.

Another historic day for the best QB in the history of the league: He now holds the all-time passing yardage record. Congrats to Brett, and to the Packers for locking up a first round bye in the playoffs. That'll be HUGE for their chances. Not a pretty game today--and they finally were on the receiving end of some bad calls--but despite giving up a slew of yards, getting outgained, losing the turnover battle, and getting smoked in time of possession, they still won going away. If Philly doesn't beat Dallas today, we can pretty much concede the battle for homefield (Thanks Lions) and focus on getting healthy and correcting mistakes heading into the playoffs. BTW, I'm really encouraged that after years without having a legit threat in the return game, it appears we've got a bevy of talent there. Robinson was great on kickoffs today, Williams has looked good on them, Blackmon has been effective returning punts (and he hasn't gotten a shot on KOs yet--he was GREAT on them in college and had the job won in training camp before he got hurt), and Woodson is solid back there. Kind of nice.

It's truly amazing to me that after all that talk about how GB couldn't run the ball, they very possibly will have a 1,000 yard rusher. Ryan Grant only needs like 260 yards the rest of the season to reach the mark--like 84 yards a game or something. That kid has been unbelievable. Since he entered the lineup against Denver, he leads the NFL in rushing, and the Packers have been like #12 in the league at running the ball. Just another weapon for an already dangerous offense!

Oh good! That thread like disappeared and I was wondering what happened. Congrats--that's really cool that things ended up working out!

I like the idea just because they HAVE to have a game or two at Ford Field before the Frozen Four to make sure they know what they're doing. It'd be better to have it at the Big House, but FF needs to host a game. Eventually they'll have one at the Big House, I'm sure. I'll also be curious to see how the ice holds up for two games...

Tech's goalie is sweet. I don't know why they've been playing Nolan so much. Anyway, they've been struggling a little bit lately, only winning two of their last nine. Unless Teslak gets hot and steals one, I see another Michigan/MSU championship game.

Is that the dude from the gym you posted about awhile back, or someone else? Never heard what happened with that! Yeah braces suck. I think I had mine for like 3+ years. Red and white from January through June, green and gold the rest of the time! I wanted to kill myself every time they tightened those damn things.

We lose 4 this year: Max Pacioretty, Matt Rust, and Chris Summers for the USA and Carl Hagelin will play for the Swedish team. I still think it's high time that they sack up and win the tournament. We've got our two best forwards in Porter & Kolarik, Mitera is there with the rest of the defense corps, and we have Sauer. Caporusso will be back from injury so we should be able to have a nice second line with him, Palushaj and Miller/Turnbull. The third and fourth lines will be weaker than normal, but they have more than enough talent to get two wins. I'd love to have the whole team though.

The Browns will put the 1st and 3rd tender on him. And it'd be pretty hard to draft a WR in the first round if they traded their pick! Seriously though, don't the Browns HAVE to keep Anderson and look into moving Quinn? Sometimes the guy you're grooming isn't as good as the proven guy you're pushing out the door. I think San Diego learned that lesson. How long has it been since the Brizzowns have had a QB? It'd be stupid to finally trade a pretty good one in hoping that they hit on Quinn as well... I'd be surprised if Shaun Rogers has very much market value considering he's oft-injured and generally thought of as a slacker. Assuming that mock is completely correct and the Lions need to go from 17 to 6 to get Long (I think he goes well before that personally--the Rams would be fools to pass him up after what Pace's injury did to their line), they would have to give up the #17 pick plus the equivalent of 650 points on the Pick Value Chart (which by itself is the 28th pick). You'd probably be talking this year's #1, next year's #1 (which is the equivalent of a 2nd rounder this year), another pick this year + Rogers to move up that far. It's harder if you think Long goes top 3--even if the Lions lose out and draft like 12th they'd still have to make up a 1000 point gap.

It should be a fun tournament. Even though Michigan is losing 4 guys to World Juniors (again), at least we have our three best skaters, our whole defense corps (since Summers is a forward now), and our goalie, who has been strangely amazing this year--who saw that coming? Plus we have 4 of the 5 guys on our top power play... The depth takes a hit, and our fourth line is going to be useless, but I still think we can finally win one of these damn things. Caporusso coming back from injury will help out as well. Never in my wildest dreams could I have expected 16-2-0 before the GLI. Shoot, we've almost got a tourney bid locked up and the season's only half over!

Lions: 1st round: Mario Manningham 2nd round: Devin Thomas You know it's happening. Think about how sick it would be to come out in the first-ever six WR set. Williams, Johnson, Furrey, McDonald, Manningham, Thomas. Who could handle that? I don't see the Packers drafting a RB in round 1 with the emergence of Ryan Grant, who leads the NFL in rushing over the past 7 weeks or something. Especially with all those corners still on the board.