Aussie_Wing

Our PP makes me cry.

Not a great 1st period, how bad is our PP? Did anyone else notice Ritola's great stickhandling just before May dropped the gloves? Very impressive, was about to set up a qaulity scoring chance.

I've been very wary of expecting too much from him in this tournament. Everyone seems to be talking him up so much, expecting him to absolutely dominate this tournament. Yes he should be successful but lets not put too much pressure on a kid who's just turned 19. Still very young and the way people have been hyping him up it's as though he should be scoring a hat-trick every game. Was quiet against the US and rebounded with a 3 point night tonight. I just want to see him score a few goals and give Slovakia a chance of claiming a medal.

Ritola is more skilled than Abdelkader, better at holding onto the puck and controlling the play but Abdelkader has the higher upside. Ritola is a poor man's Filppula; skillful, a good skater and defensively sound but for one reason or another the points don't seem to come. And like Flip, he doesn't shoot enough. I see him as having 3rd line upside, and a 20 point guy in the NHL. Abdelkader projects as a 20-20 type guy IMO. Not as skillful but more of a crash and bash, garbage type goal player.

Tomas Tatar has a goal and assist in the 1st, although they're not up against top quality you could say...

Thanks for that. He's a very good prospect that's for sure. Having a good season in the QMJHL, 37 points in 33 games (slowed down a bit before the WJC) and good to hear he's producing on his biggest stage yet.

Well another loss, one win from their past 5 games. Kindl the lone goal scorer in a 5-1 loss, but Kindl was -3. A mess right now. Need Janik and Tatar back ASAP!

Lets hope Ritola does play! This game will be on HD so I'm pumped to see Flip and Mattias!

Bertuzzi sure is racking up the GWG's. Datsyuk had a good game, Helm and Eaves were good too. Filppula got better as the game wore on, played well, would've loved him to score on that EN.

Only 1 year? I'm actually surprised he re-signed. How much money?

Great defence/goaltending. Larsson came in and has given up 2 goals on 5 shots. Griffins down 6-3. Another loss upcoming.

After 1 period, Griffins down 4-2. Yeah, 4 goals conceded after 20 minutes. McCollum in net. The only good news is that the goals are: 1. GR Mursak, (12) (Kindl), 4:15 1. GR Ritola, (8) (Emmerton), 5:42 Jan! Good to see Ritola score after being sent down.

I actually like 'em! Flip!! Welcome back man! His return gives us so much more flexibility, we badly needed another strong centre after Hank went down.

^ That's Kindl too. Nicely done by the Broadcast. Ritola is a decent prospect, just needs more time. I'm disappointed he was only here for one game, prefer him over May.

I'm really wondering why Babcock even bothered to dress Ritola and Kindl if both were only going to play such few, pointless minutes.

No way we win this unfortunately. Look at their line-up, then look at ours. I can't see this going any other way than a Hawks victory, say 3-1.

This news has made my day, truly. Filppula back on ice for the Wings, just lovely. We were going okay until Zetterberg went down, that's when things really started to get ugly line-up wise. Filppula's addition will be a major boost to the overall strength of this team. I hope people don't expect too much too soon though, he'll be rusty, give him time to re-gain his A game. In saying that, Filppule of any sort is good news for this team. Welcome back Flip!

Honestly, reading through this thread, I highly doubt half of you have even seen Ritola play, certainly judging by a few of the descriptions of him as a player. He is NOT soft, he plays a reasonably physical game actually. He'll constantly hit opponents into the boards and if the opening presents itself he'll certainly take the oppertunity. He'll foreheck and backcheck very well and he would comfortably lead the Griffins in takeaways. Beautiful puck control, good defensively (despite his +/- stat) and is highly skilled. Doesn't shoot the puck enough, and is sometimes prone to giveaways when he holds onto the puck too much. However overall he's a skilled guy with decent size who plays on both the PK and PP with the Griffins. Excited by this move, quite pumped actually. One of my favourite prospects who has a terrific attitude.. And I see one or two posters have called for Emmerton, yeah, because his one assist and -6 in the past 11 games is inspiring.

RIIIIIITOLA!!!! So pumped about this! He's a highly skiller guy who needed a shot to try and jump start his season a bit.

For those who are missing/listed twice ect in the standings, don't panic. My computer has had a fit so I had to work up the standings on a different computer in a way I've never done before. I still have my spreadsheet and have all the results from week to week so don't worry. This week I just wanted to roughly get up the standings but realised as I was doing it there might be a mistake or two. Standings: 1. johnnyoski 133 2. kook_10 132 3. Aussie_Wing 130 4. NeverForgetMac25 127 5. Batigol2k 127 5. FinWing 127 5. Drake_Marcus 127 5. Wings_Dynasty 127 9. I Red Wings I 126 9. CrossCheck24 126 11. P. Marlowe 125 11. wingsgirl001 125 11. Blood On The Ice 125 14. FinRedWing 124 14. TheDetroitRedWings 124 14. Swayze 124 17. Dano33 123 18. Sebastian 122 19. sibiriak 121 19. Dominator 2005 121 19. juice71285 121 19. skyphoenix 121 23. T-Ruff 120 24. LEBDA22 119 24. Carman 119 26. GoWings1905 117 27. dat's sick 116 27. Hockey13Playa 116 29. edicius 115 29. TRD604 115 31. aflac9262 114 31. redwingslady87 114 33. rwfan007 112 34. Greatness=PavelDatsyuk 111 34. russianswede919293 111 34. naranja 111 37. Bry-O 110 38. WingsRJ91 106 39. SeeinRed 102 39. dropkickshanahans 102 41. #19=Legend 101 42. Dan Bylsma 100 43. zetterisbetter 95 44. interminded 92 44. hak 92 46. MadMan Mark 86 47. Donaldjr2448 83 48. WildWings44 82 49. e_prime 79 50. The Edge 78 51. Kp-Wings 74 52. Canuck 65 53. mindfly 64 54. wingschamps 62 55. betterREDthandead 60 56. useyourillusion 59 57. Doggy 55 58. Systemfel 50 59. Superman54 47 59. mmamolo 47 61. hooon 45 62. Ozzie30 44 63. brett 38 64. puckhog419 34 65. CrippledHockey81 33 66. Lidstromboli 32 67. wings_fan94 30 68. ToMaToToWnWinGsFaN_24 29 69. anthonyn66 28 70. XxGoWingsxX 26 71. HD30 24 72. Hockeytown001 22 73. ManLove4Homer 21 74. Detroit # 1 Fan 20 75. DatsyukownzU13 19 75. Reds4Life 19 77. hockeychik22 18 78. timothy1997 17 79. heretic69 12 80. wingsfan13 11 81. JeeSpot82 10 82. Duck Guy 9 82. kidish 9 82. shannyfan1414 9 85. tdinc 8 85. DatsyukianDeak 8 87. cupforwings 7 Friday: Ottawa @ New Jersey Toronto @ Buffalo Carolina @ Florida Tampa Bay @ St Louis Boston @ Chicago Washington @ Vancouver Saturday: NY Rangers @ Philadelphia Detroit @ Dallas Phoenix @ Anaheim Nashville @ Calgary Pittsburgh @ Buffalo Boston @ Toronto Minnesota @ Ottawa Montreal @ NY Islanders Florida @ Carolina New Jersey @ Atlanta Columbus @ Colorado Washington @ Edmonton Sunday: Detroit @ Chicago St Louis @ Vancouver

Grand Rapids Griffins (17-10-0-1) @ San Antonio Rampage (9-14-3-1) 7:00 pm CST The Wings are struggling to field a team, and therefore so are the Griffins. Tatar and Axelsson are gone (for the time being), Janik and Newbury are in Detroit. Will another player be called up due to the injury to Zetterberg? Francis Lemieux has been re-assigned to Grand Rapids in a boost for him and the team. Pretty much a guess as to what the line-up will look like given all the movement. San Antonio are on a 5 game winless streak, the Griffins are 1-0-0-1 from their past 2. Possible line-up: Ritola - McGrath - Mursak Rismiller - Nylander - Williams Emmerton - Pare - Lemieux Vigilante - Tardif - Walsh Kolosov - Kindl Delmore - Ehrhardt Crosty - Pyett Larsson McCollum

Typical mindfly comment, just plain wrong.

I hear they're cancelling it this year?

Don't get me started! I knew we'd lose yet I still picked us, twice! Threw away easy points.

Agreed, and what's more I think he would have done a very good job. Terrific defensively, shut down forward who is great on the PK. His scoring has improved every season too. Such a shame he's been out for so long, I hope he gets back fit and clears waivers as the Griffins will need him down the stretch.