Mighty Wings

He has his own Website now. Has some nice pics as well. Has a long way to go but could develop into the mold of svatos/hejduk.

NBC = Nothing But Crosby

Interested to hear how his day went.

At the expense of Jimmy Howard or Filpula?

Rob Blake willing to move http://insider.espn.go.com/nhl/features/ru...atures%2frumors Its under the ESPN insider which I don't have access to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0KPHqU-K00 sound is a bit weak, but turning the volume up should help......foul language used as well

At the game yesterday, watching was the man who drafted Axelsson, Håkan Andersson. "There are no limits how good he can be says Andersson, who drafted him a year ago in the second round. I am convinced we gonna sign him next season.We don´t wanna loose a guy like this." Larsson has also played very well, and he will get a contract as well. Joakim Andersson has also started off well. 2G 6A from 10G in the 2nd tier is awfully good for an 18 yr old.

try to get a transcript of the interview

the interview is up on 1270sports.com Full Recap: On the Dallas Drake signing: Gritty player, a leader who will provide depth......yada yada yada. He should get roughly 8-10 mins of icetime. On why we didn't re-sign Bert: we were right there money-wise (mid 3s - 4) Not comfortable offering him the 2nd yr. With Nick, Draper, Cleary and some other RFAs (filpulla, quincey, howard, etc) next year, didn't want to take that risk on the unknown of how far he can bring his game back. On whether dom was their #1 choice or did they consider someone else: $2.05 base + upto 2 mil more in playoff bonuses. Looking at the open market there weren't any other legit alternatives. On How far off is Howard: Its really hard to know if he's the real deal right now, but he needs to play well down in GR, and the plan is bring him up next year. On dom's performance in the playoffs/whether he can still win games singlehandedly: There are guys like Brodeur, Kipper, Luongo, and you have to look at the list after that. Dom's a guy you can win with. We're bringin him back because he gives us the best chance for a long playoff run. On the schedule (should there be more balance?): Commish knows we want to be in the east. If we remain in the west, we would like 6 games in the division and basically revert back to the pre-lockout schedule with 18 games vs. east (10 games under the current format). Its gonna be brought up at some point in the winter during the BOG meetings and we're gonna lobby hard for the scheduling change. Are you being punished for being a marquee team (esp. teams in the west with low attendance, but sell out vs. detroit): Kind of. Gotta convince the others to agree with the changes, but we have some good rivalries in the west, avs didn't make the playoffs, but could be a power house team again after the moves they made. We were in the process of developing a good rivalry with nashville, unfortunately they've let a number of players go. But we'd prefer to be out east and have rivalries with tor, mon, bos. On the whole Nashville situation: There a number of people stepped up from different places, not really sure whats gonna happen to them. Hopefully they stay there and we continue to build on that rivalry. On what other canadian cities could the NHL work in: In canada hockey is a real passion, Winnipeg's building was electric when we saw them in the playoffs in 1996. If you can get a building of good size and a big enough population, there will be support for that team. Its important for a market to have stability and develop some rivalries over time. Its also important for the other cities, like us when we have a good rivalry with Nas, so hopefully all 30 markets are stable. On when the talks regardling Hank will begin: We can't sign him until 7/1/08, but we can begin negotiations before then. At some point in time at the end of this season, we want to sit down and have him extended just like pavel.

Summarizing here off the top of my head Regarding Bert: He said a 1 yr offer was made with a base salary in the mid 3s and with bonuses could've pushed it to 4. He didn't want to commit to the 2nd yr because he had to worry about the impending FAs in the next few yrs. Hasek: They wanted him all the way and didn't even consider other options out there Howard: He needs to establish himself as a premier goalie in the AHL this year. He's the future Moving to the east: "if there is re-alignment we want to move to the east" Zetterberg: We want to sit down after the playoffs are over, and lock up hank to a long term deal.

http://www.whatifsports.com/nhl/boxscore.a...110754&ad=1 I thought we were supposed to be a good defensive team, but how in the world do we give up 5 goals?????

Does scotty still think that Drake is the dumbest player in the league??

Offer sheets will soon become standard practice in the NHL, just as it is in other leagues. I can already imagine Dave Tallon making a huge offer sheet to Getzlaf or Perry next yr.

Wow. Its not like the oilers are going to make the playoffs even with vanek. Buffalo should think about letting him go and choose to pick up the 4 1st rounders, including 1 or 2 in the lottery.

You make fair points....and are entitled to your opinion. Could bert have settled for something like 2 yrs $7mil? maybe Is $4 mil/yr overpaying for Bertuzzi? Yes. But, like I said you have to take risks in order to get rewarded. Hasek wasn't supposed to play more than 50 games last year. The inital reaction of a lot of people, on the datsyuk re-signing was "wings overpaid" or "unless pavel plays well in the playoffs it's a terrible contract"

Since I was replying to fiscal responsibility, Let me ask you. What do u think bertuzzi wanted?

Bertuzzi could've been had for less than $4 mil, IMO. He just wanted a longer term (2yrs?). They were already close to a deal with hasek, therefore I think they could've secured bertuzzi first and it still would have left them with $2+ M for anything else in FA. Bottom line is you have to take risks in order to get rewarded.

Its frustrating.... every year kenny plays his wait and see game. It was a little more different this offseason because they were less than 1 minute away (gm 5) from potentially going to the SCF. Every player was upset, not just because they lost the series but they had a hell of a team, and had an awesome shot at going all the way. I think Chelios was the one who said if they brought back bert (hopefully healthy), dom and schneider, this was a cup contending team. He did replace schneider with rafalski, and he just pretty much had to bring bert back, since they were close to re-signing hasek. But now, this team is not going to contend for the cup as is. He sat there and watched anaheim get better, his reaction is "well we can't give anybody more than 2 yrs because hank will be a FA." As if bert was really asking for 4 yrs/18mil. Brian Burke had the balls to sign bert and schneider, knowing that they were gonna be close to the cap when perry and getzlaf are RFAs next year.

Down to Forsberg, Gelinas and Shanny.

Will there be a press conference for introducing Rafalski? Or has it already happened?

I have a strange feeling kenny will target forsberg after the market cools off.

Zubrus or guerin are still left. Maaaaybe Forsberg.

If they go to camp with those guys, meech will have to pass through waivers and could be claimed. At least if they don't want to keep him, they should try to move him. And if not, they would have to keep him up at the expense of quincey. Meech is a legit NHL d'man. Here is what Jim Nill had to say about him in January:

Lilja was much better in the 2nd half and the playoffs. He was easily our most physical/gritty d'man during that period. Lebda wasn't even on the same planet as him during the playoffs. Sure you can say he made a huge mistake in game 5, but he was also 90 secs away from being the hero of the game. Like I said, Lebda is simply a puck moving d-man. We already have lidstrom, rafalski, kronwall and kindl in GR. Thats more than enough. Meech was an all-star in the AHL, and was their best d'man. He is a good enough puck-moving d'man himself and is more gritty. Everybody has their own opinion, and I like lebda a lot, but I think meech has better upside than lebda.

No, I understand. There can be like 2 or 3 more legit combinations.