egroen

It would have been great to see Bobby Orr present the Cup to Boston. Heck, even rolling out Messier for Vancouver would get less boos than Bettman.

Behind Datsyuk the Wings really struggle to find good players for shootouts. Seems silly to pick based on shootout ability, but they unfortunately do decide a lot of games, and the Wings really sucked the last couple of years at them. I kinda figured Jagr would return to the Pens.

I'd do it - I am a fan of one-year deals and $2.5m is awfully cheap nowadays. Modano situation all over again is about the worst that can happen, and it's not like that crippled the team in any way - but it had a decent chance of working out better.

For instance - I would take Salo over Jovanovski, who gets mentioned a lot around here, and he would probably come well cheaper than Jovo.

I like it. If signed on the cheap, he presents huge upside with an accepted risk that you might have him for all of 10 games. I also like one year contracts and that is all he would get.

Yay.

I went early to a Ted Lindsay autograph signing - it was free, even the photos - and had a chance to chat with him for a full 15 minutes before it got started. You can tell he loves hockey and at his age he is very much 'with it'. It was a real treat, and I just wish I could sit for hours and hear him talk. A few things I was interested in: Talked for a while about Doug Harvey and Red Kelly - how these two controlled the game and similarities to Lidstrom. I congratulated him on the Pearson being renamed after him and he was very proud and honored, especially because it was the players who voted on it. Turns out it was Dickie Moore he fought with at an Old-Timers game that got him barred from them for a while. He had a chuckle about that but also made sure I knew how good of a player Moore was. You can tell these guys had a lot of respect for one another. Actually agreed with me the ice should be opened up more nowadays, ideally by expanding the ice surface to allow skilled players more room to work. Players did not even know what a concussion was back then. Jack Adams broke up that Dynasty way too early (no love lost between those two). Agreed Red Kelly's number should be retired.

6 corn-fed N. American names like that? On the Wings? Impossible!

Fine ideas aside from Meech. It won't happen, he's as good as he is ever going to get and there is no chance in hell Lidstrom's possibly last season is wasted on a guy with the Wings on borrowed time. Smith has a better shot next year, and I do not even think he will make the team.

Still funny... not a ton of French-Canadian fans here and I didn't see Detroit on your list. Screw all those cities.

Meech isn't that bad, but I'll be awfully disappointed if I see him running power plays next year, especially considering the $$$ Holland has to work with this summer.

I think Bure and Lindros are well ahead of Neely. I see Dino as better than Andreychuk though Dino was surprising when there were much better players out there: Makarov, Howe, Oates and Gilmour.

How much is the Mona Lisa worth?

It was actually an infection, and his foot ended up needing to be amputated. Am I doing this right?

Belfour, Makarov, Howe and Oates

Not in the mood now and it is OT anyways... Start a new thread devoted to praising Bettman.

You're smart enough to know the difference between the Kovulchuk and Zetterberg/Franzen deals. The GMs agreed to the suspension, not the last minute Crosby clause handed down by Bettman, while on a phone call with Crosby and Shero. Revenues have grown, but lagged behind all major sports leagues in N. America and numerous non-major sports. He allowed the game of hockey to deteriate to such a degree that the #1 sports network in N. America would rather air bowling and poker over hockey. He alienates the fan base of the NHL in favor of attracting new fans in new markets. Bettman can't even win his personal vendetta against dead, boiled cephalopods. And I would say he has a weasel face, not a rat face. Sorry for the derail, but I thought those were some pretty blanket statements that at least deserved a quick riposte.

Stu Grimson is up for the job.

Other Wings forums where some other posters from the area claimed to still know him. Total hearsay, of course.

Apparently he hates the Wings, but stranger things have happened.

I love it when a sport 'seemingly' listens to its fans. This really does have me feeling optimistic about the future of the NHL. Shanahan strikes me as honest and possessing common sense, even with the whole Janney thing. At least we can feel safe that Lidstrom will never be suspended again

Not the same franchise though - but I like your alignment and Philly & Pitts should be in the same division.

I think Sakic was '96 - and you would think a team would elect arbitration in his and Fedorov's cases as well - so this must be only under the new CBA.

I'm just salivating in anticipation of all the goals our bottom 2 lines will score if that is the case!

I don't think a team has done this yet - but you also have not had too many players of that caliber making it to RFA.