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My best Mindfly impersonation: The power play sucked!

Perry will get his revenge on the Wings by going after Hudler next game!

You think he learned something from Boogard in his offseason camp??? Pavell looked like a seasoned fighter there - holding his own against a much bigger and experienced fighter. That was no hug-fest, it was a blow-for-blow fight! How freaking' embarrassing for Perry.

Wow, I'm really starting to love Howard. He goes after Crosby and now Perry.

Holy s*** has this season gotten off to a good start! DATSYUK TAKES DOWN PERRY!!!

Cleary is such a better player when he is not the walking wounded.

4th line has been awfully quiet - I believe it is their turn.

Defensively (though still with a good goalie). Shutting down that squad (so far) is pretty impressive though. They have one of the best first lines in the league, and a pretty good second line. I'll take it!

Now if the Wings could just keep this up all season! GF: 328 GA: 0 Go for it!

Sure. The commissioner is powerless and had nothing to do with the state the NHL was in for the 12 years leading up to the lockout. 2005 does not exist in a bubble where all of a sudden the owners decided "Hey! A cap would be great!". If you take a moment to explore just what led to that state of the NHL you will find a commissioner who was very culpable and a situation which could have been avoided. Otherwise, we would see a lot more lost seasons in pro sports in the past 100 years. Or perhaps this was just the first time owners and players disagreed?

Oh really? Bettman has pandered to his low-revenue producing, money-losing expansion clubs. Of his 8 new teams, only Minnesota and Colorado have been a success. That's a 25% success rate. He had no problem allowing owners to move from traditional canadian markets into the USA, but is fighting tooth and nail to keep a team in Phoenix. It is largely because so many of these markets were failing that a hard salary cap was needed. His failed negotiation with ABC (owners of ESPN) in 2004 also directly led to the lockout. Of all the major sports, he delivered by far the worse contract imaginable --- the only league to get absolutely ZERO guaranteed advertising revenues from advertisements. Advertisemant revenue sharing is what keeps lesser teams afloat in other leagues. And it's not like this blind-sided him and there was nothing he could do about it. BS. Bettman had held the reigns for 12 years prior to the lockout (he allowed it to become a league ESPN did not even care about airing). Hockey when he took over what as it's zenith in the mid-90s -- yet he allowed it to drag down into the muck of the deadpuck era without ever competently addressing it... until the lockout. Did hockey realy need a full year off in order to mandate refs call the game properly? Bettman was also named one Business Week magazine's 5 worst executives in 2005. His job is to report to the owners, but does that job have to come hand-in-hand with completely alienating the NHL fan base, IE. the customers? I do not believe it has to. Yes, revenues have gone up since he took over in 1993, but a more competent commissioner could have done much better and without making the NHL the only major sports league to lose an entire season (and another half season on top of it).

Based on those stats, Sharp should be ranked #4 in the NHL.

Yeah, but Toews has a two-way game!

He also had 3g and 11a in 10 games this past year without Ovechkin.

Get a gaggle of lawyers in a room together and left becomes three rights.

Pretty much... though they still technically count against the cap, you can exceed the cap while they are out (assuming you are up against it).

You get a whole $100,000 break on his hit towards the cap if Draper was in the minors... ie. not worth it.

Yeah, teams that go full-bore and enter playoff mode a month early tend to get bounced from the playoffs in the early rounds (Wings last year). Tend to do better the years they have a playoff birth locked early and can start resting guys in the final month - despite a poor closing month to the regular season.

Shorter and shorter shifts as the years go on. Hockey is now being played at a sprint.

If he played for Chicago he would be a guaranteed Calder candidate.

Never was too sold on Ritola... obviously I could be proven to be wrong. Maybe I am crazy, but he reminded me of a slightly more gritty Mark Mowers.

Luckily your nose and ears never stop growing! Wings have been the oldest team in the league consistently for almost 15 years now. They have also been by far the most successful team of the past 15 years. Imagine how great they could have been if they had no 30+ year-olds all these years!

Agreed... it appears Babcock will really try and spread the minutes around this year - both forwards and defenseman. Should work great with the depth this year, provided injuries remain light. Should help keep the star players fresh and give the youngsters the experience and playing time they need. Many players were overplayed last year.

Lilja must have some serious health concerns from that concussion that is not fully disclosed - there is simply no doubt in my mind he is a more than capable NHLer. Feel bad for him.

Lol!