NeverForgetMac25

Friday: Montreal @ New Jersey x2 Nashville @ Colorado Dallas @ Edmonton Saturday: Ottawa @ Boston Carolina @ Philadelphia NY Rangers @ Montreal New Jersey @ NY Islanders Phoenix @ Washington Toronto @ Florida Los Angeles @ Detroit Atlanta @ Tampa Bay Anaheim @ St Louis Columbus @ Minnesota Chicago @ Vancouver Buffalo @ San Jose Sunday: Pittsburgh @ Philadelphia Boston @ Carolina Dallas @ Colorado

Yeah........that can't be cheap.

I'd love to keep Bert around for the right price. $2.5-$2.75 per is a fair deal, $2 million per would be great and another couple years at $1.5 per would be flat-out insanity. Even though he's not the guy he was in Vancouver, for what Bert brings to the table (both size, strength on the puck and skill) he's well worth what he's making right now. If Bert claims money is no object and Kenny appeals to his desire to win a Cup, I'm fairly confident he could be locked up on the low side of $2+ million.

Great news!

Yzer...if its any consolation, the Kings do not have a game in hand. They're now tied for GP, but they do have a game in hand over Calgary who has 2 more points than them, yet 2 more wins.

This is the type of comments that drove me nuts about the Hasek loyalists. When Ozzie was outplaying Hasek they all complained that the team played differently in front of Ozzie than they did in front of Dom. IMO, it was BS then and its BS now. Dom has proven over the course of his career that he's capable of stellar play. Anyone that's paid any attention to the entirety of Ozzie's career (and if not that, even just the last two postseasons) knows what he's capable of. However, this is the second regular season in a row where he's seemed extremely unfocused and his play has been up & down. The difference is Howard is playing lights out, just like Ozzie was when Dom struggled. Anyone with half a brain won't forget what Dom did for the Wings when Ozzie took over in net, and the same can be said about Ozzie given that Howard is outplaying him at this point. No one with half a brain has forgotten what Ozzie has done for us, but when fans start making comments such as "Like any goalie, the only thing Ozzie needs is a good team in front of him that will come to play every game", they're simply excusing lackluster play from a guy we all know is capable of so much more.

He also didn't do enough to keep it either. Ozzie's played brilliantly for Detroit in the postseason since he's taken the reins, but this type of lackluster regular season play is well ingrained in Babs' head from last year. Now, the Wings are actually in for a fight to even make the postseason. They don't have the luxury they did last year to let him get his head on straight for the playoff run. The team has dealt with a sick amount of injuries and every 2 points is vital. This takes nothing away from Ozzie, its just the severity of the situation.

Like some have said in the past....losing Yzerman to retirement won't have nearly the same dramatic impact on the team as losing Lidstrom to it. Given their level of play *at the end of their respective careers,* I couldn't agree more.

I don't think Draper will get it partly due to his age. Z will get it. Ouch....if that turns out to be true. I think everyone here (myself included) truly believed he'd be back for atleast one more season. I wasn't about to hold on to any thoughts of him playing into his mid-40's, but I did think next season was more likely than not. Anyway, I can understand him wanting to retire if they win the Cup this year. If they don't, I have a feeling he'll decide what he's gonna do based on how the team plays down the stretch of the regular season. A lot can be determined for what type of team they'll have next season based on how they play when they're healthy and with Lidstrom likely taking a decent paycut to ensure his final season has its best chance possible.

The fact that he lined himself up and made that lengthy run at Tam shows how severe the punishment should be for this. Disgusting act on his part.

I saw and got a picture with it at the USHL All-Star game two seasons ago. I hit a deer on my way home from work (in order to pick up my wife), drove through one of the worst blizzards of the year, but still made it to the game. Worth every bit of it to actually see it in person!

I'm getting progressively worse each week after a solid start.

Putting him back in jail is fine by me. What a sick f*ck. As the writer said, absolutely chilling comment on his part.

Nothing wrong with that pick, I did the same. Its the logical choice. Besides, I'd be thrilled to be wrong.

Friday: Toronto @ Washington Nashville @ Calgary Saturday: Chicago @ Columbus Detroit @ Dallas New Jersey @ Colorado Boston @ Los Angeles Edmonton @ San Jose x2 Ottawa @ Montreal Buffalo @ NY Islanders Tampa Bay @ Florida Atlanta @ Carolina NY Rangers @ St Louis Minnesota @ Phoenix Pittsburgh @ Vancouver Sunday: Chicago @ Detroit Philadelphia @ Washington Montreal @ NY Rangers Calgary @ Anaheim

While Jimmy's play as of late has most people thinking the Wings may have themselves their goalie for the foreseeable future once Ozzie retires there's one big question that lingers. First and foremost, obviously the sample size of Jimmy's play is quite small and even though he continues to improve month after month, I still think its way too early to tell if Jimmy's going to be the guy between Detroit's pipes for the foreseeable future. Now that being said, my big question is how does this team (and more specifically Babs) effectively acclimate Jimmy to postseason play. The guy has absolutely zero experience regardless of what you consider the AHL or the collegiate system. The bold fact of the matter is regardless of whether Jimmy can continue his brilliance, at some point he needs to be unleashed on the postseason. So my question is what do you all feel would be the best way to ease the blow of his first starting playoff campaign? Personally, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of Ozzie not being the starting goaltender once the playoffs begin in April simply because we saw this last season and due to his brilliance the past two post-seasons. Is it the best option for Jimmy to in fact take over either this postseason or the following (which Ozzie is contracted through), due to the advantages of knowing Ozzie will be there in case he's needed? The advantage there is this team is getting younger and its not necessarily the worst idea to gain some extremely valuable playoff experience at his age. Or do we wait out Ozzie's contract and let him take the reigns after the following season given the current team is starting to hit its stride all the while getting healthier and will be much more rested for the playoff run? Note: This is *not* an Ultimate Goalie War Thread. Any/all posts that discuss Ozzie vs. Jimmy in a matter similar to the thread already created will either be moved or deleted. This is about how/when to work Jimmy into the playoffs if he does become the guy down the road.

I completely agree with you in regards to Auger, but you do realize the NHL is not only investigating this, but also meeting with Auger and the rest of the crew today?

The fact that a ruling of this magnitude will be kept private is pathetic.

I didn't state that the right way given Conklin was a roster player. I was referring to non-roster players and obviously Conklin wasn't an example of that. In any event, yes that's correct.

That's not necessarily true. First and foremost, the criteria for automatically getting your name on the cup is 41 regular season games or 1 game played in the finals, which Conklin never did. He only played in the WCF's. That being said, Conklin played 40 regular season games and was the reason the Wings fared as well as they did. As a result, he would've met the "special exceptions" criteria.

Oh esteef.................

And that's a legitimate point. While I realize the officiating isn't as stellar as some hope it would be, I also recognize the fact that its human and susceptible to error. My point is that it doesn't always necessarily mean a ref is out to get one's team. Now, given this situation....the sad part is perhaps this is what it'll take for the league to look a little closer into its officials and the consistency of strictness or leniency on any given night.

Nor can I, but you know exactly what I'm referring to esteef. Fans with the blinders on claiming the league is out to get Detroit and only favor Crosby and the Pens. Every team has fans that do exactly this. They think their team is being unfairly targeted while other teams (including Detroit) never get called for anything. Don't misunderstand me, a s***ty call is a s***ty call and it can most certainly cost a team a game, its two points and ultimately a playoff spot, but that doesn't mean every single missed infraction means a ref is being biased. It could just as well mean they flat out didn't see what we saw. It's pretty easy "officiating" a game when you're watching it from the angle we get. Never once have I thrown out the "excuse" card to discredit complaints that were actually legitimate. Hell, my first post in here was ripping Auger for what he had done. Bottom line, I think you're taking what I said out of context.

So nearly 10% of the season shouldn't matter, but then we also shouldn't be able to take away 10% from his goal total to balance things out? That seems fair. /sarcasm

All regular season long the NFL emphasized any contact to a QB's head is going to get called, and yet on the deciding play in the GB/ARI game on Sunday they swallowed their whistles. The NHL isn't alone in refs "letting the guys play" once the post-season rolls around.