Majsheppard

HHELLLSSSS YEAH!! JOHAN!!! FRANZEN!! They seem to have turned the corner. Kronner is powering the wings now.

Take a look at the standings.... Dallas is coming up strong and looks like they will over take us. This is a great thing to happen as the brackets are set to aid number second place. Right now it would be 1 Wings v 8 Avs 2 Dallas v 7 Canucks 3 Wild v 6 Flames 4 Ducks v 5 Sharks Now I think we can all agree Colorado is the easiest match up out of the bunch. In the first round, but the Canucks are beatable. Nashville and Phoenix can also sneak in there as well. So really first round it is in our hands reguardless if we are first or second. Notice that the ducks are looking destined to play the sharks. Since Dallas is so far ahead, the Ducks are going to get stuck at 4 and the sharks at 5. One of the best in the west is definately going down thanks to this. Now assume Dallas beats their match up as do we. I will play devils advocate and say the Wild win as well. So first would have to play either the ducks or the sharks, while 2nd would have to play the Wild.... I think the odds of us going through 7th and 3rd are better then going through 8 and 4. Assuming al the hockey anaylists are right, the ducks will win out and we would still have home ice, and they would have to go through San Jose, and Dallas while we would go through Vancouver and Minnesota. We would have to be the fresher team and have a much better shot at taking down the ducks then. That is why I really don't care about this horrid streak we have been on. Let us start resting some of the other guys and get ready for the first round!!

I prefer Labradors..... lol. I'll buy it. Zetter for ever!!

Did I miss the crow feast???? 5 hits..... Must taste great.

Yeah, this game and that Anaheim game both were decided by the refs. Good thing this really doesn't matter. Hopefully anyways.

Stuart is looking good, way better then Hasek anyways. Now he can break out just like Brad Richards did

While TSN had a special trade deadline edition of Sportscentre which followed all day coverage of the deadline called TradeCentre, ESPN once again ignored hockey. This time it wasn't just minimizing the story, I really mean ignoring it. The only mention of the deadline occured in the final 20 seconds of the Sportscenter. They made it the closing number, it literally is an after thought to those sons of *******. WHY OH WHY CANNOT WE CHOOSE TSN OVER ESPN?!?!?! eff them.

Trust me it is way harder then you would think...... WAY harder.

Meech has been playing better, Ericsson is playing well. Neither really wowed me as they both make costly mistakes. So does Lebda and so does Lilja. I think over the long run they will both be great players but in the short term I want experience. Ericsson has years left of being protected I believe.... I figure if Lilja or Stuart doesn't resign he will be in next year, yet if they both do he may play another year in GR. Never a horrible thing. Best thing is these guys can play so now I know we have several guys to try if things get ugly in the playoffs. I am a fan of playing who matches up better. Lebda for speed, Lilja for size etc. I have never been more confident of the future of the organization. As it stands I believe we will have the means to field an amazing team even after Lidstrom eventually retires....(in hopefully 74 years)

I wouldn't exactly call 7 pts in 9 games tearing it up when your talking about the AHL. I would call it a good sign though. I also think he is going to be a spark for the team, but that really is up to Babs to decide.

I think everyone here is having a hard time seperating somethings. ESPN is a sports journalist/entertainment channel. They play games, but Sportscenter is about reporting sports news. This is why they sometimes talk about things such as MLS soccer, lacrosse, rugby etc. That stuff isn't popular very much in America but they cover it in passing. They didn't even cover this in passing on their channel, this seems to be odd with the lack of major stories on the day. Leads me to believe this is out of spite. Vs. on the otherhand is not a news station, they have orginal programing and coverage of Hockey and rodeos and s*** like that. They only report hockey in close approximation of their sporting events. Much like NBC reporting on football news only when the football games are on. They are not in compettion when it comes to news. Everyone in the news business just tries to get exclusives and breaking news. They lost Hockey because they didn't want it, but that doesn't mean they should not cover hockey. It still packs arenas across America with fans. It still is a major sport, and when an event like the trade deadline comes along and has at least half a dozen stories I expect them to at least have a few minutes of coverage. ESPN NEWS of course covered it, they are 24 hours of news, they need to bring in all stories to fill time. It is a digital channel most don't have. ESPN spent all of 20 seconds talking about the deadline/hockey on Tuesday. TSN spent 17 hours talking about it. I do deman ESPN spends 17 hours, not even 17 minutes really. Yet they choose to talk about nothing instead of the deadline. 20 seconds is not enough. I am not even going there for NFL coverage, or anything else. I wish someone would get together a movement, hockey fans against ESPN. No one would even know I stopped watching, but perhaps if we shouted we all stopped watching it would have some sort of impact. Doubt it though.

Exactly why I was so against the thought of bringing him back. I don't know if anyone remembers, but he was poor in work ethic and team attitude with the exception of the first two cup runs. His attitude was always a problem, but we managed because; he was gifted as hell, the coaching was the greatest ever, and there were so many stars/chemistry that his secondary role didn't demand everything from him. Hate to say it but those things are not as strong as they were then. Fedorov would have most likely did more harm then good.

the site was actually really good. I had better luck with it then TSN at times. My internet however crashed many a time, none of it on your end.

PP1 Pavel Zetter Homer Lids Rafalski pp2 Hudler Drapes Cleary Stuart Kronner pk1 Drapes Pavel Lids Cheli pk2 Zetter Franzen/cleary Rafalski (stuart maybe) lilja

Zetter Pavel Homer Cleary Val Franzen Malts Drapes Mac Hudler Drake Samuelson/Downy Lids Kronner Stuart Rafalski Lebda/lilja Cheli

If Stuart is smart, he will resign here for whatever they give him. He should try and shake the Journeyman label and get a stable atmosphere for himself.

I really want to point out something I got mocked for a few days ago. Ellis got picked up off waviers by LA. We gave LA a 2nd and 4th. If wewaited on Ellis, we perhaps could have traded him, and perhaps that 4th would have become a 5th, or a 6th. Maybe even a 3rd and a 4th.... Just saying what I said then. That was a stupid move.

I don't expect Hockey ever to be number one in America or ESPN to give it all day coverage. I am not surprised by them treating hockey like crap, but I am surprised and pissed they didn't speak of it at all when there was nothing else going on. There is no excuse. I say boycott.

That Yao Injury was worth talking about, and they really didn't cover that all that much either. I wanted to hear Barry Melrose talk about the trades now that the TSN internet feed has cut out...

Even worse is how they had no real news, only one story worth talking about outside of the deadline. Instead they retold old news stories about Indiana Basketball. WTF.

Hey, great points my friend. Stuart is going to be excellent here. He is going to get the Red Wing bump because he plays our system well.

Prospal should have been on our team, but look at the bright side. We really are on top of the league in talent from player one to player 50. We are not going to lose anyone now, and we now will have bullets for next year!

Not the same age though, and that is important. Plus Rafalski has more Playoff experience as well as played in Europe.

IMO we got the second best Dman on the market, and got him pretty damn cheap. He fills needs and with McCarty coming back we are going to be fine.

That is because he didn't pan out in recent years so he isn't a big name anymore. He will be again, he fits the system and has talent. Thusly he will play better for us then anyone else.