Majsheppard

I was sitting next to nearly all of them right by the Press box. It was packed with many hockey faces looking on with purpose. I remember looking back at them after Meech missed that wide open net, and a few of them looked disapointed, and one of them in a suit made a note. I remember because I was telling my friend that it was likely that Lebda or Meech or someone was playing their last game.

Bertuzzi dragging down Wings There has been alot of screaming over Bertuzzi. I find most people are all about Bertuzzi do to his alleged status as the Wings leading scorer. I enjoyed this article, maybe it can bring some of the random fighting over him to an end.

Russia is prob just bribing the Wings to protect their Gold Medal chances.

With May and Maltby gone... I believe that means we will have one spot on the player cap open at forward. So if we had the money, we could add someone. I still hope Lebda is moved. If even for a pick. Ima pray for Maxim for Brett and a pick.

I am afraid about this for one reason. It is too perfect. I think there will be an NHL investigation into the timing of this chornic shoulder issue.

BTW if it is true, would that be a degrade of a second overall pick.

I say bs, because Turco is playing right now. No team would risk playing a guy with a deal close to being done. What if Turco tears his ACL in the game?!? No way.

Yeah but guys like that aren't on the market.

Oh and I would also offer Hudler to them to see if that could make the trade happen. I mean his rights are still ours...

anything over 1 million is not doable without giving up Williams, Bertuzzi, Cleary, lilja, or Val. Afinogenov would work if they moved Meech and Lebda and waived May. If my math is right. Perhaps Lebda for the highest pick we can get for him, then Meech and the lowest pick we can convince Atlanta to take might work... We would have to pray that no substantial injuries happened to the Defense until the playoffs, but it is the only top six forward that I saw that would actually help us and could be aquired within our cap. Maybe we could just trade Bertuzzi for Prospal, as we should have signed him in the first place instead. That would clear 400k and you know help our offense... sigh Kenny you really had a bad offseason...

Okay, first of all. I doubt you could get many first rounders out of the people you listed. The market doesn't seem to be there. Though you are right if you are saying the lack of first rounders is catching up to us. You are wrong on your next point, and they are connected. The supporting cast let us down??? How about everyone let us down. I personally think some of our role players have been our brightest spot. Miller, Helm, Abs, they seem to be making for a good supporting cast. I think our biggest failures have been in our core. Pavel and Lidstrom haven't contributed enough for their salaries. Zetterberg has been fine, but he could stand to step it up when the pressure is on. Franzen is of course not there, and Val could stand to do more when he is out there, though he gets a pass for effort. I cant hold anything against Williams as he hasn't been there either. Rafalski is not pulling his weight at 6 million. Stuart has been the best/worst defensemen on the ice, you never know what your going to get out of him, which is not good at 3.7 million. Bertuzzi is often praised around the town, because he has alot of goals. I will give him credit as he won a couple of games single handedly, and has played way better then I thought he would have. Yet, he is good for twice as many turnovers per game then scoring opportunities. He makes players on his line worse, and is repeatedly placed with Datsyuk and Zetterberg. I do not think it is a conicidence that Datsyuk is having a horrible year while playing mostly with Bertuzzi. I would like him to be cheaper and on the ice less. This all seems to be Babcocks fault though. He just doesn't seem to know how to make line decisions outside of the game. He juggles lines well, but always seems to forget what works and goes back to some things that just seem retarted. I remember someone posting a stat about which defensemen turn the puck over the most, which are on the ice for the most goals. The stat revealed only one thing to me. Who is partnered with who. Obviously Lidstrom was the best and Rafalski was second best, and so on down the line. I just keep wondering, if we Stuart and Kronner are the next worst, and always paired together, and then Lebda and Ericcson are the worst... maybe you should consider BREAKING THEM UP!!! Serriously, put Rafalski on the second line already. I bet if you pair Stuart with Lidstrom, and Rafalski with Kronner, you would fix the top two lines. Same goes for the forwards. At the very start of the season the best line was Leino ,Val ,Williams. When Leino was just waiting to be traded, and Williams came back, I didn't see any effort to reunite the line. It is like Babcock doesn't remember any of that. Now he found that putting together the three best skaters works! I hope he doesn't forget that... Another instance that drove me nuts, was Miller had his hand on two power play goals a while back, and then Babcock decides to put Leino back on the active roster. He then proceeds to put the healthy scratch on the power play instead of the hot Miller??? This is confusing. I just cant ever follow his reasoning. Do me a favor and just try to put the lines together like you did when you figured out that the best skaters should skate together. Put Pavel and Zetter together with someone that DESERVES to play with them. Roll four chemistry designed lines. My cousin once said to me that the problem with the Wings is that they no longer have any superstar goal scorers this season. There is just a team full of role players. Franzen coming back will fix alot of this. but I agree it seems as if we have two superstars that make players around them better. The cap has made it hard to keep those top tier players. The point is you cannot have players like Leino or Bertuzzi who can make things happen some of the time by themselves play with players like Zetter and Datsyuk. You need the best shooters, and the guys who can find the open ice with them. I hope that when Franzen is back, they put him with Datsyuk again. Rant over.

Howard's surprising play?! Really? There is plenty to talk about, good and bad. My favorite is Miller, that is the biggest bright spot. I am not sold on Howard. The guy is athletic, but he cannot control a shot at all. If he could just absorb a shot, improve his rebound control half the time, he could be a good goaltender. I still think that he trusts his defense men way too much to clear the puck in front. But no seems to be talking about the problems. I could come up with a dozen bad things to say for every good thing to say.

Would like to clarify that I believe Holland will make every effort to improve the team, but I don't think it is very likely... I think it is time to find a list of players that would make sense under 3 million dollars.

I wouldn't expect the Wings to add anyone. It just seems far too impossible with the cap. They would need to make a huge splash in order to make something happen. That would mean moving someone like Cleary, Williams, Bertuzzi, Fillpula, Stuart, Lilja, or a combination of those players would be necessary to bring in anyone who is established. Personally I would love to see Williams and Bertuzzi moved for a top six player in the 2.5-2.75 million dollar range. I am sick of his turnovers. I think the entire season was put in jepordy when they signed him to 1.5 million. There were so many other players that could have made a much bigger impact. I said at the time that I wanted Prospal, and he is having a huge season in NYR. I just would like someone who doesn't turn the puck over.

Yeah I was going to say. Not a single game. That Sweeden game was a HUGE mistake.

Honestly, yeah it is. Really it might be better for us in the long run to miss the playoffs. I really have been for the most part upset with how Babcock has run the team this year, I also think that we really screwed up the cap and have had three players on our team that simply do not belong. It might be time for them to have a big meeting and figure out how to get on the same page. Really even with the injuries, the top three players on the roster have still been there. I think that the player combinations have severely limited their effectiveness, and every time Babs finds a great chemistry combo, he effs it up by playing favorites. Turnovers are not punished, instead the main offenders get more ice time. What gives?!

Another coughed up puck by bertuzzi nearly cost us a goal. I hate him.

Cap numbers. This website shows Newbury as an active cap hit of 500k over the year. I don't think that is the case as he is tucked away in Grand Rapids... Does this mean he has a one-way deal and cleared waivers? Does this mean he is contributing to our salary cap problems? There has been alot of talk of what we need to do to get cap ready for Franzen and Lilja... would moving Newbury help? I am just very confused by Newbury being on the cap hit...

I am starting to think, it could be both of them. Janik may have proven himself to be more trustworthy then Lebda and Meech. Tollefsen could be the depth defenseman that allows them to push them both out the door.

First point, you could look at it the other way. If no one made an offer but the Flyers, and you turned it down, then the Wings wouldn't get anything for waiving Leino. As for your points with the defenseman we got back... Don't even think of him as being a part of our team. He may be picked up off waviers, and the whole point of this is to get rid of salary.

That is very possible. Thing you have to remember and keep in perspective is that for all the talent Leino had, he refused to play to our system. He straight up did not fit. With another team where he can be bull headed with the puck he might be able to make his mark, but he had proven to me that there was no shot that he could play our system.

That makes sense too. Though I don't know how the roster freeze would mess up all these plans. IF he clears waviers? Because that is an interesting part of this deal. Basically that just means we were okay trading Leino for a fifth straight up.

Just wondering if he can be put down without being exposed to waviers?? That is the only way this move makes any sense without an additional move. I would agree that this makes it look like the Wings are going to go with Lilja Janik and Tollefsen instead of Lebda and Meech. Another trade will prob happen by day's end.

Good luck getting to actually watch it. I don't know about you, but I have only the hockey games that are nationally broadcasted and the Wings to watch.

Oh and I would get rid of Bertuzzi a thousand times over before I got rid of Williams.