joshy207

Man I hope this isn't true. If it is, Maltby is using his old linemate McCarty's strategy... play 3 good weeks of hockey out of 40, and end up with a new contract. Franzen and Cleary are just as good on the PK and have more to offer overall. Time to move on.

I'm not in favor of a visor mandate. It's the player's choice. Requiring full cages would be a terrible mistake. I'm also in favor of getting rid of the instigator rule. The current rule lets idiots be idiots. I grew up wearing a cage, went to a visor after Midgets, took a puck to the eye and put the cage back on. But I hated it so much, I eventually went back to a visor and then took that off too. The difference in seeing the ice is incredible. After taking ANOTHER puck to the eye, fracturing my orbital bone in 2 places, I put the cage back on. I still hate the cage and every so often I think of putting a visor back on, but I've taken a few stray sticks and pucks to the cage, so I keep wearing it. With the AHL and other minor leagues now requiring visors, full facial in college, visors in the CHL, and the popularity of visors in Europe, you'll have very few players coming into the NHL that have ever played bare-faced. They'll all be used to visors, so that part of the argument will disappear. Any "peer pressure" to lose the visor will diminish. Fewer players will be inclined to take it off. I think in 4-5 years, we'll see a much higher percentage of NHLers wearing visors.

Wow, what a LONG thread! Time to grab a Blue and a seat on the couch for another evening of playoff hockey!

Add the Loss column to the OT/SO Loss column... it will equal the other conference's Win column.

The NHL used 2-3-2 at one point in the early/mid 90s. When Detroit lost to San Jose, it was 2-3-2. They wanted to cut down on the amount of travel if the teams were far apart. It was an option for a couple years, but for at least the last 11-12 years, it's been 2-2-1-1-1.

McCarty's done. Bringing him back would be a waste of roster and cap space. That said, there's no replacing what he did here as a player and moreso as a member of our community. He selflessly gave his time and money to charity, visited sick kids (including a friend of mine with cancer) in the hospital, was visible and accessible all the time. One of this town's best athlete citizens as far as giving back to the community. Someone mentioned signing him to a one-day contract like NFL teams do... that can't happen in the NHL. NFL contracts are not guaranteed, NHL contracts are. McCarty would have to be signed for league minimum and that would count against next year's cap.

Peaked at 19? Come on.

Why would they say the guy's hurt if he's not? It doesn't sound serious, a minor back strain will heal with a little rest, but if they were simply giving him a game off, they'd just say that.

First one, Dom coulda/shoulda had. It was a slow shot by Morrow that just snuck under his forearm as he was sliding across to make the save. Not so much "his fault" as it was a fluke--goals like that just happen sometimes. Second one, Wings had 3 defenders down low, but Schneider didn't pick anyone up and instead turned to face the incoming shot from the guy Draper (I think) was already covering. Dom made the save but the rebound kicked out to Ribeiro, who was the open guy, and he banged it in the open net. Third one, the Wings' left winger let Boucher walk in from the point, he got a pass from the corner and his shot beat Hasek. Again, bad coverage.

The fact that he can play goalie is something. That he can play that well at that level is absolutely amazing. Lots of guys from his league will get drafted by OHL teams and/or go on to play D1 college hockey. That National Championship going on this week in Fraser will be some incredible hockey... if anyone has the chance to go, I'd highly recommend it. A few of these players could end up in the NHL.

That's horrible, PERIOD.

Staal gets the Cy Young though. 28-10 is a hell of a record!

They also said on CBC that we weren't hearing much BECAUSE they were making progress. The "impasse" seems to be working.

Last night on Hockey Night in Canada, they were saying that Pittsburgh is probably going to get a new arena deal, so don't expect the Wings to move East.

From watching the Satellite Hot Stove on CBC tonight, it sounds like Pittsburgh and the Penguins are getting close to an arena deal. So let's not go moving anyone around yet. I have a solution to the travel imbalance between East and West... eliminate geographic divisons altogether. Set it up so each team has roughly the same travel all year. You could even re-draw the divisions every few years to mix things up. The NHL has had non-geographic divisons before... look at these alignments. http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues...hl19271975.html http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues...hl19271981.html The foundations for true geographic divisions were there, but you also had Montreal and Los Angeles in the same division.

The games are boring. Part of that is because there's not nearly enough emotion on the ice, but part of it also comes from the fact that there are so many empty seats. The overselling of corporate season tickets is a problem. Too many of those seats go unused--either nobody from the company takes the tickets, or they spend the entire night in the Olympia Room impressing clients or dates. Also, with our horrid economy in Michigan, less and less fans can afford to go to games. If they'd cut the corporate ticket sales down and lower ticket prices in general (especially the top of the upper bowl), more fans would be in their seats watching the game, and the atmosphere would improve. I also think the fans would rather watch a hard-working "blue-collar" team--like the Pistons or Tigers--since this is a blue-collar city. People here identify with that kind of player and team. More big hits, a more intimidating style of play, more fights... that's why I like watching the late games on HNIC, it's always a Western Canadian team and they always play that style. Most of the best games I've watched this year have been those late Saturday games. A team that plays that hard-nosed, in-your-face style would KILL in Detroit. Adding Bertuzzi and Calder was a good first step, but they need to add more guys of that mold this summer.

Losing to LA in 2001. I was at Game 5, I've never seen less-inspired hockey in all my life. And I've seen a lot of hockey. I helped boo the Wings off the ice after that friggin' debacle. Was not surprised when they lost Game 6 in OT in LA. Prior to that, the Goose Loonies/Edmonton incident in 1988 was extremely disappointing. I was 13 and had high hopes that the Wings could upset mighty Edmonton.

Goalies are pretty particular about their equipment. Remember when Osgood went to the Islanders and wore his Wings stuff until November? It's not like he didn't recieve new pads before then. As for MacDonald's new mask, maybe he didn't pick out a design in time or maybe the equipment guys dropped the ball and forgot to get him a new blank one.

Without actually having heard the interview, I think Bettman's point regarding Versus is this: The NHL is pretty much the biggest thing on that network, and they treat it as such. You see commercials on other channels promoting NHL games on Versus. On ESPN, the NHL would have been behind at least 10 other sports and would not have been given the same promotional consideration from the network. I don't think Bettman is saying "Versus is better than ESPN". But, as out-of-touch as he is, maybe he was saying that... either way, on Versus, the NHL is a big fish in a small pond. With ESPN, they'd be that same size fish in an ocean.

The thing is, they COULD be split up. There's no denying the fact that Datsyuk, Zetterberg, AND the Wings all improved once the two were put on the same line. But now we've seen that Datsyuk can play his best even without Zetterberg, and he has chemistry with Filppula and Holmstrom. Filppula is a better player with this line than he is with Hudler and Langfeld or whoever else would be on the 4th line. This situation gives Babcock the option of exploring other combinations, like Zetterberg, Bertuzzi and either Cleary or Samuelsson, which would give the Wings 3 scoring lines (Franzen and Calder have played well with Lang) and a solid shutdown line, similar to the balance they had in '97 and '98. Like you, I at first had Bertuzzi and Calder joining Lang on the 2nd line hoping to light a fire under Lang's ass. So far, Calder has done that, and Franzen has fit in well there too. Maybe the best thing is to keep sets of 2 guys together and be able to switch the 3rd guy in and out. Datsyuk and Holmstrom, Lang and Calder, Draper and Maltby... the other forwards become interchangeable. Bottom line is, the more options the Wings have for line combos, the better off they'll be.

WL, I had the same lines in mind since the Wings got Calder and Bertuzzi. I figure those two will spark Lang (Calder already has!) and the Wings can have 2 offensive lines, a shutdown line (Draper's), and Filppula's line that can eat up minutes and chip in offensively. However, with the injuries they've had and the lines they've been using, they might be able to leave Filppula with Datsyuk and Holmstrom; leave Franzen with Calder and Lang; try Bertuzzi and Zetterberg together, either with Cleary or Samuelsson, then put the other with Draper and Maltby as your defensive line. That way they have 3 lines that could be real scoring threats, and a 4th that can play effectively against the other teams' scoring lines. Should be an interesting stretch run... I'm more excited about this team than I have been in a while.

Giving these guys a week to 3 weeks off wouldn't help them. A game here and there, yes, but not a long stretch. They're injured.

A Misconduct is a 10-minute penalty (team is not shorthanded) and is usually given for mouthing off or as part of a penalty for checking from behind or something more serious than just a minor penalty. A Game Misconduct means you're out for the rest of that game. A Match Penalty is assessed for something like intent to injure and the player is subject to a league suspension.

Sounds just like the Detroit Lions.

Mmmm... Crosby in a Wings uniform...