joshy207

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1715275/?ref_=nv_sr_1 Noureen DeWulf. She has been in a bunch of movies and TV shows, but nothing of major significance... beautiful woman, though.

Paetsch is not under contract to Detroit, he cannot simply be "recalled". Detroit would have to sign him first... which may be possible, I think they are sitting at 49 contracts right now. You are contradicting yourself all over this post. Are you saying that this year proves overripening is stupid, and you can't believe nobody has said you're wrong? Or the opposite? Because your first two sentences are total opposites. The Wings did not think they could count on Jurco or Sheahan this year. Instead, those two players are on what has been the Wings' best line many nights. They did not expect Nyquist and Tatar to be the major contributors they have become. Last year, they did not expect to have Andersson, Nyquist, Tatar, or Lashoff in the lineup, let alone contribute the way they did. Most of the other "cup of coffee" call-ups have played quite well, too. If someone that "none of us expected to be playing this soon" is getting regular icetime and contributing in the NHL, that player was NOT overripened. That would include Jurco and Sheahan this year, and others like Helm and Kronwall who were called up full-time before they ran out of waiver exemptions. If anything, the last two years have PROVEN that the Wings DO NOT NEED to leave prospects in the AHL as long as they do with little-to-no NHL playing time. Their AHL coaching staff is doing a phenomenal job of developing these players, and those players should be rewarded with opportunities to make the Wings' roster out of training camp and/or having chances to be called up and play regularly during the season without having to wait for the injury bug to strike.

The kid is playing some unreal hockey. Tatar/Sheahan/Jurco line has been great as well. Amazing to think that this team, with Datsyuk and Zetterberg in the lineup a few months ago, was on the outside looking in... and now they're holding on to that top wildcard spot without their best 2 players. The future is now.

...which will turn into 4-52 weeks.

There's about a 19-hour turnaround between the end of the Leafs game and the start of the Lightning game. Throw in the flight home from Toronto and, yeah, it makes total sense to start Gustavsson. No point in burning out Howard and they need Gustavsson to get some PT to keep the rust away.

That's good writin', Dickie, you really captured the spirit of the thing. The biggest problem with this team the last 2 years is inconsistency. A lot of that has been brought on because of the injuries and the resulting revolving-door lineup. But even when the team was mostly healthy, it was inconsistent. There's been a drop-off in talent since the 07-09 era, most noticeably on the blue line and in the secondary scoring department. The team's best players in those years are still its best players today, which says a lot about 13 and 40, but not much for the rest of the team. Nobody has stepped up to take over for our aging superstars. We may be seeing the beginning of that process though, with Nyquist and Tatar... and on defense, obviously nobody can "replace" Lidstrom, but nobody is even CLOSE to taking over. GMRwings, you also have some strong points, many of which I agree with. While it's nice to have loyalty, continuity, etc., that breeds complacency, and I think management and some of the veterans have become very complacent. I'll leave Babcock out of that because he has evolved during his time here, and he seems to have seen the light this year and has stopped relying on his pet players like Cleary while giving more trust and responsibility to younger players who, without the injuries, might not even be in the NHL. In past years, playoff failures resulted in a "we'll get them next year" attitude from management, and underachieving players were not held accountable. Everything stayed the same, no real changes were made. Nobody was shipped out of town to freshen things up and send the remaining players a little wake-up. NTC or not, Holland never trades anyone significant. Not since SLAVA KOZLOV IN 2001. However, the future looks pretty bright... as long as Holland finally sees that same light and stops bringing in or retaining stopgap veterans and gives his prospects an honest chance to make the team out of training camp or during the season. Based on his comments about Mantha, he could be on that path. (I don't have a link handy, but he said Mantha will play in 5-6 preseason games and have a shot to make the Wings next fall.) The true test will come after the season, when he has to let go of the dead-weight vets, decide on his waiver-eligible RFAs, and explore the UFA and trade markets. Maybe, just maybe, the days of roster overbuilding and prospect overripening are gone, and proud veterans aren't waived because the team can't find a trade partner, and energetic young players are expected to learn how to play the NHL game at the AHL level. If the performances of Nyquist, Tatar, Andersson, Lashoff, and DeKeyser didn't prove that last year, throw in Jurco, Sheahan, Glendening, and the cups of coffee this year, and the evidence is pretty strong... give the kids a chance.

Like I said, gloves are not THAT heavy duty. They're nylon, foam, maybe plastic, and synthetic leather, with a finger in the middle, holding a graphite stick. That will not completely prevent the injury that occurred. In the updated article, it said he did NOT lose his finger, but the tip was split wide open. Most likely a pressure cut... which will happen when you shoot a chunk of vulcanized rubber with that much force and hit someone's gloved hand, even if it's dead on the padding.

Revive the Tie!

Gloves are not that heavy-duty. It's not surprising at all that an 80-90mph slap shot can do that kind of damage to a finger if it gets pinched between the puck and stick. The foam (and maybe plastic) will give enough for that to happen.

It's strange to think about how exciting this team is right now! Playoffs or no playoffs this year, the future looks brighter and brighter every game.

Ha, that's awesome! He was the best one by far.

Bob McKenzie tweet regarding the long-change OT: <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>USHL had 23% of its games go to OT (roughly same as NHL). USHL went to long-change OT, settled 10 per cent more games with that one change.</p>— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) <a href="https://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/statuses/442994194617860096">March 10, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Wow, that's ugly. Sorry.

I didn't mind ties. Sometimes a tie felt like a win, like when you were totally outplayed by the other team but "stole a point" or scored in the dying minutes to earn that tie. Of course, they could feel like losses when you were the other team in those situations.

Hey, maybe Smith is the #2 Center we've been lacking since Robert Lang left...

Helm has had a terrible injury history the last few years, he may never return to form. Kindl is a #6/7 D on most teams who has been slow to develop and has regressed from last season. Ferraro and Almqvist MIGHT BE borderline NHLers who would have to clear waivers to be sent back to the minors next year. Ericsson is the only player with any trade value, and he's a #3 D on most teams. The Wings would have to offer far more value to acquire Weber. **EDIT** I hadn't read your next post when I posted this.

We can call them the "Black Aces Line"

That is why Bertuzzi is still playing, he's banking money for this decision.

It could be true, Lidstrom may have told some people that he was going to call it quits after that year, or at least was leaning that way, and maybe it didn't stay secret inside the organization. I actually heard that Rafalski was going to retire 3 months before he did, and I heard it at my neighborhood bar. The guy who told me was friends with a guy who did high-end home renovations, and Rafalski had some work scheduled for that summer. He ended up cancelling the project because he wasn't going to have the money coming in anymore, because he was going to quit playing.

I voted Canada/Russia (USSR) based on the history... Summit Series of '72, the "Punch-Up at Piestany" WJC game from '87, the Canada Cup battles... but I think USA/Canada has developed into just as good of a rivalry, without the deep-rooted mutual dislike. '96 World Cup, '10 Olympic Final in Vancouver, and some of the WJC games have been outstanding hockey. Add in the women's side and this rivalry may be taking over...

OUCH!!

Olympic Hockey will never be good again. I sincerely hope the World Cup will be revived in the next couple years. This sport needs ultra-high-level international competition. On the World Cup subject, I'd like to see them have the top 7 countries (USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Czech, Slovakia, Russia) and an 8th team made up of players from all other countries, an IIHF/"World" team.

My predictions are pretty close to Matthewdanna's. DeKeyser $2.5M, 3 years; Tatar $1.25M, 2 years; Sheahan $900K, 2 years; Glendening $700K, 2 years. Keep in mind, Glendening may not even make the roster to start next year...

I like both Eaves and Miller. I like them more together than separately, and I always thought they play their best when they're with Helm.

...to be called Cory?

Understood. Unless the guy is someone who can really help the team, I would rather just go young and see what they can do to start the year. They can always make a deal in-season if they need help, and they will have plenty of cap space.