achildr1

Isn't that all they do in Toronto anyway? The first time I ever went to Toronto there was a picture of Eric Lindros playing in a Leafs jersey on the front of the Toronto Sun...except he had never and was not playing for them at that point. Toronto is Eklund of hockey cities.

I believe they still don't really make money and, if they were to stink it up for 5 or 6 years they could easily be irrelevant again in Tennessee.

Marcel Goc, Thomas Greiss, Christian Erhoff, Jochen Hecht, Marco Sturm, Dennis Seidenburg, and Alexander Sulzer are from Germany. I get your point but there are some from Germany at least.

And Craig Rivet is in the ECHL because he's an ECHL caliber defenseman. And Ericsson is making top-4 money because he's a top-4 dman. There's more than one way to look at it. I'm not totally arguing the point, I just don't like this way of arguing it. I thought Joey Mac played quite well last year when called upon and may just be a decent NHL backup if ever given the chance. The only real chance he's ever been given was with the '08 Isles. Possibly the worst NHL team post-lockout. Their lineup was atrocious, 2nd leading scorer had 39 points. I'm sure they had excellent defensive prowess... The 2nd best shot he had was last year and he played as good as you can expect from a backup. His first 3 years in the AHL were stellar, his fourth was abysmal. I wonder if he realized the Wings never took him seriously (like D.Larsson) and he kind of lost some of the fire. Realizing that people think your only an AHL goalie has probably derailed more than a few careers. If every goalie got as many chances as Rick DiPietro we'd probably see more Manny Legace/Tim Thomas-esque stories. Sometimes we have to remember that the teams who've decided MacDonald is an AHL goaltender are the '01-'05 Wings (Hasek, Joseph, Legace), Post-Lockout Leafs ('nuff said, talent evaluators extrordinaire!), the Isles (who regularly employ 5 goaltenders at a time in search of any negligible amount of hope and hang them out to dry) and finally the current Wings. I love Holland and usually support his decisions but Joey Mac had much better numbers than Conks last year. Holland could have given Joey a shot, he just didn't.

Is this the only Wings "sweater" around? https://www.rivercitysports.com/US/details-06.cfm?sku=142348 Been wanting one of these for awhile, love the retro feel. For some reason though, I felt I seen someone with a different one at a game recently. I found em for $90, I think that's about as good as it gets. Let me know anything you guys know about em...

That one is pretty awesome. Too bad I would look like Patty Roy in it, catching pucks in my over large armpits.

Wow. Definitely never seen that before.

This concussion issue is getting really big. I think this issue could bring some epic changes to the game and soon. It will almost certainly be the reason for what looks like the ultimate withdrawal of fighting from the game. The league may actually have go make sweeping changes to physical contact in general, the players have become too fast and reckless for this to continue without very serious injuries or death. If Crosby ends up being Eric Lindros II, it will be an enormous problem for the game. Also, maybe we've just seen the tip of the iceberg. Maybe players are having more concussion's than we ever thought and once they start being able to truly track them, all major sports will have to evaluate the physical play of thier respective games.

Who isn't surprised that Bettman wouldn't put the Wings in the East? All about the Benjamins...

Ok, when are people going to understand that leaving the ice 2 inches with your skates doesn't mean he's leaving his feet to hit a guy. The nature of body checks seems prove that its going to happen more often then not. I seen no maliciousness there.

Ha! Eat it Sharks.

I was looking at the stat leaders on each team and the standings and I'm pretty surprised to say the least. Not only is Mr. Last Pick on the Playground tearing it up with the Leafs, but Mike Smith is doing his best Dominik Hasek impression, Minnesota is winning the West, and Kris Versteeg is making Jr. Blackhawk nation South his stomping grounds. The big surprise came though with the GAA's. I haven't seen GAA's this low since 2000. Several goaltenders are sporting 2.20 and under. Harding, Backstrom, Howard, Giguere, Fluery, Khabibulin ( ), and Thomas are all under 2.00. I know it's early but even 20 plus games into the season, thats incredible. The Wild are winning the West and their scoring stats look like the stats in my 1999 THN Yearbook...bleak, to say the least. Wife is giving me trouble, gotta go to the In-laws or i'd probably offer my opinion...but what do you guys think is going on?

Eva, Hudler has been essentially useless for all but about 35 games since returning from Russia. He is incredibly streaky, more talented than Leino but doesn't actually produce as much (and Leino isn't captain consistency either), I think more than one person would question his work ethic, isn't a defensive wonderkind by any stretch of the imagination, hasn't lived up to his 'potential' for almost three years, is probably worth as much as Cal O'Reilly was in a trade (next to nothing), and his output is essentially completly dependent on who is on his line. I think were at the point of looking at Hudler's actual output instead of what he should be producing. Let me make something clear. Jimmy Howard has carried us for 26 games in his freshman year, but I dont think he's the type to do that like a Rinne, Thomas, Hasek, or Roy would. (Although he is on fire) Same thing with Zetterberg. He's a very good player, I just think he gets a little more hype than maybe he deserves. At least now anyway, he has regressed quite a bit since '08. Datsyuk however, has become arguably a top 3 player in the league. This is certain exaggeration but Cheechoo is "capable" of 56 goals, Ryan Miller is capable of winning games by himself, and Hudler is capable of 70 points. They just don't do it anymore. Like Zetterberg scoring goals...

Yup, Homer is still good, who knew?

I know this may sound crazy but I think Kindl is the one in that deal Id have a hard time dealing right now. We have a bunch of good, young forwards but outside of Smith and Kindl, the blueline is thin. Kindl has really impressed me this year and could theoretically end up being a #3-#4 guy in this league. Kronwall, Smith, and Kindl provide a pretty decent defensive foundation for the post-Nick era.

If the Devils do trade him, the Kovalchuk deal would probably be the template. Although I think Lou Lam knows he hosed the Thrashers. That was: Nic Bergfors Patrice Cormier 1st + 2nd round picks So: Nyquist, Jarnkrok, or Tatar Abdelkader or Ericsson 1st + 2nd If we could get away with that, I'd be thrilled.

He's "capable" of 90 points. But I'm starting to wonder if Z's real zone is a bit lower then we are expecting. Maybe he's really a 70 point guy.

I would take Homer over Leino everyday. Leino was lazy and talked crap about us after he left. He was terrible with us and is a little bit different version of Hudler. Which we need like we need more players with the defensive awareness of Jonathan Ericsson. Homer probably plays some of the hardest minutes of anyone in the league and not only survives, he thrives. If he isn't the best in the league at what he does anymore, he's #2. If Leino played 13 minutes a game I seriously doubt he'd match Homer's normal production. He is "one dimensional" but he has always been and although this should probably be his last year, he's fine by me. Dude's got 4 Cup rings for a reason. I know this will almost certainly ruffle more than a few's feathers, but I can't say I'm super surprised with Zetterberg's play. Zetterberg, while owning a ton of hockey sense, never really stood out to me in a pure skill/self-sustaining point producer sense. Datsyuk does but not Z. He's a great two-way guy but I think the 40 goal, 90 point Z isn't what we should expect from him. I've never felt that if Datsyuk were gone, that Zetterberg could carry the team from an offensive standpoint. Also, he's the Brad Pitt of his country, has a Cup ring, Olympic Gold, Conn Smythe, a Celeb wife, and a lifetime contract. How much motivation does he have to have? If that's our third line, some serious problems better have arose because that line is greener than a spring pasture. I'm all for playing kids, especially when the veterans float around like they're all on lifetime contracts...but JV teams are for the the Islanders and Oilers, not the Wings.

I'm also not going to try and encourage this to become about Hudler but this was one of the funnier, most blatent Hudler plugs I've seen from Eva yet. Hudler seriosuly needs to get in touch (not physically!) with Eva, they could probably pull a Jeff Finger over on Glen Sather or Darcy Regier.

Wow, who seriously thought Nick would be that ripped? He looks like he's 25 years old. And yea, never seen him as the type to do a shoot like that. I wish I was in half that good of shape and I'm 25.

He actually does that stutter all the time. That's why he drives me bonkers as an announcer/analyst. Ta...ta...today Junior!

+1000 Get er done Pavel.

EVA? (In the Wall-E voice)

Detroit loves average guys... Brandon Inge, Bobby Higginson, Darren McCarty, Kid Rock (The literal embodiment of Taylor, MI)...

Truth.