achildr1

St.L is really on the upswing. Lots of good young talent with a couple really good veteran leaders in Arnott and Langenbrunner. If Halak goes all 2010 playoffs on us they could be a scary team. I wonder if having Hitchcock will hold back there mobile D guys (Pietriangelo, Shattenkirk) from offense though.

But an adopted Michigander in the early 70's. I think he's done enough time here for me to forget about that whole Canadian thing....

I don't get this. It a whole issue with many factors but the bottom line is, they've got steroids far from baseball now and it incredibly obvious in player performance across the board. Id give baseball a chance again if I were you.

Good point, didn't think about that. I think that fact is probably the difference maker in this situation. I really couldn't see Nashville trading one of those guys to us, for obvious reasons.

Always a good choice.

I really think losing him is worse than people want to admit. He just worked his tail off game in and game out. That's the type of play we need right now.

Yep. I really dispise them. The players (Couture, Thornton, Marleau, Niemi), they jerseys (absolutely atrocious), how awfully unclutch and pampered by the refs they are, but mostly because they've beat us the last two years and there's no good reason for it.

Zetterberg would be the d-man. We all know he's invisible right now anyway. Ericsson would be beaten until he decided to use his size to his advantage. We may actually have a bonafide goal-scorer/one timer magician.

This, seriously. I honestly have no idea what convinced anyone in the front office that Ericsson was worth half that contract. Even more mind bending is the fact that Kronwall probably gets the same contract on the open market, plus at least 1.5 more annually. A Datsyukian deke to the open market by Holland.

He didn't. I read the quotes. He said he was shocked when no one called. His only two offers were the Red Wings and Capitals and the Capitals were offering him the starting position. I was shocked to read it, I'm a big fan of Vokoun. I'll try to find em and get em on here. EDIT: http://dc.sbnation.com/washington-capitals/2011/7/12/2272044/tomas-vokoun-rumor-detroit-red-wings He may have initially received an offer from Florida, but it appears that after Free agency started, that was it.

I This. Vokoun was just forgotton about by almost everyone, including only getting two offers, from Ken Holland and George McPhee (two guys that know what they're doing?) Vokoun's numbers in Florida were great considering being on the Panthers. If we weren't committed to Howard, I would have been overjoyed to sign him. Bouwmeester was arguably better as a Panther than he has been as a flame. I think the story on Horton is that he just lost the passion playing for the Panthers. Jokinen's most dominant and best statistical years were as a Panther. If anything, he's been a disappointment everywhere else he's went. Ask Flames, Coyotes, Islander, Ranger, and Kings fans.

Alright look. Somebody with the Wings said something to this effect once and I thought it really encapsulated this issue. The style we play makes us look dominant when we win but makes it look like we're not "competing" hard enough when we lose. Because we're not running around hitting everybody doesn't mean we're not trying. We play skilled, positional hockey. That means when guys have lazy or bad passing days, we look horrible and like we're not putting in enough effort. I've read quotes from Holland about sticking to the philosophy and game that has lead to our success, even when we get beat by a team that plays another one (Anaheim '07). That said, Conklin and our overall defensive play in the last two games look pretty awful to me. I am curious to see if Commodore brings a new element with a little energy and grit when he plays.

Leave Osgood out of this.

New Jersey Devils- Andy Greene New York Rangers- Ryan Callahan New York Islanders- Frans Nielsen Pittsburgh Penguins- James Neal Philadelphia Flyers- Dan Briere Northeast Division: Toronto Maple Leafs- James Riemer, Clarke MacArthur Montreal Canadiens- Hal Gill Ottawa Senators- Bobby Butler Buffalo Sabres- Ryan Miller Boston Bruins- Milan Lucic, Tim Thomas Southeast Division: Washington Capitals- Joel Ward, Tomas Vokoun Carolina Hurricanes- Jeff Skinner Florida Panthers- Stephan Weiss, Sean Bergenheim Tampa Bay Lightning- Steven Stamkos, Dwayne Roloson, Dominic Moore Winnipeg Jets- Mark Scheifele, Tobias Enstrom, Alex Burmistrov Central Division: Chicago Blackhawks- Andrew Brunette, Jeremy Morin St. Louis Blues- TJ Oshie Nashville Predators- Pekka Rinne, Shea Weber, Mike Fisher Columbus Blue Jackets- Rick Nash Northwest Division: Calgary Flames- Jerome Iginla, Alex Tanguay Vancouver Canucks- Cory Schneider, Manny Malholtra Minnesota Wild- Mikko Koivu, Nik Backstrom Colorado Avalanche- Matt Duchene Edmonton Oilers- Taylor Hall, RNH Southwest Division: Dallas Stars- Loui Eriksson, Stephanie Robidas Phoenix Coyotes- Ray Whitney, Kyle Turris, Lauri Korpikoski, Keith Yandle Anaheim Ducks- Saku Koivu San Jose Sharks- No thanks. Los Angeles Kings- Jonathan Quick, Drew Doughty

I like his physical play before the fight, because thats what he needs to do to earn any part of his ridiculously inflated contract. He needs to be locked in a room, fed only protein bars, raw red meat, and made to watch video of Jiri Fischer's short career 24/7. The kid, as it stands right now, is a waste of talent, size, and 3+ million dollars. He needs to focus on his defensive awareness and physical play first and worry about putting up points in about two years. He's not good at anything right now on a consistent basis. One night he puts up a couple assists, the next 12 nights he looks lost. One night he has a fight and a goal, the next 3 months he makes pylons look like little orange Rod Langways. I can't believe I'm saying this, but he could learn from Lilja's career with the Wings. Lilja was the epitome of useless for the majority of his Wings career, but learned how to play defense and block shots by the time he left. Just focus on using that size and strength, the element the Wings need!

I've been impressed with him to. Just went to the Vancouver game and there was a play where he pinched perfectly and a play where he ended up going way down low behind Vancouver's net and controlled the puck in traffic. Just looks a lot more comfortable and confident.

They're growing on me, wasn't a big fan at first. I think the logo would be better as a secondary but its not terrible either. I do wish there was "Winnepeg" or "Winnepeg Jets" somehow scripted into the blue circle part. The baby blue is curious. If anyone that knows how has a few seconds, could they change the baby blue the leaf red?

Kris Draper. Dude is probably calling Kenny right now, he didn't want to retire.

Uh oh, I'm agreeing with Eva... Seriously though, that's not my hockey era of expertise but through all I have read throughout the years, Gainey would almost certainly take the cake defensively over Clarke. I still don't think Hudler will win the Hart this year though....

Or if Vancouver wouldn't have taken Pavel Bure 3 picks before the Wings had planned to take him.....

You guys just officially got the Ericsson-loathing blood flowing again. I am so flabbergasted by his contract, especially after his horrendous play against San Jose. If he doesn't have a 180 degree turn around, we officially have one of the highest paid, most useless 7th defenseman in the league. Chris Chelios would probably bring similar skills to the table and we could pay him 600k. There's my first Ericsson rant for the season...

Homer is a cheap, powerplay specialist with near unrivaled skills at what he does. I'd still take Homer over Sammy, everyday and twice on Sunday. The thing with the Wings this year is we lack offense we can count on past Pav and Hank. Our suppossed secondary scoring options are either extremely streaky (Hudler, Franzen, Bertuzzi) or injury prone (Cleary, Filppula). Homer offers a unique skill set, unrivaled powerplay skills, playoff experiance, and a low salary for it all. This will almost certainly be his last year, but given our streaky, injury prone forwards and inexperiance of the next wave (Mursak, Tatar), I'm glad he is signed for this year.

If I would have come from a family that was familiar with the hockey world, to give me a better chance. If I had 20 more lbs and 2 inches on me. If my area high schools would have had hockey 4 years earlier. Etc...

Wow. The Wings are horrible. Thanks NHL.com jk I hate seeing Datsyuk's and Helm's name below any other teams name even in a fantasy world. Seriously, how well do we have it as Wings fans?

How about the Swedish Schremp?