Learn2LuvIt

Honestly...I don't think he has much impact as an agitator anymore. I haven't seen him get opponents into an absolute enraged frenzy like he used. Sure, he gets his face glove washed and players chirping quite a bit....but Malts used to have the ability to work opposing players into a complete... I'm going to kill him, screw hockey rules and my career, I'll see you in the parking lot, your moma's a skank, I'll eat your children, - type loss of composure. Not anymore.

Totally agree. The last thing we need is to have Dom not focusing on playing better and have his head somewhere else. Dom has a tendancy to self-destruct when the mental/goalie controversies start. We need to support him and focus on playing better. I'm extremely confident that he'll start playing better. BTW-I've been watching Ozzie very closely this year in regards to how he expresses to the media the goalie situation. I think the way Cujo addressed the media two years ago really got under Dom's skin and made him loose focus....I think Ozzy has done an outstanding job addressing the media about our goalie situation.

Seriously...Yes. I'll give you Drapes in the face-off circle...one of the best. Besides that, I'd like to see more offense from him...peroid. Being a "locker room guy" Can you tell me what that actually means? Very cliche. If you play in the NHL and need someone to give "rah-rah" speeches, set work ethic examples, or show you how to work-out...than I'm not sure you belong playing with the best palyers in the world anway Player evaluations should only take into consideration 'on ice" activities. WTF-"He is great at getting to the rink on-time-it's amazing...he never gets losts or forgets what time the game starts...in addition. he consistently knows his teammates names and is very generous sharing his tolietries"???? Maltby-"A savvy agitator". WOW...if I could make the money he's making for getting my face glove-washed behind the net and not ever having to get into an actual fight OR contribute offensively....where do I sign up. The past two seasons I've gotten the impression that he is kind of ignored anymore by other teams cause players know his game, and know he'll never drop the gloves. Malts has lost a bit of his edge and your description of him is very generous..a bit sentimental. I do see your points and respect them. I really like these guys a lot, and they've meant a lot to our team over the years....My only point thus far has been we need more offense from these guys...I don't care how sentimental fans can get from our Cup days. In the past we have had the scoring we needed to afford the luxury of having these two play this role so prominantly....after the CBA those days are gone. Everyone has to contribute on the score sheet to win consistentley.

Prospal---All day long. Maybe the most underrated player in the entire league.

Disconnect....yeah I thought that was the point we are trying to make. There is a problem with our forward corps....and I think the basis for some of these challenges is that we are asking two veteran forwards to play roles that are not offensive minded and therefore two of our roster spots/minutes (and payroll) are going to guys who don't score. IMO...we here in Detroit hype these two (esp. Malts) as such great role players..."hard to play against"/"gritty "/"heart and soul guys"/"they bring it every night"/ "veteran guys who have rings"/"core guys"/"team guys"/"they play in the dirty spots"/"they bring the intangibles" (my favorite)/etc.... If they're not a defensemen, and they're not scoring or fighting....I guess I wonder what they are doing. Not trying to bag on Drapes and Malts....I think Babs has a lot to do with this....we just need more out of them besides 'intagibles".

IMO...We have some veterans on other lines (Malts and Drapes in particular) who need to foucus more on offense. When Malts scores, it's almost as if it happened on accident. Both of these guys have the skills to contribute offensively. Having them stictly for a defensive-shut down roles is good, but not utilizing there talents (Drapes = speed, Malts =grit around the net) to maximum advantage. Are these guys defensmen or forwards?? Just an observation as of late.... I'v noticed that when Drapes is on the ice...it's almost like the other team goes into "ok, it's our turn to see if we can get the puck by Draper and in deep to play some offense" mode. When players or a compelte line are not even a remote threat to attempt to score and simply looking to put back-checking/nuetral zone pressure on, it's always going to be a wash...(unless the other team scores). A question my brother posed to me fueled some good discussion/debate: If you were the coach for a bad/sub-par team in the leauge and picked up Drapes or Malts in a trade.....how would you use them? After many attempts to get my arms around this question, I guess my answer was was....not how the Wings are using them. But saying the Wings have too much offensive talent to find bigger offensive roles for these guys is absurd.

Thanks!! Can someone give a brief summary of the discussion highlights? I'm in a meeting right now and supposed to be following along with a power point. It's Friday...right??

IMO...with Ozzy it has always been his ablilty to respond after bad performances and forget bad losses/games. He plays great when they are winning....but I always have questions about his ability to battle through adversity. I think a slight indication of this was his performance and time spent with St. Louis when they were one of the worst teams in the league. Let's see how he plays when we are not on a nine game winning streak.

I see your point. But, if a portion of people who follow hockey think that this may have been a pre-concieved plan from the beginning...than it's not out of the realm of possibility that league officials are saying..."oh, oh....what if this starts happening on a regular basis!!!!??!!!!.....we should probably make a rule that prevents this from becoming a "unfair tactic" that is used to circumvent the salary cap." If a few people are thinking it....then you better believe the league is thinking it....and thinking about how to not have this as a unfair tactic in the future.

Cause of greater good and purposeful intent. If the league comes down hard and creates rules that prevents this type of situation happening again (as a direct result of situations like this...trying too avoid a huge hit against the salary cap)....then this ruins it for the players that this rule/technicalitly was originally intended for.

Do you think if Niedermayer and Salami both return, the Ducks will be as good at playoff time as they were last year, better, or worse? I've thought about it for a while now...and still can't predict. Yes, they added Snieds and Bert...but I still undecided if this will make them a better team than last year. After all, they have changed a lot of chemistry within there team. At any rate, we were one bounce away from winning that series and I don't think this will intimidate the Wings if we meet up in the playoffs.

If he did play again...I'd be nervous as hell just watching him play at first...it would almost be a distraction from the game. Happy to see him play again...but geez it would be hard to not think about another incident. Jiri, It's your life...do whatever you and your family want to do. Besides....you only live once twice

It seems like Toronto thinks they can get just about anybody they want.....except for the people they want. They should probably not have reporters around when they're off in the "non-reality zone". I think they had to retract an article a few weeks ago that reported Toe Blake was very interested in the job and was a good bet to take the GM position.

Hopefully our Wings brass has contacted the league officiating committee to bring some attention to this and find out exactly what the refs are looking at, and specifically what is Homer doing that is drawing a high number of these calls/negating goals. I know this is commom practice and can be an effective tool for teams to plead there case. Doesn't help change the past, but it can pave the way for looking at the actual play, and not (especially in Homers case) looking at the style or percieved reputation of a player in the future. It may not pay off right now, but it may wins us a "no call" come playoff time if we contunially plead Homers case. If it helps us once during the playoffs....it's completely worth the effort. Homer--keep on-keeping on.

??? I hope this "leader" doesn't lead by example.

I'm just curious....how does anyone who's not on the ice claim someone is out of shape? Unless he was in the corner gasping for breath or some obvious sign, I guess I don't know how a spectator/media makes that determination. I played a good deal of hockey in my life and the only way I knew if someone was "out of shape" was sitting on the bench or in the locker room. Anyhow, he'll have no choice but to be in shape with the amount of hockey he'll be playing in the next three weeks. Give the guy the benefit of the doubt already...he's in a new country, new team mates, new style of hockey, and new rink size...btw...he is putting up numbers. Can't wait for hockey to begin...ohhhh yeahhh.

1. Yes-#2 within next three years. 2. No-not this season but next. 3. Yes-barely...though if he had more ice time and PP minutes he'd be over 30. 4. Yes-he'll have a great season and one that puts him on the NHL map. 5. No-close but not 5 (3 or 4). 6. Yes, Ralf will flourish in our puck possesion style and get more than half his points on the PP. 7. Hard to tell, not sure who will be on the team....that could be a long wait. If it happened today (Lids retired or some scenario like that)....Draper and Ralf. 8. Cleary end up with just under 20 goals, but isn't considered a "one hit wonder" due to the fact that he'll end up a very high + ranking at the end of the year and contributes in all areas of the game. 9. Steve Yzerman Danny Heatley 10. Too in-depth....I"M TRYING TO GET SOME WORK DONE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!

Amen!! Finally someone who agree's with me on this one.

I'll say this one more time for your clarity. I'm not blaming anything on Lilja, a mistake is a mistake, he did score that game, and he did play pretty solid defense most of the series...but saying he was Oustanding during the playoffs is a major stretch. Is that clear!! If you are under the assumption that Lilja played outstanding during the entire playoffs, then I'm not sure what your definition of oustanding is? I'd rather ride the train of reality or what has been referred to in this thread as the "pain train" anyday, rather than be a total slappy for the Wings. The Wings are by far my favorite sports passion, but I'm not going to ignore reality and good hockey sense to praise the them.

Ok...I guess trying to skate the puck through the middle of your own zone and coughing the puck up to one the best natural goal scorers in the league in overtime of of Western Confernce Finals playoffs game is no big deal. Lija was OUTSTANDING..... In fact, the momentum had already swung and it was probably an OUTSTANDING play to give it up like that and get the game over with. Geez, what am I and about 50 thousand other Wings fans thinking. The reality is that we didn't want him to try and win the game for us and take any risks, but just don't loose the game for us.. and unfortunately in that case that's exactly what he did....and it couldn't have come at a worse time. I'm not sure why your so defensive (unless your his mother), but I didn't say he was horrible, I just said that calling him OUTSTANDING is a major stretch. Blaming a loss on a "bad call' is lame anyway.

I agree for the most part except for the bit about Lilja. He single-handedly lost a very important playoff game for us (give away in front of the net....Selanne Scores in OT). In fact, that was the momentum shift we never were able to recover from. I agree he shouldn't be totally judged on one play, but saying he was outstanding is reaching.

I agree to some extent with that. Maltby with Drapes is a great combination....the best??maybe. However, Drapes is by far the stronger of the two and Malts would be an average penalty killer without Drapes. Drapes is the way stronger link in that chain.

Not to run long on this Malts theory....but the last two years Malts has been far from the above classification. The above classification is cliche from Stanley Cups days and is no longer an accurate description of Malts.

Um, yes. Think about it. Maltby has been compeltely ineffective the past two seasons. He makes about a half mill more a year than we signed Drake for. Drake had more points than Maltby last year. Drake is still a good aggitator, Maltby hasn't been an effective aggitator for years (since the lock-out). Holland could dump some salary to get us a top forward and still get more out of Drake than we've been getting out of Malts. BTW...Malts has always been one of my favorites and this pains me to think about...but this could be entirely possible. Um....there's your answer.

This thought did enter my mind: Could the Dallas Drake signing be a move in preperation for getting rid of Malts through a trade? Huds and Malts trade package?