stevie for president

what about addition by subtraction. do you honesly thing lang and calder/williams helped this team? having filppula and hudler replace them helps our team out more than you realize. and then when you hear all the hype about grigorenko and now hes filling the 4th line duties of hudler or filppula. bertuzzi i think we need to replace him but there are so many better upgrades because he didnt have a good season. rafalski over schneider is an upgrade i really think this team is a trade or free agent signing away from being among stanley cup favorites again.

as a few people have stated before, the owners cost the loyalty. not the players. yeah locking out the players to try and earn a little extra money? how is that loyal? theres two ways of looking at it. and why should there be a home team discount? why should millionaire players take a pay cut for billionaire owners? shouldnt the billionaire owners give the players some "thank you" bonus instead of accepting a home team discount. think about t, bert is rich, but compared to illitch? he couldve given bert 8 mil over 2 years. i would be pissed for overpaying, but still. and i just want to point out 50.3 x 20% > the highest pre-lockout salary.

ok please tell me what they signed drury for because its not in that link, and unless it was for around or above 8 mil a season it wasnt overpayed. and gomez had 60 points and lead the team in plus/ minus. thats pretty impressive if you ask me.

i see where youre coming from but not many defense can shut down jagr, drury, gomez, maybe shanny, straka, hossa, and prucha, avery gave them an added dimension, they have a great checking line and a top-knotch 4th line, and one of the best young goalies in the game.

might as well etch their names on the stanley cup now.

Ok contrary to the beliefs of Bettman, St. louis, Colorado, and Chicago are NOT rivals. The closest thing the wings had to a rival was nashville. it was more of a both teams were good in the same conference and really needed to beat each other. ok enough with the preface. Nashville's D is among the worst in the NHL, and now they trade away in my opinion their MVP. Also, i hear their salary will be at the basement, around 33 million. They are basically being reduced to an AHL franchise. Now that they are out of the picture, who could even be considered the biggest Detroit rival? I say Toronto. we see each other 2 times every 3 years, not 8 times in one year, but still...again contrary to bettman...id say they are our biggest rivals. Any thoughts? On a side note, now that Nashviille is out of the picture, can anyone compete with detroit in the central? the jackets and blues wont be as bad as last year but thats not saying much and im not convinced chicago has gotten better. did detroit already win the central unless huge signings are made during free agency?

it was a combination of an exaggeration, a smart-assed comment, and just my overall hatred of nashville. obviously nashville isnt an ahl franchise and they will probably make the playoffs this year, but also compared to their previous seasons roster its a huge downgrade. say what you want about mason but id rather vokoun any day of the week. and to answer your question, i thought the red wings were in the same boat with a 41 year old goalie, no yzerman, no shanny, and everyone a year older, and if not for guys like cleary and hudler and filppula we wouldnt have lead the west in points.

if bobby orr never got injured, would gretzky have set all the records he did? im bossy never got injured, would he hold the nhls all time goals record? if lemieux wasnt injured for 80% of his career, would he have beaten waynes records? if yzerman didnt get hurt so much, would he still be playing, and would have won the cup? if schneider and fischer and vladdy were on this team would we have won the cup? if the ref doesnt call datsyuk for that "interference" in game 5 would we have won the cup? if scotty really traded yzerman or if he never traded for shanny would we ever have won the cup to begin with? there was an espn article that said the wings did as good as they did because yzerman and shanny were NOT on this team. and as blashphemous as that was, it made some good points.

at least there is only home and away jerseys now. all the alternate jerseys and logos got out of hand. Glad the canucks switched their jerseys back to that ice rink with a stick logo. now lets hope the sabres go back to their old sweaters as well.

haha here's a crazy trade proposal for you all Boston gets: Sturm, Stuart, and wayne primeau San Jose gets: Joe Thornton as for pitkanen. we have some bad ass dman prospects. what we need is a 2nd line center. speaking of that. you want crazy? Wings sign Fedorov. now that would be crazy.

chicago hands down boston. are you kidding me? thornton gone, raycroft gone, lapointe was a horrid signing, lewis shouldnt have been canned phoenix. they started off with bulin, roenick, and tkachuk, now they have doan. and thats it! get off your asses and sign some FAs!!! florida. they absolutely got robbed in the luongo move. edmonton. you dont trade smythe. ever. no excuses. bottom line. you dont trade smythe.

the NBA is the most diluted of all the major sports and it was on the rise until this year. the NHLs best years were when it was expanding and diluted. i say relocate nashville(looks like theyre going to hamilton), new jersey(come on, their attendance is putrid. put them in kansas city), and atlanta(they dont deserve a sport besides football. put them in i guess vegas since that city seems to be in expansion talks for some reason) and send a notice to washington and phoenix that their end is near if they dont get their acts straight. lynch the hawks owner since hes the worst in all of sports and kill gary bettman. expand 2 more teams to canada. i bet i get torn apart for this, but i dont care. i disagree with the hockey is too diluted argument. you cant tell me any of a decent teams top 15 players shouldnt be in the nhl, and who cares about the 4th line because they see what, 6 minutes of ice time? right now every team has a legit starting goalie and a back up that could start on most teams. i think the talent has never been this strong in the nhl. i think the only reason the public thinks otherwise is because of poor marketing. if you dont know a player, you automatically assume he isnt worthy of a roster spot.

i would absolutely seperate myself from the red wings if that happened. pronger is a disgrace to the nhl and the fact that his name will join guys like yzerman, bossy, orr, messier, lemieux, and gretzky, just to name a few, on the most prestigious trophy in north america is one that should make every hockey fan sick to his or her stomach.

myopic owners are whats wrong with hockey. they cant see that although bettman is making them money, a healthy, popular nhl will make them even more money. look what this wonderful game has be relegated to. it went from a sport on the rise that was challenging the nba for 3rd most popular to a fringe sport. it went from a hard hitting league with more fights than teeth to figure-skating with a stick. from espn to versus. maybe get some owners that can realize that bettman isnt the right guy and shouldve been fired in 95

you know something mickeyisms rule!? maybe im being a little selfish, but last time i checked we dont have many songs that have the cow bell!!! ok. im sick to stomach. i have a fever, and the prescription is more cow bell!!

i loved moen. i think he was definitely and unsung hero. i wouldnt really consider him for the conn smythe. getzlaf was huge, mcdonald, selanne, but when you think of anaheim you think of the following: goldberg, conway, and bombay. but they cant win pronger. theres no way they could justify winning possibly the two most important games without cheap shot mcgee yet hes the mvp. j.s. gigiure, but he didnt start the playoffs and he had some average and sub average games. selanne was not a no show but not a stand out either. neidermeyer. captain, defence, which wins championships, and he scored some huge goals.

that damn penalty call on datsyuk in game 5 with a minute and change to go might have cost the wings the cup. f*** bettman in the ass hole with a rusty ******* dildo!!! the new nhl my ass!!! where have i heard "dont worry, im bringing gifts" OHH YEAHH!! IN CAROLINA IN 06!!! WHEN THE FANS ACTUALLY BOOED YOU, YOU CLEVER ******* ****!!! God i hate him. i ******* hate him!! i want him to die and go to hell and his version of hell is a surviving nhl with fights and hits and tradition and teams where they belong. This is what you wanted, Gary. You wanted the US to not know about the stanley cup. you wanted to f*** with officiating so badly that it became a parade to the sin bin, only to reneg on that in the conference and stanley cup finals. if the game was called the way it was supposed to, anaheim would be watching a team who's city actually knows how prestigious the stanley cup really is! BURN IN HELL YOU ******* PRICK!

Let's be fair though. If the same questions were asked to the same people in the same exact situations except for it was the Angels or Lakers, do you think their responses wouldve been much better? Kings vs. Ducks in the finals, Minnesota in Canada, Royals in Canada and the NHL... that one is up there for the dumbest response. The elementry kids didn't say anything really and im not sure why it was added. and then the guy that said of course i watch hockey, i hate the flames they are they every year... i guess he watched hockey in 89 and 2004 and just assumed nothing changed in between... do you think its possible he confused the Detroit Red Wings with the Calgary Flames?

Here's a couple quotes from this article: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=ap-d...p&type=lgns "If you watch some of the other views, it looks like a dangerous, high hit. If you look at the end zone view, I think it shows best that Chris Pronger went to hit Tomas Holmstrom at a 45-degree angle from the boards. At no point is Chris delivering a hit toward the boards, a dangerous hit. He's coming in to finish a check at a 45-degree angle. Rob Niedermayer steps into the player (Holmstrom), pins him, you get a high finish." Ok that's kind of implying the Neids put Homer at a 90 degree angle to the boards which caused such a severe hit to take place. "I think if Robby Niedermayer doesn't come into this play, I'm not here (talking about it), there's no hearing, there's no issue," Burke said. Right there he definitely blames it on Neids. I might be reading too much into this, but doesn't it look like the Ducks GM Burke is blaming Rob Neidermayer for Pronger's suspension?

Filppula will be better all around than datsyuk, in my opinion. hes already playing penalty kill and when the goalie is pulled. he has shown more than talent on offense. he is by far my favorite wing, by far! i thought drapes or lidstrom would take that title when yzerman retired (i just made myself sad) but from his first few games, i knew he was something special. I love the lockout now more than ever. the cap is going up and teams are saying they will still around 40 million, but the cap will be near 50, so there goes the whole parity in the nhl, and now clutching and grabbing is coming back? great job nhl and nhlpa execs. get NOTHING accomplished while taking a year off.

The Minnesota Wild have never not sold out a game. Thats preseason, regulaur season, and post season. and thats saying A LOT since they either have success with playing a trap (in other words, they win playing a highly defensive and boring style of play that limits shots and scoring chances to a minimum for both teams) or they just dont have success. This year was a little different because Gaborik and Demitra provided offense and they were moderately successful, even though being born and raised in Detroit, I would call one playoff win in a series thats already 3-0 in the opposition's favor very disappointing.

in 2 games without kopecky they are 1 for 2 with an even goal differential. in 1 game with him they won and had a +5 goal differential. who would you have in the lineup? ok sarcasm aside, Id take a healthy calder over any other 3rd or 4th line player the wings have, but we dont have a healthy calder, so Kopecky.

If Langkow didnt get a suspension for what he did to Lebda in game 5 than i see no way in hell the NHL could justify suspending Pronger for what he did in game 3. You know what I want to make Pronger pay? Bertuzzi. He's been almost pointless this playoffs. at least drop the gloves.

It happened twice http://www.whowins.com/features/comeback.html i say the odds of the sabres beating the sens 4 straight times though is about 5%. And thats just because I think Miller has been amazing and the only bright spot for the sabres all playoffs. if their top line comes out, they might be able to steal a couple games.

he has definitely shown the most effort, and i think that warrants an A