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I listen to Phil Esposito and some other guy on In The Slot (or something like that on XM) and Phil made a good point about fighting in the NHL today. Basically when he was in the league guys would get pissed at each other and drop the gloves where now there are too many fights that are obviously manufactured (for lack of a better term). There is no emotion, just two guys who have a job to do and in Phil's words "One guy taps the other guy on the pads and says let's go". Obviously that is not the case with all fights but it does bring up a good point and I see what he is talking about. The Fedoruk fight is a perfect example of that. Don't get me wrong I love hockey fights even if they are manufactured but I think he makes a good point. Fights that occur naturally and emotionally are better and more in line with the way the game should be played. Manufactured fights are obviously initiated to shift momentum but they also allow players who probably don't belong in the league to take a spot from someone with better skills (and who may still be able to fight, just not as well).

Lidstrom is a robot and I have believed that he is the best player in the league for a long time now. Sure he is not flashy but he is consistently among the top scoring dmen and he is the top defensive dman in the league. He does not have to be flashy or make spectacular plays because he is so smart. He is always in the right position and always makes the right play and because of that everything looks simple. The plays he makes are not easy but because he is smarter than everyone else on the ice it looks that way. The play he made the other day where he stole the puck from someone with one hand, controlled it, and moved the puck the other way was unreal. He made it look so routine that most fans would not even realize what a great play it was but I don't know if there is another play in the NHL that could have made that play. I was amazed, as were the game announcers (not sure but I think it was the NBC guys) and he makes plays like that all the time.

Yeah, he pisses me off and he reminds me a lot of Avery. As far as wanting him to play for the Wings I lean to saying no but I also understand that if he played limited minutes and was able to agitate the opposition he might be palatable. Although I did not like Avery when he played for the Wings because of the stupid penalties he took and Tootoo does the same type of s*** so... He tried to run Schneider (I think) later in the game and Schneider sidestepped him so he planted himself into the boards. I saw the hit coming and was hoping Schneider would flash an elbow. It would have knocked Tootoo right the f*** out. Honestly, I am surprised it has not happened yet the way he throws himself around. Speaking of elbows, did anyone see the elbow Jagr got away with a few weeks ago. It was one of the smoothest elbows I had ever seen. He had the puck and made a little spin move but while in the middle of it he threw the elbow up and solidly connected with the d-man covering him. It was soo smooth it looked like an accident until they showed the replay and you could clearly see Jagr purposefully throwing the elbow. My parent were in town visiting and we all got a good laugh out of it.

I remember that cross check. I am drawing a blank on who they were playing but it was a great play by Hank. He drew the interference penalty to start the play and then drew that penalty too. I remember being pretty pissed because it was a dirty play but he finished the game seemingly fine. I did not really think about until I heard that he was out. On the original topic I don't remember seeing a slash or Nichol being hurt either.

It did not hurt that everyone was afraid of him too. Pat Jablonski was playing for the Blues and they were in Detroit to play the Wings. A bunch of guys that were a bit older than me had played with him growing up and they were hanging out with them the night before the game. Apparently some of the St Louis players were playing Sega hockey and talking about Probert. They basically said that they watch him before the game and if he looks pissed they stay as far away from him as possible. I also remember having good seats for a game back in the day and everybody gave him plenty of room. It obviously gave Yzerman lotsa room too.

I like Doc Emrick. Living in NJ I watch a lot of Rangers and Devils games and he calls a lot of them.

And the fact remains any one of them has probably been a bit overaggressive and could have caused a freak injury like Bertuzzi did. Hell I see constant posts about getting Doan and then last night watched him slew foot Holmstrom after a whistle. That play could have resulted in a career ending injury too. All Holmstrom has to do is fall the right way. Very cheap play but it did not result in an injury. Bertuzzi's play on Moore was very cheap too, and like it or not something that has happened in the NHL forever, but it resulted in a FREAK injury. If would bet 99 times out of 100 that play does not result in a serious injury. It's unfortunate that it happened but like I said it could happen with almost anyone who plays that style of game. I say as long as we don't pay too much and are confident that he will be able to play get him. I am sick and tired of watching Wings players get run at and cheap shotted (especially the constant slashes to the wrists of Zetts and Datsyuk) with no repercussions from the team. That crap will kill the Wings in the playoffs if they don't get someone who will stand up for them.

Tuckers a ***** Tucker throws a cheap elbow and Kovalev gets the puck and pays him back nicely. Unfortunately Tucker was not really hurt but he does get thumped.

I seriously have to laugh at some of you guys. Holland did exactly what he said he was going to do. Picked up a depth d-man. I never read anywhere that he was going to pick up a 4-5 d-man. You seem to think that Holland is the only part of this process and he can just get whatever he wants while the rest of the league lets him have his way. There are 2 parts to a trade and the fact is maybe these teams did not like what Detroit had to offer so they went somewhere else. i would rather they pick up Cross for some depth giving up what they did than give up too much for a player who may be around for the rest of this season only. I would rather see this trade than the one Nashville made, sure they got Whitt who contrary to what some here seem to think is not the ultimate defensmen but they gave up way too much for him. The Wings got a little better and added some decent depth and that is all that I would expect from a team that is having good success now.

Funny. I though there was some good hockey knowledge here but I guess I was wrong. It's just a joke the way most people here talk CRAP when they don't know what the hell they are talking about. Manny let in 4 goals over 2 games. 3 break aways and 1 tipped shot. You can't blame him for any of the goals. It's not like Cleary scored on the break aways. It was Kariya and Sullivan, 2 natural goal scorers who know how to put the puck in the net. The Wings actually played fairly well, at least on Monday, and they lost. It happens. Just like when they were playing like s**t and winning. That's the way it goes. I think Nashville is a quality club but unlike others here I belive the Wings are still a better team at every position besides goalie and sorry but Vokoun is not Roy or Hasek yet. Some of you really need to take a step back and calm the f**k down. Just because the Wings win they are not the best team in the world and when they lose it also does not mean they are the worst team in the world. If the Wings won in OT half this board would be talking about how great they are but they lost so those same people are talking about how bad they are. Is there room for improvement, of course. Should they just give up and concede the season like some seem to be hoping for, of course not. Nobody goes 82-0 and you really are going to lose some games that you should win. They could have very easily won both of these games and the attitude here would be completely different. Support your team. You don't have to be a Homer but don't be that person who is a homer when they win and think they are the worst team in the world when they lose.

I will give you the MSU lost but that was when they were playing great ball and ND lost by three points. I guess a loss is still a loss. MSU seems to be pretty good at playing great for a while and then blowing up. I still think that ND is a better team than Oregon and will prove it in their bowl game. I have not watched any replays of the ND-UM game so I don't really remember everything but from my recollection the calls seemed to be right. I truly did not expect ND to be as good as they were this year because of the way they have played the last few years. Better watch out because they are only going to get better. Charlie Weis has some great recruiting tools and one of them is a former UM quarterback.

Oh. BTW since you are saying that ND should not be there because of 2 losses you must agree that OSU should not be there either. After all they lost twice too. What about FSU, they are in a BCS Bowl with 4 losses and no ranking at all. Come on, be consistent. Don't let your anti-Notre Dame bias show too much.

I am thinking back to the ND-UM game and I can't recall UM getting screwed. Just because they gave the ball away does not mean the refs screwed them. Seems to me that they screwed themselves. Look ND lost to USC by three points on the last play of the game while Oregon got their asses handed to them by 45 points. Seems to me that ND is a better team just by looking at this. I bet if you ask every USC player who the better team is they will tell you it is ND. Now when ND beats OSU will anyone admit they deserved their place in the game? Probably not.