evilmrt

What a shame. He was much loved by many hometown favorites and beyond. RIP

SI posted this link this morning. Apparently someone dug this up, and its making the rounds online. I know this was quite a while ago....but I'm shocked that Pierre is still in hockey after things like this. I guess NBC didn't take the time to vet him, or they just didn't care. Apologies to anyone who already knew this, but this has some gems that I couldn't pass up:

Update....Mads Mikkelsen's (Hannibal) brother Lars, a star in his native Denmark, will play the Season 3 villain. You might have seen him in "Flame and Citron", or the original Danish version of "The Killing". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23490297

He's not respected by the players, even today. I think that says it all.

From a business perspective, everything. Imagine if the Illitches figured out how to bridge hockey to the african-american community in SE Michigan. Do you know how big of a deal that would be? Unfortunately, nobodys putting down the $$$ for poor minority kids to play the game. And on that thought, I think that is where Bettman should have tried "Growing the Game" instead of southern expansion. Would have been way cheaper and would have paid off by now.

Same...I had no idea a douchey little idiot like Pierre could ever be hired as a coach. It was news to me. I also agree with you on NBC's hockey coverage lineup. Why do they keep hiring rejects? Is it because the decent ones get paid more up in Canada?

HAHAHAHAHA! I was sitting there, for about 3 minutes, going "wtf? who is Bettman?" and then I saw the 04-05 listing and it clicked. Thanks for the laugh. Imagine if Rafi had come to the Wings a few seasons earlier. Wow.

There's this thingy called "elevation" apparently....

Yeah, get your facts straight, Mr. Axe. I hope he breaks out into the pros, I do.

He might have gotten a little bit of feedback from the Russian brass for being too friendly with the Wings, letting Marchenko come practice with the Griffs during the playoffs or whatever that was. This is how you save face. Oh well, I know Feds will never try to screw the Wings.

Thats probably for HBO....they want to hold the "reunion" game as late as possible. I know what you mean though...November looks like they're still in the West. There is a stretch where they play 7 Western teams in 10 games.

Good point. Many or all of the NA old crew made the Detroit area their home, and got involved in the community. Drapes, Cheli, Kocur, Malts, Stevie, etc. None of these guys were even from Michigan, but they adopted it as home. Holmer isn't NA but he basically bought right into that as well. The new crew...almost everyone goes home for the summer. Even Jimmy Howard spends the offseason at his home in Maine.

I couldn't stop laughing at the brand new "Metropolitian" division.... Also, hey....Detroit is in the Atlantic division. Okay....if you're going to come up with dumb names, do it for everyone?

So what was the final grade for Helm in dev camp?

You did not read the above post....they're tax incentives, nothing out of pocket....just eating out of future potential revenue (which is pretty dumb as well). George Malik said

Whoops, sorry Helm! My bad. Yeah, I think DeKeyser will be a really popular "hometown" player in the years to come, maybe moreso than any of the old crew save for Stevie.

Agreed. Do you guys think that the fact that so many of the team "pillars" now are European might have some small effect on how fans relate? I don't think like that personally, but others might. Of the current long term core, only Howard and Abby are North American. Plus, they don't seem like "characters" in the way much of the old crew did.

In the late 90s and early 2000s, I think the Wings were a solid #2, maybe even #1 around playoff time. That special era has ended for the Wings, while the Tigers are actually pretty decent these days. You could also say that the Lions aren't embarrassingly bad anymore, as they were for so many years then. The almost simultaneous rise and "fall" lead to the Wings dropping to #3. If there was another star like Yzerman, co-star Lids, with a solidly familiar, really relatable supporting cast (Drapes, Malts, Holmer, D Mac, Ozzie etc).... I think it could happen again. Those guys just connected with the people in ways that I think only Dats and Z do now.

Pretty reasonable. Why did he file for arbitration then? Holland was throwing 700k per year contract offers at him?

Should have signed him last season, "Monster" was a virtual no-show, and I can't help but wonder how Howie would have played in the playoffs if he had some nights off during the season. Not saying Howard didn't play his ass off, he did. But maybe he would have had just a tiny bit more in the tank if Conks had backed him up. That little 1% that can sometimes make all the difference.

Well, I'm sure Bettman is happy about this....

Smith has an ego enough to do this after his play last season? LOL THESE KIDS ARE HILARIOUS

Um... Someone at the front office got confused???

Hahaha oh man, the memories. I remember going down to the Joe as a kid right after that move, and seeing Ranford start against the Ducks. What a disaster for the Wings he was. My thought at the time was "what sort of dumbass would actually trade for this guy?"

I think we should start hearing some news come out of the Development Camp that starts Wednesday. Here, read this.... Interesting to see Danny D there, too. I guess Kenny still had some questions in his mind?