ltgator333

I think we all here knew it was going to happen. It's unfortunate, and I wish him the best no matter what. It'd be nice if he cleared and didn't retire.

If Brad May indeed (pretty sure he did) had anything to do with showing The Abdelgator how to fight, he was worth signing right there all by itself. Good to see a guy stand up for his teammates win or lose, and Abdelkader rocked him pretty good with that right. I also don't think Brent went down from the punch, but he knew he was beat and went down either way.

My thought on it is this- he'll be back next season or Kenny will trade his rights. He does have the skill set of a natural goal scorer, but obviously doesn't have the physique to match. I still think a guy of his stature could be absolutely dynamite if he hit the gym over the summer- kind of like Marty Lapointe did way back when. Anyone still remember that? Dude put on like 15-20lbs during the summer and was a flat out Moose afterward, for a few years.

Well we all *should* know it's gotta happen, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop since Ville went bye-bye. Going to be interesting to say the least.

C'mon that one doesn't even have an H in it!

Well I'll have to keep an eye on this. Kwame, I do like your picture though. It speaks a million one-liners for Pavel.

Any possibility the guy pushing Cleary is Drew Miller? Kinda looks like his head to me, but this is pure speculation. That was not a fight. NM, he has a beard.

I was unaware that here in the modern age you could have rookies that are already a legend. It's happened before, but I don't believe there's been anything in the hockey world in the last (almost) two decades to allow legitimately legendary players to be just starting in the NHL.

QFT LA's been hot, gonna take an "A" game by the RW to cool them off.

Well said.

I agree, I am really hoping to see him back and playing well. Perhaps some of it, in my mind, has to do with Detroit's past bad luck with defensemen, but for the most part it boils down to that Detroit could use another effective defensive-defenseman right now. Lilja could be that guy.

I feel ya, but bandwagoners are a 'mind over matter' issue- if you don't mind they don't matter.

Hiller played well, again... Howard played pretty well I think. IMO- good ol' Honda Center non-ice again, they really play that card well don't they? I'm getting tired of that myself. I don't mind the dead/live boards deal, but the seemingly intentional s***-ice thing is getting old.

http://theahl.com/stats/official-game-repo...game_id=1006771 Well, it looks like he was kinda a non-factor, which is just fine for his first game imo. Only stat for him is he was -1. Anyone watch the game? How'd he look? It doesn't give TOI which is something I was interested in definitely.

The Most Controversial Player to Ever Play, according to LGW. I've never seen an athlete with the kind of die-hard-hate-unless-he's-clearly-stellar non-fans as Ozzie. [voice of Peter Griffin] So what are we gonna do here? [/voice of Peter Griffin]

I voted Meech > Lebda for the reasons that this will be Lebda's 5th season with the big club playing at least 46 games each season and there's really not been a heck of a lot of improvement (imo), this is Meech's 3rd season playing 30-41 games and may very well still have an undiscovered upside. That and Meech is cheaper. Lebda http://tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/?id=2855 Meech http://tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/?id=3050 edit- clarity

That's my first thought as well. Maybe to get Flip or Pavs going, we'll have to see of course.

I would like to see SJ's top line held off the score sheet. IF that happens, I'm saying they have a chance at 2 points in regulation.

LMFAO Shouldda went ice fishin'!

Ok I did say I wouldn't argue when I posted in this thread (and someone tried to get me to anyway I'll point out) but I see cooler heads are possibly starting to prevail and dangit, I want to see more mouth foaming immediately!!! Chris Osgood would've won that shootout. *cue rabies* yvw

Good news. I'm really hoping that he can get it done down there and the DRW can part ways with a defenseman who's been in and out of the lineup for the last 4 years and really hasn't seemed to get much better. Either way, it'll be interesting. It's been a long time since the wings' have been in a situation like this.

Larry Murphy was Lidstrom's partner longer/more often than anyone else I remember. Rafalski is getting up there anymore tho, considering that Murph and Raffi play somewhat similar style it makes sense to me. Lidstrom's had quite a few defensive partners that were/are no big deal. And considering that Lidstrom can/could play with anyone, he ended up babysitting a lot of different people, Kronwall included. Some of the guys he played with like Freddy Olausson you have to think it was just a matter of cohesion between the two of them- Freddy O was nobody before or after that.

When it happens, that will be the biggest retirement, in terms of immediate impact on the team, that I will have witnessed. Something positive- he looks like Nick Lidstrom again!

IDK about da rules when it comes to that, but you'd have to think that Lilja'd want that considering how long he's been on the shelf. A great defensive-defenseman's pairing=Lilja+Janik imo.

I don't care if they win 1-0, as long as they do. JUST GET A WIN!