martyrme19

Though Im an obvious conservative....just for good measure: To Do List: Bush (check mark) Millen (check mark) Bettman (empty box) I think that idea could have vast variations with good one liners being thrown in along the way

ESPN is doing a survey about sports fans in general, but one question asks you how you feel about the job Gary Bettman is doing. Its our chance to make a voice in an impactful media. http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation...n?event_id=3753

i'll be the first to say...hey, not a bad idea.

I dont know why anyone would have a problem with calling penalties in favor of the losing team so they can get back in it. I mean....we just elected a president with the same policies..... The better teams scoring all the goals should be taxed with more penalties to help those teams who aren't good enough and have poor management skills, get more goals. sorry sorry, im sure i just completely derailed this post with that comment. I'm only kidding. but not really.

ya but you gotta figure that after this season and the next, certain youngsters will be sacrificed for the good of the team since the Red Wings will evolve - just as all teams do. so those players (Helm, Leino, Adeklkader) will be injected into the roles that Filpula, Hudler and Kopecky posses. therefore, we'll need players on our depth chart to fill the role where you say "but we have a stockpile of young guns waiting in our system that are most certainly ahead of *player to be named later* on the depth chart: (*player to be named later*, *player to be named later*, *player to be named later*, etc.)

Totally out of Granholm's hands? She's the governor for christ's sake! If she isnt the figure head that is suppossed to have the insight to foresee our State's future....then who is? Her tax structure is the exact opposite of what our state has needed to prevail. It discourages business development as well as consumer spending. Her startegy has been proven time and time again to fail. It just seems that the people in our country have a memory span the size of a goldfish so we like to forget those things every once in awhile. Go buy a history book when it comes time to vote again so you wot forget. Disagree with me? I just had a one on one conversation with Tom Ogden, the President of Comerica bank. Take it up with him....he knows first hand how our State's administration deters from businesses succeeding and therefore our State succeeding. He does business in Cali Texas and Florida as well so he knows a good state from a bad one.

Does anybody ever really give a 3rd jersey a chance? Its like, no team has ever produced something even mediocre in the eyes of everyone on these boards. I mean, I find it a little strange that everyone relates to old jerseys such as the whalers in this instance as an example of a great looking jersey. But i bet you, when the whalers jersey was first introduced, no one liked it. All the same, if the whaler jersey never existed, and the likes of it was produced for the first time now, everyone would look at it with disgust. look at these jerseys with some objective people. its really not a bad look. can anything impress you?

i think colorado has got to be the first place you think of at the deadline.

Ya i gotta agree with you on that one. when i was younger, my hockey team played the port huron flags in the regional semis. We beat them 2-1 but he was cursing and hollering the entire game. Well not the entire game I supposse, he got tossed by the second periord. I also referee and after talking to some officials, its almost a game by game basis that he was thrown out. And lets see here....i must've been 15 at the time!

a part of me always wanted the wings to pick him up. I always thought he'd be the perfect player to fit the role that stuart is currently filling.

soo.... I live in Brighton, MI. The same town that the article says he is from. I also officiate here so I'm sure I could figure out a way to locate him. I know there is a bounty on Bettman's head.....anyone willing to offer a bounty if I go up to this guy and just plant an octopus on his face while video taping it?

ya i've had a rough time tossing this one back and forth in my head as well. The biggest point that I keep coming across was how LIGHTS OUT Maltby was last year in the playoffs. If you guys recall, people on the forums was saying he was one of our top players last year in the playoffs. His level of play is really elevated in the playoffs and his style of play is very desired as well. All I can think of to do is count this as a blessing. Last year in the playoffs we had to worry about if we had any wings left to put in the lineup.....this year we have too many!!

solve our second line scoring problem.......check add a player who adds the grit people say we need to get by the ducks......check not having to trade away our future.......check piss off avalanch fans while winning a cup with forsberg.....check i mean, why not sign the guy?

Am I alone on this where I thought that WAS the rule?? A coach already has a decision to take a penalty shot or a powerplay. Well, perhaps not.....however that IS the rule already in USA amateur hockey. Though i've never known a coach to select a powerplay instead.

Oh lordy lord lord. the world is coming to an end. oh what ever will we do. players getting faster you say? absurd! hockey should be destined to remain stagnant for eternity!

I mean, its not like we "passed" on him any more than the rest of the league did. I mean, he did go 5th round. His knock was that he was too small to make it any farther. If we drafted him, 99.9% of the people on the boards here would get pissed off cus he wasnt physical enough. But ya, tj is a hell of a hockey player and a real nice guy too. He lived about 10 minutes from me being that hes from howell and im from brighton so i've known him on a few levels. I talked to him a bit about his experience playing for Michigan. Ya....not a positive one. He wasn't very happy there. Hopefully he's having a better time in denver.

oooooooh

Whoo! Ya Rolston! I wanted this guy to be a wing for 5 years now. I always thought he was just the makeup of a prefect Red Wing player. You know how you can just picture guys in a jersey but not in other jerseys? Ya, Rolston was born to wear a Red Wing jersey. Thats why he's usually the first guy I trade for on all my hockey games Anyways, I'd like to say that the Wild will be making the playoffs, and if they don't, they'll be close enough by the trade deadline that they'll still be a buying team around then and wont trade off any of their players. So, unless Rolston says openly he wants to test the market, I dont see the wild trading him. In fact, I'll be suprised if they dont extend his contract this year. And Opie, if you have free pickens to the wild team, would you really pick demitra of gaborik? I'd love to have gaborik but I think he's there for the long term. And the wild picked up demitra specifically to play with gaborik cus they're from the same place. So ya, Roltston is gonna have to be picked up from the FA market. And I say by all means, grab him. We can still get foppa this year, sign him to a 1 year deal, then pick up Rolston in the offseason. Is this Feds last year on contract? If we trade for him this year, how long are we stuck with him and his huge salary? I hope its done after this year. In which case, wouldnt it make more sense to sign foppa (pr better yet salami) to a one year deal and then venture out to the FA world and sign Rolston or Feds? Or better yet, trade sammy, drop drake, and i'll play goalie and that way we can sign both??

Does anyone else here think that arbitration is bulls*** to begin with? I mean, if a player can get awarded an extra 3 mil a year to their contract for exceeding expectations, shouldnt they be forced to pay a team back for not fulfilling expectations? (see feds and yashin). I mean, what the hell is the point of a contract? You signed it, so you stick to it.

Haha, ya i have a funny story about that. Apparently Nick is friends with some of the owners in the ice rink in my hometown, and he was having a few beers up in the top shelf bar the year he was signing his new contract. A few of us who knew the owner well was allowed to kind of sit around and listen to them talk, and someone asked him how much he was gonna sign for next year. Then, the guy who knows Nick pretty well cut in and said sarcasticaly, "Ya, and if you dont get the contract you want you'll be moving back to sweden right?" Nick laughed and responded sarcastically as well, "Thats right, I think this year is the year my family and I will be moving back to sweden." And then gave everyone a little wink. After hearing that, I knew then and there that Lidstrom wont be going anywhere anytime soon.

Oh poo, alas i suppose I have to wait a while longer to see my dream fulfilled. ya its certainly obvious that he didnt tear the league up when he played for the kings, however he was put in a checking/defensive role with the team, and as we all know wasnt given much oppurtunity since him and his coach didnt see eye to eye. Rather, the point was that given the oppurtunity, he could produce. As well, i'm thinking you took the definition of 'scoring touch' a bit far. In my opinion, a scoring touch would be someone who adds a bit of scoring to the lineup. 15-20 goals is a nice scoring touch if you ask me. 30 to 40 goals? Well condsidering that in todays league reaching 50 goals in a season is a hell of an achievment, guys like thorton and shanny of whom you gave examples far exceed the definition of a scoring 'touch' . If you ask me, they're more scoring machines.

Avery is a potential 20 goal scorer. People perceive him as a guy who only knows how to fight. That isnt exactly true. The guy put up some decent numbers in the minors, he deffinetely has a scoring touch. What I dont get is the people who say his numbers are inflated because of his linemates. Well what about when he didnt play in new york and he played for the s***ty kings? Who were his linemates then. Besides, the same people who say that about avery are the same ones who quickly write down Homer in our first line. I love Homer, but scoring around 30 goals the past two seasons was probably a lot easier with zetts and datsyuk on the team. Why do we handicap avery for it? Avery can do a lot for the team. He can intimidate, CHECK, protect players, fight, take faceoffs, make a pass, score goals....and he's got the intangibles. He's a grittier, more offensively talented draper. And trust me, you can win games with a team full of offensively gifted drapers. And about him being "immature" and what not....look i dont care what they say around the league about how he's perceived, all I know is that when he did play for the red wings, I heard no trouble breweing. All I saw was energy on the ice and a player who never quit. I mean, does anyone not remember Bob Probert getting one of the loudest rounds of applause at the Yzerman ceremony? The guy was a straight up goon and couldnt keep his nose out of powdered sugar. Yet now we fans idolize him. what gives?

You make some valid points, and i'm sure burke has played out this very scenario in his head. However, I think this is what would happen if things went perfectly for the ducks, which if you know anything about sports, you know nothing goes perfectly. You give a lot of ifs, and assume a few things. First, lets deal with the retirements. Your assuming that selanne and niedermayer dont come back. Well, if they dont come back, as given in your example, you're assuming that what the two of them leave with will be picked back up from schneids and bertuzzi. Now, are these two players as good, or better than the two leaving? No one can say for certain, but in order for that answer to be yes, Bertuzzi needs to stay healthy AND reform himself to his previous stature. As well, Scneids needs to replicate the formula that Chelios has used and be as effective as he gets a year and another older. May this happen? well it could if everything went perfectly. But what did we say about things going perfectly? Now lets say that one of those players do wanna come back. For the sake of argument, we'll say at least one will retire for sure. Well, just one of their salaries will offset your total argument and they will infact, be in deep cap trouble. Although Selanna has been known to take huge pay cuts before in order to win, so maybe he'll do it again to help out the ducks. But he just won his cup....so how important is that paycheck now? Well, in a perfect world he'll still take that pay cut. Now on to shedding some salary. Your probably right that they would like to move marchant. he makes 2.4 and 2.6 respectively the next two seasons. As well, they're pretty deep at center. However, I'm not so sure it will be as easy to move the guy as you make it seem. One, if they trade him this year, he'll still have another year on his contract at 2.6. Now teams arent stupid. I'm not sure too many people are willing to trade something of value for a guy whos barely scored 25 goals COMBINED in the last 4 seasons. not to mention he's missed 121 games in the last 5 seasons and 111 of those games came in the last 3 seasons. Perhaps if they wanna dump him, they can find a taker for a 5th round draft pick to make a serious salary dump move. Then there is Bryzgalov. Now, considering this is his contract year, and he'll most likely demand some serious cash, Bourke would be an idiot not to move him. They wont keep two perennial goaltenders on their roster, and i'm sure they dont want to lose him to FA. However, if they did dump him, that only clears about 1.4 million and I believe it would actually be less because I dont think Hillers salary would count against their cap until they brought him up which would mean they would only be clearing .600 mil in cap space. Not to mention, you have to ask yourself.....they could probably demand a decent player in return for Bryzgalov, but if they wanna dump salary, theyd only be able to command draft picks or prospects that arent due to the NHL yet...and that can always be a crap shoot. The on to the FA's and RFA's. So lets say idealy they are able to shed enough cap space to get around 4 mil to work with. How much money do you think these three players are gonna ask for? in your example, it made it seem like they assume to just keep the same salary theyre making now. Well, I hardly think thatll be the case. Kunitz scored 25 goals last season, and 19 his rookie year with only 65 games. Its safe to say this guy is a lock for 20 goals a season and i'm sure he'll only get better and look to produce around 30 goals this year. Not to mention players always seem to perform better their contract year (see M.Lapointe). He makes a hair over 1 mil this year and could expect him to ask for a modest raise by 2 mil or so to move him to around 3 mil. Or maybe he'll get cocky and expect around 4 mil, who knows these days. Now Getzlaf......well who knows about this guy. He scored as many goals as Kunitz did this past year, at 25, in around 80 games as well at around .600 cap hit. Scored a little less goals in a little less games as Kunitz his rookie year, so they're procucing at about the same level. However, at 6'3" his stature helps him demand a bit more respect when it comes to negotiating a contract. We just saw Penner get offered 4.25 mil.....Im sure Getzlaf is looking to make at least that much after he ups his scoring total this year to over 30. Now Perry is another 6'3" monster who can hope to bank around 20 goals a season, maybe more barring a break out year. he makes around .500 mil a year and i gotta assume he'd be looking at around 2 mil after that. And I wouldnt be suprised to see an offer sheet thrown at this guy either the following season. So all in all i'm saying you gotta expect these guys to demand around 9 million as a total package....maybe more if one guy overestimates his talent which seems to be a common thread anyways. So, if neither teemu or neids comes back....that will help retain some of these players. But you cant forget, if they dont come back.....that means those are two HUGE players that arent coming back. This year might reveal Bert and Scneids as two names that just arent a threat anymore. If the ducks can dump a few mil in salary with marchant and whoever, then ya.....it will help then retain some players. But even if, and thats a huge IF all of that plays out, I cant see them reataining all three players. But with all that being said, even if they only sign one of those guys, (i'd assume theyd keep Getzlaf as long as they can) its not like they'll sink down to the level of the Blue Jackets. I guess all I can say is that i'll be really interested so see what happens to the ducks these next two seasons.

everyone who insults bretts broadcasting skill is most likely basing it on the game where he said Datsyuk had 0% of staying in Detroit. Other than that, he did a suprerb job on TV. He wasn't a *****, he said what he felt, and he was knowledgable about that game. for christ sake hes at least better then the greased up mullet guy, melrose.

so when do we find out what happend with the hearing?