StevieY9802

I think it stays the same. So doesn't help but doesn't hurt anymore than where it's at now.

No one thought it up. Pressing simulate season on NHL10 did this.

The east playoff teams wouldn't surprise me except maybe FLA. The positions are another story. The West ones are crazy. LA and CBJ up that high is funny. But EA is stupid when just simulate all the way through. I've done it before back in the late 90's games and you always had crazy stuff happening. Part of the problem is they just do lines by their player rating. so you could have a RW playing center on your 4th line and a center playing winger on line 2.

The people who are questioning Kipper and saying he's declined are most likely looking at the playoffs. I know I am. And those people are right on. His GAA and for the most part his save % has gotten worse every year since 04 in the playoffs.

If Philly had a better goaltending they would be my clear cut favorite realy. Or I should say non-psycho goaltending. I think the Pens have a little bit of a Cup hangover and in a conference as wide open as the East that could be trouble. They still make the playoffs though. Depending on Emery I don't know who to pick in the East but my top 3 would be Philly, Pitt, and Boston. In the West it's down to the Wings or Sharks for me. The Wings are two time WC champs and got the game 6 in 07. They know what it takes. The Sharks still don't. But I think the Heatly deal is a good one for them. The Blackhawks had a lot of changes from a team that played very very well together. Not having Hossa for a few months will hurt and Huet is the biggest ? of them all. He's too inconsistant and they have no proven guy behind him. Calgary is the same for me. Great D but Kipper hasn't been the same since 04. Laviotolette(sp?) says Detroit will have a rough road of it? I think every team in the West will have that. As for the panel I'm not sold on the Canucks yet. Luongo for having good regular seasons he still hasn't had a good playoff yet. He gave up quite a few softies against the Hawks, especially in game 6. I also didn't like Duffie's comment about the Wings goaltending a few years ago. If he was talking about 08, why would have had concerns? Ozzie and Hasek were both great during the season. Last year yeah but not a few years ago. And even last year if anyone could have turned around it was Ozzie. We've seen him win before. We can't say that about Huet. But I'm with McKenzie. Wings are hungry after game 7. That will light a fire under them and I think Bert and Eaves have something to prove too.

Yeah the point about Malts and Homer is a good one. They might be gone and you are saving about 3.3mil but you still have to replace them. As for Hossa I'm very happy they didn't sign him. While I would have loved to have him back the cap hit, even with trading away whatever was still gonna hurt them in the long run. This team is better prepared for the longer term now, imo.

Maybe they will be able to sign maybe bigger names than this year but I don't see much happening. They have 13 forwards on the NHL roster for next year and $40mil in payroll. The cap will likely go down, at least a little bit, so 10 players to sign or bring up and under 16mil to do it will be tough even with Lidstrom taking less. Helm, Eaves and Abby will all get raises probably, at least Abby and Helm will. Let's say the cap only goes down 2mil and Lidstrom takes $4.5mil, which might be low I dunno what he would be willing to do, and no one here does either. Maybe he gets paid more than that for all I know. So now you need to sign or bring up 9 players with just over 10mil. Abby and Helm will get 1mil each at least probably, Helm probably a little more. So even at 1mil each now you have to bring in 7 players for 8mil. Kindl coming up is just under 1mil so now you have just over 7mil for 6 players. I no that's a lot of if's but I don't see the Wings being able to do too much next summer.

I had no problem with him until the last couple years. If he would have pulled that crap again and in December saying he was gonna go play with the Pens or the Bruins or some crap I would have slapped him. Great player, too bad he never got a Cup. But turning down the trade here because he "didn't want to be a rental player and you should be with a team for the whole season" and then to turn around and basically be that with the Canucks made me lose a little respect for him. Along with how he was negotiating with the Habs and then on July 2nd comes out and says he's not sure if he is gonna play or not. That might have stopped the Habs from going after other players. Anyways.... will not focusing on the negative. Enjoy your retirement Mats.

Hey Scottie, Red Wings won the Cup in 98 and in 02 with the Olympics, and that 02 team had a lot of miles on them. Olympics will not make or break this team imo. The 06 team just wasn't ready for the grind. Maybe the Olympics had something to do with it but I don't think so. The sporting news had the Wings getting old too. Funny, they've been getting old since 99 and yet since then they've been to the finals 3 times.

^^^What they said. If you are using standard def cameras that's what it will show up as. And as mentioned they are on 24/7 on the HD channel now not just when broadcasting HD content. Which I like because it makes it much easier to tivo. Filing a complaint does nothing because there is really nothing they can do if they aren't broadcasting in HD.

I'm with you 100%. It shows off the history that this sport has that the others really don't. There is a story behind these things. And I've said it before on the boards that did changing the names to East, West, central and so on really bring in more fans? no one sits around saying I'm not gonna like baseball because they have 2 leagues that have different rules about the DH instead of just and east and west or whatever. And after the lockout Bettman wanted to create more div. rivalries but in 93-4 they went away from divisional playoffs.

you mean basically going back to what it was like before Bettman tried to NBA-ize the NHL? And sorry people the NHL is not fine as is when you have so many teams struggling financially. I admit all but Melrose's plan are crazy stupid but his makes sense. Even he said it dosen't need too much tinkering but it does need some. That and some revenue sharing and a good tv deal and the league might be ok.

I don't mind Melrose's plan other than not moving the Preds to the east, you move the Jackets. why you would have an eastern timezone team stay in the east while a central timezone team goes west I dunno. Bucci's was a little nuts. So two in twin cities, another in Milwaukee and the Hawks? I'm also not a fan of his san diego team. So 3 teams in So Cal? No thanks. I go with my tweaked version of Melrose's. yeah no kdding. All the teams you mentioned are having issues money wise. The league needs some work still. I move PHX, ATL and FLA to canadian cities and get the Isles a new arena to start and that would help out most of the worst teams financially. Then go from there.

While I'm not sold on him either but you can't write him off because of Saturday night. Two goals both on deflections. And with only like a half a team in front of him it's hard to know how he would have done with Zetterberg, Stuart, Kronwall, Bertuzzi, Williams and the rest of the team out there. I understand not having confidence in him but writing him off because he let hin two goals on deflections is a little much.

If they bring Kelly back the NHLPA would look like even more of a joke than they did when they fired him

But pre-lockout the Wings weren't doing that. 2001-04: Lang, Schneider, Whitney, Robitaille, Hull, Hatcher, Wooley, Hasek, Joseph, Steve Thomas. Am I missing anyone? And thats only those years. Go furthers back and there's Chelios, Duchesne, Verbeek, Clark and so on. The last 2 years before the lockout the Wings had a payroll of 70-80mil and saw a whole 6 playoffs wins with it. The two years following the lockout they had 12. i like the cap for one reason so far, it made the Wings build a team instead of just throwing money at talent. You say the league needs dominant teams but higher payroll doesn't mean that, look at what I just posted. The Wings have been more dominant with a cap the last 4 years than they were the 4 years before the cap. I think there needs to be a cap to stop teams from being stupid, or at least curtail that stupidness anyways. There needs to be a level playing field to an extent. Don't get me wrong some teams need to be contracted or moved but I'm still for a cap. I've enjoyed the cap years more than the few years before the cap.

Right on.

Will the league be looking into that as well? He'll be 42 when his contract is up and it's hard for goalies to play that long. I almost think the NHL has to look at it if they were making a big deal about Hossa.

I have great respect for Billy Guerin. I am 100% with him on what he said. Hardliner will not do it. You need to work with the league. You saw what happened last time when you didn't. Again, the owners can wait this out as long as they want, they have the money.

If he really wants to play in the NHL then maybe. But I would say wait it out if you really want less travel. A team in the East is bound to need a dman sometime with an injury.

I love how the article says raiding. Yeah I'm sure the Wings really care if the KHL signs a guy that is an UFA and they weren't planning on signing. That damn KHL. /sarcasm

I'm not sold on SJ being #1. Or maybe thet finish there again and lose in the first or 2nd round again. Hawks have the offense and are 1 year older which will help but Huet is the real ?. If he can put together a season where he plays more like he did in game 5 then they will be ok but there is no evidence to show he can be that consistant. The Hawks fate rests on him. They can make the playoffs with him but if he plays as inconsistant as last year they won't finish too high and they won't go far. But I think the article is pretty spot on. Sabres can make the playoffs, would have last year if Miller was healthy probably. I could see the Oilers or the Kings slipping in at #8 but other than that it's possible. 39 days.

I'm interesed to see what happens. I would have thought they would have left Homer with Dats. He has been most productive with him. They've tried him down on the 3rd and 4th lines a bunch of times over the last like 10 years and he always seems to fair better with the skilled guys. I'm not sure where I want Bert. While I think he would be good on the 2nd, having that size to go with Helm's speed might be nice. 6 weeks till the regular season? come on baby!

I expect 15-20 from both Williams and Bert so even at 17 each thats 34 goals right there. Leino I would hope about 10-15, but who know maybe more so even at 10 now you are at 44 goals. Helm around 10? That's 54. Cleary is bound to have a better year. He only had 14 last year while the year before probably would have hit 30 had he not got hurt in TO. So 22 or so for him that's a plus 8 from last season, so thats 62 goals. And Eaves gets you 8 puts you at 70. And we can hope Hank and Fil have better goal scoring years than last. But still even at 70 they've only lost 18 goals. I would hope their D and goaltending would play better this year, they need to you can't have another year like that and hope to hold teams off. So even if they give up 20 less goals, which is 220 goals against which isn't good for a Wings team, that's a net gain of 90 goals while they lost 88. Not bad imo. People might not like the signings but for the cap space they had it's not bad.

I think with just more playing time which he'll get with Hossa gone will get him more goals. He was pace for 25-30 in 08 before he got hurt in Toronto in February.