Dawgs

First off I not so sure Homer was in the blue. After watching the play several times it looks to me like Homers heel was up in the air, crossing the line but not on the ice. Only his toe was touching the ice and that was clearly outside the blue. The funny thing about the rule 69.1 is that they will call off a goal like Homers when there was a good legitimate screen for his skate being partially in the blue but if a player crashes the net and takes out a goalie and the puck goes in it counts. Im sure Trotz's whining was for the benefit of the officials and the NHL, lobbying hard for uneven officiating back in Nashville that goes in his favor, while his message to his team will be far different. His real problem is not the officating though, its the fact that besides the first period in game 2 and some brief moments in game 1 his team has been totally outclassed and officiating isnt going to matter. The Wings are clearly the better hockey team having dominated long stretches of both games, outshooting Nashville nearly 2-1, outscoring them 7-3 and leading in every measurable stat in hockey including hits.

See thats the thing. If it had been the Preds that got the breaks and won theyd say they showed perserverance and took advantage of thier chances. The Wings do it and its "luck". You can just feel the hockey world rooting for Nashville. The NBC announcers yesterday focused all thier attention on the Preds. If they said anything about the Wings it was a quick "Hasek was brilliant in the first" then right back to drooling over that scrub Tootoo.

Great Q&A. Gotta love Scotty. The way Ive always compared players between eras is could player A be effective in player B's era and could player B be effective in A's era. I dont think that Gretzky would have been nearly the player he was if he played in the 50s. Howe on the other hand would have been effective in any era. Mario I think because of his size would have been a tough cover in the 50s. So to me I have Howe as the best ever and Mario second with Gretzky as the best of his era but not quite in the same class as Howe and Mario. The case can be made that Orr and Trottier both were better than Gretzky. The biggest plus for Gretzky in this arguement is that maybe nobody has ever dominated his own era as he did the 80's.

******* in real life or just play one on the internet? You add nothing.

Wow refreshing. The voice of reason. The expectations among posters here is completely unreasonable. Our front office is the best in hockey. Every year when contenders are discussed it begins with the Detroit Red Wings. They do an amazing job of balancing win now versus the long term health of the franchise. If it wasnt for this philosophy over the past 20 years I am reasonably sure we wouldnt even be here having this discussion. Cant lose sight of the fact that every year only one team can win the cup and at the level of parity in hockey there are 6 or 8 teams every year with a legitimate shot.

This is hardly true. They lost 4 in a row, won 8 straight where they didnt play well at all, now lost 5 . They have been playing down to the competition for a month now. This streak is about more than one player or one line. Lidstrom and Datsyuk and Zetterberg are as much to blame as Hudler or Sammy. They look like they are stuck in the mud out there. They have stopped skating. They are unsure of themselves so miss the easy plays and when they try to make the hard plays they give up the puck. Last night I saw Lidstrom, top 5 defensemen EVER Lidstrom, on the same side of the ice as his defensive partner while a Blue Jacket player came in and scored one on the goalie from 5 feet in. This streak is way more than one player or one facet of the game. There are no quick fixes. This is a mental thing they are just going to have to fight thru together as a team. Im hoping the road trip does them some good.

Alrighty now. Here we go. Got that rallying point. Lets finish this one go on the road and begin our cup run.

Id think they would be looking at Federov as a third center. All season long they have been hoping Franzen could be the guy to match up defensively with some of the larger centers in the West and I dont think they are nearly happy with the progress made. Federov has seen better days. This is true. But he still plays some pretty good defense, has some decent size and can make opposing centers work on the defensive end. Is he worth a #1 and a prospect? No way and I dont think Holland would give up that much for him. But a straight up for Kopecky or something similar I could see. I think Sergei for the right price could make a good contribution to a cup run.

Cant win hockey games if ya dont move your feet.

Datsyuk-Hank-Bertuzzi Homer-Lang- Calder Hudler-Filpula-Samuelsson Maltby-Draper-Franzen Lidstrom-Markov Schneider-Kronwall Chelios-Lebda Im happy as long as Liljas never sees the ice.

I'm intrigued. I think an update might be just the thing. There's been so many changes lately, Wings should keep up with the times. There's been some good ideas kicked around. I'm tied up today, but I'll try and come up with some designs tomorrow. I like the idea of incorporating silver and black into it a la Stanley Cup. Montreal and Toronto may have more Cups, but not recently. Wings are definately more closely associated with Lord Stanley than any other team in the league right now, and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon. I'll post what I come with. Thanks, Muse! The only thing about silver, black, red, blue is that most teams have these colors. It's so Canada & USA. We need something added that's really vibrant. Maybe add a bit of purple, or orange, or teal or lime green... I dunno, come up with something really unique that will get people's attention. I wonder what Stevie Y's favorite color is. Does anyone know? Now that would be an excellent way to make this work. If he loves say, lemon yellow, you mix that in for the new Wings first jersey. The failed experiment with the Pistons and teal still makes me want to wretch. Please stop this nonsense before some impressionable young kid thinks this is possible.

Your all on crack. No way do you change the Wingedwheel. Its legendary. Its used by teams around the world. Its easily the best logo in sports. It links all wings past and present. Its the one thing all players throughout the ages have in common. Changing it would be sacrilege. And even harboring such thoughts is blasphemy.

14 goals, 21 assists and 233 penalty minutes just doesnt cut it in todays NHL. Theres no room for someone with those stats. If your gonna be a guy whos a 10 and 20 guy than you better be killing penalties not taking them. I doubt he ever sees serious time in the NHL.