Airborn

Thank the Lord! On a side note, would it kill DirecTV to offer both feeds. A simple thing that would make Center Ice 10 times more enjoyable.

Howard should be.

That's how I saw it as well.

Maybe, maybe not. Who knows what his intent was: Bottom line to me is he drew the penalty.

Agreed, I had no problem with it; it was a smart play on his part. We haven't seen much of him, but from what I've seen, Bootland brings more than Ellis, Langfeld, or Hussey.

I think they've been in twice. Also, I don't know if this is as much a tradition for Nashville, as it is mocking the Red Wings tradition. We'll have to see if we can get one of the Nashville guys to answer that for us. I don't believe they throw the fish against any other team.

Great clip! The league needs more players with this type of personality.

Calder has been great on the PK. Who knew he'd be this good! Here's to hoping Holland signs him to a contract before the playoffs or in the offseason.

The more I see of Filppula, the more excited I get for the future. He should definitely be our full time 2nd line center next year.

No - I think it will be Hudler, assuming we ever get a full lineup. As much as people complain about Maltby, he's a good penalty killer, so I think Babs will keep him in just for that. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing him sit, if nothing other than to get some fire into him. He's just not the same player he was a few years ago.

Interesting. Babcock usually doesn't say one word to the officials. I'm glad he did tonight, and I hope the Wings follow up with the head of referees (I think Stephen Walkom - sp?) about tonight's game.

Somebody needs to add that line to their signature; it's a classic!

Nah, I think It'll be Hasek.

I thought you were dead on with all your comments, except this one. To me, it looked like the Nashville player stuck his stick into Chelios. The ref was at a bad angle to see all this, but he made the call anyway. Admitedly, I was watching the Nashville feed (Center Ice), so I only got one look at it, but it looked like a bad call to me. Draper obviously thought so too; he looked like he was about to go "postal" on the ref.

My thoughts on the game tonight. - # 1 story has to be the referees, and how sad is that considering this was a 1st place battle, bad calls against both teams; the Red Wings just had more go against them. - Calder continues to shine as a Wing. What can I say, except I love what this guy brings to the Wings. - Zidlicky was a minus 5 for Nashville - ouch! - Finally, some very solid goaltending from Ozzie, especially in the 3rd period. Oh yeah, one more thing; add Filppula to the shoot out roster!

And this was updated when? This report was most likely written his draft year. I'd use something more recent to make my point, especially when it is clearly evident by watching him that he is not a good skater.

You're right, you don't have to have explosive skating ability to be successful, and Dats is proof of that. However, you are way off the mark on Hudler. He is far from a good skater. If you don't believe me (I am writing based off what I see) just read any scouting report on him. If Hudler can improve to just average skating ability, he could be a star because of his instincts.

I'm a little shocked that Hudler's main flaw has yet to be pointed out. He is slow. I mean REALLY slow! For a guy who is only going to provide value as a "scorer", this is a serious flaw. I will admit that he is nowhere near the defensive disaster he was made out to be, to which I'm sure some credit should go to Babcock. However, I don't see Hudler as a 2nd line (or above) player until his skating improves.

If we bring Hasek back, then I'd find a space for Kindl and perhaps even Quincey. If Hasek retires, and we end up going with Howard, we should bring back Markov and Schneider, or find veteran replacements for each of them. I don't think it would be wise to have a young defense in front of a rookie goaltender. That isn't a receipe for success.

Speaking of Homer, it looks like he'll be back for Sunday's game. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...0309022/0/ENT03

Ray Ferraro spoke about this on the Jim Rome show, where I thought he made some excellent points. I'll paraphrase: - The initial hit Hollweg put on Simon (he boarded him) was a penalty and should have been called - Hollweg is part of a growing number of players (he sighted Cam Jansen and a few others) who bring absolutely nothing to the game, run around like crazy, and basically have impunity from their actions since they don't have to fight (and in many cases won't) - He believes this trend began with the implementation of the instigator rule; he also believes GMs are starting to see this trend, hense the increase in fighting this year and lessening of penalties involving the instigator rule - With all this said, Ray still feels Simon's act was despicable and that he should be suspended for the rest of this season (including playoffs), at a minimum

This statement clears up a lot for me.

That and Steve Moore's injuries. A large part of the anger against Bertuzzi is because of how badly he hurt Moore. If he had gotten up off the ice, instead of going off in a stretcher, we likely wouldn't still be talking about the incident several years later.

Federov cross checked one of the Shark players in the head and ended up getting suspended the first few games of the next season. He was incredibly frustrated by the Shark's hooking and holding, and he just snapped, I guess.

Wow, what's gotten into this kid!