Wings_Toledo

Also, why isn't Smith playing? He actually looked good against TB last year and it's not like Ericsson is stopping anyone from scoring.

Living in Columbus, I'm more excited to see where the Jackets land in the draft lottery than watching the rest of this series. That's how sad this team has become...

Doesn't really matter which lines they ice. I don't have very high hopes for this team... If I'm Blashill I just give Datsyuk as much ice-time as possible since he'll likely be gone after this series anyway.

Unless the information I'm seeing is incorrect, the Wings would have about $18m in cap space if they're able to trade Datsyuk's contract. That would still give them the space to try to sign Stamkos, a defenseman like Yandle and re-sign 1 or 2 UFAs that they would want to keep. That's a big "IF," though.

The problem is that Kovalchuk wasn't 35+ when he signed that contract. The best thing to do here would be to send Pav to a cap floor team for an AHL player or something similar.

I agree that Holland should trade his contract if he decides to leave. What would tarnish his legacy more: costing the team 7.5m in dead cap space or "technically" being on another NHL team for one season while he plays in Russia?

Can someone explain to me why AA is riding the bench? Sure seems like a guy who could contribute a goal...

I'd still roll with Howard because it was mostly the team in front of him that let them down last night. Plus, there's just no way to trust Mrazek at this point in the biggest game of the season.

Just tuned in. These uniforms are disgustingly awful. BURN THEM.

The new NHL app is even worse. It's like when MySpace changed their layout and finally killed the site for good.

I don't think it was deliberate but people in sports media who don't follow hockey think it was. Looks to me like he instinctively got his stick up at the last second to protect himself and didn't realize it was a linesman.

I support the Jackets since I live in Columbus, but not when the Wings come to town.

Hopefully he gets picked up by a team in need of a defenseman with some experience. I always like Kindl, even though he made a lof of boneheaded mistakes defensively. I still thought he was one of our better offensive guys when he was on his game.

His thing is that he's not afraid to call out players by name to the media. If players just realized that and didn't take it as an insult then it wouldn't be that big of a deal. I wonder who else may be leaving Columbus, though. Torts and Hartnell haven't gotten along this season.

I wouldn't make that deal if I were Holland. Too many pieces going the other way that would seriously hurt the Wings' future depth.

Jenner isn't going anywhere and I really don't get why you're so high on Rychel. Jones is going to be relied upon a lot but he'll actually get playing time to develop his game. Now if only Torts would stop changing up the lines every game, they might start to find some chemistry.

Johansen is far from a "rugged" #1 center. His effort level is inconsistent at best and downright terrible at times. If things don't go well in Nashville I bet we'll see the same attitude problems arise. And good luck to Nashville when his contract year comes up... I'd call it even if both players thrive for their new teams. Jones is kind of an unknown still but helps out a CBJ team lacking good D. Johansen has tons of skill but his attitude is a problem. Not a lopsided trade, for sure.

Saw that coming for a while now. I was at the CBJ vs. Minny game last night and Johansen passed the puck to a Wild player about 6 or 7 times. He even horribly lost the faceoff that allowed the 2nd Minnesota empty-netter. It was pretty clear that he didn't want to be in Columbus anymore. I haven't watched much of Seth Jones but he was so highly touted coming into the draft that I'm sure he just needs some more playing time and development to become a steal for the Jackets.

I've seen him in a couple of games and he's pretty unspectacular. He can't even crack CBJ's lineup so not sure why people would want him here taking up a spot for a more deserving forward.

That's a great idea! Hopefully it would actually be cold here on January 1st so the ice wouldn't be a huge issue.

I would love to see Columbus get in on one. With the unpredictable Ohio weather it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have it here but at least it would make sense. Not sure who they would play, though.

Interesting. It just seems unnatural and awkward for me to hold a stick left-handed so I've always been a righty (even at an early age). I never realized that it mattered which hand was used for what.

Whatever the pairings are, Ericsson should not be a part of them. He needs to be part of a trade package. Pick up a similar type guy through FA and put him on the 3rd pairing.

I would be interested to see how many right-handed shooters were on all of the Cup-winning teams of the past 10 years. Chicago only had 7 last year and only half of them played more than a handful of games. Holland addressed the need for a RH offensive defenseman by signing Mike Green. Maybe this year he'll be able to grab a few more pieces at the deadline. If not, it's not like he hasn't attempted to address the issue.

Going to reserve judgement until all of the facts get sorted out.