Kp-Wings

This is ridiculous. While I wasn't alive during the 1970's, history shows that the Flyers had a, by a large margin, more agressive and "goon" like team during those days, majorly exceeding what the Ducks have now. Sorry, but just because Captain ******* (you know who I mean) happens to play for the Ducks, that doesn't make them the "gooniest" team in the NHL. By the way, gooniest is not a word.

Exactly. Even in Fergusons first year with the Leafs (2003-2004) when they did make the playoffs, half of the team was built off of what Quinn did. I don't remember JFJ making any significant moves that year at all. Your perseption of JFJ is totally true. I was laughing at some of the moves he made last summer. He majorly overpaid both McCabe and Kubina (and even you said McCabe didn't want to play in Toronto), and signed traffic cone Hal Gill. Not to mention his refusel of signing a decent winger. Instead of bringing in a true first line winger, he signes Mike Peca. As if the Leafs don't have enough guys who can play center. The only winger I remember him signing last year was Bates Battaglia, who is definitly not a first line winger. He's expected guys like Antropov, Ponikarovsky, and Jeff O'Neill to play top line roles, and that's just a poor choice. Maybe 5 years ago O'Neill could have done it, but not now. And theres the Raycroft trade. I don't know what you thought about it, but I thought it was a total joke giving up Tukka Rask for Raycroft, who was coming off a horrible season in Boston. Toronto is not exactly the ideal place to resurect ones career either, since the media attention and fan pressure is a lot for some people to handle. The Leafs will never go anywhere with JFJ at the helm. Suprisingly, Grapes has actually supported JFJ, saying his criticism is "unjust". Whether he cracked into the Molson a little early on that particular night remains to be seen, but anyone who knows anything about hockey knows JFJ is a bad GM.

Damn. I really wanted to see the Wings take Pyatt. Oh well. Moving on...

Good news. I want Schneids to stay. I don't want it to be at the expense of Markov though. Hopefully Markov does want to stay enough to possibly take a pay cut. Not a big one, but good enough for the Wings to re-sign him. I don't really get how the Wings are so strapped for money though. The Cap is raising to 48 million this year. The Wings should be able to afford both Schneider and Markov. Now, this comes at the expense of signing someone big in free agency, but the Wings have enough valuable pieces up front to sacrifice that. And theres always Grigorenko. The Wings have considerable players up front already, so they should be able to keep both Schneider and Markov. I don't see who is really strapping them for money. Bertuzzi can hit the road for all I care if he thinks he's going to make what he made this year. His back is a major issue, and if he isn't willing to negotiate, then he can leave. I like him, but he can be replaced. Since Bertuzzi is the only one I can see who'd need considerable money to be kept, I don't know why this is such an issue. Unless both Schneider and Hasek want huge raises, if indeed Hasek does come back. We'll wait and see how this all unfolds.

MLSE has been a disaster for years now. Yet, when Pat Quinn was GM, the Leafs were at least contending for a playoff spot. They can't even do that anymore.

I love stuff like this. The general public really tries to find any excuses they can. If it were fixed, do you honestly think that the NHL would have chosen a matchup like Anaheim vs. Ottawa? A matchup with no history in it all? Come on now. If the NHL wanted ratings, which I'm sure it does, and decided to fix the the playoffs, then pretty much all finals possibilites would feature Original 6 teams. We'd see more stuff like Detroit vs. Toronto, Detroit vs. New York, Chicago vs. Toronto, Chicago vs. Boston, Detroit vs. Montreal, Chicago vs. Montreal, Detroit vs. Boston, Chicago vs. New York, or any other possibilites that I might have forgotten. Anaheim vs. Ottawa was probably one of the last things they would have wanted. That, or Nashville vs. Tampa Bay.

JFJ is such a moron.

We could go into the whole luck thing again, and frankly, Anaheim was a luckier team when they played the Wings. Still though, Anaheim is still considered the best team in the playoffs if they win the Cup. That's generally how it works.

TSN, The Hockey News, The Sports Forcaster, NHL.com, XM Radio... Over the past few years, this year especially with the Havlat trade, a lot of people picked the Blackhawks to actually make the playoffs. That organization really makes no strides to win, but still, a lot of people still think they'll be a good team again, every year.

He's untradeable at this point, because of the large extension he just re-signed.

Offer sheets only accomplish one thing: Majorly overpaying a player, and basically calling it now that he'll have a bad season. Case and Point: Ryan Kesler. Nothing against Ryan Kesler either, but he's not a near 3 million player. Guys like Tomas Vanek will really be up in the high end of the stick, and I really don't want the Wings to be part of it. It makes us look bad.

If he wants to stay, and the Wings need him to take a small cut, then I'm sure he'd do it. Schneids loves it here, and I'd love to keep him. You know, this is what I keep hearing, yet I'm not seeing. Every year it's the same thing. "Kronwall is going to be a stud". Going is always the key word. How much longer do we have to wait for this guy? He's already 26. It's almost like how everyone says the Blackhawks will contend for the playoffs before every season. Yet, like Kronwall, they don't live up to that expectation.

The Wings aren't interested in him. It's only mentioned because the Wings don't have a true #1 goaltender set for next season, since Dom hasn't decided if he's going to come back or not. ...and it basically is their way of saying Osgood is no longer a starting goalie. In reality though, Ozzie is better then Fernandez.

Chelios isn't going to retire. Ideal situation would be to dump Kronwall, but because he was given an extension, that won't happen. But, that's another argument for another day.

The Islanders had goot attendance towards the end of the year. The main reason people weren't going is the whole Neil Smith and Rick Dipietro situations that went on over the summer. The fans were mad at the organization, and chose not to go. Once the team played decent, aquired Ryan Smyth, and made the playoffs, the fans slowly made their way back. The Islanders do have fans, contrary to what many believe. The Devils are boring, and the arena is a ***** to get to. Plus they don't have that many fans to begin with. Even despite their success, the Devils have struggled with attendance more then Islanders.

Since when have Philadelphia, Phoenix, or Vancouver been in the front running for Smyth? The only team he would even remotely go to out of those three is Vancouver, but the Canucks are tight under the Cap. Smyth wants to win, and he isn't go to do that in Philadelphia or Phoenix. The only place I see him going is staying on Long Island. While the rumors do look good with him coming here, the Wings don't have a lot of cap room to work with. Hasek and Schneider will all command raises, and they also have some key pieces like Bertuzzi and Markov to worry about. It sounds like the Wings will have another un-eventful offseason, at least at this point that's how it sounds. Oh well. I'd like to see the Wings persue Roberts. He wanst to live close to Toronto to be near his family, and Detroit is only a few hours drive there. He still has plenty left in the tank, and his grit and leadership abilities are useful components to any team he goes to. I'd like to see the Wings take a chance on him, since he'd probably come cheap too.

Atlanta is the most logical choice to move west though. In fact, they are actually further west then Columbus. It only makes sense to move them into Western Conference. Atlanta's only rivalry in the south is probably Washington. Ovechkin smashes their face every game they play each other, and their was a brawl between the two teams in an early game this season. Other than that, most teams in the south don't really have a natural rivalry with Atlanta. They are expandable in that sense, and probably will move west when the Preds move east.

Their jealous. It's mostly after that series in 1996 when Yzerman scored the winner to eliminate them. I don't know what they expected. I mean, the Wings were the best team in the league that year. St. Louis was middle of the pack for most of the year. Was it really expected they'd win with Gretzky? He was past his prime at that point, and was a bust in St. Louis. I'll never understand how those people think, and why exactly they hold some grudge against the Wings. Their weird.

This is all falling into place pretty fast. I had predicted that, with Blackberrys buying the team, it would happen eventually. Like in a period of a few years. But it already looks like the Preds are gone after next season. We'll wait and see.

Good post. I find it hilarious that this Robert Who? guy chooses to get so annoyed about what fans of another team say about the Ducks. I mean, I could get pissed off over what stupid things Blues fans say about the Wings, but it does no good. Besides that, it really doesn't bother me. But yet, here we have a Ducks fan, losing his cool over Wings fans not liking his beloved Ducks. It's really quite funny.

You're talking to the wall SWF. His opinions on Anaheim won't change. You're right though, it is illogical. And stupid.

That's a bad point to give, considering quite a few teams have went bankrupt under Bettmans tenure. With teams like Nashville also on the brink, it's not a good comparison. But yeah, the rest of your points are true. I generally grow tired of the constant complaining about the NHL being only Bettmans fault. Like with suspensions. Everyone is immideatly out to blame Bettman, when really, he has no say in it at all. It's Colin Campbell who makes these decisions, but some people, who probably don't know much about hockey to begin with, blame Bettman right off the bat.

That's a joke, right? You're going to compare Cleary to Nagy or Carter? First off, Cleary signed here for dirt cheap. We basically got him for next-to-nothing. Both Carter and Nagy, despite having bad seasons, will command a lot of money because their both greedy people. Even if we put money aside they both have their set up problems. Nagy has always been an injury prone player. He stayed healthy this season, but was still bad. His career high was 24 goals, which isn't bad, but the Wings have enough players who can do that. For God sakes, if Samulesson can score 20 goals, then what's the point of having Nagy? We already have Samulesson, who basically is our Nagy, so there is no need for him. Besides that, Nagy is lazy and unmotivated. He had a hard time playing on one of the top two lines on Phoenix for crying out loud. It's enough to stay away from him. Carter is a joke. An absolute joke. This guy makes Jaromir Jagr look like a nice guy. Haven't you noticed that every team Carter goes to misses the playoffs? Have you also noticed that, in the last 4 years, Carter has played for 6 different teams? In 2003-2004 alone he played for 3 different eams. Why do you think that is? Because he's a locker room cancer. He can't get along with the people he plays with, and only causes problems. Not to mention his greed to be payed top dollar. Do you still want him now? I think I've said all that needs to be said. Comparing Cleary to those two is an awful comparison. Cleary was never a cancer either, he just had a hard time living up to his potential. He's grown up a lot over the past few years, and is one of the hardest working players in the league. He shows heart, isn't greedy, and is an all around good player. Taking a chance on someonel like Carter would not nearly produce the same results. Enough said.

St. Louis will be a good team next year. Phoenix won't.

I'm sure I good look in a board archive and see otherwise.