Kp-Wings

If winning championships was souly based on karma, than the '96 Avalanche, '74 and '75 Flyers, '07 Ducks, Claude Lemieux, Patrick Roy, and many other dirty teams/players would have never won Stanley Cups. Karma does play a part of it, I think, but it's not always failsafe, as proof of a dirtbag like Lemieux winning, what, 4 Cups? Unbelieveable that he did so well.

Floppa's diving again? Wow, this really takes me back. Somebody needs to update Divealanche.com. That site was awesome, and it's a shame it's been dormant for so long. If the Wings - Avalanche rivalry picks up again, it would be all the more reason to do so.

...that Meech becomes a full time forward? Serious question. Given the teams influx of defenseman waiting in the minors (Quincey will be up next year, and Ericsson might as well), along with the return of Chelios and (hopefully) Stuart, that really leaves Meech on the outside looking in as a defenseman, along with at least two other guys. We'd have too many. This is a rough sketch of what the defense might look like, if everyone (except Lilja) is re-signed: Lidstrom - Rafalski Kronwall - Stuart Chelios - Quincey, Meech, Ericsson, Lebda While it's good to have depth on defense, if this is what the defense looks like, that's three guys that will be sitting out every night. 9 defenseman is too many. So may feel differently, but if you have that many players constantly sitting out, they might not be happy with their positions on the team. Assuming this is what the defense looks like, would moving Meech up to forward be a bad idea or not? In my opinion, he actaully wouldn't make a bad forward. He's already an offensive minded, puck moving guy anyways, and him being small won't really hurt him as much as a forward as it will being a defenseman. He's looked pretty decent in these few games that he's played at forward. I would like to have some other peoples opinion on this. Given the amount of defenseman the team already has, along with some other factors going into it, I personally think Meech would make a better forward than defenseman on this team. He hasn't looked bad as a forward, and has the offensive tools to become one.

Haha. Good call.

If it had been anyone else other than Patrick Sharp, then I'd give it to him, but really, look who we're talking about. Sharp is to fighting as Legace is to solid playoff goaltending, or Kuznetsov is to solid defensive play, if you catch my drift. Kopecky needs to handle himself against someone who doesn't fold like a beachchair when the gloves are off before he get's that honor.

I guess that also makes Kopecky a Canadian as well, since he fought... ...no, wait... never mind.

I don't see what makes him the traded one, and Lebda not. Lebda sucks, and hopefully, they manage to dumb him off somewhere, even if it's for nothing.

Yes, so it would seem... Thing is, Lilja has never been a fighter on any team he's been on. Just look at his fight card. In 2003-2004, when was playing on Florida, he had a grand total of two fights. The year before that, he also only had two fights. In his entire career, he's only been in nine fights, unless you count pre-season, in which I think makes it about 11 or 12. Either way, it's not very many. It's a shame, because he's a big guy that could be a great fighter. I don't think it'll ever happen, though.

Wait a second... Ryan Smyth actually fights? What?

The Blues forums are worse. ...well, now that I think about it, let's call it a draw.

Good stuff. At least we have toughness in the system. Hopefully these guys play like that when they come up here full time, and it's not just a one-hit wonder thing.

It depends what version of Lilja you get. If you get the tough (well, as tough as he can get), physical, shot blocking version, then the Wings are in good shape, and Lilja can be really helpful. If you get the tenitive, non-physical, slow skating, mistake prone version, than... well... I think you know. If Lilja came out to play every night, and didn't make such bad mistakes with the puck, he could be a really valuable defenseman, as he was during last seasons playoffs before Game 5 of the WCF. It wouldn't hurt if he fought once in a while, either, but that's just coming from a fight fan perspective.

Unless there are injuries, I seriously doubt Downey sees any playing time in the playoffs. He never plays during the 3rd period of a regular season game, so the chances of him playing in the playoffs are very slim. It's a shame, since I think the energy he provides is very helpful to the team, but... you know... I think of those three guys, Drake will see ice time the most. Why? Kills penalties. I don't think he's very good at it, and since we already have Draper, Maltby, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Cleary, and Franzen to do that, we really don't need another PK guy, but I still have a feeling he'll be in most of the time.

I'm sure NBC would like it. They have to compensate for that Penguins - Flyers matchup where Crosby didn't play because he was injured. I don't see it happening, but you never know.

No touch icing really wouldn't slow the game down as much as people think. Unless you've got guys like Hal Gill and Brad Norton as your defenseman, more often than not, the defenseman will beat the forward back to the puck anyways. Obviously there are exceptions, but this is looking at it in the bigger picture. No touch icing cuts down on serious injuries, which is the reason why it should be considered.

In 1992, the Philadelphia Flyers drafted a kid by the name of Ryan Sittler, 7th overall. If the last name is familiar, he is indeed the son of former NHL forward, and HOF'er Darryl Sittler. In this case, the proverb "like father, like son" does not apply, as Ryan Sittler never played in a single NHL game. While there have been players taken high up in the 1st round that never go on to play a single NHL game (Michael Henrich, Teemu Riihijarvi, Matt Zultek, Scott Kelman, Artem Kryukov, among others that can be included in this thread, as they were all disappointments), Ryan Sittler was a top 10 pick in that draft. More often than not, a player taken that high up will at least play in one game in the NHL; in this case, he did not. There are many others, such as the names I mentioned above, but it would take a while to go through them all. Basically, the players that I consider a disappointment are usually guys taken high up in the 1st round that never become the star players that they were expected to become. If they do shell out solid NHL careers as a checking line forward, then that's ok, but it's usually the guys that come out of juniors like the next Gretzky, but then flounder and leave the NHL after only 2-3 seasons that are considered disappointments. One last thing, to the person who started this topic: why do you consider Eric Daze a disappointment? While he did have to retire early because of back pain, he still scored over 200 goals (226 exact), and almost hit 400 points (398 exact), in 601 games. He wasn't very physical, but could still score goals, and had his back not gone out like it did, he'd probably be still playing.

All the reports I've heard implicate Friday as the return date. Obviously, as far as McCarty is concerned with his injury history, that could change at any moment. As of right now, though, it should be Friday.

Hopefully there is some retribution for the Kopecky hit in that game earlier this month. It'd be even better if that carried over into Friday's game, the day McCarty is supposed to return. Go Wings!

I don't want the Wings to play Edmonton in the playoffs, but then again, somebody brought up the whole Brian Burke thing... so, that officially trumps all. Go Oilers!

You can do a lot worse than Craig Janney... namely, Patrick Sharp.

Him leaving was a great thing to happen, because it opened the door for Rafalski. I liked Schneider, because he had a good shot and could put up points, but his defensive incompatance was getting too painfully obvious to watch at times. Rafalski was a nice upgrade, since he can play at both ends of the rink. Besides that, how is he really a traitor? Does 3 1/2 seasons really bind a guy to a team for life?

I know what fight you're referring to. It was in the AHL, and involved the current day Red Wings Super Enforcer™... Tomas Kopecky. I guess in AHL broadcasts, you don't have to worry about homering very much, because nobody outside of that said city will be watching. Unless there is an AHL version of Center Ice, or they have that game on the NHL network, nobody else will really be watching. So, I guess they can get away with having the homer glasses on all game, when you think about it. In the NHL, they have to make more of an effort to be impartial, because a larger audience is watching. For some guys, though, that means nothing, as the Predators, Blues, Avalanche, and Blue Jackets broadcasters, among others, seem to not care about showing their complete homerism sides to an almost national audience (for those who watch games on Center Ice frequently). I mean, it's one thing to favor one team, but when you hear them start breaking out the nicknames, it's gone too far. The Predators guys are extremely bad at this: you could have a drinking game for the amount of times Pete Weber calles Vernon Fiddler "Fids" or Jason Arnott "Arnie" during a single game. Ridiculous. It really makes you appreciate what Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond bring to the table: good broadcasting, something that other teams don't seem to value.

^^LOL! That is the single worst call of a fight I've ever seen... at the same time, it's also the funniest.

You do know that he was born in Michigan, currently lives there now, and that his family members are all Wings fans, don't you? It's pretty ridiculous to say that he's personally going out of his way to screw a team that, more than likely, he rooted for growing up, and that his family probably does still root for. Anaheim disallowed goal call notwithstanding, I can't think of any other incident in which Dan O'Halloran screwed the Wings over with a bad call.

If this game had any meaning to it, it'd be one thing. But the Wings already have their playoff spot wrapped up two weeks ago. Besides, it's Columbus. Nothing special about beating them. If it had been Anaheim or San Jose that the Wings would have so handily dominated, I'm sure there would have been a thread about it. I think there was one for when the Wings beat Anaheim 2-1 in their own building last time. But, this is Columbus we're talking about. Sorry if this sounds spoiled, but I expect that the Wings beat, and dominate for that matter, Columbus every time they play them. Why? Because their a terrible team that is nowhere near a playoff spot, and the way they played today was evidence of that. The Wings are a million times better, and should beat them every single time. But... I guess you have a point. The Wings did play a good game today.