Kp-Wings

I honestly don't think that "fight" was going anywhere. Samuelsson was mostly facewashing Koivu with a few glove punches, while skating away. Maybe he would have dropped the gloves, but it's hard to tell really. Plus, the ref was right in the middle of it anyways. Koivu might have gotten one of his gloves off, which impresses me. I already have a tremendous amount of respect for the guy, and he looked to show that he was willing to answer the bell, which impresses me even more. He didn't have to, but it looked like he was willing to anyways. I give credit to Dandenault for sticking up for Koivu like that. You don't let your captain get picked on, and he sorta did the right thing in that situation. I would have been happier if an actual fight would have erupted (or even a *gasp* brawl ) but it really didn't look like it was going to happen regardless. As I said: it's still up in the air if Koivu and Samuelsson would have fought in the initial scrum anyways, because the ref was between both of them, and Samuelsson never made an actual motion to throw his gloves off and really fight. As for the Lilja and Begin fight: that was probably one of the worst fights I've seen all year. That's not a knock on Lilja either, because Begin really pussed out by grabbing on his legs like that and finishing with a pretty pathetic takedown. What a wimp. Good for Lilja to answer the bell himself, on that subject. The anti-Downey crowd can deny it, but I'm telling you: he's having a positive effect on this team. His toughness level has rubbed off on everyone else, and hopefully, it stays that way. ...oh, yeah: good game tonight also. Nice to see Hasek win again.

Post -1

Wow, talk about ripping Tampa off. Jeez. Besides, how could you even consider trading away the leagues best enforcer in Lilja? He could wipe the floor with Boogaard, and then clean the toilet with Laraque. The only reason he only has one fight this year is because he's got the rest of the league scared to death of his fighting prowess. The Pain Train is unstoppable. He's like the current age Bob Probert, only better.

Collective Soul - December

Jet - Get What You Need

About damn time you came around. All those compliments you were giving them made me gag. I honestly thought at the point of being 6-2 this was a different Lions team this year, but it's pretty clear that it isn't. The offense is terrible, and the defense is equally terrible. The OL couldn't stop a large beachball coming at them. It's a real shame when Jason Hanson is the teams best player night in and night out. Not to take anything away from him, since he is a good player, but the kicker should not be the teams best player. All it does is it shows the rest of the teams problems even more. The Lions blew it once again, in fine fashon of course. This team stuns me in the fact that they find almost every imaginable way to lose a game. It's unbelievable that they continue to be so bad year after year. Every major Detroit sports teams has turned it around and shown success except the Lions. Is it Marinelli? Is it Millen? Is it Ford? It's getting hard to tell anymore, since there are so many problems. Also, imo, Minnesota sucks. Adrian Peterson is a great player, no doubt, but that team is still not as good as the Lions managed to make them look today. They've managed to strap together a few wins against crappy teams like Oakland and New York, and of course the Lions, but that doesn't necessarily make them a good team. They could make the playoffs, but it will be a struggle. Oh well. Might as well look forward to another top 10 draft pick, at least.

Hehe...

This month wouldn't be too bad had we not have 2 upcoming games in St. Louis. The Wings play like crap in that arena ever since Murray took over as coach. Nice job as always Matt.

Friday: Montreal @ New Jersey Washington @ Carolina Dallas @ Pittsburgh St Louis @ Minnesota Phoenix @ Chicago Anaheim @ Edmonton Colorado @ San Jose Saturday: NY Rangers @ Ottawa Carolina @ Buffalo Pittsburgh @ Toronto Nashville @ Montreal Atlanta @ NY Islanders Dallas @ Philadelphia Washington @ Florida Phoenix @ Detroit Boston @ Tampa Bay Chicago @ St Louis Columbus @ Calgary Colorado @ Los Angeles Sunday: Atlanta @ New Jersey Vancouver @ Minnesota Edmonton @ Anaheim

It's hard to find a city to put it in. Obviously Winnipeg is an option, but I don't think that will happen again. The last team was less than successful. I really can't think of any other large enough cities in Canada. The current day NHL doesn't seem fitting to smaller Canadian cities. Saskatoon? Medicine Hat? London? Regina? Brandon? Thunder Bay? It's possible, but all of those are pretty small compared to the average US city.

That's a cop-out excuse by Holland. Yeah, the economy plays a part, but the loss of guys like Yzerman and Shanny, the lack of fighting, the ridiculous ticket prices, and the teams piss poor marketing also all play a huge roll into the attendance problems. It would be nice if the Wings organization started realizing this for once, and figure that they are bringing this on themselves.

This might actually force Holland to draft some Canadians and Americans for once. Might not be such a bad deal after all, because this team needs some North Americans.

That would be sweet if the Wings called up Adam Keefe if Maltby is hurt. It'll be cool to see what the kid can do at the NHL level when it comes to fighting. I've been following him lately, and he looks like he could be a good fighter someday. I almost compare him to Tie Domi, because Keefe is a small guy like Domi is, but is a hell of a fighter. Hopefully the Wings give him a chance and don't cast him aside like they did to Ryan Barnes. I doubt the Wings will call him up this season, but it would be really great if they did. I can always be hopeful, right?

It looked like he tried to get some shots in on Phaneuf when he was down, but couldn't. Lilja is really not a good fighter, but I give him tons of credit for sticking up for Hudler. He's earned a lot of respect in my book. Great work Pain Train!

Another tough week again. Why has this game become so hard? Damn league parity. Congrats to CupChamps979802!

I love your line of thinking, and I'm the exact same way. It's been a while since I've really been exited during a Wings game. I mean, the playoffs were exiting, but the regular seasons are so long and boring. Downey's 2 fights the other night was the most exited I've been in a regular season game since... the last time there were more than 2 fights in a Wings game, which was some game against Nashville back in 2003-2004. Hopefully this continues for the Wings, as I miss the old-time style of hockey here in Detroit. The past few years CeneterIce has really come in handy over the course of the regular season, because I wouldn't be seeing any fights at all otherwise. Same here. The fights make some of the lame matchups during the regular season so much more exiting. I thought I'd never be that exited during a Columbus game as I was on Sunday.

Good stuff! That's the hockey I like to see.

Eh, it's mostly the crap stuff like hooking that go into that. But, whatever. It's something. We actually have 9 fighting majors now, and it's only November. We might actually pass our total last year. That would be great if we actually were't last in fighting majors. I'd be thrilled!

That he may have been, but he was never the true #1 franchise defenseman like some guys are/were. His defensive liabilities prevented that. Not taking anything away from Gonchar, but I don't think of him as one of those players. I guess that's just my mindset of a true franchise defenseman. Gonchar is a good player, but he's not a franchise defenseman. Playing in the All-Star game doesn't really make him that. Just my opinion, imo.

Exactly what I'm saying. If these tickets were available online, where I could buy them in advance and guarantee myself of going, than maybe you'd see me at more games. But until that happens, you probably won't. Just the ordeal getting there is a huge problem for me. Because of rush-hour traffic, I'd have to leave work pretty early to make it. I-75 is a mess going through cities like Flint and Troy, and that's still a way's out of Detroit. And even if I do make it in time, what's to say that the tickets won't already be sold? I'd be absolutley pissed if I drove down all that way only to not have any tickets left to buy. My car already sucks down gas like you wouldn't believe, so that's another big factor into it. All in all, that's a huge drive down from where I live, as I'd be looking at a 2-3 hour trip, and that's if traffic is good. It's usually not, so it'll probably be even longer. I used to live in Fraser, which was only about a half out-hour away. But because Illitch is cheap, this luxery of having affordable tickets wasn't available to me in years past. In my current location (Bay City) it's nigh near impossible for me to make it on a regular basis. The only reason I was able to oblidge on the home opener is because I was in the area visiting family. We all decided to go, because it was cheap. But if I was wasn't there, I probably wouldn't have gone. Illitch needs to stop being a cheap-ass ***** and makes these tickets available online. If I was sure I'd have tickets to the game, than I find the time to make it down there more often. But because I can't, I really don't want to risk driving all the way down there for nothing.

Fine then. If he's going to do that, he just better be prepared to face the consiquences. Did you notice in the end I complimented him though? That's mostly because it got Lilja to fight. So, in all respect, it was a good thing. Hehe, that's always a possibility when he's involved.

Hehe... I was in utter shock at what I saw tonight. Lilja fighting. Great work by the Pain Train to defend Hudler, though. He just earned a tremendous amount of respect from me by doing that. Protecting your teammates is really an important intangeable, and it was great to see Lilja do that. Dare I hop on the Pain Train bandwagon again? Perhaps... But seriously, great work by him. It really goes a long way with me that he took on a guy like Phaneuf, who is no stranger to dropping the gloves. The fight was a wash: a few clutches here and there wasn't really great, but it's the aspect of Lilja going out of his way to protect his teammates is what impressed me so much. Great work by him tonight, and it's nice he was able to have me sing praises his way by playing good hockey again. Hudler needs to shut his mouth and stop f***ing around with the big boys. Who does he think he is anyways? While I admit, Phaneuf was getting excessive at one point, but it's still part of the game, and Hudler was being a little ***** the whole game. He kinda got what he deserved on that. But hey: his play on that part got Lilja to drop the gloves again, so that's fine with me. Great work by the rest of the team tonight. Some guys like Rafalski continue to piss me off with blunderous giveaways, but other than that, solid game tonight. Datsyuk played great.

Shouldn't be surprised there. It would eat out Illitch's brain lining if he actually made these tickets available with some convenience to them. I live up in the Bay City area, and I can't be irked into missing work and driving the 2-3 hour trip down to Detroit to buy them. I did it for the home opener, but that's only because I was in the area at the time. Otherwise it's too much of a hassle.

That team needs to be set on fire and thrown into a tank of gasoline. I love physical hockey, and the fact that the Flyers have a lot of fighters, but this is getting totally ridiculous. That team is nothing more than a bunch of gutless cowards who hit guys with their backs turned. The worst part about it is their crazy psychotic fans think this is all ok and "part of the game". I cringe at the fact at what might in the Philadelphia water system that turns seemingly normal people into bloodthirsty animals. The days of the Broad Street Bullies are over, and it's time they got it through their thick, fat-induced skulls and realize this. I'm a big fan of physical hockey, but not this bulls*** that the Flyers are pulling. This kind of crap shouldn't go on anymore. Oh, I bet it'd be even less than that. The league is nothing more than a bunch of sissy yes-men that follow their own self induced trends. Since Hartnell is a moderately decent hockey player, he won't get much. The only reason Steve Downie got the book thrown at him is because he's a busch league hockey player, and is only worth a bag of s***. Anybody else will just get a simple "warning".

If the Capitals trade Ovechkin they'll never do it with a divisonal rival. In fact, it's a stretch they'd even trade him to someone in the East. They'd probably trade him to a team in the Western Conference. The Anahiem scenario makes sence. The Capitals would be getting an All-Star defenseman in Chris Pronger, something that they haven't had in a player of his calibre since... erm... I'd go as far back as Rod Langway. Their best defenseman right now are Tom Poti and Brian Pothier. Not to take away from either of them (Pothier in particular, because he's become a very solid defenseman) but these guys aren't the #1 franchise defenseman that most teams have. They have some other guys up front that can produce, like Nylander, Kozlov, Semin, and Backstrom, and if they ever get their prospects to start developing as hoped (most notably Eric Fehr and Boyd Gordon) they'll be in good shape without Ovechkin. Plus, they'd possibly be getting someone like Perry or Bobby Ryan out of that deal from Anaheim, which gives them a huge amount of scoring depth. A trade like that makes a lot of sense, especially if Niedermayer comes back. A point could be made of the trade not happening because Burke is extremely anti-European (almost to a Don Cherry level), but this is Ovechkin we're talking about. I think he'd put aside his political views and what not to aquire a player of his magnitude, if it ever comes that close to happening.