Kp-Wings

Great fight by King and Godard. Classic hockey right there.

Happy birthday!

How did I miss Ryan Malone? He's my type of player. Gritty winger who's not afraid to drop the gloves, and can put up decent points on the 2nd line. Make it happen Kenny. On defense, since the Wings have an affection with offensive defenseman, I'd like to see them sign Ron Hainsey. He's a decent player on the backend. He's got good size at 6'3, 211 pounds, still young at age 26, skates good, and is an offensive defenseman, which is what the Wings love. He'd be a huge upgrade over Lebda, since he's bigger, and can put up more points. Also, I'd like to see the Wings bring back Aaron Ward to add some badly needed grit on the blueline. I know it's per club policy to not sign gritty, hard nosed players, but he is a former Red Wing, which should work somewhat in his favor. Kenny seems to value that quality a lot. This may seem like an off-beat name to bring up, but I'd love it if the Wings signed Bryzgalov. A Bryzgalov/Osgood tandem would be great. I really don't like Howard, and he's playing like s*** this year in the AHL. Mind you the whole Griffins team is playing bad, but still. Two expierenced goaltenders with the capability to be a #1 sounds a lot more appealing than one starting goalie and one rookie who has yet to put up even decent numbers at the AHL level, and even be a consistant backup. The best thing about having a Bryzgalov/Osgood tandem is if one falls to injury, you have a suitable replacement. If it's a Osgood/Howard tandem, and Osgood get's hurt, what do you do? Throw Howard into the fire? Sorry, but I don't think he could handle it. But, that's looking too far ahead at this point. We'll see how the season plays out first.

Rolston and Legwand. Two local boys, both of whom would be great on this team.

Ah well, close enough.

The Offspring - Come Out and Play Fight song.

I don't see what that would prove at all. In fact, you risk putting him at the helm of serious injury. He already has a bad knee as it is. Keep in mind that Howe did it with the Detroit Vipers of the IHL, which is a different league all-together. And, in that one game, Howe only played 1 or 2 shifts. If I can remember correctly, he was doing it as a promotional thing for the IHL or something anyways, not to actually come out of retirement when he was near 70-80 years old. Yzerman wouldn't be proving anything if he came back. He's already one of the greatest players to ever play the game, so let him be.

I completely agree, but certain politics will prevent that from happening.

I remember that one. Great game. The Wings couldn't do anything of that magintude now, unless Downey got into every fight himself. If he did, he'd have about 6 fighting majors in one game! Although that's not even possible, because he'd probably be kicked out before that happened. If both of them we're benched for a period of 3-5 games straight, you might see them drop the gloves. But otherwise, no, they never will. I don't know what Kopecky's deal is. He actually looked pretty good in the fight against Sharpe (mind you Sharpe is a ***** when it comes to fighting), and some of his AHL fights weren't half bad either. If he's going to be playing full-time over Downey, he better start dropping the gloves more. Hopefully, though, it doesn't come to that anyways, and Downey takes his spot instead.

Ellis should be the one being waived, not Downey. Don't get me wrong: I like Ellis. But as far as who is more important to this team, Downey is by far more important. If we lost Ellis, you could just bring up someone like Hartigan or Ryan Oulahen and not even notice a difference. But if you lose Downey, who do you bring up to fill that role? Adam Keefe is the only name that comes to mind, and he has no chance in hell of playing for the Wings. So basically, it'd be nobody, and we'd be losing the one tough guy/fighter on the team for yet another guy who only works hard, and that's about it. We have plenty of guys like that already. Downey better stay on this team. He's really played well this season in what little time he's gotten. He's basically gotten 3 key assists, because the penalties he drew led to the Wings scoring. His fighting is also the biggest element, which is something nobody else on this team even considers doing. Hopefully Babcock get's into Holland's ear about Downey's importance, and he stays on this team for the entire season, and earns a full time spot.

The Phoenix and Toronto game? I saw a small portion of Grapes when the game was over. I wan't watching the last few minutes, so I don't know if it cut out or not. I have DirecTV, and some games do cut out from time to time. The Dallas and Anaheim game from a couple nights ago did during the 3rd. Not sure about any others at the moment, though.

U2 - Elevation My personal favorite goal song. Thank you Vancouver Canucks.

Red Wings jerseys: Red - Steve Yzerman White - Brendan Shanahan, Bob Probert Others: NY Islanders - Mike Peca, Clark Gillies, Steve Webb Toronto - Mats Sundin Montreal - Saku Koivu, Turner Stevenson Tampa - Vincent Lecavalier Pittsburgh - Kevin Stevens Washington - Vintage red jersey used in 70's-90's (no name on back though) I might have a few others in my collection. These are the ones that I think of right away. Some of them, like my Shanny jersey, are too small for me now, but I've kept them anyways.

nvm

I should probably stop picking the Wings on weekend games. They always lose for some reason. I didn't even bother counting up my score, but I know it's probably bad.

Heh, it'd be great if both of them stay in the lineup at the same time. Screw Kopecky. His one fight was a fluke. I'd bet money he doesn't do it again. By the way: nice avatar.

My problem is the lack of judgement coming from the refs. If it's a definite hook or hold, then yes, call it. But I'm getting tired of these little stick taps from five feet away that result in a penalties. It's like the refs are all programmed robots, and once they see a stick touch another player they automatically scream "Penalty!". The whole point of the rule is if it's impeading a players progress, and half of the time, it isn't. Sometimes, the player doesn't even slow down, which is what makes it so stupid. It's the same way with the delay-of-game rule by shooting the puck outside of play in the defensive zone. The refs should be able to determine if it was an accident, and if it was, don't call it. It's ridiculous how many times that weak ass call results in a goal from the other team, when more often than not, players do it by accident. I don't want the game to go back to the clutch and grab days of the pre-lockout, but come on. There should be some sort of limitations on penalty's being called. There shouldn't be a penalty every time a player's stick leaves the ice and it just happens to touch an opposing player. The refs should make their own decisions on what is or isn't a penalty; not be forced to call everything that looks like penalty (even if it isn't) because their under Bettman's microscope.

You are becoming my favorite poster here. A+ for your efforts.

The two fights cancel out the loss in my book. I can't even remember the last time there was two fights in a Wings game (probably 2003-2004 season). The passion that was in this game tonight made it truely entertaining. Finally, somone on this team defends their teammates. The Downey vs. Shelley fight was ok, nothing too great, but Downey vs. Boll was great! Boll get's in some real good shots early, but Downey hangs in there and takes control near the end. In the end, I give the edge to Downey, mainly because I'm a homer. Nice to see that kind of passion in a Wings game again. Hopefully this organization finally begins to realize the importance of what Downey brings, and keeps him around.

It's unfortunate that Fedoruk is nothing more than a makeshift tough guy anymore. He was a good, entertaining fighter in his prime, and wasn't a bad hockey player either. At this point, though, Downey is better. Fedoruk isn't the fighter he once was.

7-10 days. That should be sometime next week (probably after the Tampa game). I don't see why that should make any difference, though. He was still playing like crap even before he got the cage on, minus the fights of course. He's a team worst -6 right now, and hasn't looked good all season. It doesn't matter if he can kill penalties, because the Wings have Draper, Maltby, Cleary, Franzen, and even Datsyuk and Zetterberg to do that. That should be no incentive to keep him in. I should clarify something: I do not hate Dallas Drake, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. He was doing a good thing earlier by fighting, and if he started doing that again with the cage off, then that's fine. But if he doesn't, I don't see why Downey shouldn't stay in his place (or Kopecky's, which is more preferred anyways, but I'm not even going to bother with that argument). This team is full of guys who only do one thing: kill penalties. We have so many guys who can do that, and nothing else. The reason why Downey should stay in is not only because he fights (that's obviously a big part of it), but because he hits guys and does a good job playing physical in what little ice time he get's. Notice last night he drew another penalty, and the Wings scored on it? That's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. Downey hasn't done anything wrong, and should stay in over some of these other guys who contribute absolutley nothing at all (Kopecky is who I'm thinking of, but again, I'm going to avoid that minefield). I hope the management decides, for once, to make the right decision about keeping an enforcer in the lineup. Every other team in the NHL has one, besides maybe Montreal, so I don't see why the Wings shouldn't have one. Downey has played good hockey this season, and deserves to stay in the lineup full time. He hasn't done anything wrong to say otherwise.

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

Lions almost made it interesting at the end, once Calvin Johnson woke his ass up and starting catching passes. He was brutal in the 1st half. Still, it was basically the same old Lions, once again. This team is terrible among so many standards. Considering we finish the season playing Minnesota, Dallas, San Diego, KC, and Green Bay again, this team is going to go 6-10 for sure. They might beat Minnesota, but that's doubtful. Oh well. Might as well start building for next year.

Fedoruk adds some toughness to a very weak Wild team (minus Boogaard, of course). Their toughest player after Boogaard is Stephane Veilleux, which isn't saying much. I can't believe he's still going, though, to be honest. He's become a pretty weak fighter. He got his bell rung twice last year (Boogaard and Orr), and hasn't looked exactly good yet this season either.