Drake_Marcus

I think that's why Abdelkader was thrown into the NHL too quickly. His offensive confidence has gone down the tubes. If we're unlucky he'll end up being a less energetic Helm. He had the potential to be an offensive threat who could pot 15 goals a year.

Physically he isn't ready. Offensively and in terms of thinking the game and skating? I think he might be. Offensively he's playing as well in the AHL as Filppula and Hudler were (if we look at Tatar's stats from mid November until now).

Damn. The Mods are editing all of my Advice Dog posts away. Even though they're a fan favourite! Not cool guise.

NHL10 is reality baby. Don't you forget it

While I like Brown I do think you're overvaluing him a bit there. It'd take at least two roster players. Plus Dustin is a fan favourite in a marketplace that's only tenuously embraced that team...

If the return is a guy like Kovy Holland would gladly ship Filppula out of town. He's "untouchable" in most senses but it's not Lidstrom untouchable. Everyone can be traded (see: Gretzky).

I agree with you about burning goalies out. We've all seen what it does to Nabokov, Turco, Luongo, Kipper and to a lesser extent to Brodeur (see last year's playoffs). At this point I think Babcock is just fighting to get the Wings as many wins as possible. Once we're comfortably in the playoffs he'll give Howie a rest.

Well the title did bring us the comical gif of leino scratching his face superimposed on a watch.

I'm less concerned with being in the playoffs today and more concerned about being in the playoffs after 82 games. All that matters is piling up the W's. Right? I'm thinking what Babs and the team is thinking-- 100pts or bust. Hell, let's go with 50 wins or bust.

They were special in the sense that they amounted to the Wings being badly outshot in a game (again). *sigh* They really need to minimize the shots on goal more.

Friday: Toronto @ Washington x2 (why do I feel like this could be an epic fail?) Nashville @ Calgary Saturday: Chicago @ Columbus Detroit @ Dallas New Jersey @ Colorado Boston @ Los Angeles Edmonton @ San Jose Ottawa @ Montreal Buffalo @ NY Islanders Tampa Bay @ Florida Atlanta @ Carolina NY Rangers @ St Louis Minnesota @ Phoenix Pittsburgh @ Vancouver Sunday: Chicago @ Detroit (anyone who bets on Chicago is a dirty traitor! PM for the address you can mail your jersey to) Philadelphia @ Washington Montreal @ NY Rangers Calgary @ Anaheim

It's not the death I'd fear if I were them.

Don't worry-- scumbags who prey on children are pretty much the only people left who can't play the pity card.

Win.

Yeah, it took a lot of guts for him to have that book published. No wonder he drank so much. I would have too.

Good. Send that pig to jail.

Thank God the OP thought to come up with another Leino scratch thread. I mean there've only been, what, 5 of them in the last week? Thank you OP for bringing a fresh new topic to these forums.

The bad guys* don't. (* Blackhawks, Penguins, et al)

I know Stevie wasn't a fighter, but I hope he can make an exception for Bettman.

Lebeech does indeed suck balls. And he's still only 5 feet tall, 120lbs.

Sad but true Lids and Rafi shouldn't need the pointers but this year... well they have what, 2 goals between the two of them?

Samuelsson strikes again!

Win.

I know you like to aggressively troll these boards but come the f*** on man.

So your theory is that a cohesive, well rounded, winning club sells more tickets than the same club that's a bit more top heavy, has a superstar and probably doesn't win much? I agree with you but the big gamble is whether the trade will make for a club like I've described. The bigger problem is if the same thing happens with Kovy that happened with Hossa-- the team loses a superstar but doesn't have a short-term benefit (although they got a king's ransom for Hossa from the foolish Pens and I think it did help their club long term).