Drake_Marcus

That's what we all said about Bouwmeester.

I lol'd. Don't get too upset guys. They're still 3-2 on this roadtrip assuming they lose tonight (a fair assumption). This kills our momentum but at least they're not on a losing streak. I'm more concerened with how they respond in the 3rd. If they have any pride they'll dump 30 shots on goal.

You're still thinking of Rafalski-- he was brutal in the finals.

I'm pretty sure when he was called up they said it was an emergency recall. At the time the Wings only had the following healthy defensemen: 1. Lidstrom 2. Rafalski 3. Stuart 4. Lebda 5. Meech So because they only have 5 available d-men that should fulfill the requirements for an emergency call-up... The bigger question, as you alluded to, is whether they're willing to risk keeping Janik up when Ericsson comes back. At that point he'd no longer count as an emergency call-up since they'd have 6 roster d-men back. But like you said-- he's earned a spot over Lebda or Meech. Maybe they'll decide to send Meech down and expose him to waivers. Who knows? Ideally they'd probably like to save that decision for when everyone is healthy on the backend. The problem is that this is their last chance to keep Janik up without exposing him to entry waivers. Edit: I just realized I didn't read your first paragraph. Hmm... I guess the 7 day rule can't be in effect because he's been here longer and we never read about him having to pass through waivers on day 8.

This is the most important point. There's no conspiracy on the part of the Pittsburgh organization just a poor judgment call made by a fan who works for Fox Sports Pittsburgh. Should someone receive a reprimand? Yes-- I'd say the Pittsburgh organization itself should be fined simply because they're responsible for the actions of their business partner when it is acting in their name.

Mmmmm.... Beta. Looks good beside an HD DVD player.

This wasn't subtle enough to be a typical Carman Pens post.

Go Huskies!

I agree. Someone's going to lose their job but at least they'll go out for a cause they believe in-- swaying a single regular season hockey game in their favourite team's favour. I hope their kids can eat hockey memorabilia.

Not really because Fleischmann doesn't have the potential to be as good as Semin. Ericsson could end up being as good as Kronwall or even better, we won't know until he too has 350+ games under his belt. The fundamental flaw in the OP was not to indicate that this was comparing one player's potentail to that of another player. Clearly we can't compare a veteran defenseman to a rookie defenseman and expect it to be fair. Rookie D-men take quite a bit of seasoning before they start playing good NHL defense.

Great news on Ericsson (we won't have to watch Lebda or Meech play on the 2nd pairing and hopefully not on the PP either). Awesome news about Mule too But Kronwall's knee is really scaring me. I read an article last week that said they don't really know why it's not healing anymore... apparently the doctors said it could be that he pushed himself too early, but they weren't sure.

9 out of 21 ? Brutal

This.

As far as +/- goes-- look at the teams Kronwall was a rookie on. He started playing on the best defensive team in the NHL. This year the Wings were one of the worst defensive teams and only recently started to pull those numbers back into respectable range. Moreover, this year's team is the lowest scoring Wings team in more than a decade-- that has a huge effect on the +/-. In Kronwall's first NHL season he was a 0 +/- on an elite defensive team that was one of the highest scoring teams in the league. Kronwall entered the league with scouting reports that indicated he struggled defensively, with Ericsson's reports reading just the opposite. There was no way in hell Babcock would've put Kronwall on the PP early in his career. In fact, Kronwall was a bit of a whipping boy on LGW because of his poor defensive play early in his career. Ericsson's averaging a single turnover a game (see Rafalski, Lidstrom, Stuart and Kronwall's averages for comparison's sake) and people act like he's a defensive liability out there instead of just having some growing pains. Before Ericsson was injured he was on pace to kick the ass of Kronwall's rookie numbers. Now? Well I doubt he'll be able to put up an impressive total given how much time he's lost. The lack of PP opportunities is also a big factor.

I lol'd.

I'd rather Meech than Stuart. My hope is we go to Kronwall-Ericsson on the 2nd PP so they can make use of Big Rig's 100mph slapper.

Tatar, Mursak, Nyqvist, Kindl, Larsson, McCollum, need I go on? Ferraro and a few more of that class are also notable. Right now the Wings have a ton of great prospects in the cupboard.

I know, eh? Hearing Cherry angrily rant is like hearing UK_Redwing ask for more Brad May-- inevitable.

By the way people ***** about Leino you'd think that's what was happening.

No he's not. He's a 26 year old man who moved to NA to play for the Wings in the NHL. He played for a year in the AHL and paid his dues. He gets paid significantly less to play in the AHL than he can make in Europe. He's not a frigging kid trying to make or break his career. He'll only take a financial loss in the AHL for so long before he goes back home and makes better money. How many 26 year old forwards stick around in the AHL hoping for NHL scraps? Not many compared to the guys who go overseas to maximize their earning potential before their careers are over. Hockey players have a limited window in which they can earn their money-- they could have a career-ending injury at any time and suddenly they're screwed.

How is it that he went 5g 4a 9pts in his first 13 NHL games playing on a line with Maltby and Draper last year? Were those 13 games special non-contact easy skating games? How is it that he was a point per game player in the preseason with only Datsyuk out-producing him? Perhaps this isn't a case of someone who's missing a fundamental element of the NHL game and rather it's a case of a guy who's struggling and has zero confidence. We knew he'd be a boom or bust prospect when Holland signed him. Leino has no use on a checking line-- he never has. No one should've thought he'd be a productive checking line player. If Leino's not producing points he's useless. This year he's struggled to produce and thus he's been an epic fail so far. I can't help but chuckle at the people (and this isn't directed just at you) who think they have Leino all figured out and act like he's got no upside. Apparently these people think they know more than Holland does about prospects because it seems that they think they had Leino pegged all along. Of course they're quick to forget Leino's success coming into this season. They're seeing a rookie at this absolute lowest point and behaving as if he's dragging this team down and he's a huge failure. Here's a shocker-- Leino was not a draft pick. He was not developed by the Wings-- he only played in the AHL for one season. He's cost the organization virtually nothing in terms of resources so if he fails it will hardly be a huge blow to the Wings. Finally, even though he is playing like s*** he's not the source of the Wings' ills. He's not even remotely close to being responsible for the s***ty scoring right now. Look at Lidstrom, Rafalski, Datsyuk and Zetterberg-- none of them have performed up to expectation and all of them make at least 6 million dollars each. Zetterberg's goal total is horrible by his standards. Datsyuk's on pace for his worst season since his rookie year and Lidstrom's on pace for his worst season since the lockout. It's laughable how much s*** is thrown in Leino's face when he's a complimentary winger and a f***in' $800,000 a year rookie. Go ahead people-- s*** on Leino and pretend that the guys who make the real money and wear the letters on their chests aren't to blame.

This is pretty much it. Babcock's methods haven't changed... this is how he always explains it.

Crap! I forgot to submit my picks. Luckily none of the games have ended (I'm pretty sure), so hopefully these will count. (note that I haven't looked at the scores as a means of picking these, so hopefully it's apparent in what I chose that I'm not using the fact that the games started to my advantage). Friday: Tampa Bay @ New Jersey Colorado @ Carolina Toronto @ Buffalo NY Islanders @ Dallas Columbus @ Calgary Saturday: NY Rangers @ Boston Colorado @ Buffalo Pittsburgh @ Toronto New Jersey @ Montreal Florida @ Ottawa Tampa Bay @ Philadelphia Washington @ Atlanta Anaheim @ Nashville Chicago @ Minnesota NY Islanders @ Phoenix Calgary @ Vancouver St Louis @ Los Angeles (x2) Detroit @ San Jose Sunday: Ottawa @ Carolina Dallas @ Columbus Anaheim @ Chicago

Loyalty. If there's one way I'd describe Mike Ilitch I'd say he's loyal and classy to a fault. No way they trade Ozzy unless he asked for the trade. Also, in the end Howard hasn't proven himself to be a winner in the playoffs at the professional level (AHL or NHL), so it'd be crazy to put all of our hopes in him this early in the game. Futhermore, as we've seen with Carey Price and Steve Mason, a great rookie season is no guarantee there won't be significant growing pains as a goalie matures.

Woopty god damn do.