Drake_Marcus

Once Kindl is here for good he won't be getting 7th man mins. It's a similar situation to Ericsson-- the team has too much invested in his future to let him rot as a spare part. Next season I think we'll see Kindl as the 6th d-man.

That only makes sense. If you're driving the net and have to choose between the second greatest defenseman of all time or a rookie who would you chose? I'm still mad at Holmstrom for the first goal. And the second goal was Ozzy's fault.

This and the fact that Kindl would make this team about 30% rookies, which is not your typical Holland team.

Just win, Wings. Just win.

No way! If a rookie doesn't knock our socks off in the first 30 games he's garbage. Remember that Filppula kid? He only had 15pts in his first full season. Man, what a piece of s***. I'll be he'd never make it in the NHL today.

Gaborik is lucky that Kronwall's out (and that Hasek's retired).

Ugggg... brutal. *sigh* Tomorrow better be a stronger game than this. The Wings came out flat and never managed to fully recover-- this game shouldn't have had to go to a SO. Holmstrom was definitely responsible for the 1st goal-- why wasn't he covering his man? He could have at least looked over his shoulder to see that a man was open behind him. The second was one Ozzy definitely wants back. *frig* Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Lidstrom all need to step it up. We can't win if our best players aren't our best players.

Where's that photoshop of Terrien's head over every single person's face in the crowd that Matt did in the 07-08 playoffs?

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

In all seriousness, though, the problem here is that Holland can't afford to sacrifice the depth Lebda/Meech provide. Lebda will not be re-signed this summer unless he wants to play for the same salary and is ok being used as the #7 guy. Meech makes less than the current league minimum so it's hard to dump a guy who gives you that kind of cap advantage. I doubt Kindl will stay in Detroit. Once everyone is healthy he'd have to beat Lebda out for the #6 spot. BUT he'd be the 6th rookie on the team, which is something Holland will want to avoid at all costs.

Remember that hit in the first period where the guy basically threw Meech 2 feet when Meech tried to battle him for the puck?

Yeah, his one turn-over a game just hamstrings us. We need more 5'9" 150lb guys who get out-muscled and embarrassed.

Meech is soooo good, eh?

Went into the boards fighting for a puck and one foot tripped on the other guy's stick, causing him to roll his ankle. It didn't look too bad from the replay but it looked really bad when they were helping him to the dressing room and he couldn't put even a tiny bit of weight on it. The last thing this team needs is another long term injury.

He lead the Wings in even strength ice time up until his injury and was still a 0+/-. He was in on the only goal of the game (passed it to Lids) and set-up to beautiful chances that the other guy whiffed on. Overall he gets 0 PP time but is 3rd in defensive pts and 2nd in defensive scoring. He's on pace for the best rookie year, in terms of points, of a Wings d-man since Lidstrom. He averages 1 turn-over a game-- the same as Lidstrom, Stuart and Kronwall and less than Rafalski. He's on the 1st PK and is currently playing alongside Lidstrom for 26 mins a night without seeing his turnovers or +/- suffer from the increased ice time. Honestly-- go buy a clue. Edit-- removed the insult I opened the post with.

That's kind of a shot to Ericsson's nuts. Hopefully he'll get time on the 2nd PP unit.

Should be a fun game to watch. The Oilers are crippled with injuries (sounds familiar, eh?) and the Wings need another dominant win to help steady the ship. I just read that Ericsson's got 3 of his 5 professional goals against the Oilers... and that's in only 3 games. I guess he just has their number. Here's hoping Ericsson picks a goal and an assist or two up tonight. I wanna see him grab 2 or 3 pts in this game. Lidstrom, Leino, Abdelkader and Datsyuk could all use goals too. Let's Go Wings! Oh, and by the way-- where did you read that Kindl would play with Stuart, Hockeytown0001?

That's what happens when your team hasn't won in 4 decades.

In GR he wears #5. I've got no idea what they'll give him in Detroit. I'm hoping he picks 66 or 69. Someone has to have the balls to pick 69.

Honestly, why is anyone even addressing this troll?

Ok, so I'm interested in checking out the salary structure for the Hawks next season. Here's what I've found: Forwards: Toews--$6,000,000+ Kane--$6,000,000+ Hossa--$5,275,000 (signed until retirement) Sharp--$3,900,000 (signed until 2012) Bolland--$3,375,000 (signed until 2014) Versteeg--$3,066,667 (signed until 2012) Byfuglein--$3,000,000 (signed until 2011) Kopecky--$1,200,000 (signed until 2012... lol) Brouwer--$1,025,000 (signed until 2012) Ladd--RFA Madden--UFA Eager--UFA Burish--UFA Fraser--UFA Greentree--RFA Ebbett--RFA Bickell--RFA F Total: $29,466,667 for 9 Forwards. 4 RFA and 4 UFA remain. 3 roster spots open. Defense: Campbell--$7,142,875 (signed at least through 2016...lol) Kieth--$6,000,000+ (signed 13 years) Seabrook--$3,500,000 (signed until 2011 then RFA) Barker--$3,083,333 (signed until 2012 then RFA) Sopel--$2,333,333 (signed until 2011-- at this price? seriously?!?) Hjalmarsson--RFA Hendry--RFA D Total: $22,059,541 for 5 Defensemen. 2 RFA remain. 1 roster spot open. Goaltenders: Huet--$5,625,000 (signed until 2012) Niemi--RFA G Total: $5,625,000 for 1 Goaltender. 1 RFA remains. 1 roster spot open. Team Total: $57,151,208+ for 9 Forwards, 5 Defensemen, 1 Goaltender. (rounds new contracts down to 6mil each) Open spots: 3-4 Forwards, 1-2 Defense, 1 Goaltender (5-7 spots) Assuming they sign minimum contract scrubs for those 5-8 spots that's another $2,500,000-$3,500,000 in salary. Cap hit for next season without accounting for the overage of the three new contracts (all 3 assumed to be 6mil each): $59,651,208-$60,651,208 Unsigned: 7 RFA, 4 UFA. None of these will sign for the league minimum. Especially Ladd, Eager, Burish, Hjalmarsson and Neimi. Also note that their current roster is already over the cap by 4.6 million without accounting for these three new raises. The Hawks are going to lose significant depth. I just don't see how they'll be able to retain Ladd, Eager, Burish, Hjalmarsson or Neimi. That's especially important to remember when they can only offer league minimum contracts AND are still over the cap. Hell, they're over the cap without the 5-7 players they have to sign.

We already know that all three are signed in principle to contracts worth sightly over 6 million (in Keith's case) and somewhere between 6 and 6.5 million in Toews and Kane's cases. That much has been out of the bag for at least a month now (per TSN). All they need to do is free up the tagging room for next season and they can sign the contracts.

He'll have 3 years left on his contract after this season. It's hardly comparable to a 13 year contract.

Pretty much. They've painted themselves into a depth corner with 3 expensive forwards, 3 expensive d-men and 1 expensive goalie. Obviously they view the goalie and Campbell as disposable but it'll be interesting to see if they've got the balls to look these newly signed players in the eyes then demote Campbell and/or Huet to the minors. I can't see anyone wanting to sign there as a FA if they do that to either of those two. Campbell and Huet will likely be shipped to another team along with picks or prospects in exchange for picks or very young prospects. With the laughable contracts Campbell and Huet are signed to and the general knowledge of the Hawks' cap situation they'll have to significantly sweeten the pot for whoever takes those two on. Huet is signed through next season, right?