Drake_Marcus

No prediction from me Tried that yesterday and we got burned. I'm just hoping we see some tight defense from Detroit and that Lidstrom gets at least a couple of points in front of the home crowd. It'd be amazing if he could grab three points and hit 1000 career points in front of the Swedish fans.

Zetterberg & Cleary-- are really showing that they missed a ton of camp and preseason time. Neither is playing like themselves. They'll get there with more games and practice time. Z's Line-- not clicking right now. They aren't anticipating where each other will be and generally lack that fit and finish you expect out of a second line. Again, this will come with time. Bertuzzi-- impressed me last night (turn-overs aside). He showed his hands and his size out there. Looked like he had some jump and wanted to make some plays. Once he gets his timing back after missing all that time in camp and the preseason he'll be better. Looks great for 1.5 million. We'll see how this goes over an 82 game season and (hopefully) 22+ game post-season. Datsyuk-- still isn't clicking with his line as well as he will be later on. Looked like Dats out there, no complaints. Should've shot a couple of times when he passed the puck off to Franzen. Holmstrom-- Looks better but still not like his 07-08 self. Franzen-- Looks great. He'll look better once the whole line starts gelling better. Holmer looked most out of place on that line but I think it's because he's getting used to the line. Franzen needs to shoot more, though. (if that's possible, I'd like to see 6+ shots a game out of him). Still likes acting tough in scrums but won't drop the mitts. Leino-- Looked awesome. He's definitely a great replacement for Hudler. I love his willingness to go to the dirty parts of the ice and fight two guys for the puck on the boards. Filppula-- Looks more confident than he did at the start of last season. His ability to hold onto the puck was evident last night. Needs to gel with his linemates a bit better, but that will come with time. Looked out of place on the PP (although he was only there briefly). Williams-- didn't show up much out there. Still has a cannon of a shot. Looks like he isn't as hesitant to battle for pucks or go to the boards as he was when the Wings dumped him. Hopefully he's back to his pre-concussion form. Draper-- didn't blow my mind but he looked ok on Ericsson's goal . Our PK wasn't bad, though, although he was out there for the only PP goal against. Maltby-- clearly doesn't want to sit so he played a great game. Abdelkader-- Hit like they wanted him to. Looked like a rookie on St. Louis's first goal... he should not have given up on that puck after losing the battle along the wall. Still, he didn't look out of place out there. Lidstrom-- Slowwww start. He'll bounce back like he always does after a slow start to the season. Rafalski-- Meh. I don't remember any glaring turn-overs like the ones he had in preseason. He'll get stronger as the season goes on. Kronwall-- Looks like he's going to be even better this season. Hopefully his defense won't be as terrible as last season. Stuart-- Looked ok to me. Nothing really jumped out at me. Ericsson-- Looked great for the few minutes he got to play before his injury. That goal showed excellent instincts when it comes to jumping into the play. Needs a less horrible partner than Lebda. Lebda-- Looked brutal out there. Maybe it was the huge forwards pushing him around. Maybe it's because he's the weakest link on d. Ozzy-- Had no chance on the PP goal. Let a couple of softies in, but his defense wasn't helping him a whole lot either.

Yup. Ericsson needs to drop more bombs from the point. That will come with more experience and confidence in his timing. But like you said-- being able to get the shot off quicker would really help him too.

Right now? Of course. In the future? Not necessarily. Ericsson's role right now is to be a physical defensive d-man. That's why he's relied upon to kill penalties and why he was second to Abdelkader in preseason hits (and lead our d-men in hits during the playoffs). In Grand Rapids he was a high-powered offensive d-man who made the AHL All-Star team because he was very effective on the PP. Having a 100mph slapshot ain't bad. Once Ericsson gets top pairing minutes and regular PP time you'll see his offensive numbers boom, just like we saw with Kronwall when he was given the same opportunity. But unlike Kronwall, you can expect Ericsson to minimize turnovers and play a much more well-rounded game. Ericsson's still a guy who jumps up into the play, he just doesn't take as many risks when doing so and doesn't get caught pinching in as often as a result. Anyone who's watched Big E play for a while can tell you he's far from a stay-at-home d-man, though.

Here you go: http://www.myp2pforum.eu/nhl-icehockey/442...2nd-2009-a.html

Wings win 6-1 Wings: Leino x3, Franzen, Lidstrom, Ericsson Blues: Some high draft pick Leino scores the first three just to piss the Swedish fans off. The Swedish Wings feel bad and pot some for their countrymen.

Lidstrom looked like he knew it was a preseason game... let's just say that. He wasn't really pressing, just getting tuned up.

I was referring to the way the TSN panel overrated them. And no way would I put Vancouver up there as a president's trophy candidate over the Wings. Our core is still getting better, aside from Lidstrom who hasn't really shown a very big decline in effectiveness. The Wings added some more scoring balance and gotten younger this season. Goaltending is the only question for us, but then again, isn't that always the "question" in Motown?

During the first half of the regular season last year he was overpaid. The second half he was ok for the money. In the playoffs the 3 million dollar deal looked like a bargain

Wow... Philly and Vancouver are being highly overrated here given that they're both still playoff choke artists at this point. They need some kind of deep run to give themselves any legitimacy.

He demonstrated it in 07-08 and all the way through 08-09 (especially in the playoffs when he stepped up during Datsyuk's injuries).

That's not true at all. He was still in the top 6 in forward ice time all season. Hossa was signed to play the wing and Filppula's a centre so that signing had no effect on his ice time what-so-ever unless you assume he was going to play the wing (unlikely given how defensively responsible he is and the fact that the Wing like him as a centre). You'll say his PP time was effected but he lost that on his own when Babs gave him almost double the PP time in 06-07 but he couldn't put up enough points to keep him in the top 6 scorers. He didn't play more than a minute on the PP because he wasn't one of the six best forward options on the PP. He wasn't the year before Hossa came and he couldn't elevate his offensive game enough to push Hudler out of the PP. There's no shame in that-- Filppula doesn't play the kind of game that makes him an ideal PP option. gcom007 has far, far, far more honest, realistic expectations of Filppula than 80% of the users here. He won't be disappointed because his expectations are in line with Filppula's skill-set and his proven playing ability. People are hoping for a Franzen-like explosion but all it took was putting Franzen in the top 6 (as soon as it happened in the 07-08 preseason Franzen exploded). Filppula's been getting time on the top 2 lines since 06-07, with serious time given in 07-08 when he started the season as the 2nd line centre and couldn't carry the line on his own (which is fine since he's young and doesn't project as a huge points generator anyway). Like I said-- he's a 50 pt type guy.

50 pts is where I have him pegged too. Should be a good season for him with his increased responsibility. He managed to put up some good numbers in the preseason and stay among the team leaders in points per game (the only fair comparison for everyone since some guys got 6-8 games and some only played 1): Zetterberg-- 2.00 ppg (1 g 1 a) Datsyuk-- 1.33 ppg (1 g 7 a) Franzen-- 1.20 ppg (4 g 2 a) Williams-- 1.20 ppg (3 g 3 a) Leino-- 1.17 ppg (2 g 5 a) (only 13:37 in average ice time, in line with his regular season ice time) Filppula-- 0.67 ppg (2 g 2 a) Cleary-- 0.67 ppg (0 g 2 a) The 20:14 Filppula averaged in ice time isn't really a notable indicator for the regular season when you consider that Datsyuk played 6 of 9 games and Zetterberg only played 1. There's no question that he won't average that much in the regular season, especially since Babcock still thinks the Zetterberg-Datsyuk split is smart (putting aside the evidence of Cup wins).

This is still a terrible outcome and it's all because the judge was a coward. The turmoil for this club is now going to extend into the regular season, further murdering ticket sales. They've already said season ticket sales have really been hurt by this situation, and now that the court case ended up amounting to nothing the situation is only going to be more f***ed up for the team, the city and the fans there. Balsille went about it fine the first two times. This time he tried to back door it legally. He didn't cheat or steal-- he tried to use the legal system to achieve his goal. Ultimately it failed because the judge was too terrified to set a precedent. The person that gets screwed over the most is the "owner". Not only does he have a toxic asset and a huge debt incured due to the poor revenues that team produced but he's also lost control over the sale of the asset he owns. Do you realize how this whole fiasco made the NHL look to the wider sports market? Terrible, poorly managed and basically like a retard rodeo. The NHL and Balsille should've handled this outside of court instead of airing their dirty laundry out for all to see. Now the Coyotes are even harder to sell (due to the ownership/movement situation this season will most likely be their worse financial loss yet) and the NHL loses face. The number of people who came out looking the same or better here is less than one.

That's what I expected given this judge's fear of making a precedent setting decision. They got a huge ***** of a judge. This guy was despirately seeking ways out of making a choice from day 1.

Cool. So all I need is a place to host the spread sheet with the final Wings preseason stats. Leino's final numbers: 2 goals and 5 assists in 7 games for 1.17 ppg.

Friday Florida vs Chicago St. Louis vs Detroit Philadelphia vs Carolina NY Rangers vs Pittsburgh Saturday Chicago vs Florida Vancouver vs Colorado Detroit vs St. Louis Carolina vs Boston Montreal vs Buffalo Philadelphia vs New Jersey Pittsburgh vs NY Islanders Ottawa vs NY Rangers Toronto vs Washington Tampa Bay vs Atlanta Minnesota vs Columbus Nashville vs Dallas Calgary vs Edmonton San Jose vs Anaheim Phoenix vs Los Angeles Sunday No games are scheduled for Sunday. This will be a rough week for me, I can feel it. Too many unknowns here. Then again, I was 14 for 16 in week 1 of the NFL, so who knows?

Any chance someone here knows who assisted on each of the Wings goals? I need to complete my preseason stats spreadsheet and nhl.com only lists the goal scorers. Thanks!

Interesting how short the memories around here are. He put up 18 goals and 39 points in 50 games for the Canadians last year and was their #1 centre before a freak accident severed his Achilles. Lang is definitely still a #2 centre in this league, lazy or not. I don't want him back here (clutch playoff goals aside), but to imply this was a stupid signing for the 'yotes is just silly.

Apparently you're using the Price Is Right rules.

It was safer when he was back east. I hope he recovers from his leg injury, though, that was brutal.

In the words of Abe Lincoln: "OH SNAP!"

Still as smart as ever And now a Coyotes fan?

I'm thinking 18-25 goals. I doubt he'll be in the top six all year give how many people are capable of playing there and how much Babs loves to shift people around when they slump. He's not terribly effective when he doesn't have elite players around him so this shifting will hurt his numbers. Don't forget that he played with Iginla pretty much all season. Playing with Datsyuk is a step up because he's one of the top playmakers in the game, but Zetterberg plays pretty much the same game as Iginla with virtually the same effectiveness when he's healthy. So switching from Iginla to Zetterberg won't cause a 10-15 goal jump in my opinion, unless there's a really impressive chemistry developed. Still, a guy who "only" pots 15 goals is damn good for 1.5 million.