Drake_Marcus

Awesome. Thanks man!

Dreger just made this tweet:

True story. Tatar doesn't like beef, he's more of a fish guy.

The Wings should just put him in a rink with Filppula all camp. By the end of it Val's confidence issues will be gone-- he'll be convinced he's the best sniper on the team.

Howard isn't going to be expected to completely conquer his inconsistent play this season (no goalie does in his rookie season, hell it usually takes quite a few years to get your goalie to start playing consistent hockey on the NHL level). All he has to do is show his talent level and play well in enough games to justify the job he's been given. This is an ideal situation for Howard since Ozzy isn't one of those goalies who exhausts himself in the regular season only to burn out in the playoffs (Kipper, Lou, Giggy, etc... with a few playoff runs in each goalie's case as the exception). Howard's going to get 20-25 starts, maybe even 30 depending on what he shows and how Ozzy holds up from an injury/fatigue standpoint.

I didn't say Howard was a bust at all. In my post I quoted someone who listed three goalies who were below Howard in the depth chart and I was careful to indicate that I was saying Larsson was the best of those three. I've always supported Howard.

For the record, coming out of college hockey Howard was as highly touted or more so than any of those three. In my opinion, out of the three listed we can be most excited about Larsson since he's the only one to excel at the professional level. We'll see about McCollum when he gets his shot in the AHL this season.

I just can't understand why this situation is happening in the first place. Are Canadian professional sports teams a national security risk or something!?!

I believe they still fly in those cases if the drive would be a few hours (which I assume it would be even in those cases). This is especially true for teams with private jets like the Wings. They still take a bus from the airport, though.

Why would they retaliate? Because that's the best way to make it end. The US department of transportation is far more likely to reverse the decision if American NBA, NHL and MLB teams call them and complain than if Canada complains.

Not in the NHL. Some teams still take charter flights or maybe even fly on commercial flights ( maybe the Thrashers and those types of teams fly commercial). Busing to games like they do in the AHL is really stressful and difficult on the players. Just ask members of the Griffins.

This doesn't just hurt the NHL-- it will have an impact on the NBA too. The Raptors play 41 games in the US a year and likewise, they have 41 US team visits to Toronto (which could be an issue given the fact that the article indicated Canada plans on imposing the same rules on US teams as a retaliatory measure). This would obviously have a brief impact on the MLB, but not a big one given the fact that the Jays are so far out of the playoffs they might as well be the Pirates.

The only reason why Cloutier is being given a try out is to push Howard for his job. That's it. If Conklin were here he'd have to already have been given a contract, further exacerbating the cap problem and dropping Howard's chances of playing down to near zero. Veteran try outs like this are intended to push the the fringe players to earn their jobs. That's it. The odds of Cloutier making the team are almost zero. He's here to push Howard and catch the attention of other clubs.

Agreed. Williams is about as useful as a life sized MyLittlePony once April rolls around. Although Pyatt only playing 4 games for the 'nucks in the playoffs might've been a turn-off. He does have an injury record a mile long (Bertuzzi anyone?). The worst part is he actually has had some good goal scoring seasons in 06-07 and 07-08. No doubt he could've rebounded with the Wings.

I suspect the hard nosed guys enjoy it the most-- no more having to ice themselves twice a day.

I agree with MacK-- the average age must be around 28-32ish. That would have to include players who "retire" from the NHL by moving to lower leagues permanently after having played many full seasons in the NHL (Feds and Jagr being two examples).

Just heard his interview with the Fan 960 Calgary (via their online player). That man was a warrior out there and his body got worn down like that of a warrior. Sounds like he suffered from the same kind of stuff as Holmstrom.

Yeah, if Leino can't outscore a grinder in his audition as a full time top six forward he's pretty screwed.

Expect your defense to be porous. Also expect the political motivation behind placing so many KHL players on the camp roster to be questioned heavily if it results in an equal split of NHL/KHL players on the final roster.

I'd counter with: Jonathan Ericsson-Jonathan Ericsson-Jonathan Ericsson Jonathan Ericsson-Jonathan Ericsson-Jonathan Ericsson Jonathan Ericsson-Jonathan Ericsson-Jonathan Ericsson Jonathan Ericsson-Jonathan Ericsson-Jonathan Ericsson Jonathan Ericsson-Jonathan Ericsson Jonathan Ericsson-Jonathan Ericsson Jonathan Ericsson-Jonathan Ericsson Jonathan Ericsson Jonathan Ericsson Jonathan Ericsson Coach: Batman In my experience Ericsson stops Perry from being a little ***** in a few quick punches.

Jesus. That line up would set a single season PIM record, no question.

Nice! I hope it's to a one way and he ends up earning himself a multi-year contract this coming offseason. Best of luck Downey. We'll miss ya.

WTF are you talking about. In my short response I provided all of the facts required to support both my arguments. It's like you're projecting or something. I never advocated trading Stuart to bring Hudler back. That was Eva. If this scenario brought Hudler back the easiest thing to do would be to dump Bert and Williams. And for the record, Hudler got precious few top six shifts throughout the last two years. He got a few here or there, but Babcock was very impatient.

13 minutes a night is first line minutes? Wow. Well Hudler was the 30th highest scoring centre in the league with 57pts, so I guess you're 2 for 2.