Drake_Marcus

ahh, but the good thing here is that the Wings let so many damn goals in the net that keeping the goal differential steady will be real easy if they just start to let fewer than 3 goals a game in (like they did when they actually won things!).

You guys do realize that this is actually not an uncommon practice. The physical is scheduled of a convenient time and based on the results of the physical the contract can be voided depending on the wording of the contract in question. It's not like they're retarded. EDIT: PuckDaddy seems to think that the deal having been already approved by the NHL indicated that Hossa's contract wasn't subject to the physical approval, but I don't buy that for a second.

Oh, and of course the sky isn't falling. I get to watch a handful of preseason games then I get to watch 82 regular season games THEN I get to watch the postseason. Also there are 29 other teams playing NHL hockey that I can watch play. I'm looking at a solid 9 months of my favourite game in the world. Honestly, how could the sky be falling? I'm waiting for Lidstrom's retirement to start the self-flagellation parade. Then again, who would've thought the Wings would recover from Stevie's retirement in less then one season?

Love the idea of adding Pyatt, but he won't be dirt cheap (or Vancouver would just re-sign him, right?). Grier is an optimal snag because the Sharks can't afford to outbid the Wings. But how low would Grier go? Isn't he tired of being on the perpetual pretenders over in San Jose? How much of the Grier 'fit' is actually wishful thinking here on LGW? Would an outside source think he's as good a fit as we do? I hope so because I feel like his hitting, shotblocking, sacrificing style is exactly what we need on the bottom two lines now that Cleary is a permanent top 6 man.

If he's willing to play for 1 million, sure.

Also ask them to do the following math problem: x = 4 + 3 y = 2 + 4 y ?> x Then laugh when they ask what x and y represent.

Yeah I hear you. I'm from Timberlea and yeah, the infection is bad there too.

The two least important months of those 8 months. Really, who cares about October and November if you know you're going to make it to the playoffs?

By the time the Red Wings empire is sunk your team will be tanking for draft picks again. Enjoy your decades of medicrity punctuated by brief flickers of success. I'm sure having 22.4 million dollars sunk into your goalie and top two centres won't have any effect on your (suddenly) favourite team's ability to stay competitive for the next 6 years. What's that? You're paying your third line centre 4 million a year? 26.4 million dollars for your top 3 centres and goalie, eh? Brilliant. Enjoy having them cheap last year, because now the real juggling begins. It's nice having Zetterberg AND Franzen for the price of one of your centres and a scrub winger.

So he'll be out until the end of November. So he'll miss 2 months of hockey out of the 84 months he's signed for. That's 2.4% of his contract. Or, if you'd rather look at it only in terms of next season, he'll miss the first 2 of 7 months, or 28.6% of the season. However, those two months are the least important, so whatever. Maybe after his shoulder is repaired he'll play better? I dunno. But some of you seem to think this is a catastrophe instead of an inconvenience.

Really? Oh. I thought they played together sometimes.

While I agree that Kovy is one of the top players in the league in terms of skill and ability, you're overselling him a bit. He's not as good as Ovechkin. Malkin? Sure, I can see that if he were to play on a non-garbage team, but Ovi? Ovechkin's best numbers came without the stronger supporting cast he had last year. Semin wasn't anything to write home about two seasons ago (aside from a strong stretch) and Green was still a offensive d-man with upside and terrible defensive skills (now he's a very good offensive d-man with terrible defensive skills!). And for the record- Kovy had Hossa/Heatly on his line for a few seasons and still wasn't as good as Ovechkin.

Agreed. If he can play all of this season like he did in the first half of last season he'll be on track to be an excellent player. This signing is great. $833,333 for 3 years is a great contract for the Wings... not expensive and should keep him cheap when he's ready to join the team (next year being the earliest he'd be ready).

Oh no. That's the same argument Probie used to trick Sergei out of a cool million in the early nineties.

And the best part is he did it with an insane smile on his face!

So, assuming Hudler's still going to go to Russia (i.e. the Wings accept his arbitration contract and he defects to Russia anyway, thus allowing the Wings to retain his rights), what's the second PP going to look like? Hudler was the best playmaker on the 2nd unit and assuming Babcock keeps Datsyuk and Zetterberg together on the 1st unit, we're now lacking a legitimate puck distributor on the power play. Before anyone says "Filppula!" I'd like to point out that his hands are at least one order of magnitude below those of Hudler, so a straight switch of Hudler for Filppula greatly diminishes the effectiveness of the PP. Let's assume the 1st PP unit looks like this: Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Cleary/Holmstrom (assuming he gets his groove back) Lidstrom-Rafalski That's an elite PP, no doubt about it. But what about the 2nd unit? Franzen-Filppula-Leino Kronwall-Ericsson/Stuart Looks ok, I guess, but there's no one with Hudler's hands there. Leino's shown himself to be an excellent playmaker at the AHL level, but he's still a rookie (and thus an unknown). Filppula? His hands aren't at the level you'd expect of a PP centre. He's good at holding onto the puck and protecting it, but he makes poor pass/shoot decisions and isn't much above average when it comes to dishing the puck out creatively. Leino's a natural centre, so he could possibly take the centre's role, but at this point given the seniority, payscale, and length of time waiting for PP mins, the centre's position is Filppula's to lose (assuming the Wings don't pick a good top 6 player up this offseason). If we assume that Holmstrom gets his groove back I can imagine him back on the 1st unit, if only as a PP man (after which he'd likely resume his 3rd/4th liner role). That leaves Cleary as a candidate for the 2nd power play, but he plays a very similar role to Franzen. Ideally I'd like to see Cleary's season become one long lesson in how to be the new Holmstrom. I'd like to see Cleary learn Holmstrom's positioning/methods used to aggravate opposing defensemen and goalies. My best guess is that we see the following: Franzen-Filppula-Leino, with Leino taking up the role of playmaker and Filppula dealing with the faceoffs then taking up the role of shooter/passer similar to what Zetterberg does. In this scenario Franzen is Holmstrom, Filppula is Zetterberg and Leino is Datsyuk. (That last line should scare you )

Until they're ready. The dumbest thing you can do with a goaltender is rush them into the NHL. Doesn't matter how talented they are, it's a bad move. Ask Price. McCollum hasn't played a single pro hockey game. Not one. He's still got lots of time to put in. Larsson was a pro rookie last year. Still lots of time to put in.

When that 365 days brings you close to the half century mark you'll have to forgive me for doubting your ability to run with the kids. You do realize that a 50 year old man is fighting the constant deterioration of his body, right? Every joint. Every ligament. At 50 years old you're fighting more than to simply maintain conditioning. It's actually laughable that you'd assume I'm basing this on "NHL09" and not science. Science says that Chelios can't stop the deterioration of his body, he can only fight to slow it down and get past it. He's already in impeccable shape, but he can't make his knees, back and hips not age another year. And guess what- when you're almost 50 years old and you've been a professional athlete nearly your entire life- that s*** does start to become debilitating instead of just nagging. Did you watch Chelios play last season? I'll tell you this much- he wasn't skating in molasses because his conditioning isn't up to spec- any Red Wing will tell you he just might be in the best shape out of all of them. He skates like that because his body is betraying him- he's aging.

I'd mock them, but I'm terrible at remembering to turn stuff in on time too.

The front office in Chicago must have known about this when he signed the deal. You'd think you'd do some heavy duty due diligence on a 12 year contract (unless you're located in Long Island).

Sure, he can hack that fine. But should we assume he won't get worse and more out of use as time goes on? What will he play like next year?

He can barely skate now... he may be in amazing shape, but his body is still that of a nearly 50 year old man. In today's game with salary caps and increased emphesis placed on prospect retention and development, does he honestly think he's got another few seasons in him?

Ironman Kopecky hurt?

I don't get it either. I mean he's been good in Philly yet they're always bitching about needing good goaltending. And they honestly think switching Biron for Emery is the smartest option!?!

He'd be lucky to put half that up. Neither Filppula nor Hudler could break 40pts in their first seasons, I can't see Helm doing it with half Filppula's and a quarter of Hudler's offensive ability.