Drake_Marcus

WOOOOOOO! SHANE DOAN!

That's a bit much. It certainly is legitimate to argue against the notion that NASCAR racing is on par in terms of athletics as Hockey. Calling the argument that NASCAR isn't a true sport "complete and total ignorance" is kind of ignorant itself. Most definitions of the word "sport" definitely allow NASCAR to be classified as such. The following questions occur to me when I think of NASCAR: -->Is turning left 400 times an athletic pursuit or an endurance pursuit? How is skill and endurance balanced? -->How much of a factor should mechanical workings really be in a true sport? A good NASCAR driver is only as good as his pitcrew and the guys who build/maintain his car. You can certainly say the mechanics and crew are part of the driver's team, that's very true. But they're a much different part of the team... they aren't doing something athletic (aside from the high-speed pit crew maintenance). A huge part of the race is really the car's build. Building a high performance car is kick ass (I'm a mechanical engineer- I can appreciate it!), but it's not athletic. There's really no other sport that relies so heavily on something outside the sporting aspect as NASCAR does. Even luge and other sled sports are highly standardized. I understand that NASCAR tries to use the rules to reign in some of the 'money buys speed' aspects of the builds, but they can't eliminate the experimental nature (and thus somewhat luck based) of stock car racing. Wasn't it Jeff Gordon that people mocked for having his daddy buy him a shot by funding a sweet ass car? -->Is it fair that mechanical endurance/reliability plays such a large part in a sport? That is a huge factor in a race. If your engine burns out or significantly underperforms you're screwed no matter how good of a driver you are. All of these arguments are certainly valid. Dismissing them altogether isn't fair at this point. NASCAR is still trying to cement its place as a legitimate sport- and that's why they continue to change and shape the rules to standardize the cars more and more. No doubt that there is an athletic aspect to NASCAR... but endurance and mechanical ingenuity place huge parts in it as well. I'd argue that the mechanical aspect of NASCAR outweighs the athletic part at this point. I see it as far more like horse racing than Hockey, Basketball or even Baseball (a sport where athleticism is relative to what position you play. Yeah- I'm looking at you CC Sabathia). The tough part is that horses are breed and trained... just like humans, but stock cars are built and modified.

I think Crosby dealt with this really well. Pretty clever in my opinion. He knew Savard wouldn't fight him and even if he did fight him they'd be an even match. It was a win/win situation for Crosby and he came out looking like the bigger man. Smart move.

Well it's not like he was beaten out by lesser men! Look at that list Loo! I can't believe that NFL kicker dude had 346 straight games with at least a point! That's unbelievable longevity for a player who's playing in a 16 game (max) league! EDIT: Plus, with Gordie and Cheli on there do you think they'd include yet another Wing? That list would be 30% Red Wings

Laugh now, but if Richards challenges the Wings to a speed skating competition you'll be glad we can ice a fourth line of: Meech-Draper-Lebda Ain't no one going to out skate that line. Outscore? Oh yeah, but skate? Never.

What he said. The likelihood of Stuart being dealt is pretty low because of the whole organizational loyalty thing. Stuart would have to want to leave or they won't be comfortable asking him to (at least based on case history). Even aside from that the bigger problem is this: Balance. Does Holland keep funneling the money into forwards next season? The Wings are 1st in the NHL in goals scored and have a goals against that fits in with the teams that are missing the playoffs. We'll see if those issues can be fixed in time for a legitimate run through the playoffs. We know the pieces are there and I'm praying the boys put it back together, but subtracting from this year's defense would be a big risk...

Not true in the slightest. Historically, once you reach the top 5 in points or so... you have to start providing more evidence. Mike Green is still pathetic defensively. The Norris winner can't lead all d-men in giveaways and be 3rd most turnover prone player overall in the NHL. Not a single Norris candidate is even within 30% of Lidstrom's give away stat. The closest is Chara who has 35% more turn-overs than Lidstrom. Green has 256% more turn-overs. You're impressed by Green because his style of floating in around waiting for a chance to make a rush is more fitting in with the Penguin's style. That's fine- I'm not saying the Pens don't know how to score goals (you have two guys on your team that are always threats to be tops in scoring overall). I'm just saying that Green's #1, #2, and #3 priorities aren't defense. It's also notable that for all Green's goals he's got zero OT goals and only 2 GW goals. Lidstrom has 1 OT winner (tied for 2nd among d-men) and he has 4 game winning goals (tied for 1st). Although Green does have a short handed goal (which Lidstrom doesn't yet have this year). Regardless of what you think of Lidstrom's candidacy at this point he's hardly outmatched against Green in the game of Best Defenseman. Best Forward With A 'D' Beside His Name? Well Green takes that handily. {Green's a great young player, I'm just not drunk enough to believe he's the best D-man in the league!}

Because the last thing this team needs is more expensive forwards and less defense. Plus, Meech is next to worthless. Stuart has a NTC and won't be moved for organizational loyalty reasons. Kronwall is a great deal at $3million when he's going to put up more than 50 pts. If it comes down to Huder or Filppula, I'm betting they trade Filppula if they can't keep both. Hudler has more upside and provides scoring talent that the Wings don't have tons of in the minors (they do have tons of two way forwards with a touch of offensive flair). There's no way in hell I'd want Franzen AND Hossa on the team unless someone from the forward corps is being jettisoned to make way for Franzen's cap hit. That's Cleary or Holmstrom. Holmstrom is here until retirement and Cleary's got that organizational loyalty bag. Maybe Cleary would accept a trade to Toronto or Montreal to come home to Canada and be closer to NFLD. Of course Cleary's got a $2.85 million hit, and Franzen will be demanding at least $4 million. That's a tough gap to bridge. Sammy likely has to be replaced by a minimum salary rookie. Kopecky is still nearly valueless in terms of his financial bargaining power unless he pulls a Franzen between now and July. Conklin is going to be gone regardless, because Howard is out of minor league options and we all know that the Wings don't like to give up assets without a fight.

Didn't go well for us last time.

Thanks Bud Now if only I could achieve this kind of success as regularly as you do!

Woohoo!

I'd love to participate in this exercise, but I'd rather do it after 82 games have passed. Most teams have at least 12 games left, some have 14. That's a long time in NHL terms and until we know the final playoff teams it's hard to start handing out MVP's and such. Here are the trophies I could confidently vote on this point: Art Ross Trophy - Judgment reserved Lester B. Pearon Award - Judgment reserved Hart Trophy - Judgment reserved Venzina Trophy - Mason (Mason is the Blue Jackets... Tomas is having the regular season Osgood had last year) Norris Trophy - Judgment reserved (tight rankings right now and players are still dipping/peaking in performance) Calder Trophy - Mason (easiest trophy to vote on) Lady Byng Trophy - Datsyuk Frank Selke Trophy - Datsyuk (possibly Richards... Datsyuk's superb takeaway stats trump Richard's SHG in my opinion) Jack Adams - Judgment reserved Maurice "Rocket" Richard - Ovechkin (odds are he won't be overtaken in scoring at this point, I'm hoping he tops 65 again )

To be honest? It's beyond me as well. On the other hand- Ryan has a bright, bright future.

Awesome.

He made some very good saves and was definitely solid in net. This was a 100% earned shut out in my opinion.

Ahhh.... I thought he was skating differently.

This makes me happy.

Good. Babcock is giving Ozzie every chance to get back to his old form. If Ozzie puts an effort up like he did this weekend my confidence going into the playoffs just jumped by an order of magnitude!

Great game tonight. Ozzy definitely deserves to be the player of the game. He was great in goal. Keep it up Ozzy! Keep it up! Loooved how physical Ericsson was around the net. Very aggressive defensive play from Big Rig. I'm proud of ya big guy! Too bad he's not getting many chances to put up the points, but that will come with time. I'm happy with the great defensive play Ericsson's provided. Can't wait to see what he does when he gets his cast off and starts seeing PP time.

Uggg... I hope he spent it watching tapes of Lidstrom playing sexy defense. Actually, I hope every single Wing is forced to watch those tapes. And once they're done they can mail them to me

Glad you enjoyed the update. I noticed his stats tonight and thought I'd point out that he's having fun playing with the kids in GR.

I wasn't implying the Flames are scary at all. They're not. Just watch their chemistry. The number of huge deadline splashes that resulted in stanley cups can be counted on one hand, one hand with a closed fist. Calgary will give someone a tough time, but they won't make it to the finals. No, I'm worried about the pathetic, porous defense that sits in front of our sub-par goaltending. 14 games man. 14 games to start playing playoff hockey. I'll be this nervous until we're past the first round in a convincing fashion (i.e. playing like the 07-08 Wings). Anyone that thinks there's nothing to be worried about either has senile dementia or is utterly foolish. If the Wings post 14 consecutive shutouts between now and April they still won't be first overall in goals against.

*Sniff* May his razor empire keep him well fed in retirement.

Good question... Here's what I'd do assuming everyone is healthy: 5-on-5 Play: Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Franzen-Filppula-Hossa Hudler-Draper-Cleary Leino-Helm-Kopecky/Samuelsson * Lidstrom-Kronwall {the pairings were much more solid when Lids and Rafi were split up this year} Rafalski-Ericsson {Could go Rafalski-Stuart, I just think playing with a rookie would settle Rafi down defensively} Stuart-Lilja {Again, if you go with Rafalski-Stuart for the 2nd pairing, Ericsson-Lilja is a real solid third pairing} Osgood {Keep Ozzy on a short leash, but he's still our only hope} Conklin Power Play: 1st Unit: Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Lidstrom-Rafalski 2nd Unit: Hudler-Franzen-Hossa Kronwall-Ericsson {Ericsson is a great point man on the PP in GR and does have a 100 mph slapshot!} Penalty Kill: 1st Unit: Zetterberg-Draper Lidstrom-Lilja 2nd Unit: Datsyuk-Filppula/Hossa Kronwall-Stuart/Ericsson * The fourth line is a tough call... because of experience/loyalty, I'm afraid Leino might sit... something that I'd recommend against, but then again, I'm not a professional hockey coach. I honestly think Leino brings more to the table than Helm, but Helm brings the right tools for the position they'd be fighting for- Helm is an energy player, Leino's a top six forward.

This.