Drake_Marcus

That honour belongs to that kid that the Canadians had practicing with them in camp this year.

No way the fighters were more annoying than the announcer! He was getting wet about that poor turtling bastard they were wailing on in the corner. It looked like assault to me- not a fight When the other guy turtles give 'em a shot and let the shame of turtling do the rest... but punching him a few dozen times? Where's the sport in that?

OH CRAP! That Bishop kid is a fighter! It's over man! OVER. They better call Downey up to deal with this Bishop kid!

I think I quoted you for support, then noted a bunch of other things I wanted to yell about and forgot you were burried in there!

The problem is that this isn't the original six era... you can't just shove a d-man out on the ice wearing the injured goalie's gear when you don't have a back-up on hand Not that Lilja wouldn't be a kickass goalie!

Now that he's healthy, McCarty is on waivers to give the Wings the flexability to bring up a goalie at a moment's notice. Once he passes waivers they can send him down at any point for a specified period to allow them to bring up a goalie. We went through this with Downey last year, and we'll see it again for both players... I DO hope they bring Downey up for the Blues game since they've got a history of cheap shot BS.

Maybe you like his... size? I'm pretty sure that's his best asset right now. I'd still have a hard time saying no to Helm over Kopecky if it were an either/or senario... but it's not yet. This year is Kopecky's chance to prove why he should stay and Malts should be quietly encouraged to retire...

HEY! You leave Kopecky's limp wrist out of this!

Look- we all know Kopecky isn't the most important cog in the machine, but he has potential. He has the opportunity to be a better player out there, and he showed it last year just before he was injured. I'd love to see him start to show up out there, I really would. But the fact remains that Kopecky could be an important cog, while D-Mac was a beloved player on this team and a vital member of 3 championships. He contributed to a fourth championship, but he's 36... he's not a young man anymore. He's not on the upswing dude. I'm sorry. I'd LOVE to have Boll or Lucic... s*** Latendresse too. Maybe De Vries as well.

Christ. Listen- Kopecky, while useless right now, has upside. Remember who else used to be useless but was held onto for their potential? Franzen. Before the preseason last year he simply looked like a 4th liner with pk potential. At least Kopecky had better than a ppg while in the AHL. Stop reacting like the Wings are dumping a big, young physical enforcer type to keep a 36 year old player with zero upside. It's the exact opposite situation. We know what we're getting with D-Mac. And one can reasonably predict the path D-Mac's career is on. Stop thinking like you're picking the kickball team a recess and start thinking like a professional manager would.

A good summary for a sad story.

No need to hope- this is Ericsson last year of waiver-free status. He will be a full-time member of the top 6 next season.

Wooohooo! Another strong weekend for me I've had some decent luck so far. Thanks for all your hard work Aussie_Wing.

Agreed 100%. Dallas Drake is a good part of the reason why Datsyuk was such a hitter in the playoffs- you could see Dallas' big shifts where he'd hit 2 or 3 guys really hard just rub off on the rest of the bench. Especially in the Western Conference finals.

Dallas Drake was absolutely brutal at the start of the year last year. He had most of us wondering why he was even on the team. Drake really started turning it up in the playoffs. He was ok sometimes during the regular season, but he was horrendous at the start of last year.

? He's got 2 goals and an assist.

He's got 2 goals and 2 assists with a +3 in his first 3 games of the year. 4 pts in his first 3 games as a pro on NA ice isn't bad at all He's tied for the team lead in scoring with Haydar. http://griffinshockey.com/news/stats/

Poor recovery to a stupid statement. Hudler's plus minus is no worse than Draper. By deriding Hulder's -4 you're implicitly doing the same to Draper since he's also got a -4 and has zero points as opposed to Hudler's single goal. Stating that Draper's defensive contributions to the team are a joke would be retarded. So by extension... well you connect the dots.

I completely agree with you about the confidence from Babs thing. We saw that in the playoffs- Hudler was fantastic in the playoffs- posting better than 0.5 ppg without playing top 6 mins (he was definitely in the top six scoring forwards for the Wings). Plus Babs put him out in high confidence situations like the last few mins of game 6 of the finals. In the preseason Hudler was one of the Wings' best forwards as well. He piled up the assists and was fine in the playmaking department. He has a cold game at the start of the season and Babs boots him down to the 3rd line. That really seems like a poor way to make Jiri perform well after giving him a shot at the top six from the very start of the season. What this all comes down to is that Jiri did become a Datsyuk like playmaker on the 2nd line with Z and Mule. Babs wanted him to be the sniper and Z the playmaker. But, to be honest, regardless of the fact that Hudler has one of the best shots on the team, he looks at home as a playmaker... and doesn't seem to play with the instincts of a pure scorer right now. Maybe he just needs to score more goals. He is a streaky player (the defining feature of a skill player that ends up on the 3rd line). But he's one of the reasons why the Wings won the cup- superb depth.

No feeding the troll!

guys! Stop feeding the troll!

I wouldn't worry too much- I watched him play in each of the televised preseason games and listened to the rest of the game he played in (except for the one game that had no coverage whatsoever). In those handful of games I became an instant fan of Leino! He's now my favourite forward prospect and second only to Ericsson in my list of favourite prospects Leino made a great name for himself in camp and the preseason and will definitely end up playing for the Wings this year- it's just a matter of waiting for another forward to be injured and for some cap space to be cleared! The RW managment is really high on him so I'm sure he's been assured that this minors situation is temporary. He would already be playing for the Wings if they didn't have such a huge log jam up front and such a lack of cap space. So in summary- I too hope to see Leino playing for the Wings and I wanna see it be a permanent situation that occurs as soon as possible! (as long as it doesn't hurt the team by requiring the loss of a vital player)

Why all the damn trolling? Go use google. Feds left because: --He had just fired his agent and was working the deals all on his own all of the sudden --The wings pulled the deal he was being offered off the table and changed the terms by reducing one year of the contract the day before it was to be signed and refused to give him more time to think about it (a hugely uncool move in ANY business transaction). --The Red Wings were the Stevie and Shanny show... in light of the contract misnegotiation by the wings (reducing the term of the contract- and thus the job security it provided) he found the prospect of being the top man attractive. I expect that most of the responses above this are tainted by bitterness and ignorance of why he actually left. EDIT: I'm wrong on this last line! What a pleasant surprise

Friday: Phoenix @ Ottawa Toronto @ NY Rangers Nashville @ Columbus Vancouver @ Buffalo Edmonton @ Calgary San Jose @ Anaheim Carolina @ Los Angeles Saturday: Colorado @ Dallas Phoenix @ Montreal Boston @ Ottawa Toronto @ Pittsburgh New Jersey @ Washington Buffalo @ Atlanta NY Islanders @ Florida NY Rangers @ Detroit Minnesota @ Tampa Bay Columbus @ Nashville Chicago @ St Louis Calgary @ Edmonton Philadelphia @ San Jose Sunday: Vancouver @ Chicago Carolina @ Anaheim Edit: left the quote tag in there at the bottom

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