Drake_Marcus

Dude... the list of players who could've done better in that fight is very, very, very long.

Annnddddd Janik does his best impression of a punching bag. I never thought I'd say this but he could use some fighting lessons from Datsyuk.

It's worth mentioning that this type of arthroscopic knee surgery is minimally invasive and has a relatively quick turn-around compared to other knee surgeries. This isn't an issue as serious as Kronwall or Franzen's knee injuries last season. Kronwall had an arthroscopic procedure on his knee just before camp and didn't miss much time. 3 or 4 weeks isn't so bad compared to having him grind it out on that knee all season.

It isn't uncommon for older hockey players with bad knees to have multiple cleanings over the tail end of their careers. Obviously it's not desirable to have to do this yearly, but I imagine the wear on his knees is far above and beyond that of the average hockey player his age. Rafalski has probably played almost 300 games over the last 3 seasons (including preseason games and the Olympics).

Thanks for everything Maltby. There isn't a young hockey player in the world who wouldn't love to have had the career Maltby did. 4 Stanley Cups is an amazing achievement.

lol what? A jump from his career high 42pts to a minimum of 70pts is freaking huge. That's a massive leap in development. I'll be happy if he breaks 50pts. 50-55pts is a far more realistic goal for him to reach for. As a point of reference Toews has never scored 70pts in the NHL.

Bummer that he didn't discover the issue in the summer and get it scoped out then, but I'd rather get it over with in October than April.

PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THE SCHEDULE TO YOUR POST, AND MARK YOUR SELECTION BY MAKING IT BOLD AND BE SURE TO MARK YOUR DOUBLE GAME AS "X2" Friday, October 8 Minnesota at Carolina San Jose at Columbus Dallas at New Jersey Anaheim at Detroit Buffalo at Ottawa Washington at Atlanta Too late Saturday, October 9 Phoenix at Boston Columbus at San Jose x2 NY Rangers at Buffalo Dallas at NY Islanders Montreal at Pittsburgh Ottawa at Toronto New Jersey at Washington Atlanta at Tampa Bay Philadelphia at St. Louis Anaheim at Nashville Detroit at Chicago Los Angeles at Vancouver EDIT: Forgot to pick Sunday's games Sunday, October 10 Boston at Phoenix Los Angeles at Calgary Florida at Edmonton

Your invitation isn't all that enticing.

Exactly. Lidstrom will really help him get his confidence back. E needs to feel like he did in 08-09 and stop overthinking/doubting himself. Someone described it as him acting like the puck was a grenade when he had it on his stick and that's an apt analogy. He's so unsure of himself he's desperate to get rid of the puck whenever he gets it. The one thing people commented on the most when he was playing in the 09 playoffs was how poised and confident he was with the puck. That's a 100% mental thing. Right now he needs a frigging therapist or something. He looks like Leino did last season before they traded him. Just like Leino the talent is there, but the mental aspect if broken. I'd hate to see them have to dump him just to have him fix himself on another team. It's annoying enough hearing the people who ragged on Leino pretend like they didn't want to see him gone after his performance in the playoffs.

lol Toews. He's yet to break 70pts as an NHL player. And they have him ranked 3rd overall?!? Given his fantastic year last year at the Olympics and in the playoffs I'm fine with them ranking him in the top 15, but 3rd is retarded.

A top 10 forward? Arguably. I wouldn't put him lower than top 15 among NHL forwards. But top 10 overall? Not really. Once you factor in defensemen and goalies he slips down a bit.

But... he's already had an entire NHL season! PLUS ONE SUMMER! How isn't he leaps and bounds better in October than he was last year? On a side note, I've got a feeling Kindl will have a new ass hole ripped in him on LGW by the end of the season. I surprising number of people haven't seen his decision making skills in action in GR. Seriously. I hope this team's weakest link remains our #6 defenseman. I guess that will mean the important players are doing well

Reading that article put a smile on my face. I was hoping to be the first to post it but I was obviously behind in my Wings reading. Downey is a great person and it's awesome to have him teaching the kids in GR how to train like a pro.

It's a good thing for Big E... but scary for the rest of the defense.

Obvious troll is obvious.

Bert going to bat for Franzen like that and completely demolishing Orprick makes it all worth it (well unless Franzen's actually hurt). That kind of thing will bring Bert and Mule closer together as teammates and builds the right atmosphere for the team.

Lebda's obviously smart enough to know what keeps most Leafs fans going. They accept that their team sucks but they comfort themselves by saying at least they're the mecca of hockey.

If a player is either: -> On a Canadian team and is at least moderately popular (i.e. Regehr) or -> A prominent active Canadian player (i.e. Crosby) Odds are you'll get a McFarlane figure. Crosby has like 40 now. Spezza is way too many as well. I get the point in releasing Crosby figures-- I'm sure they sell well but do we really need one every second release? That's frigging insane. As far as the op's original question-- yes he does. He was second in Calder voting and the Red Wings are a team that sells a ton of merchandise. I'm still waiting on a Franzen figure... you'd think his offensive output over the last three post-seasons would warrant a figure (hell-- he frigging lead the league in post-season points per game this year!).

That's a good question. Guys like Brodeur are notoriously set on their mask design (given he's only changed it once in the last couple of decades). But it seems like the younger generation of goalies are more than happy to try new paint jobs out. The majority of young goalies these days seem to be pretty fickle about their mask designs. Don't worry-- I'm betting that he'll switch back to last year's mask if he has a rough start this season (and based on last year I wouldn't be surprised if he starts out rough).

Potential doesn't win hockey games. Untapped talent won't win you a Cup. At this point those two things are the only reason Price is still in Montreal. At some point he's going to have to s*** or get off the pot.

Pretty hilarious that the Hawks let this kid go because he's too expensive then he signs with one of their key rivals for 2 million.

Anyone else find the comments on this blog post funny? At least two people called Puck Daddy out on the newsworthiness of the story. Ingrates!

Don't worry-- they've already pissed away all the cheap young complementary players that won them the Cup as well as the winning goalie. This is too little too late.

Not to mention the fact that his hockey IQ is supposed to be below average. The Wings value the ability to see and read the game very, very highly. Please tell me you're being sarcastic. Mitchell on his best night can't hold a candle to a 40 year old Lidstrom on his worst night. Oh and 3.5 mil x 2 years for a person coming off severe post-concussion issues is laughable. Holland would never take that kind of risk because he doesn't have to.