Drake_Marcus

Grasping at straws much?

Ovechkin walks (skates) on water, man, of course he can't do wrong.

Annd I just used up my quota of + votes in this tread.

We can even use Carman as a distraction. Crosby would have to peel Carman off his crotch before running after us.

Yeah, they mentioned something like that on HNiC last night and I was shocked. It's such and odd penalty to see spike like that.

I lol'd.

Do it man. We can hang out in Cole Harbour this summer and wait for him to walk by.

You wrote that? Sometimes I skim your posts because I know what you're trying to do with them. I dunno man, some of those guys could probably woop your ass (no offense-- I'm assuming you're not a fighter). I can't argue against those choices, though, I just wouldn't want to be the guy swinging at them.

It's true. I'd love to see the eastern stars move to the west for a few seasons. Look at Heatly... not quite as impressive in the West.

Wow... Who'd have guessed the Bruins would be up 3-1 after game 4?

I find it entertaining to continually challenge them with facts, reasoning and logic, though. The more they ignore this the more foolish they look.

Yeah-- Jiri Hudler, the guy who was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings and played for 4 years for them, won't fit in the Wings system. Well they're definitely not basing that off statistics. I'm assuming you didn't watch the playoffs in 2008 because that's a retarded statement if you did.

You're high if you think Armstrong can even hold a candle to Hudler offensively. I mean sure, Hudler can't touch Armstrong's Selke quality defensive play (lol) but then again Armstrong does fight, is known for dirty hits and takes selfish penalties due to a lack of discipline, so that's really what you were aiming at, right? Because if there's one thing the play of the Wings taught us this year it's that we need more grinders and not more top 6 players. Right? I guess that's the benefit of leading the league in scoring like the Wings did this year.

Crosby had 3pts in 7 games last finals. So that means the highest scoring Wing in the finals had -4pts? Weird.

Yes. Yes they are. Just look how inadequately that've covered Crosby-- 11pts in 4 games.

Definitely a depth move. They just re-signed the Monster so they clearly still believe in him. Looks like they're playing this smart and making a smoother transition for this kid.

Most likely in October 2010.

Thanks!

Some of you sound like ex-girlfriends. Hudler's obviously hurt your fragile emotions because you've got an irrational hatred of him. Facts: --> Hudler's arbitration process ate up time and space for Holland and put him in a tough spot (note that Filppula almost went to arbitration the year before but signed the day before). --> Hudler was offered a $5,000,000 a year contract in Russia that was tax-free (which means it was roughly the equivalent of being offered a $10,000,000 pre-tax contract in the US). --> This KHL offer came right after the Wings declared that they intended to go to arbitration with Hudler. --> Holland told Hudler he couldn't possibly match that and said he understood that Hudler couldn't turn that kind of money down (indeed-- the entire team has been supportive of Hudler this year and has stayed in contact with him, read the news clippings if you don't believe me). --> The NHL stated that they would fight Hudler's defection because he got the KHL contract after having agreed to arbitration (which is a legally binding contract between him and the Wings). --> Holland told reporters that the NHL's decision to fight Hudler's defection tied his hands because it suddenly made it possible that Hudler could be forced to play for the Wings. Holland stated that he couldn't sign players using the Hudler money until the NHL's fight over his status was over. That last point is why we lost out on all the good free agents. Holland would've spend the Hudler money on July 9th if the NHL didn't state that they'd fight his defection with every legal means they had. Holland and Hudler agreed that he'd take the contract in the KHL and go to arbitration simply to make sure the Wings kept his rights. Holland knew Hudler would take the KHL contract-- Jiri told him so. It's retarded to say otherwise. July 1st, 2009: Start of free agency period July 5th, 2009: Hudler files for arbitration July 5th, 2009: Sammy signs with the Canucks-- Holland chooses to spend his money on the better player (Hudler-- disagree if you want but Sammy had a career year in Vancouver this year-- getting 53pts yet Hudler got 57pts last season and was clearly trending upwards in his development). July 8th or 9th, 2009: Hudler signs a deal with the KHL (Hudler and Holland already knew he'd be playing in Russia before this point) At this point Holland could've signed someone with Hudler's money. July 10th, 2009: The NHL files a formal complaint to the IIHF and makes it clear to Holland that they will fight this as long as they possibly can. Now Holland's hands are tied because he doesn't know for sure that Hudler will be allowed to go to the KHL. Thus Holland can't spend money until the NHL's legal fight is over unless he wants to risk being significantly over the cap in October. The NHL's legal fight about Hudler isn't settled until August 3rd. At that point Holland is free to spend the Hudler money. The legal fight over Hudler's rights is what tied Holland's hands. Holland and Hudler's side had an agreement done long before then but Holland couldn't spend the money until he knew the NHL wouldn't win their battle over Hudler's rights. Sources: http://www.wingingitinmotown.com/2009/8/3/974060/hudler-awarded-5-75-million-in http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2009/08/arbiter_awards_jiri_hudler_two.html http://puckagency.blogspot.com/2009/07/puckagency-client-mikael-samuelsson.html We lost out on Sammy because of Hudler-- yes. But at the time Holland was 100% correct to choose Hudler over Sammy. Hudler was 25 years old and had just put 57pts up. He had increased his NHL point totals every year since his rookie year and was on the up-swing. Sammy was 32 and wanted the same money as Hudler but had significantly less upside. Even with his brilliant year this year (53pts) he failed to match Hudler's 08-09 point total (57pts). People here will call Hudler painfully one dimensional etc but Sammy was only rarely used on the PK here and filled virtually the exact same spot in Detroit as Hudler. Everything else is just people playing Monday-morning quarterback.

Nice! Great to hear that TV viewership is up in the US. Although I bet this is solely because LA is in the playoffs. The LA market is HUGE.

All that bravado from the Hawks players back then and it resulted in a 5 game exit against us.

The great thing about Jimmy is his consistency. We rarely saw him go bad-good-bad-good-bad-good... Hopefully he can consistently play like he did tonight for 14 more playoff victories this season...

We need the Wings to play with intensity, urgency and passion, as you've said. Let's wait until round two to analyse just how far they have to be in the hole before they get their asses in gear.

Don't take Crymson too seriously... he's LGW's version of these guys:

I know how you feel. After watching the Kings game tonight I'd trade just about anyone and anything for Doughty. If I'm Ilitch I'd offer the Kings the Tigers AND a Little Caesar's franchise for Doughty.