paulwoodsfan

I'm digitizing some old games and have done Games 2 through 6 of the 1988 Norris Semifinal. Wings beat the Leafs four games to two. So far I have posted edited segments from Game 2. More to come in the days and weeks ahead. Full channel contents: http://www.youtube.com/user/pxw13

All segments from Games 2 through 6 are now up. Some excellent goals and fights by Probert, among other fine work by the Wings. http://www.youtube.com/user/pxw13

Highlights from Games 2, 3 and 4 are now up, with Games 5 and 6 on the way. Game 4 was especially notable as the Wings crushed the Leafs 8-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens. Leaf fans were so mad that in the third period they threw all kinds of stuff on the ice, including Leafs jerseys. One other interesting aspect of this series is how many fights there were in the playoffs back then. Here's a link to the first segment of Game 4:

I grew up in London, Ont. My dad is a big Leafs fan so I liked the Leafs as well, although I wasn't a big sports fan as a kid. But my favourite (note Cdn splg) player was Frank Mahovlich. His trade to Detroit coincided with me meeting a guy who became my best friend through my teenage years. He was a Wings fan (I don't know why) and he persuaded me that the winged wheel was the greatest logo in sports. Between the logo and Mahovlich, I was hooked -- just in time to suffer through missing the playoffs 15 times in 17 seasons or whatever it was. I stuck with it and when Stevie raised the Cup in 1997, like countless other longtime Wing nuts I had tears in my eyes.

How is it that we are three pages into this discussion and no one has yet pointed out that the Wings cannot take on a $4-M cap hit without giving up contracts worth the same amount. The RFAs they still need to sign are going to put them right up against the cap so there is no room to take on more salary than is being surrendered. So spec about trading Fil or Hudler or Cleary for him may be fun but those scenarios are simply not possible.

Yeah, it's too bad he was stuck in Grand Rapids for four or five years waiting his turn in Detroit.

How many "stud goalies" have won the Cup in recent seasons? I don't consider any of the past five (Fleury, Osgood, Giguere, Ward, Khabibulin) to be superstar/irreplaceable types. Hockey is packed with good goalies, and I think Holland has determined that he would be better off spending $6M on a star defenceman or forward. You can get adequate to exceptional goaltending for reasonable money these days, and you don't need superstar goaltending to win the Cup.

Holland stated pretty forcefully last season that he is no longer in favour of tying up a lot of money on goalies. That was a pretty big change from what things were like with Hasek and Joseph, but that was before the cap came in. I love Howard but I can't see paying him more than $2-3M/year, especially with Larsson and McCollum in the wings.

It's an interesting question. I am cheering for Canada, but I was also kind of cheering for Sweden since that team has so many great Wings, including our captain. The one good thing about how things have unfolded is that all of the Wings players will come back to Detroit in the same sour mood, with the possible exception of Rafalski. They'll all be hungry to get back to winning right away. Bottom line for me -- I will always cheer for Canada, even with some major Wings nemeses on the team. The fact the team is run by Wings (Yzerman, Babcock and Holland) sure doesn't hurt, tho.

I can't actually hear him where I am now, but I used to listen to him. Now that you mention it he does seem to have a very clipped way of saying Kirk. Oh well, he's a good colour guy otherwise and he doesn't chuckle all through the game like Mickey does.

The original premise, I think, was that Filpulla at $3M is too expensive for a third-liner, or for a guy who is on the cusp between the second and third lines. Does anyone have data on average salaries across the league that would help determine if that is accurate? The salary websites all seem to break it down on a per-team basis. I'd like to know the average salary of the 90 highest-paid forwards across the league (all first-liners, in theory), the next 90, and so on. If we had that, we could determine if $3M is too high for a third-liner. Obviously that wouldn't stop the debate raging about whether Fil is a second-liner or a third-liner, skill-wise. I just want to know what percentile he is in, pay-wise, among NHL forwards.

Not at all -- your memory is just better than mine! You're right -- Datsyuk was absolutely unbelievable in that game. He had at least five prime scoring opportunities and was IMO the Wings' best player that night.

Here is a Datsyuk goal and the amazing assist against St. Louis from his rookie year: And here is a Dats goal against Dallas from that same season: Enjoy!

You are correct -- it was Boyd's goal. I found it and will have it up on Youtube later today, along with a goal he scored in the same game.

Here it is:

It was indeed against the Canucks, and it was in his rookie season. I'm pretty sure I have it on a DVD and will try to find and post it. There was also a superb goal Datsyuk set up in his rookie season, when he went behind the net, passed the puck to himself off the bottom of the net and then fed Hull for an easy one-timer. Boyd Devereaux, who was the third member of the line, said he was laughing even before the goal went in because he couldn't believe anyone could make that play.

Player-wise, it does seem light (although at the time Carson was considered an up-and-coming star -- which of course turned out to be wrong). But dollar-wise the price was staggering. He fetched $15 million in cash at a time when (according to various online sources) the average player salary was around $184,000 so the payroll for an average team was about $4.6 million and the entire league's payroll was less than $100 million. Imagine a player being sold today for around $150 million -- as far as player salaries go (but obviously not actual inflation), that would be a fair comparison.

Considering how often play-by-play announcers and colour commentators (not Ken and Mickey but lots of others, including network guys in both countries) call Datskuk "Zetterberg" and vice versa, it's pretty hard to get pissed at print reporters who in some cases have never seen either Mursak or Ryno in person before last night.

I don't know who said you weren't a fan, but it wasn't me. I said "you must not have been watching closely." There's a difference (not that I expect you to agree with what I actually said, either). You also misquoted me above when you claim I said the Wings would not have a single Cup without McCarty. I said a case can more easily be made for that possibility as for your suggestion that they would have won four Cups without him. At least quote accurately if you're going to take issue with what someone said.

You mustn't have been following very closely in 1997 or 2002. In '97 he was as responsible as anyone on the team for the Cup win. His pounding on Lemieux to avenge the cheap shot on Draper brought the team closer together (and he scored the winner in OT that night to cap the most memorable and important regular-season game in franchise history). He scored an absolutely essential breakaway goal on Patrick Roy to salt away Game 2 of that year's Western Final, allowing the Wings to tie the series and giving them the chance to sweep the next two games at home. Then he scored the Cup-winning goal on one of the most dynamic individual efforts of all time. In 2002, his third-period hat trick on Roy in Game 1 was absolutely critical to the Wings getting back to the Cup final. Hell, even last year as an in-and-out fourth-liner he still scored a vitally important goal early in the playoffs. Ask any of the Wings if they'd have won four Cups without him. I think a case can more easily be made that they would not have won a single Cup without him.

The goal I would absolutely love to see again was scored very early in his first season, probably about two or three weeks in. It was at home against Buffalo. He came in one-on-one against Mike Ramsey (a very good defensive defenceman), put the puck through Ramsey's skates for a breakaway and then wired one past Barrasso (who ended up beating him out for rookie of the year). I was living in Toronto at the time and taped the Buffalo broadcast. Even the Buffalo play-by-play guy, Ted Darling, was impressed. I can still hear him, "Oh, great move! . . . He scores!" That same game went to OT and Yzerman came out of nowhere on the right wing to score the game-winner for a 6-5 Wings win. He then went over and high-fived "the Winger," a San Diego Chicken-type mascot the Wings had in those days. I had all this on tape but sadly, the tape was lost or stolen when I moved a few years later. What I wouldn't give to see those two goals again.

TD, I'm afraid I can't help, but maybe my own Wings-Manhattan story will be an omen of good fortune for both you and the Wings tomorrow night. It was 2002 and I had taken my son to NYC to celebrate his high school graduation. We were there over a weekend and the first game of the Western Conf Final against Colorado was played on that Saturday afternoon. My son and I figured we'd have to miss the game because of our sightseeing commitments, plus we were staying in Newark so getting back to the hotel for 3 o'clock was definitely not an option. After a lot of fun that day, we were dog-tired coming out of one of the big museums around mid-afternoon. I spotted a little hole-in-the-wall sports bar and poked my head in. The Wings game was playing on one of the TVs and we were able to get two seats nearby. It turned out to be one of the most fun Wings games of all time, as Darren McCarty scored a hat trick on Patrick Roy and then high-fived his son Griffin in the hallway outside the locker room after being named first star. The fact that we were hours from home, in a city that didn't care about the Wings or even about hockey at that point, yet were able to see such a great Wings victory made it a really special memory. I'm confident that even if you end up in a bar with no other Wings fans and the game on only one little TV set, you are still going to have a fantastic time and come away with a happy memory that will last forever. Report back!

Deleting double post.

With Lilja probably out for the playoffs (I think we have to assume that, given his current condition and the literature on PC syndrome), the Wings are really lacking in depth on D heading into the playoffs. If a D-man gets hurt they will have to play Meech or even Chelios. I like Meech but can he play third-pair minutes for any length of time? And who would we pair him with? Not Lebda because they're both too similar, and not Ericsson because they're both too inexperienced. So one of the top four would drop to the third pair and lose ice time. Stuart, I guess.

Having said that, there appears to be something flawed in your analysis. No team's games played should change from what they actually are, for one thing. Just looking at the Red Wings, I believe the correct adjusted total should be 147 points, based on 40 RW (120 pts), 9 OTW (18 pts) and 9 OTL (9 pts). Not the 151 you're showing. I'm basing that on the assumption the OT W-L record you showed in the first spreadsheet is correct (i.e. Detroit is 9-9 in OT, not 6-10 as shown in the adjusted sheet). Am I missing something?