chrisdetroit

It's the eighth time that Pronger has been suspended in his 14-year NHL career and his third in less than a year. Wow, that says it all. Why is this goon still allowed to play in the league. 8 times! And 3 times in less than a year!

"We understand the NHL's determination to reduce skate-blade incidents and accept the process and Mr. Campbell's judgment. We also stand behind our captain, a player with great character and leadership qualities that are critical to our club." I think I'm going to puke....

The Duckies are only 8 points ahead of the #9 team and they have 9 games left. If (God that would be sweet) they dropped the 8 games that Pronger sits and Parry is out, they would most likely not make the playoffs. SO the question is can the Duckies win without Parry and Pronger. Boy, I'd be sweating if I was a Ducks fan.

Great. He sits for 8 meaningless games then comes back when the playoffs start. That's not much punishment. They should have made him sit the first round.

I want the Ducks to lose in the first round and without Parry and Playing Dallas, it might very well happen. That would be sweeeeet!

How many offer sheets have their been in the past few years. Very few. I doubt that anybody is going to put out a sheet on Flip. It's just to many draft picks to give up. Edmonton paid a ridiculous price for Penner and look where it got them. I don't see anybody doing something that stupid again for awhile.

I'm a big Filpulla fan but I'm with you. $4M per year is to much for him. $2-2.5 is the max that i think he'll get. If somebody offers $4M, I think we have to take that match. I would hate it but at some point you have to make that decision.

None of it means anything. It's all opinions. I am a little bit surprised though that all these sports writers base these rankings on nothing. Look at Anaheim. I have heard several people say that Aneheim is favored to win the cup. But what is that based on? They don't have the best offense (actually they are #28 in GFA) They don't have the best defense (based of GAA) They don't have the best PK They don't have the best PP They are not the youngest team They are not the biggest team They don't have the best record They haven't won the most games They haven't lost the fewest Their recent record is not the best in the league (shut out 2 of the last 3 games) They don't have the best home record They don't have the best road record They are not injury free (Corey Perry) They don't have the best goalie (Luongo?) They don't have the best D-man (Lids) They don't have the best forwards (Pittsburgh?) So what is this based on? "Well" the sports writers say "they will be great in the playoffs, regular season means nothing". You could say that about any team. So these "predictions" are all just opinions and statistics mean nothing. There is nothing to back it up. My favorite is when they pick a number of games and say something like "Anaheim is 10-2 since so and so returned". Yea well they also went 0-6 at the end of January but we won't talk about that. San Jose has just won 9 in a row. Problem is the playoffs don't start for another month. I guess if a team is hot when the playoffs start it means something but otherwise, what they do during any 10 game stretch is meaningless. At the begining of the season Columbus was on fire as was Minnesota and Ottawa. So who really cares about some talking head's opinion because that's really all it is - an opinion. And fortuantely the Cup doesn't automatically go to the team with the most Canadians or the team that the most sports writers like.

Just a couple of clarification. Lidstrom has not been out "for several weeks", he's only missed 6 games. Secondly, the Norris trophey balloting is done before the playoffs even start. The results are not announced until after the Cup is awarded, so winning or not winning a Cup has no bearing. Jovanoski is Canadian and in Don Cherry's mind ANY Canadian >> any European. He's the biggest xenophobe on the planet.

Did you notice the Ducks have been shut out twice in a row AGAIN! Ouch! Did you notice after the Wings February record that they still have the #1 record in the league. Yea sure, you're not worried. HEHEHEHEHE

Exactly. If you factor in the games in hand, things are not as they seem. Look at the wining percentages and then project them over an 82 game season. The result is that the #8 team has a projected 93 points. The Mighty Ducks have the equivalent of 97 points. If they drop only 2 1/2 games more than the rest of the pack then they are OUT of the playoffs. And they just lost their top scorer for the remainder of the season. I'd be worried if I were a Mighty Ducks fan. This Western Conference Final talk is a bit premature. First they have to get into the playoffs and that's tough to do no matter who you are if you can't score goals.

The number 1 scorer on the lowest scoring team in the league is out for the remainder of the season and the first round of the playoffs. Putting the "man love" aside that comes from all the sports writers, I don't see them making it that far. I know everybody is going to jump up and down and claim that somehow by magic they are the team to beat. Sorry I just don't see it. Incidently they were just shut out 2 more games in a row...

You want to let Lilja go, trade Meech and Lebda and put in a guy that has exactly 3 games of NHL experience just because he is big and played well in those 3 games? You're kidding right..... Sorry, but Meech is better I know that that is blasphalmy on the LGR boards because Ericsson is bigger but it is what it is. Ericsson has great potential but he's not ready yet. We'll see what he does in September.

I don't agree. If he stays up he is not going to get a ton of minutes. Lidstrom Raflaski Kronvall Chelios Lebda Lilja Stuart (?) Meech Stuart is a Free Agent in July so we may or may not get him back. Even if we don't that's 7 guys and only 6 play regularly. I am assuming Cheli returns again and there's no reason to think otherwise. Now if you are one of the many Lilja haters you are going to say, don't resign the Pain Train but you are kidding yourself, he'll be back. So IF Ericsson stays up that means we have 8 defensemen and only 6 are going to play regularly. If it was 7 you could alternate the last 2. There just isn't room for him until either Cheli retires or Lidstrom hangs up his skates in a few years. He will gain valuable experience in the AHL next year. In a couple of years, we'll see.

Dats has never won the Selke. Draper, Yzermann and Feds have. Dats has won the Lady Byng the last two years

You forgot that Z will be a free agent and could easily get $8M. Cap space? what cap space?

How in the hell did you come to that conclusion. Aneheim is NOT better than they were last year. They are near the bottom of the league in scoring and are fighting to hang on to the #6 spot. Last year they dominated from day 1 and ended up #2. They have only scored 4 more goals than they gave up this year. They lost Penner, McDonald and a very good backup goaltender in Bryzgalov. In return they picked up injury prone Schneider and injury prone Bertuzzi. They CAN BE a good team if they are clicking on all cylinders But to argue that they are AS GOOD AS last year is a stretch. To say that they are better is just ignorant.

I'm with you but not to worry. Alot of people on this week are part-time "fans". They just came here to ***** because we didn't get the players that THEY wanted us to get. These people will go back to watching basketball until the middle of May. Then they will come back when the Wings are in the 3rd round or so. They will ride the bandwagon until after our Stanley cup parade. The first week in July they will come back again and ***** about what free agents that we didn't sign. It's as predicatble as the changing seasons. I don't worry about it though, I'm a year round Wings fan and an optimist. I watch almost every Wings game and I'm on the bandwagon for good. I'm not to worried about all the defensive pessimists. According to ALL the "experts" we are in the top 5 of teams that could win the cup. I really don't care what the basketball fans think or the pessimists because we won't know the results until June. GO WINGS!

Losing Schneids and Markov sucked but we replaced them with Rafalski and Stuart so that's a good trade off. Bertuzzi, Lang and Calder....

Larry Murphy was the 1 time in the last 10 years that a trade deadline aquisition resulted in a cup. Ken and Larry just went over the list on the Wings pregame show. Melrose doesn't know what the hell he is talking about most of the time. San Jose got alot stronger? Huh?

Yes it's too late on many counts. He is gone because he wanted so much money that all 30 GM's agreed that it was to much and not 1 single GM of the 30 would pay him what he wanted. And you want him back?

I'm with you guys. And boy am I glad this is over so now some of the part time fans can go back to watching the Pistons. The Wings are in good shape. Marian Hossa is going to either be a rental player or the Pens will have to pay $6M+ to resign him. We just don't have that kind of cap space. Z could get $8 Mil easily this year. Things are different in the salary cap world. The young (cheap) talented players are MUCH more valuable because you can't fill a team with $6M men. We already have Rafalski, Lids, Dats and Z. There was no way we could afford Hossa, Sundin or Blake regardless of how much some of the people on here were dreaming about them. Kenny did good. He got us a good solid D-man who is big and gritty and most importantly didn't give away our future for a rental. As far as D-Mac, well he cost us almost nothing. If he pans out great, if not then nothing ventured nothing gained. I'm satisfied. Of course I would have liked to get Hossa for a 3rd round pick but I'm realistic too.

I think that you are overratting Hossa and underratting Flip but that's just my opinion and it happens to be shared by Kenny and Babs. But it is irrelevant because we aren't going to fork over $8M for Hossa next year when we have to take care of Hank. And nobody is interested in giving up Flip for a rental.

Yes, how are they doing over the SEASON up front? Let's see, they are #1 or #2 in GFA. Your argument is contradictory but hey, whatever. If you want to worry about their lack of scoring in the last 5 games when they lead the entire league over the past 60 that's up to you. Don't let the facts get in the way of your opinion

Sorry that he's not big or Canadian but those are the only 2 things that he is lacking. Watch him sometime. Or better yet, forget what we think, perhaps Kenny and Babs know something that you don't.