chrisdetroit

The haters lay low when we win. They will be back after the next loss claiming that we are to old, to soft, to European... They will be praising the big bad Sharks and wanting to trade Hudler, Big E. and Flip straight up for Shea Weber or Drew Daughtery.

Here it is with the ties. The Wings are 2nd in the West GP ROW Tie ROW + Tie % Eastern Conference Philadelphia 27 17 1 35 0.648 NY Rangers 25 14 4 32 0.640 Boston 27 14 4 32 0.593 Florida 29 15 4 34 0.586 Washington 28 14 2 30 0.536 Pittsburgh 29 13 5 31 0.534 Buffalo 28 13 3 29 0.518 Toronto 29 12 4 28 0.483 Winnipeg 28 12 2 26 0.464 Montreal 29 10 6 26 0.448 Ottawa 29 10 5 25 0.431 Tampa Bay 28 10 4 24 0.429 New Jersey 27 8 7 23 0.426 NY Islanders 26 9 2 20 0.385 Carolina 31 9 2 20 0.323 Western Conference St. Louis 28 16 3 35 0.625 Detroit 27 16 1 33 0.611 Vancouver 28 16 2 34 0.607 Minnesota 29 15 5 35 0.603 Chicago 29 14 6 34 0.586 San Jose 25 12 3 27 0.540 Phoenix 28 13 4 30 0.536 Dallas 27 13 2 28 0.519 Edmonton 29 13 4 30 0.517 Los Angeles 28 12 3 27 0.482 Nashville 28 13 1 27 0.482 Calgary 28 13 1 27 0.482 Colorado 30 9 4 22 0.367 Anaheim 28 7 4 18 0.321 Columbus 28 6 5 17 0.304

Forget the silly loser points and shootout points. Take the regulation and OT wins and divide it by the number of games play to get the REAL win % GP ROW ROW % Philadelphia 27 17 0.630 NY Rangers 25 14 0.560 Florida 28 15 0.536 Boston 27 14 0.519 Washington 27 13 0.481 Pittsburgh 29 13 0.448 Buffalo 27 12 0.444 Toronto 28 12 0.429 Winnipeg 27 11 0.407 Tampa Bay 28 10 0.357 NY Islanders 26 9 0.346 Ottawa 29 10 0.345 Montreal 29 10 0.345 Carolina 30 9 0.300 New Jersey 27 8 0.296 Detroit 27 16 0.593 St. Louis 28 16 0.571 Vancouver 28 16 0.571 Minnesota 29 15 0.517 Chicago 29 14 0.483 Dallas 27 13 0.481 San Jose 25 12 0.480 Nashville 28 13 0.464 Calgary 28 13 0.464 Phoenix 28 13 0.464 Edmonton 28 12 0.429 Los Angeles 28 12 0.429 Colorado 29 9 0.310 Anaheim 28 7 0.250 Columbus 28 6 0.214 The interesting part is that there are only 4 teams in each conference over .500

A couple of months ago, everybody wanted to trade Flip. Things change quickly around here...

Yes, I agree that this looks like a stupid comment after watching the replay. But in Jimmy's defense, he said this before he saw the replay. I'm guessing that watching replays before players are interviewed by the media almost never happens. If he had said this some time after the game, you would have an argument.

Howard lost his mind. He felt like he got run and went after the guy. Replays show that Peron was pushed into him. In the heat of the battle, Howard didn't think that he was pushed. As far as Peron being back from concussion, that is irrelevant in Howard's mind (my assumption). Howard is in no way a dirty player and I doubt that he put any thought into Peron's concussion. The next day after looking at the replay, we can say Howard was wrong but it's alot different in the heat of the battle. Fortunately, nobody got hurt on either side.

So what. It's December not March. The standings are ridiculously close. They also are only 6 points out of first overall with 2 games in hand. Forget the point totals because they have played less games. If you look at winning percentage (or more accurately point percentage) they are at .635 which over an 82 game season equates to 112 points. There are only 2 teams in the West that are above that - Minnesota and Chicago. If they win their 2 games in hand the Wings are 2 points out of first overall.

Let's recap. The Wings wing their first 5 then go 0-5-1 and LGW melts down. So what do they do next. They go 11-2. Yes, eleven wins, two losses. They follow that with 2 close losses to Colorado and St. Louis, both on the road. They are in the top 5 in the league in GFA, GAA, Shots, Shots Against, points, and win percentage. Jimmy is near the top of the league in wins, GAA, and save %. But still, the two losses result in a meltdown on LGW.... Dump Z and bring up Nyquist. Unbelievable

Yes, I agree it is strange but how else would you do it? If you have 4 conferences then the southern one would be Florida, Tampa, Washington, Carolina and who else - you need at least 7. Pittsburgh? Philly? One of the New York teams? If you do that then you have teams that are less than 50 miles apart in different conferences. Philly and Pittsburgh are not very close to south Florida. The geography doesn't work

How would you do it then. It's a geography problem. The 2 Florida teams are to far away from the cluster of the other teams in the East. The only other way to do it is group them with other teams in the south like they are currently. If you do that though, you end up splitting up the teams along the Eastern seaboard. Yes, the Florida teams have more travel but it's in the same time zone. PLUS, they get to have Montreal and Toronto play in Florida regularly and those will attract big audiences. I think that it is about as fair as it can be. As far as riding your bike to away games, do you remember when a few years ago, teams played there division foes EIGHT TIMES a year. And that was because Lou Lamrillo wanted the Devils to be able to walk to their home games in MSG and on the Island. Now that was unfair. I'm with you. As I was reading how Bettman got this passed, I was thniking, if only Obama had those kind of skills. But I digress

It's not as good as just moving the Wings to the East but it is MUCH better than what we have now. Only 1 trip to Western Canada and 1 to the California. And in the playoffs we play the first 2 rounds in our time zone or the Central time zone. No flights to California in the first two rounds. We also see Montreal, Toronto and Boston for a home and home every year. I would prefer to play them more but as I said, it's a big improvement over what we have now.

I guess I don't understand why everybody thinks that the Sharks have owned us the last 2 years. We lost to them in 7 games last year. They won 3 of the 4 by 1 goal and two of those went to OT. The series easily could have gone either way. OT games are a coin flip. San Jose won 5 straight OT games in the playoffs last year. 5 straight OT games! Think about that. They went to the conference finals 2 years in a row and lost 4-0 in 2010 followed by 4-1 in 2011. Really, they are a good team but they got all the breaks and when it came down to it in the WCF, they got crushed. I'm not afraid of the Sharks at all, especially with Niemi in goal. He had an .896 save percentage in the playoffs last year. He sucked against the Kings and Canucks but was unbeatable against us. The string of luck can't last forever.

A replacement for Lids? - Bobby Orr? Doug Harvey?

It's a pretty good plan. The only problem is that it leaves a hole in our defense this year. Smith isn't ready this year and like him or not Stuart, has been great in the playoffs (minus game 7 against Pittsburgh in '09). I don't like the idea of our defense getting weaker for the playoffs this year. It would be great to get Bobby Ryan but IMO, we should trade Stuart for an experienced D-man and I don't see Anaheim or LA with any D-men that we would want and that they would want to trade. Trading with San Jose IMO is out of the question. I hate to say it, but this is probably Lids last year and to lose him AND Stuart would hurt. Best case is for Stuart to stay but I understand why he wants to be close to his family. If he absolutely wants to go, your plan is probably the best case for the Wings.

No. Pav is clearly not comfortable in front of the media and has poor English. Z will be the next Captain. Kronwall probably has an outside chance but that's it. Wow. You must be bored today to write a book about this issue. Hey if Syd can be a Captain, anybody can. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Now the topic will be derailed....

So you think Wiz is kicking himself now? He's on a team that is out of the playoffs and still has to play 60 more meaningless games in front of half empty arenas. Good job Wiz, you got your payday, now you have to live with your decision.

hahahah. I never thought of it in those terms. The fact that they put Crosby on the ballot as an all-star for this year even though he hasn't played a game and still has no timetable to return shows that this is a total farce. I just hope none of the Wings have to participate in the silly little exercise. I'm voting against all of the Wings. I want our guys to be laying on a beach somewhere during all star weekend.

Ok. So they picked the Stanley Cup winner in 1 year. How did they do in all the other years? My guess is that they have been doing this 5-6 years and they were correct once? Same goes with the Presidents trophy and the SCF matchup. Only once. Not so impressive. As far as predicting 13 of 15 playoff series, that's not as hard as it seems. In the first round there are 8 series and they are designed to be mismatches (i.e. #8 vs #1). You are cherry picking what they got right. What is there overall record for all series and all years? My guess is that it's not so great. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

So, many on LGW are ready to bench Big E based on preseason games. LOL. It is the preseason people. The only thing that gets decided during the preseason is who will make the team and who will go to GR. Who will get how many minutes will be decided during the regular season.

Sounds good but keep in mind that the Commissioner that he is referring to is a scum-ball lawyer.

The tone of this article isn't good. This is the Wings big chance an if doesn't happen, we are all going to be pissed.

He will be good this year and we will re-sign him. LGW will go nuclear when that happens. This will happen. There is no question that Hudler is talented and there is no question that he can have a good season (2007-2008). The problem last year was motivation/work ethic. Based on the training and attitude that I have read about over the summer, the motivation/work ethic should not be a problem again. Why then would anybody expect a bad season from him? I get it that LGW like most internet forums is composed of lots of haters, but this isn't logical. Your hate is blinding you people. Save the hate for Crosby or Kane....

Ottawa Oct. 7 Opening night Calgary Nov. 23 Thanksgiving eve Winnipeg Dec. 10 First visit by Winnipeg ever and Sat night St. Louis Dec. 31st (this one I get) Chicago Jan. 14 Sat afternoon and Chicago Philly Feb. 12 Sunday afternoon and Philly San Jose Feb. 19 Sun afternoon and San Jose Vancouver Feb. 23 Vancouver Chicago March 4 Sun afternoon and Chicago Carolina March 24 This one is questionable These are the most popular games. No. Not even close. No idea why this one is "premium". Last home Saturday night?

I agree. My bet is that Hudler has a much better season. According to the article, he has been working his ass off this summer. Who will the whipping boy be for 2011-2012?

The same people bitching about E's contract were bitching about Kronwall's a few years ago. They are going to be eating crow by the end of the year (again). He's big but not physical, therefore in the opinion of LGW, he sucks...