GoalieManPat

Recommend you fully blackout that barcode. Couple minutes in photoshop and it can be fixed. Since they use that to scan you into the game you want to make sure it cant be copied. Not saying someone here would do that but better safe than sorry.

Its not all the knee. He was bad early on this season as well. The knee is just a convenient excuse. If its effecting him that much he needs to be in the press box. That would help the team more than him being on the ice does.

Blashill needs to fix the PP or else he needs to be out of here. Its his job and hes not doing it.

I wouldnt say that. Cleary is right there challenging him on that.

Guy is lucky the goalies daddy wasn't there to give him a little more than a toss out of the building. In my opinion he has every right to tune him up.

Abdelkader just needs to stop fighting and play hockey. I commend him for being willing to drop the gloves but until he learns to be an effective fighter or just stop. All he is doing is giving the opposition momentum by getting himself beat badly. Perfect example is the San Jose game the other week. The Wings were in control of the game and he goes and gets destroyed by Ryan Clowe. San Jose gets momentum and goes out and scores a mere 30 seconds later. There was no reason for Abdelkader to take that fight. Nobody got cheap shotted. Nothing could be gained by him for taking that fight. Hes much more effective shutting down players on the ice than trying to knock them out. Him fighting does nothing to "keep the flies off". Nobody in the league is going to think twice about running Datsyuk, Lidstrom, or Z because big bad Abdelkader is going to come after them. If anything it encourages it.

There also multiple times he was easily knocked off his feet for a man his size. Then he laid on the ice for a couple extra seconds, slowly got up, and skated slower than Hudler back into the play. If he gave the same effort Dats, Z, or Helm give each game he wouldn't be on pace for 30 goals. He would be on pace for 40+ and the scoring title.

Thats because he had a work ethic back then.

They both have the same number of Cups and that's all that matters in the end. Franzen has had monster playoffs but doesn't show up for most regular season games. Despite what people say the regular season does matter. If Franzen played hard every game it would easily give the Wings 2-3 more wins a season. Those points would have been great last year giving the Wings home ice against the Sharks for that game 7. You dont think that would have made a difference? 2-3 games this year and the Wings would be sitting with a lot better lead in the division which with how good the west is its imperative the Wings get home ice as much as possible. It basically comes down to the fact that Franzen is setting 82 games worth of bad habits. Theres no guarantee he can flip the switch come game one of the playoffs. The older he gets the more likely he is to keep up those bad habits.

I agree. But what exactly does Franzen bring to the table other than his stats? Hes big but doesn't use his size. He doesn't intimidate other players. He doesn't use it to hit players as hes usually coasting while they are skating. He doesn't use it to stick up for his teammates other than maybe a facewash in a scrum. Heck the most aggressive thing hes done is assault Patrick Kanes mouth-guard. He doesn't bring leadership intangibles to the team. You'd never see the recent team leaders (Datsyuk, Lidstrom, Yzerman, Zetterberg, Draper, etc) coast like he does as often as he does. Its 100% obvious the contract and success he attained has gotten to his head. For how much he has progressed as a player since he came into the league he has regressed the same amount in where his in game work ethic was at.

Watching cars make left turns over and over would help that?

Johan Franzen. Our big 6'3 220 power forward who plays like he's 5'2. Coasts around the outside and not use that size to get to the middle. Basically hes lazy. No more proof is needed than the last game where he was very slow and lazy in clearing the zone causing an offsides.

Does anyone watch the HBO series Real Sports? I just started watching it and this week they highlighted the Lokomotiv crash. Its just sickening to see how the KHL was handling player transport. They highlighted Rusty and also interviewed Barry Smith. Here is the trailer for the episode: Lokomotiv Crash

I watched the whole thing. It was mentioned that Russia's 2nd tier air travel companies which most teams use is about 3% of the world air travel but accounts for 40% of the most recently major crashes. They interviewed a guy high up in the KHL. He says teams use "few dollars" to arrange best air travel possible. The interviewer called him out at how ridiculous it sounded where they pay players millions but yet only have a few extra dollars for travel. Barry Smith said there were trips where he could pick his seat up and move it around on the plane. They also interviewed a player (who was blacked out for anonymity) and he said they were told they would be flying on a new plane but it ended up being real old and beaten up that it even had the Russian players asking why they were on this plane.

I agree with you that Kindl is a bit better offensively but hes also a lot more prone to turnovers. For the third pairing give me the safe defensive guy every time over someone who might get 10 points or so more a season. Kindl's time is definitely limited with the Wings unless he does a complete 180 in how hes played recently. With how Smith has been progressing if Kindl is not traded at the deadline or off-season he probably loses his spot to Smith coming out of camp or sometime next year. I dont think they are going to let Smith "overripe" like they do with most prospects. I can see them pulling him up early to at-least get one years tutoring with Lidstrom should he come back next year.

Im ok with this trade. Its not a blockbuster by any means but nobody can deny the the Wings are better today than they were yesterday. In the end thats all that matters when your aiming for a Cup in the near future instead of rebuilding. Im just glad this deal was done early. Had this been deadline day the price probably would have been a 1st and 2nd.

She scored a nice goal.

It would be poetic justice if that entire team ended up like Steve Moore.

I really hope there is no lottery and its basically first come first serve. Fairest way to do it. I took part in the lottery for US Soccer tickets at the World Cup in 06. That was a mess. Trying to plan a trip not knowing if you had tickets. Same thing would happen here unless they had winners notified within a couple days of entering. Must have used up all my lottery luck too. Got tickets to all 3 games where the demand for those far exceeded what the Winter Classic will get.

I have no qualms with keeping Joey as a backup. If the wings got a chance to upgrade or add a more veteran backup at the deadline though I would say jump at it. He is a really good at being there for the first save. The problem is he never seems to make a clean save. Everything is a rebound and most of the time nice juicy ones. Even shots right into the gloves hes leaving rebounds on. Good teams will make him pay for that. As for his mistake the other night playing the puck I don't put to much stock into it. A play like that happens to every goalie during there career. Even great puck handlers like Brodeur and Turco had that happen to them.

Im thinking they know that Jan is better than Emmerton and already have him penciled in on the 4th line for playoffs. They are just bringing him along slowly in his recovery. There is no need to rush Jan back and risk a re-aggravation of that injury. Get him a couple games here and there to help get back into condition and make sure everything is healed. I think we will see a lot more of him the last 20 games. If that's what the brass is doing I am in 100% agreement with it. It also gives Emmerton a chance to put together some good performances before the trade deadline and hopefully raise his value a little bit. If hes in the organization after this season (heck even the trade deadline) it will be a huge surprise. Personally I think Emmerton sees himself losing his spot and its effecting his motivation. Since the first of the year he has taken a step or two back from how he had been playing through the year.

Ive been wanting to read this and Seeing Red by Graham Poll but just cant find the time.

My thoughts after the game: 1. The young kids looked good. Tator and Mursak where flying around and Emmerton did nothing to lose the last forward spot. 2. Smith is NHL ready now. I would love to see him up this year a lot but we cant be greedy and another year of 20+ minutes in GR will be great for him and the team next season 3. Hudler must really be worried about losing his spot and getting moved. He showed more jump and speed last night than any game last year. 4. I liked Brunnstrom but the hot dog move on the breakaway is just not acceptable when your trying to win a spot. Take the puck hard backhand and he scores probably. The one hand on the stick made it to easy for the D to break up. 5. Cleary looked real good minus the one lack of concentration and boarding call. 6. Jimmy looked very rusty. Should have been better with all 3 goals. 7. Dats is just Dats. Nothing more needs to be said. 8. Kronner looked real good getting into the offence always at the right time.

Really this tournament was hosted in.....South Africa....

Annual Nashville Jersey Change to try and draw in more fans.