Ozzie30

Great post. Well, allow me to retort Towards the end of the Calgary series, the Wings did an excellent job of keeping Calgary to the outside. Unless the Sharks can consistantly score from the point (without getting their shot blocked), they may stand a chance to run up the score. Bernier will not be given nearly as much room as the preds gave him. The move is cool, Steve's a good guy, but he will be layed out the second he takes his hand off his wood. If San Jose wants to drop the gloves and beat the Wings into submission....that would probably work....but the Sharks will not run away with the hits in this series. McLaren's Butt I'm not impressed. See video link #1 Thank you for your advise. I expect the Wings to counter the top to lines with Lidstrom/Markov and Grind line/chelios. Sharks fans should watch out for the Wings fourth line of Franzen(maybe)-Filipula-Hudler. They can cycle very well down low and generate great scoring chances (flip scored 2 in the calgary series)

Here, here!! :beerbuddy:

BEST I COULD DO FROM WORK:

She has a giant wheel (like wheel of fortune only it stands upright) and each space alternates between the two teams....she spins the wheel and whatever team it lands on is her pick.

The Wings circle their prey:

Ah - freakin' - men brother.

Which offense is that? The Thorton / Cheecho line that will be negated by lidstom/markov, or the marleau line negated by the new grind line?

If Hasek puts forth the same effort in a wings/sharks series that he did in the last series, the Wings will have a fighting chance. Throw Lidstom on against Thorton and stay disciplined...the rest will come.

www.tsn.ca McLennan suspended for 5 games. Coach, Jim Playfair fined $25,000 and the Calgary organization fined $100,000

No prediction from me. My hope is that the Wings will make their retribution for game 5 on the scoresheet and play a disciplined game. GO WINGS.

If your gonna jump off the wings bandwagon, try your luck here:

The wings had the best home record at the time the survey was taken ?

I was thinking the same thing. Doubt we'll ever find out 'cause the wings will wrap it up in 5.

Good. Crate him up and ship him over....at a discount of course.

I fully expect to split in Calgary. The flames have too much talent not to pull out a win out of sheer desperation. The worst thing the Wings can do is go into Calgary expecting to close out the series. They need to continue to play their game and skate, skate, skate. Bertuzzi comming back should help the second line (hudler-lang-bertuzzi, I hope) and add a dimmension to the wings game that should be able to pull them through in enemy territory. GO WINGS

Will Center Ice cover any games past the first two rounds?

This calls for the happy dance!!!

We all know the big names on their roster, Iginla, Phaneuf, Regehr, Huselius, Langkow, and, most dangerous of all, Kiprusoff. But I, like a lot of us here, have only watched four calgary games this season and don't really know what to expect from this team. I thought it would make for good conversation if those who know could share some insight on the flames....maybe a few Calgary fans back from 2004 could give us some insight.

Outstanding idea!

How about this: Locked up for 07/08: Player / Salary (per nhlnumbers.com) Nicklas Lidstrom: 7.6 Pavel Datsyuk: 6.7 Henrik Zetterberg: 2.7 Kris Draper: 2.128 Tomas Holmstrom : 2.250 Mikael Samuelsson: 1.2 Niklas Kronwall: (3mil cap hit) Andreas Lilja: 1 Chris Osgood: 0.850 Valtteri Filppula: 0.850 Dan Cleary: 0.675 Brett Lebda: (0.683 cap hit) Tomas Kopecky: ??? (est. 0.650) TOTAL: 30.286 / 49.000 CAP SPACE REMAINING 18.714 Wings Notable UFA's / 06-07 salary Robert Lang: 3.8 Kirk Maltby: 1.368 Todd Bertuzzi: 5.269 Kyle Calder: 2.95 Mathieu Schneider: 3.3 Dany Markov: 2.5 Chris Chelios: 0.850 Dominik Hasek: (.0750 + 1.1 performance bonus) Hudler is a RFA this summer and there are a few OTHER two-way contracts to think about, but this is about it. Now that we have the numbers in front of us, its obvious that we cannot afford to re-sign everyone at their previous salary. Who will take less? Who should be replaced? If Holland can get Bert to accept a contract in the 4-4.5 (or less) range, Calder in the 1.5-2.2 range, Schneider in the 2.5 range and re-sign Hasek and Markov to a 1 year extension for the same salary, I'd welcome them all back. Chelios will sign for whatever is left. Lang can go and, unfortunately, so can Maltby.

:beerbuddy:

When Lang (for sure) leaves this summer, who do the Wings pick up? If Datsyuk walks as well, I think the Wings will push hard for Gomez? Thoughts

Who remembers the 'locker room reports' that were floated around about Babcock and Lang in late January? I doubt the reports are 100% accurate, but theres always some truth behind these things. I honestly don't think Lang wants to be here. He appears lazy every shift he's on the ice...he just looks like he's going through the movements until July 1st. I doubt Kenny will be able to offer Lang enough cash to keep him here.

The cap is projected to go up 4-5 mil next season, that's plenty of room to re-sign datsyuk and put a nice down payment on Bert. Once lang is gone, the wings will be working with 8-9mil to sign bert and calder, and give dats, markov, and schneider raises. Can that be done? So the concensus is promote from within? Flipper is good, but can he anchor our second line at this point? I have my doubts, but if you follow the money, that may be their only option....I was actually getting excited about the possibility of gomez. (or briere)