Mickeyisms Rule!

Uhhh huh huh.. huhhhuhhhh More like 15

Friday: NY Rangers @ New Jersey Buffalo @ Atlanta Vancouver @ Florida Colorado @ Detroit Anaheim @ St Louis Dallas @ Edmonton Saturday: NY Islanders @ Montreal Chicago @ San Jose Detroit @ Boston Ottawa @ Toronto Los Angeles @ New Jersey Anaheim @ Philadelphia Atlanta @ Washington Minnesota @ Columbus Carolina @ Pittsburgh Florida @ Tampa Bay Phoenix @ Nashville Colorado @ St Louis Dallas @ Calgary Sunday: NY Rangers @ Montreal

That's the wrong end of the horse, I think.

That Pronger/Cleary bout got Pronger off the ice for 5 minutes, which allowed us to score our first goal during the power play that followed. Pronger wouldn't fight anyone that has a chance of beating him, so it wouldn't have mattered if we Boll, Downey, or Probert playing for us at the time.

In order of "fave-ness" 1. Lidstrom 2. Zetterberg 3. Pavel 4. Lilja (What's not to love about the Pain Train?) 5. Hudler (no one is happier than he is when he's on the ice and the puck goes in the net) 6. Cleary 7. Chelios 8. Homer 9. Flip 10. Downey 11. Osgood 12. Draper 13. Maltby 14. Kopecky 15. Hasek 16. Lebda 17. Rafalski (not as good defensively as I would like) 18. Kronwall (I still don't trust him not to shatter when he gets hit) 19. Sammy 20. Drake 21. Meech, Hartigan, Ellis- not enough experience with them, though Hartigan kicks ass in GR

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/hock...0376/index.html High ankle sprain. Out indefinitely. Story was posted about 10 minutes after it happened. What, no Western Conference love?

Whoah guess I really screwed up on picking Atlanta to beat Buffalo! Buffalo is ahead 7-1 as of this post.

Is it the tight pants, the big hair, or the strategically displayed bumps in the front of their trousers that make you laugh the most?

Not just one Winger- but FOUR!!!

Friday : Edmonton at Carolina Florida at New Jersey Atlanta at Buffalo Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh Anaheim at Minnesota Los Angeles at Calgary Chicago at Colorado Saturday : NY Rangers at Boston Columbus at Dallas Nashville at St. Louis Pittsburgh at Montreal Philadelphia at NY Islanders Tampa Bay at Ottawa Buffalo at Toronto Florida at Washington Chicago at Phoenix Los Angeles at Vancouver Detroit at San Jose Sunday : Boston at NY Rangers Edmonton at Atlanta Anaheim at Dallas Toronto at New Jersey Ottawa at Philadelphia Columbus at Colorado

That's a horrible idea. I don't want the Wings playing game 7 in another team's barn just because Roberto Luongo felt like taking the All Star game off.

Friday: St Louis @ Columbus Minnesota @ Chicago NY Islanders @ Calgary Phoenix @ Vancouver Saturday: Boston @ Philadelphia Dallas @ Los Angeles New Jersey @ Buffalo Detroit @ Ottawa Montreal @ NY Rangers Colorado @ Carolina Pittsburgh @ Atlanta Tampa Bay @ Florida Nashville @ Columbus Toronto @ San Jose Sunday: Philadelphia @ Washington Colorado @ Florida Vancouver @ St Louis Phoenix @ Minnesota NY Islanders @ Ottawa San Jose @ Anaheim Calgary @ Edmonton Chicago @ Nashville

Its a crying shame that they tried so hard to get representation from every team. This ended up screwing some guys that deserve the bid. Brian Rafalski is second in defense scoring and should be an all-star. Great for Ozzie, I really hoped they would give him the nod. He earned it.

I seem to recall that Osgood and Vernon combined to win the Jennings trophy in 97. No doubt if I have the year wrong I will be corrected. This tandem is pretty good, though I think that we really have to get well past the trade deadline before we make any grand appraisals.

Well of course the secondary scoring won't be there all the time. If it was, it would be called primary scoring. Just what makes you think that Flip, Huds, Cleary, and Franzen are going to take a step backwards at this time?

You also need to add the sports tier to your digital package. I got rid of all of my movie channels and added the sports tier. I don't miss the movies, and have all hockey all the time 24/7/365. When my wife finds out that I cancelled the movie channels she may get a tad peeved, however.

Its frustrating at times, yes, but I look at this incarnation as being completely new (except for Lidstrom, Maltby, and Draper of course) from our previous 3 cup teams. These guys needed a chance to develop as a team before they could be expected to excel. Remember that they weren't even picked to make the playoffs last season with the exit of Yzerman and Shanahan. They also went 42 years between cups from 55 and 97. So the droughts can be long, indeed. All I'm saying is that if you are basing your concept of a successful season on whether they win the cup or not, or get to the finals, then I am afraid that you are missing out on this special time and this special team that we are presented with this season. Enjoy the ride, not just the destination.

Its fine to judge success by what happens in the playoffs, but if you only judge success by whether they win a cup or not, then you are going to be thinking them unsuccessful more often than not. Last season they made it to the Western Conference Finals. There were 26 other teams out there that didn't make it that far. Not just calling you out, GMR, but all of the doomasyers that say this team doesn't have what it takes and have no tolerance for less than perfection. I hope you don't have kids. They're going to end up neurotic if your lack of satisfaction for anything less than perfection. You have been a Wings fan for 10 years? You've never seen a bad Wings team then. You're spoiled and expect success every year- and you're not satisfied unless they win a cup. If you ever expect to be satisfied and happy in life, you may weant to re-examine the standards that you hold others to. Did you know that in the 85-86 season that the WIngs only won 17 games all season long? I was at 17 of those home games, and it was brutal. Stand back and take a look at the overall picture instead of judging everything by such a small- albeit important- part of the NHL season(s).

Agreed, and though I hate to pile on one person, I would have to say that the removal of Lang from the mix HAS aided this team. The way he coasted around out there and his half-hearted attempts at back checking was a poor example of hard work for the young guys. The level of maturity that was gained by this club through their hard-fought playoffs made them realize that even though they worked hard last year, it still wasn't hard enough to get the ultimate prize. They realize that the habits they learn during the regular season do carry over into the post season. They fight hard to win every game, and they are successful 75% of the time. I have finally realized that the time to sit here and nit pick every flaw and botched play is past and that it is now time just to sit back and marvel at the hockey that is being played by this team. They cover for each other on D and somehow are able to produce more offense than EVERY OTHER TEAM. At the end of the game today they had brought their GF/GA advantage to +60 over the teams they play. That's almost 1.5 more goals per game that they score compared to the opposition. If I recall correctly, the next nearest team to them in the West was Dallas at +15. That was reduced to +12 by the end of the game. Those of you that can, I suggest you watch some other games and really compare what you see out there to what you see during a Wings game. You will probably realize, like I have, that this is a special team and we are completely spoiled by the current incarnation of our Wings.

Cleary had a goal and an assist playing on the line with Flip and Dats today. He also took a great head-man pass from Dats to get a good scoring chance coming down the right wing boards. I see no reason to split up the line that was responsible for 2 out of our 3 goals this game. With Homer returning to the lineup I agree that Sammy needs to be moved off the line. Hudler, while nowhere near the skill level of Dats, has really improved his game on the defensive side, and his puck possession and playmaking skills have improved dramatically as well. No reason to move him off that line. With the lines of Flip-Dats-Cleary and Homer-Dats-Hudler they have 2 legitimate scoring lines, PLUS a third line of Franzen-Drapes-Sammy that has good potential as well. This leaves us a 4th line of Maltby-Drake-Downey-Ellis-Kopecky (fill as needed on any given night), which is good at providing energy and not horribly irresponsible in their own zone.

Always wear your Wings gear into the opposing barn. That is... unless yer chikkin!

Well I see that many people on here are still being blinded by the fact that Lilja has become the whipping boy for LGW for '07-'08. The detroitsprots4u site linked above is guilty of it as well. Samuelsson gets a B and Lilja gets a C? As far as expectations from the coaching staff go, the grades should be reversed. They have wanted Lilja to be more steady in back, and he has been. Yes, he has some giveaways that are scary, and sometimes gets himself out of position, but he is responsible defensively over 85% of the time which would be a B in my book. Samuelsson getting a B for his 4.8% shooting percentage, his 6 goals and 19 assists is a gift. Expectations are that he scores around 20 goals a season. At the halfway mark he has 6. and is on pace for 12. 12/20 = 60%, which would be a D-, but his defensive play has stepped up over last year, so give him 15 points for that. 75% C for Samuelsson.

Friday: Philadelphia @ New Jersey Ottawa @ Buffalo Carolina @ Atlanta Chicago @ Anaheim Saturday: Washington @ Montreal Detroit @ Dallas Florida @ Pittsburgh New Jersey @ Boston Philadelphia @ Toronto Tampa Bay @ Ottawa Minnesota @ Nashville Carolina @ St Louis NY Islanders @ Colorado Anaheim @ Phoenix NY Rangers @ Edmonton Calgary @ Los Angeles Columbus @ San Jose Sunday: Buffalo @ Atlanta Detroit @ Chicago

What's to stop Chris Chelios from cutting himself in half and playing both sides of the ice as 2 players half his age? Other than the fact that even if it was successful his 2 half-aged halves would still be too old for the tournament, that is

Gelech may be a good choice as well. He's still really young, but basically a clone of Kopecky when it comes to body size- 6'3" 215. Keefe would be fun but he's basically the Griffins' version of Downey.