Echolalia

God I miss Konstintinov. The Flyers were supposed to be too big and tough for us to beat, and Vladdy made it his job just to pummel them down every chance he got.

So was it finished before he passed? From the articles I've read it seems like it was still in the process of being completed.

Friday August 13th, 2010 15:00 I've been getting by with the help of a party of lost souls, similarly deprived of their will to live. They've banded together years ago to generate hockey substance and moral support to feed off of, and many have made it through difficult times in the past due to their forum. Patience is wearing thin, however. Verbal criticism is not in short order here. People are so desperate for hockey substance that members take their anger out on those who don't provide the amount of hockey-related content that they're used to during feeding season. I think they feel teased in the face of adversity and malnourishment. The locals call these folk trolls, but I don't see the resemblance. I think we're all just lost. Others have already resorted to the most desperate of measures. Suggestions have been offered to pray to the Blueadams Deity of Line-combos for his endless advice on who should be paired with whom. Some are delusional enough into believing a "lazy and sucks" thread will satisfy our hunger, but I know the truth. One particular fellow has adopted a masochistic tendency to endlessly relive the Battle of '08, where are beloved warriors slayed the enemy to achieve ultimate victory. I don't suspect he has too much longer on this planet. While as exhausted as ever, with every tick of the clock comes the faintest bit of hope that we'll actually pull through this. If I can make it through tonight, perhaps the anticipation of the smell of blood mixed with ice will keep me going until game time. One can only hope. Echolalia

I don't suppose you have access to last year's thread that you did? I can't search your topics back that far, and I'm interested in seeing how un/accurate the comments were. Also: Hudler will be 4th on the team in points.

I don't know if Homer would make those either. If there was a Hall of Goofiness, then I think he would have a shot.

Babs is on his way to copyrighting "I even told my wife"

I'd say Howard is worse than 60% to 80% of the number 1 goalies out there when it comes to rebound control. The issue doesn't seem so glaring because we have a stellar defensive core who have tended to his developmental needs last year, but there were more instances than should have happened where a weak rebound ended up in the back of the net, or at the very least turned into a penalty kill. To expand on your now updated stance on Howard, I would agree that he isn't in a bad spot at all considering he is fresh off his rookie year. Having said that, I certainly don't expect him to stay pat on where he is in terms of goal-tending skill. I would hope that he is committed enough to the team and himself to improve on his weaknesses to be the best goalie he can be. Maybe expecting a goalie to be flawless in every aspect of the game is unrealistic and par-for-the-course when it comes to us armchair hockey fans, but I don't think its unacceptable in the least to expect him to try to improve himself when possible, and his rebound control is definitely improvable.

Howard's rebound control still scares the crap out of me. If he can learn to swallow the pucks like a no. 1 goalie, then I think we'll be fine.

Ah the ol' 4 tier system. I really need to start looking into some games to go to. Its my first year back from school so I'm not confined to December anymore

Its not the only thing he's good at blowing

I agree with all of your assessments except the icing made illegal when shorthanded rule. I don't see this increasing the amount of scoring as much as it would slow down the pace of the game. I don't want to see a powerplay take 6 minutes to get through because of all the icings called.

I think its a bit ridiculous to go back to these long term contracts after they've already been instated for a while. These organizations have built their teams around these long-term contracts and their respective cap-hits. If the league wanted to do something about it, they should have done something when the contracts were first announced like the Kovy situation. You don't give teams time to fill in the rest of their salary cap before cutting out the most crucial piece.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100809/SPORTS03/100809025/1318/Ilitch-wants-Pistons-and-to-move-them-to-Detroit I'm wondering whether Illitch is holding off on building a new arena until he can get the Pistons under his command and possibly more donation-$ with it for a joint arena between the Pistons and the Wings.

Some of these sound intriguing, even if only hypothetically. Others are a complete joke and shouldn't need a testing center to determine that they'll suck in practice.

This is a good signing. Salei is a legit 5-6 defensman as you will find and he provides exactly what the Wings could use on the third defensive line. Getting Mitchell was a pipe dream given our cap-situation so don't compare Salei to him. In any event, Salei is a gritty, veteran defensman who will be the ideal mentor for Ericsson. He knows how to provide offense when needed, and he knows how to clear the front of the net. He also has experience playing under Babcock so we can expect that he'll buy into the Wings' philosophy. We may have gotten older with this signing, but the top of the crease also got a bit meaner, too.

This is in response to the Cleary potentially scoring 20 goals thread. I'm just curious what you folks believe will happen, and what you hope will happen.

No society can overcome THE BELL CURVE

I'm just curious: why don't you want him on the team?

I forgot to mention the part about having a good work ethic

I thought our big issue the past year was giving up early goals, not late ones.

hahaha that is awesome

I laughed out loud again

The world isn't ready for someone who can skate 40 mph, grind opponents into oblivion, and snipe out top shelf.

Look at that bell-curve! Why the heck can't the bell-curve poll get that kind of shape?

All in all I think we're sitting pretty. Abby certainly won't end up with much more than 1M, and that gives us around 0.5M for injuries. I imagine Holland plans on unloading some of our bottom-tier guys also. That should free up some more space to possibly sign a top-6 vet defensman or even trade deadline acquisition for a role-player in February. Yeah, I'm liking our odds this year.