Echolalia

What determines whether a building has character?

Wherever he ends up going, I hope his Chili bar stays. In fact, I hope they mention it in the press conference...

Very classy. Sharp's stock went up a couple notches in my book.

I am so desperate for a new arena. All the Joe is good for is memories. Other than that, its a dump.

Conklin is not likely to sign for .75M. He has proven that he is capable of bearing a greater load, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a team offer him a number 1 position next year.

player chooses girlfriend over drug test, then

Man do I miss 2002

97-98 -> 2 cups in 2 years 97-02 -> 3 cups in 6 years 97-08 -> 4 cups in 11 years (not 2) 91-92 -> 2 cups in 2 years (so far so good) 92-09 -> 3 cups in 19 years (not so good) potentially 92-10 -> 4 cups in 20 years How exactly is 4 cups in 20 years comparable to 4 cups in 11 years? Also: The Devils won 3 cups between 95 and 03, so its not technically true that the WIngs and Pens won more Cups than anyone else since then. Wings; yes. Pens; still have some competition.

So has anybody thought about the possibility of the Islanders passing over another Yzerman-like player with their top pick?

If by "even" you mean "requires 7 more years to balance out the Cup count", then yes, we will definitely be even.

You should just add Russian 5 and get the thread over with.

I'm most worried about Chicago and San Jose picking him up. He can go anywhere else, but not to either of those places.

I thought he was making .75M

That's why we need him.

28 shutouts is a big number, especially with the Central division getting stronger. I would love to see it happen, but I don't expect to.

We can barely keep "the Hoss" as it is. Right now Holland would have to shed some salaries ala Chelios, Conklin, Sammy, Hudler and Hossa will have to take another pay cut (along the lines of 4-5M, but closer to 4M) to stay here. In order to have Sundin as well, Holland would have to trade away Filppulla and some of our defensive core, most likely including Stuart/Kronwall.

They were meant to play together.

It would certainly be an interesting situation having an Ozzie/Howard tandem. Ozzie wouldn't be able to get away with a lackluster regular season performance and rely on Howard the way he could rely on Conklin. At the same time, Howard should see a great deal of regular season games and know that the Wings' organization expects more from our backup goaltenders. The pressure will be a bit greater on both our no. 1 and no. 2 this year if this turns out to be the case.

I don't see anyone making the finals outside of San Jose, Detroit, Anaheim, Pittsburgh and Boston.

I feel like I just lost a grandpa...

When is draft day?

The Red Wings organization is better equipped than any other team to pick this kid up based on his weaknesses. We have many small "soft" europeans on this team that have had the label "too small" on their CV prior to our drafting them and look how they've turned out (granted this kid will certainly take the cake). Datsyuk and Zetterberg are impossible to strip off the puck and know how to take a hit. Hell Datsyuk looks like a bash brother out there half the time. Filppulla is making big strides and looks a lot stronger on the puck than a couple years ago. Even Leino has shown potential, even though he still needs to adjust to the nhl. But most significant is the fact that the Wings take their time with their prospects. He'll be exposed to a strict workout regime while simultaneously being thrown into a bigger, more physical league. At that point the only question is how much he wants to play (see: Grigorenko vs Leino) Imagine what sort of monster some of these NHL stars would be if he had 2-3 years in the AHL to develop, instead of being thrown in to the fire immediately? If this kid is breaking Ovechkin's records, someone needs to take a good look at this kid and see what the organization can do to balance out the weaknesses.

Sure do. The person below me is actually an alien

I've never been to the ocean so pool by technicality, although for what its worth, I prefer lakes to pools. Sidenote: do you actually live in Hell? My girlfriend has a cottage on Hiland lake. And potpourri. I can't stand the smell of incense. Guitars or drums

sure do. The person below me will think of a better "the person below me" than this.