Echolalia

Jesus, Osgood. I'm trying, I really am, but you're making this impossible.

The San Jose vs Boston game from the other night got a .5 rating (whatever that means), beating out the previous best held by the Wings vs Pens from November. Its good to see that VS is getting some steady growth. If they got some solid commentating and good national coverage then they would really grow, but one step at a time I guess.

Lowe

And to think the Wings brass considers him the weakest of our prospects we had the option of letting go. We have a bright future.

http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2009/02/se...ying_in_de.html I've never felt more confident that Hossa will be a wing long term than I am now.

I agree. I really hope that people are more happy about this news because it makes the Wings a better team in the long run, and not because the rest of the league will have another reason to hate us.

The thing is Holland most likely won't be able to sign Hossa for a 8-12 year deal and have the last three or four years be 1M each. We would have a 12M caphit on two 38 year old players at that point, which is way too risky. A 6-8 year deal would avoid this problem, but most likely won't be able to get down to 1M or 2M in those last couple years to lower the cap overall. The only way I can see this working is for a 4 or 5 year deal with 7 to 8M in the first two years and 5 to 6M in the second half of the contract for a cap hit of around 6.5ish.

This is some of the best comedy gold I've read in these forums, intentional or otherwise. Good show.

Thats actually Pavel? It sounds like someone trying to sound like him

does anyone know where I can stream this game?

Five points even though they only won one game

Dats the ninja

I'll take it I guess. Good save on Boyle for Fleury.

Jeez can someone take care of San Jose in regulation?

I would almost rather lose Franzen than Hudler

This is a pretty exciting game so far. Pittsburgh is playing for their life, and its always nice to see the Sharks play 80% in their own end.

you're a wonderful person

Yeah I've heard that thrown around as well.

When the Wings were versing the Predators the other night I had to watch via a Nashville stream, so I got the privileged of hearing the game told from the voice of the enemy. They actually praised Datsyuk's play almost to the same degree that Kenny does. I specifically remember a point where Datsyuk stripped someone of the puck at the Wings' blueline and took off with it. The commentator said something like "the everpresent and dangerous Datsyuk steals the puck", and it was also said with a slight air of awe, not monotone. It made me appreciate Nashville's commentators.

Green wouldn't be able to cut it in the Western Conference.

I like Kopecky for the price and the cap situation that the team is in. He's a cheap fourth liner who knows his role and fits it nicely. Holland could go out and spend 2M on a fourth liner who knows how to score occasionally and fights on a regular basis, but thats 2M less that he can use for Franzen, Hossa, Hudler, etc. Kopecky is a good economic player, which is what the Wings need.

I love Scotty Bowman

The cap hit against a team is the average salary of all years per contract, so while Zetterberg is making 7.4M-almost 8M for the first half of the contract, you'll notice that the last few years are at 1M. That averages out to 6.2M, which will be his caphit for every year of that contract, regardless of what he is getting paid.

This is why I say that if I had to choose one player to create a franchise around it would be Datsyuk.

I don't know how many people are familiar with Yahoo Answers, but someone recently asked a question about why the nhl has the tv deal it currently has, and when the fans can expect something better. The "best answer" had some pretty interesting information in it, and is quoted below, but take it with a grain of salt, as anyone can post pretty much whatever they want, truthful or not. I do know, however, that there is someone who claims to work for the nhl that posts answers regularly at Yahoo.com, and many of his answers have been verified by other people (ie rumors that have come true, crazy statistics, etc), so its most likely true that that person does have inside sources at the very least. I don't know if that person is the one who answered this question, but its worth the read regardless. "Nothing is going to happen for a couple more years. It also depends on what you consider to be the big national deal. Currently Versus has 100% penetration in all US NHL television markets. The major complaint that people have is that they don't get Versus. In 99% of the cases, they can get Versus, but they have to pay for it (not part of basic/extended packages). The NHL's stance is that if you want to watch hockey, you have to pay for the privilege. Some facts - no over the air network in the US (ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX) is going to broadcast more than one game a week. All are willing to show one game a week. - the NHL is looking for a network that will show the widest variety of games. ESPN will only show games involving one of Rangers/Flyers/Penguins/Red Wings/Kings/Stars. If those teams are not involved, ESPN claims they can't sell advertising (although Vs has proven that you can sell advertising to a Hurricanes/Panthers game). The NHL wants the following - at least 3 games a week - all 30 teams must be shown at least twice - at least $2MM/team per year (the last ESPN offer was for less than $400K/team per year) Other facts - several US based teams are NOT willing to share their telecasts with a national provoder (San Jose and Anaheim fall into this category) The current Vs/NBC deal pays the NHL upwards of $110MM over 3 years - making it potentially the largest TV contract the league has had (the talks with ESPN last spring were still well below that level). The primary difference between ESPN and Vs is that ESPN is available on 97% of basic/extended cable and VS is about 60%. Both networks have 99% US coverage if people pay for it (and the NHL governors aren't into giving away their product). The NHL is slowly moving away from the the idea of a National telecast and is looking at a pay per view model based on NHL Centre Ice/Game Centre as combined viewership of a game on Centre Ice is generally more than an ESPN/Vs game would be."