Echolalia

Its quite difficult to balance all 30 teams' schedules evenly, especially when taking into account venues that have more than one purpose besides playing hockey. Also its not likely that the Wings will get the benefit of an easier schedule, especially because we just won the cup. The Sharks should also get credit where its due, as they're taking full advantage of other teams when they're tired. We've failed to do that a couple times this year, I believe, but I may be mistaken.

Jesus. Pick one Blue. Any one. Then watch as he just stands and waits to take it in the butt. This is why that team is so far behind.

Ideally I would love to see a new arena. I have a number of qualms with the Joe. 1) The bathrooms are just horrible, with too few to accommodate the crowds that the Joe can hold (thus massive intermission lines), and unconventional pig-trough urinals. 2) The seats are too cramped together, so us 6 ft+ folks are consistently kneeing the person in front of us, and have to sit 2.5 hours uncomfortably. This is a big negative for me, and its one of the reasons many folks in my family have only been to one game, if that. 3) Its inconvenient to eat at your seat, as there are no cup holders and everyone is squished together, so there's also little room to put things at your feet. I think a minitable behind each chair would be cool, but there would definitely have to be obstacles to overcome with that, such as chair size issues, and where a person's coat will go if they don't want it hanging in food. 4) There's no conventional space to eat at the Joe ANYWHERE. No tables, nothing. I would like to see a new arena with locations designed for eating a meal (perhaps more extravagant than a Little Ceasar's pizza), with a tv right there for everyone to watch. 5) Although free shuttles make the location a nonissue for many folks, I think the value of an arena downtown by Comerica park and Hocketown Cafe and whatnot would be wonderful, although solutions for traffic problems would have to be thought up for when the Tigers and the Wings play at the same time. 6) The aesthetics of Joe Louis Arena are just horrible. I think of it as a giant concrete block with a couple statues in it. Make it more appealing to the eye. This is essentially a given if a new arena were to be built. Right now the Joe is just a place to go to watch hockey. Aesthetics play a large part in the quality of an experience; especially if its Junior's first game. Unfortunately due to the deal the Illitches have with the city, the tendancy for the Illitches to penny-pinch, the fact that they're sinking "sentimental money" into memorable statues and naming exits and whatnot to increase the memorable value of the Joe, and the fact that no whispers of blueprints have been leaked about a new arena, there most likely won't be a new arena within the next five years. I understand the fact that there are a lot of memories at the Joe, and thats one of the strong reasons to keep it up, but for me personally, its terribly uncomfortable to go to a game, and if I wasn't such a diehard fan, I would probably have passed up many of the opportunities that I have had to go. Memories can only do so much. The seats are too cramped for me to enjoy the game without trying to rearrange myself into some impossible manner,t, if I need to go to the bathroom, it involves inconveniencing everyone between me and the end of the isle as there is simply no room to squeeze by, followed by a 10-15 minute wait to use one of the pig-troughs, followed by resqueezing myself past everyone again back to my uncomfortable seat. The Joe was not designed well. There's no better way to put it, and no amount of memories will convince me to change my opinion that it needs to be replaced.

This is true, but you can still use Hossa as a means of comparison. It further illustrates the pressure a GM would want to apply to make Zetterberg take a discount, because in all actuality, Hossa did. Who knows, maybe 8-8.5M would be a discount, or at least thats what Holland may be trying to sell. Whoops, sorry: I mistook my 7's for 8's. In this case: lets try to keep Hossa and let Z walk

I honestly expected it to be between 8 and 8.5. Because Hossa signed for 8.5, and Zetterberg's numbers are essentially the same as Hossa's (give or take a a goal here, an assisnt there), Zetterberg's rightful salary on this team would be unjustified if it were above 8.5, or below 8.0. A discount in my book would be below 8M a season.

One vote per person, no text voting, bot-blocks on allstar voting sites. If you want to go through all the crap of making up fake emails and such to get a second/third/fourth vote in, whatever. Those small margins will balance out because everyone does that anyway.

Kopecky has been playing as good as anyone should expect him to: he's been consistently clearing the puck out of the zone (something the entire team has had trouble with, Fillpulla especially), he's quick to apply offensive pressure and is always the first man in on the dump-in. He always finishes his checks, whether the guy doesn't see him coming, or is staring him in the face from 20 feet away. He doesn't back down, and thats saying something considering he's not the biggest guy out there. No stupid defensive turnovers. All in all, he's everything a young fourth-liner should be. Draper and Maltby both suck this year; turnovers, no physical play, failing to clear the zone, etc. Filpulla, although inherently better than Kopecky, hasn't been playing nearly to his potential. He's been nonexistant as both a second liner and a third liner. That is why I think Fillpulla should sit before Kopecky because it will yield better results. You can't punish Kopecky; he's playing at his peak. Filpulla needs to improve.

Most likely Howard, although I've heard good things about Larsson.

You could theoretically propose we drop players' salaries from our cap at the deadline all day, but where are we going to find a decent goalie? Most teams hold on to solid goalies like nothing else, and would be especially reluctant to trade with Detroit under these circumstances.

Blame goaltending too. Its true Osgood has been left high on many occasions, but you can tell he doesn't trust himself in net with how many rebounds and uncharacteristic "softies" hes letting in.

The guy didn't throw anything until about 30 seconds after play resumed. He was yelling and screaming at the ref and decided to throw something when the ref refused to give him any attention.

I think Kopecky has been one of the few Wings this year who have been playing with heart, and at his best. As of right now I'd rather send Draper, Maltby or even Filppula back to the minors before Kopecky.

I had the privilege of seeing him live tonight and he did not seem comfortable at all. He didn't control his rebounds, he wasn't getting in front of pucks efficiently (there were a couple times when the defense bailed him out). Osgood says he is close to where he wants to be mentally, but you can see in how he carries himself during the game his mental toughness is gone. Unfortunately the only way to efficiently remedy that is to have a stellar night, which I don't see happening any time soon.

Dude I was there and had a perfect view of the entire thing. The guy was drunk and was extremely pissed at the call for the penalty shot, and during the next play the guy was banging and screaming as loud and as hard as he could at the ref on the other side of the glass at center ice. Of course the ref wasn't turning around, so the guy threw his hat onto the ice to get his attention and flicked him off and continued to scream and yell. Eventually the guards from like 2-3 sections over were congregating to take this guy away, and he complied, but the entire time he was climbing the steps he was screaming at the ref and threatening him and whatnot. Quite the spectacle.

My buddy scored tickets tonight somehow so I'll be going to this one. (Dont you just love not even thinking about going to a game when someone calls you with an extra ticket?)

I like the point system. Shootouts whether you like them or not get the crowd going like a fight will, and are just about the most exciting way to end a game. Also with the extra point and so many teams making it higher in the standings, it makes for an excellent show during the last couple weeks to see what teams are hungry enough to play for the final eighth spot. Anyway, we're on top of the league now, and we were prior to the point system change, so it won't really affect us too much no matter what type of system is implemented. There are problems with extending OT beyond five minutes, because that added time is usually cutting off some other program's time, which generally won't fly.

I see where you're coming from but I disagree. Hossa's backcheck I feel is one of the most underrated parts of his game, and if he has played like this before I feel like he was shafted for Selke nominations for being on poorly defensive teams. Although he doesn't cover the front of the net as tightly as Zetterberg (as he isn't a center), he stops more plays from developing at center ice than any other player I can think of in the entire league. He and Zetterberg are essentially equal in points, Hossa has the upper hand in +/- and penalties. The argument for myself, at least, is easily there to debate Hossa over Zetterberg for the future. As for Franzen, the kid is an awesome surprise, but he isn't Hossa/Zetterberg caliber, and if it was possible to keep Hossa and Z by letting Franzen walk, I would do it in a heartbeat.

I like the Lawson Lunatics caption. You go to Western?

If the Pens get Franzen out of all of this, I'll definitely be disappointed, but I won't lose any sleep over it so long as I think in terms of "Franzen for Hossa and Conklin". That almost makes me smile, actually. Anyway, now that I've seen how Hossa plays with us, I can't stand thinking of losing him. I would rather have him over Franzen, and I've been debating on whether I would prefer him to Zetterberg also.

I feel like this is the loser GDT for all of us who were shafted with the whole FSN + thing....

I would dislike this pickup

Sorry folks, they aren't that good. They've been sloppy, yes. But each team that comes to play us knows they're playing a proven Stanley cup champion team, so they're bringing everything they got, most likely preparing for games against us several games ahead of time. The good news is they can play half-assed for 45 minutes against most other teams' A game, and rally in the last 15 minutes and call it a night. That won't happen against San Jose, Montreal, or the other elite teams, though, so they definitely have work to do.

guys we need to save avery were his only hope

Hahaha I like how this is slowly turning into the concept of all the superstars in the league taking turns coming to Detroit to win a cup. I love it

I thought there was a rule that the puck goes to the guy with two goals when theres an empty net. At least thats how I've always played.