Echolalia

If he waits until the trade deadline I would take him in a heartbeat, but even December would be fine. Reduced-price Sundin whose salary is prorated to only include a couple months. I would gladly get rid of Sammuelson or Hudler to help make room. This is probably the best chance any team will ever have post salarycap era to getting a cup, and if you have the potential to add Mats Sundin to that you jump. I don't understand why so many people are so quick to reject the idea. We're gonna have to move people this summer anyway if we expect to keep our core together (not to mention Franzen, Zetterberg, and Hossa for the more delusional fans). Why not get a draft pick for someone and replace them with Sundin?

We copyrighted the name. Game over.

Between him and Kopecky, I think we have the toughest tandem of tornadoes and pain trains tearing up the tracks our team has ever seen. There won't be any ice or glass left when they're done.

I believe Osgood has played his last allstar game.

Have people really been freaking out over how we've started the season? I haven't had too much time on the boards recently, so I honestly don't know. Anyway, we have a target on our backs moreso than any other year, not only because we won the cup, but also because we managed to pick up Hossa, which really ruffled feathers. No games are "gimme games" anymore. At the same time, I don't think our team has hustled to the degree that they're capable of. But we're still in like 2nd place, and if halfhearted playing against our opponents who are giving 110% gets us second place in the league, I don't think we have much to worry about, cuz when we turn it on, which we will, we're gunna storm through our opposition.

I think a lot of the perspective on the refs actually is weighed heavily by who you're watching the game with. We root for the Wings, and if there's something we don't like (ie penalty), we instinctively look for the route that will take the blame of our team. Its just how it works. I notice when I watch games by myself and I'm not in GDTs, I find all the refs calls totally fine, with maybe a marginal call here or there (but at the very least I can see how that particular call was made). However, if I'm watching and I'm also reading/participating in GDT's, I'm always totally disgusted in how the refs influence the game. With GDT's, instead of having just one pair of eyes looking for that scapegoat to take the blame off your team, you have 20. Someone somewhere will be able to nitpick a call, and everyone around will naturally tend to agree, because once again in keeps the team were rooting for from being the bad guy. Now I'm not saying this is the case with everyone- but I watched the game by myself, and for the most part I thought the calls were legit. I'm sure my perspective would've been different had I watched it with everyone here. What it all comes down to for me at least is bias; except when you watch with other folks, you tend to pick up a little of their bias as well, whether intentionally or not.

Charter has failed me again.

Any updates on Franzen or Leino being called up or not?

The way that Sutter reached into that hit makes me think he already had head damage...

Lets mellow out a bit on attacking people for making observations, eh? Anyway, while I'll agree that our defense has not been as impressive as what their capable of (or what I'm expecting), I don't think its much to worry about at this point. The season is still really early, and everyone is going to be giving it a bit more this year because we're the team to beat. Its almost not fair to criticize them so early into the season, because we've gotten soused to how they played in the playoffs last year, after having 82 games plus practice to work on stuff and mesh and work at their highest potential. They just finished off a summer of partying, and yes they have had training camp and a couple preseason games and a couple more regular season games, but its still an early season, and there's always going to be things to work on at this point, whether your Jeff Finger or Nick Lidstrom.

At least.

Quiet! Holland might hear you!

Well the jokes just seem to write themselves; or atleast Edicus writes them and everyone else uses them over again

There's only one puck out there

I think this may be it.

Nobody is going to pick up McCarty. And if someone does, it won't be because their team needs "toughness". And I don't know why, but I like Kopecky. I know he hasn't scored since he was three, and hasn't had an assist since he was 12, but I think he'd be a lot farther if he didn't have so many freak injuries (see: Kronwall). He has a good passion for the game that you can see when he's on the ice. That game against the Rangers the kid was hunting for bodies, not pucks. I noticed him whenever he was on the ice, and if this kind of development continues, he may turn into something. I'm hoping for him to bulk up a little more too, just in case an occasion came for him to drop the gloves, but I may be wishing for too much. Anyway, I understand everyone's desire to trade him, and I have no argument why we shouldn't, but I don't want to trade him.

Excellent analysis, I don't disagree with anything, although I haven't done any number crunching or anything, and I'm somewhat worried about Franzen testing the open market. He's suddenly had a taste of super-stardom what with being the goal scorer of the league the past 3 months of hockey. He's also shaping up to be a rare breed of ideal 90's style powerforward in the new nhl, which could get him some major money in some other team. He may not want to live in Zetterberg's and Datsyuk's shadow and play on a first line somewhere else.

Osgood was never a "top 10 solid number 1 goalie". In fact, out of all the number ones out there, Osgood is closer to the bottom. However, he is a number one goalie, lets not think otherwise. He's proven that. But when people look at his stats from the past and see lowest goals allowed, tied for most shutouts in a season, top 5 save percentage, people have a tendency to credit Osgood with 100% of the effort put into getting those numbers, and assume he is one of the best goalies in the leauge. People forget about Lidstrom and Rafalski and Kronwall and Stuart and Konstantinov and Fisher and Chelios that were always in front of him filtering out all the good shots, and leaving him to save mostly fluff from the perimeter. Thats not to say that Osgood sucks, because he doesn't at all. But for whatever reason our team has gotten off to a slow start and Osgood is actually getting some tough stuff coming his way this year. Goalies like Lundqvist and Hasek and Belfour would be capable of standing on their head to make some of those impossible saves, but Osgood, not so much. He'll get a spectacular save in here and there (that glove save against Vancouver comes to mind), but a lot of people are in that mindset that he is just as good as all these elite goalies because his statistics from the past are right there with the elites, and freak out when more than 3 goals are scored on him. Like I said earlier, some people may forget that we have the number one defense in the league usually, and these other teams usually don't. (and im not mentioning any names, because I honsetly don't know who thinks what in these forums, i'm just mentioning something that I know is a problem with some people I know, and may or may not be a problem here) At the same time, Osgood has definitely been performing below his skill level this year. That goal from behind the net last night should have never went in. The game winner from Vancouver should have never when in. Another goal from Vancouver when some guy (I forget his name) broke in on Filppula and Kronwall and scored from nothing should have never went in. Its not just the poor defense in front of Osgood and its not just Osgood. Everyone needs to improve, and if we're still having problems after everyone remembers how to give it 100%, then we can start talking about putting Conklin in more often. Until then, lets stick with Osgood.

Thanks alot for the insight from his days back in Finland. I know a lot of us are just as anxious to see this kid play, and its especially comforting to hear that he put up those numbers in a defense-oriented league. Keep tabs on the Wings this year because I'm almost certain he will get some playing time. If you look at who his competition was for the final roster spot in the preseason you can tell this kid is special (especially considering he has 0 nhl experience). Helm was lights out last year in the playoffs and reminds me a lot of a young Kris Draper. McCarty and Downey provide the grit that the team needs, and although we're stock full of scorers, Leino was fighting for a roster spot until the very end. That speaks pretty loudly, IMO.

Definitely.

I like him a lot. He's good at what he does, can contribute offensively here and there, and he has a wonderfully marketable personality. I think everyone will always hate his guts except the people he plays for. Kinda like Maltby.

All the players that are signed for the next couple years are signed with today's salary cap in mind. Those players are still going to be making that next year, even if the cap goes down. All the free agents next year would be getting shafted, because a) they're going to want to be paid with the same scale as everyone else and b) the league overall will have less money to spend on all the free agents which means more folks migrating to the khl.

compared to a couple decades ago every team is like that, though. This is why I'm for enlarging the nets by a couple inches.

Word is he tells the most amazing jokes you'll ever hear in the locker room.

There has to be some grudge or feud or something that happened behind the scenes regarding someone from either family. I can't think of any other rational explanation.