Echolalia

geez my fantasy team is just falling apart

You mean like... in a nonpolitical way right?

He's a bottom string defensman who's salary fits in nicely under our already tight cap.

Hopefully with Hossa here, Kopecky will have a little more to play for. He really seems to look up to him. Maybe this'll be Kopecky's break-out year

I think they look fine. I'm also starting to think that some people will hate any jersey that doesn't have a winged wheel on it.

I know if my only dream was to play in the nhl and I worked my ass off since I was three to achieve that goal, including dropping out of school, losing a social life, paying the huge costs of travel, etc etc, I would most likely play for the team that will guarantee me nhl ice time, not the team that will have me play in the minors where I am clearly superior to the competition for 3-5 more years. Not every 19 year old's ultimate goal is to play for the Wings. They want to play in the nhl. And I don't think too many kids will be more focused on getting top line AHL minutes vs bottom line NHL minutes. Its about the glory and the reward of working so hard your entire life. You don't get that in the AHL.

I don't know about all the bull you have to go through to get into Michigan, so based on my lack of knowledge, I would recommend parking EARLY around Hockeytown or Cheli's Chili (both right by Comerica park on Woodward). The side roads in that area are free and I've never been robbed or anything so don't worry about that. Hockeytown and Cheli's are both amazing pregame places to hang out, and they offer a free shuttle that travels to the Joe every 15 or 30 minutes or so. As they are both sports bars, the food is also cheaper than at the Joe, so fill up there.

So the deadline to get rid of him has passed, right? What happened?

It makes me wonder whether we're setting ourselves up for failure in the future, because no decent prospect will want to play for the Wings due to the fact that they'll be 30 by the time they break the nhl. Look at Brunnstrum. We were his number 1 pick, but he wouldn't get nhl time here. So he went to Dallas. I imagine this will also begin to happen around the time that Kronwall, Rafalski, etc become free agents and much of our core retires (ie Lids, Draper, Maltby, Osgood). Holland may be retired by then, also, but I'm thinkin' a bit pessimistic at this point. Regardless, its a concern I have.

I hope we get more than capspace for him.

As much as I want to see the Joe torn down, all the signs point to it being the Wings' home for a couple more years. First of all, Illich is a penny pincher. He's always been a penny pincher, from his ridiculous ticket prices (especially for this economy) to his cheap as hell Little Caesar's commercials. If building an unnecessary arena can be avoided, then why do it? Secondly, I would imagine that if he were going to make a new arena, he would've announced it by now, so people can start planning for utilizing the space for Cobo, which will surely require a lot of time and planning to execute. Thirdly, since the rumors began that the Wings might be getting a new arena, Illich seems to be doing what he can to make the Joe a quality place. He put in that vip suite, added a stand up section, put in a commemorative Gordie Howe statue, with two more statues planned to be unveiled later this month. We have the Gordie Howe entrance, instead of "the entrance by the stairs". Its like he's trying to make the Joe look as good as possible so people aren't as discouraged when he announces that he has decided to renew the lease. Hopefully I'm wrong though.

hmm this seems like a solid line that i can trust thanks for the heads up now im going to bet with all my friends and make lots of money but dont worry ill send you some cuz you deserve it

I'm going to bump my question really fast: does anyone know how many points Leino ended the season with, and/or where he stood compared to the rest of the team in various statistics? Also, the only reason I would be concerned with Leino getting the last spot is the fact that he still hasn't played a single official game of nhl hockey. Yeah, he's been doing great in the preseason, so much, in fact that I'm struggling to find reasons why I would want someone else in the lineup besides him, but all the support that I have for him getting the last spot is based entirely on a handful of preseason games. Granted, our team is stacked as hell and making a risk on who gets the 13th spot probably isn't going to affect the team's outcome, but I still can't decide between having an enforcer to keep our team safe (we're the target this year, after winning the cup), or having four legitimate scoring lines, which would surely make goalies s*** bricks.

Its a tough decision for me between Leino and Downey. Does anyone know exactly whow many points did Leino end the preseason with, and where he stood compared to the rest of our team? I don't think that Leino or Helm will be able to clear waviers, which I believe Downey and McCarty can do, which may affect the decision. I don't know. I think we need Downey's physicality and energy more than Leino's potentially unproven scoring ability, however the thought of having 4 lines that are a legitimate scoring threat in the nhl makes me drool.

I like it, but the one major thing they're still lacking that the old webpage had (not the last one but the one before) was the "who am I" that gave the player's position, date drafted, and by what team and in what round or something along those lines. Why can't they bring that back. My nhl.com browsing has decreased so much since those days.

The team will be exactly the same as last year with Downey, McCarty, Leino, and Helm fighting for the last spot. Maltby isn't going anywhere, Sammy isn't going anywhere, noone is. No matter how you want to look at it, and no matter how much you hate him, Sammuelson is a more valuable player than Helm, Leino, McCarty, and Downey. Although Helm is good defensively, and Leino looks good offensively, these observations are based on their extremely limited amount of nhl experience (preseason included (and yes postseason included also)). Helm isn't capable of replacing Samuelson because he's a gritty shut-down type forward. He won't be capable of putting up the numbers that Sammy does. Leino could possibly replace Samuelson because he has more offensive upside to him. Unfortunately, all his nhl experience consists of 2 or 3 preseason games. That isn't even close to the number Ken Holland or anyone else should need to be comfortable in him playing 82 games getting solid minutes each night. Sammuelson isn't Ovechkin, but he knows his role. He has to be responsible defensively and contribute offensively when he can. This is something he does well. So why not get rid of Maltby? He plays 40 seconds a night and hasn't scored since 2002. Mablty is a very valuable part of the organization and it has nothing to do with what he does on the ice. The Wings organization is a very appealing one to play for. You always hear of how classy it is and how the players love playing here. That's the only reason Maltby is still playing. He's essentially an example to potential players of how secure you will be and how well you will be treated here. Hes a marketing gimmick, so players like Zetterberg and Datsyuk want to play here for the rest of their lives. The want to know they'll have a spot on the roster when they're 45 and still want to play. Holland looks out for his players, and the Wings' organization is rewarded, because more players want to play here. Chelios is the same thing. Quincey and Erikson and Meech could probably outplay him day in and day out right now, but he's been getting the spot to make the Wings' organization look more appealing for veterans.

If you're going to include last year's playoffs you can't ignore Sammy's two goal game against the Pens. Just to clarify, I'm more playing devil's advocate on this one, as I don't really like Sammy either, and I'm usually the first one to make fun of him (however, for the price, I think he fits into our system well). Helm is more of a shutdown forward from the looks of things, so I would rather Leino replace him, and if he's going to do that, he's going to need to be able to score on a regular basis as well as contribute defensively. The Wings organization has seen too little of him in NA style hockey to entrust him with that role just yet. Maybe next year, though.

Are you really ready to defend that statement based on one preseason game?

Just give him the team and lets move on.

Its definitely going to be difficult to repeat. They have to go through another 82 game grind without suffering from critical injuries with the entire league wanting to beat the new team to beat, both on the scoreboard and physically. Assuming we get that far, there are four seven game series' versing the absolute best of the best, with the Wings still being the team to beat (although moreso, because its in the playoffs). That's a mental and physical grind in itself. Not to mention if something were to happen by February, we don't have the salary cap space to bail us out this time. We will be one of a handful of teams to most likely not improve in anyway come the trade deadline, with most of our biggest competitors most likely gaining key acquisitions for a deep cup run. But if I could pick any single team in history to take a stab at bringing home the cup this year, I'd feel pretty comfortable with picking the team the Wings have on paper right now.

You can't get something for nothing, and Matthias turned out to be much better than we expected, at a much faster rate. At the time we were missing a powerforward and Bertuzzi was the only one that we could sink. Matthias was too young to fill the role and Holland figured it may be his best chance at a cup for a while and jumped on it. Little did he know that the Wings would win the cup the next year.

Steve Yzerman, a job just opened up for you.

Wait... so Downey broke Filpulla's neck and he can't play the rest of the season? Cuz I thought he just bent his thumb. Well, that would explain all the five pages of commotion, then.

Although I'd be sad to see him go, he's definitely paid his dues and deserves whatever dreams he wants to follow. We're pretty stacked in our office, so there isn't much real opportunity here.

Oh Downey