Echolalia

Aves as in Penguins? They shouldn't even count. har har

I think its more of a balloon shape to be honest.

I'm not pissed that Schneider left; I never liked Schneider to begin with, which is where most of my hatred comes from. He always struck me as someone playing more to boost his own stats rather than play team hockey. I can't speak for anyone else on the boards, though, however I wouldn't use Hossa as a comparison, because after looking past them going to Stanley Cup winners, there really isn't much else there.

As much as I'm glad to hear our prospects are doing well, it seems like 75% of the ones that are expected to break the nhl are third line, second line at best kinda guys. This and the fact that we're going to have late draft picks every year that we have Datsyuk and Zetterberg (although that hasn't stopped us yet) makes me somewhat worried about the shape of our team after they're gone.

How bout we expand this to all nhl players. Cuz I like to spite a lot of them. And I'm glad Crosby didn't win it. He has enough of the media sucking his balls as it is. Oh, and Schneider. Cuz he left us like we were dead weight to him.

In all honesty I think he went about this in the best way possible. He obviously wanted to play for Detroit and nobody else; we offered him the least out of everyone who was trying to get him, and reports say that Hossa's agent was the one to call Holland, and not the other way around. How else could he have left Pittsburgh for Detroit without hurting all their fans? And as for Babcock tampering, the amount of time he spent with Hossa during the handshakes isn't nearly enough time to efficiently tamper with some other organization's player. If the Wings were really to tamper, they would've got in touch with Hossa and/or his agent during the year in an off ice scenario and would've seriously thrown some bait his way. A simple "you would've done great in Detroit, Hossa, we'd love to hear from you when your contract expires" hardly counts. Besides, no one has a copy of exactly what Babcock and Hossa talked about. What if they were talking about those Krispy Kremes Hossa owed the Wings for winning the cup?

Why would you want the Conn Smyth when you have the LADY BING BABY

I sincerely hope that this is actually him talking, and not just his agent working his magic to get him back into the nhl

They must be hurting a bit on goaltending if Budaj is walking away with awards.

Bettman is behind this.

Personally, I appreciate the maturity, however essentially what you seem to be doing is sabotaging someone else's topic. In this case, although both topics concern Sammy; I think you would be safe starting a new topic. You would also probably get a better response that way. Besides, here at LGW, we're used to seeing up to five (5) posts on the exact same thing within the top twenty threads. Usually people don't start snapping until number three.

We can't have six Lidstroms to play defense. Fortunately, when it comes to the top 1 and 2 defensman, we have the best in the league. When it comes to the top 3 and 4 defensmen, we probably still have the best in the league. When it comes to the top 5 and 6 defensemen, we probably don't have much argument, but were still in good position relatively speaking, and its a lot better to have an average 5-6 defensive lineup than an average 1-2 defensive lineup. Essentially, for a number 4 spot, Stuart is about as good as it gets.

Listen to any interview regarding Chelios. I honestly though at this stage it was common knowledge. edit: sp

I disagree. Lidstrom and Rafalski are good players on the blueline, but both of them are pretty quiet people, overall, and tend to lead by example, rather than vocally. Chelios, on the other hand, is one of the most vocal leaders in the lockerroom. He's not afraid to ***** someone out over a stupid play, or tell someone how do go about doing things differently. Yes, we have a lot of good leaders on this team, but imo, Chelios is one of the greatest, and for next to league minimum I think he's worth it. Especially if he's actually a better player on the ice than his competition.

I'm thinkin' Finger

It makes me appreciate our organization alot. When players come here, they're treated with some serious class, so nobody would even want to pull this kind of stunt.

So I'm looking at our projected salary cap numbers for the 2009-2010 season, and really no other way around sacrifices having to be made. With just under 15.5 M left to spend for that year, we have to resign, replace, or simply drop from our team Zetterberg, Hossa, Franzen, Hudler, A backup goalie, Sammuelson, and Kopecky. Even if we assume that Zetterberg and Hossa each take unheard of pay cuts and go for 6M a season, that gives us 3.5 million to take care of Franzen, Hudler, Sammy, Koper, and a backup goalie. Now if Franzen plays the way he did from Feb to the Stanley Cup, he alone will be worth at least 3.5 million. The bottom line is, I don't see any possible way to keep both Zetterberg and Hossa on this team after next year. So what do you guys think? Who stays, who goes?

But it wouldn't be wise to rely on that. Besides, if the nhl does have it out for the Wings, now would be the perfect time to stop the cap rise Also: the forum is dead. Lets pretend for now it stays where its at, and get some life in these threads.

The thing is if the nhl is going to succeed as a top sports league in the US, it has to begin to express itself in a more positive manner to "bad hockey markets". Sure we can relocate the Predators, Kings, Panthers, Islanders, Ducks, and any other team to any Canadian city where they're sure to be welcomed, but that would essentially be Bettman admitting defeat as the face of an inferior sport in the US, which is the exact opposite of what we need to do. Transferring these teams to other American cities might not be as bad, but there will still be huge damage done simply by withdrawing a failing team from a city. Especially if we withdraw all the teams that we can argue are failing. Any city who was borderline about a sport when they had a team will surely fall to the other side of the fence if the team is taken away. "Hockey couldn't make it in this city; its inferior, so I'll stick with Nascar", will be the reasoning. Yeah, it seems contradictive to leave a failing team in a city for the good of hockey, but in the long run, if the league can keep chipping away at the borderliners and football diehards, then all these struggling teams can turn into goldmines. If a team leaves the city all together, that kind of goal seems impossible. Its a s***ty situation to be in, one that I think has its roots in bad (or no) research. I think we do need to target markets who don't have a lot of hockey culture, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. In the case of Nashville, it was done in the wrong way. In terms of having no broadcasting and failing to see eye to eye with ESPN, I am fully behind Bettman with his decision to go with VS and NBC. From what I've read (and excuse me, because I can't find any sources, but I do remember reading something to this degree), ESPN was offering a pretty one-sided contract that would essentially limit the growth of the NHL to what ESPN was willing to give us, and for crap money. Bettman didn't agree to the terms and went with VS. Versus is an unproven network still trying to develop. They need the NHL more than the NHL needs them, so Bettman was able to make a more hockey-friendly contract. We don't get the coverage that ESPN is capable of, but we do have more freedom and respect with VS. To target a wider pallate of viewers, Bettman went after NBC for the second half of the year (possibly so not to compete with football). Another decent move, considering we wouldn't stand a chance if it were between NHL and NFL. Which brings me to the Winter Classic, which the nhl has done excellentlly to sell out as much as possible and put hockey on the same field to compete with football (college football, but its a giant step up, nonetheless). He is also targeting marquee teams and players to assure the best type of game possible. The face of the Eastern Conference (and the nhl in general) Crosby vs the Eastern Conference powerhouse Sabres. This year its the upcoming marquee team of the Western Conference vs the love em or hate em Stanley Cup Winners in a historic ballpark. That couldn't have been done better, IMO. Anyway, Bettman is about bettering the nhl in America, and getting the league in decent competition with the NBA NFL and MLB. Its the type of situation where you're going to run into problems, regardless of how good you do. Its unexplored territory against titans, and I really think Bettman is going about this, for the most part, in the right way. Sorry for such a long winded post.

Wheres Waldo

Zetterberg doesn't deserve to be in the front. He did practically nothing in the playoffs.

They won't be on sale for a while. Your best bet is just to keep your ears and eyes open, and when they do go up for sale, you can try to buy as a Chicago-ian (what?) online. If you can order them to be picked up you can throw some baloney address out and if they actually are smart enough to prevent out-of-state computers from accessing the site, use a proxy.

I'm looking forward to the stellar officiating and fair game play between all the teams in what is surely going to be a gentleman's game. But seriously I have to apologize for my totally irrelevant posts. I've gotten into the habit of pressing the comment button before I even decide that I want to comment this offseason, and once you click it, there's no going back. Apparently a side effect from "extra time on hands". Or so I'm told.

I am so bored right nowwww. Anyway, Chicago is starting to grow on me and I'm pissed off about it because I don't want my second favorite team to be in the same division as my first.

I think the name of this thread should be changed. I almost s*** myself in some backwards thought process thinking Bowman somehow left our organization. How that has anything to do with getting his money back is beyond me, but I can't hide how I feel. also: Lifts + Nieds at a quick glance looked like Leafs, so the subtitle went perfectly with my "logic".