Echolalia

We definitely have all the pieces to take any team on in the league for the cup. There are only two problems that have me concerned: injuries and playoff experience of our younger players. Injuries is pretty self-explainable. Even with our injuries last year we fought into the third round, but at that point our team was too depleted, and combine that with the refusal to die and some timely, lucky bounces in Anaheim's favor, and the series is over. As for playoff experience, I'm worried that players like Hudler, Kopecky, and Fillppula don't have enough of it to know how much they're going to have to step it up to make a difference this year, but we'll see what happens. They definitely have it in them, its just a matter of extracting it when the time calls for it.

I'm not a particularly violent guy, but I think i would get all warm and fuzzy inside if someone took a hockey stick and drove it straight into this guys face... but this time with intent and maliciousness.

This one should be one heck of a game. Also, apparently Helm got the call to head up for this game, so he's probably going to be in for Hartigan. Anyway, we're going to win them all but one from here on out, so if we loose this one, we're going undefeated into the playoffs. Wings 4-2 Kopecky Kronwall Zetterberg Draper Morrow Ribero

Oh man this should be stickied and be continued throughout the playoffs until a champion is crowned

The nhl in the early 90's was projected as being the "upcoming sport", and was considered more popular than basketball, if i remember correctly, and the only reason why ESPN is giving nhl a bad wrap is because Bettman rejected ESPN's desire to have rights to nhl games. ESPN is loosing out on an "untapped" resource of fans and money, so they badmouth the nhl to try to keep ratings low on competitive television networks (ie versus). Although that is just my theory, but it makes sense to me

As far as i know there are two game jerseys the wings have (home and away), and their practice jersey. I don't know if they have backup's just in case something happens (I can't imagine why not). As for who makes it, I think Reebok made these last set of jerseys, through an affiliation with the nhl, though. The WWW is in honor of their former owner, William Wirtz, who died around the beginning of the season.

We're amidst the same streak now

What is this interview everyone speaks of?

Pssh bring on Vancouver, we'll walk all over them

I'm still saying the Wings will win them all but one from here on out. I've been sayin' it since the Sharks game

I don't think the league would give Michigan much of an oppurtunity to host an outdoor game, mostly because we're already the greatest hockey state in the country. There's no fans left to be had, especially compared to a northern state who isn't as big on hockey. New York is a decent area to have it because they have a good enough fan base to sell out the arena without much problem, yet there's still room for growth, and capitalizing on what could very well be the last game at Yankee Stadium is something many fans and potential fans aren't going to want to miss out on. At the same time, the Red Wings and Rangers are two popular franchises in the sport of hockey, two original six teams, and its a Western/Eastern Conference battle, so there's a lot of selling potential there. As for having it on New Years day, I also think thats a good idea. Its a bit risky to have it the same day as College Football, but Bettman is showing some serious balls in that he's willing to compete with the top American sport right now, and he's going about it in all the right ways (ie utilizing two of the best selling teams, O6 matchup, historic final game at Yankee stadium, etc etc). If the nhl plans on increasing national ratings, they're going to have to compete with something.

There are always going to be illegal sticks in the game, and teams are always going to be hesitant to call the player out on it. Just make them legal already. If anything it will increase scoring, which is what the league wants anyways

I enjoy a good Onion article

So what was that, three games?

So I'm watching the Sens Ducks game, and I've been pretty against reducing pad sizes over the past few years, but Giguere is just ridiculous. He just stands there sucks pucks in and the commentators are practically orgasming on his "saves". How are his pads even legal by today's standards?? Where the hell is Duck Guy, we need an ambassador to explain this fiasco! Seriously, if lowering pad sizes will make Giguere actually use some skill and reflexes, I'm all for it. Consider me converted. Also, sorry for those of you who are tired of talking about pad sizes, its just that I haven't seen the Ducks' net all night, and the commentators are trying to assure me its still back there...

We're winning them all from here on out. 16 game win streak to hit the playoffs. Maybe one loss.

Yeah, I was about to post the same thing. Hope its nothing too serious...

Datsyuk is 29 and Zetterberg is 27, and each season either of them play is generally better than the previous. They're still getting better.

As much as I hate seeing people injured on cheap shots, players like Tootoo and Pronger really make rivalries worth while, just because you want your team to beat them that much more. If there were no goons in the league, it would definitely be a lot safer, but it would probably be more boring also.

Them sound like fightin' words

Them sound like fightin' words

I don't think either one will make it to 100 points, personally. Its definitely possible, but with every team fighting for their life for a playoff spot, teams may be a bit more competative, and Babcock may sit them for the last couple games to rest them up and make sure they're 100%. Besides, they're most efficient when together, and I think Babs will want them split up as much as possible on the home stretch to "spread out the offense" for the playoffs. Again, its definitely possible, and I would love to see it, but its unlikely. But these guys are also young still, and are still getting better. If they don't each get 100 point seasons sometime throughout their career, I'll consider it a disappointment.

So if the Wings win 9 of their next 14 games, we will win the Presidents Trophy (unless the Devils win all their games and score an insane amount between now and then as well as play amazing defense to beat us in the goals for-goals against tie breaker (as we would have the same number of points, wins, and haven't versed each other this year). I know this means nothing come playoffs, but its still nice to know that the team pretty much didn't play at all through an entire month and are still the statistical favorites for the trophy by a decent margin. By the way, thats 9 of 14 games left, so we also have some room for error. Knock on wood. And for those of you curious- yes I was bored enough to calculate it all out; its 1:30 am and I'm not tired at all. I don't even know if this is worth discussing. I'm really just bored...

With all our previous early round exits, I want to blame a lot of it on our best players being old and worn down, while our new players had no playoff experience, so they didn't know exactly what was needed of them. Now that our older superstars have all moved on (ie Yzerman and Shanahan) and our younger players have turned into veteran superstars with plenty of playoff experience (Zetterberg, Datsyuk), I think we're better prepared for the post season. Hopefully this year Hudler, Fillppula and Kopecky can step it up to a playoff level. We're definitely going to be needing them, and they could very well be the difference between an early playoff exit and a Stanley Cup.

There are a lot of people and arguably television ratings that say scoring and goalies aren't fine, and something is broken. I also said in my post that the nhl shouldn't become like the nba in which scoring is all too common and takes all the value out of a goal, but something should be done to increase the excitement (hence fans and ratings), and because goal scoring is down from the late 80's/early 90's (you know, when the nhl was the "upcoming sport" and was considered more popular than basketball and baseball), we should probably get the game back to what it was like then ie increase scoring a bit.