Downey Sent Down to Grand Rapids

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

^ This.

I like Downey and wished somehow he could stay up given the current roster/salary cap/situation but it isn't possible. It is slim/none that he would be claimed off waivers, and a much better chance that somebody like Meech or Kopecky will, no matter how much people in here might piss and moan about them. The organization isn't willing to take that chance, so be it.

It is so fricken annoying to see posts where plenty of people understand the use of an enforcer or physical play or fighting or whatever, but realize it has it's place and might value things a bit more than enforcing, and get falsely labeled as this anti-bulls**t or that these people want the team to be soft or whatever else, like it is an all or nothing proposition. I do not understand why every single time it has to go to these all or nothing extremes. It is incredibly stupid and some of the enforcer slappies need to get off their soapboxes regarding this.

And spare me response like "Well heaven forbid we question Ken Holland" or "You must hate physical play". Save it

Cry me a river, SWF. Plenty of people understand it, my ass.

The few people here that do understand it want an enforcer to play full-time in the regular season.

The rest of the people who claim to understand it don't make sense. They claim that they want Downey to play, but only if he can put up 20 goals or outplay some other 4th line player statistically, which is not an enforcer's job in the first place. If people here understand enforcers, why do they demand such unrealistic expectations from them? And don't bother naming me certain middleweight fighters around the league who can put up points, because those guys aren't enforcers anyway. People here can't get over that fact that enforcers aren't there for their skill, yet they claim to understand an enforcer's role. Bullcrap.

And you keep talking about how other things are more importnat than enforcing. What other things? Our roster has every other kind of player we need. There's definitely no lack in skill right now.

These "enforcer slappies" as you put it are tired of years where their team has hardly any fights. We're just fight-starved.

And finally, there's no poster on LGW who has more of a soapbox preacher mentality than you do, so I wouldn't even go there if I was you.

[Frozen-Man 144]

Cry me a river, SWF. Plenty of people understand it, my ass.

The few people here that do understand it want an enforcer to play full-time in the regular season.

The rest of the people who claim to understand it don't make sense. They claim that they want Downey to play, but only if he can put up 20 goals or outplay some other 4th line player statistically, which is not an enforcer's job in the first place. If people here understand enforcers, why do they demand such unrealistic expectations from them? And don't bother naming me certain middleweight fighters around the league who can put up points, because those guys aren't enforcers anyway. People here can't get over that fact that enforcers aren't there for their skill, yet they claim to understand an enforcer's role. Bullcrap.

And you keep talking about how other things are more importnat than enforcing. What other things? Our roster has every other kind of player we need. There's definitely no lack in skill right now.

It always cracks me up that no one but you and people who think exactly like you do "get it." Even Ken Holland and Mike Babcock don't get it . . . but you do. I like hockey fights, I like good fighters, but because I don't see everything exactly the way you do about whether or not one specific player should be in the lineup over another I don't get it.

These "enforcer slappies" as you put it are tired of years where their team has hardly any fights. We're just fight-starved.

However, I do appreciate that you finally admit that its not really that you want someone to enforce anything, you just like to watch fights. I can understand that, it is awesome to get to watch to players go at it. However, that is why I like those middle weight guys that claim aren't enforcers - you get to watch them fight BUT you also get to watch them play some hockey, I know you don't want a middle weight because they aren't enforcers but I much prefer a guy who can fight when the situation calls for it but can also go out and play 10-15 minutes of solid hockey when the situation doesn't call for him to be fighting. If you want to say that a guy like Lucic is not and enforcer, I don't really care what you label him, he would be awesome for this team, we would get to see some grit, some big hits, a good hockey player, and some fights. See for me it is the difference between a Drake and a Downey. Downey may have had the better hands and be more of a heavy weight but taken on the whole Drake could drop them when necessary and was a good hockey, the rest of his game allowed him to eat up time on the ice giving our top line forwards to play less.

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

It always cracks me up that no one but you and people who think exactly like you do "get it." Even Ken Holland and Mike Babcock don't get it . . . but you do. I like hockey fights, I like good fighters, but because I don't see everything exactly the way you do about whether or not one specific player should be in the lineup over another I don't get it.

However, I do appreciate that you finally admit that its not really that you want someone to enforce anything, you just like to watch fights. I can understand that, it is awesome to get to watch to players go at it. However, that is why I like those middle weight guys that claim aren't enforcers - you get to watch them fight BUT you also get to watch them play some hockey, I know you don't want a middle weight because they aren't enforcers but I much prefer a guy who can fight when the situation calls for it but can also go out and play 10-15 minutes of solid hockey when the situation doesn't call for him to be fighting. If you want to say that a guy like Lucic is not and enforcer, I don't really care what you label him, he would be awesome for this team, we would get to see some grit, some big hits, a good hockey player, and some fights. See for me it is the difference between a Drake and a Downey. Downey may have had the better hands and be more of a heavy weight but taken on the whole Drake could drop them when necessary and was a good hockey, the rest of his game allowed him to eat up time on the ice giving our top line forwards to play less.

There's too many posters here who think that enforcers are completely useless in this "new NHL", and their argument is flat out wrong, since other teams don't happen to agree with that. Those are the people I was referring to.

And I do actually think enforcers do more than enforce. I just made that post to explain why so many of us fight fans are fed up with seeing this team lacking behind in fighting majors. As far as a Lucic type player, that's a pipe dream. That's not the kind of player this management ever scouts for.

Edited March 10, 2009 by GMRwings1983

[uk_redwing 495]

It always cracks me up that no one but you and people who think exactly like you do "get it." Even Ken Holland and Mike Babcock don't get it . . .

Actually Mike Babcock gets it. Ken Holland though...Im not gonna get started on him. He's worse than Bettman.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Cry me a river, SWF. Plenty of people understand it, my ass.

If that makes you sleep easier at night, ok.

The few people here that do understand it want an enforcer to play full-time in the regular season.

The rest of the people who claim to understand it don't make sense. They claim that they want Downey to play, but only if he can put up 20 goals or outplay some other 4th line player statistically, which is not an enforcer's job in the first place. If people here understand enforcers, why do they demand such unrealistic expectations from them? And don't bother naming me certain middleweight fighters around the league who can put up points, because those guys aren't enforcers anyway. People here can't get over that fact that enforcers aren't there for their skill, yet they claim to understand an enforcer's role. Bullcrap.

And you keep talking about how other things are more importnat than enforcing. What other things? Our roster has every other kind of player we need. There's definitely no lack in skill right now.

These "enforcer slappies" as you put it are tired of years where their team has hardly any fights. We're just fight-starved.

On the bolded part, I'm not even going to waste my time because (1) I'm not familiar with enough and (2) it's not going to even change your mind anyways, so why bother.

Shoring up defense and goaltending is more important to me than going in and punching somebody's face in. This isn't a contest to see who is the manliest. If you are fight-starved, that's fine. We all like a good scrap, but realized they have their place in the game and that's it, nothing more or less than that. We might want to put more focus on things I said above as we think they are more important than what you do. Don't go around twisting thoughts adn ideas though of others that aren't fight-starved as much compared to other things.

And finally, there's no poster on LGW who has more of a soapbox preacher mentality than you do, so I wouldn't even go there if I was you.

Perhaps, but you are on a soapbox right now and have been on one before and get too worked up about this stuff way more than necessary. So if you play the soapbox card on me, you certainly have to apply it to yourself at times.

I like Downey a lot, he's far from dead weight. I like fighting/enforcing, but he has his place on the Red Wings organization, and fighting/enforcing have their places and I'd personally want to focus on other things before that right now. If you think that makes me want soft hockey or think I'm stupid, well that's not my problem.

Loosen your gears up some.

[Dabura 12,232]

SWF FTW.

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

SWF FTW.

I agree. It was a wonderful post on his part.

[jvxp 0]

SWF FTW.

What the heck does that mean?

[McCartyFanForLife 17]

What the heck does that mean?

Well in some cases it could be Single White Female for the win, but in this case it means: SouthernWingsFan for the win.

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

Well in some cases it could be Single White Female for the win, but in this case it means: SouthernWingsFan for the win.

Or it could mean that Dabura just doesn't like me.