I totally agree...sure wish we had a Backes on this team....
I wonder what today's fans would think of Scott Stevens?
I'd love Backes on the team. And i'd definitely take Stevens on this team too in his day.
I don't see what the debate is, why does it matter what we think and say about Backes if it's something that is based off of an opinion, it's not like a being a dirty player is like winning a Hart trophy, it's mostly based of personal views.
I go to many other team's boards and I wouldn't care if I saw another fanbase complaining about Kronwall, Stuart, Tootoo, or Bertuzzi etc. being dirty, even if they didn't perform a dirty play it would be so far down the list of concerns and issues for me to talk about.
St. Louis is looking really good this year, the mix of physical play, goaltending/defense, and young talented offensive players should be a really exciting time over in St. Louis, I'd figure it would be more interesting to see how we all think the future looks for both of our teams, what it looks like from another perspective etc. Rather than arguing over a meaningless opinion on a very physical hard to play against player being called dirty. Backes might or might not be dirty, it's not like there is one line of reasoning for determining if a player is dirty, each person can come to their own conclusions based on what they see.
Just my two cents, I personally don't think Backes is dirty, but he is damn tough to play against, plays on the line, sometimes crosses it, so I'm not surprised that fans of a rival team think he's dirty, it's not a huge stretch.
Once Holland lets some guys like Nyquist, Lashoff, Sproul, Oullet, etc come up and get the Wings younger, the future of our team is very bright, along with the acquisition of a nice talent like Brunner. This year though, too many injuries and the production from our 3rd and 4th lines is just disgraceful. Those 2 things are going to be our boys' downfall.
St. Louis I already stated that I believe will win the cup this year. Top to bottom they have the deepest, most talented team and they're healthy. It never hurts when you have a rookie like Tarasenko and a speedy 3rd liner in Schwartz topped off with a healthy McDonald. Pietrangelo for the Conn Smythe and a Blues Cup win is my only prediction for this year.
Wings need some Ryan Pulock in the 1st round, a goal scorer in the 2nd round and rounds 3-7 all guys 6'4 or bigger. Please sign Dekeyser to play with Smith. <--Dekeyser signed, Paired next year. Mark your calendars.
Tootoo needs a partner in crime that plays like him on the other side of Helm. Oh hey, we have Mitchell Callahan. Problem solved.
Cleary....
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