General thoughts: this team, its future, the league...

[chrisdetroit 189]

Chris, when does just making the playoffs become not good enough anymore? I always thought the goal here in hockeytown was to win the cup. We have digressed since '09 major changes need to be made unless mediocrity is good enough for Kenny and his gang of blind followers.

I never said that just making the playoffs was good enough. At the start of the season, there were LOTS of people that said that we wouldn't even make the playoffs. I am just pointing out what I said at that time. We will make the playoffs. Beyond that who knows? How many people thought the Kings would win the Cup last year?

I don't buy all the doom and gloom crap. Last year we were the #1 team in the league at the trade deadline. We have some high level talent - Datsyuk and Z, some guys with really high upside - Smith, and Brunner and highly rated group of prospects. I'm not sure why you are expecting "bad times"

• Detroit Red Wings

TEAM BREAKDOWN:

Strengths: The Red Wings have a balanced and deep prospect pool. Brendan Smith and Gustav Nyquist have put in their time in the minors and are ready for NHL duty, while the next wave including scoring winger Tomas Jurco and goalie Petr Mrazek are making their professional debuts in 2012-13. Skill, hockey sense, and work ethic are the hallmarks of their deep and talented forward pool. There is a steady stream of defenseman at all levels of play, including junior prospects and second-round picks in 2011 Ryan Sproul and Xavier Ouellet each with the potential to crack the Wings' top-four defensemen in the futur

[Kindl Surprise 47]

When I watched Niemi VS Leighton in the cup final a couple years ago, i realized that you can win without elite goaltending

[Adidarw 35]

And what's the deal with people crapping on Kronwall's ability to be a top pairing defenseman?

http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats.htm?season=20122013&gameType=2&team=&position=D&country=&status=&viewName=summary

Good point. I'd like to point out that even while he's up there (number 5, currently) he also has (many) more penalty minutes than 99% of the other guys on that page. So he's putting points up there with the big dogs, even while spending more time in the box than them.

[Mitchmac33 103]

Where are these guys that you speak of? Suter ? We put a huge offer out for him..he was never coming here..he wanted to play in Minny..end of conversation on that one. Check out that link with the top defensive scorers on it. There isn't one guy in the top 30 that is head and shoulders above the rest. Alot of really good guys there but spending 10 mil a year on any of those guys is crazy.

What? Obviously the return on investement on Colo, Sammy and Gustavsson is still up for debate because they have been injured. Tootoo has done everything they would've wanted out of him so far..he's been physical, dropped the gloves and changed the flow of games when we needed it. Bert is what he is, 3rd line guy..10-15 goals a year..good contract..good team guy. Quincey would be tolerable if we didnt give up a 1st for him..that one hurts. Huskins was an emergency guy playing for peanuts and doing everything they asked of him. Get over the Parise and Suter thing..you don't get it..they were never playing here..we offered them huge money and they wanted to play in Minny.

I agree with Tootoo, he's been completely worth the investment. I think that Sammy signing was stupid along with the Bert one. I think I wouldn't have minded 1 year contracts for each, but I'm not thrilled about multiple years for both. And Bertuzzi is a 3rd line player, except he's playing with a top 2 line with Datsyuk.