Jedi

Oh look. Another "Wings fall behind in the first" game. Like we haven't had enough of those this season...

For tonight's images, you get to use the most powerful graphics processor available... Your imaginations!!! And go!

Seriously, NHL. What the hell is the point of the War Room in Toronto if you're not going to use it.

I'm really starting to hate the NHL refs. In a shortened season, bad calls like that do nothing but screw teams out of goals, points, and playoff spots.

Helm, full speed ahead!

Well, we're only on pace to let in 20 or 30 goals tonight...

We now have earned 3 points out of 10 possible in our meetings with the WORST. TEAM. IN. THE. CONFERENCE.

Disgusting.

It's worth noting that the Jackets are the worst team in the West, with 20 points.

5 of those points came against Detroit (1 SO loss, 2 wins). Had Detroit won the other 2 games, they would be sitting at 32 points, a full 6 points ahead of LA, SJ, Dal and StL for 4th place, rather than the 2 we're ahead now. Another win today would have been 34 points, 8 ahead of the pack. And since StL and SJ are playing each other, it's guaranteed we'll be tied in the race with one of those teams after today...

Missed opportunities against the worst team in our conference...

Holland, Stan Bowman and Paul Holmgren sat down for a conversation with ESPN's Pierre LeBrun regarding possible trade mindsets for their respective teams.
 
When the conversation came around to the Red Wings needs, Kenny Holland says the phrase we all know we LOVE to hear...  (emphasis mine)
 

Just getting healthy, if that ever happens, will be like making a few trades for Detroit, which has yet to play with a fully healthy lineup this season. 
 
"If we can get all our guys back, that’s almost like a deadline addition or two," Holland said.

 

LeBrun wraps up the Wings section nicely by pointing out the Wings would like a top-4 D man, but that might be hard to get come deadline time. I'd recommend giving the full story a read.

Are people seriously excited to play the same 7 teams 6 times during the season, then two of them (if we win a couple rounds) in a best of 7? There's a potential to play one team 13 times. If you ask me, that's a huge over kill and it will get old fast! There's one thing about being retro, but to set up the league like it's 1968 is just plain dumb.

That's no different than as scheduled last season. 2011/12, we played each team in the Central 6 times. Had we gone 7 games against Nashville, that reaches your potential 13 games. The only difference now is that we can stay in the same time zone guaranteed for the first 2 rounds, and significantly help our travel time.

Had we been in a more favorable travel situation, 07 (Calgary, San Jose, Anaheim) could have ended a bit differently for us...

Can't say I've ever seen a team get 3 5-on3's in one game. I'm not one to blame a loss on the refs, but a game like this makes it awful hard not to...

http://sports.yahoo....41192--nhl.html

 

I've lost all faith in Wysh now.  Everyone knows it's Darth Sidious not Darth Sideous...  *shakes head*

In case anyone missed it, Ed Oczyk proved his idiocy in fine fashion during the Oilers/Hawks game...

 

...Chicago Blackhawks’ broadcaster Ed Olczyk took affront at the way Yakupov ducked a hit by Chicago irritant Daniel Carcillo during Monday night’s game. Here’s a full transcript of Olczyk’s commentary in the above video of the incident (which angle I don’t believe was shown on the Sportsnet broadcast).


 

“We’re going to go back to that hit. It’s really important, and I want all you young hockey players to watch this. If you are Nail Yakupov of the Edmonton Oilers, you cannot do that to a player that’s coming. That’s a dangerous play by Nail Yakupov. Because what happens is, when you duck like that, that player is going to go over the top of your shoulder and hit his face or his neck against the boards. To me that should be a penalty on Yakupov. I see it at the amateur level, I’d like to see USA Hockey and amateur referees take control of that type of play. I hope it’s not being taught by coaches, but that’s a dangerous play. Somebody’s going to get really hurt when a player ducks like that.”

 

The author of the article wraps it up nicely.  Click on the link to read the rest of the article.

It was awesome, until I saw Yoda with a red (or possibly Flyers' Orange) lightsaber.

 

The Force is mild with this one.  Not weak, but not strong either...

Updated my map from last year with the new proposed realignment, for people who (like me) like to see the proposal in Google Maps form...

 

George Malik put it in a rather "matter-of-fact"ly manner earlier...  At this moment, would you rather have Mursak's potential, Tatar's hands, or Andersson's size?  Seems that one of those 3 has to be odd man out, so it's a move that doesn't eliminate something the team needs right now.