Barrie

So who deserves to sit more after this game, Smith or Kindl?

Nah, they're young and learning on the fly, just let them play.

I agree with this completely but they have absolutely nobody to play with. If Z and Pavel don't score....we lose. Ken Holland bet on Mule over Hossa and lost big time. Mule is one of the laziest players in the NHL if not the most lazy. Holland is probably going to hand Fil a big sack of money that he in no way deserves. 

Ok enough Hossa vs. Franzen talk...

How quickly people forget Hossa was one of the ones blamed for not winning the 2009 Stanley Cup. Hossa only had 15 points in 23 playoff games, and we were very disappointed in his lack of scoring in the finals. Franzen had 23 pts in 23 playoff games, and 18 pts in 16 playoff games in 2008. Personally 99.99999% of us would have been pissed if Holland signed Hossa over Franzen after 2009.

Since the 2008-09 season Hossa has 208 pts in 231 regular season games (90%), Franzen 150 pts in 208 games (72%). Hossa has a cap hit of $5,275,000, Franzen $3,954,545. Franzen get's paid 75% of what Hossa does.

I wouldn't even say hindsight is 20/20, because for dollar value, it's even.

Pretty crazy how all of the sudden the Wings have one of the best D prospect pools in the league. 

And people here were saying Holland wasn't ready for Lidstrom's retirement...

Detroit hasn't lost anything. For the 100th time, I think it's obvious Holland is building the team through the draft, and the days of Free Agents and blockbuster trades ended in 2005 when the Salary Cap was introduced. The market for UFA's and trades are way over priced.

Seriously people can't see what Holland is doing with the team and don't understand how the cap works? Geeze, it's been 8 years!

Edit: Also keep in mind the cap is going down next year.

My favorite Championship is 2002, but nothing will beat those late-90's teams. Stevie, Shanny, Fedorov, Ozzie, Lidstrom, Murphy, DMac, Lapointe, Larionov, Kozlov, Draper, Maltby, Holmstrom, etc. I miss those guys.

Just heard today on TSN 1050 Iginla's list has 4 teams, the last 4 Cup Champs: Pens, B.Hawks, Bruins, and Kings. Since we're switching Leagues next year, I hope he goes to the Bruins. Let Boston gutt their farm system for him.

Colorado had a lot of fans in late 90s and early 00s, but that's pretty much all died out.  

It's even died out in Colorado

My question is how can a team that has no Swedes have the largest following in Sweden?

Considering the Pens have only 3 players born outside North America, I wouldn't think they'd have a huge long term following in Europe. Maybe just some fans who started following them because of Crosby.

Wow getzlaf and perry showing emotion. I wish we had guys that showed half of that.

No way, Getzlaf and Perry are some of the biggest babies in the league.

If this team misses the playoffs, this could be his last game of the year.  

 

Interesting to see what they do with this bust in the offseason.  For his Jon Scott like numbers, he's eating up a lot of cap space.  Not to mention, that top pick we traded for him.

 

On the bright side, Carlo Coca Cola may get some playing time soon.     

Quincey is one of many over priced Defencemen in the current NHL cap world. The market for average "D" is inflated. If we weren't overpaying for Quincey, we'd be overpaying someone else.

Can people really not see or understand that we're currently rebuilding on the fly?

I look at it differently. I do not see it a a drastic decline in the Wings, but rather, an improvement in the competition. The salary cap era was created to gain parity in the league, and I think it has done so. For a lot of those years prior, the Wings had an open checkbook and could dominate the league in paying for talent, and it showed. Unfortunately, it has caused a lot of spoiled fans that are now longing for the return of those days. Well, people, those days are over.

You know what's sad? Is that some people need to be reminded that there's a salary cap.

The Dats-Cleary-Abby line is my only complaint about the team. With Franzen back, I don't know why Babs loads up a line with Brunner-Z-Franzen, then has Cleary and Abby with our best player.

Abby should be on a line with Tootoo.

I'm not saying we'll win or lose, but this year going into the playoffs we won't have any pressure (Chicago's going to have all the pressure), and we have guys on the team who have been there and done that. All teams have to do is get a couple breaks, get hot at the right time, and believe in themselves.

Again, if I'm on another team in the west, or just a fan, I don't want to play the Wings in the playoffs. Playing this year's Wings in a best of 7 would take a lot out of you.

Have you been watching them lately?

They look like a playoff bound team to me.. And after that, any team that makes the playoffs can win the cup.

Right, I don't know what everyone else is watching, but this team is good! They work hard, they're tough, fast, block a lot of shots, and Howard is probably playing the best he ever has. Just wait until Helm comes back!

I know if I was on one of the other teams in the West, I wouldn't want to play the Wings in the playoffs.