achildr1

Let's aim to go out there every night and have a consistant effort from every player. I'd rather watch that and have us miss the playoffs than watch some of these entitled loafs float around the ice.

Look at Z trying to be Datsyuk....cute.

I still really like Cleary but certainly not with Pavs.  He's a great 3rd liner when things are going well.
 
Unfortunately right now he's too weak on the puck and his decision making with the puck is way too slow.
 
It's almost like his stick is too short when I watch him.

Cleary is pretyy close to a waste of an opportunity for a younger player right now. Ultimately, if this was a video game, Andersson would have his spot and Cleary would be gone. Thats not how the Wings work tho, rightly and wrongly. It would be nice to ship him off tho.

Im just going to say it...I would be very surprised if we made the playoffs this year. I think Holland knew what was up, before the injuries, when he said we might not make the playoffs.

The breakdown:

Our defense is terrible. Quincey is useless and was officially a waste of that pick. We are arguably better off with Lashoff full time over Quincey. Kronwall is a #2 guy and has too much pressure on him. Ericsson, while not his classically terrible self, instills next to no confidance in me for any kind of playoff type worth. White, Kindl, Huskins, Carlo are all generic filler, depth defenseman. Kronwall and Smith are the only two defenseman we have that I have any confidance in.

Howard is overworked, and while he is underrated, I think he's going to get shelled this year. He has to be yelling "Nick! Where are you?!"...Like a toddler cries for his Mom.

Injuries, while seemingly never good, might actually give Holland some perspective. I personally think, maybe somewhat in hindsight, that it may have been better to not have signed Samuelsson anyway. Some of Bertuzzi, Eaves, Miller, and Emmerton could and should have been sent packing as Nyquist, Tatar, and probably even Andersson are ready for full time duties. So with the injuries, Holland gets to see that those guys bring more than thier older, less skilled counterparts.

Other rantings: Franzen might frustrate more than he's worth...to bad we have him locked up for life. Filppula probably needs to be traded while other teams still think he's going to be awesome one day. I can't see how replacing him with Nyquist in a near throwaway season would hurt too many feelings. Filpulla should bring a pretty nice return from a playoff team.

Highlights: Brunner is way better than I expected and is a legitimate asset to the future of this team. Mrazek keeps on surprising. Zetterberg is on fire and Datsyuk seems to get better with age.

 
I was actually thinking about starting a thread about this, but I guess I'll just do it here.  I wanted to know who people thought was better, all things considered: Datsyuk or Zetterberg? 
 
While I'll readily admit that Datsyuk is the more skilled player, I still think Zetterberg is the better player overall.  He draws the tougher defensive matchups, he hangs on to the puck better when pressured, brings more intensity night in and night out, is a noticeably better penalty killer, and consistently puts up similar or better offensive numbers.  Plus, he'll actually shoot the puck without being forced to at gunpoint. 
 
Anyone else care to chime in?

Im not trying to be confrontational here but...you cannot be serious?!! "Hangs onto the puck better"...complete nonsense, seriously. I have played and followed this game for 19 years and i have never seen anyone crafty or as strong on the puck, especially considering his size, as Datsyuk. I personally think the comparison between the two is not even close. Im not going to look it up, but if im not mistaken, a Hockey News poll of players was taken recently and Crosby and Datsyuk were 1-2 in being strongest on the puck.

Better defensively...Datsyuk literally owns the Selke trophy (best defensive forward IN THE NHL) and takes the puck away from the opposition as much or more than anyone IN THE LEAGUE, let alone on the Wings. Datsyuk is arguably the best overall player in the league. Zetterberg isnt even in the conversation. Z has been impressing me this year and there is a reason he's the captain...but Datsyuk is clearly the better player.

"What a pleasure we have, night in night out, to watch that man", Ken Daniels just said (im watching the replay of last night, and the just played a montage of Datsyuk's highlights from only the first two periods).

Gary Bettman's public image.

Are you confusing penalty shot with shootout?

No. My point was if he scores on a penalty shot, overtime might not of even happened. He might have won the game with the penalty shot goal and never got the other goal. He could of scored on the penalty shot but it would't have been his 6th goal, is the point.

As I recall didnt he have a Penalty Shot for a 6th goal but missed?

Lol...Federov scored his 5th in OT, kinda hard to have a penalty shot after that. I was there, it was my second NHL game. I was 10...remember the winner like it was yesterday. Konstantinov drop passed it back to Sergei for the shot. Good times.

Huh? Are you saying he'll be better than a 4 time Stanley Cup Champion and someone who played over 1,000 games as a Red Wing?

Not to mention a consumate professional, ultra hard worker, fourth liner who wore an "A", Selke winner, and the closest Chuck Norris look alike in the Western hemisphere. Drapes would still school Abby. Who knows what Drapes' career would look like if he had been given the opportunity his whole career that he was given during 03-04.

I decided to pop in the 1997 Championship video and got to thinking...

A movie about March 26th, 1997 (preferably marketed under that title) would not only rock for Wings fans, I think it could be the next great hockey movie if made with the same fervor as "Miracle". I don't believe i've ever seen a more entertaining hockey game in my life. Personally, I preferred the pre-lockout brand of NHL hockey. The battles, physical play, and refs who kept the whistles in their pockets made it much more convincing that only the best team won the game. Obviously, most of you probably know the intimate details of what preceded the game to make it what it was, so ill spare that. My rough draft includes...

Important...Avalanche are the antagonist, duh. It would be great to have it be just an unbiased advertisement for that rivalry and time in hockey history but the Avs have too many bad guys to make that work.

Opening Credits: A quiet video montage with intermittant quotes... Wings disappointments of the preceding few years, Lindros trade and the move of the Nordiques to Colorado, Wings 62 win season, Colorado getting Roy, etc...leading into the 96 WCF.

Opening Scene Movie opens with the intermission and minutes of the period preceding the Claude Lemieux hit in the 1996 Western Conference Finals. During this scene we get glimpses of main characters in the movie (Bowman, Yzerman, McCarty, Maltby, Draper, Vernon, Larionov... Sakic, Forsberg, Foote, Roy, Lemieux, Ricci, Crawford) and a feel for the air in each teams locker room.

Scene 2, The Shanahan Difference: Beginning of season. Talk between higher ups of the Wings about the Shanahan deal, why it was needed. Shows his arrival and Detroit locker room atmosphere.

Scene 3: Avs raise banner, explores lockerroom atmosphere, get to know players/attitudes (especially towards Detroit. Empahasis on Roy, Lemieux, Crawford.

Scene 4: One of the early season meetings of the teams with emphasis on the wings locker room struggles/coming together/animosity towards Colorado

Scene 5: Midseason highlights slideshow with commentator clips.

Scene 6: Week leading up to the 26th...anticipation from both teams, arrogance, jokes, etc. (all preceding scenes are less than 1/2 of movie time)

Gametime: More than enough opportunity to make a great flick here.

Actors (this is I think what got me started with this idea)...


Scotty Bowman - Jason Alexander (Sounds insane, but he could look almost exactly like   him and if he pulled it off would be one of the more impressive acting roles he could ever accomplish)

Claude Lemieux - Jason Isaacs

Mike Vernon - Emilio Estevez

Mike Ricci - Himself (previosly played Elmer Lach in The Rocket)

Mathieu Dandenault - Himself (also played in The Rocket)

Marc Crawford - Himself (i bet he'd be a good actor)

Adam Foote - Owen Wilson (i know, right? Wierd? It’s in the nose...would also be a big role for him if he pulled of the attitude right because its not his normal role)

Joe Sakic - Harry Conick Jr. (I know, i know...google it tho). Probably not though, no idea for him.

Peter Forsberg - If you know anyone else that looks like the offspring of a vampire and lion, let me know.

Konstantinov - ?? (btw, Vlad was one of the oldest looking 27 year olds ever)

Darren McCarty - Critical role and I am clueless

Igor Larionov - Himself (a little hair color and he's 36 again...dude's to cool for anyone else to play him anyway)

Brendan Shanahan - huge role, big voice in the movie, humor focal point along with Darren (ideally some young, funny, up and comer...no idea tho)

Barry Smith - Paul Gleason

Dave Lewis - Whoever normally plays Hitler in movies


Real interested in who LGW can come up with!

This may put be a big hiccup in our effort to sign Suter. I can't see them trading his rights to us. They may even trade him to someone else just so we don't have as good of a chance to get him.

in 5 years you'll still make the line threads  













j/k  

Hahaha. Nice.

Right now, Vancouver is hoping they get some kind of "contract forgiveness" opportunity with the new CBA.  That would be the opportunity to take one player off the books at no cap hit.  I don't think this will happen, but it would give each team a chance to rethink those horrible deals they entered in with crappy players.  Like Wade Redden in NYR, or DiPietro in NYI, or Luongo in VAN.  I don't think it will happen, but its possible.

Franzen in DET, Gomez in MTL, Pronger in PHI?, Komisarek or Phaneuf in TOR, Lecavalier iin TB, Kovalchuk in NJ, Bouwmeester in CGY, Steve Mason in CLB, Richards/Carter in LA. If they allow that, it should get interesting. Washington could legitimatly look at Ovechkin.

I've grown up with this game, I love it. But I've never in my life thought the NHL was so utterly pathetic, cheap, and blatently crooked and biased in my lifetime.

After seeing that Torres got 25 games for that hit, I've seen enough. I understand the game of hockey and have watched and played long enough to know that hit differed from a Kronwall hit by about an extra second. Seriously, watch it again. I have no idea what all this fuss is about. Once again though, its a bottom 6 guy, so the NHL can make a statement. They can make up for not suspending clear intent to injure the head, from behind, of another on a non-hockey play by giving out an assininely overboard suspension to a bottom six guy on what essentially was a late hit. A late hit to the front of a player (head up Hossa!). The clear bias towards star players is sickening. Some of Kronwall's hits have been similar to that hit and nothing happens. The funny part is we knew already that Weber would get a slap on the wrist and it happened just like we said. "Well that's just the way it is" is not good enough, this is embarrassing for hockey. The NHL's attempt at any serious regard for players health and safety is marred by the fact that when the rubber meets the road and they have to make a tough decision, they drop the ball. Any rule they make has some kind of loophole for star players and then they act like they can throw the book at Brendan Smith, Raffi Torres, etc.
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Now i start to watch closely at what happens when its a player from a team that Bettman really needs to succeed, in his small market experiments (Nashville). The fact that the NHL owns the Pheonix Coyotes is one of the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen and should call into question almost everything that happens in a playoffs series with them involved. Bettman has went to near every length he can to keep them there (while letting ATL go without so much as a breath of remorse) and I would not be surprised in the slightest to learn of any involvement between him and anyone that has any way to even quietly influence a series in their favor. There's hundreds of millions of dollars at stake and we all know Bettman is all about money. I'm happy for the Coyotes and I haven't got to watch any of that series but I legitimately wonder if its being called toward Pheonix's favor. I was glad to see the Penguins getting stomped but I started wondering if the officiating was goingto turn toward Pittsburgh because I know that series is getting a ton of tv viewers and makeing the league a ton of money. Call it conspiracy but in the last four years the NHL has shown its true colors and bias and it seems to follow the money to me. Our series with the Pens, the first SJ series in the 2nd round (the most epically crooked thing I've ever watched in hockey), and now the clear confusion/bias in dealing with suspensions has shown how much of a crooked league we have. I miss the old NHL.

I know this is all over the place right now, maybe ill finish and expound on my thoughts when I can (at work now).

Babs has been simmering since the trade deadline.  He wasn't happy with what we added, he'd repeatedly said this was our best team since 08/09 (and it was before the injuries).  He's made more references to the lack of size/toughness on the team than ever before.  Now he's saying Nashville has 3 Franchise players and we don't, that they had better forward depth....

He's actually been upset since last summer at the draft, I believe. When SJ got Burns I think he said some stuff implying that our rivals got significantly better and we didn't do anything.