stevie for president

Torres has a history and it's hard to give him the benefit of doubt, but he didn't jump, he didn't throw an elbow, he didn't take strides before the check, the shoulder was the initial point of contact, and in my opinion the head was only contacted because Stoll reached for the puck and was on his back way up which shifted the position of his head and shoulders.  The only valid argument I can see against Torres is that the check was reckless, but I'd argue that Stoll was even more reckless for reaching for a puck. Bad things happen to you when you reach for the puck. The NHL is shifting blame on the checking player, and I think it's unfair because that's a hit Torres needs to make (just like Gryba needed to make that hit last round) and the hit would have been clean if Stoll stayed in the leaning forward position. I could see 1-2 for a reckless hit with incidental contact to the head given Torres' history, but a potential 6 game suspension in the playoffs for this hit is entirely too much. Just my 2 cents.

Zetterberg put the team on his back again tonight. When they need to win a game, the captain is by far the best player on the ice for either team. He reminds me very much of 1995-2002 Steve Yzerman in that regard.

Did the NHL get rid of minor penalties for charging or something? How was that any worse than any other charging minor??!

Hmmm...  If only Anaheim would take a trade like McCollum, White (pending UFA), & Miller (pending UFA) for a Bobby Ryan.  Hmmm...  If only Calgary would have taken Pearce (leaving hockey to go back to med school), Sammy (injured & has a NTC), & Emmerton for Bouwmeester.  Hmmm...  If only every trade Kenny tried to make for a top 6 forward or #1/2 d-man wouldn't start with teams wanting Smith, Nyquist, and/or Mrazek in return & instead they would take a combination of the Wings' bottom 6 forwards & #6/7 d-men for high caliber players .  Hmmm...If only Kenny didn't care about rebuilding the talent pool in the farm system that was dreadful after spending the 90's & early 00's trading his best picks & prospects away and he would just continue to flip them for more bottom 6 forwards or bottom pairing d-men.

 

Hopefully that offensive creativity is on the way in the next few years i.e. Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, Frk, Almquist, Jarnkrok, Pulkkinen, Sproul, etc. as long as Kenny doesn't go nuts & trade them all off.

I agree, no one wants our garbage, but last year Stuart said he wants to go to Cali and there were rumors of Anaheim looking to trade Bobby Ryan. You could've packaged Stuart, a 1st, and mid-round pick or mid-range prospect for Bobby Ryan at that time (and I even suggested it in a thread last year so this isn't a case of hindsight being 20/20) instead of letting Stuart walk and wasting that 1st on Quincey. At this deadline, you could've gotten at least a 5th for White and an overpayment for Filppula who are both likely walking at the end of the season. My issue is if Kenny is rebuilding, why were the wings trying to be bargain shoppers at the deadline? He could have just as easily gotten some picks and prospects for those 2 UFAs, scratched guys like Cleary and seen what the next wave of prospects has to offer. Maybe Tatar provides some offense. I mean, he can't be worse than Flip or Brunner have been.

Dallas, Phoenix, and San Jose are 3 sellers who have really turned it on after the deadline, so it's possible to be a seller and still make the playoffs, too!

For a long time, the Detroit-Chicago rivalry was just us kicking them while they were down. The rivalry didn't get good until 2009-2010, and even then it wasn't much of rivalry. Just 2 good teams in the same division, but no bad blood. Maybe they hate us and want it to be a rivalry, but I'm more upset about leaving the Sharks than Hawks to be honest. Sucks we likely won't have a chance to avenge the 2010 and 2011 playoff losses.