chrisdetroit

Are you serious?
We've finally gotten to the point where it is socially acceptable to be of any race, religion, ethnic background, sexual orientation, or gender.  We have gotten rid of the stigma associated with mental illness, addiction, and disability, and now we have to deal with someone who thinks it's not ok to be fat?

We still have work to do.

Poor Buf.  First the poster child for black players, now the poster child for fat players.

It is NOT ok to be fat.  It is unhealthy.  It has nothing to do with bias.  If you are fat you are not healthy and in 99% of the cases it is preventable.  

None of the things you mentioned above are preventable.  Your comparison is not valid.  This is exactly the problem.  Society wants to compare being fat with a disability.  Granted that there are a small % of people that because of medical reasons are pre-destined to be fat but they are in a small minority.  Most of the people just don't eat right and exercise enough and that should be discouraged.

In case you haven't been paying attention...It is now socially acceptable to be fat.  THAT is the real problem.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy...


Oh, I mean, HOW TERRIBLE!



In all seriousness, Crosby should never have played the next game vs Tampa if he had symptoms stemming from the Steckel hit on New Year's Day.  Hedman hits him from behind, down again and this time for good.

And what's absolutely crazy about all this, remember:  The Pens' new rink at the Consol Energy Center was DESIGNED AND BUILT to have a capacity of 18,087.  Wouldn't that suck if 87 never played another game at the rink with his number in the seating?

Wait a minute.  Are you serious?  They purposely designed the rink to have a capacity to end in an individual players' number?  If that is true that is just stupid.  It sends the message that 1 player is more important than the others?

Ok.  So I looked it up and you are correct.  This is just stupid.  But then again, it is the Pittsburgh Penguins...

Hudler was tied for 159th in forward scoring, but 233rd in ice time. Defensively, e was equal to or better than most forwards finishing with similar scoring numbers. There are 30 teams, and three forwards per line. Teams generally dress two as scoring lines. So finishing in the top 180 (30 x 6) means the player is a "top-six" forward in the league, 159th being a second line forward. But Hudler's rank of 233rd in ice time would place him as having been a third-line forward. So offensively, he produced above what his ice time suggested he should have. If he had ranked in the same range of scoring as his ice time, he would have scored about 25 points.

It's not the year he had in 2008-09, but it's not the terrible performance that LGW haters make it out to be.

That is some twisted  logic.  Your logic would only make sense if all teams were relatively equal.  Hudler may be a top six forward on Edmonton but not even close on the Wings.  I'll give him that he is a top six forward on a crappy team but you can't average all 30 teams together and draw a conclusion like you did.

Secondly you are only looking at his offensive performance which is only half the game.  He finished with a +/- of -7 which ranks him 479th among forwards and dead last on the Wings.  There are 587 forwards that played last year in the league  479/587 = 0.81 which means that he is in the bottom 19%.

Lack of scoring was not his biggest issue.  It was lack of defensive play.

I'm not a Hudler hater and I expect him to have a much better season this year, but let's not sugar coat it.

Top 10 finishes:

1, 2, 3, 6 - Crosby
2, 3, 5, 7 - Bure
1, 6, 7 - Lindros

And unlike Bure and Lindros, Crosby won a Cup, as the youngest captain to do so ever.
He is a shoe-in.

Maltby won  Cups.  So what.  And what the hell does his age have to do with it.

1 Cup and he's in.  Are you kidding?

He's played what 3 years and people are talking about the HOF.  Get a grip.

1. Darren Helm scores at least 20 Goals.
2. Jiri Hudler is sent to Grand Rapids.
3. Kronwall becomes the new Raffy.
4. Jimmy Howard gets nominated for the Jennings trophy.
5. Ken Holland will trade for a top-4 D-Man at the deadline.
6. Commodore becomes the new semi-Darren McCarty.
7. Dareen McCarty comes back to the Organization somehow.  
8. Abby will have 30-35 points.
9. Tatar and Smith come up somewhere during the season.
10. Ty Conklin will start around 20-25 games as Howard's back up.

The Jennings trophy is given to the goalie whose team has the fewest goals against.  It is not something that is voted on.  I think that you mean the Vezina.

i hate to make this a discussion about enforcers and toughness, but here it goes. i feel like the style we play is all skill. even our front of the net play is based on skill and not size or toughness. other teams kno that they simply cant beat us playing a skills game, so what do they do? they go out and hit, and hit, and hit, and try to out muscle us everywhere. other teams see the winged wheel on our jersey as a giant red bullseye, everyone wants to beat us. this is gonna result in injuries for us.

thats why i think commodore was a good signing, bertuzzi was a good signing, and guys like abby need to play larger roles here in the future. intimidation and physical play is an important part of the game, especially in the playoffs. im not gonna argue that we need an enforcer, thou i wont argue against it either. we need to be able to play our skill style, but still make teams think twice about landing that big one on dats or z. frankly i miss the grind line

If that were true, how did we win the Cup in '08 and come within one goal of winning it in '09?  There is no substance to your argument.  San Jose didn't beat us because they out hit us.  If fact, we outhit them in several of the games.

I never said we should replace Datsyuk or Lidstrom.  We have to ride those guys no matter what.  Same with Zetterberg or Kronwall.  

However, Franzen has had many concussions and injuries over the last few years.  No one can deny that.  If he can't stay healthy over the course of a season again (and playoffs), I wouldn't be against moving him.  I think of him as an injury prone player.  Likewise,  Cleary has only played 70 games once in the last 4 seasons.  Homer has also only played 70 games once in the last 4 seasons.  These guys won't be around forever.  Bertuzzi hasn't missed much time as a Wing, but he's not getting any younger either.    

Now we have made some strides with Ozzie, Modano and Rafalski being gone and us getting a little younger.  But our secondary scoring still comprises of certain players who I consider to be injury prone and wouldn't mind seeing a change.

Franzen  is one of the top playoff performers in the league and you want to move him?  Because in your opinion he is injury prone?  Really?

There are MANY factors that determine who wins the Cup each year.  Only one of those factors is who looks best on paper.  How many people predicted Boston would win this year?  It's really more about who has a chance to win the Cup.  In order to actually win, they have to have luck, intangibles, etc.  So really, it comes down to who has a chance.  IMO it's:

Detroit
Vancouver
San Jose
Los Angeles
Philly
Boston
Tampa
Washington

Years ago, you could predict who would win but now not so much.  Just last year, we saw 2 different teams come from a 0-3 hole to force a game 7.  This is almost unheard of.  The year before, we saw a team come from an 0-3 hole and win in game seven for the first time in 35 years.

Last year Boston came back in the finals from being down 0-2 and then 2-3 to win the Cup as the visiting team.  Pittsburgh did the same thing in 2009.  

AND Boston won the Cup by winning 3 series in game 7.  This never happened before.  

Forget about predicting who will win the Cup.  You will be wrong.

The people on here complaining that we overpaid for Big E are probably the same that were bitching about overpaying for Kronwall a couple of years ago.


And Mursak could become a top six forward.  It's far to early to tell.  Dats wasn't great in his first year and Mursak hasn't even played his first full year...

There are 2 types of players.  Guys that want more than anything to win the Cup and guys that want to make as much money as possible.


Since Wiz signed a big contract with Columbus, he obviously is in the later category.  

He will enjoy golf in April with his big bucks.  

His loss, not ours.

I am thinking the reason we are unable to unload him is that he is knocked off the puck WAY to easy... The guy is little and is VERY easy to move...

Give me a hard working Canadian boy any day over his lazy butt...

Marty St. Louis is small also but I'd take him in a heartbeat.  It's not about size, it's about heart.  That Russsian guy that we have is pretty goos to.  

Stop with the anti-European crap.  That got old 10 years ago...

when did we trade for someone better than 3rd pair def pylon? Shanahan comes to my mind in 1997... 15 years ago

Brad Stewart at the trade deadline in 2008. You have a short and selectively negative memory.  Oh and we won the Cup that year.

I love the Burrows hate, just like I loved all the Bertuzzi hate when he played for Vancouver, makes these wins all that much sweeter.  Don't be looking too forward to next season though, Canucks will still have most of their crew for the next few years so chances are good you'll witness your nightmare all over again as the Nucks make it two in a row  

What a homer.  NOBODY has won 2 cups in a row since the Wings in 97 and 98 and in fact nobody has made it back to the finals after winning the Cup in that period but the Wings.

You do realize that your team came within 1 bounce of not making it out of the first round don't you?  An OT win in game 7 in the first round is all that separates the Canucks from a first round failure.

There is lots of luck required to win the cup.  Even if you have the best team.  To say your team will get the bounces again is just stupid.

I hate both teams, but I hate boston less. Why can't they both lose?

I'm with you.  But at least we don't have to hear about Crosby or Ovechkin.