Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings and Gustavsson reach an agreement.

mlive says...

 

solid life advice from the Red Wings to Kaylee G.

 

Red Wings season starts Oct 9th against the Bruins. First time these two teams have started a season against each other since the mid 70's.

Full regular season schedule to be released Sunday.

 

kaylee better have a killer set of tits and an ass to die for, cuz that face ain't gonna cut it. i think i saw "Ticondaroga No. 2" stamped on the side of her nose.

 

what if she had other skillz?

 

wuddaya mean?
ping-pong ball trick? squirt across the room? cram two poles into her whore-mouth at once?
if she can do all 3, then she has at least a shot at nabbing a Red Wings player. there's probably some steep competition in the DET area regarding those above listed skillz, but you can't win if you don't play, right?

 

This is cool...

 

Should Detroit Red Wings' Mike Babcock win the NHL's Coach of the Year award? Babcock, who has never been named Coach of the Year, is one of three finalists along with Colorado's Patrick Roy and Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper.

Thats a good question raised today on mlive. I think Cooper did just fine, but no cigar when it comes to what Babcock's team and Cakes team accomplished. It was a fantastic season for the Lanche, but what Bab's did with what he had may be enough to push him over the top. Im trying to remove my Wingzavision goggles and be objective and my hatred towards Cakes is not easy to over look, but I lean towards Babcock. To much negative set-backs throughout the entire season to overcome easily for Babcock. I dont know much about the Colorado season tho. Did they have an equal amount of stuff to deal with, or did their core and goaltending stay relatively in tact?

I say. 1)Babcock 2)Cakes 3)Cooper

...and probably to no ones surprise.

 

dunno if anyone's said this recently, but i know it's been too long since *I* said it.

[h]FUCK CAKES[/h]

 

Exactly. Well said.

 

I'm shocked Babcock had 11 first place votes. I thought Cooper had a much stronger year as well, and the president trophy winner always deserves consideration.

He pushed for Cleary http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2013/09/daniel_cleary_followed_his_hea.html while knowing there were players that needed to be up like Nyquist. Babs started Cleary and Samuelsson and Bert over Tatar to start the year as well I'm not a fan of giving coaches a big thumbs up for cleaning up a mess they had a big hand in creating themselves.

Not a big deal, just awards but I think the right guy won (I hate that he won too). I'm confident Babcock's gold medal was worth more anyway. Babs still gets 2nd place...yay.

Norris, Selke, and Vezina voting was nothing short of absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. Adams too, considering how few votes pres trophy winner had.

 

Another problem for a big prospect pool (Chicago having similar issues of late):

http://redwingsfront.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/wings-lose-almquist-to-the-khl/

Many believed rumors that Jarnkrok was going to run to Sweden after being buried anyway, making the Legwand trade more understandable if true. Almquist was stuck too, so he goes KHL route as he probably should. Almquist's size will always be an issue. I was hoping he would get traded someplace that would have had icetime for him, got to watch a few GR games and I really enjoyed watching him play. Tough to have a realistic scenario that would have allowed Kenny to use Almquist to get something for him last year.

 

Ya.. when you have the likes of an Ouellet, Ryan Sproul and Alexey Marchenko to compete with, there's going to be the guy who gets left out. Do you think the big prospect pool is a problem, but a nice problem to have? It is too bad Almquist and players like him cant make it here and have to go overseas to get a gig, at least he had a shot here.

As far as the awards stuff goes, I never got into it. Some of the choices are so obvious you cant screw it up, but it always seems like the workhorses and actual people who accomplish things dont get the credit they deserve. There's just something about awards shows and All-Star games that just dont appeal to me. But, to each his own.

 

I'm going to add the word 'good' before prospect pool. I have a tough time generalizing on this because so much depends on ownership and the front office design and philosophy for hockey operations. Plenty of subjective circumstances to filter through too, so it varies team to team with me. Generally speaking I will say this:

For a team in the middle like Detroit is right now, I think it will take some time to figure out but given the ownership and FO staffing, I'm inclined to view it positively.

For a team in contention, it's an absolute positive since it allows a gm to trade non roster assets to plug holes. Of course some assets are going to be undervalued or wasted, but it also keeps leverage so that a team doesn't have to overpay to land a player because the trade partner knows they can shop elsewhere, especially in subtle trades.

For teams rebuilding I think it's more often a negative than positive at any one time since it allows for way too many mistakes in development, valuation, ice time spreads, etc.

When I say it's a negative, I mean that I think it would be better if they traded picks and prospects for NHL players, or higher picks since development and self evaluation is deficient.

 

Interesting, Bob. Good observations and insight. I didnt picture it that way, just out of my lack of knowledge. Thats why they call you hockeybob.

Just a thought. Maybe prospects that fit the description of an Almquist type dont have much of a chance in todays game anymore. Everybody is going speed, but with power and size. Seems like the programs that go deep in the playoffs are teams who mix the speed and size and scoring and have a nack at balancing it all together.

 

lol, nah that's because Hockeydoug was taken by CBS at the time. Doug mcKenzie was an inspirational hockey player in my life. Bob, not so much but it was close enough. Nothing like a game with the lunatics from the institute.

I think there will still be a place, I think the real tough time for the small guys was between the late 90s through following 10 years or so until skating started gaining more favor again in relation to size. I don't have any stats to base that one, just my perception of prospect pools and drafts and the trends I think I see, but my eyes have lied to me plenty so I'll probably look for something more concrete on this one.

4 things that I think favor the little guys now more than 2 CBAs ago:

The NCAA is much better and improving. Smaller players get extra years without having to eat up a risky contract.
The new CBA allows for a 3rd year for overseas players before having to sign
Speed and skating has a much bigger place than it did coming out of lockout 1 and before.
Since offense is so rare and so expensive, scoring skill will be a high priority for depth players compared to a decade or more before. I think we see that up and down rosters now.

 

got a customer with a lovely gal named almquist. i always enjoy checking the status of packages sent there via UPS, they tell me the package was delivered, and signed for by "Almighty".

 

Thats a special delivery right there.

 

Inspired like Peggy right now.

 

THREE WEEKS!!!