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You have to hand it the the guy, he took a lot of abuse from Detroit fans and the national media during the playoffs and never gave injury as an excuse for not performing well. Probably not that big of a deal if he is out until December but comes back healthy.

When I first heard Keith Moreland I thought it was Tim McCarver...Then the game went on for a couple of minutes and Keith didnt make any over the top, pompous, and mostly inaccurate game descriptions. So I had to listen to find out it was Keith. I think he has a good career in announcing if he wants to go that way.

Kopecky is a 4th liner...which is what the Hawks signed him to be. Not sure where you think Kopecky was given a chance to be on the same line as Hossa and Datsyuk in the past. He was given some PP time when Holmstrom was out, but that is all that I remember. His job then was to park his can in front of the goalie. I dont think anyone thinks Kopecky is a top 6 forward.

If Tom Watson and John Daly are in the hunt on Sunday, ratings will be saved from having no Tiger.

Neither did I. I assumed teams could substitute at will. While play is going on you can substitute at will. If you have control of the puck you can only actually have 5 guys on the ice. If you do not have control of the puck you can have more players on the ice as long as some are obviously coming off. If there is a face-off, the road team has to send out their players first. This gives the home team the advantage of setting the match ups.

He wasn't just a part of that regime though, he put together some really crappy teams. How long was he GM? I dont follow Hawks hockey that closely until the past couple of years. Seems to me that he replaced Pulford in the last 3 or 4 years. It wasnt that long ago that he was announcing. edit: ok he took over during the lockout and made some real bad signings right out of the gate. The Lapointe one was real bad. Still overall you would have to say that the team has improved quite a bit during his tenure.

I think the Campbell signing is similar to the Soriano signing...big market team being a little more desperate than they should have been. Both players were over-rated because they are good at some things that are easy to show on Sportscenter. It isnt just Boyle, I am sure there were several d-men that could have been had for 2 million who would have given the team just as much value. All that said, if Campbell can reestablish himself as the PP quarterback and hit like he did in the playoffs, he will be a valuable player than can help lead the Hawks to the Cup I have a hard time being too critical about the Huet signing. It was too much, but that was probably the market. If Khabibulin didnt return to his past form last year, I dont think there would be that much complaining about the Huet signing. The Hossa signing was huge, even if it gives them cap issues next year, I would rather have Hossa than Kane. I know Kane is much younger and will probably be a better scorer, I think his size will always make him somewhat of a liability on defense. Anyway, this is all kind of a Tallon defense post. He has made some mistakes, but I he has done a good job overall. I think he was sent packing because he is still part of the past regime that was completely incompetent.

“To tell the truth, I’m not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to. If I ever saw myself saying I’m excited going to Cleveland, I’d punch myself in the face, because I’m lying.” I had milk coming out my nose on this one

since it came up I am going to rant this real quick.....I hate olympic years!!!

So the fall back of the Wings not keeping Hossa was that they would have room to keep depth guys like Hudler and Samuelson. They have lost both of them also. With Lidstrom getting old, the Wings taking a hit in free agency and the improvement from Hawks, Ducks, and Flames, I am currently predicting the Wings do not get home ice in the first round. They do have room to make some depth moves at forward, but may be more advised to stand pat and make a move at the deadline for a better forward who may come available.

I know range factor is not a great stat, but he had a couple of years early in his career that were over 7. I think getting to 2 balls a game more than Ozzie while only making 30 more errors may be a decent argument that he was better. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/dunstsh01.shtml http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/smithoz01.shtml Already admitted my error....but thanx for providing links.

I know range factor is not a great stat, but he had a couple of years early in his career that were over 7. I think getting to 2 balls a game more than Ozzie while only making 30 more errors may be a decent argument that he was better. Where are those #s coming from? I actually pulled it from memory. It was basically my recollection of a Bill James comment in a Baseball Abstract from the mid 80s. But looking it up in Baseball reference doesnt tell the same story. My bad

I know range factor is not a great stat, but he had a couple of years early in his career that were over 7. I think getting to 2 balls a game more than Ozzie while only making 30 more errors may be a decent argument that he was better.

Already been said but Hossa is an upgrade over Havlat. Mainly for injury reasons. Good signing for Hawks As a Wings fan I have to say, Thanks for taking Kopecky!!

This happens in hockey often, trading a potential free agent so another team can have a couple of days to try to sign him. Team like Florida knows they are not going to sign him, get a pick and a shot at signing leopold. I am actually surprised it doesnt happen more in other sports.

Red Wings-4 Cubs-0 MSU BB-2 Raiders-3 Pistons-3 I am not that big of a BB fan so I dont get too excited about the 5 BB champs. I used to care about the NFL a lot....I guess being a Raiders fan has made me pretty oblivious to it know though. My 3 biggest loves of Cubs, Red Wings and MSU fb have only given me one bright spot.

Yeah its kind of annoying how Q stubbornly stuck to this style of play the entire series. Part of me thinks, this is what got you here, this is why you were able to shread goalies like Lungo in the playoffs, see if it can work. But when the Hawks got completely outclassed in Game 1, he should have already been making adjustments. And the Wings just got off a series with a team that showed us how to slow down the Wings. I mean part of it is the fact that Anaheim has really nice defensemen, but the Hawks have better shooters. Like you said, slow the game down, even up your odds, and take your chances with your skilled shooters. the bottom line is the penguins are a better team than detroit. they were the better team in games 1,2,3,4,6, and 7. hawks weren't better than detroit. 2 things...1, you have no room to call other teams fans poor sports 2 your assesment is right in that they were better than Detroit, but they were better because they made the right adjustments. Hawks could have made the same adjustments and didnt. Also the Pens were better in games 4 and 6. Wings were better in in 1 and 5. The rest boiled down to the breaks.

I guess there is the thought that the Kings may be going all out to become very competitive next season. Pronger would improve the PP. This coupled with the rumours of LA going after Heatley. I dont think this is a disastorous trade for the Kings, I would rather just keep Johnson though. This move would really help Anaheim keep Neidermayer without that big of a dropoff with Johnson. I am really not sure why the Kings would be wanting to help a division rival so much. If they are willing to move Johnson, I am sure there are established d men in the east that teams would be willing to move to give them some cap space.

Congrats to the Pens and their coach Dan Byslma....This in not a shot at the Hawks or Q (well its a shot at Q) Q sucks as a playoff coach. Byslma watched the Anaheim tape and understood how the Wings are beatable. Not because you have idiots like Eager out there trying to hit people instead of playing hockey, but because they forechecked hard, had three guys back and didnt let the Wings enter the zone with speed, controlled there penalties and when on the kill didnt let Detroit set up front and get rebounds. Detroit is beatable when you play this type of game with them. Its not that Detroit cant play it, its just that if you play that style you will even things up a bit. The Hawks tried to skate and hit...not wise....if Pitt would have done that this series would have been over in 5 games. I understand its not the Hawks game, but it isnt Pitts either, but Bylsma got his players to play that way and won, Q just lead the sheep to the slaughter doing what the Hawks do best. Funny thing is even playing this "boring" style it turned out to be an exciting series. Congrats Pens you were the better team. I hope the Wings bounce back and make adjustments next year and win.

goalies were awesome in this game. pitt was way better tonight and deserved to win, but that ending sucked. I agree Hossa was a no show and deserved the tongue lashing he got from NBC....When are they going to call Crosby what he has been this series also...huge no show

Dany Heatley wants out of Ottawa. If I was Ottawa I would be bending over backwards to resolve this. If not, I think the Hawks should consider getting Heatley. Heatley makes 6.5 million for the next 5 years. But he is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Havlat if you figure in the injury issues. My guess is that Ottawa will take on some salary though to help offset this trade.

The back to back games to start the series was decided several months ago. If the Wings didnt win in game 5 against the Hawks they were going to start the finals the next weekend on back to back nights. Its NBC who is driving the schedule. I dont know what they have on Monday nights, but they didnt want to take it off for Stanley Cup hockey is my guess.

the finals schedule was set after the Conference finals, was the NBA finals already set? they were still in the middle of their conference finals.

The NHL gives a lot of room for subjectivity in its rules. Yes you are right, just about everytime the puck is in the corner you could probably call penalities. one of the main criteria for calling a cross check is did you actually rear back and whack the opposing player with your stick. If you just use your stick to push the player than it usually isnt a crosscheck. Most corner work it is hard to really pull back and give someone a good cross check. I think cross checking is like porn, it is hard to define but I know it when I see it. It has been this way for the entire 30 yrs I have been a hockey fan. Slashing and interference have really morphed through the years. Used to be a slash was a slash. Now it is only called a slash if you break a stick or you slash someone in a non padded area. I dont even want to get into interference, because that seems to change monthly. But interference used to be called everytime you impeded someone without the puck. Now its really hard to define. So what is happening is the players are defining it by diving. This feels like interference, so to make sure the refs call it I am going to dive. Same as slashing, to ensure the refs know I have been slashed I need to react. I have said if the refs would call penalties correctly, the diving would clean itself up pretty quick. Often NHL officials call penalties based on the damage done and not the crime committed.

while I dont deny that Zetterberg enhanced his reaction, a 2 handed slash on the back of the calf is painful and really cheap.....At least it was a real penalty. Crosby's dive on the Maltby play was embarrassing and not even a penalty. Maybe Crosby just needs to work on his timing :)