1) Filpulla is VERY good.  More importantly, he is a Babcock prototypical player:  Fast, gritty, tough on the forcheck as well as backcheck, strong on the puck.  He has good hands, and if he works at scoring, he can become another Zetterberg.
It is time for the Wings to geive a LOT more TOI to Hudler, Kopecky, Grigorenko, Meech & Quincey.

2) Hasek will need even more time off next year.  Whether he likes it or not…
Pray that Jimmy Howard becomes more consistant, because the dominator is flopping around on borrowed time.

3) A lot of coaches have been hired over the last few years.  Why not Barry?  I heard the knock on Smith is that he is abrasive.  BS.  I hope he does well in Russia.

4) Little Gary?  He has his hands full with a failing franchise in Bubbaland and a rich, cocky wannabe owner from Canada.  That said, he somehow needs to get wonderboy Sidney into every living room in America.

Posted by w2j2 on 07/22/07 at 07:37 PM ET

You could be right about Hasek.  Last season there were several times I watched him climb back up on his skates and he reminded me of Stevie skating on one knee.

Posted by Gramps from HockeyTown on 07/22/07 at 07:49 PM ET

I’ve wondered the same thing about Barry, but on the other hand, I think the Professor would make an excellent coach.

Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 07/22/07 at 09:05 PM ET

If you are going to call the NBA a league of thugs, you better call the NFL a league of thugs as well (the Bengals alone have more than enough arrests).

For every Ron Artest, isn’t there a Sean Avery?  For every Stephen Jackson, isn’t there an Ed Belfour?  What about Peter Worrell or Bob Probert?

Of course there are bad apples.  Is there a significantly greater percentage of “thugs” in the various sports leagues than in society as a whole?  I doubt it.

Couldn’t we “perceive” a racial bias against various minorities?  Names like Don Cherry, Ted Nolan, and Sean Avery could easily be used to “prove” this existence.  But does it really exist? Who knows.

Now, obviously, public perception and opinion is quite often completely different from the facts and the legal judgement.  So I agree with your point that now would be a perfect time for the league to promote a clean image.  It’s just that if hockey tries to garner more attention, it also runs the risk of increased scrutiny towards its perceived problems, whether or not they exist.

Posted by Wings Fan from Detroit on 07/22/07 at 10:19 PM ET

The NHL is too stupid to take advantage of all the other sports’ mishaps. Bettman will continue to sit back idly and fail to realize how great of a PR move this all could be. I’m sure ESPN loves it though, more off the field shenanigans and the NHL is nowhere to be found, what a win/win.

Now, the questions:

1) Flip will have an excellent season, especially if he’s given the proper ice time with qualified linemates. I predict a 20 G 30A year for the Finnish one.

2) Dom will be fine. The Wings know how to monitor him and he now knows what it takes to stay in shape and healthy the whole season. He may play 5-8 less games, but he will still be a premier netminder.

3) Barry will never get his due as a head coach, and it’s a crime. The man has a hockey sense like no other, and he will certainly find success in Russia.

4) I think the Wings are done signing any major players this offseason. As much as Jimmy D says they want a top 6 forward, their best bet is to push for Forsberg when he’s healthy and go from there. While the risk may be large, the reward is even better.

Posted by Jeremy from Bowling Green/Oregon, OH on 07/22/07 at 10:23 PM ET

My fear about Dom this year is that there’s no Joey MacD around to sit on the bench when Ozzie plays. Last season, Dom had full days off when Ozzie was in goal. This year it looks like he’ll have to dress and sit on the bench.

On the surface that doesn’t seem like such a big deal but I’m betting it takes a toll on him over the course of the season. My suggestion, since they won’t bring Dom into any game cold unless Ozzie breaks a leg, is to dress the 13th forward or 7th defenseman in goalie gear and let him sit there.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 07/22/07 at 10:27 PM ET

1. My take on Filppula has remained consistent--I think that his best AHL season’s totals--20 goals, 50 assists, and 70 points--are what he should be expected to produce at the NHL level.  The Wings most certainly see him as taking over the 2nd line centre’s spot, if not this year, then next year, and I think that’s a very realistic projection. 

I’m crossing my fingers that he’s adding a few pounds so that he doesn’t get bumped around as much, and I really wish I could make the Reebok rep tell Flip to stop cutting down his sticks because the puck keeps rolling off his blade, but those are really my only concerns about him. 

He’s an extremely intelligent player who both skates at full speed with or without the puck on his stick, and while he’s not extremely physical, he’s got that Zetterberg/Datsyuk fearlessness about him--he loves playing in traffic and grinding it out down low, and his puck savvy means that he can swipe the puck from a 6’5” behemoth and make him look silly by slithering through him.  I think it’s realistic to assume that he’s not only going to contribute regularly on the scoresheet, but will also wear an “A” on his chest early in the next decade. 

2. I’m genuinely not worried about Dom.  He had a persistent charley horse this past season, but the team’s conservative policy on injured players (thank you, Babs) prevented that injury from finding its way to the inside part of his thigh.  Even if Ozzie’s struggling, they won’t pull him until the end of a period, and the honest truth is that the Red Wings expect Jimmy Howard to get 4 or 5 starts as an injury replacement--it’s time for him to prove that he can be more than deked out of his jock when he plays at the NHL level--and failing that, Adam Berkhoel’s a better goalie than you might think he is.

If Dom could get through one season with only one significant injury, he can get through a second. 

3. Barry’s an adventurer, a wanderer, and I think that works against him somewhat.  He left the Red Wings to coach Malmo in the Swedish Elite League in 98, and from the snippets of translated press I’ve read, he’s really excited about coaching one of the Superleague’s traditional powerhouses in what is arguably Russia’s most beautiful city.  He’s an extremely intense coach who might very well scare off some NHL teams because he’s the traditional “bad cop” bench boss, but he doesn’t care.  He goes and finds challenges for himself on his own.

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 07/23/07 at 01:03 AM ET

Filppula is a 3rd line plugger, not a goal scorer.

Filppula has never put up 25g at any level. Even if you pro-rate his numbers and account for the lower scoring in the Finnish league, he has never scored 25g. Even in the AHL he never scored 25g.

Somehow he’s supposed to miraculously progress from a 3rd line plugger to one of the top 70 goal scorers in the league???

Paul Kariya
Markus Naslund
Maxim Afinogenov
Joe Thornton
Alex Tanguay
Mike Modano
Patrik Elias
JP Dumont
Sergei Fedorov
Doug Weight

That’s a list of just some of the players in this league who are far far better than Filppula, most of whom play on deeper teams with better linemates than Filppula had this year, and none of them scored 25g.

Guarantee? Care to put your money where your mouth is?

I have $50 that says he doesn’t score 25g. Let’s make it interesting.

Posted by Thomas on 07/23/07 at 02:47 AM ET

Man, for someone who used to have a blog that told it like it was with regards to the Red Wings, you’re sure drinking that Ken Holland Kool-Aid.

Let me guess, Dallas Drake is going to win the Ross and Hudler is going to win the Selke, right?

Filppula to score 25g. Hil-freaking-arious.

Posted by Thomas on 07/23/07 at 02:49 AM ET

Thomas, just as I wouldn’t hand fifty dollars to an obvious drug abuser; I’m not betting fifty with you.  In the slim chance that I lose that bet, why would I give you money just so you can hand it over to fellow Dive fan Darren Garcia?

I like you kid.  I’m just trying to help save you from yourself.

Posted by IwoCPO from Washington, DC on 07/23/07 at 03:22 AM ET

I’m not a kid. And I find it funny that you aren’t willing to put money on your assertion.

You need to change “guaranteed” to “maybe,” because you obviously aren’t confident enough in your argument to put money on it.

I saw the thing about the cross-dresser the first time you posted it, and I don’t see the relevance any more now than I did then. I grew up in Detroit. I saw all sorts of ridiculous things in a Wings jersey. You forget all of the morbidly obese puck whores you see at the rink wearing Yzerman jerseys.

Darren Garcia is more of a man painted up in drag in an Avs jersey than Kris Draper is suited up for a game in a Wings jersey.

Brad Richardson is going to score 140pts this year. Guaranteed.

Posted by Thomas on 07/23/07 at 04:03 AM ET

Thanks for the input Thomas.  Your writing has improved. Keep up the good work and, again, let us know if you need help raising bail.

Posted by IwoCPO from Washington, DC on 07/23/07 at 04:21 AM ET

I hope Barry does well.  I have to say that St. Petersburg is an absolutely gorgeous city.  I was there on a visit in May many years ago, and the sun rising at about 4am over the bridges with wrought ironwork was just beautiful.  And the people were very nice, too.

I don’t know about Hasek.  I think he may need to miss a few more games to avoid injury, and that will drive him more batty than he is right now, but he will probably be okay (physically, that is--mentally is is way out to lunch).

I could see Filpulla scoring about 20 goals, but 25 would take a large stroke of luck.  I hope Hudler gets a lot more time.  He certainly deserves it.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 07/23/07 at 06:13 AM ET

The reason I think 20-25 goals 65-75 points is too much to expect from Filppula primarily rests on the (lack of) powerplay time he’s in line to get next year.  Only 18 guys scored 70 or more points in the West last year, and those guys ranged between 23 (Tanguay) and 54 (Thornton) points on the PP alone.

Datsyuk.  Zetterberg.  Holmstrom.  Hudler.  Samuelsson.  Even Cleary.  Filppula’s going to be behind pretty much all of those guys for PP time, if not Franzen as well.  That means we’re talking about 1 minute or at the most maybe a tiny bit more on the PP… and that’s just not enough to hit those totals.  It’s far more likely Filppula sees his PK time jump than it is his PP time will go way up.

Personally, if Detroit gets something like 15ish goals and 30ish assists out of the Filppula I’ll be pretty pleased, especially considering the role he’s likely to have.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 07/23/07 at 09:48 AM ET

Back problems are tricky, and serious.  I am afraid Zetterberg will miss a lot of games next season.  Expect Flip to fill that slot and gain PP time.  Kamikaze hockey takes its toll on the body and with Zetterberg missing a lot with wrist and back problems last year, there is reason to expect injuries to effect his entire career.

Posted by Gramps (HockeyTownTodd) from Hockeytown on 07/23/07 at 10:32 AM ET

I agree with Gramps, I think Zet is going to miss a lot of games and I think Flip would be great up there with Holmstrom and Datsyuk.  Of course Fedorov would look good on that line too if he does come back to the Wings (crossing fingers).

I do think Hasek will give the Wings problems this year.  Just a feeling, nothing to back it up other than that.

I always thought Barry should have been the next Wings coach after Bowman.  I hope he gets a shot in the NHL sometime soon.

Posted by hockeychic from Denver, CO on 07/23/07 at 11:04 AM ET

1. I don’t think sports fans actually care that much about the character of the players in their favorite sports. Barry Bonds is an a-hole, but as he is fond of pointing out, the fans all stand up and watch his at-bats, home and away.

2. Um, remember Chris Simon’s smiting attempt, and Bertuzzi’s beserker rage, and Marty McSorely’s lumberjack moves, and, and, and, and....? You’re sort of asking the NHL marketing folks to step out of their single-paned glass house to begin tossing rocks at their thicker-walled neighbors.

3. I’m fine with the NHL being the biggest niche sport in the U.S. I used to think there were one or two things that could catapult hockey to 1st-class sport status (like HDTV, and more offense, and more youth hockey programs, and more rinks). But now I think of soccer, and how it’s the most popular sport world-wide, but a couple steps below competitive food eating here. Americans will never embrace soccer en masse, and so it goes for hockey.

Posted by Ian from San Franciscio, Bangalore, India right now on 07/24/07 at 12:47 AM ET