And he reiterates what many of the 19 have said about Hossa:  we KNEW it was a one-shot deal with Hossa and we respected those terms.  We knew it was Cup-or-bust with him and he had the absolute right to pursue his own terms.  Wings fans wished he could’ve stayed but the reality was, it wasn’t going to happen with the cap situation.

Posted by SYF from a "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" on 07/23/09 at 04:01 PM ET

Alot of gloom and doom from the front office. Keep dishing it out, you lying liars. 

Posted by mrfluffy from Long Beach on 07/23/09 at 04:16 PM ET

It’s interesting to compare the last two seasons for Detroit, though.

Both ended in going to the Stanley Cup finals, one with a win and one with a loss.
Both seasons ended with more than 50 regular season wins.

But the goals for and against were completely different between the two seasons.

2008-2009 season:
GF = 295 (league mean = 239, so Detroit was 56 better)
GA = 244 (league mean = 239, so Detroit was 5 worse)

2007-2008 season:
GF = 257 (league mean = 228, so Detroit was 29 better)
GA = 184 (league mean = 228, so Detroit was 44 better)

So from the 2007-08 season to the 2008-09 season;
Detroit scored 38 more goals (good thing)
Detroit gave up 60 more goals (very bad thing)

SIXTY MORE GOALS. 

How to make up for losing 82 goals?  Realize that the team doesn’t have to score all those 82 goals if they get some of them back defensively.  Their goal differential last season was 51 goals, but the year before it was an amazing 73 goals.

Play better defensively and the loss of 82 goals is far from insurmountable.  Poorer defense cost them 60 goals just from one year to the next.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 07/23/09 at 04:30 PM ET

getting lilja back will make em better defensively

Posted by Oilers Rock from Edmonton, Alberta on 07/23/09 at 04:39 PM ET

Play better defensively and the loss of 82 goals is far from insurmountable.  Poorer defense cost them 60 goals just from one year to the next.

Excellent point.

And I also think that with Fil and Clears given more ice-time and bigger roles, they could add another 15 between them.

If Homer stays healthy and plays with Z and Pav, he should be good for another 5-7 goals.

I think Z can score another 5-7 goals.

Leino should be able to score 15 this year.

Helm between 8-10.

Big Rig - 5?

That’s over 50 goals right there that we didn’t have last season.

Franzen can push 40 if he stays healthy and hopefully whoever we sign to replace Hudler can score at least 15.  That’s another 20.

Maybe I’m being a tad optimistic, but we can overcome the 82 goals by playing better defence and spreading out the responsibilities amongst our current squad.

Posted by DetCapC19 from Vancouver, BC on 07/23/09 at 04:48 PM ET

...but the Moscow Dynamo team offered him an unbelievable contract, $5 million a year for two years, and they pay very little taxes over there…

I knew it. We lost Happy because of that damn Barrack Obama and his tax-the-rich scheme.

Alot of gloom and doom from the front office. Keep dishing it out, you lying liars.

You’ve got it, mrfluffy. I’m not buying any of this woe-is-us nonsense. Depending on who the Wings get to play on the third line (cough*Greer*cough) I actually like the Wings this year better than last year. Why? Because they’re going to be a true Wings team again…as in defense first, defense second and offense third.

And I think we all know Ozzie is going to be more like playoff-Ozzie than the lost-Ozzie we saw for most of the regular season last year. And I also think Howard is going to finally play up to his potential.

Losing Hossa’s and Sammy goals don’t worry me in the least. The only thing I’ll miss is Happy’s ability to control the puck on the 2nd power play unit. Hopefully the puck-handling ability that Leino showed in his 13 games last year will carry through for the full season this year. If it does, we won’t miss Happy at all, especially since Pronger won’t be around for him to “intimidate” this year.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 07/23/09 at 05:51 PM ET

Does anybody think Rob Niedermayer would be a good fit?

Posted by DetCapC19 from Vancouver, BC on 07/23/09 at 06:03 PM ET

Does anybody think Mats Sundin would be a good fit?

Posted by Gary Bettman SUCK from Florida on 07/23/09 at 08:26 PM ET

Play better defensively and the loss of 82 goals is far from insurmountable.

This is, I think, the upside of losing Hossa.  With Hossa, they didn’t have to concentrate on defense as much because of all the firepower.  Now they have to play more like they did the year before, more like a team, everyone being defensively responsible, not relying on scoring 6 goals because we’ve given up 5.

Does anybody think Rob Niedermayer would be a good fit?

Hurm…

Posted by Garth on 07/23/09 at 09:21 PM ET

The wings lost 80 goals on paper, but consider this:
.
.
.
.

2008 Playoff Roster

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Franzen-Filppula-Samuelson
Cleary-Draper-Drake
Maltby/McCarty-Helm-Hudler

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Lebda/Chellios-Lilja
Quincey

Osgood
Hasek

Potential 09-10 Roster

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Franzen-Filppula-Leino
Cleary-Helm-???
(Abdelkader???)-Draper-Maltby

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Lebda/Lilja
Meech

Osgood
Howard

The core of the championship team is still intact; Samuelson is the only player with significant ice time that no longer is on the team.  There are a couple of problems.  The biggest question is backup goaltending: Howard is entirely unproven and needs to provide lots of quality starts so Osgood can be fresh for the playoffs.  Holmstrom is an injury concern, and who knows when Lilja will return.  Also, Draper didn’t get a chance to show that he could shake off the cup hangover in the playoffs, hopefully he can return to form after a horrible regular season. 

On the bright side, Helm, Cleary and Fillpula and Ericsson had an excellent post seasons and Leino has looked very dangerous every time he’s been on the ice (including the playoffs after his first game).  The Wings actually might be better than they were in 08.

Also, consider the offseason other cup contenders had:

-Pittsburgh now has only has two top 4 defensemen.  Maybe Letang gives them 3.  Good luck with the cup hangover after losing that much blue line talent. 
-Boston: If they can keep Kessel, they’re better by player growth
-Anaheim:  went from having an incredible defensive corps with 5 top 4 defensemen to only 3.  They lost about 45 minutes/night of top defensive talent.  Adding Koivu means that they’ve got 2 good offensive lines instead of one, but they don’t scare me as much.
-Chicago got better up front, but replaced solid veteran goaltending with a huge questionmark, so who knows what happens
-Philadelphia: same as Chicago, only without the impending salary cap hell
-New Jersey: no change, except they now play the trap; probably an improvement if the playoffs are officiated like last season’s
-Washington: Knuble’s a good signing, but their defense still blows.

Posted by UMcastaway from Ann Arbor on 07/23/09 at 09:24 PM ET

I would be more worried about some of the dead weight on the team rather than losing some arguably marginal players.  They won the cup without hossa but I would doubt that Abdelkedar Leino and Helm are actually caliber enough to match/increase the scoring; it’s possible but not likely if they get 3rd and below playing time.  Not a knock to them but more a knock to their ability to “earn” more time from Babcock.  And…then…there’s Osgood during the regular season…

Posted by stoneman from Vegas on 07/24/09 at 12:30 AM ET

I think Osgood has earned the benefit of the doubt.  He says that he knows why he played like crap during the regular season last year, didn’t much like it, and knows what he needs to do to prevent it happening again.

He himself played well enough to get the team to two consecutive finals, and nearly win both of them.  I’m willing to actually see him play in the regular season and see if he has figured out his problem before I start worrying about Chris Osgood.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 07/24/09 at 05:30 AM ET

would be more worried about some of the dead weight on the team rather than losing some arguably marginal players.

Excuse me?  Dead weight?  Do you watch hockey?  Did you not see the MONSTER that Helm is?  No, he’s not going to replace Hossa’s goals, but they won the Cup WITHOUT his goals, and he adds a huge physical dimension to the game.  They don’t need to match the scoring he brought.  He replaced Dallas effing Drake, it’s not like he was brought in because Detroit needed his scoring.  He was brought in because they had extra cap space and a roster spot and, well, why not bring him in?

And…then…there’s Osgood during the regular season…

I’ll see that and raise you Osgood during the post season.  He clearly showed that he’s a better goalie than his play in the regular season, and he knows he’s got some pressure on him.  I have no worries about him.

Posted by Garth on 07/24/09 at 08:13 AM ET