New Red Wing Lineup Ready For Game 1

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HFNHL Red Wings

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Detroit fans and critics alike will be watching tonight to see how the diminished Red Wing team will fair in their first game of the season against the Blackhawks.
After going 3-0 in the preseason GM Niece shocked observers by announcing the team was going to begin a retooling process effective immediately. “Why?†most asked.
The team had reached a crossroads where it either had to make some significant acquisitions to compete with the likes of the Blues, Ducks, and Blue Jackets at the cost of it’s future players or settle for another year of mediocrity with many pending UFA’s leaving at the end.
GM Niece swears he explored several possibilities to make the team more competitive but felt the cost for a one time shot was too high and too risky.
With several players looking to make the team next season (Miettinen, Jokinen, Boyes, Lundqvist, McClement, Niitymaki, and some others) the GM decided instead to bolster the farm and build for the future.

Here is a summary of the roster changes from the past week:

Out – Bill Guerin, Bob Boughner, Stu Barnes, Patrick Boileau, Ramzi Abid
(in short if you had a ‘B’ in your name you were in trouble)

In – Mark Parrish, Dominic Moore, Derek Boogaard, Steffan Kronwall, Denis Wideman, Patrick Boileau, STL 2006 3rd, BOS 2006 5th, PHX 2006 6th, CBJ 2007 5th

UFA’s signed – Jason Doig and Jamie Heward

Poor Patrick Boileau has now moved onto his 4th HFNHL team in 2 weeks (Nashville - Columbus - Detroit - Phoenix). In fact this was Boileau's second brief stint with the Wings without playing a single game for them. The Wings had originally signed him as a FA to his first HFNHL contract back in 2003 and traded him to Nashville within a week.

Aside from Parrish, none of the acquired players are expected to play with the team this season and therefore the team signed Jason Doig and Jamie Heward to provide some insurance against injury on the blueline. While many of the younger players are not expected to play large roles now or in the future they will be expected to contribute.
The team is expected to make a couple of more moves yet to improve the player mix for the current season but no additional large moves are anticipated at this time.

The lines are now as follows:

Roberts – Stumpel – Parrish
Lehtinen – Draper – Knuble
White – Walz –Hunter
Verot – Brown – Clark

Lidstrom – Sarich
Malik – Sopel
Van Ryn – Fisher

Kolzig
Markkannen

While the team has certainly sealed it's fate as an 'also ran' for this season the team still expects to remain competitive enough to make the playoffs and hopefully give some of the contenders a headache.
 
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HFNHL Red Wings

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Hmmm ... the old adage 'the more things change, the more they stay the same' seems to be holding true.
While the Wings have frequently talked about having the Blues number over the past few seasons, the Hawks have had the Wings number for at least as long.
It didn’t help that Detroit handicapped the Blackhawks for the first 50 minutes. :thumbd:
 

Ohio Jones

Game on...
Feb 28, 2002
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Apparently one thing hasn't changed - the Wings' penchant for beating their division rivals the Columbus Blue Jackets in dramatic fashion. This time, despite being soundly outshot, the Wings still managed to secure a 4-3 OT win.

On the bright side for Jackets fans was the performance of the newly constituted defence, which kept the Wings down to a stingy 22 shots, and the balanced attack that saw the 1st, 2nd and 4th lines all contribute on the scoresheet. Discipline may be an issue as the Jackets went to the box five times. The Wings received no penalties; Jackets Head Coach Mike Babcock may ask League Officials to review the game tape to determine if there was bias in the calls.

"I'll never argue a good call", Babcock said afterwards. "And those were some good calls on our guys, but I wonder where the calls were on (Detroit) - it's hard to ask our guys not to talk back to the officials when the ice is being tipped so much in the other team's favour. Our penalty killers did a great job (a perfect 5 for 5), but facing that many opposition powerplays without one of your own certainly makes it tougher to build any sustained offensive pressure."

GM Niece is looking especially savvy for his training-camp pickup of Mark Parrish for Bill Guerin, as Parrish scored twice last night (his second and third of the season) including the OT marker.
 
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HFNHL Red Wings

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Beleive me folks, Douglas' comments to me in person today were not as diplomatic as those stated above :D

On the bright side the Columbus Blue Jackets have secured a place in the HFNHL version of Trivial Pursuit as they became the first HFNHL team to record an OTL point. :handclap:
 

Ohio Jones

Game on...
Feb 28, 2002
8,257
201
Great White North
HFNHL Red Wings said:
On the bright side the Columbus Blue Jackets have secured a place in the HFNHL version of Trivial Pursuit as they became the first HFNHL team to record an OTL point. :handclap:

The purist in me says to give the crappy point back, since you shouldn't be rewarded for losing, but the realist in me says our chance at home ice in teh playoffs may just rest on picking up OTL points over the course of the season, so I'll just hang onto it -you know, just in case... :innocent:
 
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