| 18 August 2010
Yesterday was George James Malik's turn to host the Red Wing Blogger Roundtable over at Snapshots. Here were the questions that George posed to us:
1. The Red Wings made a bridge-the-offensive-gap signing in bringing Mike Modano into the fold to ensure that the team has a solid center for their third scoring line, they at least came out even in exchanging Andreas Lilja's services for those of Ruslan Salei at half of Lilja's salary, and the team's biggest "free agent" signing in terms of impact may be the return of Jiri Hudler from the KHL, but do these signings matter more than the simple fact that the Wings will probably be a much healthier team this season? The Wings ran into the injury bug in a ridiculously big way last season, and Mike Babcock suggested that a healthier Dan Cleary, Valtteri Filppula, Niklas Kronwall and a shaking-off-the-sophomore-slump Jonathan Ericsson would play huge roles in the Wings' resurgence. What matters more at this point? The new guys or the healthy guys?
2. Along those lines, do you expect Chris Osgood to rebound from his most difficult season, or do you think that we'll see Thomas McCollum up sooner than later if Howard falters or suffers an injury?
3. Finally, the Wings are obviously casting their lot, for the moment, with veteran players to provide their offense until the next crop of offensively-minded prospects (like Tomas Tatar, Brendan Smith, Landon Ferraro and the to-be-broken-in Jakub Kindl) emerge. Do you believe that Nicklas Lidstrom will continue to play beyond this season, and do you believe that Modano might be re-energized enough by playing on a team that values his services that he'll sign on for at least one more season?
Long winded questions? From George "Verbose" Malik? Shocking.
Click the link to see what the following people had to say:
- Casey from Winging It In Motown
- Tyler from The Triple Deke
- Michael Petrella from The Production Line
- Kris from Snipe Snipe, Dangle Dangle
- Hollis from where ever four square tells us he is
- Kyle from Babcock's Death Stare
- Matt from On The Wings
Notice anyone missing from that list? Oh yeah - me. I submitted my answers to George...but for whatever reason he didn't find them worthy of posting, apparently. No matter - what George wants to post (or leave out) from his own site is his business. But since I took the time to write the answers and send them to him...and because this is MY site - I figured I'd might as well share my answers with you fine people:
1.) The signings of Salei, Modano, and the return of Jiri Hudler and at the same time only losing Brett Lebda, Andreas Lilja, and Jason Williams means that Detroit will not only be healthier, but deeper this season. So we'll be improving on two fronts...which makes be twice as happy. But is the addition of Hudler and Modano greater than having a healthy Cleary and Filppula? That remains to be seen. But regardless which more effective, having both is pretty frickin' sweet. Is Salei better than Lilja? Given that he's not one punch away from shaking like a leaf on a tree for the rest of his life and at half the salary - it's kind of hard to argue that he isn't. Bottom line...our team is stacked from Line 1 to Line 4.
2.) Chris Osgood is the most mentally tough goaltender in the league. His self-confidence has been forged in a fire of criticism that has been absolutely incessant even after he won 2 Stanley Cups as Detroit's starter. Even though he had his first losing season of his career - I fully expect him to battle through (as he always has) and have a rebound season. If Jimmy even hints at faltering, Ozzie will be there to back him up mentally with encouragement, and literally between the pipes.
3.) I believe that the future of Lidstrom AND Modano is dependent on circumstance. I think a Stanley Cup this season would probably be the swan song for both - as sad as it is to say. Anything less for Lidstrom might mean a return. No Cup for Modano is a little more uncertain, and may depend more on how his individual season goes and how well he gets along with Babcock. Regardless of whether Modano comes back another year...he'll retire as a Red Wing.
