Poor baby. Learn to deal with it. Hire a coach that actually coaches players to be better rather than relying on buying up the talent upfront.

Take a good look at football. The best teams make their players better.

Anyone could see this coming. Detroit always was a big spender pre-cap. It wasn't their fault other big spenders bought more than they could afford.
Perhaps a "Larry Bird" exception should be initiated.

Same reason that the Bruins lost Kessel. Same reason many people lose players.

If Holland wanted to do a smart move, he would have traded Holmstrom.

First victim of the cap world. I agree H-bomb, there should be some sort of exception for signing your own players that you draft. The cap was intended to prevent teams from just buying up all the good players, but it shouldn't also be a hinderance for good drafting (Chicago will be the next crisis cap team).

Wow...it's nice to see that they've finally been hurt by the cap. Before the cap, Detroit was exactly the kind of team that they wanted to bring the cap in for. They went on a spending spree every summer, inflated the market in terms of salary for players, and ended up nearly driving other teams out of business because they didn't have the same money to spend. Now they're complaining because they can't do that again. Poor babies.

QUOTE(#3):

Originally posted 10:25 AM ET  10.31 by Argos: JIGGY!

Same reason that the Bruins lost Kessel. Same reason many people lose players.If Holland wanted to do a smart move, he would have traded Holmstrom.

Holstrom is their leading scorer. A smarter move would get rid of Burtuzzi who keeps giving up the puck and passing badly.

QUOTE(#6):

Originally posted 11:37 AM ET  10.31 by shiprock520

Holstrom is their leading scorer. A smarter move would get rid of Burtuzzi who keeps giving up the puck and passing badly.

Should have never signed Bertuzzi... and this is the other piece of the cap. Can sign players who bring this type of a bag to the team.

QUOTE(#6):

Originally posted 11:37 AM ET  10.31 by shiprock520

Holstrom is their leading scorer. A smarter move would get rid of Burtuzzi who keeps giving up the puck and passing badly.

Bertuzzi is real cheap - and he's performing well.

Pretty sure the Penguins were 4-4 at the start of the season last year too. (Regardless of coaching)

I'm just looking at the big picture: The wings have had goalie and injury problems. Zetterberg missed training camp, Datsyuk and Helm was injured before and during start of season, Filppula is now hurt. The Wings goal tending has been god awful, I'm pretty sure Howard will be out soon and a trade will be in place - the wings invested a lot into him the last few years and now are trying to make a point, but obviously he's horrible. And the Wings need 2 goalies during the season cause Ozzie will be boozing and doesn't have the girth to play that many games.

And Franzen

QUOTE(#9):

Originally posted 11:54 AM ET  10.31 by DUGGER

And Franzen

.......add Fillpula or however you spell his name. 6-8 weeks w/broken wrist.

Contrary to many who have posted, I think the Wings have managed the cap rather well. Decisions have to be made about who to keep and who to let go, and putting your resources into the Duck, Z, and Mule makes sense to me - but it was clear from the get-go that they would not be the team they were last year. But they will be a force in the NHL for many years to come.

The injuries don't help, of course, but they are a part of hockey.

I expect the Wings will make the playoffs. Whether they will go far in them is a different question.

QUOTE(#6):

Originally posted 11:37 AM ET  10.31 by shiprock520

Holstrom is their leading scorer. A smarter move would get rid of Burtuzzi who keeps giving up the puck and passing badly.

Bertuzzi is cheap, he doesn't make a difference.
Holmstrom is now 37, and makes $2.5 million this season, and $3 million until he is 41.

Lets look at his production over the past few years:

'05-06: 29 goals, 59 points, 81 games
'06-07: 30 goals, 52 points, 77 games
'07-'08: 20 goals, 40 points, 59 games
'08-'09: 14 goals, 37 points, 53 games

Each team has a cap...Each team has to work within it...

the cap will hit every team at some point in the team's life span and it just so happened that it hit one of the stonger teams first. I just wonder if it will ever hit pittsburgh because they have two huge players and other good players around them too. I like the NHL salary cap compared to NBA or NFL because now in the NFL the salary cap is like 119 million so teams like the Pats, Colts etc have big reputations for good teams so any player they want they can pretty much get for whatever salary he wants.

Shake it up

It's amazing how many people that commented probably never actually watched a Wings game this year, and are just going off what the media tells them (cough, ESPN, COUGH).

Go back two years, to their Cup run. Out of the four free agents they lost, only two were with the team when they won the Cup. Win the Cup, next year they have 7 mil in cap room, and Hossa wants to sign. Geniuses. Would've won a second straight Cup if it was not for bad playing in games 6 and 7. Stuart was practically giving goals away. Now all of a sudden the Wings are victims of the cap? I'll tell you what they are victims of....playing piss poor defense. Not scoring, not goaltending, not salary cap.

Going into the season, I would've told you their top four forwards are Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen, Filppula. Two of those four are gone. Detroit has led 7 of 11 games that they've played. They've had 4 two goal leads, three of which teams came back to beat them. Not as much because of goaltending as because of defensive philosophy. I saw it in games 6 and 7, Detroit has suddenly decided that it is better to give the other team the puck than keep it for themselves. 8 games in they lead the league in turnovers at 95. 95! Howard has made some fantastic saves just to keep the Wings IN the game! In Detroit we tend to always look at it as, goalie is better on the other side.

Ken Holland is right, patience is the key. If the Wings can hold steady, stay middle of the pack, or even just figure out how to play defensively - they will be a dark horse after the Olympics with the return of Franzen and Filppula. Also, as far as salary cap? I read from an ESPN article that there are whispers of not only a possible Lidstrom's retirement (7 million off the books) but a Kovalchuk/Datsyuk reunion...

Oh yeah, and Chicago won't be victim's of good drafting/salary cap departures, they'll be the victim's of poor decision making. They've thrown all their eggs, their entire franchise almost into one year. If they don't win this year, there is a good possibility that one, or both, or even all three of their FAs Toews, Kane, and Keith leave. And it's because they dropped 7.5 million on a 3rd line defenseman, 6 million on a bad goalie, and 7 million (oh sorry, 5 according to salary cap rules) on a selfish, injury-prone winger. The Blackhawks would've been so much better off if they kept Havlat for relatively the same price tag as Hossa, spent the rest of the off season figuring out a team to dump Campbell; packaging him with one of their 3 million restricted FA, and sent Huet to Edmonton, resigning Khabibulin. Then they'd have cap room to burn for the year, and still have space to resign Kane and Toews, making their franchise formidable for years to come, not just one year.

QUOTE(#1):

Originally posted 09:58 AM ET  10.31 by LocNar

Poor baby. Learn to deal with it. Hire a coach that actually coaches players to be better rather than relying on buying up the talent upfront.Take a good look at football. The best teams make their players better.

look at the wings core: zetterberg, datsyuk, lidstrom, franzen, holmstrom, cleary, osgood, howard, erikkson, kronwall, fillpula, draper, etc............all these players are either home grown or have been in their organization for a long time.

so who exactly have they gone out and "bought" that is on their current roster???? rafalski and bertuzzi.........big deal.

i hate idiots that think the 2009 wings are the same as the 1999 wings. back before there was a salary cap, people wanted to go play in detroit because of the great players and personnel (yzerman, fedorov, bowman, holland, ilitch, lidstrom, etc.) that hey had in their organization. it was a great place to play hockey.........no brainer for guys like hull, shanny, and robitaille to sign there. now that the salary cap has arrived, holland has had to take all his home-grown talent and lock it into big contracts. the guy is brilliant and he and the scouts in europe draft better than anybody........

This is the same crying we hear from every GM. You have to learn to spend smart, not hard. They had a smart draft a few years ago and then, spent way to much to keep them. The cap is here! Deal with it!
We cannot compare any team from the 90's to today's NHL. Again I say, the cap is here. I agree with the cap because it puts all teams on a more level playing field. Otherwise, you have baseballs version of the NY Yankee's. Pay whatever to get whoever, as long as we win. Is that really what Hockey wants to see? Just to simply buy Lord Stanley time and time again? I would love to see my Leafs win the cup but, I would love it more if they won because they put a decent team together (along with coaching) and flat out BEAT the other team with the heart and determination.

QUOTE(#12):

Originally posted 01:37 PM ET  10.31 by Argos: JIGGY!

Bertuzzi is cheap, he doesn't make a difference.Holmstrom is now 37, and makes $2.5 million this season, and $3 million until he is 41.Lets look at his production over the past few years:'05-06: 29 goals, 59 points, 81 games'06-07: 30 goals, 52 points, 77 games'07-'08: 20 goals, 40 points, 59 games'08-'09: 14 goals, 37 points, 53 games

It doesn't really matter what he makes because they can easily circumvent the cap on the back years. They'd only be responsible for 2/3 amortized over the remaining years. So, if they bought him out with 3 years left at 3M per, it would only work out as a 1M per season cap hit for 6 years. Big deal.