Bring Back The Bruise Bros

Jets Claim Antti Miettinen Wonder whose spot he will take in the Jets' lineup. Pelley and Fraser to Anaheim for Foster Pelley scored in his debut with the Ducks tonight.

Create a lineup out of your most hated players that currently play in the NHL. J.Thornton-Crosby-Kesler Burrows-H.Sedin-D.Sedin Pavelski-Couture-Setoguchi Ribeiro-Lapierre-Cooke Pronger-Bieksa Chara-Ballard Orpik-Jackman I got annoyed just typing that roster.

The defense is what held them down last year, and it is poised to do the same going into this season. The goaltending, much like the aftermath of Howard's injury last year, is also a huge question mark going into the season. If Howard can both stay healthy and play even a similar game to what he began last season like, the team may be in decent shape. There are a lot of "if's" and "maybe's" involved here, so while the forward group doesn't look bad at all, I don't have my hopes up.

I'm on board with bringing Vanek back in on a one-year deal. Question is, who loses a roster spot in that situation? Zetterberg-Nielsen-Mantha Tatar-Athanasiou-Nyquist Svechnikov(?)-Larkin-Vanek Abdelkader-Glendening-Witkowski Helm/Sheahan/Bertuzzi I like the looks of this, but it's pretty clear that a move is going to have to be made if Vanek is to be brought back. With the Panthers having lost Marchessault, Jagr, and Reilly Smith this offseason, you'd think they are looking around for forwards. Sheahan seemed to garner some interest at the deadline last year, so maybe Florida would be interested as a potential boost to the PK and based on the fact that he's still young. They seem to have some players in their AHL pipeline, but it's unclear to me whether they feel that those prospects are NHL-ready right now.

Happy to see him re-signed, but I'm not convinced he'll see much NHL time outside of significant injuries to the defense.

I'm not going to lie, there will be no easy roster decisions. The Ott-Glendening-Miller line has looked great and produced. Mantha and Athanasiou have looked good. Callahan definitely deserves time on our 4th line. There's a ton of competition and there just isn't enough room for everyone. I'd love to see all of these guys on the opening night roster.

What are the cheapest that the upper bowl seats get if one was to wait until right before game time to buy them? The views from rows 1-10 look amazing online. I'm seeing around $60/ticket but the game is a few months away. Not sure what folks typically pay.

It's hilarious considering how much whining people have done over a one-year deal for a 4th liner. It wasn't warranted, but I've literally never seen so many fans complaining about such a minor signing. Someone at Wingingitinmotown wrote some garbage article whining about how Ott and other PKers are useless and overrated, which is funny considering Detroit was 14th on the PK last year. 4th line looked real good last night. I hope they're able to continue.

What a washed up waste of a roster spot that Ott guy is!

Anyone have experience using Seatgeek? Are you allowed to show tickets on your phone at the gate?

Yeah, this guy's coach, Andrei Nazarov, got tuned a few times in his NHL days. Guy has acted like a total asshat since he began coaching in the KHL. Pretty sure he was the head coach of those Vityaz morons who did this kind of stuff almost on a nightly basis.

Takes quite a beating at the end there from Alexander Svitov. Gets a few in at the beginning, but doesn't really do much against Evgeny Artyukhin. So he's real comfortable running around taking shots at guys who have no intention of fighting back, but can't really hang with guys who are used to dropping the gloves.

KHL should've just shipped him off to North America as punishment. The NHL isn't the rough and tumble league it once was, but I can easily name you 50 NHLers off the top of my head who would kick the s*** out of this guy.

James Wisniewski on a tryout with the Lightning. http://www.todaysslapshot.com/from-the-ice/james-wisniewski-inks-pto-tampa/ Like this move for Tampa Bay. Absolutely no risk and has the potential to fit into Matt Carle's vacated position on the blueline.

Abdelkader got drilled a few times earlier in his career. I specifically remember scraps against Ryane Clowe and Ryan Wilson that really didn't go well for him. Most of his fights don't last very long and don't involve many punches thrown. He beat up Max Lapierre twice, so he's got that going for him.

May and Tootoo. Even by today's standards, Abdelkader isn't anything special. Not terrible, but not intimidating at all. Ott has never been a good fighter, but his career total of 100 NHL fighting majors tells you he doesn't mind doing it.

Totally agree. Walked on in 2005 and busted his ass from then on out. His stay here was a few seasons too long, but Cleary belongs nowhere near this list.

Rangers give Max Lapierre PTO. http://www.blueshirtbanter.com/2016/7/28/12305214/rangers-give-maxim-lapierre-a-pto

He's overvaluing our roster players and prospects. Tomas Jurco is not someone to get hung up on when talking about piecing him together with other parts for a top defenseman. It just baffles me. We have 30 forwards signed and competing for roster spots. Pay the price and move on. It's really getting old hearing him justify being a cheapass. These are the kind of deals good GMs make happen. They see a glaring need and they do what they have to in order to fix it. You're not going to get a bargain for a top defenseman.

Clark-Weiss-Leino Cole-Modano-Brunnstrom Langfeld-Legwand-Mowers Mursak-Emmerton-Andersson Williams/Ellis Lebda-Zidlicky Kindl-Kuznetsov Hatcher-Krupp Wallin

Exactly what I'm thinking. He'll likely continue to improve, but he's not #1 material. I don't mind the deal. Maybe a little more than I would have wanted in terms of salary, but I can live with it. However, we still need significant help on defense.

He has like 20 forwards signed at this point. Deal Jurco + change and move on. The defense will be eaten alive if no changes are made. It's unbelievable how incompetent this summer has shown him to be. Started off well with him swinging Datsyuk's contract. The Miller and Ott signings really shouldn't have happened at all. The Glendening contract is excessive, and I empathize with the argument that Helm's contract is too long and for a bit too much salary. We have the highest paid backup in the league and he's been unable to deal that contract. A ton of money is tied up in Ericsson for several years, and he's a bottom-pairing defenseman at best. I'm not saying dealing Ericsson and Howard is something that can easily be done, but it's imperative that it gets done. There's just no other way around it.

Dude, do you not like the Helm deal or something?

Yeah, it's a deal that will come back to bite Detroit in the ass by the time the term is up. He's continued to make big mistakes. The term for Helm's contract was something I'm not fond of either. We all understand your opinion on the matter. Do you guys let this stuff keep you up at night?

1. "Grit" is also one of the worst-defined terms on this site. What is grit? Is it fighting? Blocking shots? Finishing hits? Winning puck battles along the boards? I'd say it's a combination of all those things. With the exception of fighting, I'd say all of those things are imperative to winning games, especially in the playoffs. One of the major reasons Tampa was able to dispose of Detroit in 5 was because their forechecking wore down our defense and forced turnovers. Additionally, they won a ton of 50/50 puck battles along the boards. 2. Again, you can't have a deep playoff run unless you have a reliable core of PK specialists. I agree that some players' effectiveness on the penalty kill is used to justify their position on the team, specifically in the case of Drew Miller. He doesn't provide much else besides his role on the PK. Very little offense, not particularly fast, and ineffective on the forecheck. 3. This is ludicrous. Games are won and lost in the faceoff circle. Puck-possession is the name of the game. This is one of the most bat-s*** crazy things I've read on here in a long time.