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Karma for carrying Matt Cooke on their team. esteef

As much as i hate him, i love the rivalry and don't want to see such a good players career end this way.

I agree. Also, victory is sweeter when you beat a worthy opponent.

I'd get rid of Holland for offering Hudler a $15 million dollar contract and keep both Pavs and Hank.

Karma for all the diving he did/does when he barely gets tapped....now he knows what a real hit feels like! ...besides, he come back and play half the season and they will "give" him another trophy, the Masterson Trophy. Then they will fill the NHL airwaves full of talk about what heart and dedication he has, and how he is the only "true champion" for coming back from his injury. I can see Eddie Olczyk (and Carmen) wiping the jizz off his face already. I have no sympathy for him as a player (as a person I do hope he is ok to live a nice life,) this is what happens when you start believing the hype and think you are bigger than the game...the game stands up at the blueline and knocks you out...Eric Lindros part II... If he comes back, great, but if he is done, I won't lose any sleep over it. They'll trade us Joe Morrow for Jiri Hudler and Jakub Kindl.... (only in my dreams)

I'd love nothing more than to see Sidney Crosby never play another hockey game for the rest of his professional career. However, not for this reason. I don't wish that on anyone, even someone I despise as much as him.

yeah that is true, but is hardly the point...

I'd pick Hudler 10 times out of 10... and twice on Sunday. No thanks to this Kostitsyn bum. As bad as Hudler was last year, I know he is a legit goal scorer. And with this being his contract year, I expect him to have a career year and score lots of big goals. Unless Kenny can trade Hudler for a gritty top6 goal scorer, I say keep him and enjoy his 2011 goal production. You'd have to be ignorant to think Hudler will have another this bad of season while entering his prime... (especially during a contract year).

I'll admit, prior to the 2007 playoffs, I wanted Datsyuk to either step it up in the playoffs or traded. Datsyuk was to easy to push off the puck at one time. In the 2006 offseason Pavs hit the gym, gained 20 lbs of muscle, and the rest they say is history. I'm sure Gomez would have put up better numbers in Detroit, and probably would have been a crowd favorite. However, I'm glad the traded didn't happen, Datsyuk hit the gym and turned his career around. Probably Bowman, he was GM and coach for a while.

At one time, that's the way it was.

Another prediction from me.... -Eva will continue to misunderstand that to be really bold, a prediction must look to be impossible & he will continue to s*** on everyone else's postings, especially the ones that mention Hudler OK, this prediction is in no way "bold" given that it is based totally on past performance in this thread

How about Filppula actually getting 50 points?

So in his 13 season career, you're going to use 25 games where he was returning from a devastating concussion to call Savard a third line forward? Makes perfect sense. Hudler was playing professional hockey in the KHL, while Savard was hoping headaches and other concussion symptoms would go away so he could start working out again. It's not nearly the same thing. And unlike your example with Hudler maybe being an all-star scorer, Savard has actually been just that. Twice. It's not speculation. It's happened. Before the 25 game sample you've cherrypicked between his concussions, Savard had 33 points in 41 games. Before that when he was playing pretty much full seasons his point totals were 88, 78, 96 and 97. In other words, take most of Hudler's stats and double them, and you'll be around Savard's totals. If you're trying to make a case to people that Hudler isn't as bad as people say he is compared to other third line players in the league (which is a relatively sound argument) you only weaken your case and credibility with crazy ass things like including Savard in the mix. And making threats about derailing this thread with your absurd Jason Williams argument doesn't exactly strengthen your case either. Unlike Williams, Savard has put up impressive points totals in one single season. Third? Who is he in front of? Zetterberg? Franzen? It's sure not Dats. Flip does get hate here, but even when he's underperforming offensively year after year, he's a solid two way center who can handle the second line. Hudler has zero other positive attributes other than scoring. So when he's not doing that, he's dead weight in the lineup. Especially when you consider that Flip only makes $125k more than Hudler, and they put up virtually the same point totals. Don't get me wrong, I think everyone is eagerly waiting for Flip to produce more offensively, but when he's not, he's at least still useful.

Marc Savard? Really? A healthy Hudler (which he is) couldn't dream of putting up the numbers of a healthy, non-concussed Marc Savard...who wouldn't be on the 3rd line.

Everyone here knows the cure for cancer is Z's beard hair mixed with some of Dat's stick tape, applied liberally to the area. This also is an ancient Chinese cure for impotence. Bold predictions: Hudler scores 52 pts all from 3rd line minutes (plus a couple from his time in the box served for bench minors). Filpulla (and 1st and 4th) is traded at the deadline for Praise, Z and D for C goes catatonic. Zetterberg scores 40 goals again, and nears 100 points. Dats scores 99 again, justifies this by setting assists records in the playoffs. Tells the media 'I take regular season off, stay rested for cup' then looks at Z awkwardly making sure he said it right. Lidstrom puts up 50+ points, is +20 and wins another Norris.

Sorry, I'm a little short on sympathy this week.

And if they don't, he'll only have his tens and tens of millions of dollars for succor.

Ditto. This thread is dirty... and wrong.

From Dec 2nd through Jan 22nd, Savard played 25 games and scored 2 goals and 8 assists. In that same time span, Hudler scored 3 goals and 8 assists in 24 games. Remarkably similar stats. You can go on about a non-concussed Savard, but what about a Hudler that hadn't gone to the KHL? Maybe he's an All-Star scorer and Selke contender. We don't have the "maybe what if" numbers. If you want those, we can get Jason Williams' injury history involved.

While Hudler and Datsyuk were together, Hudler outscored Datsyuk. That's an awfully interesting thing to happen during the same span you seem to be giving credit for his entire season's worth of production. Maybe you then agree that Hudler should be on the top line with Datsyuk, scoring crazy amounts of points instead of playing on a line with Abdelkader and Miller or whatever assembly you have planned.

Hudler spent most of the year on the third line, played a little bit on the top two, and played just as much on the fourth. Funny thing is, Hudler backchecks harder than any of those guys did. And he always has.

Really? Complaining about not having a girlfriend and saying I'm leaving to play in the KHL, then coming back. To me that's a degree of drama.

Don't make us choose.

That's sad news. I dislike Crosby (Hate the Pens) as much as the next guy, but he is undeniably one of the most gifted players in the game. I always really thought he would mature as he got older and become an Yzerman,Sakic, Lidstrom type of personality. People often forget just how young he is, 24 or 25. I'm sure we were all such gentleman at that age. Ryan