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I was trying to bait cprice in a more subtle way. His original post reeked of passive and unjustified condescension: The Blues could maybe use him as a depth guy, but he'd be a good signing for Detroit. Almost like he'd been waiting 20 years to say this.

He is one of only a few guys to pass through the league that nobody can find a reason to hate. Go to other teams' forums, even rivals like the Blues, Hawks, Ducks, Sharks, Pens, or Leafs. They all share a hatred for Detroit, but there's always an exception for Datsyuk.

I actually work at Just Baked. These things are delicious. And, I get to meet Hank next week! I'm super excited.

Great short story. Thanks to Dmitry Chesnokov. http://dchesnokov.tumblr.com/post/30056452315/good-deeds

Brown dives for sure. It's embarrassing, especially coming from a captain. But he hardly flopped his way through the playoffs. There were a couple plays, but honestly I thought he was better than usual regarding diving in the postseason.

I still think they should use the horn sound that submarines use when they dive. Can you imagine hearing that reverberate in any arena after some showboat goes flailing to the ice?

Good call. If it's any Wing ever, I suppose it's gotta be Vladdy. People don't realize/remember how good #16 really was - and I don't just mean in terms of "what-could've-been..." He was, at the time of the accident, Elite. He was The F***ing Man. He and Nick could've - and I say would've - gone on to become the best pairing in NHL history. I've got a couple decidedly feel-good anecdotes, one featuring Perfect Human Being #5, the other, The Effing Man #16 himself. I don't think I've ever shared them here, not sure why....

My main concern with CC is that he doesn't have a ton of playoff experience, having only played with Toronto and St. Louis. But he did have 3A last year in 7 games.

how do zetterberg's balls pair with pete schweddy's? can he hang with schweddy dominating the ball market? i tend to lean towards scheddy ball's at the moment. however, Z's balls have grabbed my attention and not juggling my options would be nuts.

I agree that NHL10 was the best. NHL11 and 12 drastically slowed down the game by making your players turning speed akin to a tug boat, even at 99 agility, and therefore gave you only two options to gain the offensive zone against competent D... loose puck deke, or dump. In other words 11 and 12 greatly diminished the role of reflexes in favor of loose puck dekes.... *** mode. Not to mention that in 11 and 12 they disabled the option to invite your friends to your OTP (online team play) room in an attempt to force people into clubs. The net result of this is that I make less friends because it is so hard to meet up again with someone you have met when you have to communicate over f'in on screen keyboard PSN messages to try and meet up in a lobby room that may or may not be full. In short, EA is lame and needs some competition. </endrant> Oh.. we were talking about player ratings?? : D Datsyuks rating is spot on....

i know that people are entitled to their own opinion, but i can't see how Konstantinov can be anything other than the best answer.

Items one through three are ownership issues. Number four is a result of the first three. "Parity" doesn't seem to be working as well as it was it was purportedly claimed. Once again, Uncle Gary shows that he wants to crush the PA.

LOL - this is the first thing that came to mind: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ORWKBI6eYfc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Ohh futbol, I don't know if you'll ever get any respect.

Maybe players should just start their own league. Without best hockey players on the planet NHL is nothing. On the other hand if all the owners got replaced with whole new lot I doubt any hockey fan would notice.

This thread needs more Jim Vandermeer.

Pavelski is the biggest

You should probably quit so I can work there.

I like the idea, but the list will not be accurate. Do you think the NHL will ever let Crosby ever get on a list like this and embarrass their favorite player? Exceptions will be made, and it won't be fair to the other players.

Dats is the man anyway you slice it.

Blog Here There are no good guys in the NHL’s labor dispute There is an incessant need to assign blame in the way we analyze situations. We love our dichotomies. There are good guys and bad guys. People who are at fault and people who are victims. Winners. Losers. So on. So forth. More often than not though, this isn’t how things work. Rarely, in the grand scheme of things, do things break up so conveniently. It would be magnificent for those of us who have to write about things, but it’s simply not the case. When it is broken up that way, it’s largely fabricated. I’m here to tell you NHL Labor Dispute 2012 ™ is not Gary Bettman’s fault. It’s not Donald Fehr’s fault. It’s not the owners’ fault. It’s not the players’ fault. It’s their collective fault. They are all utterly terrible. Gary Bettman Gary Bettman is a slime ball, I know this, you know this, your mother who hasn’t watched hockey since Bobby Orr’s rookie season knows this. There’s something incredibly offputting about his demeanor and general approach to dealing with human beings that ignites the rage furnace lying within each of us. He is the Kurtz of this novel and the NHL, the league we watch 10 months of the year, is his vile abyss. He plucks teams from their homes, he locks the doors on seasons, he conducts boos from center ice like a maniacal conductor playing to the audience. He postures on how the NHL is working diligently to solve the problems that they have played a starring role in creating. They’ve been ready to negotiate for months apparently, they want to talk it out, it’s that damn NHLPA holding up the process. We just want to work to get the game back for our fans. No, he doesn’t. He has a job to do and he doesn’t give a damn about you, or me, or your mother who hasn’t watched since Bobby Orr’s rookie season. He is a mouthpiece, nothing more. A smug, infuriating mouthpiece. Yet, for all of his cons, this is not his fault. He’s playing his part, doing his job and his job is to get what his bosses need and get out. Donald Fehr Donald Fehr is a weasel. For those of you who don’t follow the baseball circuit, you didn’t know this when he was hired, but you will soon find out. He causes problems. He did in baseball and he will maintain his performance across sports. Bo Jackson, meet your union head equivalent. To clear up his track record, he presided over an MLB lockout and lost World Series in 1994 which put a hefty portion of people off the sport. This came before a nice segue into the Steroid Era which brought fans back to the game with DINGERS and alienated them at the same time when the fallout came. If you’re a player you love this guy and it’s pretty clear why. He doesn’t take crap from the league, Bettman or the media. You know he’s going to get you closer to what you demand. And you know he literally doesn’t care what you think about him. If you’re going to guess how many damns Donald Fehr gives, set the line at one and take the under. Again though, like Bettman, he is a mouthpiece, nothing more. He is there to butt heads with Gary Bettman because the players pay him to, and regardless of how much of a jerk he appears to be, it’s barely more than a charade. Everybody has a mortgage to pay, and his need to pay the bill requires an unsavouryness that we have and will come to know. The Owners The owners are totally insufferable, aren’t they? I mean seriously. You get coaxed into signing these players for a decade plus and hundreds of millions of dollars and then cry poor come negotiation time. You weren’t poor two weeks ago, how are you poor now? If you want a league with a sustainable economic structure, perhaps you shouldn’t be handing out contracts to the Rick DiPietro’s of the world which put them on various Forbes lists for the world’s wealthiest people despite the fact he doesn’t work very much. Wouldn’t it be nice to have 82 paid sick days a year? Obviously this is hyperbole, but still. Completely ridiculous. Again though, this is ultimately what the fans want from their teams. To assemble a winner at all costs, financial or otherwise. What do we care anyways? They’re loaded, they can afford it. Who cares if we’re stuck with Rick DiPietro for another 332 years? Or Alexei Yashin for the rest of his life? I want titles dammit! Yet, we don’t want this. Nobody wants this. We have created a monster. Charles Wang, you have set a dangerous precedent that became much much worse once you made Ed Snider think you were on to something. The Players I understand that it’s tough for people to see how the players are at fault in this scenario, but it’s really not that tough to understand. You can’t blame these guys for signing outrageous contracts because that’s not how things work. I have a hard time believing any of us wouldn’t take all of the money for several years if we had the offers, but the rhetoric gets tiring. Just so we’re clear on a couple of things here… players complaining about the way rules are enforced for safety reasons is a joke. You want to stop getting hit in the head or plowed from behind? Don’t hit anyone in the head or plow them from behind. A riveting concept, I know. Also, this hockey brotherhood business is a little confusing. I know they’re all brothers and such when the camera is rolling, but the on-ice atmosphere is considerably different. It’s very cute seeing guys with a history of run-ins bro-hugging their way through union meetings. Also, do overseas players count as part of the hockey brotherhood? Because I don’t think it’ll feel that way when NHLers hop overseas to take their jobs during a lockout. I wouldn’t do that to my brother. Well, unless he was a real jerk. The players here are completely self-interested and self-absorbed, like every other party here, only they have less riding on this than anyone because they will be hired no matter what. The players are just as guilty of jobbing the fans as our previous three nutbar parties and you better not let them off the hook in the court of public opinion. Conclusions Everybody in this situation sucks. They are all flat out terrible. Bettman is a fink, Fehr is a rat, the owners are hypocrites who need to be saved from themselves, and the players don’t give a damn because they’re going to get paid no matter what, it’s just a matter of where and whose job they’re taking. The lockout, forthcoming at that, is not as simple as being Bettman’s fault, Fehr’s fault, the owners’ fault or the players’ fault. Anyone who tells you to zero in on one is lying to you and probably has an agenda. It’s not black and white but it is that simple. Collective bargaining means collective blame.

HAHAHAHA i like the word play there. They should just throw a mini one next to the board for jokes.

Vladdy without limo accident.

makes sense to have each team list divers from the other 29 teams and then the ones that stick out (over 50% of teams list) above the rest go on the list regardless of how talented they are.

They should crack down on Crosby for it like they crack down on Holmstrom for goalie interference