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Stats don't lie, goals per game was roughly the same or lower during Fedorov's prime years as they are now. Plus, Fedorov had ten 30+ goal seasons, two 100 pt. seasons, a Hart Trophy, and three Stanley Cups. He also won the Selke twice, and actually played defense for every team he was on. So it's not like the guy was Ovechkin during his career. I know none of that is as legitimate as an EA sports poll or an urban dictionary entry, but it's pretty impressive none the less. Which reminds me, did I ever tell you guys about how my students once voted "The Fast and the Furious" as the greatest movie EVER made? Anyway, to sum all this up: something, something...appeal to probability...something something...psychologist's fallacy...something, something...you can't see the forest for the trees.

Fans get locked out too

Stan Bowman and Al Arbour have a daughter together?! I never would have guessed there was something going on between those two... In more on topic news, no one famous ever came from my home town. NO ONE.

All three branches (lower case "b") of the CHL begin their schedules tomorrow. If you haven't been to a game in awhile, go; I don't think you'll be disappointed.

We've all seen the jaw-dropping things Dats can do, but for those who are too young or don't remember, here's some pretty good highlights from Fedorov.

As pissed off as I am that the NHL is locked out yet again, I'm gonna come crashing back like an excited kid when the NHL resumes. If it was boycottBettman or fireBettman, i'd be 110% onboard. They said the CBA negotiations were hard to get started during the season, but the only 4 people in all but 1 meeting have been Bettman, Daly and the Fehr's so i'm not seeing why they couldn't have had bi-weekly conference calls with the owners and PA and have the same 4 guys meet during the year. We would likely be waiting to see training camps right now and not disappointed that another lockout is here and have horse s*** facebook groups making boycott NHL groups. How about a facebook page for bring back the NHL? I may even join that one and i have no time for facebook these days.

A great article http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/a-lost-nhl-season-could-happen-again/article4552510/ --- So you can clutch at straws and hope for the best by dismissing the events of the past 72 hours as the usual rhetoric and posturing – or you can go all Chicken Little and think the sky really is falling. The evidence for pessimism seems far stronger, and that’s largely because Fehr has the players convinced that their givebacks during the lost season of 2004-05 mean that the onus is on the owners to compromise this time. ---

Sure it does. It's called the car gets repossessed, and the dealer gets to sell it again. There are ways to get out of destructive contracts, and people take them all the time. Buy more house than you can afford, and lose your job? Under your scenario, too bad, you're an indentured servant until you pay what you owe. I mean, why should the bank give you a break. You're the one who signed the contract. Noone put a gun to your head and made you get a house.

I wouldn't mind seeing Helm get the A.

Whilst I cannot dispute that the rookie Fedorov had less in front of him (Yzerman) than the rookie Datsyuk (Yzerman, Fedorov, Larionov, even Draper) that misses the point. Fedorov at 21 was a FAR better player than Datsyuk. The only reason Sergei wasn't in the NHL at 18 or 19 was because of the Iron Curtain, also the reason he was a 4th round pick and not a top-5 pick as his talent deserved. He scored 79 points his rookie year - roster depth and higher scoring era notwithstanding, it took Pavel till his 5th season in the NHL to top that. There's nothing wrong per se with being a late bloomer, most players are, its usually only lottery picks like Crosby, Malkin etc who can come in at 18 or 19 and perform like stars. When Pavel arrived, he was a shy, undersized kid - outstanding stickhandling ability that had everyones eyes popping out, but no-one, no-one predicted the 2-way beast he would become. How much of that was opportunity, maturity, increasing strength, confidence, desire, Babcock's coaching, who knows? The fact is Pavel was 27 before he had a season that could be compared to Sergei. At 27 Feds had won 2 Selke's, a Hart and was a 3-time All-Star. Fedorov was bigger, stronger, faster, had a better slap-shot, a better one-timer, as good defensively and almost as good a stickhandler (but no-one compares to Pav). Oh, and 163 points in 162 playoff games going head to head against the likes of Sakic, Forsberg, Modano, Niewendyk, Roy and Belfour year in and year out throughout the Dead Puck era.

Fans will obviously vote for Yzerman, because the twitter people are too young to remember Gordie Howe or what he did for the franchise and the NHL in general.

Of course, after umpteen rounds we all know its going to come down to Yzerman v Lidstrom v Howe. I would have put Sawchuk in there as the 4th semi-finalist, but they've got him in the same bracket at Yzerman, so Lindsay or Fedorov then.

I will be happy with either Zetterberg or Datsyuk as Captain but it will probably be Zetterberg - C Datsyuk - A Kronwall - A Filppula - A (if rotating)

I was just coming here to post this. Definitely interesting...and by interesting I mean childish and ridiculous.

Bettman is lazy and he sucks.

Business also doesn't typically have a lottery to pick its employees as 18 year olds and tell them which franchise they work for, own their rights to be employed, or trade their employees for compensation. You're really oversimplifying how a professional sports league works.

The salary cap is exactly that. It's not collusion because they're all franchises of the league. But by linking players salaries to revenue and putting a hard cap on it, the owners have already done exactly what you're saying. I'm not understanding how removing revenue sharing would help given the big problem is the disparity between the rich and poor franchises. I do agree though that there's other ways to helps costs by doing things like lowering the cap floor. The owners seem fixated on just reducing players salaries, but they could help contract inflation through other avenues besides the players percentage. Lower the cap floor. Limit the length of contracts. have the yearly payout be the same as the cap hit instead of the average. Eliminate signing bonuses (I honestly thought those were already gone). I'm guessing the problem is that the owners of the wealthy franchises like all those things because they give their team a competitive advantage. 30 owners may have voted for the lockout, but don't forget that the Flyers made an offer sheet to Weber structured so it would basically financially cripple Nashville. But the one thing they can all agree on is it would be great to pay players less.

What? If the problem is too many teams in horrible markets, then the solution is to eliminate those teams entirely or move them to a better market. In that context, your statement about revenue sharing makes no sense as revenue sharing will *never* fix teams in bad markets or solve the problem of owners who can't run a successful business. Revenue sharing (corporate socialism) is foolishness from a business perspective - it will never fix underlying problems. Also, the NHLPA proposal to increase revenue sharing was inflammatory to the successful (read: has owners who know how to run a business) franchises in the NHL. On a side note, all of these raging posts blindly attacking the owners for their "greed" are just silly. Stop with the class envy and jealousy and come to grips with the fact that the NHL is a business, run by businessman... to make money. That does not make them greedy, any more than you wanting more money (prosperity) makes you greedy. It is fallacious to suggest that because they make more than you, they are somehow greedy in their efforts to run a successful business and make money, whereas you are not in your own similar pursuits. Who are you to say how much money is enough, and then label someone greedy for making more? In summation: get this class envy nonsense out of here - not only is it ignorant, hypocritical, and laden with jealousy, but it's also unproductive to the discussion.

Sad to see Homer go out like this

I wouldn't be happy that the Red Wings were playing, because they wouldn't be. Guys like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg and the like are all under contract by the Red Wings. They are Detroit Red Wings hockey players. Besides, no one can match what Dats does out there. Certainly not some replacement player that couldn't crack the NHL except as a scab.

Any random bunch of players they pull out of their ass isn't the real Detroit red wings. It's both the team and the players. The players make the team

I'd rank it right where it belongs...ahead of Minnesota's.

I think we will be okay to everyones' surprise. Why do I say this? Because the Red Wings best move of the summer has been bringing in Tom Renney as assistant coach for the Defense. He has a lot of experience working with younger players, and has a very good defensive approach to his system. When he was the coach of the NY Rangers, they played a very solid defense system, and had an outstanding penalty killing system. There were several times, back in 2008, when Mike Babcock praised Renney and his system and sometimes even had the boys watch tapes to help them out. So I think Renney will be a huge help. By no means am I saying that we will be just as good as years past, but we won't be as bad as everyone seems to think. I mean honestly, look at Jersey. Our dmen are way better then theirs, and they just came within 2 wins of a Stanley Cup. How about s***sburg? Their D is not that strong. Also, as someone said, we play a good TEAM defensive system. I guess we will have to wait and see, but I expect Babs and Renney will get things together.