Leaderboard

Started 330 NHL games with a .916 save percentage. Plus he played extremely well the first half of the season before his injury. A much larger sample than 7 games. I'm guessing they'll both get a shot at the starting job. This is in no way a criticism of Mrazek. Just that the team would be foolish to hand over the reigns completely to a guy with something like 41 NHL starts and who hasn't started more than 50 games since the OHL. They may start Mrazek right out of the gate, but he will have to play very well to hang onto the spot with Howard on the bench behind him. My guess is they play them as a tandem and keep them fighting for the #1 spot.

Take a look at Toews beard and then take a look at Zetters beard. Does that answer the question? Case closed

Mrazek has only started 34 games in his NHL career. I think Mrazek played well in the playoffs, but he still has to steal the starting job outright from Howard. He is not our #1 goalie yet. They're at best a tandem at the moment until he proves otherwise.

Bernier: " Nelson Mandela would have never let his team play such s*** defense"

This. I think GMR said it best though, are we talking years of top play, or 'peak', as in each player at their very best? Think either way Z takes it. I reckon it would be concluded that Z is better. He's had injuries, especially with the back, and if it can be seen that he's over that and back to his best then him outscoring Toews would go a long was to help his argument. However I don't think scoring is everything. The PK would give Toews an edge, but having said that Z had 10 more blocked shots last year (26 to 16) and Miller lead the league in forwards - does that mean Drew is in the mix? Of course not. People bring different things and I think that's why it's been so difficult to separate these two. If they had the points you quoted, with similar ice-time, it still wouldn't be enough to draw much of a reasonable conclusion as, say, 25% of Toews ice time would be on the PK. 75% of Z's 80 points would be 60. So for his ES time Toews would be doing better. But hey, spreadsheets aren't everything (although I personally love them). EDIT: I thought I'd also say (and I may be the first person to say it) that Z is without doubt far better value for money. But that's very little to do with either player, just a factor in the case of "which would you pick?" Toews, I feel, would have accepted less than what he was offered, but when they offered Kane his contract, they felt they had to offer Toews the same. He'd be a moron if he said "nah, just give me $8m-per". Our front office has always been a bit clever with the cap.

switched my vote

I've watched him play about 25 or so games this past year he's a great player but not top 3 on ice. I'm usually more impressed when I watch Tavares and Stamkos play. Last season I enjoyed Backstrom a good amount. Some of us like maths but others also like watching and playing hockey. Call us well rounded if you must XD I usually DVR all Wings games if I can't watch live. And Comcast/Xfinity does a decent job of saving prime time games for NHL network. That's how I get to watch Chicago, LA games (where I can watch Kopitar)

What a novel idea. As a hockey fan I never thought of actually watching the games. Thanks for the tip Frank.

Agree with most of what you said, however, Ovechkin does not disappear in the playoffs. He's scored 70 points in 72 playoff games. He just plays for a team that has a terrible playoff history and he hasn't gotten much help there. So who are the 10 you'd rank ahead of him for sure? I can only think of three or four I'd rank ahead for sure. After that, I can make arguments for and against him over someone else.

Where is eva ? We need him to confirm this.

Exactly. And seriously, why wouldn't they? I have no horse in this race, so I don't care who the #1 guy is as long as he plays like a #1 goalie. Best case, both goalies are lights out but one is more lights out. How awesome would that be? Worst case, both goalies are bad with one being slightly less bad. I don't want to start a goalie flame war here, but it seems that the members insisting that Mrazek has "already stolen Howard's job" are simply pro Mrazek, anti Howard, and are hoping one succeeds while the other fails. Almost like they'd rather have one great goalie on this team than have two. Which is completely crazy.

A lot of folks were quick to ignore Mrazek's inconsistency from game to game last year as well. One game he would post a shutout, then follow it up with getting pulled. Those kind of growing pains are expected in a rookie goalie which is fine, but it's not a characteristic you want to see in a number 1. The only problem was Jimmy wasn't any better in that second half of the season.Anyway I agree with your assessment that the job is up from grabs right now, and I could easily see either goalie walking away with it. Both are quite talented and capable goalies when they're in the zone (see: Howard's first half of the season, Mrazek in the playoffs). I can also see Blashill giving them each 41.

Now or in their primes?

1a/1b until management determines Howard is expendable. He'll be traded before his contracts up but it won't be until next off-season at the very earliest.. even that seems like a stretch.

Wow you must have been tired. It was pretty loud. You can even hear it on my video over the noise of the props.

There seems to be an over reliance on points in this thread, and while points are a good indication of a players success they don't tell the whole story. Say Franzen scores 30 goals but has stretches where he disappears for 15 games at a time. Is he as good as a player that scores 30 goals, but is constantly in the game contributing? I will say this that I initially thought Towes and Z where more similar in their prime, but it does look like Z was a superior player. Though after all the injuries, points not withstanding, at present Toews is a better all around player.

I guess that's fair. The injury bug didn't really start hitting Z until later on in his career. I guess you cant really compare career to career until they are both retired.

What? Mrazek in the AHL? He is our #1 goalie . Howard will be gone by next summer. He is the past. Mrazek is the present and the future. I dont mind keeping Jimmy this season to push Mrazek. But nothing more. Mrazek is going to be a star and he is already better than Jimmy is now. He has paid his dues in the AHL. Its 2015 not 2013.

You can't just say "Hank never had the skill Toews has" without giving some good details to this. Here I'll say it. Zetterberg (in prime) was better than Toews (in prime) in all aspects of hockey except faceoffs and shootouts. Everything else. Z was better. If someone can prove otherwise I'm all ears.... This is the point of this thread. Lot of people want to say Toews was better. Or Z was better. But not much is said when asked about HOW Toews is better. "Well TSN said it so it must be true"

Made some updates to the blog. Sorry I didn't have any new content for a while. I will try to be more frequent. Should I make a new thread for construction updates? http://wingsarena.tumblr.com/

Tatar is pulling away!

I'm gonna be the lame one and not vote because I like them both for different reasons. Nyquist to me is more consistent and has the better chance at being a leader and top line player. Tatar is like a great sidekick that can be clutch for his team with excitement and his flash. His enthusiasm may bother some but I absolutely love it on a team that has so many laid back players. P.S. I had a choice to choose between a Nyquist and Tatar jersey and I chose Tats.....maybe that's my answer?

Excited

What a ******* joke

Haven't you ever read "We" or "Brave New World"? If I have to choose between free will and happiness, I choose happiness. I want to be mind controlled to be happy. I want to be plugged back into The Matrix, baby! JK. Successful mind control like in those novels is not yet viable. We still have a long way to go. Whereas here, people in DC actually get stuff done, right?