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It's a shame, Dats no longer belongs in the rafters now. But he made it clear he is Russian and wants to end his last good playing years in Russia. For that i respect him. It reminds me of Modano wanting to play his last year in Detroit. He gave a lot to us and we should be thankful for the many years we had him. Merry christmas Pavel, merry christmas red wings, and to all LGWers a very merry christmas to you and yours.

Seriously man can you imagine if Holland had signed him for like 1 year and then Datsyuk ended up leaving right after that? The same people would be complaining about how "Holland couldn't lock Datsyuk up". "He should have signed him for 3 years and he wouldn't have left" Hindsight isn't 20/20 on LGW.com its godam 20/15 SUPERHUMAN vision. 20/15 is better than 20/20 vision if anyone is wondering.

You know what, you're right. I take back my agent comment, the agent isnt the one who signs the contract. Its on Datsyuk. With that being said, I dont hold any ill will towards him. I completely agree with the Holland stuff, people will blame him for everything and anything. A star player wants to sign a 3 year deal, any GM makes that signing.

First step - Does Pavel Datsyuk have hands? Fingers? A pen? Oh he did? Oh ok. So it took his signatures to sign the contract. Next step - Does Datsyuk have a brain? Does he understand what 3 years means (translate that phrase from english into Russian if he needed it). Oh he does understand what 3 years is? Okay good. Last step - Sign it. Oh he did? Oh ok cool nobody put a gun to his head right? Ok sweet! We have a deal! Nah lets blame Holland for someone elses actions. Right on. There was a storm somewhere today and people got stuck in the snow, I blame Holland for it. Everytime people make excuses for someone and blame Holland or Howard or Mrazek blah blah blah, this is the type of irrational thought process I imagine that goes on.

Not to mention the acceleration and speed that monster can generate

I thought this thread was about Mantha, not Datsyuk. Mantha has impressed me with his play. He makes good passes, has a good shot and seems to have a knack for going to the net.

Datsyuk took blame, accepted responsbility and (somewhat) apologized. I doesn't matter what excuses anyone here on LGW makes nor does it matter if anyone blames Holland. Datsyuk came out like a man and said it like it was, said that he messed up. Let's follow suit.

Hell it didn't even say that. All it said was Mickey said Datsyuk complimented Mantha's game- not that Datsyuk asked to play with or even liked playing with Mantha. Just that he complimented his game. So still not widely reported everywhere, or even anywhere.

But I don't buy the notion that Datsyuk would have stayed with the Red Wings if he got to play with Mantha lol. Why would he chose Mantha over his daughter? Makes no sense.

That's not even true. Here is something I posted in another thread, fits perfect in response to what you said: Mrazek started the year as the bonafide starter. Mrazek started 4 of our first 5 games but let in 12 goals (ie. played bad). 12 games into the season, Mrazek started in 9 games to Jimmy's 3 which is 75% (more then normal for a starter) and in those games Mrazek continued to not play well in comparison to Jimmy. Mrazek lost the starting job because Jimmy outplayed him. If he outplays Jimmy, he can get it back. Blashill has actually been pretty consistent with goalies. I cant blame a coach for playing the clearly better playing goalie when a coaches mandate is to win games. If you want to bash Blashill for his other dumb moves, go for it. But this is not one of them.

The 3+ GAA and sub .900 save percentage can't be good for his confidence level either

Honestly, I'd rather play a team that has been rested for 3 days than playing a team that only rested for 1 day....they may be a bit flat.