Jamaica Jon

I wish the Selke had a clause is its description: "The Best Defensive Forward... that also excels in the offensive aspect of the game". I mean sure there are defensive specialists, and that's great. I love guys like Draper and Maltby just as much as the next guy, but I think this would be a much better award (not to mention Dats and Zetterberg would win it a lot more) with the added exception. If they don't do this, perhaps they could create a new award? Best All-Around Forward? or something?

Is your ordering arbitrary? i.e. Is Crosby in your opinion the most dominant and Staal the 17th most. Or is that just the 17 most dominant forwards in no particular order? Also, is this purely based off offensive performance?

Still, only 6 defenseman will be dressed next game (most likely)... I think that's what people are trying to debate: Who will be dressed for Wednesday's game. Whether they will or won't be sent down is irrelevant.

I totally agree. Lidstrom is clearly the MVP of the league. Without him we are just in the hunt, not leading the pack. Unfortunately, the only way for people to see this was for him to get hurt and our team go to hell without him. But him being out for a chunk of the season PROBABLY takes him out of MVP contention. Catch 22...

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Disappointed we didn't land Hossa, but I'm glad we didn't give up what Pittsburgh gave up. Stuart is a good trade for the price. A late announced forward would be music to my ears, but I think Holland did alright not giving up the farm... we really don't have much to trade.

I hope you're kidding. If we do land Hossa, there's no way he'll be in the game tonight. ... would be nice though.

Sorry. Double Post.

I highly doubt that. I think it means he is WILLING to trade the 1st pick. The top young guys: Filppula, Ericcson, Kindl, Howard, will not be traded. Others are probably fair game: Hudler, Kopecky, Sammy, Meech, Quincey, etc. As is the 1st Round pick.

I'm going to be sad if we don't get Hossa : ( I know it's unrealistic, but still.... They make a good point that Montreal actually has roster players they are willing to deal in order to allow Atlanta to still compete for the division. Too bad we don't... >_<

I wouldn't mind seeing him here if: - We didn't give up much - There wasn't 11 hours left to get a better deal done My point is, this would be way too early for us to "give up" and settle for someone like Lapointe.

Same here. It is GLORIOUS. Edit - Hmm. Ann Arbor? Maybe it's cuz we go to the same school...

No. He will be an UFA this summer.

This is a bit harsh, but I agree that giving away assets for Marty would be a waste. I remember someone arguing against Lapointe at deadline-time last year, was that you? Your posts/points seem so familiar. (Not that it's bad, I'm just curious)

I'm not pulling an all-nighter, but I'm definitely considering getting up before 8:00 for the first time in 3 years.

This may have been mentioned before (I refuse to read all 53 pages), but I think Hossa DOES have a bit of a say as to where he goes. It seems that the general consensus around the league is that nobody wants to give up a lot for a potential rental player. This means that either Hossa will have to work out a sign-and-trade situation with the Thrashers, or have a discussion window with a potential team in order to get a deal worked out. If he doesn't want to go to a certain team, he COULD just turn down every extension offer they throw at him. So oddly enough, unless some idiot GM is willing to give up a young roster player, prospect and pick for a rental player, Hossa has the equivalent of a NTC. If Hossa indeed would prefer a winning team over big money, I think this increases Detroit's chances of landing him.

Zetterberg Datsyuk Filppula Holmstrom Lidstrom Cleary Franzen Rafalski Lebda Kronwall Draper Maltby Sammy Kopecky Hasek Osgood Meech Hudler Drake Chelios Downey Lilja No opinion on the rest.

I have to go with Nick. This is how I came to my decision: The main candidates for Team MVP are: Nick, Ozzie, Hank/Dats. I think about it this way. Yes Osgood has played great, and if this were Most Outstanding Player, then he might get my vote. But if Osgood was only playing average this year... I think we would still have a great team. Maybe not as great as we are now, but still near the top of the league. Even with Dom struggling in net, we were still doing fine. Same with Hank/Dats. As we saw, when Hank when out Dats and other secondary scorers picked up the pace scoring-wise and kept us going. This shows to me that Zetterberg isn't absolutely necessary for us to have success (although he definitely helps, and is my favorite Wing). I think the same thing goes for Pavs. If he was injured instead of Hank, I think Hank and others would've been able enough to pick up the scoring and continue to carry us to victory. If we lost Nick tho, I think we'd be in HUGE trouble. We would lose the top defensive scorer in the league, and the anchor of our defense that allows the fewest shots in the league. I agree with some other posters in this thread in saying this is the defintion of Most Valuable: if we didn't have ______, we wouldn't have as much success. Granted you can say that about anyone, but I think the biggest drop-off in success would be if we didn't have Lids. And to say "well, we expect it from him" is a ridiculous argument. We're not debating Comeback Player or something like that. If someone is valuable to your team, it doesn't matter if it's expected or not. Lidstrom is easily the choice for team MVP.

This is great to see, especially after re-watching the Wings/Avs brawl from '97 earlier today. Say what you will, McCarty could PLAY. He was out on the powerplay with Shanny in that game. The POWERPLAY! If he gets back to anywhere near his prime I'd want him over Downey any day of the week. He could fight while actually somewhat contributing offensively and defensively. Probably a long shot, but it would still be nice to see and a great story.

Maybe since we're doing so well there will be no "Get it done, Kenny"'s... ... a man can dream...

I'm excited for this game! I've been out of town since Christmas Eve so I've missed the last few games. I finally get to watch Hopefully I'm not bad luck for Filppula tho, here's to 2 more goals tonight! For those above: I heard Zetts will be out for the entire road trip because he stayed in Detroit (along with Homer). Sucks not getting to see him play, but I'm not too disappointed that he's getting some rest.

It's great to see Filppula playing well. Especially after a mediocre start. I've been rooting for him to get going all season and he finally has! Two goals the past 2 games. Incredible!

While I will definitely miss having Hank and Homer out on the ice, and wish them a speedy recovery, I DO like the fact that guys like Filppula (who has been playing VERY WELL lately) and Cleary get a chance to play with Dats. Getting to play with him is surely gonna help them rack up some points and hopefully build confidence and momentum for the rest of the season/playoffs.

I love you.... I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw the title! BNL rules!

Whoops. Sorry about that. Yeah, thread title totally threw me.