lets go pavel

philly's up 1-0 on nj, florida up 4-2 over carolina

not quite ... right now the sens and caps are both in and philly is one point out, but philly has 2 games left ... if the sens lose and the caps win then the caps are in, and if philly wins both remaining games then ottawa could be out ... but ... just to add to the confusion, carolina is losing right now, and if it stays that way, and boston beats ottawa, washington wins tomorrow, and philly wins one of their 2 games carolina would be out and ottawa would be in ...

because he's little enough that you can put him up on a pedestal and he doesn't look out of place? seriously, a realization i came to the other day ... i usually miss where they run the lines across the screen at the beginning of the game, so i have to watch to see who's playing and with who, and i swear every time i count 11 forwards and can't figure out who's missing, and it ends up being huddles ... he's almost always the last guy whom i realize is playing ... anyway, good to see we've got a bit more depth at forward, i was pretty impressed with abdelkader's game too, hopefully he can keep it up ...

actually, i'm pretty sure that as long as ottawa vs. boston ends in regulation time tonight the caps are in with a win tomorrow ... as long as it ends in regulation, the most the loser can reach is 94 points, which the caps would also have with a win, and unless i'm mistaken the caps hold the tiebreaker against both ... philly could finish ahead of them, but that would eliminate the loser of ottawa/boston, not the caps ...

i agree with most everything said, but if we want homer to come back and get into any rhythm at all he's going to have to play with someone ... given that pavel is close to 100, i say let him play with homer and flip, keep cleary and franzen in with huddles, whoever we have healthy to round out the bottom 2 lines, and rest hank, lids, and maybe one of kronner or rafalski if we enough warm bodies for all that ...

yes, that was definitely good fun ... a few of mine from last year ...

this should be sweet ... i'm might be going to their finale against florida saturday night, if that's a make-it-or-break-it game it would be so nice ... plus i think it's ovechkin bobblehead night come on caps!

a lot of players didn't play well that postseason, manny just ended up being the scapegoat ... still not a disappointment in my book ...

ummmm ... he started for us, and he starts for st. louis, made the all-star team this year ... seems to me that he has made the step from back-up to starter just fine ... perhaps his playoff performance for us was a disappointment, but i would hardly say his career has been a disappointment ... besides that, i don't recall him ever being projected to be more than a backup, he was thrust into the starting role because of injuries to dom and cujo, and he never looked back ... if anything, i'd say manny's is an overachiever ...

i don't think they will make it ... i think nashville will probably finish ahead of them ... edmonton has 83 points w/ 5 games left - minnesota, colorado, 2 vs calgary, and vancouver ... nashville has 82 pts but 6 games left - columbus twice, us, st louis twice, and chicago ... a much easier schedule and a game in hand ... unless they can will all of their remaining games i think edmonton will likely finish 10th ... the question is, can nashville catch colorado, who has 86 points and 5 games left - edmonton, vancouver twice, minnesota twice ... i think if colorado can win 3 of the 5 they're in ...

come on people it's just the flu ... although ... flu backward is ulf ... like ulf samuelsson, who was one of the biggest dicks the nhl has ever seen ... and the dick is part of the groinal area ... oh no! it is his groin! on a side note, good to see danny back ... does anyone know how much weight he lost, if any, with his jaw wired?

clearly they both suck ass and we should have traded for toskala at the deadline ... seriously, it's an interesting comparison, but the team will be fine regardless of who is in net, both can get the job done ...

well, we've already debated pavel's chances for selke and lady byng, what about the hart? this is from buccigross' mailbag on espn.com, he's responding to letters regarding lidstrom, malkin, and ovechkin's worthiness for the hart when he drops this line: Don't sleep on Pavel Datsyuk's career year in Detroit either, people. link a little vague, but it sounds like he thinks pavel might get a look ... what do you think?

no kidding ... you know, that's exactly what crossed my mind the other day when he checked whoever-it-was at center ice and took the interference call ... there goes the lady byng

fair enough, i don't agree with everything you think he should be changing but that's a matter of opinion, no point getting into it over that ... i do agree that there are times it seems like we're not the quickest to adapt, but at the same time when he has success with something i can understand why he'd have faith that it will eventually pay off and would want to stick with it ... just out of curiosity, who would you replace him with?

we've been without most of our defense for a good stretch of that ... still not feeling very "lowly", sorry ...

gotta say, this ranking doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me ... they say ozzie and dom are 1a and 1b, obviously meaning either could be the starter/backup, and then they rank them behind weekes, boucher, and hiller? how would any of those guys, obvious backups, rank ahead of dom and ozzie who are both legitimate starters? interestingly, i saw a similar thing, i think on espn.com, ranking the backups for the likely playoff teams, and they didn't even mention detroit's backup, i guess because they didn't consider either of them a backup ...

i don't remember us having particularly good luck dumping in against the ducks either, but regardless, you're talking about one aspect of one game that doesn't seem to be symptomatic of a greater problem with babcock ... i don't see how that is at all relevant to whether we should re-sign babs, much less a reason to call him dumb ...

first of all, datsyuk doesn't give the puck away "every time" he carries it into the zone, but more importantly, what makes you think that is babcock's strategy?? most of the time datsyuk or whoever has the puck will pass to an open wing if they have an open pass, but sometimes they can't ... you can't blame every mistake or poor play that happens on the ice on babcock, as if that's exactly how he designed it ...

wow ... can't remember the last time the first place team was called "lowly" ...

yeah, i agree too, i think there are too many higher-profile players who are having great seasons, but i was pleasantly surprised to hear someone recognizing the season he's had ...

brad stuart?

huh? are you saying babs is dumb? and for any particular reason?

well hell, if the ducks just wanted a way to rest him he could have just retired and then come back 8 games later ... i'm sure he's got a couple teammates who could have helped him with the paperwork

... let me see if i follow this logic ... kesler initiated the contact that led to the skate stomp, so he should be penalized for attempting to injure ... himself? that definitely deserves 30 games