lets go pavel

I hear it's all Chris Pronger's wife's fault ...

Nope, I don't think so. He deserves mention, but I'm pretty sure they've already engraved Dave Tippett's name on it. Lilja winning the Masterton is certainly a possibility.

Not I sure I buy into these statistics entirely. If I'm understanding correctly, they are based on what they are calling "relative +/-", which means they take the player's on-ice goal differential 5-on-5, PP, and PK, then subtract the goal-differential of his team in those same situiations when he's off the ice ... if the player is better than the team average, it enhances his +/-. If the player is worse, his score drops. Ideally this compensates for the disparity between players on a good team and players on a bad team ... but no system is perfect. Players in a non-scoring role will inevitably be penalized because the team scores more with them off the ice than on it. This is most noticeable with Stuart's PP number. Stuart's PP # is a -8.4, but he's rarely on the PP. Has he been on the ice for this many shorthanded goals against? No ... what's making his number so bad is that with his limited PP time he's been on the ice for very few PP goals. Compare him to the rest of the team and his number drops. Hypothetically he could be a +10, but if his team is +18.4 with him off the ice, he ends up with a -8.4. 5-on-5 and PK are probably not as flawed for him because he does log plenty of ice time there, but I wonder how much of that is due to rotating cast of defensemen he's been paired with? In any case, not a great statistical year for Stuart, but least valuable? Not even close ...

Maybe I'm missing something, but if Hudler wanted to play for the Wings so badly but knew money was an issue why not skip arbitration, sign a 1-year deal for less, then get the big contract after this season? I'm not faulting him for taking the money, but I have a hard time seeing how Hudler going to the KHL was doing the Wings a favor.

Yup ... I imagine there are quite a few "Homer-hard-ons" out there this morning ...

Gotta go with Howard. Datsyuk has been our best forward and Lidstrom our best defenseman, and while neither one has had their best year they have both picked it up quite a bit of late. That said, Howard is the guy who really carried the team night in and night out during the early part of the year and through all of the injuries. I don't think we'd be in a playoff spot right now without him.

Homer's 1st Law of Hockey: He who smells like s***, plays like s***.

Howard has been fine ... not great, but fine. That said, it would be nice if we could rattle off 5 or 6 more wins in a row, get ourselves situated comfortably in the 6-7 seed with some cushion behind us, and then split the starts for the last 10-12 games to get Ozzie some ice time. Howard will be the starter going into the playoffs, and personally I think this is a good year for him to get some playoff experience ... expectations aren't as high as usual, and he's not likely to be the scapegoat if things don't go well.

Maltby's already been bumped ... by his shoulder. Bottom line, we have different needs this year compared to years past. In the past we've had ample offense and defense, our need has been depth and grit. This year, it's practically the opposite. We have depth ... 8 defensemen with NHL experience, Abs and May waiting in GR until the season ends, plus whoever else we pull from there. What we need is scoring, and I don't see a lot of that out there. Other than Kovie, what goal-scorer has been moved who would jump in and help us?

Two thoughts ... Does anyone know what kind of ratings/viewership NBC got on the other channels for the other stuff they were showing? Seems like a pretty important detail if you're going to argue that they should have been showing hockey instead of the other stuff based on potential ratings. I have no problem with Cowlishaw griping about the NBC coverage, but jumping from there to the conclusion that the NHL shouldn't participate next time is a pretty big leap. Is viewership and exposure really the only reason for participation? I gues maybe so from Bettman's perspective, but it's a bit disappointing to hear Cowlishaw adopting that viewpoint rather than that of, say, Ovechkin, who could give two s***s about the exposure but wants to participate to represent his country.

Nope, I heard it as well ... more likely to get an injury update than trade info I would think.

They're probably just banged up and got the day off ... wouldn't read too much into it.

The top 3 seeds belong to the division leaders ... unless we catch Chicago (not happening) the best we can hope for is 4th place, and we are currently 5 points back. So yes, it's within reach, but then it seems like we've been within 1-2 points of the 8 spot for most of the season, and we only now actually got it ...

Undoubtedly Avery is great at pissing off the other team, but I would say the role of an agitator goes a step further ... it has to help your own team in the process. Do Avery's antics do that? I honestly haven't seen enough of him to answer that question, but it does seem like he takes an awful lot of stupid penalties - does he draw as many as he takes? Do his antics really benefit his team more than, say, Homer in his prime parked in front of a goalie, driving them and the D-men crazy, picking up cross-checking penalties?

I'd be surprised if all those teams are in the playoffs come year's end. Something interesting ... look at the goal differentials for those teams compared to the favorites: LA +4, COL -1, NASH even, PHO +6 ... CHI +25, SJ +19, CAL +15. While there is something to be said for winning close games, and goal differential is just one measure of a team's performance, these teams are arguably playing at the top of their games and are not really dominating the opposition ... can they keep this up all year? A few bounces the other way, a few rough patches, and I think some of these teams slide out of the top 8. And yes, I realize we are in the same boat (DET +3), but given all the injuries I think it's pretty obvious that we're not playing at the top of our game, and fully expect those numbers to improve once we have a few players back.

Personally, I'd like to go after 2 things: a goal-scoring forward, someone who shoots the puck and can skate with Pavel so we can keep Franzen with Z ... 20-30 goal, 50 pt potential ... a defensive defenseman to replace Lilja, assuming he's not coming back ... a big body, stay-at-home, shot-blocking defenseman ...

I would just like to point out that this is a Jake Ryan thread, about Holmstrom, and we have made it roughly 20 posts without any mention of "ninety-sux", "homer-hard-ons", or "holmstromeningitis" ... I am truly impressed.

I'm actually liking this ... to be honest, as much as I like winning, it got a bit boring the last few seasons when we had the division pretty much locked up by February and could skate around half-assed and still win 5-3. It's refreshing that we actually have to try, it's nice to see some scrappy young guys in the lineup, and it's nice to not be expected to win it all ... in short, it's nice to be a bit of an underdog for a change. (Of course, I still hope we win it all!)

To say that Crosby is "hurting the Pens" implies that they would be better off without him ... to even suggest that is asinine. If the writer could do away with the sensational headline and just make the case that he's not playing as well as he could, or perhaps isn't living up to the hype, he'd get a lot farther ...

I agree with most of what you say. We've lost a lot of pieces since last year, and not really replaced them. We're banged up. We're losing a step here and there. We're not going to win the President's Cup, or probably our division. But we will make the playoffs, and nobody is going to want to play us. We have the skill, the experience, the pride, and a playoff goalie that can still carry us a long a way. I think the Anaheim analogy is apt ... we're in a similar boat this year. The only thing I question is the trade deadline deal ... I don't think we'll see much unless it strengthens us in the future. We lost too many assets last summer, I'm not sure we can afford to give up much for a rental, particularly when we're not Cup favorites. We're better off to do what we can with what we've got this year, and then see what the free agent market brings next summer when we can bring in players without losing any.

We're not going to go into games planning on double-shifting people. It just isn't going to happen, so give it a rest.

What?!? Helm is a 30g 80pt player with normal shifts ... if we double shift him the entire season he'll put up 60 goals and 140 points! That's way better than ole ninety-sux!