RedWings Gone Wild

Poor Homer... must have the worst Rep amongst refs in hockey or something...

wow.... just hilariously awesome.

so... our first and second lines are playing awesome... which is good... but I almost wish one of the two wasnt so we could split up the awful third line.. maybe switch Eaves and Cleary or something.

We have no use for the guy and he's over the hill... but damnit I want Kozlov to retire a Wing!

ugh... every year I cross my fingers and hope Kronwall can make it to playoffs time without an injury... It'll be a big shame if he loses most of his prime to shaky knees.

What? No Ulf Samuelsson?

Thing is, with the way we develop players, there's no guarantee that every pick will achieve the same amount of success inside of our system as they have outside of it; just by the nature of revising draft history... The margin or error is slim in the NHL and players get reputations that stick (and sometimes, because of it, never get a chance to shed the bad rep).. If we drafted Chara, he may have never been given the chance to succeed in Detroit, especially considering how mediocre his offensive game was early in his career and how stacked we were on D... It can be a blessing for younger players to be on a good team because they get to learn from great players.. but it can also be a curse because it can prolong or halt their development at times. Can't really separate what a player's accomplished from the system that built them.

Agreed, they follow their team well despite such a crappy on-ice product. But they don't exactly have fans in every hockey city around the country, and they don't sell tons of jerseys... so they don't make the cut. As far as the Hawks and Pens are concerned... it really shows the bandwagon effect to see them on this list over dedicated fan bases like the Leafs, Bruins, etc.

If he can stay healthy and contribute on the PK he will be worth more than his 750k... He's a cheap role player signed on for a single season... there really isn't anything to dislike about this signing. If he doesn't work out, so what? Throw him on waivers and park him in GR, we have depth at D.

I like both of them as players, and really respect what they've done for the franchise, but I wouldn't retire the # for either of them... It opens up the gates for a lot of other players who deserve it more than the two of them (Homer, Draper, Maltby, Osgood, Lidstrom, McCarty, Feds, etc...). IMO it should be reserved as an honor for only the elite (Lidstrom). Though I certainly wouldn't be opposed to something memorializing Probert at JLA.

Let me preface this by saying that the posts are purely by the numbers, and that there is more to the MVP award than pure numbers (leadership, team standings, etc etc). The results? Lidstrom is the 2nd most valuable player of this season (#1 is not a shocker), and Stuart is the least valuable player, which I found surprising. At the very least I take this as verification that Lidstrom has not lost a step, as many have asserted. I don't think the posts show the whole picture with Stuart though, because he logs a ton of time, a lot of which has been spent with glorified AHLers this year.... Thought some of you may find these posts to be interesting. Least Valuable Post Most Valuable Post

This is simply looking at how the player does compared to his teammates (only considering those who have played in most of the games this season). I've stated why Stuart is at a disadvantage in that kind of a comparison (weaker teammates than normal, ice-time in situations that are likelier to lead to goals, etc.)... Obviously Stuart would have far better numbers by being on the ice with his normal linemates like Kronwall, Flip, Williams, etc, who can actually score on occasion, but this is a rational analysis of the numbers, many people are acting like the author simply made things up or distorted the numbers. Consider, Neidermayer is the LOWEST duck in +/-... which is a very telling stat considering he's normally on the ice with Anaheim's more offensively productive players. Neids is one of the best D-men of the past 20 years, but he's had a pretty poor season. Now, he's still far more valuable than someone like Wisniewski, and I don't think the obviousness of that is lost on the author.

Yes, as I said, it is strictly based off the #s, and as I said there is more to being valuable or not than simply numbers. I still find it interesting.

In Roenick's defense I think Milbury has been by far the bigger douchebag (and i've seen every match thus far). If Roenick is pro-Ovechkin, then Milbury finds fault with the logic saying Ovechkin isn't a winner.... Couple games later Roenick gives Backstrom credit for being a good fit with Ovechkin and Milbury says Ovie would be the man anywhere.... Pick a side of the damn fence and stay on it Milbury.

Maybe if Milbury and Roenick showed that kind of passion on the ice they may have actually won something during their careers....

this does beg the question.... why the heck would he be in Arizona?

Sweden is okay too, but other than that the competition is pretty brutal.

It's not that IMG "said" anything, it's that they bothered to sign a hockey player for the first time in a long time. We're talking about the firm representing Manning, Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, and basically every other top star from every other sport (previously Gretzky's management too). It means that they actually believe he is someone capable of transcending the sport, and the words are irrelevant because the actions speak volumes on the subject. Why didn't they go with Crosby? Simply because Crosby's game is less flashy and his personality is the food equivalent of dried oats. I never thought I'd see the day when a arrogant Russian was becoming a revered household name in the US, but he has an exciting game and an exciting personality, and that's what people are drawn to. Let's be honest with something... have you ever heard of another hockey player shutting down the downtown of America's largest city to take a Zamboni ride? That's not DC, that's NYC, and there's no other hockey player playing right now capable of commanding that attention; like him or not.

Good article. I feel like NBC is setting fire to every bridge they cross these days.

Consider that these college kids would be playing against guys like Palffy, Jagr, Federov, Kozlov, Forsberg, etc etc. I highly doubt anyone is going to be enticed into watching hockey when the US and Canadian teams get massacred.. it will literally be a case of men vs boys. Canada's gold in 02 was the first one they had won since 1952, and you could expect similar results with the exclusion of NHLers. You are right to question whether or not people pick up the game because of the Olympics... they may not, but it does factor in to one very important thing... It gives the NHL a chance to showcase it's talent to European hockey fans, which may be one of the league's only opportunities for real growth (hence why they are "inconveniencing" the schedule and risking player health to send teams to Europe at the beginning of seasons). I don't think the NHL will ever grow to be the top sport in the U.S., so an increase in merchandise sales/tv deals in Europe is really one of the best ways to grow league revenue.... and that door will be firmly shut if the Olympics become an annual KHL show.

Malkin was the Conn Smythe winner and Fluery was also very strong, and a thread about either of them would not bring up comparable discussions. The last two finals certainly don't make Crosby any more loved around here, but they aren't the root cause, or it would be a universal Penguins hatred, and not just one player. In fact, if you go to any forum for any team in the NHL (aside from the Pens ones of course), I think you would find similar diatribes of hate for Crosby.... Hell, our hate seems mild and timid if you've ever been to a Caps/Flyers/Devils/ board.. For whatever reason you subscribe to, he is a very polarizing figure.. and I'll be honest, he hasn't done anything excessive to justify it (though he's made himself look petty many times), but his league-wide image amongst fans is not a positive one. I always thought the league would be better off not using the squeaky-clean tactic to market Crosby, because it really isn't endearing, and it certainly makes people pay extra attention to his indiscretions (would the Tiger Woods drama have been as big if he wasn't marketed as a goody two shoes?).. Are there really that many kids out there aiming for mediocrity? Kids play the game to be Gretzky, not Probert. It's when they realize that they will never be Gretzky that Probert becomes a more enticing career path, and if they aren't old enough to realize the world is not black and white by then, they never will. I would imagine the assertion being made isn't that every player we've ever had has been a quality individual on the ice, but rather that the people who serve as the face, soul, and as the focal points of the Wings franchise have been some of the classiest individuals to play the sport (Yzerman, Datsyuk, Lidstrom, Zetterberg).

He's been pretty bad since the lockout, but in his defense he was playing well (by his standards) this year.

Sure, stereotypes can lead to things being assumed instead of earned... but there is truth to it too, much like there is truth to Pronger being a cheapshot artist, Yzerman being a good captain, or Ovechkin being a dangerous hitter. Things tend to be looked at through those lenses for a long time (ala big Bert always having the Moore shadow), but it doesn't mean that there is any justification to ignoring the offenses either, especially when they have not been particularly subjective or inconclusive either... Crosby has been involved in some undeniable acts that support his moniker, and so it will remain until he does something to transcend it (an MVP performance at these Olympics would silence a ton of the critics). You really think if Datsyuk played a role in the thuggish McLean or Valabik fights, or the stop throwing hats instance, or any of the other incidents that Datsyuk's peers wouldn't take exception and express their dislike? This isn't exactly a case of mistaken identity. Yes, I agree, it is perpetuated by the media and fans, but my point has merely been that this admission doesn't trump the criticism.

Again, he reaps the benefits of being a superstar player, and must deal with the scrutiny it invites. That in no way implies that others shouldn't be scrutinized, nor that none of his actions can be justified; merely that being over-analyzed is hardly an excuse, nor should it be. Really not sure what was unclear about that, or what was "hateful" about it either. I don't believe I've made a single anti-Crosby statement in this thread. Thanks for reading.

Every iota of what you just said is completely irrelevant to the debate at hand. It doesn't matter what he wanted/wants in terms of his status as league image, and it never has or ever will... What you said is basically tantamount to violin music for the rich and famous... yawn. He is making the salary and reaping the benefits of his stardom, and is therefore subject to the pitfalls of it too... Nobody put a gun to his head and said "hey, go make stupid commercials." Much like the anti-Capitals bias in the Canadian media (See: Milbury, Mike for more Capitals related Crow eating) Crosby too must deal with the criticism that stems from the over-analysis of his play and significance, but that's also hardly justification nor an excuse for any indiscretions. If anything, you should see the irony in your statements... you are here posting on the very medium and type of topic that caused this problem in the first place... the overcommitment of sports fans to something that is, for all practical purposes, completely irrelevant and useless; Hockey. So you're going to complain about the over-analyzing of a hockey player on a forum dedicated to over-analyzing a hockey team? I hold Crosby to a higher standard because he reaps the benefits of being held to a higher standard. It makes no sense to in turn complain that those benefits come with downsides..