T.Low

That was hilarious. He was so casual about asking that dude to hold his beer. As Don Cherry would say, he's a beautiful Canadian Boy.

Only a Duck Fan would try to fight someone in the section above them.

Where did see say that? I watched the post game interview with Z waiting to here that and I never did. He simply took the high road of respect. And Bert reacted perfectly with a gloved fist face wash and backed Crosby up toward the boards, its just that Jimmy wanted him more. Anything more from Bert would have been an over reaction. Props to Bertuzzi.

No doubt. BUT HEY, it was a team effort! Kronner was the first one in with a cross check of his own on Crosbee, but that was'nt good enough for Bertuzzi, so he had to get right in the CrozGrill and gave him a little gloved-knuckle sandwich up his nose, then Jimmy just wanted him more as Kronner and Bert got distracted with Pittsminucia. I can't believe it took 6 pages for some Bert and Kronner love! Way to go Todd Bertuzzi.

You actually bring up a very curious point: It would be interesting to see the penalty calls for and lack of penalties against for the Coyotes since the Oly break. Hmm.

I never doubted Holmer. He is indeed a master of creating the Crease ClusterFk and creating a quality scoring chance from it, wether it's one of his own goals or someone elses. It also leaves a lot of space on the ice for Dats to dangle. Thats Holmers role, he would not be nearly as effective on a 3rd or 4rth line. For some reason, he reminds a lot of The Bill Lambeir of The Red Wings. One of the less gifted guys out there, but a very effective contributor while performing a somewhat uncommon specific role. Bertuzzi, in his day, was also a force in front of the net. Great at tip ins, his M.O. was to cross check the Dman infront of him at the precise moment to free himself up for better access to the puck. Was so effective that oppossing teams complained and sent video to the NHL.

Stepped up nicely tonight w/ 1g 2a vs Minne. Go Z.

EBaked, those two words should never be used together in the same sentence: that's a horrible visual.

Not looking so silly now, is he.

? Meanwhile, Chicago gets to 3 Cup Finals and we struggle to make the playoffs. I see the motivation. I'm in the same boat as the OP. While I like Filppula, and I like the idea of him being a great value, I guess I'm not skilled enough at analyzing hockey players to actually see his value. All I know is that I always hear Ray Ferraro on Vancouver Team 1040 raving about the Wings "I mean c'mon, they got Valterri Filppula on the 3rd line for cryin out loud".

The Red Wings jumped the shark last year when Staal went around Rafalski for the short handed goal in the finals. They haven't been the same since. They've had an amazing run, one of the most amazing in all of sports. All good things must come to an end.

Excellent stats. I live just south of Vancouver, trust me dude rarely plays with the two Sedins. Like I said in a previous thread and LGW tried to trash me, Sammy is totally outgunning the Wings goal scorers. ANd the WIngs lost some much needed grit when they let him go. Even the Canadians on the Cauncks say he got all the talent of the Swedes with the grit of a Canadian. Its time to face facts; all that defensive responsibility is great, but if we don't put the frikin puck in the net, then it's all for not. I thought we were on to something with these recent 5 goal games, but WTF against Calgary at home, ouch.

In my whole life, I may have been punched in the face during a fight a total of 6 times (that doesn't incude the fights I've been in where they couldn't get off a punch to my face). That's a rather demanding part of the job descritpion.

LGW wouldn't let me sign in until just now (can't blame it, I wouldn't let me sign in either, if I had my way)

Mikael Samuelsson 48 16 17 33 Henrik Zetterberg 41 12 25 37 Pavel Datsyuk 47 11 25 36 Todd Bertuzzi 49 13 14 27 Nicklas Lidstrom 49 3 22 25 Tomas Holmstrom 42 15 6 21 Brian Rafalski 45 4 17 21 Dan Cleary 37 10 10 20 Sammy, God love 'em, has more goals than any Red Wing so far. Reasons, smeasons, he just plain has more and as much as I like the guy and am glad he's successful, it's killing me that he's ahead of D & Z, etc. And what's worse is that he is 4rth in goals on is own team and is still out goaling all the Wings. Its a kick in the ribs to a Red Wing fan living so close to Vancouver. As far as total points go, Detroit's leading scorer would be 4th on Vancouver. WTF! On a positive note, Helm already has more goals than I thought he'd get for the season. Bertuzzi is so close, he could have 20 already, but that's hockey. It would sorta suck to have the team struggling so much and have Datsyuk on fire at the same time. Meaning that maybe when he heats up, it will be a team thing, and everyone will start getting hotter. I'd sure like to tip a few beers with Lidstrom and hear the inside scoup on "what's & why's" of the season so far. Here's to getting everyone healthy and hitting it hard the last 3rd of the season and into the playoffs. Time to play the underdog role coming from behind for a change.

"...I was gonna ask for a trade to Team USA after the first period..." Nice job, whoever did it.

Too bad they couldn't have put Erricson at forward while the injury bug was in town; maybe that would have given him a little confidence while stepping back from his Dman demons. He could come back with a certain sense of freshness, like a downey dryer sheet or something...(yeah, I don't really know what happend there at the end of my post, but you get the point.)

Dude, thats way cool.

Hmm, sounds familiar. Must be a Hossa thing. You guys know what "boo" in Slovakian means, right?

See, I think it's more important for the NHL to be managed correctly, as in manage better what it already has, than always try to figure out how to grow. And that doesn't mean being cost effective with travel by playing divisional opponents 8 times a year. As a business owner, most of the market research I've ever seen says that the vast majority of revenue comes from people already in your given market, not from getting new people into the market. That costs too much, and the noobs don't spend nearly as much. The NHL has to treat it's exisitng fan base well, and those fans will recruit new fans.

Iginla has been really funny in the few commercials I've seen him in. He's a natural in front of the camera and I agree, he's a great guy to market on many different levels.

No to both questions, but I don't neccessarily think it's a bad thing. But I do think the NHL needs to manage itself a lot better on so many levels. The sports nuts that I talked to recently were shocked when I told them "I just hope it's close and that we (THE US) don't get blown out" of the Gold Medal game. They looked at me like I didn't know what I was talking about and said, "but we killed them the first game, like 5- 3 or something". I simply pointed out that Canada is rolling argueably the best four lines ever assemble on one team anywhere, and they didn't know what I meant by rolling four lines!. They had no idea what they were watching, no idea that the play was in Ryan Miller's face all frikin game, and that Rafalski made the best out of a few opportunities. Even the sports nuts in the US do not know hockey. They don't realize there is any "controversy" regarding Sydney Crosby's popularity or whining, they don't understand the significance of shots on goal, dump and chase, puck possession, or nothing! They only know what little they've seen on ESPN. Until there is a frozen pond in every neighborhood, hockey will never be much more popular than it is now.

Spoken like a true engineer. I could market the living hell out of any of those guys. Even this attempt is a mere taste of what could be done. "Jack Johnson Saves the Day"

Yeah, I read a headline that referred to the Gold Medal Game as "The Crosby SHow". NHL marketing in southern non-traditional hockey markets needs to include a lot of different strategies and actions than the rest of the NHL. The OP's idea is but one of them. Hockey will never be as big as basketball or football in the US. Without a frozen pond near by, there are simply too many barriers to entry for a kid to learn to play hockey. It's f***-all expensive on every level, for one thing. My buddy's kid just finished Junior A and realized he's not good enough to keep going, so he told his parents he wanted to go to college instead of pursuing a hockey career. They said, "Sorry, but we spent all your college money on hockey over the last 13 years." So now he's in Afganistan. You can buy a basketball for $10 and go to the park and play for years for free, at anytime of day, with any number of people including solo,for as long as you want, during which time a kid can build dreams, skills, and competitive drive that will last him a lifetime. In years to come, he will get tickets to the KNicks game because of the passion hebuilt for the game as a kid. He will relate to basketball. You need to be able to play a game spontaneously, when you feel like it, for as long as you feel like it, in order to really build that skill level. Following the rink schedule, even if your parents can afford it and are willing to sacrifice their free time to drive you there all the frikin time, is uncomparatively limiting. Thats why the US inner city's produce the most skilled baskteball players; they do it all day every day. Thats why Latin America produces the most skilled baseball players; they do it all day every day. Thats why Canada produces the most skilled hockey players; they do it all day every day.

Excellent OP! Very cool. Thanks. I should send my brother over there to radius those corners, and build boards like he did on his lake.