Nev

Is that a function of the crackdown on obstruction though? And the flip side of that is that Pavel can out-deke guys standing still. Anyway, I don't think thats the only thing Fedorov could do that Pavel can't - Sergei had a terrific slap-shot and a blistering one-timer. Maybe some-one can find a youtube video to prove me wrong, but I can't ever remember Pavel taking a cross ice pass on the blue line and one-timing a 90mph slap-shot into the top corner.

Whilst I cannot dispute that the rookie Fedorov had less in front of him (Yzerman) than the rookie Datsyuk (Yzerman, Fedorov, Larionov, even Draper) that misses the point. Fedorov at 21 was a FAR better player than Datsyuk. The only reason Sergei wasn't in the NHL at 18 or 19 was because of the Iron Curtain, also the reason he was a 4th round pick and not a top-5 pick as his talent deserved. He scored 79 points his rookie year - roster depth and higher scoring era notwithstanding, it took Pavel till his 5th season in the NHL to top that. There's nothing wrong per se with being a late bloomer, most players are, its usually only lottery picks like Crosby, Malkin etc who can come in at 18 or 19 and perform like stars. When Pavel arrived, he was a shy, undersized kid - outstanding stickhandling ability that had everyones eyes popping out, but no-one, no-one predicted the 2-way beast he would become. How much of that was opportunity, maturity, increasing strength, confidence, desire, Babcock's coaching, who knows? The fact is Pavel was 27 before he had a season that could be compared to Sergei. At 27 Feds had won 2 Selke's, a Hart and was a 3-time All-Star. Fedorov was bigger, stronger, faster, had a better slap-shot, a better one-timer, as good defensively and almost as good a stickhandler (but no-one compares to Pav). Oh, and 163 points in 162 playoff games going head to head against the likes of Sakic, Forsberg, Modano, Niewendyk, Roy and Belfour year in and year out throughout the Dead Puck era.

Of course, after umpteen rounds we all know its going to come down to Yzerman v Lidstrom v Howe. I would have put Sawchuk in there as the 4th semi-finalist, but they've got him in the same bracket at Yzerman, so Lindsay or Fedorov then.

Tough choice between Feds and Dats.....Pavel has given me more moments of pure joy, more moments of sheer unaldulterated "did he just do that?", made me smile more than any other sportsman in history. That playoff game he took over against Phoenix, his play when we were 0-3 down against San Jose and we were lucky to have 0. But I've got to say, overall, Fedorov was better. He burst into the league as a youngster and wasn't a late bloomer like Pav, he always produced in the playoffs in an era when the wings were up against 2 powerhouse franchises every year. He was bigger, he was quicker and he had a great slapper and one-timer.

If I'm the NHLPA, the first thing I do before I start any negotiations is demand the immediate resignation of Bettman. How can they negotiate in good faith with someone who has locked them out 3 times?

Much as the poison dwarf needs to go, he can't hold a candle to the likes of Sepp Blatter or Bernie Ecclestone. FIFA is corrupt to a scale that would shame a mafiosi don. F1 has 50% of its revenue go not to the teams, not to the drivers, but straight to a private investment firm (via Bernie of course. Who through a multitude of off-shore companies also owns just about every piece of F1, from promoting the races to the TV deals). So it could be worse. But still, Bettman out!

I want to say pair Smith with a veteran D-man, but Kronwall IS our veteran D-man.

Hmm, I've seen 2 NHL games. Det v Van in '93, so take your pick from Lidstrom, Fedorov, Yzerman, Coffey, Konstantinov and Bure. The one who stands out in my memory is Bure. Van lost 5-1, but he was soooo much quicker than anyone else on the ice it was unreal. Then 2001 I saw Van v Pho, so the Sedins, Naslund, Bertuzzi, Roenick and Tchachuk. Seen lots of ex and fringe NHLers in the British leagues, Jim Paek probly the most famous.

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not....

A big question mark. Kronwall has gone from being a #4 to an undisputed #1 in just 2 years - a huge step up. He was probably the best #4 in the league, but is he good enough to be a #1 and lead the D-corps? Now I wish he'd been given more (any?) time on the first pairing these last few years. Smith is still a rookie - a talented rookie, but a rookie nevertheless. Quincey, White, Ericsson can all be good 2nd pairing or bad 3rd pairing players depending on how well they perform. Kindl deserves to be in the AHL.

Not at all, thats not what I said. The problem with Bettman's proposal is that its the players making ALL the concessions. There has to be give and take. So the owners want the players 57% share of revenue cut - OK, offer a 50/50 split but also offer an increase in the minimum salary to say, $600,000. The owners want the length of contracts reduced to 5 years max - OK, but also offer to reduce the age a player reaches UFA by a year. Then you have the basis for a negotiation, rather than the current list of "sign it or we lock you out" demands

Why should the players budge? Bettmans proposal is take, take, take, take, take, take, take and take. Not a single proposal to sweeten the pot, no "we want to take this, but we'll give you that in return" to make them go "OK". Bettmans proposal isn't a negotiation, its an ultimatum. He's treating the NHLPA like a vanquished foe trying to get the least punitive terms out of an unconditional surrender, rather than an equal partner in negotiations for the mutual good. I was on the owners side last time around, and as I've mentioned previously he did some good things for the players such as significantly raising the minimum salary (important when ~ 40% of the NHLPA are on mimimum salary), but this is just pure greed and stupidity. Bettman needs to go as point 1 of any new CBA.

Juggle the lines all you want, it doesn't solve our fundemental problems of lack of quality on the blue-line, lack of scoring on the wing, lack of toughness through the line-up, aging stars, and a hope (expectation) that 3 rookies will perform like vets to fill the gaps. With a healthy line-up, good goaltending and good coaching we can still be a 4-6 seed. My great fear is we'll end up in the NHL poverty trap. Not enough good players to make the playoffs, too many good players to get a top-5 pick.

Any prospects in the minors, on any team. Leafs prospects are particularly over-rated though. For 10 years or more it seems they've had a Stanley Cup winning roster in waiting on the Marlies.

I've been lucky enough to go to two GPs at Silverstone - I won tickets in 2010 and my wife bought me tickets for my 40th this year. If anyone in that area has a chance to go, I would say go. The tickets might be expensive (certainly are in the UK), but who knows how long the race will be in Austin given F1s potted history around the US. The noise of the cars, the way they corner and the atmosphere of the fans are something to be experienced.

Are we talking just playoffs here? Tough call for best player. As someone else said, Yzerman was the most valuable player with his leadership playing on one leg, but I would have to go with Dom - he set a record for most shut-outs in the post season, out-goaltended Roy in the WCF, and hung in there when Irbe was standing on his head. Favourite player was Feds.

Yep, which is why I get annoyed when people like the one above blame Ozzie for the loss. Without Ozzie, there was no game 7. Hell, we wouldn't even have made it to the finals.

Thing is, we actually didn't deserve to be 2-0 and 3-2 up. The only game we outplayed them the entire series was Game 5. The entire series we were so banged up we were just clinging on by our fingernails through sheer willpower

I found myself watching the '09 Pittsburgh series on youtube last month - couldn't bring myself to watch game 7 again. Just couldn't do it. '95 Devils was a bizarre loss - how could we lose 4-0 to them? was my overwhelming thought at the time. '96 Avs was a soul-destroying loss, would we ever win a Stanley Cup? I remember Stevie Y saying he didn't want to leave the house all summer. '12 Preds was pretty sucktackular all round.

"And with the 53rd pick of the 1989 Entry Draft, the Detroit Red Wings select Nicklas Lidstrom"

My favourite player on the Wings in the 90s too. Such a shame it ended the way it did, because based upon every other criteria #91 deserves to be hanging from the rafters. I know the Sergei haters bang on about his lack of effort in the regular season, but when it mattered - when it really mattered, in the playoffs, he always showed up

Of course we should remember that they only shoot so much since Babcock tells them to shoot so much. The ever-brutally-honest Sammy admitted last time around he was told "shoot the puck more or you don't play"

He'd have to actually shoot the puck to have a chance of missing the net

Yeah, but they probably included Smith and Nyquist in that list - last year they were prospects, now they're roster players. Not that it means much, how some journalist ranks our prospect pool. Then again we all know that after the 2 mentioned above we don't have any real blue-chippers.

I don't want to drag this off-topic, but I gotta say I totally disagree. I grew up in the Cold War, and that my friend was a period when you lived every day in the knowledge that it could be humanities last. My dad was in the air force, from the age of about 5 I was aware that I could be killed by a nuclear bomb before I even knew the Cold War had gone hot. Every schoolchild was aware of the existence of the "four minute warning", not that it would have helped us as multiple Russian warheads rained down on the air bases, oil refineries and cargo terminals within a 20 mile radius of my home. Young people today use social media because young people are always at the forefront of the use of new technology, and that's it. None of this takes away from the tragedy of lives cut short, the pain of their loved ones, and the guilt and trauma of the survivors.