RWK23

These guys are big boys. If they decide to drop the gloves, they know the potential consequences. Should a skilled player drop the gloves? Probably not. However, I always have respect for the guys who will defend themselves against another guy's cheap shots, a la Cleary with Pronger or even Yzerman with Maguire way back when. I agree though, leave the dirty work to the fourth liners who are getting paid to defend you.

Nice to see Leino getting hot again.

Well deserved.

Completely agree. It doesn't help that Z is one of my favorite players, but I couldn't disagree more with some of the opinions around here regarding him. I'm also surprised by the amount of people who think that Hossa is better than Z and the amount of people that would rather have Hossa than Z if it came down to it despite everything Hank has done for this team in his 5+ seasons here.

What? I wasn't brushing off Datsyuk's games. He was amazing in both. You're misinterpreting what I meant by that. It wasn't meant as a negative. I was just giving the reason he's leading the team in scoring now. And as to your last point, inflation. That's the justification. And trust me, he won't be making $2 million more than him when all is said and done. I'm confident his cap number will be below or equal to Lidstrom's.

First off, not that this makes a huge deal, but you got Z's +/- wrong. It was actually +16, which led all playoff performers, not +11. Second of all: Nashville series - 6 GP, 2 G, 2 A, 4 points, +2, 31 SOG, 1 GWG Colorado series - 4 GP, 5 G, 4 A, 9 points, +6, 23 SOG, 1 GWG Dallas series - 6 GP, 4 G, 4 A, 8 points, +7, 30 SOG, 1 GWG Pittsburgh series - 6 GP, 2 G, 4 A, 6 points, +1, 32 SOG, 1 GWG An afterthought the first two rounds? Really? Third of all, Henrik Zetterberg will never win a Selke? Really? The dude was a finalist last year and finished second to his teammate. That's a bold prediction with not much to back it up. "The shift" might have clinched the Conn Smythe for Zetterberg, but it didn't win it for him. I'm not going to argue that I think he's worth 8.5 million or whatever, but I feel like the people who are brushing him off as someone who isn't an elite player are clearly forgetting about what he did for us last year. Yeah, maybe he isn't in the league of a Crosby or Malkin, but he was as good as or better than both in the postseason last year.

Yeah, six points in two games will help with that.

Uh, yeah, a lot of people would have questioned it. The Conn Smythe should almost always go to a player on the Stanley Cup-winning team unless a player on the losing team just had an unreal postseason, a la Giguere in '02. Hossa and Crosby were both good, but neither were as good as Zetterberg. Same with Datsyuk. You actually left out the one guy who actually had a legitimate argument, IMO, and that's Chris Osgood. I'm not saying that Zetterberg is as good as Crosby, Ovechkin, or Malkin, but let's not understate what he's done.

lol, oh. Fair enough.

When they needed to turn it on and play well defensively, they did. They beat the best team in the NHL 6-0. No need to push the panic button. Just relax, watch the rest of the season, and ***** if this happens in the playoffs. Okay?

I agree.

Just a little FYI, Quincey was a -4 tonight.

Yeah, I fell in love with that line tonight. Strong shift after strong shift and it finally paid off in the end.

Draper ices it. What an ending. This team once again shows what they can do when they play hard. 60 minutes would be nice though.

I LOVE THAT LINE! WOW!!!!!

HUDS! What a pass by Flip!

Oh, my God....you can't be serious. Jesus. Sloppy.

Sammy! Nice awareness by Lids too. EDIT: You can't be ******* serious. Again!?!?!

And LA ties it right back up. Dangit.

lmao. Lilja with the huge point shot. Dats with another point!

PASHA! What a beautiful play!

And here we go. Can't you appreciate a great shift when you see one?

Yeah, that's definately not like Ozzie. I've "met" Zetterberg, McCarty, and Osgood and they were all extremely nice. McCarty was really cool, one of the nicest athletes I've ever met. My experience with Hank was very good as well and Ozzie was very funny. Crossing sports, Todd Jones and especially Curtis Granderson are two athletes who are very nice and very easy to talk to and they don't come across as thinking they're better than you or whatever.

The idea that Marian Hossa likely won't be a Red Wing come next season breaks my heart.

lol...Nice.