Coolio Mendez

1) Misconception: People he believe that he put teams in the deep south Fact: John Ziegler announced Florida, Tampa, San Jose, and Anaheim and was President when Green announced the North Stars were moving 2) Misconception: People believe that he orchestrated the change from historical division names to geographic division names Fact: After numerous complaints from sportscasters (almost all of them Canadian), John Ziegler ordered an examination of the Conference and Division names in 1990. Using polls from season ticket holders at all 21 teams and the Hockey News, players and fans alike voted for the geographic names. The change was announced at the 1993 All-Star game by Gil Stein, who also showed off the new 'East' and 'West' jerseys for the 1994 All-Star Game 3) Misconception: People are upset because he locked out the players....twice Fact: The owners control Bettman. The reason Bettman was hired was because he was one of only two candidates who would agree to lock out the players if it came to that. For example, if you were in the running for the job, and you answered all the questions right, and then the last question ("Will you lock out the players?" and you said 'no'. You would no longer be considered. 4) Misconception: Bettman's the reason the NHL is not on ESPN Fact: The NHL was on ESPN from 1998 through 2004 under Bettman's watch, and he gave the owners the ESPN proposal first. Since ESPN only wanted to pay $18MM a year to the league, the owners voted 30-0 against it. Bettman's unfortunate in the sense that he's been the Commissioner in the 'Internet' era where you can read what anybody says anytime. JOhn Ziegler was bashed regularly while he was President....a listen to any Canadian radio station call-in show would tell you that. Red Fisher in Montreal Gazette and Frank Orr of the Toronto Star were extremely hard on Ziegler. The difference was they had smaller audiences (seriously, how many of you ran to your local library to read the Toronto and Montreal papers in 1985?) than any writer/blogger has now. He's not a likeable person...he's a lawyer, and he has absolutely no hockey background...unlike Ziegler who had season's tickets to Red Wings games (mind you, he was also the Red Wings lawyer from 1961 through 1977 as well). BUt he's made the lwague a stronger business and a stronger brand.

Thanks for only reading the first two lines.

CAN WE PLEASE STOP SAYING "BRING BACK THE JETS!!" Attendance was NEVER as issue for the Nordiques or the Jets, corporate dollars, and low income ticket buyers were the issues. Winnipeg has a relatively low average income per family compared to the other cities of comparable size, and fewer corporate dollars means seats would be more expensive. Expensive seats combined with a low income, means that for most Winnipegonians, the prices would be out of reach. The Jets were among the lowest priced tickets when they left, and even as they raised prices every year, their season ticket base dropped. Based on the 2005 report, the average ticket price would be well over $100 in order for Winnipeg to be able to sustain a team, that would make the Jets the most expensive seat (The Wings average ticket is at $58). To give you an example, Ottawa is slightly larger than Winnipeg according to StatsCanada. Ottawa's average income is 43% HIGHER than Winnipeg's. Ottawa's corporate tax base is 7x larger than Winnipeg, and Ottawa currently ranks 28th in the NHL in corporate sponsorship and will lose close to $20MM this year. The Senators just happen to have an owner who doesn't care if he loses money, otherwise this franchise would be mentioned in the same breath as the Thrashers, Coyotes, and Predators as on their way elsewhere. Again, Calgary and Edmonton already lose money, and Ottawa lost more money last year than any club except Phoenix. Ottawa is having to cut their ticket prices (even for premium games this year) and this is with a pretty good on-ice product that's winning games and is playing a good brand of hockey. Every business person who has done an analysis of today's NHL and today's Winnipeg says Winnipeg wouldn't survive in the NHL. Wayne Gretzky told the Economic Club of Toronto that Winnipeg doesn't stand a chance (and as an owner, he knows what the numbers are). It's time for people in Winnipeg to realize that unless their city grows (it also has grown very little in the last 13 years according to StatsCan (regardless of what the city of Winnipeg tells people) it's not in the cards. Winnipeg was generally near the low end of the NHL pay scale. Thois year, 20+ teams are within $2-3MM of the high end, and not surprisingly, the teams near the low end....were in the draft lottery. Sources: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/31/hockey-values-09_Ottawa-Senators_318444.html http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/31/hockey-values-09_Edmonton-Oilers_314229.html http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/31/hockey-values-09_Calgary-Flames_311479.html

Niedermayer/Pronger are much better defencemans than Green will ever be. Green's primary asset is his shot, but Weber has a better shot and he still couldn't get it through. Green still has a weak transition game which is still Niedermayer's strength. Niedermayer also led all players in takeaways in the Canada/US game with 6 (and only 2 giveaways - lowest among the D for both teams), unfortunately he looked bad on a couple of US goals (as did Weber who should have been covering for him). As for Green, Bob Nicholson said it best this afternoon "he's got a good shot, but he doesn't have the mobility that the rest of this group has" (and he doesn't) Seriously, I don't think Green would have helped. EX: The Swiss don't know how to design a play to kill a penalty, and Canada is mentally challenged to think outside the box to beat it. I think the only players that could have beaten the Swiss system are Bobby Orr and Mark Howe because neither would do what they were supposed to do on the power play anyway. Green would have followed the coaches plans and looked just as bad as the rest.

http://espn.go.com/ Everybody scroll to bottom and vote Canada Vs. USA hockey....make these guys at ESPN feel stupid.

Be careful when you say that goaltending from the 80s were horrible. Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux, and Joe Sakic have all said that they felt the technical ability of goaltenders was better in the 80s than it is today (Mario has gone so far as to use Gilles Meloche in modern equipment and found that at 58 years old, Meloche's reflexes in modern equipment are faster than Fleury's...and when Fleury used Meloche's equipment, he could barely move). Mario's also gone as far as saying that both he and Gretzky could put up similar numbers today as 25 years ago because a large part of their ability was brains and they would have those regardless of the era in which they were in. Now, enough of what Mario thinks (although he does have a point on goaltending equipment having more to do with the reduction in GAA than the goaltenders themselves). I think it's too difficult to answer. Ovechkin has played his entire career in the 'big pad' era and been coached using offensives designed in that era. It forces players to play in that mindset, just as the 60s 70s, and 80s had players playing with the 'slapshot from the boards' mentality which was unheard of in the 40s and 50s. There were articles in the 60s wondering how many MORE goals Richard would have scored if he had played in the era where players took slapshots indiscriminately (a rare event at the Montreal Forum until late in Richard's career). Yzerman, Sakic, and Lemieux know a thing or two about the evolution of NHL goaltending having careers spanning 20+ years each....so if they say the goaltending is no better, you have to believe them. Lemieux knows a thing or two about using smarts in hockey, so if Lemieux says that players like him and Gretzky would have adjusted accordingly, you have to believe him.

Nevermind comparing him to Gretzky........how about the fact that he has the LOWEST shooting % for a 50 goal scorer EVER (10.6%)? Who's record low did he beat last year to accomplish that? Well....his own! (12.2%) All of that aside, I still consider him a "sniper" just because I have always looked at a sniper as someone who scores alot of goals........now I would get annoyed if they started calling him a "sharpshooter".....which I guess in it's truest sense is the definition of a sniper but just not through my eyes.

Tollefsen is a good scrapper. Has that Norwegian psychois. First Norwegian player for Detroit eh? He's a good addition. Defends the goalie after the whisle like a bodyguard (something the Wings have been missing) and a better fighter than most. He's a defensive D. Better suited for Western teams. I think he made the Flyers D man corp. Did really well in Colombus.

Now that the Sedin twins are stars Vancouver can be really dangerous come playoff time. We all know what Luongo is capable of, if he's on I like Vancouvers chance to win it all.

Earlier this evening, Fabian Brunnstrom scored his 2nd goal of the season...in his 32nd game Let's look at some quotes Ken Holland from the Detroit Free Press on March 6, 2008 "Brunnstrom's the real deal and he has the skills to play on our first line right away. We're thankful that we're still being considered. He's the type of player who will score 30-40 goals and plays well in both ends of the rinks" Cliff Fletcher, Rogers SportsNet March 13, 2008 "We're still talking to his agents and we believe we have a very good shot. He'll fit instantly into our system" I'll be honest...watching film from the Swedish League bin 07-08, he looked great....watching his last few games this season, I have to wonder if Dallas won't be glad to see that $2MM cap hit disappear next year.

Leino was a bit under the radar at the time. Also, Leino was older and had more of a track record to follow. Can't say the hype for Leino was nearly as big as Brunnstrom.

I want Chicago first round.

This is not last year's Red Wings powerhouse. Ken Holland told a Toronto radio station after the team had first arrived in Detroit that Red Wings fans will have to get used to nail biting hockey games in the new NHL as the team will need to do more than show up this year.

Only once in NHL history has a team lost it's first two games and won the Stanley Cup (1948-49 Maple Leafs). Are there any Wings fans who were comfortable with Howard's performance today? How does Waiving him and signing Manny Legace for 700K or less sound? Giggy for Rafalski?

Just ideas that I liked to hear thoughts on.

To be honest Giggy for Rafalski would do me good.

Chris is a playoff goalie, not a regular season one? I don't think he has ever had a losing season in the REGULAR season. He has stunk for the best part of the season, then again, he has NEVER been THE KEY component to a playoff run.....solid but not spectacular. No Conn Smythes... To say he is a playoff goalie, not a regular season one is kind of wrong. Osgood in the reg. season 389-204-66 Osgood in the playoffs is 74-49 ( 0-1 in the AHL and 16-14 in the WHL) So, what is "playoff goalie" about? His GAA gets better in the playoffs but Detroit goalies have that reputation.

When was Tony Esposito put on waivers, his rookie year with only 16 games under his belt? Edward Giacomin your talking about a guy who played in the original 6 era, where there were only 6 starting jobs! Smith has a Vezina, Osgood does NOT! Again Giacomin played in the original six era, you do know when Giacomin played their were specific teams who represented Canada right? Bravo Jennings can be an individual award but in Osgood's case it was NOT. Osgood split games evenly with Hasek and Vernon throughtout 96 and 07 year. To give Osgood all the credit is insane. You sound bitter, the best play in the All Star games. Hence the term All Star. Your spewing off for what again? I'll post this again because you seemed to have dodged it the first time. No Vezina Trophies - no Hall of Fame - it's been the primary consideration for goaltenders to be considered since 1985. Every goaltender in the Hockey Hall of Fame who has played in the NHL since Vezina died, has a Vezina Trophy, or a Hart Trophy except Gerry Cheevers...and he he has the 2nd best winning percentage in NHL history. That's a FACT! Who says I'm against Osgood getting in? I'll be rooting for him like your next Wings fan...... but I don't see it happening.

Why did the Islanders trade Osgood if he was so valuable? Why did the Blues let Osgood walk? Did Osgood not come back to Detroit as a back up? I'm sure there were plenty of teams who wanted Osgood after his departure from St.Louis.....come on now you think Osgood was offered more than 800k from any other team 4 years ago? The greatest rise to the top! Yzerman represented Canada many times, and had won his fair share of individual awards. Awful comparision. No Vezina Trophies - no Hall of Fame - it's been the primary consideration for goaltenders to be considered since 1985. Every goaltender in the Hockey Hall of Fame who has played in the NHL since Vezina died, has a Vezina Trophy, or a Hart Trophy except Gerry Cheevers...and he he has the 2nd best winning percentage in NHL history.

HHOF goalies are not put on waivers in their prime! HHOF goalies aren't paid a million bucks! (maybe in the 80's) HHOF goalies play internationally HHOF goalies win individual awards HHOF goalies are PERENNIAL all stars Don't we let guys into the Hall too easily as it is? The other telling stat is the won lost record. The fact that Osgood's teams do better when he's not in net is a very telling sign. Osgood has NEVER won an individual award. The Red Wings won 2 of the 3 Cups (97, 08) with him as the designanted back-up. Had Hasek not faltered in 08, Osgood sits on the bench all playoffs. But Hasek faltered, and Osgood came through. But again, 5 Stanley Cup Finals, Only 2 as the designated starter (98, and 09), and only 3 rings. Roy won 4 Stanley Cups in 5 attempts. Fuhr won 5 Stanley Cups in 6 attempts, Brodeur is 3 for 3, and Billy Smith was 4 for 5. Just another place where Osgood just misses. Again, Osgood is in the same category as Vernon, Richter, Vanbeisbrouck, Barrasso, Burke, and Joseph. A better than average goaltender who played a lot of years and put up some big numbers. But only belongs in the Hall of Very Good.

No, he does NOT belong in the HOF There are three goaltenders who will go in before him Martin Brodeur, Dominik Hasek, and Ed Belfour Lets compare him to his peers. Vezinas Finalist (the award voted on by NHL GMs) 10 Dominik Hasek (6 - 0 - 4) 9 Martin Brodeur (4-3-2) 7 Ed Belfour (2-1-4) 1 Chris Osgood (0-1-0) So, the GMs have NEVER thought that Osgood was the best goaltender, and only ONCE in his career have they felt he was top 3 International Competition (players picked for these tend to hand picked by GMs) Dominik Hasek 1 Olympic Gold Medal (1998) 1 Olympic Bronze Medal (2006) 1 World Championship Gold Medal (1996) 3 World Championship Bronze Medals (1987, 1989, 1990) Represented Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic at 5 Canada Cup/World Cups, 5 Olympics, and 6 World Championships Martin Brodeur 1 Olympic Gold Medal (2002) 1 Canada Cup/World Cup Gold Medal (2004) 1 Canada Cup/World Cup Silver Medal (1996) 2 World Championship Silver Medals (1996, 2005) Ed Belfour 1 Olympic Gold Medal (2002) 2 Canada Cup/World Cup Gold Medals (1991, 2004) Chris Osgood - has never been selected to represent Canada Again, the powers that be have never felt Osgood worthy of International Competition, while these others have represented their countries (and won) numerous times. Total Awards 13 Hasek (Pearson (98, 98), Hart (97, 98), Vezina (94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 01), Jennings (94, 01, 08) 9 Brodeur (Calder (94), Vezina (03, 04, 07, 08), Jennings (97, 98, 03, 04) 8 Belfour (Calder (91), Vezina (91, 93), Jennings (91, 93, 95, 99), Crozier (00)) 2 Osgood (Jennings (96, 08) Note - Osgood has NEVER won an individual award. 40 Win Seasons 7 Brodeur 2 Belfour 1 Hasek 0 Osgood Again - on the bottom 30 Win Seasons 12 Brodeur 9 Belfour 7 Hasek 6 Osgood Again - on the bottom Shutout Titles 4 Brodeur 4 Hasek 4 Belfour 0 Osgood I'm sensing a pattern here Career Post Season All-Star Teams 7 Brodeur (03, 04, 07 1st Team, 97, 98, 06, 08 2nd Team) 6 Hasek (94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 01 1st Team) 3 Belfour (91, 93 1st Team, 95 2nd Team) 1 Osgood (96 2nd Team) The pattern continues Career Shutouts 101 Brodeur (1 every 9.89 games) 81 Hasek (1 every 9.07 games) 76 Belfour (1 every 12.67 games) 49 Osgood (1 every 14.49 games) Career Wins 557 Brodeur 484 Belfour 389 Osgood 389 Hasek Career Save Percentage 0.922 Hasek 0.914 Brodeur 0.9064 Belfour 0.9058 Osgood The Comparisons - Winning Percentage Teams that Brodeur has played on have a winning percentage of 0.617 (699-400-179). Brodeur is at 0.631 (557-299-128). So, Brodeur's teams have played worse when he's not playing (142-101-51 or 0.569). A difference of +0.062 Teams that Hasek played on had a winning percentage of 0.594 (670-429-179). Hasek is at 0.617 (389-223-95). So, Hasek's teams have played worse when he's not playing (281-206-84 or 0.566). A difference of +0.051 Teams that Belfour played on had a winning percentage of 0.573 (681-481-200). Belfour is at 0.589 (484-320-125). So, Belfour's teams have played worse when he's not playing (197-161-75 or 0.542). A difference of +0.047 Teams that Osgood has played on have a winning percentage of 0.646 (693-344-161). Osgood is at 0.636 (389-204-89). So, Osgood's teams play better when he's not in net (304-140-72 or 0.659) So, out of these 4, 3 of them made their teams better - 1 of them (Osgood) did not. Also, if Stanley Cups got you into the Hall of Fame - Andy Moog and Michel Larocque would be there! (and Larocque has several Vezinas) When players are selected for ther Hall of Fame, they are compared against their peers. Osgood fails against his peers.

Central Scouting released their rankings to NHL GMs of the 2000 best professional players in the world (not available to the public as the list is used for arbitration/free agency purposes). I have copied off the top 50. Feel free to debate the merits (or lack thereof in your opinion of the list) Some notes. Only two non NHLers made the top 100 (Jagr was 10th, and Yashin was 71st) Top free agent defenceman Jay Bouwmeester ranks 65th The list as ranked by 30 NHL GMS, 26 NHL Assistant GMS, and 253 NHL scouts for a total of 1. Sidney Crosby - Pittsburgh (26) 2. Jarome Iginla - Calgary (2) 3. Alexander Ovechkin - Washington (2) 4. Nicklas Lidstrom - Detroit 5. Evgeni Malkin - Pittsburgh 6. Martin Brodeur - New Jersey 7. Pavel Datsyuk - Detroit 8. Scott Niedermayer - Anaheim 9. Joseph Thornton - San Jose 10. Jaromir Jagr - Omsk Avangard (KHL) 11. Dany Heatley - Ottawa 12. Marian Gaborik - Minnesota 13. Ilya Kovalchuk - Atlanta 14. Zdeno Chara - Boston 15. Roberto Luongo - Vancouver 16. Marian Hossa - Detroit 17. Marc Savard - Boston 18. Alexander Semin - Washington 19. Vincent Lecavalier - Tampa Bay 20. Ryan Getzlaf - Anaheim 21. Christopher Pronger - Phildelphia 22. Jason Spezza - Ottawa 23. Michael Richards - Philadelphia 24. Martin St. Louis - Tampa Bay 25. Michael Green - Washington 26. Henrik Zetterberg - Detroit 27. Richard Nash - Columbus 28. Zachary Parise - New Jersey 29. Alexei Kovalev - Montreal 30. Martin Havlat - Chicago 31. Daniel Sedin - Vancouver 32. Dion Phaneuf - Calgary 33. Henrik Sedin - Vancouver 34. Jeffrey Carter - Philadelphia 35. Corey Perry - Anaheim 36. Nicklas Backstrom - Washington 37. Eric Staal - Carolina 38. Paul Stastny - Colorado 39. Simon Gagne - Philadelphia 40. Patrik Elias - New Jersey 41. Andrei Markov - Montreal 42. Shane Doan - Phoenix 43. Daniel Alfredsson - Ottawa 44. Michael Ribeiro - Dallas 45. Henrik Lundqvist - NY Rangers 46. Paul Kariya - St. Louis 47. Jonathan Toews - Chicago 48. Alexander Frolov - Los Angeles 49. Patrick Marleau - San Jose 50. Ales Hemsky - Edmonton Feel free to debate. ALSO: It's a scoring system based on 22 attributes such as skating skill, speed, smarts, shot accuracy, checking, play away from puck, leadership, etc. The overall goal (this was designed in the 70s by Sam Pollock) was to assess overall 'impact' a player would have on a team.

Sure did say that, but people tend to forget that this is a list ranking of people who eat, breathe, and sleep hockey. Not really flawed, its simply a list. I do not fully agree with the list, but I do respect it. Now you wouldn't like it if someone walked into your place of work and questioned you, and had no experience in your line of work.

One thing people need to realize...there are 30 teams....so theoretically there should be about 3 players per team in the top 100. So, while people think Cammalleri should be higher (and he's the 4th player on the list from Calgary - Kiprusoff is ahead of him) you need to start comparing against the top 2-3 players from each team (except Toronto and Long Island). For example...Lecavalier and St. Louis rank in the top 30....the next Tampa player is Ryan Malone at 214. Detroit has 11 players ahead of him. Also, players like Kariya and Kovalev have lost a step, but their leadership skills, smarts, and playmaking skills are still ranked very high. Similarly, Joe Sakic who was top 20 last year is still 53rd based on skill and leadership ability even though his speed, strength, and durability took hits. People need to stop taking this personally.