dat's sick

By the looks of things, they could.

Deja ******* Vu

The Lidstrom shot-pass to Maltby was beautiful. Just give him the norris already Too bad Maltby isn't much of a scorer. Let's go 2nd period!

Dan Cleary is playing like a 3rd or 4th liner. Would love to see Hudler up with Hossa and Z instead.

...ozzie..

Let's get the PP back on track here..

Game time. GO WINGS!

I'm expecting a less crazy game than last time. 3-2 Wings, after a Hossa hat-trick and 3 assists by Hank.

I wouldn't expect players to stop trying just because they knew they'd be changing clubs next season, obviously they still want to do good and win the SC. However a hockey players mental state is a fragile thing, and most players do better on the ice if they are happy off the ice. But different players might respond differently under those kinds of circumstances. We've seen Hank struggle a bit this season before signing his contract, and he talked about how the contract talks had been on his mind constantly and how glad he was to get it over with. One player might be at his best in the situation Hudler is in, others might lose their focus because they're worrying about what's going to happen and where they will play next season. I do agree that Hudler deserves a real shot, he could become a star-player on many other teams. Despite having had a good season and putting up points on the 3rd line, I can't help but feel like his talent is mostly wasted on this team.

Just saying it's funny to talk about "Lidstrom's prime" like it was a couple of magical years at a certain point in his career. Lidstrom's prime IS his career. I guess you could say he's headed downhill now, but he's not been that much worse than usual this year. Certainly his numbers don't really show much of a decline.

I would have absolutely nothing against him becoming a Wing. I don't know what the chances are though. Maybe the Wings can just pick him up when they play the exhibition game against Färjestad in september? Great goaltender, even if the SEL is much worse now than it was a couple of years ago.

I'm thinking the same thing. Have everyone trying their best in the playoffs to prove they should be on the team. This whole situation might already be affecting Hudler negatively, he's not been playing great since the all-star break and maybe it has something to do with him becoming increasingly aware that he's unlikely to be a Red Wing next season? The Wings have to win the cup to ease the pain this off-season is going to cause us. We're going to lose good players. The question is only how many.

Lidstrom's "prime" was from '95 to '08. He's probably one of the most consistant players in the history of the NHL.

I'm fully expecting him to be a finalist because of the hype and the simple fact he is the clear leader in points among d-men. I just hope that's as far as it goes. He deserves some recognition for having had a great season, but consider that Washington's big problem is their defense. No one would say they have a ton of great d-men, and still Green is only 4th in Short-handed time played. 6th in avg SH time per game. A Norris winner, just like a Selke winner, should be a player that the coach is not only comfortable having on the ice in crucial moments like PKs, but someone he actually wants to have on the ice at those times. I wouldn't be shocked to see him win, it would be right in line with the "offense first"-thinking that the NHL seems to be all about, but I definitely think there are several candidates much more deserving of the award than Green. Also, wouldn't it just feel very wrong if Mike Green was the player that ended Lids domination of the Norris? It feels strange just to mention the two of them in the same sentence.. "Mike Green, Norris Winner"... no, just sounds wrong. Give it to anyone but Green please.

He's going to play 'til he's 50. Atleast.

You could put Ovechkin on the D and he'd score 50 goals and probably have a pretty decent +/-. Doesn't mean he should win the Norris. Green isn't even the go-to guy on the PK for the Caps. He's Lebda with a better shot and more playmaking ability.

Hossa and Z have no chemistry whatsoever. Sadly.

that looked like a potentially bad knee injury on Goc..

The Wings are basically 1 point behind the Sharks (counting the 2 games in hand as wins). Technically they don't have to win one more game than the Sharks, they could just lose 2 in OT while the Sharks lose 2 in regulation. With the easy schedule for the Sharks it's pretty much all in their hands.

Terrible Turco. Wings getting no help from the Stars.

1-0 Dallas! Eriksson

But Wideman has a better +/- (9+ more than Chara, and the best of all defensemen), much less penalty minutes (not even half as many) and basically as many points (Wideman has 1 more).. As I said, I haven't seen enough of him to know why he has better stats, but Rafalski doesn't really have better stats than Lids, other than 4 more points and 4 less penalties taken. It just got me wondering if Chara really is the best defenseman on his team, or if that's just his reputation.

Yeah, I wouldn't call that hate. The fact that they even mentioned Datsyuk as a possible candidate is a good thing, and about time. As for Lids, everyone seems to want someone else to the Norris this year. I don't think most people could actually provide a very convincing argument as for why Boyle, Weber, Green or Chara deserves it over Lids. It's like now when Lidstrom for the first time in ages actually looks human and has made some mistakes during the season, they're just looking for someone, anyone, who has had a good season.. "hey, this guys has been pretty good! He should win the Norris!".. but the only one who really has a clear edge over Lids in any one department is Green, on the offensive side with all his goals. One player I'm wondering about is Wideman (BOS). I haven't seen enough of the Bruins to really determine how good he is, but his stats look great. Why isn't he mentioned in Norris-talks?

Malkin and Crosby are 1st and 2nd in scoring. How do you justify giving the Hart to one of them if Datsyuk isn't worth it because the Red Wings are too stacked with talent? And Ovie (3rd) has Backstrom (11th), Semin (17th), Green (1st among d-men) as well as a number of other good players on his team. Parise is 5th in scoring and has Elias at 9th. Datsyuk is 4th and his closest teammate is Z at 22. Datsyuk and Parise are cleary better at a lot of things than the top 3. They're better 2-way players, take less penalties, have better +/- etc. For me, the three Hart nominees should be Datsyuk, Parise and Steve Mason. But I would be surprised if it wasn't Malkin, Crosby and Ovie.

Come on Dallas, you can still make the playoffs. Fight! Win in regulation, pretty please.