hooon

when maltby is by far our best player... something isnt right. To be honest, it just felt a lot like last year. Playing 1/2 of a game and then relying on the last 2 minutes to try to catch up. Osgood looked no different than he did last year (but please, lets give the man a chance, he barely played preseason). I like the lines. I would have wanted filp on the second line, but i like how babs has it now. We have 3 scoring lines and that chemistry will work out in the coming games. I'm not that worried about replacing those "88 goals" that have become the new buzzword of the NHL. What i AM worried about is our defense/goaltending. All the talk in the offseason was about how the wings 'need to be better' in goal and on defense. Well duh.... But they did nothing (other than get worse) to both the defense and goaltending. I just dont see how the wings expect to play substantially better in these positions just because they 'need to'.

nice goal by kane... ugh Anyone else still sour on him?

a great player goes to a fantastic organization! wait...

all this talk of groin injuries is giving me a groin injury.

yeesh

Could be that ESPN not reporting on those players is the reason why your friends and non-hockey fans dont know who they are.

There were other factors too such as injuries, rule exemptions, Hossa... But good article, and the guy is right. Despite the factors, the Wings lost it for themselves and the Pens played better.

id say Gordie Howe for detroit Rod Gilbert for NY, mess came to NY in the latter half of his career, won one cup, and otherwise helmed a series of dissapointing teams loaded with talent. I might do Selanne over Kariya. For Washington i'd have to go with Ovechkin. No player has ever meant more to that organization than he does now, and after that contract he signed, he is going to be with them for a long time. How about doing a list of current players/teams. Nowadays it seems like a lot of teams have more than one star franchise player.

to me its worse when they try to report on the NHL on sportcenter and cannot pronounce a single name properly. I remember last year when they tried to say khabibulin... it was something line 'ka-ha-bibb-you-lynn'... embarrassing.

there is a lot wrong with that list. Most notable to me on a glance: Ovechkin is number 1. Period. After that you can debate all you want on Crosby, Datsyuk, and Malkin, but those guys are the top 4, with AO definately number one. Not sure how Getzlaf snuck ahead of Datsyuk and Iginla. Also, Lidstrom at 27 is an insult, and having 3 or 4 other goalies ahead of brodeur is a joke. While i agree with others in that Brodeur might be a LITTLE overrated, he is easily better than fleury and nabokov. After looking at the list a bit longer: Wow there are SOO many things wrong with this.

osgood will have a different backup goalie by trade deadline.

awwwwwwww..... was looking forward to seeing helm the most. oh well. He still has plenty of time to play. get better helm!

i'll be watching along with some football

wow... anyone have a bigger/better picture of it?

I hate to say it guys, but reg really wasnt a great leader. He had a hard time even keeping his team together, he basically instructed his team to sell out and goon it up just to sell seats. I dont wish to take anything away from one of the greatest movies in history, and hey... I love the chiefs, but they were goons. Now, despite biebe being played by a farrrr less cool actor, that guy was a great leader.... the guy would s*** out at least 3 or 4 motivational speeches every day before breakfast, and everyone in the entire town loved him. He was also the town's sheriff and had a hot wife. Also, they got to take that awesome ice-slide river thingy to the rink... (I tried to make one once in my backyard... I did not succeed). Sorry guys, have to go against the grain on this one.

it looks..... the same.

Reg was a great leader, but was he really a great player?

I vote Bombay. Some other honorable mentions though.... Adam "Cake Eater" Banks and Gunner "Lets Go Shek Their Hends" Stahl Banks wasn't able to reach his true potential until he was rerouted to District 5 and played for the brilliant mind of Coach Bombay. On the otherhand, Stahl was coached by The Wolfman, Wolf Stansson, whose lack of knowledge of the game hurt the overall performance of Stahl.

despite the talk lately that filp can and never will be that breakout scorer that we all want... i still hold out hope that he will be. Even though we all said it last year too, this year HAS to be his breakout year. Filp will establish himself this season an elite 2nd liner and will start off the season very strongly, unlike years past.

im still soo baffled that everyone considers chicago to be so high. Is it because of their playoff performance (against 2 teams that really should have beat them)? Or is it because of the off season moves? As others pointed out, hossa and havlat are essentially interchangable. Hossa will score more than havlat, but being that he is injured for the start of the season, the signing is basically the same as keeping havlat. Their other signings? An old tired veteran (which they DID need some veteran leadership) and tomas kopecky... and we know how good HE is. Also they lost their veteran cup winning goalie, and have the likes of Huet and Corey Crawford between the pipes. Lest we forget the added stress of a parody for an offseason and the upcoming offseason which will see some of chicagos core players walk. Also with chicago, at some point throughout the season i think we can expect to see some drastic firing of the coaching staff or management. Ive said it before and I'll say it again, there is NO way chicago finished ahead of detroit this year.

this was NOT intended to be a player ranking for best players in the league. This is a list for the FANTASY HOCKEY season (albeit a bad one, imo). These lists seldom correlate with actual player rankings.

neidermeyer forfeited all of his class with his filthy elbow to datsyuk in the playoffs. And also, iginla is far from classy. I'm not sure id put shanny in there either.

yeah its too bad there is no real punishment. I can only assume the NHL wont issue anything either. In all of this, Kane still has not claimed his innocence, or said that he didnt commit this pathetic act of violence. His reputation is pretty tarnished, and i hope people dont let him forget it too soon. I believe in forgiveness and second chances, but the fact that he recieved less than a slap on the wrist for this is just pretty sad. He made an idiot out of himself and embarrassed himself and his family, which i HOPE is something that has an effect on him.

didnt directv announce they wont be carrying versus anymore? for what its worth, i had center ice last year and it was great. Just be sure to check in advance that the game is not one of the few put exclusively on nhlnet. Theres nothing worse then going out and buying a bunch of beers, inviting your buddies over, ording some pizzas to watch the game..... and then you find out the game is on nhlnetwork (which you dont get) and end up having to huddle around a tiny computer screen with a lo-fi stream that keeps lagging, and the only other game on center ice that night is tampa bay vs atlanta, ugh.

fine... last years mats sundin?