NGKEIB

Can anyone say injuries?

People complain that Crosby is boring in interviews (fair enough) and whiny (e.g. they threw hats on the ice when Ovechkin got a hat-trick, what he did was nothing special etc.), but I find Ovechkin just as bad. Part of it may be that he hardly speaks English, but seems unwilling to admit that what he did was wrong (and it's something that he has done before to). He seems pretty dumb too - he refuses to discuss the death of his brother who died in a car accident, but that same interview he talks about how he loves speeding and messing around with cars. I'm not a fan of Crosby's personality, but I certainly don't like Ovechkin's either.

Örnsköldsvik. On a side note, how about the #1 weirdest town name that an NHL player comes from? Flin Flon or Moose Factory would get my vote.

He's slowed down a bit, but certainly looks like he will top his totals of the year before (he had 14 goals last year, this year he already has 7). Most of his fights can be found on YouTube too!

Oderint dum metuant.

All fair points - however, I don't think his PP time can necessarily be used against him, as the 2nd unit has shown very little chemistry, and that's not solely his fault. In terms of playing defense well, he's not a great defensive forward, but he has been backchecking well. I think my defense of Bertuzzi can be summed up as follows: who else? Draper does have 4 goals, and a 20+ goal season, but putting him on Datsyuk's wing would be a bad move, as it would break up the 3rd line which has been very effective, and put a slower player with two very quick ones (I'm not saying you were suggesting this). Aside from the forwards who aren't already on the top two lines, Bertuzzi has the best hands of all the forwards on the team, and has the best track record as a proven goal scorer. Hossa had trouble gelling with Holmström and Datsyuk in the playoffs, and there appears to be similar chemistry problems between them, though I will be interested to see if Babcock will stick with the Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Leino line he used in the Dallas game. I can only hope that he will stop hitting posts and continue scoring.

Apart from assisting on Helm's goal, if you watch the replay, he lifts Lehtinen's stick so that he can't block Draper's pass. Great play. Helm should be thanking him.

I agree with Carman & co. about this whole situation. He wasn't signed to play on the top line, but has still played alright. By the looks of things, hopefully bounces will start going his way and he will get more goals. For those of you who think that putting Helm or Abdelkader (or even Helm and Abdelkader) next to Datsyuk will help, think again. Abdelkader showed last year in the playoffs that he couldn't play well on the wing, and the people who are pushing Darren 'I Love Him But He Has Stone Hands' Helm over Bertuzzi (because Bertuzzi 'can't finish') must be seeing a different Darren Helm than I've seen the last few games... Great checker, but not a finisher. 3rd in hits among forwards. 3rd in takeaways overall. Stuart, Lidström, Ericsson, Rafalski and Datsyuk all have more giveaways. 5th in points among forwards. Tied in 8th for biggest contract among forwards.

Blair Betts! That way we can fix our PK.

Doug Janik?

I haven't seen him play, mainly because I can't be bothered to stay up late to watch Griffins games now that I have left university and am in the real world of having to wake up early because of a job... How is he defensively? I know that he is a +9, but does he play on the PK (or the PP, for that matter, though I assume he does the latter)?

In a perverse way, maybe that is because they're not confident of his ability to keep them in games Only joking.

I'm sorry to hear it.

As far as I know, HÃ¥kan Andersson is still director of European scouting.

Corey Perry and Claude Lemieux, both true enforcers, wear visors, so surely that makes it okay that May is wearing one. Right?

I thought that our fourth line was great - it seemed to me that in the first two periods, they were the only line that consistently spent their time in the other team's zone, and got some great cycling going. He played very well.

Payback for spreading swine? Does this mean that Souray will lead them in points and goals?

Nonsense! Lilja has been out for ages!

HV are currently playing SAIK, Almqvist has 1 goal so far...

He played for HV71 against Frölunda (HV continued their domination with a 3-0, still comfortably on top of the table). Not sure what his stats were, but he did take a skate to the chin and needed stitches in the first, and was back in the second. He got powerplay time, playing with former NHLers like Janne Niinimaa (741 NHL games) and Björn Melin (3 NHL games...), and was on the ice for a powerplay goal by Niinimaa.

And crucially, on his big hits that have injured people, most of them have been clean. You could make a case that the time he broke Carter's nose he used his elbow etc., but on the whole I would say he is a clean player, even if some of his hits aren't. And for those hits that aren't clean, I still get the impression that the reason he has left his feet is because he has timed it badly etc.

Not related to last night's game, but I've heard a lot of "Mark Rypien" too.

I get where you're going with this... Franzén wasn't really injured in that Chicago game, he got hurt dogsled-racing (or whatever it was...). Also, Krupp was much bigger compared to the rest of the players in the league in his heyday than Franzén is now.

Maltby's time has come! I would take Janik over Kindl, I thought that he was solid when he was last here.