Carman

Like Newbury tonight. Provided good energy, chipped in a goal. The penalties are understandable with not playing in the NHL for awhile.

Tatar was dominate last WJC, it's where he really broke out onto the scene. Looking forward to see what he does this year.

Nope, Howard>s***hawks.

If he was making less I wouldn't mind taking a flyer on him.

... I'm pretty much speechless by this point. Newbury time? I'll take it.

Pretty good goal there. Can't wait for the back to back, both teams have been playing better of late.

Nope, Olympics are more important or at least equal to the NHL. At least in my mind. They are great to watch, and it's great seeing the best players in the world battle for their country, it's unfortunate that it is in the middle of the NHL season, but they are professional athletes it should be up to them. Not to mention Olympic hockey will most likely help spread the game to a new and gigantic fan base that the Olympics provide.

So hitting a billion posts means he wasn't trying. Good logic.

No... I called him an idiot when he created the thread.

Derian Hatcher

That's two words.

Just a misunderstanding of what a superstar actually is. In a 2 year span his was top 3 and top 5 in scoring, if that's not a superstar then neither is Datsyuk by definition. (Not saying Bertuzzi>Datsyuk, just saying Datsyuk has only been in top 5 of scoring twice).

Neato, nice idea there Drake. Looking forward to seeing what the numbers tell us.

Atleast your honest about being a blind homer. Nothing wrong with it, just a lot of people on this forum also appreciate hockey as a whole.

Not after his back injury and age. You won't be seeing him run people over like he did when he was young.

Bertuzzi is a damn good player, especially for his price.

Nice to see him skating with confidence. It's all he needed.

Bertuzzi scores again? Who saw this coming?

Hossa is a top 5 winger in the game. We were lucky to have him for a season.

Watch out people won't read the rest of your post because of your title Anyways, I've been really impressed with Abdelkaders play. He's stepping up and I think it's only a matter of time before we start seeing him more often on the score sheet.

Exactly why I'm scared.

It won't happen, but I'd trade anybody but Datsyuk/Zetterberg to get it done. While Franzen is great his injury issues and length of contract scare me just a little.

Far enough, but his 02-03 season is about as dominate as you can get. It was a short-lived superstar stay, but imo he was. Just a difference of definition that's all, buddy.

Finally someone that can post with actually integrity, nice to see. Shooting percentage is a skewed stat, Bertuzzi has never been a sharpshooter even in his prime. His main playstyle was a poor-mans Thornton mixed with a physical aspect. He mostly a pass-first guy(Or just jam the puck to the net), so when he had to step up into Franzen's spot which is pretty much exclusively a slot role it was not a move that he could seamlessly adapt to. His role in the Datsyuk-Holmstrom line was to get pucks to the net, that's pretty much it. That's why I used the shot's taken statistic. Now his shooting percentage is awful, but is that really his fault for being put in that role? With as many injuries to top forwards that we've had this season it's not a unfathomably thing to have a player put in a role he cannot quite produce at, if his shooting % was higher he'd have a hell of a lot of goals which of course be nice, but in the end is that really fair to expect. He's not going to be carry a shooting % like Hossa, or else he'd be getting paid a lot more. Don't see how the salary is a "straw man arguement". He's filling a role on the team that is completely vacant as a 1.5 million plug. He's had to fill in a top 6 role that he is not exactly fit for. He's cannot be expected to produce at the rate you expect, just because he's getting the icetime should not require him to put up the points of a top 3 player. He's simply the best option with the injuries because he's had experience, and does not play the PK. On a team riddled with injuries there are going to be players stepping into roles based solely on injuries. Look at Meech getting PP time as well because of the Kronwall injury. So I guess what I'm trying to get at is holding the guy accountable for not producing is not a fair assessment based on the fact of what he was brought here for. Not everyone can step up and play beyond there abilities especially aging veterans with a crippling back injury. The +/- statistic is not a very good barometer for defensive play, especially for a Winger. He's not a defensive dynamo, and yet again I think your expectations of having a player set up to first line minutes due to injuries while not making mistakes is not fair. They will happen, especially when the rest of the team in playing mediocre hockey. Calgary was a mess last year, and he was coming off serious back troubles, but he also played very poorly so I'm not going to make excuses for him, he didn't play to the level expected of him, and that's why he took a pay cut and is no longer playing for them. What I think your seeing is a injury riddled, aging veteran required to play out of his role. Not going to disagree with your points, they are happening in a game, but I guess I'm ok with a player getting paid 1.5 million making those mistakes and you aren't. Not too mention he cannot use his body like he used to, his back was completely *#%^@&, and that's impacted his career on the iceas much or more then the Moore incident. So what we seeem to be disagreeing on is - That if a player gets called on to play a role he isn't suited for that he shouldn't be making as much mistakes as he has made? If so I can agree on the criticism's of his poor puck decisions, and I agree. But to say he was a wasted signing, or plainly saying he sucks is just devoid of any appearance of intelligence and quite frankly irks me(Not directed at you).

Giving the team a chance to win, that's all I can ask for.