Carman

Damn guys, your supposed to counter the troll with totally baseless lies like I did, not feed it! Datsyuk doesn't have a girlfriend.

1. He is a whipping boy in the sense that people are complaining about him more than anyone else, just like Sammy last year. 2. I understand that, that's why I'm sharing my feelings about Bertuzzi as well. 3. Helm and Abby don't play together. I'm making my posts for the several posters that just say "he sucks", "he doesn't try", "wasted signing" etc. I did compare him to people on our roster, and no one is countering those stats. I compared him to Hossa because that was Datsyuk's winger last year, and some people in this thread think that Bertuzzi should have his shooting %. That's why I brought him up. And Kopecky played on the team last year and was awful, yet there are more people complaining about Bertuzzi this year, than Kopecky last year not to mention people complain about his 1.5 million contract. It's remarkable. People are hating on Bertuzzi because of a mistake in the past, that's all. It's one thing to criticize him rationally through +/- and lack of production, I even agree from that angle. But I take issue to people that just come in, say he sucks, and leave without saying anything else.

No one is saying he isn't great. Just not as great as Zetterberg. Face it.

No one is saying Datsyuk didn't help. But he wasn't as good as Zetterberg or Lidstrom. He doesn't raise his game to the levels of Zetterberg when they matter. At least not yet.

Where is his Conn Smythe? I don't recall him ever getting one? Guess he wasn't the most important player for the Wing's... Tough for you to swallow eh?

Neither has Datsyuk. At least Yzerman was the best player on the team unlike Datsyuk.

Yzerman never complained about injuries. Maybe if Datsyuk had heart he would of battled through.

Playoffs?

Hossa doesn't have NHL caliber speed.

More to being a center than faceoffs.

When Datsyuk gets a Conn Smythe he can get as much rope as Zetterberg. Datsyuk is not good in the playoffs. And in fact Zetterberg carries Datsyuk. Datsyuk cannot do anything without relying on Zetterberg.

Bleh Crosby is better than both of them anyways.

That's because Datsyuk doesn't have a Conn Smythe. I wish we traded him for Lang back in the day.

Agreed how dare Holland for hiring Babcock in the first place. He should be fired as well, bad GM.

Oh I agree fire Babcock. How dare he start the season like this. WCF-Stanley Cup trips for the past 3 years is boring anyways. He got lucky getting that Team Canada job too.

Carlyle is much better than Babcock. Get it done Kenny.

Yeah Anaheim certainly is battling through the devastating back spasms of Lupul.

Anaheim is certainly benefiting from that. Babcock is not going to stop rolling 4 lines.

No no having Datsyuk play 30 minutes is just what this injury riddled team needs.

Yeah great idea roll 3 lines. Yep.

Can't just randomly throw inexperienced 3-4th liners on the top line. Bertuzzi at least has experience playing against other team's top lines. We are missing 2 of our top 6 cannot just replace that perfectly, Bertuzzi is the only thing evenly closely resembling a top 6 winger we have left. Helm,Abdelkader are both centers and won't be used as wingers until Flippula gets back. Eaves is the only thing that may work and Babcock already made him a healthy scratch.

Zetterberg and Datsyuk cannot play every shift together. We don't have the center depth for that until Flippula comes back, even then Babcock doesn't like to use them together. The Zetterberg-Cleary is clicking, there is no use breaking it up. And there no no other viable options for a winger outside maybe Eaves but he was sat a game for something. There aren't many options, we just have to have a better PP with the ZDH line. That's all.

Oh hey that's our second line. /facepalm

HELM ABBY AND ZETTERBERG ARE CENTERS. There sorry for the caps, but you don't seem to understand the lack of center depth without Flippula. I guess rewarded isn't a fair word, default would be a better word to use. He is the first line winger by default right now. But what I meant by that is Babcock could easily sit him for a game, demote him, or take him off the PP but he isn't and that tells me that he is working hard and therefore getting "rewarded" with playing time and that's good enough for me. I trust in Babcock's roster and line decisions, he changes them throughout the game as well, it's not like he sticks with it 100% of the time. You'll see the ZDH line when we are either on a powerplay or down and need a goal, you'll see the ZDC when we need to prevent a goal at the end of the game. I'm not putting him on a pedestal, I'm defending him from irrational wing's fans that want to use him as an easy whipping boy. That's all. I don't even think he is playing that well and he could be playing better, but he is far far far from awful. If you want awful go see how Kopecky was doing on the Blackhawks 2nd PP and then watch Bertuzzi. You'll gain appreciation very very fast.

Datsyuk probably should shoot more considering we don't have a viable option right now for a winger, not to mention the Powerplay is ZDH and it's been struggling aswell. Great players adapt to a team's situation especially in a time of need. That said I don't think that line is doing that bad right now. Just have to keep our head above water until Flippula's return.