Carman

Which is why as a whole the players agreed to implement the new rule about visors.

Until you get a stick/puck to the eye. The vision increase is not that significant, and easily adapted to. It's one thing to ask players that have played without one their whole career to suddenly wear one, it's quite another to keep making younger players wear it. The risk/reward is so evident, that's what makes it tough for a lot of people to understand why people are against visors.

That's the thing with backs, it's so hard to diagnose the exact cause. The scary thing is like concussions is one day you'll feel 100% and then the next you'll be in agony. Backs and the brain are about the last two places on the body that the medical community hasn't quite nailed down 100% yet.

It's not fun to be in Marian Hossa's shoes where you're high stick caused the end of someone's career, it can have a traumatic effect on how you go on in life. If a simple rule can cut down on those situations I don't see the big deal about it.

Jurco! What a goal by the kid. Just awesome.

We need a top 6 winger, Clarkson/Horton should be priority #2 behind a Datsyuk extension. Our defense can't be improved much with the free agents available, and I really like our potential on the back end with Kindl/Dekeyser/Smith and the depth we have in the farm system. Scoring was an issue, and I really think having an improvement of Abdelkader will go a long way. Datsyuk and Zetterberg need top 6 help, having bigger body guys play 18+ a night would drastically improve this club, moving Abby down should help the team, he's a good player, but he's not a top line winger. Have to bring back our RFAs, and if it's possible explore trading for top 6 players, we have plenty of farm system depth, and Datsyuk/Zetterberg isn't getting any younger. I don't want to trade the whole farm, but we should be able to move one of our defensive prospects for forward help. Or look for a buyout on an overpriced winger. Overall we don't need to do too much, we have a good future ahead of us, and with some more luck on the health end of things we have a very good team that can get the job done.

No way, he is still a good player, and we can win with him. We also don't have many sniping wingers to replace him with. He's an asset, regardless of his "downfalls" as a consistent player.

He'll find a job, really good coach, but isn't the type of coach the can win players over for more then 3-5years.

You do know hossa is 5th in playoff points for active players right? Not too bad for a "regular season player".

Zetterberg is the player they use to shut down opponents(Ie. Crosby, Perry etc.) Zetterberg is just as effective of defensive player than anyone in the league, he just isn't a true center, so like many wingers he doesn't nearly get the credit he deserves.

I completely agree with you on Hossa's ability. But look back to 08-09 and 09-10. It's wasn't depth that stopped Holland from going after both, it was the pay raise of Zetterberg 2.6 million the year with Hossa to 6 million. If Holland knew he would lose Rafalski's 6 million in another year there is no doubt he would have done more, but you can't predict a retirement like that. Hossa only fit onto that 08-09 team because of Zetterberg's contract of 2.6 million. Zetterberg needed his raise more so than the wings needed Hossa, and after that. I really wish Holland could have found a way to keep them both, but in reality I understand the circumstance, and the decision he made wasn't akin to trading for Kessel.

I'm a huge Hossa fan, I think he's one of if not the best winger in the game considering his two way play. But I understand where the Wings were at that time, I really would have preferred both of them, but there is no way that was possible at the time, and the only way it seems possible now is the sudden Rafalski retirement. Franzen was a home grown guy that just exploded in the playoffs, there is no way in the world a team would let him go.

That's on Brunner, kindl was passing it were he should have been.Kindl also had a nice pass on our first goal.

Can have datsyuk/andersson out there for the face off and make a change when you clear the zone. Hell they may even double shift datsyuk with the 4th line. It's game 7, I really doubt they'll be given a lot of ice time.

Nice call.

I don't know man, we spent a ton of time on checking from what I recall, and this was 10+ years ago. I played AAA, not sure if my experience was different than people who played house or travel. But I do remember spending a ton of time on checking, every practice we'd have drills where we would check other at the blue line, in the corners, in front of the net etc. And being stressed how to protect yourself by getting closer to boards, and not turning into boards to receive a check. And not all injuries come from illegal checks, injuries will happen from legal hockey checks, and that's something I don't think people are taking into consideration, even if you could guarantee every kid protected himself 100%, and every check was 100% clean, there is still plenty of injuries from legal hits. Subjecting kids to that kind of body trauma at a young age isn't smart in my opinion. The more we learn about the brain, the more we understand the consequences of concussions, and they aren't good. Hitting should always be a part of hockey, but it can and should be something introduced when the kids can handle the responsibility.

I know I for had a concussion at 14, I know many teammates that ha them as well. Granted this isn't statistical proof just personal experience. I'd imagine the main change to increase concussions would be pads, the force of impact has to be much more significant now a days with hard football style shoulder and elbow pads, if they don't directly increase them, the feeling of being invincible with newer pads must play some role in players taking more risks in physical play.

Kids don't want to learn how to check at that age for the most part(meaning checking properly, they obviously want to hit). Their skillset is undeveloped, and taking checking out of the game until they have a solid grasp and the cognitive ability to understand when, how and why bodychecking is allowed in the NHL I completely agree with Alberta's decision. All it takes is one kid to not know the skill to make an huge negative impact. Even if 95% of the kids could hit properly, there is still going to be situations where checking from behind, elbows etc. get up because the kid doesn't understand the consequences of the play. That's not even mentioning the fact that even legal checks can severely hurt a young player. There is still a lot to teach kids about the game, teach them to be strong on the skates along the boards, teach them how to protect the puck, teach them how to cycle, just because you can't lay someone out doesn't mean you can't teach the player to be strong on the puck during battles and to protect themselves. I understand that some want kids to learn how to protect themselves at a young age, but in my opinion that's like letting a kid drive a car immediately off the lot and just let him learn as they go, putting other people and themselves in danger. There is a reason in society that responsibilities have to earned over time, and I don't see why hockey should be any different. Kids hitting each other put them at more risk, because their mind and body is still developing, and concussions can happen from perfectly legal checks. I don't see why any parent would be against this, but then again I'm just a 23 year old.

Yeah, but referee's suck.

Very back and forth game, I think the Ducks played better than us as a whole though. Nyquist and Howard are the only two to have a great game. Zetterberg, Kronwall, Ericsson were ok.Fil's line stuggled, outside of a couple shifts. Not a great game, but we still came extremely close, we had a ton of hit posts, with a little lucky we would have been able to hold on. Oh well series is far from over, get it to game 7 and anything can happen. We really need to be tougher in their zone, their forecheck is just tremendous compared to the pressure we put on them, I think that's been the main difference, every shift they seem to get it deep and get a good bodycheck, we don't.

That is so sad to see from a player with his talent.

FIlpulla's line deserves some credit there, they played the ryan-perry-getzlaf line really well. Although I think they were bailed out by Howard on a few great chances. But yeah Perry-Getzlaf were at least getting chances, Ryan was just terrible, turned the puck over constantly, was a non factor physically, he must be injured, or something because that did not look like the Bobby Ryan of the first couple games. Babcock said something after the game that Datsyuk's line was really missing the net front presence, and said Sammy just isn't used to that role. Going to be interesting to see what Babcock does for game 5.

Sammy played his perimeter, safe game. He wasn't 'bad', but he's a depth scorer that's it. He's good along the boards, won some battles, didn't turn the puck over too much, skated hard. I'll say this though, Samuelsson looked better than Bobby Ryan last night.

Concussions can happen without head contact.

I'm kinda with you here. I hate that it's a penalty in today's game, but they have been handing out suspensions for these type hits for a while now. It's not like this suspension came out of nowhere, it was a borderline hit at the very least, if you are going to hit a defenseless player you better be 100% sure you hit him clean, if there is any question about charging, jumping, elbowing, head contact etc. you are screwed. Honestly I think these rulings are going to discourage open ice hits, and take personal accountability off puck carriers and make even more vulnerable situations. It's just so difficult to even make body contact on the open ice in the NHL, I can just imagine how hard it is to make sure you never get a piece of the head, eventually it just won't be worth the risk to make that kind of check, and that's disappointing to me.