StevieY'sguy

agreed

Huge blow for Team Canada...he's their 2nd best forward IMO.

Absolutely no argument here with that statement...the guy can get a shot off from just about anywhere thats for sure...I ust can't agree with calling him a "sniper"

10% is not "nice" and 15% isn't "very nice", get your facts straight...Ovechkin is currently sporting a shooting percentage of 15.8...which is 1.2% higher than his previous career season high of 14.6% and much higher than his career 12.7% average so he is blowing away his previous seasons as far as accuracy statistics go and yet he still only ranks 25th among all forwards who have played in 45 or more regular season games....the only reason he is leading the league in goals is because he is leading the league in shots....Ovie only has 3 more goals than Crosby despite taking 48 more shots and only has 4 more goals than Marleau despite taking 62 more shots....If you want more bang for your buck you'd be much better served taking those 2 over Ovechkin because if Crosby or Marleau had as many SOG as Ovie they'd be way ahead of him in goals and i know at least in the case of Crosby, that has been an applicable fact pretty much the whole time both of them have been in the league together.

If takeaways went on the scoreboard we wouldn't be battling for our playoff lives right now...according to many people on here at the end of last season Datsyuk was the best all around player in the NHL..well the last time i checked "all around", included putting the puck in the net.. the league leaders are all in the high 30s, low 40s in terms of goal scoring..Pav is supposed to be this offensive wizard, I'd really appreciate it if he started playing up to that moniker...Mikael Samuelsson would be our leading goal scorer right now in case anyone was wondering....

Well i don't agree with it, but i can at least respect your reasoning!

Snipers by definition are the most accurate shooters in the business. AO's career shooting percentage is 12.7% compared to Gretzky's 17.6%. Unless they change the definition of sniper to "the people who shoot the most" then AO has no business being given that label...he scored 56 goals last season but it took him 528 shots to do it...not stellar accuracy by a long shot (no pun intended).

Thanks for restating what I had just said 4 posts earlier and egroen corrected me on 3 posts earlier

Kwame i don't know if you're aware of this but back when Maltby played enough to get noticed by other fans around the league, he was one of the most hated players in the NHL, he was always running his mouth and has made more than a few questionable hits in his day but would rarely ever drop the gloves...he was basically a mini Claude Lemieux...what a horrible choice you made

I agree with you on this topic, and i think Gretzky is far and away the greatest offensive player ever to play in the NHL (I'm one of the 5% or so of the population who thinks Bobby Orr is the best player ever) but you are incorrect, when Mario retired following the 96-97 season he had averaged 2.00 points per game over the course of his career as opposed to Gretzky's career mark of 1.92 ppg.

You're basically proving yourself wrong, they have nearly identical points per game averages (Crosby 1.35 Ovi 1.34) so if Crosby plays a few more seasons than AO then he will almost certainly finish with more points, assuming they're points per game averages stay relatively the same (and since we have an almost complete 5 season sample, that seems very likely). You make a good point that Crosby has been injured in the past although i wouldn't say he's injury "prone" but Ovechkin's prognosis is very sketchy as well: he only missed 4 games in his first 4 seasons which, when you play as rambunctiously as he does, is bound to take a toll sooner or later and i think we're saw the beginning of that with his injury last fall. Also just out of curiosity who are the 2 other current NHL players that you think will end up with more career points than Crosby?

Joke of a question, Ovie won't sniff the all time goals record. AO is so good because he is a very fast skater and has probably the quickest wrists and hands in hockey which allow him to get off a shot from almost anywhere on the ice...well as the body ages speed of the feet/wrists/hands, etc. diminish greatly and thus so will 2 of his most important assets. I see Ovechkin's career panning out alot like Pavel Bure's; 8-9 seasons of pure dominance than a sharp decline in production after the age of 30. Bure had some bad knees that likely robbed him of a couple more prime years and i see the same thing happening with Ovechkin, especially since he is a much more reckless and physical player than Bure was....although even if he stays completely healthy (for the sake of argument) he will not come close to the record, he's too dependent on natural talent that will diminsh and nobody in today's NHL has come close to displaying the goal scoring consistency for the length of time it would take to reach 99's record.... I'm not even going to comment on his chances at the points record, because I'm not sure it will ever be broken but Ovechkin won't even end up with as many points as Crosby, Crosby's game is designed to stay much more productive even as father time takes his toll on him than Ovechkin's is (kind of like Yzerman's game was as opposed to Fedorov's)

Which is one more game than anybody else on this board has played, oh and in case you were wondering he also coached 480 more NHL games than anybody else posting on this site too... he wasn't too bad at it either, he won 4 division titles in 6 years...Cherry has been around hockey more than many of us have been alive, he constantly is pointing out fundamentally sound plays on coaches corner for young hockey players to notice and stresses the importance of learning those fundamentals. So you say he's constantly "stuck in the past" as far as his views go and he is overly biased towards his own country....what senior citizen isn't?!?! I'm not saying I agree with a single thing that he said this past weekend but it's not like he's the commissioner of the NHL or anything, he's an announcer who has no real influence on the NHL as a whole...I find it hilarious that some people get so wound up about what he says and then feel the need to hide behind a computer and bash him...if you can't stand him then don't watch him, it's really that simple...

unbalanced officiating?? Washington had game 7 at home and lost by 5 goals...and you call Crosby a whiner

If it wasn't Crosby it would be somebody else..the NHL is trying to raise it's profile in society and they need to push a face that the public can identify with their league, it happens to be Crosby. It is no different with the NBA ( LeBron and Kobe) or the NFL ( Manning and Brady); of course once that player has been "chosen" everything they do is under a microscope which leads to more intense criticism....Crosby is not the biggest complainer in the NHL, not by a longshot but because the Pens are always on national TV people see him complaining the most, which leads to that assumption. Also every time Crosby talks to the refs, the anti-Crosby crowd brands it as whining, and don't get me wrong sometimes it is... but he does have a C on his chest and he's proven to be a pretty good captain so far and part of that is interacting with the officials. I'm sure i'll get a ton of criticism for this post because many people on this site are so quick to pigeonhole Crosby but if you can't at least let yourself see that he and Ovechkin are hands down the 2 best hockey players on the planet then i truly feel sorry for you because these 2 guys have been putting on one hell of a show the last few years and it only figures to get better! I think the true hockey fans will understand and appreciate that.

No, there are some people on this forum that are fair and informed when in comes to talking about the NHL and not just the Wings but i consider myself an NHL fan first and a Wings second and it just gets annoying after a while. I wouldn't necessarily say that the Wings are at a "natural disadvantage" to Anaheim... granted they are a bigger, stronger team but there is something to be said for smaller, faster, more finesse teams like the Wings. No Anaheim is not incapable of finesse just like the Wings aren't incapable of the rougher (IMO "grittier") style of play, but i certainly wouldn't say it's their calling card either.

Oh yea i forgot about him...yea i guess he could fill that role, i mean he did play 3 whole playoff games during the only season he got his name on the Cup, good call!

Yea they did have Fedorov whats your point? I said a character guy, not a selfish has been who was never a locker room leader at any point in his career. I also have no idea how Crosby got brought into this?

a bunch of homers with tunnel vision when it comes to talking about the NHL as a whole

First of all, Ovie is a huge ****** bag, second of all Washington is San Jose of the east..they can score as many pretty goals as they want but until they get a solid character guy who has won the cup before they will not sniff a cup

Philly may be stupid and Anaheim may be undisciplined but that doesn't mean they are not gritty...those teams see it fit to take the less sexy way to win a hockey game as opposed to the highlight reel, slightly more finesse way that the Wings and other teams such a Pittsburgh do. It's a philosophical thing as much as anything else and given the rosters they have at their disposal, it is probably their best choice. The Wings likewise have a roster that wouldn't fit their style of play very well either. I'm not calling the Wings p*ssies but all i'm saying is if you walked into a bar of fans that was wise to the NHL and not just the Wings fans and said that the Wings were one of the grittiest teams in the NHL you would look like a moron.

Philly is gritty, Anaheim is gritty, St. Louis is gritty... the Wings are not gritty in the same sense that these teams are..but it's humorous to watch you tilt the odds in the Wings favor so that they come out on top in a category they have no business being mentioned in....

Anaheim: Getzlaf- one of the best power forwards in the league Atlanta: Kane - tons of potential Boston: Lucic- can do it all and would bring toughness Buffalo: Vanek - a sniper we don't have Calgary: Bouwmeester - tough year this year but he's too good not to rebound, wish we could have signed him last year Carolina: Jokinen - to help us in shootouts Chicago: Toews or Keith - too tough to pick, both some of the best franchise building blocks in the game Colorado: Duchene - type of player who will be able to play with anybody once fully developed Columbus: Commodore- i'm not all that high on him but i don't really want anyone on their team lol Dallas: Modano - i know he's washed up for the most part but he's a Michigan boy and a high character guy Edmonton: Gagner - huge potential, one of my favorite NHL players Florida: Horton- underrated because of where he plays LA: Kopitar/Johnson/Doughty: Kopitar can flat out score, Johnson and Kopitar would bring a boatload of talent to the blue line Minnesota: Latendresse - one of the hottest NHL players the last month or so Montreal: Cammalleri- sniper (pre-injury of course) Nashville: Weber- love his shot New Jersey: Parise- offensive talent we could use Islanders: Tavares- gonna be putting a lot of pucks in the net for a long time NYR: Gaborik- finally staying healthy enough to show how good he can be Ottawa: Spezza/Fisher - i think Spezza would be a great fit, Fisher so i could see Carrie Underwood at the games Philly: Gagne- dependable goal scorer Phoenix: Jovanovski- big dependable guy to stick on the blue line Pittsburgh- Crosby- Best player in the NHL I.M.O. San Jose- Boyle - would bring more stability to the blue line St. Louis- Crombeen- love those fighters Tampa- Lecavalier- always thought he was a bit underappreciated Toronto- Ponikarovsky- nice fit as a 2nd level scorer Vancouver- Sammy/Bieksa- Wings could have benefitted greatly from Sammy this year...Bieksa is a high character defenseman who'll do anything to win...this guy will have a "C' on his chest before his career is over Washington- Knuble- the only guy on the Caps i can stand

Who's the best netminder in the league? Not necessarily using stats or just this season as a measuring stick, but if you could pick one goalie who is guaranteed to be on top of his game to win one contest for you, who would it be?

Ok ok ok, point taken on the Vokoun thing lol...as i said last night i wavered on putting him on or not...I do not undervalue him whatsoever but i didn't think people would vote for him given the other names on the list ( as it appears others such as Ward and Thomas shouldn't have made the cut either). However I am impressed that so many of you follow a low market goalie close enough to stick up for him on this topic, it's good to see so many true NHL (and not just Wings fans) on this site! I hereby ceremonially add Vokoun to this list.. and award him the 5 or so votes that some of you apparently would like to award him