StevieY'sguy

I have absolutely nothing against Osgood whatsoever...in fact i will be the first person in line to make a case for him someday being inducted into the hall of fame but the bottom line is that Jimmy Howard is the best goalie on the Red Wings- right now...and right now we just so happen to be in our first fight for a playoff spot in years so we cannot be giving Ozzie consistent minutes waiting for him to pull his head out of his a** assuming the playoffs are a given, especially since he has played like garbage in his spot starts. I understand that much like a pinch hitter in baseball, it is hard for a goalie to get back on his game if he's not playing almost every night and that it seems unfair but the bottom line here is that the no NHL player is promised fairness when it comes to their career or playing time so if Ozzie stills has it in him to lead this team on another playoff run then he should have no problem "manning up" and focusing on being as sharp as possible when he does get to play. If things continue as they have been (Howard playing very well and Osgood being mediocre) and we end up with a playoff spot and number 30 is between the pipes in game 1 i will lose a lot of respect for Babcock. This isn't a career comparison here we're talking about this season and barring something unforseen, at this point in time Jimmy Howard deserves to be the starting goalie in the playoffs period.

This really solidifies Toronto in goal, and now they have pillars to build around on both the offense and defense in Kessel and Phaneuf although i think Calgary will end up liking both White and Stajan...Burke says he's not done yet this year and with a whole offseason ahead...Toronto will win a playoff series next year, mark my words.

I voted for Lebda but the bottom line is that we are talking about probably the most insignificant position on an NHL team in a 7th defenseman and when it comes down to it they should probably take Meech because he is cheaper...neither one of them is going to be counted on for much other then not screwing up so i guess take Meech for the slight gain in cap room....all in all i wish we could go back and keep Quincey, obviously

With the Olympics coming up in about a week I figured I'd see how everybody thought this would all play out. I'm an American first and foremost but since i believe the only shot the U.S. has is if Ryan Miller puts on one of the most remarkable stints of goaltending in the history of hockey (which i don't think will happen) I find it hard not to root for Canada...Coached by Babcock, put together by my favorite hockey player of all time in Stevie Y, with some help from Kenny Holland and led by my favorite (and many of your least favorite) current player in Crosby... short of the U.S. making a run I will be hopping on the big red leaf's bandwagon for much of February. Gold Medal Game: Canada vs. Sweden winner: Canada Bronze Medal: Russia vs. USA winner: Russia There's a lot of buzz going around about Russia but to be honest I forsee another Olympic letdown, they have a suspect defense behind Markov and Gonchar and a lack of true leadership i think will hold back their myriad of offensive talent...The Swede's have a lot of returning gold medal experience and i think when he's on Lundqvist may be the best goalie in the world. As far as Canada goes I really don't see how they could possibly lose, top to bottom they have the best offensive, defensive and goaltender units in the games. They also have a remarkable amount of high leadership guys, of the 23 players on their roster (including goalies) they have 9 NHL captains and 8 NHL alternate captains (not including Marleau who has previously worn the "C"), a stat that is amazing to me...It's almost like the team was put together by the greatest captain in the history of team sports..oh, wait they were! Also, although i didn't pick them to make it into a medal game i look for Finland to be a big sleeper team.

I wavered on putting him in or not but didn't think anyone would vote for him given the other guys on the list..but you have proven me wrong lol

He's not being paid to be a great finisher...the people who say he's overpaid (by the way you are in the minority) act like he should be netting 25 goals a year or something, guess what, guys who consistently put up goal numbers like that at his age are making a hell of a lot more than 3 million...in the offensive zone he is a SET UP man meaning he is best at setting up others for goals...just look at the magic he worked last year in the playoffs when he had bona fide talent playing with him..here's a thought, put him with one of our top goal scorers (like any other team in the NHL would do) such as Z Dats or Franzen for a season and then make a judgement....he just hasn't been used nearly effectively as he could have been, it's like an NFL team signing Peyton Manning and then running the Wing-T offense. As far as defense goes he more than holds his own, so lay off!

If it wasn't for the fact that i would hate to see the Wings lose and I'd hate even more for anything good to happen to Ovie I'd like to see how many Wings fan who hate Crosby but are so enamored with Ovie would still feel that way if Washington beat Detroit in the Finals 2 or 3 times over the next decade....something tells me his flashy moves and confident (arrogant) personality and antics wouldn't strike such a chord with Wings fans if something like that happend...at least Crosby doesn't act like a 6 year old...

Like you guys said if Dats starts pulling the trigger then this could work out....Fil is never gonna be a shoot-first guy so for all of those out there who are waiting to see him blossom into much more of a goal scorer, i think you should keep looking. I think Fil isn't necessarily being used the most effective way possible, he is more of a mini-Thornton..stick him with some shooters and he will be all set. When Franzen comes back i wouldn't mind seeing Z-Dats-Homer Franzen-Fil-Bertuzzi I think that would be our most effective top 2 lines based on our roster

Was looking at some of my old posts and got a kick out of this thread posted back in September...most people could not have been more wrong lol. http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.ph...=60805&st=0

Ehh, lucky guess, I'm glad to see he's done well, I've liked him since he was at Maine..I was dead wrong on Val's point total..he was injured but i doubt he would have reached that point total anyway.

He did not play 4x as many games as "most players", that is a false statement plain and simple. The point you're trying to make is that the only reason he was so high up on the scoring leaders was because his team made it to the Cup Finals...that's a fair argument but it only proves my point if you take that line of thinking to the next level...there are also 35 or so other players who's team also made it to the Cup Finals (the remaining Wings and Pens) and out of those, Crosby, Malkin, Franzen and Hank were the only ones who had more playoff points than Val while Lidstrom had as many playoff points as Val. tieing for 5th out of a pool of 35 players isn't too shabby in my opinion. Oh by the way, why don't you take a gander at what the aforementioned players are making in comparison to Val (in terms of cap hit) Crosby: 8.7 million Malkin: 8.7 million Lidstrom: 7.45 million Zetterberg: 6 million Franzen: 3.95 million Filppula: 3 million

Look Flipper will never be an all-star, or in the running for the Hart trophy or anything like that but he is an important piece of the puzzle.. plays defense, is improving offensively, and has a reasonable contract...just because he missed a scoring oppurtunity today doesn't mean he should be bad mouthed..if you want to complain about the lack of scoring maybe you should bring up Pav and Hank...who both have less goals than Mikael Samuelsson (another nice piece of the puzzle that so many people on here were so overjoyed to see leave town..good call guys ) As far as your ridiculous, uninformed criticism of Flip in the playoffs lets play a little Jeopardy!: Informed Wings Fan: Alex I'd like playoff point totals for $200 Alex Trebek: Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Alex Ovechkin, and Ryan Getzlaf (beep beep beep) Alex Trebek: Informed Wings Fan? Informed Wings Fan: Who are the only NHL players to finish with more points than Valtteri Filppula in the 2009 NHL playoffs? Alex Trebek: That is correct!

Is it just me or is Minnesota's new green jersey one of the coolest jersey's in the league?

This is a pointless topic to be forecasting the playoffs/how a team will turn out several months from now. However if the playoffs started today i think Chicago would beat Colorado in the WCF, Pittsburgh would beat NYR in the ECF and Pittsburgh would beat Chicago in the SCF lol.

With tonight's goal (his 4th), Samuelsson is now the Canucks leading goal scorer, and has 7 points in almost 7 games (as i'm writing this, the game is still on), and has a point in every game except one. With the Red Wings struggling to find consistency right now, we certainly could have stood to gain from the nightly production that Sammy is putting up in Vancouver. Maybe now some of you haters who were so glad to see him go should be reconsidering that feeling.

Your post not only shows that you know little about hockey and it's history, but also very little about proper grammar.

If all of you pumped the brakes on the biased behavior and take an objective look at what the article says, it is hard to argue all that much. -First of all, ESPN does have subpar hockey coverage as a whole but Buccigross knows his stuff and tries to push hockey at ESPN more than any other anchor at ESPN by far (try and watch 10 minutes of him on Sportscenter where he doesn't throw in a reference to the NHL or hockey in general...it doesn't happen often). Also his weekly mailbag column often talks in depth about players that few people other than hardcore hockey fans have even heard of. He also does a very good job connecting with his readers, he gets hundreds of emails every week and claims to answer all of them...I didn't believe him but both times i have emailed him i got a paragraph-long response about the exact topic i wrote to him about, within 3 days. -second of all, read the whole column this week, a reader wrote a letter to him asking about who he thought would get to 1,000 points first between Ovie and Crosby....in the response he talked about how a hockey player's peak athleticism is usually around the age of 25...being that Z and Dats are a few years past this, i am sure that the decreasing athletic ability of these guys (on the body's natural aging process alone) has something to do with his assesment of Z and Pav. -Third and most importantly of all, it's not like the guy said the Wings suck and that Zetterburg and Datsyuk are going to be lucky to break 15-20-35 the rest of their careers...he even cautioned that he wasn't saying that these guys will never win another Cup, all he was trying to say is that players get injured more easily/often as they approach and enter their 30s (which is an age group that Z and Pav fit into), and that they begin a "downward arc in production"....which are two statistical facts, period. As far as him saying the Wings won't win the Central, between the injury to Franzen, the question marks in net and on the blue line, and how Chicago has started out, how can you blame anyone for saying that? It is anyone's right to disagree with Bucci's opinion, but discounting the guy's hockey chops by criticizing him for stating an opinion (and not even a particularly outlandish one at that) in which he used statistical facts as reasoning only makes his critics look like they don't know what they are talking about.

Please point out anywhere in my post where i even came close to hinting at anything close to what you are saying. I simply stated that Sammy is having a very good start to the season and that i think we sure could use him. Don't be a moron.

1. Kozlov, i loved that little guy, i'm still pissed we got rid of him 2. Knuble went to Michigan, good guy, solid scorer 3. Samuelsson- probably gonna get killed for this one but i always liked him

I watched both airings of this very in depth look at the trade of Gretzky to the LA Kings and found it very compelling. Coming away from it i am even more critical of the decision by Oilers owner Peter Pocklington than i was originally. From his interviews during the program he comes off as an old man who still has his nose stuck up in the air that he made the right decision. Gretzky admits that Pocklington trying to trade him away originally behind his back fueled his anger enough to OK the trade. There are many winners and losers when it comes to this trade, - Peter Pocklington lost big time, the Oilers did win a Cup in '90 but he still is now and may forever be; the most hated man in Edmonton sports history. - NHL from a business perspective are big winners, Gretzky helped sell the game like no other before or since, 9 new NHL franchises have been added since the trade, many in non-traditional hockey markets which no doubt can be credited in part to Gretzky's influence. -Wayne Gretzky's career lost out, he went to a crappy team and never really had an above average team around him during his time in LA which definitely effected his productivity -Wayne Gretzky's celebrity and bank account won big time, as being in a bigger market got him many more endorsements, etc. He also got to be chummy with A list stars which definitely raised his celebrity and ego - The Edmonton Oilers i would say lost this trade; anytime you're called a loser in a trade that leaves you with another Cup in hand just tells you the significance of this deal. Having probably the greatest offensive lineup of all time along with a HOF goalie and trading away the crown jewel cost Edmonton at least 2-3 more Cups in my opinion. Gretzky was not a two way player but in Edmonton he had enough talent around him to be on the ice and operate at a great surplus despite all of his defensive shortcomings, which was really the only team in the league that he could operate at such a clip do to their pure offensive dominance.... -NHL purists i say lost out big time, one of the NHL's greatest dynasties lost it's main cog and robbed many fans of a chance to see a 10 year period in which arguably the most offensively dominant hockey team ever had a chance to win 7-8 Stanley Cups, which would have been something that almost certainly would never happen again due to an array of factors. The stars aligned just right for Edmonton and in my opnion Peter Pocklington jumped ship much too early and cost his team many more successes Coming away from this movie little has changed in my opinion of Gretzky, I do not think he is a "bad guy" but he does have a bit of an ego issue which is understandable given his successes. He was very subpar in most non-offensive aspects of the game and i cringe when he is called the greatest hockey player of all time (Bobby Orr IMO), he was certainly the greatest scorer of all time but not the greatest player, but i don't fault him for this praise as much of this is media driven. All in all i think he left his heart in Edmonton and i think it's a shame he didn't get to spend his entire career there.

I agree that you can't compare Hank to Ovie because they are two totally different players with different skill sets....Which is exactly why it makes no sense to compare Crosby to Ovie... Ovie scores more goals (mainly because he shoots about 30 times a game but that is neither here nor there), is faster, hits more, and has a better shot, . Crosby is more of a playmaker than a goal scorer, is a better two way player, relies more on his smarts than his physical gifts and is more of a team player and leader. It's just not your classic apples to apples comparison.... For those who insist on comparing and want to look at purely statistics and judge who is a better player strictly by the numbers (cough, DrakeMarcus, cough) : coming into this season Crosby had a higher career points per game average, Ovechkin had 2 Hart Trophies to Crosby's 1, Crosby had 7 postseason series victories to Ovie 1, and Crosby had 1 Stanley Cup in 2 appearances while Ovie has 0 in 0....and until Ovie gets a real leader on his team or decides to start playing more team hockey he will score goals until he is blue in the face but will never win a Cup....sadly enough, but for as brash as he is, he's probably ok with that.

Yea good call man, who else were big stars in the 80s? Lemieux, Messier, Hull, Yzerman...and we saw how they all struggled in this newer era of hockey ......Gretzky may not score 92 goals or put up 215 points but anyone who won 9 MVPs at during any era in hockey would definitely at least excel in another era that was only 20 years later, don't be an idiot

Quit being ignorant, Gretzky helped popularize the game like no other during his career, especially once he got to LA he is the SINGLE BIGGEST reason hockey expanded to warm weather climates...when he was traded, Los Angeles was the ONLY NHL team in a warm weather climate. After seeing how the Kings went from struggling attendance to filling their arena, and proving that hockey could indeed catch on in a non-traditional market, this spurred the NHL to allow more and more teams in such markets. As far as the movie being a publicity stunt because he's "outta work"....he resigned just last week so they sure threw this movie together pretty quick....

Thornton

Would you trade Johan to Florida for Vokoun or Clemmensen? or perhaps another goalie in a FEASABLE trade? of course this is a light hearted thread but let me hear your thoughts!