Opie

** Whole post not aimed at you! One thing of note on this theory, if the two players were the same age you would have better ground to stand on, as it is in this comparison one player is 31 and the other 23 (turns 24 during the season). The fact that one plays for the Pens should have 0 to do with it. 7 years, especially through your 20's is a huge difference, more so than 31-38 or 45-52, your body and your mind mature (for most) in your mid to late 20s. _Reminds of a buddy my age (I am 32) who always dates 23 year olds and always complains that they never have the same life goals or that they are too immature. Well no s*** 32-23 is a huge age difference especially in the 20's. Most males (myself not included) go from Boys to Men in their 20s, that is a huge jump ( I am never growing up). My point here, the reason why it is a slump for Malkin is because he is 23, still learning, still young, still growing, and is already one of the top 3 forwards in the game (based on Reg season awards and my opinion). Males begin to slow at age 31-34, just a natural fact of science and nature. But no where in the article does Bucci (who states Dats is past his prime) say Dats' age is catching up with him, that saying may be used for Pronger to start this season whom is 35 (a bad age to sign a free agent) and presumably on his last contract and last legs in the league. Is he still a top tier defensemen, yes. Is he as good as he has been in the recent past, not yet, however young season. Also Prime does not mean that just because Pav's is past his prime he can't have his best year ever, it just means he is past the point where the average athlete is the most affective and impactful. Man now I know why I became a lurker on these boards. This thread alone (not this one poster) shows the limited ability to process written language and create your own though on this board. I would love to do a poll and see how many people read the article before spouting off or just did it based on other's posts. Next some one will tell me that the Nucks are overpaying Sammy by giving him that 6.5 Mil a year salary. ( JOKE)

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/features/stateofplay A little piece they did with Gomez, Komisarek, Martin, and Stastny, cover topics like rules, USA hockey, drug testing. The UI is stupid they should have just played the entire thing as one piece or as links like their normal (maybe old at this point I have no idea) player, I hate when simple things like the internet get complicated.

Never thought of it in that light. Very compelling argument!

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=Ag3J...p&type=lgns

Hit the close button to close the ads, right above them on the righthand side

This may be a dumb question, but how does the payroll that the league is floating for Pho affect the league's profit margin. At the end of the year the salary cap is based on how much profit the league made correct? I am serious and not trying to ask silly question, can the failure of the Coyotes affect the salary cap next year? I don't know a lot about business and the finance side of things.

Hey wasn't that the guy that won the norris a couple of years ago Lindstrom?

I defintiley heard the translation!

Poor goalie they are moving the puck well on the large surface!

Me too!

definitley have ice sounds here?!?!? nhl.com??

That is UNFAIR Z, unfair!

WOW J.HO

I posted a poll a while ago, that I f-ed up and change the voting options midway through so the poll was completely useless. But the gist was what would be more motivating for Detroit, not making the post season, losing in the first round or losing in the SCF. Losing game 7 of the SCF has got to be the biggest kick in the balls since kicking in the balls started. I think this team which prides itself on a "championships and nothing else is acceptable" mentality which should drive these guys nuts. Cleary being this motivated is a great sign, he is a heart and soul, fire in the locker room kind of player. His fire and passion could spread like the Swine Flu through that locker room and the fact that I want him on the ZD line, with that motivation ooooooooo weeeeeeeee look out!! I am more fired up for this upcoming season than I have been in a while and I think it is the fact that I think the wings are going to be so motivated. This may not be the high profile Wings we as fans have come accustomed too, but this team is deep and talented, a few question marks but other than that I am so pumped for the upcoming season and reading quotes like these are making it more exciting!

I watched him be atrocious in Manchester, this man belongs between the pipes in the NHL like I do. Listen he may have had the skill set at one point in time, unlike me, to be an NHL netminder, but those days are back with Nik's 60 footer!

As a former Keeper who has been scolded for a loss, and not even remembered during wins, I thank you for that statement, I have no idea how many games I won (like a nhl goalie win is a stat) 1-0 only to have the goal scorer get all the accolades even though I was the best Keeper in my conference (small, small D 3 school), we played Offsides trap, which meant a lot of breakaways against me. But that was my job to stop the ball, not to be Mr Popular. I started understanding that long before college though!

Remember what people said all season when Dallas Drake was signed, lets not forget Dallas was HUGE in the post season but almost non existent regular season. And I am just talking hits and aggressive play.

This, 4 years ago, stellar, great signing, 3 years ago YAY! Last year or this year, meh, we will see what he brings.

Beckham, sorry could help but post the ignorant American Soccer fan post. I would say: Tiger hands down, Federer in a landslide for second, no one has dominated their sport like these two this decade. Kobe wasn't ever an MVP of the playoffs until this year, he had arguably the most dominant force in basketball on his team since MJ. I would not put a Basketball player in the top 4 actually, as Lebron is probably the most dominant individual on the court, but that rarely leads to victory(champs, not single games), even Kobe needed Bynum and Gasol. Tom Brady, would be up there, except his truly most dominant performance came when he had one of the top 2/3 WR in the game, and then they lost the big game. Even though for the better part of the decade his team was unstoppable in the post season, the last few have not been great. The other thing that puts Lids above the last couple mentioned is that he is very rarely injured, of the people on this list the only other one who can say that is Federer. As far as futbol, it is so hard, with so many teams now, between club teams and national teams, their is a new superstar after every tournament and season. Ronaldinho, Kaka, Messi, Ronaldo, even Henry was the most dominant for a stretch, it is so tough for a soccer player to be dominant for a long period of time, again with the massive amount of teams in the world and now the fact that it is a world sport (In the fact that the leagues in all countries are now made up of players from all countries!) Even in the early 2000 there was World Cup soccer and EUFA league, sure Bundesliga and others were around, but not as big as they are today. Spanish leagues were not nearly the dominant force they are now, hell Barcelona would never have got the players they have this year in 2000, 01, 02 maybe even up until 04. Sure they got some names, but not the kind of names Barcelona is throwing money at! Remember when the only team throwing money around like that was either Liverpool or Manch U! (Maybe Chelsea, but sure as hell not Blackburn!)

Well maybe because that usually involves missing the playoffs and having to deal with headaches and inconsistencies of a 20 year old in net. Why can't any other team be like the Wings and be successful for 20 years in a row is probably a better question to be asking yourself.

Unfortunate news.

F*(king A, what a great post!

That was a good read, I hope the prospects turn out as good as that article makes them sound!!

I don't think anyone can "Force Hossa" to play out the contract, they would have to put some form of clause that states Chi has to pay all of his contract. Because a team violated the rules (potentially) doesn't mean they can force the player to pay the repercussions. If he gets a career ending injury next season how would that work out. I have a feeling the league will wait until about mid season when the fervor has died down and hockey is going on they will probably release on of the two statements: 1. The league was unable to find any intentional wrong doing but we are taking this opportunity to look at the contract rules and negotiation tactics. OR you will hear this from the League:

And this is why you are one of the worst posters on this board. Good attempt at disproving others clouded logic with whatever you call that attempt at sarcasm, whilst still managing to dog on one of the best players in the league. You notice one of the people you are talking about played in nearly 100 total games last year, one played in what 6. One was mentioned in the Hart/Pearson/Bing/Selke conversations, one wasn't even talked, other than this board, since last June! I thought you were finally off of this "I hate Pavel Datsyuk" thing. Aside from pointing out the obvious I wanted to add that I hope Downey lands on a team in the NHL, he is a hardworker and from what I have read a one hell of a person (never met him), he just didn't fit on ice in Detroit. I think he is best served on a young team, a team with a real young enforcer that he can mentor. Either way best of luck and hopefully there is a link someday in this thread stating he is on a team!