rcTycoon

Its that time of the year, its 2006 all over again. Datsyuk plays well but the team fails and somehow it falls on his shoulders. Hossa has been a GHOST. He scored his first goal of the series, obviously disallowed, from 2 inches away from a gaping net. The Datsyuk line is terrible and instead of pinning it on the 100 point, premier playmaking, Hart candidate perhaps you guys should take a look at his linemates for a moment. Thomas Holmstrom Pros: - Screens the goaltender, best in the game. - Deflects shots. - Never gives up on a battle for the puck in front of the net. Cons: - Has AHL skating speed. - Cannot score unless hes within five feet of the crease. - Passing is subpar - Cycling the puck really isn't part of his game. Marian Hossa Pros: - Killer one timer and wrist shot - Blazing speed - Relies on a puck control game - Backchecks well Cons: - As soon as he receives a pass he chips it into the zone, which is the worst thing to do on a line with Datsyuk. - Lost in his own zone, relies on his linemates to feed him the puck. - Can make great passes but looks to shoot 99.99% of the time. Now lets review Datsyuk.... Pros: - Two time Selke winner(most likely). - Best faceoff man on the team in the offensive zone. - Makes passes that most can't replicate - Has a deceptive shot - Can beat 5 guys if he chooses to. - Hart Candidate - Has shown that he can work on a line with ANYONE on this team EXCEPT Hossa. Cons: - Hes a playmaker, even though most fans act as if he needs to be Ovechkin. - Playing with a pure Sniper in the mold of Hossa leaves him looking like a rookie all over again, always looking to pass. Its pretty simple really, Hossa is destroying Datsyuk's game, the game we all love. Saying that Zetterberg's line is doing better is ridiculous. Datsyuk's line is facing a pure shutdown line and Anahiems top defensive pairing. Zetterberg's line is facing Anahiem's top offensive line and getting hemmed into their own zone everytime Perry-Getzlaf-Ryan gets possession. The fact that people are including Datsyuk's name in the same sentence as Hossa is embarassing. Hossa has been a ghost, Datsyuk was our best player in the Columbus series.

I disagree, we have a coach who doesn't believe in changing anything and a team who seems more concerned with long walks on the beach and playing soccer. The ducks want to win and they're doing whatever it takes to get it done. Know how I know the Wings are going to lose this series? Because the following shift after Neidermeyer ran Osgood and scored, Hiller wasn't on his back on the ice without a helmet. This team has no passion...

Ax to grind = Disappointed that the piss poor play of one player is bringing down the best player on this team, maybe the league? A player, who everyone on this board was riding his balls just two weeks ago? There is obvious statistical proof to backup the fact that Hossa decreases the production of both of the Euro twins. Doesn't really matter if its the playoffs or not.

Premier playmaker vs Premier goal scorer. Ive seen Datsyuk set up more than two "sure things" that resulted in nothing because his wingers couldn't finish. Ive only seen Hossa score two goals in this post season.. Hossa is paid to score and does not. Datsyuk is paid to make plays, play defense and win faceoffs. Hes been doing that the entire time.

The Wings added one of the premier offensive players in the league and expected him to be a role player making nearly $8 million a year? Zetterberg is getting it done Cleary is getting it done Franzen is getting it done Datsyuk is getting it done Homer? Hossa? Not so much.. Its not an ax to grind as much as it is disspelling the love affair with a guy who doesn't fit this team and obviously adversely effects Datsyuk's game. Datsyuk has proven over his entire career that he doesn't need a premier scoring forward to be a successful player. He could play on a line with Hudler and Flip and still score 97 points. This isn't NHL 2009, great players don't always mix.

Just so we're 100% clear, Hossa and Lidstrom both make the same amount per season. $7.45 million.

Your logic is flawed, an 82 game sample size is a much better judgment than say... 6 games. Hossa, thus far, outside of a two goal game in which he was great but benefited from amazing passes, he has looked like a fourth liner. Hustle and backchecking doesn't win hockey games, at the end of the day you need someone to score goals and that guy is Hossa. We have 6 guys to fill the "Hustle, hit, back check" role, we only have a couple who are goal scorers first and everything else is secondary. So yes, its easy to blame Hossa. Datsyuk has made amazing plays in every game in this post season. Hes set guys up perfectly, hes even set Hossa up on a few occasions that resulted in zilch. Its safe to blame Hossa at this point, no one is jumping to any drastic conclusions. Blaming Osgood for not standing on his head is reaching. Blaming Zetterberg for not scoring two goals a game is reaching but blaming Hossa for only scoring two goals in 7 games while a guy like Sidney Crosby scored 7 in 7 seems to be logical. Some players just don't work out. This team is worse with Hossa and its shown all season.

Blonde hair and blue eyes... But really you're just saying this because you have no defense. Quite frankly Hossa hasn't played up to standards all season. 40 goals 72 points, playing with Pavel Datsyuk and being the highest paid player on the team? Hossa has been a disappointment all season. And lets not even bring up his so called Selke caliber defense....

The jury isn't out on this case... The facts are simple: Datsyuk produced a nearly 100 point season playing on a variety of lines, with and without Hossa. Zetterberg struggled the entire time he was on a line with Hossa, which is why he didn't even manage a point per game all season. Reverse roles, put Zetterberg and Datsyuk together and everyone would be asking were Z is. Hossa is absolutely bringing Datsyuk's game down as he did with Zetterberg's earlier in the season. I favor bringing back the D-Z-H line or moving Helm up with Datsyuk and Hossa down with Flip and Hudler. Will any of this happen? Yes, with five minutes remaining in game six when we're down 4-0 facing elimination. The ol' Mike Babcock special.

I posted this in another thread but it applies here perfectly also: Homer has more respondsibility than just standing in front of the goalie, you need to possess the puck before you just stand infront of the net aimlessly. The main problem with the Hossa line is Hossa. Im a guy who is obsessed with Datsyuk, ive watched every single one of his games in the NHL, sometimes I think I only watch Wings games to watch him and not the team, regardless, I know how he plays and his tendencies. For anyone doubting Datsyuk, watch our PP during the next game. Watch Lidstrom lead the puck up the ice and pass it to Datsyuk to enter the zone. Do you understand how valuable it is to enter the zone unmolested and pass it off to a teammate as oppossed to dumping the puck up the boards to a Norris caliber defenseman waiting to blast it back up the same boards? Watch highlights of Datsyuk play, he thrives on gaining the zone as fast as possible, getting to the goal line and stopping on a dime and either looking for the cross crease pass or passing it back to an open defenseman. That is Datsyuk's game in a nutshell. Datsyuk, defensively persues the puck in the neutral zone and his own zone. He doesn't stand around waiting for a loose puck(Hossa) or a pass from his teammate. You'll find him most of the time behind Osgood playing the role of a third defenseman, either stripping the puck and getting it out of the zone or passing it to an open and flat footed Hossa. Hossa, after receiving the pass skates up the boards through the neutral zone and than dumps the puck in, expecting Homer to be the second coming of Pavel Bure and retrieve the puck from two Anahiem defenseman. Of course, the 5% of the time Hossa doesn't chip the puck in, he does attempt to carry it into the zone like Datsyuk but he generally loses the puck. The entire act of Hossa playing "Dump and chase" hockey is what kills the line, whether its Datsyuk or Zetterberg. Hossa doesn't fit this team and even if they cleared enough space for him to stay it would have to be on the third line because he clearly doesn't fit with either Zetterberg or Datsyuk. Cup or not, say goodbye to Hossa. Start watching the games and stop paying attention to stats. Datsyuk has no choice but to try and beat four guys, he can't rely on his linemates and he has a true shutdown line on his ass.

Homer has more respondsibility than just standing in front of the goalie, you need to possess the puck before you just stand infront of the net aimlessly. The main problem with the Hossa line is Hossa. Im a guy who is obsessed with Datsyuk, ive watched every single one of his games in the NHL, sometimes I think I only watch Wings games to watch him and not the team, regardless, I know how he plays and his tendencies. For anyone doubting Datsyuk, watch our PP during the next game. Watch Lidstrom lead the puck up the ice and pass it to Datsyuk to enter the zone. Do you understand how valuable it is to enter the zone unmolested and pass it off to a teammate as oppossed to dumping the puck up the boards to a Norris caliber defenseman waiting to blast it back up the same boards? Watch highlights of Datsyuk play, he thrives on gaining the zone as fast as possible, getting to the goal line and stopping on a dime and either looking for the cross crease pass or passing it back to an open defenseman. That is Datsyuk's game in a nutshell. Datsyuk, defensively persues the puck in the neutral zone and his own zone. He doesn't stand around waiting for a loose puck(Hossa) or a pass from his teammate. You'll find him most of the time behind Osgood playing the role of a third defenseman, either stripping the puck and getting it out of the zone or passing it to an open and flat footed Hossa. Hossa, after receiving the pass skates up the boards through the neutral zone and than dumps the puck in, expecting Homer to be the second coming of Pavel Bure and retrieve the puck from two Anahiem defenseman. Of course, the 5% of the time Hossa doesn't chip the puck in, he does attempt to carry it into the zone like Datsyuk but he generally loses the puck. The entire act of Hossa playing "Dump and chase" hockey is what kills the line, whether its Datsyuk or Zetterberg. Hossa doesn't fit this team and even if they cleared enough space for him to stay it would have to be on the third line because he clearly doesn't fit with either Zetterberg or Datsyuk. Cup or not, say goodbye to Hossa.

I think its telling that Hossa's best sequence of this entire round was in today's game on a line with Hudler and Flip.

Too generous. The PK pairing of Datsyuk-Hossa has had more offensive opportunities than the Datsyuk-Holmstrom-Hossa line.

What else is new? Its been his MO the entire time hes coached this team... He never changes things until its too late. This series will go to 3-1 Ducks and then he'll go with the D-Z-H line. We'll come close to winning game six but will fail miserably and Babcock will make excuses about not playing tough enough and not catching breaks. The D-Z-H line should have been reunited in game just to throw off Carlyle. Look back at the 2007 series versus the ducks. Game six, the Wings are facing elimination, Babcock finally makes a change to our terrible power play unit. He switches Kronwall and Lidstrom, so that Lidstrom is on the right side, thus allowing him to one time the puck. What resulted was two quick goals by Datsyuk in the final minute nearly tying the game. Babcock has a proven history of not changing until its absolutely too late.

Its NEVER been there. The Z line is scoring, which makes it look better than Pavel-Hossa-Homer but the Z line isn't containing the Getzlaf line. Everytime the Getzlaf line is in Detroit's zone, against Zetterberg, they're in control of the puck, they hold it and cycle for an entire shift until Osgood makes a great save and holds the puck. Its obvious that Anahiem prefers playing Getzlaf and friends versus Zetterberg because its a favorable matchup. In that sense, Zetterberg's line isn't a "Shutdown line". Anahiem is simply playing power versus power, which is what we should have been doing from the beginning. Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom vs Perry-Getzlaf-Ryan.

Holmstrom stepped on Neidermeyer's stick infront of the net and fell slightly catching his balance and in the process elbowed Wizzzz, who was behind him at the time. Holmstrom had no way of knowing he was there and certainly didn't intend on doing it. Not to mention, Wizzz was already hurt from Datsyuk's shot but got back up and then got elbowed in the face, hence bloody mouth.