Richard88

Being respondsible defensively doesn't mean you're a great defensive player, it means that you're aware of your own zone. Sidney Crosby is defensively respondsible. Bertuzzi back checks harder than Hossa did in his time here and people are saying hes terrible defensively and its insane. Franzen has one of the best wrist shots in the game but Bertuzzi has him beat in every other facet of the game.

Nothing more than opinion... nearly identical stats, nearly identical award shelf.

If anything, Bertuzzi has outplayed Williams by a fair margin and that is really the only comparison needed.

No, all it suggests is that Bertuzzi is better at 5 on 5 than Franzen or Cleary. You're using the same argument people use when discussing Zetterberg being better defensively than Datsyuk.

You can hit people without hurting yourself.. Source: Pavel Datsyuk. Datsuyk plays balls out for 82 games, gets hurt in the playoffs and everyone acts like hes a bust. While other plays "Save it" for a 24 game playoff. Some players need to step up and stop "Saving it". If Theo Fleury can knock people on their asses with ease, so can everyone on this roster but they choose not to. And that doesn't mean a guy like Bertuzzi should curtail his physical play, if anything it should be encouraged. Just like the second St. Louis game in Sweden. They took a run at Osgood, dumped him on his ass and it wasn't accidental. Rational reaction? Next time Mason is playing the puck go through him instead of around him. Red Wing's reaction? Sit back and let St. Louis walk all over them. Seriously its really hard to argue that a lot of players on this team don't play as soft as butter. Makes losing Lilja and Samuelsson that much worse.

If Bertuzzi is "lazy" defensively than he looks like a Selke winner compared to Cleary and Franzen. Bertuzzi is filling the role of Holmstrom better than Holmstrom ever has. His passing is a little off and thats part of the problem. You could see it last night during the first few minutes of the game he was along the boards exiting the wings zone and one handed the puck. He was trying to pass it to Datsyuk but it was completely off. Bertuzzi broke his stick on the ice. Holmstrom was never known for his passing.. skating or even back checking so its an improvement in every area. Oh and Bertuzzi will actually hit and defend himself.

Last night was Bertuzzi's best game ever in a Red Wings jersey. He played like Franzen should.. Seriously, Franzen is the biggest forward on the team and hes Charmin soft. See Bert knock Ovechkin on his ass for no reason? Thats the way the Wings need to play. If Pavel Datsyuk is leading the team in hits over guys like Franzen, Cleary and Kronwall you know that there is a problem.

Yzerman put up "Sick numbers" in the highest scoring era of all time and didn't play defense. You honestly believe Fedorov couldn't score 150 points in the 80s if he didn't have any commitment to defense? And what "cash grab"? Fedorov left for less money..and lets not act like Yzerman was somehow playing for crumbs at the time. Making $6.5 million as a third liner and not nearly as effective as before his knee injury.

Kovalchuk-Fedorov-Frolov Same line they've been using in the World Championships since the last Olympics. Morozov-Zinovjev-Zaripov will be the fourth line. And of course there are a few guys like Radulov and Yashin that could be on the team also.

Oh right, I forgot.. Drake Marcus knows all.. Russia already has two lines with amazing chemistry that they won't touch. And they haven't won squat with the Kovalchuk-Datsyuk-Kovalev line. Team Russia is looking to play a team game and that means Datsyuk will be facing the other team's top lines in a shut down role. But feel free to disagree to disagree. One of many people on this site that believes your own personal opinion is fact without any substantial rational.

That argument is only used AGAINST Fedorov. When discussing Yzerman people act as if he was a one man show that "Lead" the team to a cup. Yzerman was an offensive dynamo and nothing more. Fedorov came to town, played insane two way hockey and scored 140 points, THEN Yzerman changed his game. If anything it was Fedorov's game that made even the discussion of trading away Yzerman possible. No Fedorov, no cups.

Datsyuk will be playing a third line checking role, thats how deep team Russia is this year.

Ive read numerous articles that point to Fedorov still attending training camp or coming to games and even visiting Illitch on several occasions. Fedorov never really left this team and for anyone to suggest that from 1989 till 2003 that Yzerman was the better player is just rewriting history. Yzerman brought some respect back to the franchise and Fedorov put it over the top.

The Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi line is the best looking line ive seen since 2008 Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Homer. The sad part is that the second someone gets healthy Babcock will split them, even though tonight showed that the team plays better with the Twins together. Flip was ready to be a second line center LAST season, wasted talent on the third line.