Nevermind

I don't see how you could think Salo was going to hit him all that hard to begin with. Unless hockey just became soccer or something. The only problem I see with it is that the hip check sort of targets the knees. Unintentional or not, that's a dangerous way to hip check. Way too low.

Imagine if St. Louis was in the offensive zone. Though, the linesman wouldn't dare do that if that was the case. Obviously he was just trying to send a message to the Colorado bench to hurry up from that point on.

What he said was true. I was thinking the exact same thing the last few minutes of the game. The matching minors and penalty shot could easily not have happened; they definitely seemed to be an effort to help Philly send the game to OT. As a pretty neutral fan, I was hoping for OT as well. But, if NYR was Detroit, we'd all be up in arms over the calls.

And they didn't even mention how skilled he is at picking pockets...

That's too bad. Especially with the huge step he's taken this year. He's a much better 2-way forward than Crosby, actually. Giroux's always been very responsible defensively. And now he was just starting to put up some amazing numbers. Hope it's nothing too serious. Both of them, I guess.

I agree with those saying he's better off with the rest. He can wait to prove his caliber in the playoffs. Besides, all-star games aren't really all that fun for goalies IMO. Unless you like giving up a goal every other shot, that is.

And people thought it was easier to make the playoffs in the east before... The vote was apparently 26-4. Let me guess...Detroit, Columbus, TB and Florida were against.

I hate the idea of divisional playoff match-ups as well.

Conklin's played 3 games. I really like MacDonald, but you gotta give Conks a fair chance.

Maybe Leino will help Detroit out more tonight that ever before? Go Wings!

Could you post these statements?

I think it's safe to say that Ryan's off the market. If this was the last year of Iginla's contract, I'd be all for acquiring him. We have the cap space this year to take on his prorated salary. But I think his $7M for next season would handcuff us too much.

Paraphrased... Pierre: Outside of Pittsburgh, is there a better puck possession team than Detroit!? Eddie: (Long pause) Chicago's pretty good. Sorry if this doesn't deserve a topic of its own.

Fixed, thanks. I wouldn't want to cause any wrongful defamation.

He looked pretty good against TB IMO. Stronger on the puck than I've seen in a while.

There's a difference between matching up against a player and saying who's better. Sure, Crosby's the most talented offensive hockey player in the world and would certainly score much more than Zetterberg over a full season no matter what teams both of them are on. But, that doesn't mean Z can't shut him down in a direct head-to-head match-up. So yeah, I'd still take Z over Crosby if they were matched against each other in a playoff series. Unless he really has some nagging injury or something, I think Zetterberg can still be almost as effective as he already has been in the playoffs the last four, five years. I might be being too much of a homer, but I can still honestly say Hank's a much, much better defensive forward than Crosby. Everything I just said goes for Datsyuk as well.

Even with Zetterberg's struggles this season, I'd still take him against Golden Boy as well.

How did Crosby backcheck/play defensively? Serious question. I didn't watch the game.

So will Bettman declare that tomorrow night is the true official start of the NHL regular season?

But I try my best not to watch Ericsson...

How come I haven't even heard of the kid until now...he's a rookie with 7 goals and 14 points (exact same as Nugent-Hopkins). Guess playing in Nashville can do that. Moral of the story though. Don't get fancy with an open net. Side note: Scary thought. A player I've never heard of is outperforming Hank and Pavel offensively almost 20 games into the season. Sorry, not trying to spread panic or anything...

Howard's been absolutely solid. He isn't the problem at all. And if Bertuzzi's a 50 goal scorer again, sure. One of the real problems: It feels so strange to criticize him, but it's about time this guy shows up again.

I'd try this... Filppula-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Cleary-Zetterberg-Franzen Basically switch Fil and Cleary. It's always seemed like Cleary plays better with Z than Pavel. The two were dominant along with Mule in the '09 playoffs. And Filppula should give Pavel a guy with speed who can handle the puck too.

Do people intentionally mistype 3rd as 4rd for some reason? It seems like a lot of people do that. Just curious.

Yes, I know +/- is a very flawed stat, but.... Filppula: +9 Rest of team: +5 or less And he's on pace for over 60 points this season. Hopefully he can keep it going. EDIT: My bad. Ian White's a +7. But +7 or less doesn't sound as good.