kipwinger

That is 100% reasonable.

Sure you are.

Also, if injury is considered when leveling a suspension will injury also be considered when calling penalties? Same logic seems to be at play. We're already seeing an increase in diving as it is, I'd hate to think that in some cases it would be beneficial for guys, teams, organizations, to play up injuries, or hold players out for an extra period or game or whatever in hopes of affecting suspension length in the same way the seem to be playing up on ice injuries to influence penalty calling.

agreed, I think it causes more problems than it solves. You end up giving guys suspension largely based on injuries and not necessarily based on the act. Look at the Torres thing, he got 25 games for a bad hit because of the injury, no injury and there's no way he gets that. Unless the league believes every high hit is worth 25 now. Will the next hit leading to a mild concussion get 25? In essence it inverts the whole point of leveling a suspension because minor infractions with injuries will become a worse violation than a major infraction with no injury...it's dumb.

I'm as tolerant of a little bit of homophobia as I am tolerant of a little bit of racism. Which is to say, I'm not tolerant of it at all.

read it again, it doesn't say pull YOUR dick out of your ass, it says pull THE dick out of your ass.

telling someone that there's something wrong with their head because they have a dick in the ass isn't homophobic?

Awesome, not only are your comments extremely boring and full of gross over exaggerations, but now they're homophobic too. I can't help but wonder if you're as single minded with your bigotry as you are with your hockey analysis. p.s. I hope the moderators have something to say about this and not implicitly condone hate speech on this forum.

Was just watching this video of Fedorov after he popped up in a thread about retiring and becoming a GM in Russia. What sticks out most to me, aside from the fact that the guy was a freak, is how often he drives to the net. Not standing in front of the net and screens mind you, but drives the net. I know that we're not likely to find anybody with his skill set, that can finish those drives the way he did, but it doesn't seem like we've got anybody (perhaps aside from Zetterberg) who even tries all that often. Don't really know if that's Parise's game or not, but it's a offensive option that we sorely missed this year in my opinion.

Plus ten for the most creative response. It's not every day that you can work binary code into discussions of hockey.

Actually the opposite, you have to quit stressing it and then Leftwinger will hopefully quite writing it. He has found a way to talk about nothing but Parise and Semin in every current thread. Maybe if we ignore it, it will go away.

Cleary, Eaves, and Miller are all much better wingers than Abdelkader. You can't squeeze blood from a stone guys, abby is probably not ever going to be a productive point producer/finisher. All of those other guys have shown that can. Plus, everybody is constantly talking about getting bigger down the center. Moving Abby accomplishes this, allows him to take draws (which he's good at), and gives him more defensive responsibility than the wingers (which he's also good at). Why in the hell would you want him on the wing? Bert-Helm-Cleary Miller-Abby-Eaves NWO4LIFE!!!

Yeah that's a really good point about drafting to fit the system. It does seem as though teams are catching on to that though. The perimeter shots aren't getting through like they used to, not because the talent isn't there, but because teams are taking away shooting lanes by collapsing down around the net. I do agree that's our system and it's a pretty good one, but I think you've got to have more options in case your primary offensive package isn't working. Then all you do is make adjustments during the intermissions.

That's fine, but where do you put him then? You've already got Bert, Cleary, Eaves, Miller, Jursak, and potentially Holmstrom to divide between the 4 winger spots on the 3rd and 4th line. And you can't deny he's better than Emmerton.

You really can't get much more wrong than this. Zetterberg was the center with Flip and Hudler on the wings. Ask around, you'll see. Also, Datsyuk's production was hurt by injury, Z's by the slump. Datsyuk was in the top ten in scoring before his injury and Zetterberg turned it on and led the team in points while also leading Flip to a career year in goals and points, and Hulder to a career year in goals.

Yeah I heard that too, wonder if he got any other bonuses for winning the Cup?

Agreed, and I'm not expecting to find anybody with Fedorov's skill set any time soon. But driving, even without having the ability to finish by one's self, increases the likelihood of rebounds, junk goals, etc. In a perfect world we'd have a power forward that could do it, but I'm more concerned with guys doing it either way. If Parise does it, that's super. I'd like to see Flip doing it more too. It's important to remember that while Fedorov was pretty tall, we wasn't all that heavy, and was by no means a power forward. I was able to drive like that because of his skating ability and puck handling skills. Flip has both as well. s*** even Helm has both (though obviously doesn't finish well). All in all, I agree with your assessment, but wonder if it's a coaching thing rather than the fact that we just don't have the guys who can do it?

To me the crazy thing is that it's not like we don't have guys to go the tough areas, Holmstrom, Bert, Cleary, Franzen, and even Hudler will go there to screen all game long, but hardly anybody really drives. I don't think we don't have guys who are willing to do it, but it's like we've had so much success with the point shot + screen = goal dynamic that we're beholden to it now. On a related note, I actually think Miller is one of the better guys on the team at driving, but like you said, guys like him and Cleary have the will but not the skill, so to speak.

Reactionary much? I wasn't saying that we're better than the Rangers now. I was saying that we were MUCH better than the Rangers immediately after 2004 (the season you started keeping track of the Rangers Picks), and because of that our lineup has been set for a number of years. Therefore, guys drafted between 2006-2012 could not crack our lineup like they could for the Rangers. Obviously, those roles are reversed now, the Rangers are pretty much all set and we'll see a lot of turnover in the coming years so more of our young talent will start seeing NHL time. I thought I had made that pretty clear in the first post, but thanks for giving me time to practice saying the same thing more than once. Added Note: Weren't you the guy who started a thread about how Jarnkrok is good enough to be on the team, along with Tatar and Nyquist? Now add to them, Smith, Pullkinen, Jurco, Ouellet, and Mrazek and you've got a large chunk of our drafts between 2006-2012 who will probably all make the team and could potentially be game breakers. Why do you think they haven't played yet? Because they're not any good? Nope. There's no place to put them...or rather, there hasn't been any place to put them. Obviously that's changing.

I agree we need to an upgrade over Emmerton, and we'll get it...Abdelkader. Next year our centers will be Dats, Z, Helm, Abby. Gaustad is not a terrible hockey player, no doubt about it. But he's terribly over priced for what he brings, especially considering he'll never crack our top three center positions. Even if he makes the same money as he did this year, that's still 2.5 million on our forth line. As for the other guys, I absolutely love Jason Arnott, but he's about a zillion years old and I don't see that any of the rest are any better than Abby. In my opinion we're all set at center, we've got to improve on the wings. Again, just my opinion and you're welcome to yours as well. p.s. I know you weren't treating Gaustad as the messiah, your comment was just the most recent in months worth of comments, stemming back to the deadline, heralding him as some sort of missing link on this team. I didn't mean to make it seem like my criticism was pointed directly at you alone.

I don't disagree that the Rangers have done a good job bringing in young guys, but I don't think that means they scout and draft better. They have had a younger team over the last few seasons and there has been room for young guys in their organization to move up. Not so with the Wings. The only guy we've drafted since 2006 who sees regular minutes is Emmerton and even he probably wouldn't have been in the lineup as much as we was if not for injuries. This is not to say that we're not playing guys because they're bad, we're not playing guys because in the recent past we've had a veteran team who was able to compete successfully each years, so why bring new guys in? We've got a ton of young talent waiting in the fold and over the next couple of seasons as our old guys retire you're going to see more and more of our picks from 2007-2012 coming into the NHL, while New York will have fewer picks breaking their lineup during the same time frame because there won't be any place for them. In the post cap era, these waves are going to happen because you can't constantly fills holes through free agency, we just happen to have a nearly full lineup after the cap while the Rangers didn't.

After reading this I was wondering who would win in a drinking contest/******-off between Kane, Richards, and Jeff Carter. Kane really seems like the most flagrant ******, but Carter can probably drink more based on his size, and has been known to bleach the tips of his hair.

Well I don't really see the need to consult the players when the NHLPA had to ratify any proposed realignment anyway. All it might have done is expedite the failure of the plan. West teams wanted it, east teams didn't. That wasn't going to change just because he talked to them early on. This is what I mean about Bettman, he's the only guy in the entire NHL who has to think about someone other than himself. The owners think about their teams and players first, the players think about themselves and their families first, etc. etc. etc. Bettman is the only person tasked with coming up with ways accommodate 30 teams, 30 owners, hundreds of players, and millions of fans. All of whom are thinking about what's best for their respective teams. He's never going to find a perfect fit, but the hope is that he can come up with something that everyone can live with. I'd imagine it's extremely difficult, time consuming, and takes knowledgeable perspective of the players, teams, and league that nobody else is required to have. Which was all I way saying to begin with, I don't think he doesn't know anything (or care any) about the game. But the requirements of his job make it necessary for him to make decisions from multiple points of view. However, none of this should be read as an exaltation of Bettman the commissioner. That story is still writing itself and you're correct in saying that history will be the best judge of that.

I'll grant you the fact that he didn't give the NHLPA enough time, that was definitely a hardball tactic. However, I do think that the new plan had players in mind, or at least half of them. The new plan while good for players in the west would have meant MORE traveling time (time away from home) for the players in the Eastern Conference, which is why they were largely leading the charge against realignment. If you look at our own players remarks you saw a clear change in response only after the eastern teams had their say. Our guys were largely in favor of it, and then crawfished as soon as everybody else had their say. Which was my point all along, trying to balance that many plates takes a lot of know how, which I think he has, and still not everybody was satisfied. As far as remarks to players and fans go, I can't really say what he's been hearing from players. I don't know that any of us can. But when it comes to fans I will say this. Just look on this message board at how many fans have asinine preferences that could never be realistically satisfied by anyone short of god, let alone the league commissioner. I know there are tons of knowledgeable fans out there, and many on here as well, and many of those knowledgeable fans are at the very least 50/50 with regards to Bettman's performance. But you can't satisfy everyone, especially when (like anything else) the most vocal people are the ones who aren't going to be satisfied no matter what he does. If my college years working food service taught me anything it's that the people who ***** the most, don't really know s***, and the people who are satisfied, rarely have anything to say. I'd be condescending too if I was bombarded with comments ranging from "you're a weasel" to "You've ruined the game" to "there's only six original teams" every single day. My guess is, the reasonable criticisms are being addressed reasonably, but they're difficult and can't be fixed as flawlessly as many of us would like.

I don't know that he doesn't have any knowledge of the game. He's had the job for ten years now and is constantly surrounded by officials, former players, union reps, etc. I'd imagine he knows plenty about the game, and certainly knows the difference between "The Original Six" and the first twelve NHL teams. I just happen to think that there are essentially two ways of thinking about this: Loving the game = not deviating too much from its traditional format, and loving the game = wanting to see the NHL as a premier league in professional sports, complete with premier tv deals, premier talent, and premier fan bases. Bettman obviously belongs to the second way of thinking, as do most of the owners. Doesn't really make him more or less knowledgeable, but I do think that his ability to affect the direction and future of the sport certainly influences the way he sees the game. I'm not saying his way of thinking is right or wrong, but it's definitely informed, and understandable. As a matter of fact, I'd say that Bettman's perspective on the game is as knowledgeable, and more unique than anyone else on earth, given the fact that he alone has to address the combined concerns of the owners, players, officials, and fans every single year to the best of his ability. Note: Sorry to be long winded but just think about the example of the Realignment. Owners care about cost, profits, home/away scheduling, etc. Players care about travel, fatigue, family time, etc. Fans want to see rivalries, prime time games, quality competition, etc. On top of all that, the concerns of the owners, players, and fans of any one team, are different than the concerns of the owners, players, fans of every other team. Ultimately, coming up with a plan that best satisfies all of these demands falls solely on Bettman and his staff, and personally I don't think anybody who didn't know much about the game could possibly do it. And that's just one issue.