FlashyG

Datsyuk's end to end rush vs Nashville is up today, winning this one guarantees him a spot in the Finals. He's trailing to Paajarvi 52-47 so we better get voting if we want him in the finals http://poy.tsn.ca/

I agree with your last point, them developing is only a good thing for the team. But small gripe - When you quote someone you should add your post below it, not add it to the quote.

Capgeek currently has Chicago's black aces on their roster, Clendening and Morin being sent back down leaves them $3,689,038. They are also paying a 2.2 million penalty for having Olesz buried in the minors. He will almost certainly be bought out leaving them $5,889,038 in space. They also have Montador sitting as a healthy scratch, using their other compliance buyout on him puts their cap space at $8,639,038 with 5 spots to fill. Guys like Carcillo, Smith and Bollig would have to clear waivers to be sent down, but there would be no penalty for sending them down like there was with Olesz which is what I said in the post you quoted. To address your last point, that may have been the article's reasoning for buying out Hossa and a line of reasoning that makes far more sense to me but I was addressing Nev's post that the Hawks were 4 million above the cap, and that they didn't have the the money to sign any of their free agents without buying Hossa out.

Mrazek isn't Hasek and its hard to compare a 21 year old rookie with a guy who was 27 with 12 years of professional experience at the time of his trade. As far as Howard vs Mrazek, Howard didn't have as deep of a team playing in front of him during his first year in grand rapids yet his numbers were very similar to Mrazeks. Howard - 38 GP - 27 W - 2.58 GAA - ,910 SV% - 2 SO Mrazek - 42 GP - 23 W - 2,33 GAA - ,916 SV% - 1 SO Mrazek has a long way to go before he'll be pushing for Howards job.

And after using compliance buyouts on Olesz and Montador they will have over 7 million in space to do so. Capgeek also lists them having several players making less than 1 million who can be buried in the minors with no penalty and others who still have waiver eligibility. (Carcillo, Bollig, Clendening, Morin and Smith). Jimmy Hayes will likely take the spot of one of the departing UFA's and they should still have 9.2 million in space to fill the other 6 spots. They won't be able to keep all their UFA's but they will be able to keep the ones they want without having to resort to buying out Hossa.

Not sure where you got that #, but looking at their capgeek page they have about 5 million in space going into next year before buying anyone out. If they buyout Montador and Olesz, both of whom are either buried in the minors or sitting as healthy scratches they end up having just under 10.5 million in space That should be enough room to sign a new back-up to replace Emery and to fill the remaining 7 spots on their roster.

I guarantee Osgood saw Mrazek's world Junior performance, and has seen more of Mrazek's play than any of us on this board. Osgood's primary job is to coach and mentor Mrazek so he'd know his strengths and weaknesses better than anyone. As far as trade bait goes I think Mrazek is the one of the best pieces of trade bait in the organization. His stock is insanely high for a guy with only 2 games experience and he's not even close to challenging for a starting job on the team. I wouldn't make any deals until we know what we have in Patterson, but I have a feeling one of those 2 goalies will be moved in the next few years and if I was betting, my money would be on Mrazek being the one getting dealt. Its not that I think Patterson is better than him, I really have no idea who is better, but I think Mrazek will return more in trade making him the better choice to move. Realistically I think Howard plays out his contract with Detroit regardless of which goalie we end up giving the back-up role to.

I think Ozzie must have said he thought Patterson had more potential than Mrazek. Personally I think its WAY to early to proclaim either as the better prospect. Mrazek is more proven at this point but he's also further along in his development. Before his WJHC performance nobody knew who he was and he certainly wasn't seen as a potential NHL star. Going into his World Juniors Patterson actually has a higher profile than Mrazek did, considering he was the best goalie at Canada's camp last year and considering the competition he has to face just to make team Canada. Either way I think both have great potential and our goaltending is in pretty good shape for the future.

Maybe Bowman can have some credit too. Except for the bad picks...All the bad picks can be blamed on Holland.

I don't think there are more than 3 players on the Griffins who Hakan had anything to do with.

I don't think the Hawks outhit the Wings in any game of that series. As far as physical play goes Chicago was the only team less physical than the Wings this season Boston would be in the same range and likely slightly smaller than both the WIngs and the Hawks. Most of their size comes from their back-end.

Chicago's average height and weight at forward - 6'1 201lbs Detroit's average Height and weight at forward - 6'0 201lbs. I wouldn't say that's way bigger upfront.

I've already started on one for game 1. I'm willing to do them for the whole series but if people would prefer one for the whole series I can do it that way too.

That was a fun game to watch. I hope I find some streams for the Finals too. I might have to try some AHL GDT's.

JURCO puts the Griffins in front.

They were actually pretty good until the last few minutes. The tone seemed to change for them when one of the Barons got hurt. Ever since then they've sounded like Eddie O calling a Hawks game.

Weak goal, I think it was Mursaks

I never noticed until this game, but apparently Journey is also played at Griffins games, and just like at Wings games they like to yell the "Detroit" in the opening verse. Only difference is that they've played the whole song at the Griffins game Barons lost a player but take the lead.

The stream is a Griffin's broadcast but I guess it was put up by a Barons fan who has put a Barons radio broadcast overtop. I've looked for alternate streams during both intermissions but all I can find is other sites offering the same stream.

Mrazek got a little too aggressive on that one and its tied 3-3

Nyquist on the PP Griffins up 3-2

1-1....bad giveaway by Ferarro at center and poor effort by the defence allowing Van De Velde to skate right through them. edit - and seconds later its 2-1 Oklahoma. Teemu Hartikainen. Edit 2 - Tatar ties it on the PP

I've got a stream for the game if anyone wants it. Just send me a PM and I'll send you the link. Just a warning the audio is pretty terrible. Griffin's are up 1-0

I'd like to see an addition to the rules after an icing that prevents a team from using its time-out. It negates the point of not being able to change lines if you can just call a time-out. The idea was to speed the game up and it's actually ended up slowing it down in most cases.

This is exactly my point, the guy in charge of keeping track of stats at Wings home games is very liberal with his definition of what a hit is. Teams in the eastern conference also get the same benefit from their stats guys. They tend to have the same definition for visiting teams as well though so guys like Franzen will likely be credited with far more hits than they rightly deserve. I'm not saying the Wings will be more physical, but they will likely look like they are based on the stats. I know everyone always says the Wings are small, and they certainly play small but when you compare the actual size of players they aren't really as small as you'd think. Boston's average height and weight are 6'1 and 201lbs The Wings averages are 6'1 and 202 lbs.