kickazz

Yeah I was surprised Z was the 3rd shooter. The league's figured him out- was no reason for him to shoot. If Blash did choose him to go knowing that was a rookie goalie who would bite for the backhand deke then credit to him.

Ironically, a lot of people may not remember this but the move Zetterberg made last night was his classic one he scored in at least 5 times back in 06-09. Then missed a million after that. Decade later he makes the shot again. Goalies got good memories with most players. I remember Datsyuk had trouble too eventually with the same backhand glove side shot that he missed like 10 times in a row.

Well time to change it up for Laine. Goalies gonna figure that out soon enough

Zetty and Petr come thru with the clutch. Can't believe we have the best record in the shootout in the entire league this season lmao.

It's the backhand man, it's back for now. I haven't seen it in a good two years.

Wait what? Since when does Nyquist have 19 points? GDT

The whole "Franzen is a goal scorer" crap was unfortunately started by Mickey Redmond and fans. Franzen was never a 50 goal scorer, or a 40 goal scorer. Really only broke 30 goals like once. So it's pretty unfair to label him as one and then keep pressuring him to score that way. That's probably the reason why whenever the press asked him abut his scoring he would come out and say "I'm not really a goal scorer" or whatever his comments were. Honestly Franzen wasn't even projected to be a top 6 player but he still became one and produced like one. Especially in the playoffs. So at the end of the day, he exceeded expectations. But I don't think he would have ever been a high point producer like Dats or Z were, probably a notch below them. Somewhere above average in terms of overall point scoring and definitely above average in goal scoring. He had a wicked wrist shot.

Savage. It is pretty hilarious tho, the 1st line is a quality line with big names and the 2nd line just drops in stature compelely. Then somehow the 3rd line actually has big names.

The Mantha- Zetterberg - Tatar line is better than that Abdelkader - Zetterberg - Larkin line was in terms of corsi stats. But that makes sense though because all three players are extremely high volume shooters. Can you imagine how good they would be if Tatar didn't actually suck this year? Also want to point out that Mantha's wrist shot is crazy accurate.

That's exactly what Bill Berzeench does. It's better not to engage. We've all dealt with this style of posting all last year. Not even worth it.

Your ideas are crazy. But so are Blashill's. Ya'll don't gotta be mutually exclusive.

Yeah and it's honestly visible on ice too. The line is very good.

I agree for the most part. But think about this. Holland could have matched Toronto's offer if he REALLY wanted to keep Babcock. In Babcock's interview he said he had gone to Hollands house the morning of and asked if the offer in pay would increase, to which Holland said no. Weird isn't it? There's no cap on that coach salary and the Illitches are super fricking wealthy, they would have easily just thrown 6 mill at him and said "we want you back, here's a higher offer". I think both sides to some extent mutually wanted out and did it in the most professional manner possible without any hard feelings. Holland offered big money, but not enough to keep him (maybe on purpose) and Babcock asked for more money rather than staying for less (maybe because he didn't want to stay). It's like one of those situations where if you truly love your job, you'll take the pay cut and if you truly want to keep an employee you'll offer him the salary against the competition.

Zetterberg currently leading all 35+ year olds in the league in points. Let Vegas take him. Lets keep Sheahan lol.

That's precisely what he needs to stop doing.

Mrazek woohoooooooo

Sounds like the young Zetterberg to be honest. Always had a slow start to the season.

Blashill supposedly like Lashoff in GR back in the day. Could be a favoritism thing.

Your logic still doesn't make sense. If you play Mantha with Larkin "for the sake of the future" that's still only one line you are developing. What's the point of that when you don't have lines 2-4? It's likely better to have Mantha learn to be an NHL winger (regardless of WHO is center is) and it's likely better to have Larkin learn to be an NHL center (regardless of who his wingers are). Chemistry doesn't mean much in 10 years if you don't learn to be good at your actual position. Right now Larkin is a terrible center. Right now Mantha is showing promise as a Winger (likely because his centerman is a good one). If you put a terrible center with a new winger, that's not really going to help either of them. Larkin needs good support on his sides to help him out (he's got some good wingers) and Mantha needs a good center to help him groom up as a winger; he's got Z. When you start driving a car would you have another 16 year old who doesn't know how to drive or would you have your mom or dad that knows the rules and system of the road? I get that these guys are already hockey players (unlike the scenario of learning to drive a car) but these guys are NEW NHL players - a completely different beast than minors or college. Datsyuk came into the league playing on a line with Brett Hull. Same with Zetterberg when he joined them the year after. Hudler was put on a line with Zetterberg, same with Filpula eventually. Nyquist was put on a line with Zetterberg. Tatar was put on a line with Datsyuk. It's been the process all along. For more than a decade now. Z was a natural winger converted to Center. Common knowledge. The benefit is both of them are playing with veterans or established players and have a support system in their own individual lines. See previous paragraph. And the last bolded part. Babcock put Z and Datsyuk together on a line in must-win because they naturally clicked since day 1 of being on a line together. They weren't forced into having a chemistry. They just worked. We got lucky with those two. That doesn't mean Mantha and Larkin will necessarily work.

Asking Lidstrom to come out of retirement would be a start.

Our problem lately has been our defense not our offense. Our offense is actually building chemistry.

Lmfao!! Look at my editted post hahahah.

So you want to break up the the line chemistry that is actually working? Rock solid logic my friend.

No offense or anything but I think I honestly might have seen the worst line combo in these forums in a long, long time. Sheahan on the 2nd line is lol Jurco over Nyquist or Tatar is um what? The 2nd line and 3rd line centers are like 40-45% on faceoffs probably the worst in the league. Nielsen is at best a 2nd line center. Zetterberg proved in the 25 games so far that he's still better, plain and simple. Even at his older age. Unless these are line combos for tanking without being too obvious about it to the league. Then I can see the strategy behind all this.

The parity in this league is at its worst yet..