kickazz

Good cover up from him. Blash is an excellent coach and handles the media well just as his predecessor did. Just didn't cover the "teammates had to restrain them" part.

Love them both. Maybe a man crush not sure. Both guys are nearing huge miles stones in their career. And it looks like they both will be hitting a bunch of them this season! Datsyuk - Nearing the 900 games played mark. Has 298 goals. Has 571 assists. Has 869 points. Zetterberg - Has 298 goals. Has 499 assists Has 797 points Both are leading contenders for Franchise Game winning goals behind Yzerman, Federov, Shanahan. Which I think Z will surpass Shanny this year. http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/datsyuk-zetterberg-among-all-time-best-clutch-red-wings/ Also they are more twins than the Sedins are because of the following video. Watch at the 1:10 mark. Cheers everyone.

Exactly. It is classy. Need to stay classy. Everyone, managers and players included.

You're comparing two in-game mistakes to Smith who has had issues in game, on the bench and now during practice. 2 vs. like a thousand. And most of those are as dumb as grabbing the puck and throwing it on the ice while on the bench -___________-----

Hey now, no tempers flaring. You posted and quoted me to begin with, I'm letting you know you're taking it out of context. That's allowed.

This wouldn't have happened if Babcock was coach just saying. Flex those muscles and get these kids under control Blash. They're gettin spoiled already! Blamed? Putting words in my mouth there guy, I'm looking at Smith's awesome resume, not blaming either. My post specifically says "involved in a fight" not "start" or "is responsible"

Arguments , tempers, altercations, fights involve two people. Not one.

Ah yes, Smith's resume: - Sound like a 12 year old during interviews - check Make idiotic plays - check Get the "dumbest red wing" title - check Hit the captain on open ice during game - check Get involved in a team practice fight (probably the first time since Primeau/Probert fight) - check Way to keep it classy in the Red Wing's organization guys.

Hah!

Yeah, but I'm referring to grinders/powerforwards, of which you don't need more than 3 or 4 on a team. Besides we don't need to pry if we can groom within with younger guys coming through the system. It's harder to find elite players, who are a rarity (hence why you lock them up) than it is to find average to above average players who can grind.

Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Toews, Kane, Stamkos, Ovie, Crosby, Tavares, Getzlav, Hossa, Bergeron, Kopitar and the list continues. Those are elite players that are guaranteed to be elite or at the very least well above average even with health issues. An injured Datsyuk for instance is still the best player on ice, any hockey analyst/scout can predict that. Those are guys you lock up long term without any questions asked. Locking up Abby who is turning 29 soon , until he's age 36 is risky. Basically my point. We're banking on it. I'd love to see him play out his contract and contribute his grinding and piano moving. But it could be a hit or miss for these types of players as they age. They don't have much else to fall back on if they lose that element of their game. 4 year contract was what I was looking forward to (basically till he's 33 and exits his prime). By then you would reasses his ability to contribute and re-sign if needed. If it ends up being 7 years then oh well. We hope for the best and hope it works in our favor.

The salary around 4 mill or a bit higher is not too bad, the term length worries me for a player like him. At age 34/35 what can we really get out of him? Imagine if there's a no trade clause (knowing Holland there probably will be). It's not like Abby can rely on his playmaking skills or goalscoring skills when he's older and slower like some of our other long term contract guys are. Yeah I agree, Abby's agent is probably pretty dam good.

Abby is under 25?

Ehh 7 years, not a fan of that. Guys like Abby are perfect shorter term deals imo. Once grit/tough guys lose their speed and youth it's a hit or miss with them. Not sure why Holland is into locking up players without a guaranteed sustainable upside. Thought he'd learn his lesson with Ericsson, Weiss deals.

I was going to say something similar to this. This was the exact reason why Ovie went through his slump for almost 2 or so seasons. The league had figured him out (till he ended up switching from RW to LW or whatever it was). Just as a corollary to that , I feel like Mrazek figured him out over the course of the game. I'm not saying that Ovie is all of a sudden easy to read and is somehow going to go through a similar slump. All I'm saying is.. 15 shots is great and everything but after a while, in a 60 minute game, the goalie is going to read the same strategy much more quickly. A lot of Mrazek's saves on Ovie were nearly identical. Mrazek is a smart kid, he knew what was going to happen almost every PP. Washington could have scored had they done something different. But at times it seemed like they wanted Ovie to break the record more than get a goal to tie it up hah.

I'd take Helm if it's cheap. But seriously, don't you guys feel like we have guys coming up that can easily replace him? I feel like AA is Helm but bigger?

You mean the hart trophy , selke winning forward that was put on defense for 6 weeks that played a 200ft game floater? Lol sure. Fedorov was a floater alright. So is Datsyuk.

No need to send Marchenko down, but no reason to not push for a top 4 guy either. Marchenko is an excellent 3rd pair guy at the very least.

Its easier for goalie to play Ovie's shot than the defense to stand in the lane. Something I've noticed

Yea minutes were off. I think that was forseeable when we play teams that have high end goal scorers. I wonder how the minutes looked when we played Stamkos. I'd assume Glendenning probably had high minutes against Tampa too.

Total points scored =/= goals. In any case, 29 goals these days can get you a lot of money as a UFA in today's hockey. Hell 20 goals can get you 5 million easy. Just ask Weiss And if you're Mike Richards you get 7 million to score 40 or so points in an 82 game season.

Datsyuuuuuuukkk I feel like Z did something like this recently. Was it last season? I don't remember. I think it was similar result where he shot a lot but didn't score. Hah. High volume shooting can be overrated sometimes.

We sure can have 4 lines that can score. All we need now is for the NHL to raise the cap to like 150 million so we can afford to have all these scorers on all 4 lines.

Meh not really. Toews is overrated by the media, NHL, Canada, and hockey fans who watch TSN and believe everything fed to them without watching a single game he actually plays. So far as they would rank him as the second best player in the world. Which isn't necessarily true. No one here is saying that Kopitar is the 2nd best in the world. And unlike the Toews situation, no one here is saying Kopitar is better than Z was in his prime (as the poll for the thread was a few months ago for Toews vs Z). People here equate Kopitar to a "younger version of Zetterberg". I'd say Z had a higher ceiling as a former 40 goal scorer. But too many factors to look at and a discussion for another day maybe. Personally I would love to have a "younger version of Z" around. But at the cost of our top scorer and prospects to only get rental? Not at all. Maybe if he was guaranteed to resign.