kickazz

Good point. Many folks have been crying over losing Brunner as a huge loss to the team. So dramatic that somehow they forget that fact that we have 3 future hall of famers on our top 6, one of the fastest centers in the league in our bottom six (helm) and two of the better NHL youngesters in the bottom six (Nyquist and Tatar). Losing Brunner is not as bad as people think it is.

As much as I dislike Cleary, he's a hard worker. Babcock favors hard workers nothing the fans can do about that. Filpula was straight up useless during the season and his effort wasn't as much as it should have been on ice. Also you're forgetting that Vinny made money off the buyout and he's getting paid by Flyers on top of that. Vinny is currently a very very rich man compared to most other players.

The point of the post was Z's cap hit is no where close to what most high end players in the league make and how Holland got a cheap deal off of the best player in the league (Datsyuk) and a top 10 player in the league (Zetterberg). Look at Getzlafs contract.. 8.3 million cap hit? Are you kidding? Holland is a good GM he gets players cheaper than most GMs do. IMO It was a good thing he didnt waste his money on a declining Vecavelier for 5 years with a big pay check.

I didnt say you thought the players were bad. You were talkin about how Holland signs these guys too long and mentioned Z and Franzens contract. I was pointing out that Zetts contract is not bad, it was good. Here's why: Zetterberg's salary lowers every year, meaning his contract was front loaded - which means he got paid big for the first few years of his contract and eventually in 2018 his salary will drop to 3 million followed by 1 million for the next two years. That's a smart move in my opinion since he got paid big early during his "prime" and his value drops as he ages. Also, I don't agree with the idea that Zetterberg is "declining" at a faster rate than Datsyuk. If you look at their numbers, both have had about the same point total decline since 2010 season. Part of it has to do with the fact that they've been split up and our teams roster has shedded since 2010. And this season both had 48 and 47 points respectively in 47 and 46 games played. So in my opinion, their point production is at about the same rate of decline. Datsyuks two years older btw.

The Zetterberg contract was actually pretty good. Z is probly one of the best shut down forwards in the NHL and hes a great playmaker. He can do it all and he has a cap hit of what 6.1 million per season for the rest of his contract? Look at Datsyuks: He's the best player in NHL and his cap hit is 6.7 million. Compare that to players like Getzlaf with a cap hit of 8.3 million for the next 8 years. So yes Holland does do a good job of managing the cap hit. He's got the best duo in the NHL (better than the Sedins if you consider backchecking and forechecking) and he managed to pay them far less than most high end forwards in the league. Franzens a high 20 goal scorer (28ish) and his cap hit is 4 million. I don't care if Franzens lazy, he puts up 27 or 28 goals per season and has a low cap hit. These are steals in my opinion.

Most likely will. Speed is 100% related to back strength. And so all we can hope is they find what the back issue is and fix it. If it's never diagnosed, it's going to be a risky game.

We can see a 90 points datsyuk again if we dump filpula and get someone who can center the second line so Datsyuk and Zetterberg can play together. But that's a lot of ifs ands or buts.

Kind of agree, for a high 20 goal scorer he is cheap. Although I would like to see Franzen step up more. His laziness is so annoying sometimes. He could be an easy 40 goal scorer if he hustled a little more. Sadly he's only hit 30 goals 2 times in his career and probably won't hit it again as he gets older. Crazier stuffs happened though so lets hope.

Guessing hell make as much as Z if not a little more. Nothing too extraordinary. He knows that him and Z are number one and two on the team, so I'm assuming he expects to stay the same around Z's pay.

No. Even the best have bad games and wont make excuses. Let's not make excuses for the magician. Injuries are usually reported if theyre bad enough. So even if he was "injured" it wasn't enough for him to stop playing. Technically speaking Zet has had groin problems in the season but it wasn't enough to keep him out of the line up for too long. Point being, everyone has some form of soreness. But also; not everyone can have perfect games all year long. I think this should answer everyone: http://www.freep.com/article/20130530/SPORTS05/305300119/ Looks like the only ones who were playing injured were Cleary and Kronwall. Not gonna lie, they played decent with injuries.

Lol, people on here who are sticking up for him have being way to subjective.. Objectively speaking; Smith has messed up way too many times and it doesn't matter if he's scored goals and put up points. He has still messed up. Does that mean he should be "dissed"? Maybe not. He's still got a lot to learn so its understandable. But does that mean that Babcock should keep being stubborn about it and keep dressing him every night while there's Ian White with a right hand shot and 3 years of playoff experience? Hmm. Point being, just because Smith is making a lot of mistakes which have LITERALLY made us lose games, doesn't mean he wont become an amazing player in a few years with experience. But that doesn't give an excuse for him to not be stratched and give us a better chance of winning game 7 with say Ian White. (Not a White fan, but experience > rookie with mistakes). All in all, I get that Smith is a learning process, what I don't get is, why is he still being dressed with all those costly goals he's give up for us. Give the kid a day off and let someone else play while he gets focused and loses the anxiety. Clearly the pressure has got to him and he's admitted it.

This x 10000. These playoffs if anything are probably ruining Smiths confidence level. Mr. Babs, you're not helping Smitty out especially when he's taking so much heat from the fans.

HEY BABCOCK! SMART MOVE SPLITTING UP DATSYUK AND ZETTERBERG ON POWERPLAYS!!!

Just stalking Datsyuk on his FB account. I swear he loves the fans more than we love him. Some of the pics the guy has of his fans on there make me believe there's not way he's done this early.

Now what was the report a week ago about Babcock saying hes probably staying?

Isnt it technically ILLEGAL for players under contracts to discuss their future with anyone besides their agent? If that's the case no one should know wtf datsyuk is upto besides Greenstein and he's made it clear that the talks will happen this july before pasha leaves the Russia. I'm sticking to watch Greenstein says.

Pasha knows now to take those more often!

Anyone notice how Z shot like a 50 goal scorer in last night's game 6 while almost every other game he just shoots the puck from random corners or ends up going for the pass.. I remember a few years ago, he was rated as having one of the best slap shots among active players game next to Chara, Ovetchkin, Weber. This was during his prime after they won the cup. Why do you think that is? I mean, he clearly has the ability to shoot the puck with great aim and its a bullet of a shot, but almost 90% of the games now, the past 3 years, his shots have been really weak unless it's a key game. Has anyone else noticed this? Might be confidence level or age?

Stop deviating from OP.

Fantasy land. Agreed, I've been trying to say the same thing as you (almost) , that Z has one of the better slap shots. HENCE the name of this thread... Then Axe started trolling and claiming Dats has best slap shot blah blah so I kept humoring him especially after he started making up shots. Anyways point being of the original post: Zet has an amazing slap shot and should use it more often such as the ones in game 6 vs. Anaheim.

Lol I've been showing this discussion to a few buddies of mine. You are one funny kid. You should add "love shot" or something to your made up fantasy list of shots in hockey. It's just so funny man.

Well actually he called me "kissazz" so let's not get into technicalities. Me calling him a kid isn't really an attack. Links not working No such thing as a dangle shot there's only three types of shots in hockey, Wrist shot, slap shot and snap shot. A backhanded shot is a type of wrist shot. The dangle shot as you keep calling it is called "deking" and shooting. That's a whole different part of the game. Datsyuk is god at dekeing that's partly why his wrist shots are so good. Wrist shots usually compliment you're deking ability. Slap shots usually aren't related to deking rather more on power/shot accuracy.

The way I see it is, this is the best playoffs howard has had since coming into the league and he's doing it without Lidstrom, Rafalski and Stuart. In his first few years he didn't have an excuse for his mediocre play. But the fact that he's doing so great WITHOUT the three, shows how much he's matured and how good of a leader he's becoming. Good stuff.

So it's okay for Smith to make a lot of mistakes but according to you Jimmy Howard is "average" after playing spectacular these past 2 months. Good logic.

At first I stated you were 12 years old but now im convinced you're 9 years old. Lol First of, there is not such thing as a dangle shot and to make up something so stupid is an insult to hockey players so allow me to tell you to keep quiet and stop making up things. Let me teach you a little about hockey kiddo (yes since you're obviously no older than 9). Theres the wrist shot, theres the slap shot, theres the snap shot and theres the backhander. Why don't you google dangle shot and post something on here that defines it. You can't. Second, of all, Datsyuk's shot in todays game was a wrist shot. Not a slap shot. It's been established Datsyuk has the best wrist shot. This threads name is "Zetterberg SLAP shot" Do you not know how to read? LMAO. Still waiting on your proofs that say Datsyuk has a better backhanded shot. I've given you youtube videos, Larry Murphys commentary, online article etc. You haven't given jack.