eva unit zero

It's even more amusing based on the fact that he sees his post get a "neg" and immediately assumes it was me who did it, even if I haven't been online in a week.

No-touch does result in more whistles. The player chasing the puck may not get to the puck more than once or maybe twice a game. But with no-touch icing, it leads to a lot of situations where the goalie is forced to play a puck he otherwise wouldn't play. So the number of stoppages would be increased. A situation that is fairly common with regard to this is a player coming out of the penalty box in the second period. The shorthanded team is hemmed in, and gains possession as the player gets out. Defenseman sends a long pass that misses and goes all the way to the end boards. The player who just got on the ice has a clear advantage at getting the puck, and with touch icing he'll either get the puck or force the goalie to leave the net and play it; meaning the other team has to come back and defend it - one player shifting the game from one end to the other. If the team that is now attacking either gets the puck or forechecks well, they will have the puck and be set up in the offensive zone only a few seconds after killing a penalty. With no-touch icing, that play is basically dead as soon as the pass misses; just waiting for it to make it all the way and not go to the net.

Nyquist would have to make the top six, maybe even the top four, to make the roster. Not even CLOSE to happening. Also... so Brunnstrom didn't produce in one game against Toronto's NHL roster while playing on a roster of Griffins with the occasional Wing sprinkled in. He's already earned his spot. The competition for the spot was between Bruno, Cory, Johnson, and Conner for one spot. The first two have now basically locked up a spot with Mursak's injury, as Conner is redundant and Johnson has been terrible.

Bertuzzi has been durable as a Wing. However, Hudler has missed 16 games since joining the Wings full-time in 2006-07 and a few of those were as a healthy scratch. Bertuzzi missed 16 in 2008-09 alone, and 14 the year before. 2006-07 he was suspended most of the year, so we'll count that year out to make up for Hudler's missing 2009-10 season and it equals out to four years each for Hudler and Bertuzzi. Bertuzzi is also getting older, and players typically become less durable as they age; suggesting that going forward younger players like Flip, Hudler, Brunnstrom, Emmerton, etc. will be playing the games and Bert will be the one missing them. In those four years, the stats work out as such: Hudler: 312 GP, 61g-100a-161pt Bertuzzi: 297 GP, 63g-70a-133pt Bertuzzi may have done pretty well for a short stretch, but over the past four seasons he's consistently been a 15-20 goal, 40-50 point forward. I'll take the guy on his way up who's shown some serious talent instead of the guy who's on his way down and playing at a similar level if not worse. But this Bertuzzi and Hudler stuff is off topic. So let's get back on it. Brunnstrom has looked pretty good and realistically, there's no reason not to have him on the roster. Unless Johnson makes the top 12 on his faceoff abilities alone, you can't cut one of Bruno or Cory. Conner doesn't stand much of a chance; he's a smaller, slightly faster Miller who's not quite as good. Only way he makes the team is by beating Johnson AND Miller. Very unlikely... although Mursak/Helm/Conner sounds sweet. Not quite a Mogilny/Fedorov/Bure or Bure/Courtnall/Mogilny... but what is? Few guys in the league are even that fast... let alone guys on the same team. Assuming Bruno makes the top 12, and Babs goes with the lines he was using: Huds/Dats/Cleary Flip/Hank/Mule Abby/Helm/Bert That leaves this line: Homer/Bruno/Eaves And Miller and Emmerton get scratched. Or you scratch Homer, slide Brunnstrom to the left and move Emmerton in; or swap in Miller for Homer. If he's not in the top six, he's far less useful; and he's probably the worst 5-on-5 player the team has, so he needs to be shifted out of there. The PP will survive without him, although it's better with him. Cleary, Bert, and Franzen can handle the net-front stuff.

I like the idea of "hybrid icing" as it were. No touch if an offensive player has not entered the attacking zone, touch if they have. So if you win a faceoff while in your own zone, and dump it all the way down, and your guys are on your own side of the ice, whistle goes. End of the play. But if you send it in from just behind the line, and you have a guy who is just behind the puck as it crosses the blueline, let him race. It might also lead to teams trying to fire the puck around on a line change, and get the new guy in the zone pressuring the goalie. It would kill stoppages because while teams might ice the puck to change lines, they would still have to have a "chaser" or they'd be screwed. More work for the guys stuck on the ice, harder to change everyone out on the fly = more goals due to opposing team fatigue. It definitely needs to change though. Also, kill the trapezoid. Icing injuries happen largely in situations where goalies can't play the puck to stop the offense from getting it. How many injuries have occurred since the trapezoid was installed?

You forgot the part where he digs it out of the corner, slams it around the boards to himself, puts it back to himself at the point, and then swaps with himself at the other point before sending a slapper in for himself to redirect. Now back to reality... Babcock had these three lines together a while back. Hudler/Datsyuk/Cleary Filppula/Zetterberg/Mule Abby/Helm/Bert Which leaves us: Homer/Miller/Brunnstrom/Emmerton/Eaves Out of that group, I scratch Miller and Emmerton. That would leave Homer/Brunnstrom/Eaves, which would make a good scoring 4th line, if you guys can comprehend that. I haven't gotten to see much preseason, but if Homer's not being used in the top six he's far less useful as he's just a PP specialist at that point. Which makes scratching him for Miller or Emmerton much better; they're both better 5-on-5 players. Brunnstrom/Emmerton/Eaves would be good. I'd also like Brunnstrom/Emmerton/Bert and Abby/Helm/Eaves, as it puts the more offensive-oriented player on the more offensive-oriented line. As for defense: Kronwall/Stuart Lidstrom/White Kindl/Ericsson Commodore Give Ericsson until around the deadline to prove he's a quality defenseman and deserves to be playing. He's got value regardless, so he'll be easily replaceable in a trade if necessary, or simply removed. Pick up a guy like Suter in either a direct or separate trade? Sure.

Howard is the starter, and should be. Conklin is a reliable backup, but even though Howard has shown he can be inconsistent and not play to his best, he's still significantly better than Conklin. Conklin himself has had major consistency issues both within season and from year to year. For example, Conklin has played 16+ games the last seven seasons. Three times he has posted a save percentage of .881 or worse. Twice he posted a save percentage of .921 or better. He also posted .909 and .912. There appears to be no correlation between team strength and Conklin's performance; he played 26 games in 2009-10 and 25 games in 2010-11 for St.Louis, playing the same style. The shots against improved by a small margin in his second year, but the defense was basically the same. His save percentage shifted downwards from .921 to .881, a drastic - and unexplained - decrease. Howard also suffered a large drop in save percentage over the past two seasons, but that is common with a young goaltender from his rookie year to his second season. Howard also went from one of the best seasons in the league to simply a "good" season, while Conklin dropped from "very good" to "bottom of the barrel" statistically. Conklin is also less likely to remain with the team for an extended period, and has never been a starter. Howard has the advantage in every conceivable category one would use to establish this situation. Only two goalies had a chance to take Howard's position; Chris Osgood and Tomas Vokoun. Osgood retired, and Vokoun chose to sign in Washington. Osgood likely would not have beaten out Howard either; so realistically only Vokoun. Howard has the spot locked up against anyone unless that person were to forcibly remove him, as Howard did Osgood. It's not going to be "Conklin is a little better than Howard right now, let's make him the starter" the way it was with Stefan and Hanlon. The closest Howard has come to losing his job was when Osgood came back early last year because Howie was struggling; and had Ozzie not done that he'd probably be on the team right now.

Nah, Derek Meech. Whoops. OTOH, Ericsson being removed eliminates the Kindl/Commie/Ericsson 5/6/7, and Janik is a perfectly serviceable 7th. Especially behind Lids/Kronner/Stu/White/Kindl/Commie. I'd rather see him turn out how he's "supposed" to turn out, but right now he's a #6/7 defenseman playing #5 time ahead of better guys because he *might* be really good. By the end of the year Kindl will be ahead of him if he doesn't really earn his spot. And the way he's playing, it looks like Kindl will pass him sooner than later. There's no question that Smith should be able to pass him on the depth chart within a couple seasons if not immediately. Add in Kronwall, Stuart, and White, and basically Ericsson is stuck in the 5/6 hole long term unless he shows marked improvement. Kindl and Smith are getting better rapidly. White is significantly better and no older. His only other chance at moving into the top four is if Kindl and Smith can't pass him, Lidstrom retires, and nobody is signed to fill Lidstrom's spot. Realistically, Ericsson is probably gone after this contract; as a big defenseman with puck skills and good skating ability, his market value will once again be well above what he actually brings to a team; except the Wings won't need a 5/6 at even half of the price he'll command.

Let's see how he's doing at the 30 game mark.

Sauer, not Liles.

Lang is lazy and he sucks! Pull Cujo!

Yeah, I was thinking about who each team had and for some reason Gagne popped into my head instead of Downie.

Not sure how that works in... Blanda was a QB, kicker, and linebacker at the NFL level. Seems pretty damn diverse.

February 2012 - Finger is traded to Detroit Red Wings, who have suffered injuries on defense to Jonathan Ericsson, Jakub Kindl, Mike Commodore, Doug Janik, and Garnet Exelby. Also involved in the deal are Toronto's 2012 1st round pick and the rights to Detroit prospects Daniel Larsson and Dick Axelsson. June 2012 - Finger wins Conn Smythe trophy, setting NHL playoff records for goals (20), assists (32), and points (52). July 2012 - Finger signs ten year, $120m deal with Florida.

Maybe I should have said Gord Kruppke.

Roloson is a good goalie. And Tampa does have some firepower in Stamkos, St. Louis, Lecavalier, Downie, Malone, Purcell, Clark, Hedman, Kubina. But Washington counters that with Vokoun, Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin, Brouwer, Laich, Knuble, Green, Wideman, Carlson. I say Washington comes out ahead. But ultimately it will be the young kids like Hedman and Carlson, and team defense in general, which determines this matchup.

Chara is planning on smashing Pacioretty's head into the goal post this season. So don't get your hopes up.

Are you serious? Are you actually asking me this question?

This is where I call. Coffey wasn't below average defensively until late in his career. Coffey has three Norrises. No matter how well you do offensively, you have to be doing well defensively to win a Norris. Phil Housley and Mike Green have made that clear. As for Chelios being the best defensive defenseman in the world, what period was this? From the mid 80s into the early 90s, guys like Brad McCrimmon and Craig Ludwig were getting Norris votes based purely on their defense. Jamie Macoun, Mike Ramsey, Rod Langway, Ulf Samuelsson, Sylvain Lefebvre? He certainly wasn't the best as you move into the mid and late 90s. The best defenseman whose primary focus was defense? I can see that. But not the best defensive defenseman. It's like Draper winning the Selke. He wasn't the best defensive forward. He was the best forward who was defense-first, but he wasn't the best defensively. Even on his own team.

I didn't say he wasn't a great captain. I said that he wasn't viewed as a great captain because he was a whiner.

No disrespect to Chelios, Coffey beats him out. If you take just prime, Coffey was far better than Chelios could dream of being. Sure, he dropped off after the mid 90s (he still managed a Norris in 1995 and was a #1 defensemen until the end of his career) but Chelios tapered off also. Chelios was a high end defenseman for much of his career, but he wasn't a Norris threat as often as Coffey was. Even though he played a longer career. It's like comparing Pat LaFontaine and Mike Modano. Patty La definitely was better at the peak. He also was at or near his peak longer. But Modano had the longer career, was better defensively, and was considered a star center for a large portion of his career. Although I might put Darren Veitch ahead of both...

You fail at comprehending statements. It's an indictment of LGW. If Flip scores 35+ points, he'll be fine. If he doesn't, people will be too busy being upset with Hudler's performance to care about how many points Flip scored.

But none of that will matter if he scores within ten points of Hudler. Regardless of whether Hudler scores 10 or 90.

Brunnstrom: AHL player trying to make any NHL roster. Hudler: proven NHL player working hard on having a better year because he is disappointed with last season. You can have Brunnstrom. I'm sure you'll enjoy him. Especially twice on Sunday.

Because he was a whiny *****. Same reason Lemieux's not in the discussion. Both Boucher and Cook finished in the top ten in scoring almost every single season of their careers. Cook twice led the league in scoring, and Boucher had quite a few top-three finishes. Cook scored goals at just under 0.50 per game, in an era of very low scoring. His four best seasons were 33 goals in 44 games, 29 in 44, 30 in 44, 33 in 48. The idea of putting Messier over him is mind-boggling. Remember, we're not using Messier's whole career; just his Rangers years. Otherwise we'd have to rank Gordie Howe as the best WhalerCane ever, Gretzky as the best Oiler, King, Blue, Ranger, and if you go by places his number is retired everywhere else too (making it a top two list for most teams) plus we'd have Peter Forsberg and Paul Kariya on Nashville's list, Adam Oates on the Blues and Capitals, and Brett Hull on the Winnipeg/Phoenix and lists. It'd be like making a "top-3 defensemen ever per team" list, a Wings list could have perhaps either Lidstrom-Harvey-Fetisov or Lidstrom-Kelly-Goodfellow? Would be interesting.