eva unit zero

No, he flew off the bench right after the hit. Take another look at the video and watch the Isles bench. Morency jumps off the bench immediately after the hit. As far as the hit, Phaneuf does seem to leave his feet on the play, although it looks like he makes contact before he does, so it's not an illegal hit in that sense. Just Phaneuf not being able to throw a hit without falling down.

Everything I read had the Bruins offering no more than $3.5m, and Kessel wanting around $4m because he felt he deserved as much or more than Krejci. The Bruins currently have about $1.1m in cap space before the $3m in bonuses are added in. So they would have had to move somebody, likely Michael Ryder ($4m) or Marco Sturm ($3.5m) to fit Kessel under the cap regardless of whether he made $3.5m or $5.4m. Regardless of what he was offered, what exactly does Burke plan to do about the cap situation in Toronto? Aren't the Leafs basically at the ceiling with this signing before considering the potentially $7m in bonuses they could be facing?

Just for reference, Kyle Okposo is no longer a prospect. He played 65 games last season and 9 games the year before, and is not going back to the minors. He was an Islanders prospect for the 2006-07 season when he played at the University of Minnesota, and the 2007-08 season when he played for Minnesota, and then spent the remainder of the year with Bridgeport of the AHL before joining the Islanders late in the season. He spent all of last season with the Islanders, except for the AHL playoffs which he played 2 games for Bridgeport as the Isles missed the postseason.

Wait... wasn't Kessel only asking for like $3.5m-$4m from the Bruins? I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate Brian Burke on what a wonderful GM he is, and how excellent he is at managing his team's cap space and being sure not to overspend on players.

I would rank them probably (in alphabetical order): Tier 1 Sidney Crosby, Pit Pavel Datsyuk, Det Nicklas Lidstrom, Det Evgeni Malkin, Pit Alexander Ovechkin, Wsh Henrik Zetterberg, Det Tier 2 Daniel Alfredsson, Otw Niklas Backstrom, Min Martin Brodeur, NJ Zdeno Chara, Bos Ryan Getzlaf, Ana Marian Hossa, Chi Jarome Iginla, Cgy Duncan Keith, Chi Ilya Kovalchuk, Atl Henrik Lundqvist, NYR Scott Niedermayer, Ana Zach Parise, NJ Joe Thornton, SJ Shea Weber, Nsh I reserve the right to change this list.

So Iginla's performance from two years ago is any more important than Getzlaf's performance two years from now? That's not really a fair argument to top notch young players who don't have the career history yet. A fair analogy is who would you rather have right now, Jonas Hiller or Marty Turco? Hiller had a strong season and outplayed Turco by a fair margin, but Turco has had several good seasons coming into this past season. So who's better right now? I would say Hiller, and your arguments seem to indicate Turco. It's about right now. And Getzlaf is better than Iginla right now.

Ok...so did Kiprusoff or Iginla carry that team? Although you didn't use the term, I've heard many times about both "singlehandedly" carrying the Flames to the finals. It's rather confusing, really.

Mike Cammalleri is a bigger threat offensively than Corey Perry, and whichever of Daymond Langkow or Craig Conroy you ended up putting on that line, which changed from day to day, you ended up getting a decent offensive center who was very strong defensively. Anaheim has Perry, plus some other solid offensive players, but Getzlaf never had strong defensive players playing with him; the best defensive player to see time with Getz was Kunitz, and he's not really anything special in his own end. Certainly not a Conroy or Langkow. As for "Iginla has been one of the league's most dangerous scorers" vs "Getzlaf has had one good season", I give you the following: Iginla is 32 and Getzlaf is 24. Getzlaf has scored 82 or more points in each of the last two seasons; Iginla had just scored 71 points when he was Getzlaf's age, had scored 63 the year before, and had never topped 51 before that. Getzlaf has only once been below 58, in his rookie season when he scored 39 in 57 games, which projects to 56. Getzlaf has been much more dangerous than Iginla was at the same age. And Getzlaf is just coming into his prime, while Iginla is just coming out of his. Getzlaf is definitely the better player.

Ultimately, the fate of Lebda and Stuart rest on a few things. What happens with Lidstrom and Lilja, as well as Kolosov's performance in camp and Meech's performance this season. Stuart is almost certainly gone if Lidstrom returns, and Lebda is gone if: Lilja can play OR Kolosov jumps him on the depth chart OR Meech jumps him on the depth chart.

Getzlaf is the best remaining skater. Big, strong, physical player with very good scoring and playmaking ability, good skater and solid defensive player. Realistically, I can't NOT pick him at this point. Yes, there are other very skilled players like Brodeur and Iginla... but to compare Getz to Iginla: Offensively, Getzlaf is better. Iginla had a worse team last season, but better linemates as far as offense is concerned. Defensively, Getzlaf is significantly better. Iginla is at best an average defensive player, while Gets is strong defensively. Physically Iginla has a slight edge, but not enough to make a huge difference. Iginla's biggest advantage is skating, and again that doesn't compare to Getzlaf's advantage in offense and defense. EDIT: After some thought, I am changing my vote to Martin Brodeur.

Hmm... Alfredsson, Spezza, Kovalev, Michalek, Fisher, and Cheechoo? Very solid top six. I have to think you go with Michalek on the top line, and put Kovalev on the left side opposite Cheechoo with Fisher centering the second line since Kovalev is the best playmaker of the three and Cheechoo needs to be with a solid playmaker, but shouldn't be on the top line assuming he can even play the left side. I think the Sharks made a huge mistake here though. Yes, Cheechoo is overpaid based on some lucky production with Thornton feeding him. But Michalek is a big, strong winger who is a good skater and a capable scorer. And he's 24. If the team weren't in cap hell, maybe it's not a bad move because it's comparable in importance to the team to Detroit trading Filppula, Cleary, and a second for Heatley. In other words, the trade is basically a young player just coming into his prime who is already a top-line player in the league, plus a support player with decent scoring ability and a pick. The primary asset is by far the young player, and the support player and pick are mostly included in the deal to balance salary and to give Ottawa a bit more return so they get more production from the deal now in case the young player suddenly turns bust.

Out of the guys included on that list, I might rank Kronwall first. They definitely seem to be East-biased, as mentioned in the comments, and also seem to be more concerned with big hits than who is the best hitter. Honestly, I might take Kopecky over maybe half the guys mentioned between the top 15 and the HMs.

Because Kevin Lowe is going to demand he makes another cash payment to the team? You do realize that a Comrie for Corey Perry plus two firsts was thrown out by LOWE because he decided, after agreeing to a deal with Anaheim and Comrie coming to a tentative contract agreement with the Ducks, that he demanded Comrie pay the Oilers $2.5m to trade him to Anaheim before he signed off on the deal officially? So instead he got traded to the Flyers for Jeff "a defenseman with as much upside as he has, so you have to go after" Woywitka, plus a first and a third. Yep, Comrie was CLEARLY the villain and the stupid one. Perhaps he was asking for too much for a team like the Oilers with $3m despite it being a fair amount given his performance. I don't recall Lowe's offer but given Lowe's attitude towards him and Comrie's lack of contractual issues since leaving, I really have trouble placing all, or even most, of the blame on Comrie.

I like Cloutier... Despite the up and down career, he has displayed some pretty good talent in the past and should really push Howard. Also, if Howard can't beat out Clouts, then Howard gets dealt and Clouts signs on the cheap (like $500k-$750k) and the Wings get a veteran backup who might just be worth picking up for a season or two until the Wings decide to bring up Larsson or McCollum.

So you voted Lebda then, as he is no better than Meech and plays the same game, and Meech: -Costs less than the league minimum. -Actually has the potential to improve beyond the 6/7 defenseman level that he and Lebda currently play at. -If he stays, will cost less than Lebda's current salary for the next two or three years (or more) even though he likely will be considerably better in that time than the best Lebda will be at any point in his career. Lebda will probably be gone by the start of next season regardless of if he's traded with Kindl and Kolosov ready or close to ready, and Kindl perhaps already a better option than either Lebda or Meech.

Zetterberg. Realistically...he belongs in the top five ahead of, at the very least, Crosby if not also a couple others. Of course, Malkin belongs ahead of Crosby also and that didn't happen.

There is only one answer. Reg Dunlop.

Ok, to counter several votes for Malkin... HENRIK ZETTERBERG. Never mind that both should be ahead of Crosby anyway.

If 20 people are asked who they think is the best center, and 15 people pick Crosby while 5 pick Datsyuk, does that mean the 15 people all picked Crosby because he was being picked by others? If a lot of people think a guy is good or bad, there has to be a reason. Different people think different players are better or worse than others because they rank different attributes as more or less important, and also they will perhaps have differing opinions about a player's ability with regard to others; such as the question "Who's better defensively, Z or Dats?" You'll find different people answering differently. Nobody is wrong for having a different opinion, and maybe a lot of LGWers and many other people will disagree with GMR about who's better between Crosby vs. Datsyuk, but there are many people who would agree with him.

I would argue that Z's offensive production last year was down primarily due to the fact he was being used as a shutdown center and because the team was having defensive troubles on the blueline he had to play in more of a defensive role than he normally would, thus costing him offensive production. He also consistently was having his linemates shuffled, with guys like Filppula who are good players but not terribly productive offensively ending up on his wing, meaning he basically had to be "the guy" offensively on his line. In contrast, Datsyuk was playing with Hossa, one of the most talented snipers in the league, for 90% of the season.

Zetterberg's back vs. Malkin's face. Which is scarier?

Henrik Zetterberg. That is all.

Not to say you aren't entitled to your opinion...but Zetterberg's defense outweighs Crosby's offense, and Zetterberg's offense outweighs Crosby's defense. Plus Zetterberg is much more clutch than Crosby.

Steve Yzerman "Stevie Wonder" "The Captain" Pat Verbeek "Little Ball of Hate" Francis Clancy "King" Jack Stewart "Black Jack" Alex Delvecchio "Fats" Bill Hollett "Flash" Johnny Bower "The China Wall" Ken Dryden "The Thinker" "Thieving Giraffe" "Octopus" Andy Bathgate "Handy Andy" Mario Lemieux "Le Magnifique" Irvine Bailey "Ace" Al Iafrate "Wild Thing" Tell me some or all of those don't belong on that list ahead of a lot of their choices.

Vincent Price; Much more versatile actor with a much deeper resume. Plus it's unlikely Bela Lugosi would ever start an egg fight on set.