eva unit zero

Hmm...let's see. Zetterberg and Datsyuk are about even, overall, with Crosby and Malkin. Hossa is easily better than any remaining Pens forward. Hossa plus Franzen, Hudler, and Holmstrom most certainly compare favorably to Guerin, Kunitz, Satan, and Fedotenko. Now we compare Filppula, Cleary, Samuelsson, Draper, Helm, and Maltby to Staal, Talbot, Cooke, Kennedy, Adams, and Dupuis. Bottom six is so far in Detroit's favor it's SICK. Lidstrom is the best defenseman in the series. He's the only defenseman on either team who has ever even come close to winning a Norris, and he's nominated again this year. Rafalski, Kronwall, and Gonchar are all of similar overall ability. Stuart is better than any of the remaining Pens defenseman. None of Orpik, Letang, and Scuderi would make the Wings' top four. It's questionable whether any would make the top six. Lebda and Ericsson vs Gill and Eaton? It might be more fair to compare Lebda and Ericsson to Orpik and Letang. Osgood has outplayed Fleury in the playoffs and the finals.

Because Kronwall is better, younger, and cheaper than Souray?

Hossa never had a star center UNTIL his short stint in Pittsburgh (during which he outplayed Crosby), yet he was always one of the league's most dangerous scorers and power forwards while playing very good defense.

As stated before: If Dats and Z are on the same line, Flips is matched against Malkin. If you use my lines, Flip is playing with Cleary and Sammy, who are capable defensively and it makes a decent defensive line to play against Malkin while highly skilled playmaker Hudler centers an offensive line with Franzen and Hossa that gets matched up against the Pens 4th line. If Flip centers the third line and Hudler is with Cleary and Sammy, then the offense of Franzen and Hossa is being sacrificed asa shutdown line against Malkin, and Hudler instead is setting up Cleary and Samuelsson as a scoring line. Or possibly, Franzen/Flip/Hossa is the scoring line, and Hudler is trying to shut down Malkin. Which way would you go with it?

The problem then is, because of home ice advantage: Z's line is matched against Crosby and Flip's against Malkin, so Cleary/Helm/Hudler and/or Maltby/Draper/Samuelsson are expected to do the scoring. If you have the second line of Franzen/Hudler/Hossa and the third line of Cleary/Flip/Samuelsson, Flip's line will still play against Malkin, but now Hudler's line is MUCH more dangerous. Hudler between Franzen and Hossa is a #1 scoring line on more than 20 teams in the league, and is capable defensively if necessary. But as they would likely be matched against the Pens' 4th line if Babs has his way, it gives Detroit a major advantage.

Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Franzen/Hudler/Hossa Cleary/Filppula/Samuelsson Maltby/Draper/Helm

Fischer, if he had not been forced to retire and were still playing, would be frightening. Chara is nominated for the Norris because he is a good, physical defensive defenseman who also puts up some points. He has a hard but inaccurate shot and is merely a decent playmaker. Chara is also not a great skater. Fischer was a better playmaker and had a very heavy (107 mph) shot that was more accurate then than Chara's is now. He was faster than Lebda and played a solid defensive game. He was a good playmaker. You don't think he would have improved these facets of his game over the past few years to the point where he might be a top defenseman? He was into what was looking to be a monster season when he had his collapse in 05-06. He was playing very good defense and solid offense, and was looking like he was really having a breakout year. Let's see... wicked fast, offensively skilled, defensively skilled, big and strong and very physical...you don't see a potential Norris contender in that?

Is it? Chicago has two defensemen arguably better than Kronwall. Nashville has one. St. Louis has none who are on Kronwall's level. Columbus also would rank Kronwall as their top blueliner. This means that within the league's strongest division, Kronwall would rank anywhere from second (many would put him as Detroit's #2 defenseman, ahead of Rafalski) to sixth. If you assume that Lidstrom is the best defenseman in the world, and that Kronwall would rank top-five in any other division, the average position there would be third. There are six divisions; if he would, on the average, be the third-best defenseman in a division, that would rank him about eighteenth in the league. If you assume his position to be anywhere from 2-6 in his division, then his average position would be fourth and he would rank about 24th in the league if you assume that same position in all divisions. Still does not make "top 15 or 20" a ridiculous statement given the strength of the division he plays in.

Kronwall didn't have a good night. Kronwall was arguably, outside of a couple small stretches of poor play, our second best defenseman during the regular season. He is one of the 15 or 20 best defensemen in the league. He has had, generally, a good playoffs. So the fact that he has not been as good against the Penguins, or in particular did not look good in Game 4, means he's terrible? Personally, I think it shows your hockey knowledge (anger? bias? ignorance?) that you would rank Lebda above Kronwall. Kronwall has outplayed Lebda in at least 95% of games they have both played in. Lebda has played well this postseason, but based on his normal level of play I would rather have Derek Meech, Jakub Kindl, or someone else who isn't Lebda manning the blueline. I would have gladly let Lebda go instead of Quincey before this season. /thread

I'll tell you my top ten players this season. 1) Nicklas Lidstrom 2) Alexander Ovechkin 3) Henrik Zetterberg 4) Pavel Datsyuk 5) Evgeni Malkin 6) Zach Parise 7) Sidney Crosby 8) Zdeno Chara 9) Duncan Keith 10) Mike Richards

How about three lines that feature defense, playmaking, and scoring and a fourth that is quick and gritty so that no matter what matchup the Pens get, it will be tough for their scoring lines to play against? Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Cleary/Hudler/Hossa Franzen/Filppula/Samuelsson Abdelkader/Draper/Helm

Yep, since I offered up a solution that trades Holmstrom instead of Cleary which would achieve the same goal cap-wise, I definitely have a huge hard-on for Holmstrom. I prefer having Cleary on the roster; but this is the facts: If we replace Lebda with a minimum wager, it's gonna be a guy like Helmer or worse. Even finding a decent player who would sign that kind of contract would be difficult. As strong a player as Cleary is, he is no more necessary on the team than Filppula or Holmstrom. So while in terms of skill, trading Holmstrom and Lebda would be a better option, trading Cleary would be a much more likely option given that he waives his NTC. Trading Cleary also likely brings more of a return in terms of prospects/picks than Holmstrom+Lebda combined. So while we would lose a very good second line two-way player, we would get solid prospects or good picks to replace the guys coming up next year like Helm and Leino, or soon like Abdelkader and Kindl.

Hossa signs for a cap hit of about $6m. Hudler signs for a cap hit of about $1.8m. Leino signs for a cap hit of about $1m. Kopecky signs for a cap hit of about $575k. Samuelsson signs a contract elsewhere with a team that needs a scoring winger in their top six. Look for $2.5m-$3m Conklin signs a contract elsewhere with a team looking for a solid, cheap starter. Look for $2m-$2.5m Chelios retires or signs a contract elsewhere. Look for ~$750k if he keeps playing. After that, the Wings have to get under the cap. The best way is trading Brad Stuart and Daniel Cleary for prospects/picks; this requires both players waiving no-trade clauses. If Cleary doesn't, then Filppula replaces him as a forward being traded. Flip is a good forward with good potential, but he'll never be a Z/Dats/Hossa and he is far from a necessity on this team. Another option is replacing Lebda with a minimum-wage defenseman and trading Holmstrom instead of Cleary or Filppula. This, however, leaves almost no cap space if next year's cap is the same as this year's. If Stuart doesn't, it poses more of a problem. The Wings have to face possibly trading Kronwall, who even then has a salary $750k below Stuart, and then likely replacing Lilja with a minimum-wager. Another place cap space could be saved is if the Wings sign a backup at minimum wage and trade Howard, which would save about $200k. Or if Hossa signs for below (well below?) what I have projected for him. Personally, my hope is that Cleary and Stuart are both accepting of a trade, as this is the best possible outcome given the current roster and what Hossa is "expected" to sign for. Lineup: Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Franzen/Hudler/Hossa Leino/Filppula/Kopecky Helm/Draper/Maltby Meech Lidstrom/Rafalski Kronwall/Ericsson Lebda/Lilja Meech Osgood Howard Notes about lineup: each of the top three forward lines has a playmaker, a shooter, and a physical element who can create havoc in front of the net. The fourth line has speed and grit, and is good defensively and possesses strong forecheckers. http://tinyurl.com/qbwgcb

The difference is that defense usually creates the defensive player taking the puck away, while a turnover is more of our player making a mistake and passing poorly or misplaying the puck in a fashion that was not directly caused by a defensive player. For example, if Filppula is skating up the middle and drops the puck behind himself, as a pass intended for a winger, but instead a Pens player picks up the puck, that would be a turnover. If the Pens player had knocked the puck of Filppula's stick, it would be a takeaway.

Shoreline... I am stunned that you omitted ME. I mean...how hard would one of MY in-depth posts supporting Ozzie have been to find?

You never want to see a defensive player who is clearly beaten and has NO chance to stop a breakaway legally called for a slashing penalty when he slashes the hand of the player who would otherwise have an amazing scoring chance? Slashing is slashing is slashing. Sorry, call it by the god damn rulebook. Whether it's slashing, hooking, interference, whatever. Whether it's the first game of the year or overtime in game 7 of the finals, call it the same ******* way. The rulebook is written one way; call the same penalties the same way because they are still the same ******* penalties. And that was a slash. As far as the crease thing, It's not a penalty because when Osgood rolled over, he was on the line and therefore the back half of his body, including the puck, was outside the crease before Zetterberg even jumped on him. If Zetts had covered the puck after that, even though Z is inside the crease, the puck is outside and it's not a penalty.

My biggest thought on this series? Comparing Pittsburgh to Chicago: FORWARDS: While Chicago didn't have the superstar players, they did have some damn good top forwards who were playing very well, and had better depth and much better defensive play, as well as physical play, than Pittsburgh will bring. DEFENSEMEN: Chicago has Duncan Keith, one of the top five or six defensemen in the league. They also have Brian Campbell and Brent Seabrook, as well as a solid supporting cast. Pittsburgh has, well, Sergei Gonchar; who is like Campbell only with less speed, and worse physical and defensive play. Brooks Orpik is a decent defensive defenseman who blocks shots well and is a good skater. The rest of Pittsburgh's defense could be described as a collection of third-pairing defensemen who might make the second pair in Grand Rapids now that Ericsson has been called up. Chicago has a HUGE advantage here. GOALTENDING: Marc-Andre Fleury has played well in the playoffs...but he is probably the third-best goaltender in this discussion as far as playoff play is concerned. Unless Corey Crawford were to end up in net, Chicago would be playing a better goaltender than Pittsburgh if Chicago had beaten Detroit. Detroit wins in 5 games.

No. Franzen-HUDLER-Hossa. With Datsyuk out, Hudler is the best playmaker in a Detroit jersey. Why not put him between those two?

What the Wings should do if Datsyuk and Draper are both out for Game 4? Cleary/Zetterberg/Samuelsson Franzen/Hudler/Hossa Leino/Filppula/Holmstrom Abdelkader/Helm/Maltby Lidstrom/Rafalski Kronwall/Stuart Ericsson/Meech Why Meech you ask? He's better offensively (and in general) than Lebda, and Lebda ended up having to play PP last game. I'd rather see Meech in that role if we get to that point where we are losing defensemen and have to go that far down the chart.

All I have to say about this series is: Fedorov will show the Pens what the word "clutch" really means.

I don't support diving. But all you f***sticks who are saying "I don't like it when one of our players gets hooks/punched/tripped/etc." and takes what some might call a dive and we get a PP out of it, well you need to get punched in the head. You know why? Hooking is a penalty. Tripping is a penalty. Roughing is a penalty. Yes, Diving is a penalty. But if someone falls down when someone else hooks them, who are you going to call a penalty on? I get the feeling from this thread that half or maybe more of the members of this thread would call a diving penalty and let the hooking penalty go, or at most call a penalty on both players. We certainly wouldn't see a power play for the team of the player who had been hooked.

I would assume, unless the CBA is changed, that the NHL would disallow any team from signing a player it had a contract which would have covered the same period, and would instead force them to bring the player back under the terms of the same contract (for example, if it were $1m actual salary with a $4m cap hit, a NCT, etc.) or maybe the NHL would say that the team could not make an offer on the player and he could only be signed be another franchise.

Franzen/Zetterberg/Cleary has worked beautifully. If Draper is coming back into the lineup, then this leaves us ten forwards to make three lines from, with one forward left out. I would go with the following lines after the Z line: Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Samuelsson Hudler/Filppula/Hossa Helm/Draper/Kopecky An optional change is to swap Hudler and Cleary, putting Huds in the playmaker position on the top line and allowing Z to take more of a shooter role instead of having to be the playmaker; the line already has Franzen as a shooter and Hudler is as capable a shooter as Cleary, but Hudler is a better playmaker than any forward the Wings have except Datsyuk. Cleary is better defensively, but he's the third best defensive forward on the line and Hudler is decent defensively.

If the NHLPA opts to increase the cap by the 5% they can, that would be just over $2.8m. Furthermore, in my scenario, that would allow Stuart alone to be traded instead and Cleary would not have to be traded.

Well, is it worth mentioning that Crosby's defensive skills are far better than Malkin and Ovechkin? Yes, I said FAR better. I would disagree. I would say Crosby is worse than either defensively. In fact, I did in the post you quoted.