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Ok, now tell me which other commissioners have presided over a league that has had lower revenue than the NHL while Bettman has been the commish. I know the list must be pretty long, because it includes most if not all previous NHL commissioners.

NHL Commissioner Darren Pang?

The point of the additional rules is to have third liners who really were third liners, and so forth. Otherwise you might end up with a Red Wings team that featured quite a few of Steve Yzerman, Marcel Dionne, Alex Delvecchio, Sid Abel, Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Sergei Fedorov, Mickey Redmond, Brendan Shanahan and more up front, as well as any two of Terry Sawchuk, Glenn Hall, Harry Lumley, Normie Smith, and Chris Osgood manning the nets. Anyone can pick who they think is the best overall, ever, out of everyone. That's easy. When you only get three first liners, it stops being so easy.

Would all those who have had seizures on an ice rink while playing hockey please raise their hands? *raises hand* Hm. That's what I thought. Would everyone acting like if you don't support goons who have no skill above skill players who aren't the world's best fighters please learn that punching is a very small part of the game and is far less important than puckhandling or defense.

And he won't be the worst player in the game, either!

Zetterberg, in the games I have watched, is usually playing against the primary PP unit of the other team. Zetterberg is playing on the 5-on-3. Zetterberg plays more against the other team's top line than any other center on the team does. Does that not suggest him as the team's top shutdown center? It certainly is enough evidence to say so. Datsyuk is certainly capable of playing the role if Z is injured , but when Z is healthy it's Z's job.

The thing is, Zetterberg is one of the five best defensive forwards in the league, REGARDLESS of his offensive output.

Because Dats isn't serving as a defensive center first, and he had Franzen and Holmstrom, who are solid offensive wingers. If you remember, when Hossa went to Z's line, Hossa's production went down because the line's job was defense first. Does it mean Hossa was suddenly a worse player?

Larsson's cap hit next season is only $635k.

You're confusing the fact that Datsyuk still has Hossa in Z's place, while Z does not have an elite two-way forward to replace Datsyuk but is still serving as the primary shutdown center. That is a HUGE factor in Z's offensive game being lower. Z has much weaker linemates now, so it is more difficult for him to serve his role as a shutdown center when his linemates are weaker defensively than they were last year, because it means he has to do more work, and the line has more weaknesses. It also means he is spending more time in the defensive end, and therefore less time offensively; hence the lower scoring.

Dats is very good defensively, but he isn't the center used in in key defensive/PK situations. That would be Zetterberg. As far as Selke finalists, Samuel Pahlsson, Henrik Zetterberg, Mikko Koivu, Michal Handzus, Marty Reasoner, John Madden are other names that have just as strong a chance of popping up as finalists this season.

I think the two are very close in defensive ability; I think Hank deserved to win because Datsyuk was quoted as saying that playing the wing for Hank last season made it easy to play defense because Hank did all the hard parts. If that doesn't suggest that Z deserves it between the two, what does?

Where in that post did you mention my favorite player?

Fedorov's offensive A game may not have come every night...but he was also used as a shutdown center as his primary role much of his career. Datsyuk has NEVER been used in that capacity as his primary role. That's also why I don't think Dats deserved the Selke over Zetterberg; because Zetterberg was the primary defender on the line according to Datsyuk.

Fedorov was second in scoring and won the Selke in 1994. He was nominated for the Selke like what, 5 other times? He holds the record for consecutive 20-point playoff seasons. Also, Fedorov's offense dropped coincidentally with Shanahan joining the team, largely because of the drop in ice time that resulted from that. If Shanahan isn't traded for, Fedorov probably has a career point per game. Perhaps the Wings don't have as many Cups, but Fedorov would have been on the ice more and would have scored more. Yzerman also would have scored more; had he played the same length without he would likely be second All-Time in points, and at least top five All-Time in goals and assists.

My point is that there are a lot of goalies with stats better that several guys on that list who DIDN'T get votes. Granted, the bottom four guys combined only had one second place vote and six third place votes. But why is Kiprusoff so high? In all the games I saw of the two goalies last season, which was several, Luongo outplayed him by a large margin. Luongo is also generally considered a better goalie by the media. I just don't understand how Kiprusoff ended up so high.

Fedorov won the Hart in 1994 and was a contender other years. How many years has Datsyuk won the Hart?

The roster I expect to see next season will include the following changes from the current roster: Hossa, Lebda, Chelios, and Conklin will all depart either through free agency, retirement, or trading. Remaining free agents will be retained. Larsson, Ericsson, and Helm will be the new full-time players on the Wings, with Meech serving double-duty as the 7th defenseman and 13th forward due to cap constraints.

Fedorov, and here is why: Fedorov was the best player in the world at both ends of the ice in his prime. Datsyuk will never be able to say that. Datsyuk is an amazing player, but Fedorov was just ridiculous. He was the fastest player, had among the hardest and most accurate shots, was one of the best playmakers, was the best defensive player, was among the best on faceoffs. Fedorov in his prime was the best player in the world at whatever position you wanted to play him at.

Kipper has not consistently played up to the level he is rated at for years. He has had maybe one game here and there where he has been really good, but his reputation has stayed as that of an elite stopper and people have acted like he is as good as or better than Brodeur even in the past couple seasons when he has not consistently played at that level and isn't at that level now. But the big question I have is: People act like Nabokov or Kiprusoff are allowed to put up lower numbers when they play almost every game, but then when goalies like Brodeur and Backstrom play almost every game while among the league leaders in save percentage and goals against average nobody gives them a 'games played' credit. Beyond that, Osgood and guys like him has always gotten the 'good team' discredit where if he posts good stats, it doesn't count because his team is good so he obviously didn't have any effect on his own numbers. How come some guys can post decent numbers and be Vezina finalists while other guys can post solid, but more importantly, better stats and not even get a thought for the Vezina? It doesn't make sense. I'll point something out. Let's take a look at the 11 guys who received Vezina votes last season, and each goalie's basic stat line. 1) Martin Brodeur 77 GP, 44 W- 27 L- 6 OT, 2.17 GAA, .920%, 4 SO 2) Evgeni Nabokov 77 GP, 46 W- 21 L- 8 OT, 2.14 GAA, .910%, 6 SO 3) Henrik Lundqvist 72 GP, 37 W- 24 L- 10 OT, 2.23 GAA, .912%, 10 SO 4) Jean-Sebastien Giguere 58 GP, 35 W- 15 L- 6 OT, 2.12 GAA, .922%, 4 SO 5) Miikka Kiprusoff 76 GP, 39 W- 26 L- 10 OT, 2.69 GAA, .906%, 2 SO 6) Nicklas Backstrom 58 GP, 33 W- 13 L- 8 OT, 2.31 GAA, .920%, 4 SO 7) Roberto Luongo 73 GP, 35 W- 29 L- 9 OT, 2.38 GAA, .917%, 6 SO 8) Cristobal Huet 52 GP, 32 W- 14 L- 6 OT, 2.32 GAA, .920%, 4 SO 9) Carey Price 41 GP, 24 W- 12 L- 3 OT, 2.56 GAA, .920%, 3 SO 9) Tim Thomas 57 GP, 28 W- 19 L- 6 OT, 2.44 GAA, .921%, 3 SO 11) Chris Osgood 43 GP, 27 W- 9 L- 4 OT, 2.09 GAA, .914%, 4 SO Kiprusoff is the only goalie that was not a finalist who received a first-place vote. Now...look at those numbers and tell me he was anything but the worst goalie on that list in the 07-08 season. Price and Thomas received two third-place votes each, and Osgood received one third-place vote. Tell me seriously how those three keepers weren't better than Kipper in 07-08, let alone guys like Luongo, Backstrom, and Huet. Kiprusoff finished fifth in Vezina voting based entirely on his rep. Ryan Miller is where the biggest question is raised. Ryan Miller 76 GP, 36 W- 27 L- 10 OT, 2.64 GAA, .906%, 3 SO He posted a virtually identical stat line to Kiprusoff. Slightly better, in fact. How does Miller not get a single vote while Kiprusoff gets 5th place, including a first place vote? How could their performances have been so different yet yielded such identical statistics? Miller is generally considered one of the top goalies in the league, and his performance didn't earn him a single vote. So I would have to say that would point towards the argument that Kiprusoff is heavily overrated as he received a ton of votes towards being among the best with the same kind of mediocre performance.

Most of those guys are outplaying Kiprusoff this season by a large margin, btw. Notice that Kipper's numbers would make him the #3 in Chicago?

Hudler/Zetterberg/Hossa and Hudler/Zetterberg/Franzen are both combinations that worked out pretty well. The problem is that Hudler is a great playmaker and Babcock doesn't want him to be a playmaker on a line with Z even though it works out very well.

Kiprusoff has been getting worse year by year since he started in Calgary, and he was following the same pattern in San Jose. He has had basically two and a half years as a very good goaltender; starting when he was traded to Calgary and ending at the end of the 2006-07 season. He was mediocre last season and has continued to be so this year. A better way of putting it: Backstrom has never had a bad season while Kiprusoff has had a couple, and Kiprusoff is older and more expensive.

If Lemieux beats out Steve Sullivan for the Masterton, I might write a letter to the NHL objecting to it. One player came out of voluntary retirement when healthy and the other player came back from a serious, repeated, career-ending injury. There's not even a debate there in my mind. Sullivan would win in pretty much every year in the past decade plus, thinking about recent winners. Including Yzerman, who won it for a similar reason that was much less severe. Lemieux winning it this year would be like McCarty winning it last year. A player made a comeback to be a depth player at the end of the season. While that might win in some years, it's not the best reason in the particular year, as last year Jason Blake played in all 82 regular season games despite being diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia. Steve Sullivan suffered what was thought to be a career-ending back injury, but after having multiple surgeries and off-ice rehabilitation Sullivan is returning to the ice, and the Predators hope he is the scorer he once was for them. One major difference? Sullivan is returning to the same team he played for when he was injured, while Lemieux retired and then found whatever team would take him for his purposes. That further pushes it to Sullivan, as Lemieux hunted around the league for a contract while Sullivan still continued to serve his duty as a leader on his team even though he hadn't played in years.

Backstrom is not in Brodeur's class, but he is my current pick for the Vezina for this season, slightly edging out Boston's Tim Thomas. The fact that Thomas has played in a tandem all season with Manny Fernandez and Fernandez has posted comparable stats over a similar number of games diminishes Thomas' Vezina chances. Especially when Backstrom has played almost every game for his club and is among the league leaders in everything; Brodeur-esque numbers. He was among the leaders in everything last year too. And in his rookie season he led the league in GAA and Sv%, and was among the league leaders in shutouts, while winning 23 of his 41 starts to rank 26th. Backstrom has been an elite goaltender his entire career, and if he continues his stellar play to the end of this season he should win the Vezina. He did begin his NHL career at a late age; He turned 28 in his rookie year, but he still has quite a bit of talent and is only 30 so he could have many years left. I would rather have Backstrom than Kiprusoff, easily. Kipper has a Vezina, but is much less consistent than Backstrom and more expensive.