eva unit zero

So what you're saying is...Canadians are allowed to f*** with the ice surface by placing a loonie in it, but Russians cannot combat this by chipping the good luck charm out of the ice? I love the 'it's a tradition, dammit' attitude. Yeah...it's a tradition because it happened before? I guess catfish and beef being thrown on the ice are tradition too? They're about as old as burying a coin for good luck.

Only four goaltenders during Osgood's career have been their team's primary goaltender in a finals run AND posted a higher postseason save percentage than Ozzie has during this run. None won the Cup. The best numbers by a Cup winner were Martin Brodeur's 2003 numbers. Osgood has better stats in every area except shutouts; which means Osgood has been better than Brodeur was, and has been more consistent as well. Many felt Brodeur deserved the Smythe as he was the winning tender and had two shutouts to start the finals. Osgood had two shutouts to start the finals, and at worst has comparable numbers to 2003 Giguere, who won the Smythe and posted the best postseason stats of any goaltender from 1994 through 2007. Ozzie wins it unless he gets completely shelled from here on out.

My point was that the 'busts' being brought up were picked by someone other than the guy currently in charge. Bowman got the GM job because he was a legend, and Murray made a bad trade. Holland got it because he was arguably the best scout in the league. Holland knows when to listen to which scouts, and THAT is why the Wings have drafted so well the past ten years. Because he knows his scouting team very well, he can properly filter their information and knows what to do when. And ultimately...having double picks would also allow the Wings to make trades involving picks and prospects while still keeping the cupboard stocked.

Whether Crosby will turn out better doesn't matter; the point of this thread was 'Crosby is miles ahead of Z and D right now' which is completely not true.

All were busts and all were drafted by Scotty Bowman. Ken Holland's first round draft picks: Jiri Fischer, Niklas Kronwall, Jakub Kindl. I would take any one of those three over all three of the others.

MAF hasn't even been the best goaltender in this series. Combine that with the fact he was fourth on the Pens' list of candidates going into the series....and yeah, he doesn't win it.

Game 3 was the Kozlov cheapshot. Almost the same hit, but at the end boards rather than against the benches, and Kozlov was closer to the boards.

So that instead of Stuart playing solid defense and ocasionally making a mistake, we can have more of Lebda's beautiful rushes where he takes the puck from the red line to just inside the opponent's blueline, coughs it up, and is caught behind the opposing defenseman while the other team gets an odd-man rush. That happens a couple times every game...and Lebda barely plays.

Ozzie wins the Conn Smythe. He's been the first or second star in every Wings win so far; no other player on either team has been selected as a star more than once. No chance Osgood doesn't win it now.

Maybe Hudler will get a chance finally. He's definitely earned it.

I compared a pre-draft Crosby's future potential as closer to Pat LaFontaine than Steve Yzerman. So far, all he's done is back up that assessment of his talent, although he hasn't had to play behind established stars (Brian Trottier) as Patty La did.

I often thought of Bourdon as "Vancouver's Jiri Fischer" in that he was a talented two-way player with a physical edge and good skating skills...absolutely a full toolbox, and from the Q.

THIS Len Barrie? He's the only player I can think of offhand who played with three guys who had, at that point, won the Smythe, yet he never played on a Cup finalist.

Just for the record, they used the period beginning with 1994-95. Hence the reason Messier was not considered; most of his leadership legend came before that, and his period after that is remembered primarily for his massively selfish stint with Vancouver in which he forced them to give him the captaincy (and ship out fan favorite Trevor Linden, now back with the club) and unretire #11 so he could wear it. By comparison, Brett Hull was largely viewed as a selfish player. But he abstained from taking Konstantinov's #16 in Detroit, and when he signed with the Coyotes he asked them to unretire his father's #9, but only after acquiring his father's approval to do so. Crosby has done nothing of note as a captain. But just to make everyone aware, this is not a 'Top 9 Captains' list, but rather a list, ranked, of captains who have won the Stanley Cup since the 1994-95 season, with Crosby and Lidstrom added into it. That's why you don't see names like Francis, Lemieux, Sundin, or any of the other names that are being mentioned as 'missing' names. they didn't win a Cup, so they didn't make this exercise. That said, using their 'Cup winner plus this year's finalists...this is my list of 9. 1) Steve Yzerman 2) Scott Stevens 3) Joe Sakic 4) Rod Brind'Amour 5) Nicklas Lidstrom 6) Scott Niedermayer 7) Dave Andreychuk 8) Sidney Crosby 9) Derian Hatcher So they gave a little extra credit to Crosby, or didn't quite credit Andreychuk enough, but otherwise got it right.

I was referring more to things like saying Joe Sakic was the top forward in the conference, when he's no longer top three among forwards in his division.

Ted Nolan won the Adams, and was fired by the end of the summer. This is one of the major actions that started the questions about Hasek's ego and how he could be a cancer in the locker room; it was generally perceived that the primary reason Nolan was fired is that Hasek didn't like him.

You clearly have not watched a single game of Western Conference hockey this season.

It won't take a medical breakthrough curing his issues. All it would take is a definitive doctor's assessment saying that playing hockey did not increase the risk of a relapse. In other words; if he faces the same danger on the ice that he would sitting on his couch, they may let him back on the ice as it isn't an increased danger. As far as Fischer being great...I thought he was our best defenseman to the point in the season he went down. And he would be better now. We wouldn't have Brad Stuart...but we likely end up with the Cup in 2007 if Fischer is still around.

Watch the viedo again. Doesn't look like Fleury's movement laterally just stops? If he keeps moving, or pivots slightly, there's no way that shot, as it was, makes it to the net. The best I can figure is Fleury thought he had boxed him out; either that or he didn't realize how much net was still available. Either way, the goal was only able to happen because of a mental mistake by the goaltender. Doesn't mean Flip's goal was any less awesome, just that if Fleury doesn't screw up, it never goes in.

1) Lidstrom 2) Ovechkin 3) Zetterberg 4) Datsyuk 5) Crosby 6) Malkin And after that, it doesn't matter. Pick any four guys from Brodeur, Thornton, Kovalchuk, Iginla, Lecavalier, Sundin, Alfredsson, Hossa, Kovalev, Heatley, Spezza, Luongo, Osgood, Chara, Phaneuf, Getzlaf, Sundin, Morrow, or anyone else you want to call a top ten player. There are three clearly divided tiers at this point; There's the top tier, which includes Lidstrom, and then there is the second tier, which includes Ovechkin through Malkin. After that, there's everyone else who gets called an 'elite' player, plus a couple guys who don't, competing for the last four spots on the list.

Yzerman was always a responsible defensive player....His first 1st place Selke vote came 4 years before Bowman coached him. Just FYI.

Fleury seemed slow to react and somewhat in the wrong position when Flip shot, possibly due to his slow reaction. That's a mistake that cost him the save. It doesn't mean Flip isn't awesome...just that Fleury should have stopped it.

No Pen will win it. The losing team has never had a player other than the goaltender win, with the exception of Reggie Leach and his goal scoring record. No Pen forward has even come close to that kind of offensive dominance, and Fleury hasn't been considered Pittsburgh's MVP at any point this run.

1- Gonchar has looked better defensively this series than I can remember seeing him play. I'd still take Detroit's top three over him. 2- Fleury's found a mentor in Conklin. That's wonderful; who's Conklin's mentor? Because he's neither experienced nor very good. 3- Letang is a mediocre 2nd pairing defenseman who has some good puck skills and not much else. Kennedy is a dime a dozen checking line winger who doesn't bring any major advantage. I wouldn't call either 'solid' NHLers just as I wouldn't use that term on Lebda, Lilja, or McCarty. 4- Malone has done pretty well playing with Malkin on the second line. But then..so could I. 5- The Pens' team D is good enough to get them the puck against teams that aren't really very good at keeping it. That doesn't make it good team D. 6- Hossa is the best backchecker you've seen sinc Mario Lemieux? Given that at their best, neither was ever an elite defensive forward...you might be rethinking that statement after seeing much of the Wings team. 7- Malkin is the worst defensive forward in this series. Seriously. If I had to pick my shutdown center from Yashin, Gretzky, Janney, and Malkin he's the only guy on that list who wouldn't get consideration. 8- So Staal is one of the best shut-down centers in the league, even though Hossa is a better backchecker? If Hossa is really better defensively...then Staal is the fifth best defensive forward playing center this series. 9- Malkin needs to get with Roberts and work on his conditioning then, because he has been completely invisible save for pulling a couple Liljas.

Super Huge Man Boobs? Slimy Hairy Mucus Blobs?