eva unit zero

Sundin is one of the great players of this era, and the fact that he is willing to stay in Toronto should be COMMENDED rather than ridiculed. Think about if people had said Yzerman was an idiot for wanting to stay in Detroit when the Wings were horrible? Or Sakic in Quebec? Or Crosby when the Pens drafted him? How about Ovechkin?

Ok, here's a stat for you. Brodeur is the best goalie in the league, and has no teammates who are up for 'best <position>' awards like Iginla does. On top of that, New Jersey did better than Calgary. Brodeur was probably his team's best player more than 90% of the time. Iginla had several guys competing with him for that honor on a nightly basis. So no, Iginla was NOT as valuable as Brodeur. Top five, maybe. Top ten, probably. Top three? Not a chance in hell.

I think he means giving up an embarrassing goal...Stauber was something of a specialist in those.

If all Wings kept up their current 'pace' and the Wings won the Cup? Then Osgood and his 14-0 record would be the Smythe winner. There wouldn't even be a question about it.

Where does Forsberg get off? What's Pierre McGuire's address?

Let's is the contraction of "Let us." Lets is synonymous with "Allows."

He was just having vaginal cramps. Nothing serious.

They picked the wrong Canadian star to nominate. Brodeur should not only be nominated, he should have finished second in voting.

I'm disappointed in Crosby. The kind of hype he had coming into the league, his team should have went 98-0 every year. Now if we're going to go by realistic expectations? Nobody should be disappointed in him, and I don't think anyone is. If anything, he gets too much credit for his team's success.

Kronwall had been named the top defenseman at the world championships when he signed his deal. Kronwall was also two years older than Filppula will be, and Kronwall was a first round draft pick who is living up to his potential. People on here love Filppula, but realistically he's not on Kronwall's level as a prospect, nor is he as developed as Kronwall was when Kronner signed.

I'll counter this. Filppula is not even close to a $3m player. We're lucky if he deserves $2.75m five years from now; his realistic salary for his next deal should be between $1m and $1.5m. Anything more would be overpaying for him.

KG appears to have claimed the Hurricanes.

Similar hit stats. You do realize than Wolski is as far behind Samuelsson as he is ahead of Hudler in hits? He may have more than Hudler, but both have a negligible amount and are generally players who don't hit. Which was my point. Wolski has a few more hits because he's bigger, but is for the most part just as non-physical as Hudler. Players with similar hits in similar games to Wolski: Brian Gionta, Brad Boyes, Mike Ribeiro, Patrick Elias, Sami Kapanen, Viktor Kozlov, Patrick Sharp, Martin Erat, Marco Sturm. Players with similar hits and games to Hudler: Steven Reinprecht, Jaromir Jagr, Slava Kozlov, Tomas Fleischmann, Trevor Letowski, Petr Sykora, Robert Lang, Ales Hemsky. I would classify all of those players as 'similar' in terms of physical game. What makes Wolski so different than Hudler if those are the comparable hitters?

While I rank Pavel in the top five defensive forwards, he is not better defensively than Z. He's just not. Contention, sure. But there's no way Dats is better defensively than Z. It's just not the case.

What you are all missing in your blind hatred for Bettman? Vetoing this marketing decision was the CORRECT MOVE for the league. Think about it. Let's market an incident with alleged hypocrisy and star treatment, to really bring out the best in the league! By vetoing these shirts, Bettman is denying the league's detractors, those who would sit and say the league cares more about star treatment than fair play, but denying them a method of league-sanctioned protest. And furthermore, if Bettman had NOT vetoed this? This board would have erupted about how he was a hypocrite and was doing his best to destroy the league's credibility.

Jiri Hudler 13:10 per game (1065 total mins) 81 GP, 13-29-42, +11. 25 hits, 8 Blocks, 17-21 Give/Take 131 shots, 9.9% Wojtek Wolski 15:55 per game (1181 total mins, or 11% more than Hudler) 77 GP, 18-30-48, +10. 54 hits, 21 Blocks, 37-40 Give/Take 158 shots, 11.4% Over Wolski's minutes, Hudler would have: 14-32-46, +12. Wolski may have the size, but he is not physical (similar 'hits' stats) and he has a worse give/take ratio than Hudler. As for their overall stats? They have VERY similar stat lines, meaning they have a similar effect on the game. Hudler, of course, is usually the best player on his line, while Wolski is often the WORST player on his line. Hudler is AT MINIMUM a comparable player. I never said they play the same style beyond saying they were 'similar players' in that they are capable shooters and playmakers who do not play a terribly physical game and are average defensively, and that they play at a similar skill level. You can't refute it, it's the truth.

Amusing fact: Jiri Hudler and Wojtek Wolski are similar players with similar levels of skill. Yet posters on LGW act as if losing Wolski is a huge blow to the Avs. Those same posters also say that the Avs have a better top-6 than the Wings. Yet they also say that Hudler should be scratched in favor of Downey. Am I missing something here?

Aurie's number was retired when he retired, and was unretired so that his nephew, Cummy Burton, could wear it. No other player has ever worn the number. Right now it shares a role with Vladimir Konstantinov and Jiri Fischer; players whose numbers are not hanging from the rafters, but are ALSO not available for player use. It was removed from 'official' retirement by the Ilitches because Aurie is not a member of the HHOF.

It should be Zetterberg's award. Madden and Datsyuk should be a close competition for second place. Glad to see Rod Brind'Amour won't be getting any more 'lifetime achievement' Selke awards anymore...He was more deserving of the Selke in the mid 90s than in the years he won, and against tougher competition. Brind'Amour has always been a good defensive forward, but he has never once been the best in the league. I am surprised to see Dats nominated, honestly. I don't think his defense is any better than about five or six other guys who have a reputation as top defensive players, and Datsyuk came into the year carrying a reputation as a liability that I expected to deprive him of some votes. He probably won't win, but that's due more to Z's total dominance than anything else.

Um.... Why? Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk are next in line of players expected to be around that long. Kris Draper and Nicklas Lidstrom COULD be around until then. Not to mention other players who could be in the systm at that point. Flip ending up as captain is pretty unlikely at this point.

CLUTCH.

The Wings have eight forwards who are top-six forwards based on points per game with 20+ games. All of them except Holmstrom and Hudler are well above average defensively for forwards who are that offensively skilled, and none are liabilities. So the statement that the Wings' second line looks like most peoples' third and fourth lines is absolutely incorrect. I would argue that the Wings' top eight forwards are generally equal to or better than their Avs counterpart...the only exceptions to this rule being Filppula vs Stastny and Samuelsson vs Brunette. And even if the Avs do have a minor advantage up front AND in goal (both of which I disagree with) Detroit has the top three defensemen in the series.

DET/COL: 4-1 SJ/DAL: 4-2 MON/PHI: 4-2 PIT/NYR: 4-2

Year - Round - Cup winner 1996 - 3 - Avs 1997 - 3 - Wings 1999 - 2 - Stars 2000 - 2 - Devils (over Stars) 2002 - 3 - Wings History seems to suggest that a second round meeting between the Wings and Avs will result in Dallas defeating the winner and playing in the Cup finals. Then again, Dallas has never once beaten Detroit in the playoffs in their history...so history also seems to suggest that if the Wings win, and Dallas wins, Detroit is in the Cup finals. Damn paradoxical correlations.

Let's compare the seven Avs forwards to their most comparable Detroit counterpart. Forsberg v. Datsyuk. Playmaking two way center, also capable of scoring some goals. Edge: Detroit Sakic v. Zetterberg. Two-way center with a wicked shot and strong passing skills. Edge: Detroit Stastny v. Filppula. Young all-around center. Edge: Colorado Smyth v. Holmstrom. Garbage goal and deflection expert, PP specialist. Edge: Detroit Hejduk v. Cleary. Small, quick, goal scoring winger. Edge: Detroit Brunette v. Samuelsson. Big winger with good hands who probably should score more goals than he does. Edge: Colorado Wolski v. Hudler. Young, promising scorer with loads of talent who has gotten inconsistent ice time this season. Edge: Even. I'll even add one more. Arnason v. Franzen. Youngish, two-way winger capable of amazing hot streaks or unbelievable cold streaks offensively. Edge: Detroit Totally not concerned about a supposed 'advantage' the Avs have at forward. Detroit is clearly at very least on par with Colorado in the top 8. And after that, it's Guite/Laperriere/McLeod/Jones vs Draper/McCarty/Drake/Helm or Maltby, which favors Detroit greatly.