eva unit zero

You fail. The fact that Hudler and McCarty have been playing together should clue people in as to part of the reason HUDLER has been having trouble recently. Not the reason MCCARTY has been having trouble.

I think what Lou was saying is that if Downey is scratched in favor of Helm, Abdelkader, or McCarty--in other words, third/fourth line grinding types of guys who haven't played all season and wouldn't be counted on for anything else at this point--then it sends the wrong message. Basically saying "it's fine if he's scratched for someone else who plays a different kind of hockey that has been with the team all season."

Now you're just being stupid Pack. Osgood won 3 games in the 94 playoffs, and lost 2. Bob Essensa's inability to stop the puck in his two starts was the reason Detroit didn't win that series. As far as 2001...Osgood was the best player in that series. Legace was the worst player on the Wings in 2006...so that is a completely different situation.

You would definitely be in the minority on that opinion...since most threads on the topic were me defending the decision to take a versatile all-around player from Michigan with a higher draft ranking over the 'sexy' pick of Latendresse who many posters here wanted to draft with the 19th pick that year.

Legionnaire has been a solid contributor to this site for quite a while. He has also had to endure a ton of s*** from many fans on this board because a businessman from Canada made an offer to buy and move them with mo money behind it, and took a lot of flak for supporting a team that had no fans behind it from quite a few members here (?!) Everyone is entitled to their opinion. And ultimately, I'd rather have a little bit of hate between divisional rivals. It's like Michigan/OSU...even in a year when one goes undefeated and the other is 7-5, they both suck to the opposing fan base. Bitter feelings like that are the stuff of good rivalries. And with Detroit matching up against Nashville again in the playoffs, this could build upon what is becoming a pretty heated divisional rivalry.

Hmm... Unproven goaltending? Ok Pierre. Let's take a look...about 700 wins in the regular season, over 100 in the playoffs, 2 Cup rings as starter, 6 Vezinas, 3 Jennings (soon to be four), seven postseason all-star selections. The most recent tandem I can think of that tops all of those marks? Terry Sawchuk and Johnny Bower in Toronto perhaps? Can anyone think of a more recent tandem that surpassed all those marks? They are unproven in WHAT universe?

Man, Abdelkader sucks...we should have drafted Latendresse! He's an elite PF! Hmm..wait a minute...Latendresse only has 16 goals this season...and he just snapped a 16-game goalless streak. And he's not playing fourth line like Hudler...and everyone here is ready to hand Hudler's minutes to Abdelkader. So by extension...Abdelkader>Latendresse.

NM.

Burke can't be credited with Niedermayer or Selanne...they are Ducks for the same price even if he isn't hired. As far as Pronger, I believe that trade has more to do with Lowe and Burke having been friends and Burke having had an asset Lowe was interested in that Burke was willing to part with for Pronger. McDonald, Penner, Giguere, Perry, Getzlaf, Kunitz were all in the system already. Beauchemin so far has only played as a top-half d-man when he was paired with Scott Niedermayer...so the jury is still out on how good that deal was. Marchant is overpaid and terrible, and should have been dumped off for anything...or even nothing...before McDonald was traded for Weight. Bertuzzi is making abotu twice what he's worth, andi s a massive downgrade from Penner, who makes the same salary in Edmonton and is much younger. Bryzgalov was let go for nothing. So what exactly has Burke done in Anaheim that was a result of his skill as a GM that was a GOOD thing?

"Alfredsson is a Euro. Spezza is a Canadian, AND he fights. Duh, CLEARLY Spezza is a better captain." Get a life.

Can we get a do-over?

Downey with a double for Roughing...Bollard with a rough. WTF

Sadly..Stu Grimson is not the most washed up former Wings enforcer I have seen on this broadcast tonight...

Did Downey just cost us a scoring chance with his need to fight? Damn goons...

It was not intended as an all-inclusive list. Just enough names to show why Pronger won't get a sniff of Norris this year, or at the very least shouldn't. He's been the third best d-man on his team if you count Scotty N...and Niedermayer is the only D-man on the Ducks who has played well enough to crack the Wings' top three. That doesn't even include guys like Phaneuf, Chara, Zubov etc...who should make a strong run at a nomination.

I guess the only way I can respond is this. I want to win games...so I come up with lines that I think serve that purpose, rather than just saying 'OK, this guy is the second best LW on the team, so he plays on the second line.' I would rather have three lines with talent and chemistry and a fourth 'shutdown' line than two scoring lines, a checking line, and a little used group of guys who individually may not be the best player, together are not a very good match, but all possess skills that make them useful on a higher line with a different combination of players.

Hudler does more for the Wings than Downey, Hartigan, McCarty, Drake, Kopecky, Helm, Ritola. Hudler's stat line for March: 13 GP, 1-4-5, +1. TOI: 188:00, ATOI: 14:28 By comparison, other players' last 13 games, in order of how good their stats are. Samuelsson: 2-6-8, +8. TOI: 226:38, ATOI:17:26 Cleary: 4-5-9, +4. TOI: 198:50, ATOI: 15:18 Filppula: 3-5-8, E. TOI: 238:41, ATOI: 18:22 Hudler 1-4-5, +1. TOI: 188:00, ATOI: 14:28 Kopecky: 1-2-3, +1. TOI: 154:28, ATOI: 11:53 Holmstrom: 0-4-4, -5. TOI: 237:08, ATOI: 18:14 I'm not even bringing up guys like Drake, Maltby, McCarty, Downey, and Draper who haven't been even close to as good as the guys I did list, or the big three (Z/D/F) who have been point-per-game scorers. Explain to me how Hudler 'hasn't done anything' and deserves all the bashing, yet other players who have done less get a free pass.

This has been Pronger's worst season in ten years, maybe more. The top five defensemen in the league this season are Lidstrom, Zubov, Rafalski, Phaneuf, and Chara. The next group includes Redden, Kaberle, Schneider, Kronwall, Pronger, Campbell, Meszaros, Gonchar, Corvo, Keith, and Aucoin. Other defensemen who have had strong seasons that have gone relatively unnoticed are Craig Rivet and Pavel Kubina. Some major disappointments include Francois Beauchemin, Matt Carle, Barret Jackman, and Dick Tarnstrom. All four of those guys have provided much less at each end than was expected of them. Scott Niedermayer is another who can fall into the last category; one of his worst seasons for PPG, and for +/-. Understandable, but disappointing

NN, Quite using logic and reason to explain why Hudler should and will play in the playoffs this year. Clearly the majority feels that Downey, McCarty, and likely Mark Hartigan, Darren Helm, Mattias Ritola, and Tayshaun Prince will help the Wings infinitely more this playoff run than Hudler possibly could in his career. I mean, the guy's not even six feet tall, how could he do anything in the playoffs right? Wayne Gretzky was over six feet tall...

Has. Never. Happened. Maybe it should be changed to 'might be able to steal a series' because saying he can literally do it suggests it is something he has proven he can do. Not the case.

I just found an advertisement for the goalie jerseys. Plus, you know what makes it obvious that this is a joke, other than the date? Why would the Wings have a Little Caesar's ad on the jerseys? If this is being done for revenue, Ilitch wouldn't be having corporate incest like that. If it's not necessary for the revenue, the Wings wouldn't have them.

If we're going based on recent offensive performance, Hudler would be ahead of guys like Holmstrom, Samuelsson, and yes, even Cleary has been producing less than Hudler recently. If we're going based on the full season, Hudler is still ahead of Filppula as far as points and points-per-game. If PPG were our criteria for top-six spots, Samuelsson is more deserving than Filppula, Hudler, or Franzen. So I'm not really seeing where Hudler doesn't deserve to be the second line LW in my scenario, when i explained that I was spreading the scoring across three lines and trying to match the Z/D/H dynamic on both the top two lines I set up. Would you argue that there would be a better fit with Filppula to create the D/Z dynamic than Hudler, out of all players currently on the roster? I sure as hell don't think there is.

Cleary would get top six minutes with that lineup. Last year, the Wings saw about 8 minutes of shorthanded time and about 10 minutes of PP time per game, with about 43 minutes of ES time. If we assume the Wings to roll four lines fairly evenly at even strength, the first line sees maybe 13 minutes, the second 12, third line 11 minutes, and the fourth line 9 minutes. Now consider special teams. Of the top two PP and PK units, only Cleary, Zetterberg, and recently Franzen play on both. If we assume the top PK unit sees 2 minutes, the second unit 3 minutes, and the remaining 2 minutes are split fairly equally across the other four 'PK' forwards the Wings use, and that the top PP plays 5 minutes, the second PP plays 3.5 minutes, and the remaining 1.5 minutes are split amongst other players, then Cleary should average close to 18 minutes. Ahead of him would be Zetterberg's 22 and Datsyuk's 19. Holmstrom would be slated for 17, Franzen for close to 18, Hudler for about 16, Filppula for close to 17. How is Cleary not receiving 'top-six' minutes in my scenario?

This is a very difficult topic. You have to include guys like Lidstrom, Kelly, Stewart, and Goodfellow. They were all elite players in their day. Past that, you have to consider the guys who were among the best defensemen in the league in their primes, and spent their primes with the Wings. This includes Konstantinov, Chiasson, Pronovost, Reed Larson, and Flash Hollett. After that, we have to think about guys who were Norris-contending defensemen as a Wing outside of their prime. This brings up Chelios, Coffey, and Larry Murphy, among others. So what do we have? 1) Nicklas Lidstrom 2) Red Kelly 3) Jack Stewart 4) Ebbie Goodfellow 5) Marcel Pronovost 6) Vladimir Konstantinov 7) Steve Chiasson 8) Flash Hollett 9) Reed Larson 10) Chris Chelios

The difference is that the NHL is making tons more money now. The cap is tied to revenue. Before the lockout, the NHL was paying out an average of $45m per team, which was 75% of the league's total revenue of approximately $1.8b. Under the new CBA, the cap is tied to a percentage of revenues; this year is has been raised up to 57%. Now, the cap is raising to about 56m and the floor to about 40m, which means the League is making close to $3b this season. The NHL's revenues have increased by greater than 50% in three years...hence the consistently rising cap.