eva unit zero

Simon should be suspended for the rest of the season and playoffs, minimum.

Mike Comrie never played for team Canada at the world juniors...he turned out pretty well.

The best single season I am aware of in this regard was Osgood's 1995-96 season, when he should have won the Vezina. he went an astounding 39-6-5 that year, winning 78% of decisions...compared to backup Mike Vernon's 21-7-2 on the same squad. Ken Dryden holds the career record, but his best single season was a 41-6-8 record in 1976-77, winning 74.5% of decisions.

With Mike Keenan's players. Burke gets all the credit for the Vancouver success, even though Mike Keenan was responsible for Morrison and Bertuzzi, and Naslund was around pre-Keenan. As I said before...Ed Jovanovski was the only core player who Burke acquired...and he was the teams third-best defenseman until Adrian Aucoin was traded for Dan Cloutier, ending Burke's wheel-of-goalies; Kevin Weekes and Felix Potvin had both already come in and left as 'our guy for now and the future' under Burke. Burke needed to clear up about 2m off of next year's cap to be able to bring Niedermayer back. Why does he trade Andy McDonald, a versatile, speedy scoring forward who can play all three forward positions and is defensively aware, for basically nothing of value? Why didn't he just scrap aging plugger Todd Marchant for a pick or even waive him? Marchant is probably the fourth or fifth best checking forward on the Ducks, and his offense is completely gone. He doesn't bring even half of the game McDonald does, and he's much older. If the Ducks waive Marchant and lose him for nothing, they are better off than if they trade McDonald for Weight-plus. Burke failed to see this and gave up one of his best players for far below his value. It's like if the Wings had to bring Lidstrom off suspension, and they needed to clear up 1m, so they traded Holmstrom to San Jose for Jeremy Roenick instead of simply waiving Mikael Samuelsson. Holland would be run out of town if that happened, so why does Burke get a free pass after this and other botched deals this season?

Maybe the point has been lost on you guys over the years. You can't get rugged North American players who also have skill where the Wings pick. The Wings have not been given the option of selecting power forwards or physical, skilled defensemen. This is because the Wings WIN. The Wings have still managed to pick up guys like Henrik Zetterberg, Jiri Fischer, Niklas Kronwall, Johan Franzen, Pavel Datsyuk, Valtteri Filppula and Jiri Hudler because they have good European scouts.

I never claimed the Ducks wouldn't make the playoffs. Saying Burke harmed his team by giving up McDonald for Weight is not claiming the Ducks will miss the playoffs. Burke has a Cup ring. That still doesn't make this a good deal. But what makes Burke a moron is the fact that he has given up his top three goal scoring forwards from last season, two of whom are just entering their prime, and in return has gotten two overpriced washed up vets who are well past their prime. Oh, and if Beauchemin goes to the All-Star game...it's a joke. Lidstrom, Rafalski, Pronger, Phaneuf, Zubov, Jovanovski, Aucoin, Schneider, Hainsey, Zidlicky, Rivet, Byfuglien, Suter, Liles, Hamhuis, Keith are all better than or equal to Beauchemin in points and plus/minus. The fact that Beauchemin has been the third best Ducks defenseman this season alone will exclude him from the game. Lidstrom, Pronger, Phaneuf, and Zubov are basically locks. Schneider gets in before Beauchemin by virtue of being a better defenseman on the same team. Do you think Beauchemin beats out Rafalski or Visnovsky for that last spot? I sure as hell don't. You SERIOUSLY overrate Beauchemin if you think he has played well enough to earn an All-Star selection at this point. Oh...and people criticized Mike Keenan for bringing in 'his guys' and that's how he won a Cup. Keenan is also reviled as a horrible GM, and yet he's built more winning teams than Brian Burke. Wonder how that works.

My point was that the Wings don't tend to make huge trades or tack on the big name free agent the past few years; Rafalski notwithstanding, as he was a replacement for an equally pricey player that left. The Maple Leafs, OTOH, have been making big splash moves that haven't panned out nearly as well as expected. Pavel Kubina was supposed to be on the verge of challenging for the Norris when Toronto signed him...now he's just ridiculed. Jason Blake was a 40 goal scorer and was supposed to be the scorer Sundin has desperately lacked all these years. Eric Lindros was supposed to find his dominant form now that he had come home to Toronto. Vesa Toskala was supposed to provide the elite level goaltending Toronto hasn't had. Each of those acquisitions hyped up the team and the fans that this was the year....and yet, the Leafs are still terrible.Meanwhile, the Wings have been more concerned with maintaining the core and developing chemistry and their young players, while adding affordable accessory players, and this proven approach has made Ken Holland a target of comments that are effectively 'OMG LOLZ why did Kenny not trade <Red Wings core player> for <more expensive NHL star who was just traded>?' A good example is the McDonald trade. People were asking 'Couldn't Kenny have put together a better package than Weight plus mediocre prospects?' The answer is yes, probably...but then you have Burke dealing with the Wings, his chief rival, rather than the Blues, who are a division rival of the Wings. The Wings probably have to give up Filppula and Kindl, or something similar, to get McDonald. Would you make that trade?

As a player, I would rather take Hartnell's hit on Alberts than Downie's hit on McAmmond ten of ten times. As I said; McAmmond was just as defenseless as Alberts was, and Downie's hit was much more vicious.

What players did Burke acquire in Vancouver that made the team a consistent winner? I'll give you a hint... his biggest name acquisition was #2 defenseman Ed Jovanovski, who he gave up Pavel Bure for. Wait..so you're saying the Ducks #4 defenseman could be a top four on just about any other team? That's a shocking revelation that suggests only that he's a top-four defenseman. Chris Chelios could play top-four on just about any NHL team too, and he plays on Detroit's third pairing. And they just gave up the third of their top three forward scorers from last season...they may be better on the back end but they are a lot weaker up front; McDonald was the only player on the second line that was producing, and now he's gone.

Downie's was FAR dirtier than Hartnell's. Downie launched a full-speed, flying elbow into a player's head. McAmmond was no more able to protect himself than Alberts, Bergeron, or Kesler. Downie's motivation for his hit was revenge, as he had just been laid out.

Yeah, because he had no other way to make room for Niedermayer than by dumping off McDonald for Weight. If McDonald as that unneccessary to his team's success that they needed no offense coming back, why not deal him for high end prospects rather than a washed up center and weak prospects? McDonald's offensive breakout coincided with his being moved to the first line after the trade of Sergei Fedorov. While it's likely that his numbers were padded by playing with Selanne, consider that his contract is not terribly different from Henrik Zetterberg's deal signed after the 2003-04 season. Zetterberg had a career high of 22 goals and 44 points at the time, compared to McDonald's 34 and 85 when he signed his. 3m is not a 'fat' contract for a player of McDonald's caliber.

Nobody missed your point. We just didn't see how changing the commissioner's capabilities had any relevance to Bettman stepping down. How do we know Bettman isn't the smartest hockey man ever, and the owners don't allow him to make any decisions? By changing the office as a result of him leaving, who's to say we don't get someone who makes all the wrogn decisions when given the power? It's like saying "I don't like the job Granholm is doing. We should kick her out and change her office's duties completely because the powers she has don't work for what she should be doing." The action of kicking her out is due to dissatisfaction with performance vs expectation...but the altering of the position to encourage meeting the expectation might have altered her performance greatly.

How long before Selanne signs.... ...in St.Louis?

You shouldn't believe that, because it's not true. He was converted to center in Sweden because he played an excellent two-way game, but he is a natural winger and plays better on the wing. The Wings should determine the makeup of their team with one goal; to win the Cup. The Maple Leafs are a good example of a team more concerned with building the team to put butts in seats rather than names on the Cup. Do you want the Wings to become the Leafs?

Burke is officially a moron. I mean...he couldn't get anything better than Doug Weight and mediocre prospects for Andy freakin McDonald? Just so you all can see it...here's Burke's major moves put together since the Cup win: OUT: Dustin Penner, Andy McDonald, Teemu Selanne, Ilya Bryzgalov IN: Doug Weight, Todd Bertuzzi, Mathieu Schneider, a couple prospects and picks. That is absolutely HORRIBLE. Penner has as many points as Bertuzzi and Weight COMBINED. Had Burke offered Penner 2.5m, he probably would have signed. That would have meant he wouldn't have needed to sign Bertuzzi, nor would he have had to trade for Weight to get Niedermayer back. Now he's out two young, skilled scorers and has two old, ineffective veterans instead. Burke has now given up his three best goal scorers from last year in favor of a washed up winger, a washed up center, and an aging offensive defenseman who hasn't been able to stay healthy this season. Oh, and he gave up a cheap starter-caliber goaltender who is probably a better netminder than his overstuffed starter to a division rival, and that was for free!

Except Guillen's increased production came with a shift to a park that had a deeper left field and a shallower right field, as well as a steep increase in at bats and more notably, hits.

Harvey Shields and Gary Sheffield both indirectly corroborated Bonds' grand jury testimony; Sheffield says Bonds gave him substances but never said they were steroids, and Shields said he believed it to be arthritis cream and flaxseed oil, just as Bonds did.

Cam Ward is the new Bill Ranford.

Hudler's skating improvements are a result of power skatings camps, not low-friction skates.

Yeah...it's silly to give 3 year extensions for less than 2m per year to goaltenders who have won 350 games and a Stanley Cup AND are playing the best hockey of their career. Instead, we should focus our offseason on trading a few of our good young players to get a goalie who is not much younger and has had one or two good regular seasons and 'might' be a guy who is good enough to backstop us for some playoff runs. Seriously...if you wouldn't extend Ozzie..what do you have in mind for the Wings' goaltending?

Alright, how aout this one. The Wings averaged attendance around 16000 in their worst season ever. The North Stars averaged less than 8000 in their best season ever. And you're right...13,200 would have only been about the third or fourth best season for the north stars for attendance...still proves my point.

What exactly has Minnesota done to make the NHL better? If you mean in terms of the on ice product, two of the teams you mentioned have won the Cups, two more have gone to the finals. If you mean in terms of the off ice product, that's because you have a solid fan base that felt they were entitled to a team no matter what, so when the Gunds tried to move the club and the NHL blocked it, and then Green moved it after being the savior of Minnesota hockey, Minnesotans realized they had to go to games if they wanted to be guaranteed of keeping their team once they got one back.

I wasn't claiming attendance disqualifies the Twin Cities. I was correcting your statement that the Stars had good fan support. The Minnesota North Stars absolutely did NOT have good fan support. Here's some perspective...Washington is currently last in the league with an average 13,200 attendance. That number would have been the best year for the Minnesota North Stars. Minnesota's BEST year was worse than any existing team pulls in now. Nashville has gotten tons more fan support than the North Stars (or Jets or Whalers, for that matter) did, yet people feel they should lose their team for lack of an support. You think Minnesota should be the State of Hockey? I disagree. Michigan has the longest tradition of professional hockey in the world. The first professional hockey league was based in northern Michigan. USA Hockey's national team is based in Michigan. Two of the nation's best and most historic college hockey programs are in Michigan, as is what has been by far the most dominant professional club. So Detroit hasn't sold out every game this year,,,if how filled to capacity the NHL arena is is the guide to Hockeytown, that would make Anaheim hockeytown right now with 106%.

He's their best starting goalie since the lockout began. Sadly, it's more an effect of the fact that he's also the only capable starter they've had in that time.

It also demonstrates the potential success of my original solution to the problem; move Homer to LW and Dats to RW.