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The Ducks made no contact with Hasek until after the puck crossed the line. I don't want to call it a good goal, but it was perfectly legal and should have counted.

Toews could sneak in, especially if Ryan does not play full-time in the bigs in his first year. The challenge for Toews would be that Chicago has established young players like Havlat and Ruutu. Plus there will be pressure to either retain or replace Handzus. Toews will most likely end up playing second line at best for most of his first year.

The Calder next year should come down to: [/font] Erik Johnson Bobby Ryan Jack Johnson The two Johnsons aretalented all-around defensemen stepping into an environment where they'll have some younger vets around, but also pull in a lot of key ice time. Ryan is a physical, skilled forward stepping into the lineup of a Cup contender that has a lot of young skill up front. Guys like Grigorenko and Kindl won't play enough or score enough to garner serious consideration. Backstrom is less of a sure thing than the guys I listed above because Washington will likely try to pull in an established scoring centerman to play on the first line and let Backstrom have the second line for now. If Backstrom does end up between Semin and Ovechkin full-time, he could post the best numbers, and that situation may or may not lead to his winning the Calder.

Junior clubs hold the player's rights until the age of 20, but NHL teams are allowed to draft at 18, and if the player is good enough, he can make the roster. [/font] If the player is not good enough to play NHL, he must be returned to his junior club. It protects against teams stockpiling young talent in the AHL and depleting the junior leagues.

Liv was terribly mishandled by the Wings organization IMHO. [/font] Rather than bring him over in 2002--when he was ready--the team opted to leave him in Sweden so as not to lose his rights, and continue on their wheel of goalies until it finally stopped at Osgood and Hasek this season. A better prospect handling timeline would have gone as follows: 2002: Hasek retires. Wings sign Joseph for three years. Liv is signed and brought to North America. 2003: Hasek un-retires. Wings fail to trade Joseph. Legace and Joseph split starts in the playoffs. 2005: Joseph is let go as a UFA. Wings sign Osgood to split with Legace. Wings make decision on MacDonald, MacIntyre, and Liv. Liv stays, Drew and Joey are waived or traded. Liv splits time in GR with Jimmy H. 2006: Legace is gone, Hasek is signed to split with Osgood. This would have given us a better picture of what Liv would be capable of rather than cornholing his ability as 'somewhere between Jimmy Howard and Joey MacDonald' and totally screwing any trade value because of his age and lack of experience.

My response was to the suggestion made by FireCaptain that it should be the Euro champions vs an NHL-All-Star team. [/font] The Stanley Cup may be the most prestigious trophy in professional hockey, but it is not a global championship trophy. A 'global' championship trophy would prove once and for all that the NHL is the top league.

Datsyuk will never wear an A. [/font] He'll simply jump right to the K.

Before his accident, Grigorenko was considered on the level of Ovechkin and Kovalchuk. Toews has not been put i nthat group nearly as much as Igor was. It's reasonable that he could be just as good as Toews if he is at 85% or 90% of where he would have been without the accident. Not saying he is, just that it's far from a riduculous suggestion.

For reference: From Oct 5th to Dec 22nd, while often having his line shuffled and seeing many shifts with wingers like Samuelsson, Lang, and Cleary, as well as sometimes guys like Draper and Franzen, Zetterberg posted 13-8-21, +7 in 34 games. From December 23rd on, when the Dats/Zata/Homer line was put together, Zetterberg posted 20-27-47 and +19 in only 29 games. Had he maintained that pace for the remaining 19 games instead of getting injured: 13-18-31, +12 in those final 19 games would have landed him at 46-53-99, and +38. Assists would be the only major offensive category where he would have been outside the top ten--and top five in goals and +/-. Had he managed that pace all season? 82 GP, 57-76-133, +54. That's league leader in G, Pt, and +/- and third in assists. In conclusion: Selanne is a very good player. But had Zetterberg not been injured, at the rate he was going he might have been among the contenders this season for Hart, Richard, Ross, Pearson, and Selke with a realistic shot at all of them. Had he played that way for 82 games, he would likely have been a finalist for each and every one of them. That's just scary.

Wings in 6 Sabres in 6

Huh? Funny thing is, you give him credit for being Datsyuk-esque in his dangling (false) yet you fail to realize one simple fact. Konstantinov could not have become one of the best defenseman in the league, considering he already was THE best defenseman in the league.

So an NHL all-star team that includes Swedes, Russians, Finns, and Czechs as well as Canadians and Americans would play against the champion of the national league from one of those nations? That's like an NHL all-star team playing against the Calder Cup winners--all the best available players from the AHL (read: Swedish league, Russian league, etc.) are NHLers. It should be the Stanley Cup winner vs the Euro Cup winner to determine the tru champions. Alternate the series between North America and Europe each year. The precedent for situations like you laid out with the rules is the World Series, in which the home team's league rule variations are used. SO one year, they'd play in Europe and use European rinks and rules. The next year, they'd use North American rules in a North American rink.

Unless Grigorenko shows up at camp and absolutely knocks the socks off everyone, he will start the season in Grand Rapids. By signing Maltby, the Wings have one forward spot left open--Lang's spot--assuming their preferred 13-man rotation. Grigorenko would have to be good enough in what the team has seen of him so far--and continue to be that good in camp--for the Wings to feel puttin Igor on the roster is more beneficial than signing a Bertuzzi, Smyth, Hartnell, or Calder. Which is possible, given Bert and Calder's dismal performances in the postseason, and how the Wings have won anyway.

I'm working on what I like to call 'simple' power rankings. The idea being that it takes the fewest variables possible to accurately identify the best team, considering the all-important variable of 'division strength.' My thought is that it would simply work like this: Take each division's overall record. 2 points for regulation or OT win. 1 point for shootout win or loss. 0 points for regulation or OT loss. Take the total number of points, minus 160 points for the 80 intra-division games, and divide by the possible number of points (GPx2) to find the winning percentage. This will provide the degree of difficulty for that division, ranging from 0.00 to 1.00. The degree of difficulty will change slightly for each team's own division, as their record cannot be counted with that of their opponents. The number of points earned agaist each division is multiplied by the degree of difficulty for that group of opponents. These numbers are then added up to determine the 'strongest' team. I will update once I have numbers finished and together. Any suggestions as to how to improve these would be appreciated.

There is no "second place" in the NHL. In the NHL there is one winning team, and 29 that failed. That said, if they ever did decide to have a 'consolation' series and standings as such...they would have to move to a league-wide bracket system to account for stronger and weaker conferences. EDIT: If you take all the teams that have been eliminated and rank them 5th through 16th based on what round they were eliminated, using regular season record as tiebreaker in the absence of extra series....the Islanders, who finished 17th overall, are the 16th ranked team, while Colorado, 14th overall in the regular season, is now 17th.

The Ducks have a huge strength in that they have Pronger and Niedermayer. The problem is that they don't have much else. Yes, Anaheim can limit scoring chances on Giguere, who while positionally sound is not terribly agile. But that strategy only worked for a limited tme for San Jose before Detroit broke it. In fact, Playing San Jose might have been the best possible preparation for Detroit heading into the next series--as has been said many times, Anaheim and San Jose have very similar games. Detroit will already be used to the west coast road games. Detroit has face the two teams most similar to Anaheim in style and skill level, and has been the better team for the majority of the two series. Anaheim, on the other hand, has faced the two weakest teams in the playoffs, teams that bear little resemblance to their next opponent in skill level or style. Detroit will take down Anaheim in six games, for the same reason Detroit has been taken down many times recently--Anaheim's lack of adversity, and therefore, the lack of knowledge how to deal with it, will put them in an early hole they won't recover from.

Huh? I do think that was a great goal, and very dramatic...but it hardly was the turning point in a playoff series nor did it define the playoff year. Yzerman's OT winner was the last play of the series. And while that could be viewed as a turning point, usually those don't happen at the very last second of the series. And the Wings were badly outclassed the next round.

This isn't really an accurate representation--Grigorenko would have been over much sooner if not for his accident. Using Malkin and Ovechkin as examples, each played 3 full seasons in Russia before being super rookies here. So let's take the time from the start of Igor's Russian career until the end of his thid full season. We do that, and these are the numbers: 129 GP, 36g-27a-63pt, 193 PIM,

I get the feeling the next month could determine whether Schneider comes back, and at what price. If the Wings get destroyed and Schneider's absence is a noticeable factor...he'll be back. If Kronwall steps in and plays just as well as Matty...Schneider might be gone.

If the Wings kept all current netminders except Hasek, and replaced Hasek wit hBelfour, this would be the depth chart: Osgood Howard Liv Belfour

It will be Hasek, Liv, or Howard. If Hasek does not retire, he'll return. Giguere is the only UFA who would be a realistic option as starter--none of the other UFA tenders are a significant upgrade over Osgood, if an upgrade at all. As has been detailed, Giguere will cost way too much. So the next step is to look at UFAs for backup goalies. The only UFA goaltender who has a skill level to justify interest and will make less than Osgood, who under this scenario is Jamie McLennan, as I have said before. After McLennan's stunt in the playoffs, the chances Holland would be interested dropped to zero percent. Which means that, assuming Hasek retires, the Wings simply have to decide between Howard and Liv. If Howard is deemed 'ready' then he'll get it. If Howard needs another year in Grand Rapids, they'll toss in Liv.

The player's skill should never be more than a minor consideration for who is Captain. Unless you think Fedorov should have taken over the C from Yzerman in 1994? Or maybe Forsberg should have worn it in Colorado and Philly, and then again when Nashville traded for him?

Anyone who expected 2003 Bertuzzi was nuts. That said, Bertuzzi has been the single worst player on the team most nights in the playoffs. Some of it may be rust, some of it may be that he's gunshy. I don't care why,the fact is that he is the worst regular skater on the team this playoffs. Because of his size and what he MIGHT be capable of, he simply can't be scratched, but he certainly hasn't done anything to warrant being played as much time as he has been getting.

1) Why is Toronto more fitting for 'Hockeytown' than Montreal? The Cup has been awarded 113 times. A team from Montreal has been the winner 58 times. That's INSANE. 2) The complete nickname is actually 'Hockeytown, U.S.A' and Detroit is easily the most qualified to wear that title.

Lidstrom has been our BEST player CONSISTENTLY. Cleary has been good...but not on Nick's level. Draper has been Draper most nights, but he's had a couple absolutely brutal showings too. And never once has Draper been better than Nick this playoff.