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Joe Malone with 7. He also potted 44 in 20 games, a record that stood for over 30 years and was only broken when Richard potted 50 in 50.

I heard Crosby kicked Ovechkin's dog, right after it had a leg amputated. [/font] I also heard Crosby was putting the moves on Mario's wife, with lines like "The ice isnt the only place I'm better than Mario."

If you've looked at my lineups for next year, you'll notice I did not include Lang. I simply think he gets far too much s*** around here given the fact he has been one of the Wings' best players every year since joining the team.

Some players score better per minute on a lower line. Some are the opposite. Lang is not far behind his 03-04 Washington per-minute rate this season. That was Lang's best season, so it's reasonable to assume that he tends to score more often with more ice time. So we can extrapolate from that information that Lang has actually been better offensively, keeping in mind the difference in situation, than he was when we traded for him.

Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Hossa Ovechkin/Crosby/Lecavalier Heatley/Thornton/Iginla Franzen/Draper/Neil

Just for reference, Lang is only seeing about 30 seconds more ice time this season than he did last season. And that is with seeing about 1:15 more at ES--which means a 45 second REDUCTION in PP time. Also, consider this--his linemates most of last year were Williams and Yzerman. His linemates most of this year were Williams and Cleary. I wouldn't say Cleary this year has been a better player offensively than Yzerman was last year. So basically Lang is playing on a comparable line with comparable time, but is seeing less PP time and is playing against better defensive pairings more often. Think about it for a second--add two thirds of Lang's points to reflect the amount of ice he was getting in Washington, and he's an 80 point player this season.

Why are they going after Cleary's cup?

Lundqvist was injured last playoffs. Weekes was in net.

Lang was the team's best forward at the beginning of the season, and when he was playing with Hudler he was scoring plenty. His failures this season have to do with the fact he has been on a line with Cleary and Williams all year. Cleary's scoring ups and downs are direct RESULTS of how Lang was playing. If Lang was hot, Cleary was along for the ride. If Lang slumped, Cleary couldn't score. Lang has been no different this year than any other year of his career--he's always been streaky like that. It's just being noticed more this year because he's in the final year of his contract, as is Dats, and people have been trying to size up whether keeping Lang for about 3m might be a good alternative to paying Dats 6-7m.

Some goalies rely on being in a groove to succeed. Hasek and Joseph are both excellent examples of guys who play better when they get hit with a lot of rubber. It has to do with feeling disconnected from the game when you go long stretches without seeing many shots. One of Legace's biggest assets is that he can play well cold--it's what made him a great backup and a good regular season goalie for a team like Detroit.

This roster, before considering the UFA scoring winger or goaltenders, already would cost around 44 million. Goaltenders push that to 46 million. That leaves a million--minus any bonuses that carry over--to spend on your top six winger. More likely is that Grigorenko goes to the AHL, and the other twelve forwards you mentioned are the regulars, and we either sign or call up a 13th forward like Ellis.

Lang was outscoring all those guys. Lang's big year in Washington happened to be one of Jagr's WORST, and Jagr was traded before Lang was. The reason Lang was putting up gaudy point totals has nothing to do with being less lazy. it's the fact he was playing 25 minutes a night every night. It's like Fedorov's 120 point season. People were upset he never replicated that, when his 83 point campain in 02-03 was actually a comparable scoring rate per minute played. It's had to keep up your scoring pace playing 20 minutes when you scored 120 playing 28 minutes a night.

I can think of one thing that would make hockey in Madison HUUUUUGE. If the Madison team acquired former Badger Dany Heatley. Plus, Madison has no other pro sports teams, while Milwaukee has two. It's like Columbus vs Cleveland, or San Jose vs Oakland. You get the fan base of the city with existing teams (Madison is not terribly far from Milwaukee) while having a dedicated home city fan base that likely would much rather see an NHL game in town than drive an hour or so to catch the NBA. As for Chicago...it's a sacrifice I'd be willing to make to lessen travel and get rivalry games back with the Leafs, Habs, etc.

Lidstrom is having some of his best offensive seasons in the 'new' NHL, and the Western Conference has been the STRONGER conference in said NHL. The fact that Nick has been a first team All-Star seven times in the past eight seasons--will be eight in nine after this year--should tell you how dominant he has been, considering nobody else even comes close to that over that span. Guys like Pronger, Blake, Niedermayer, MacInnis, Chelios, Chara all have seen a spot there, but Nick has been a constant.

Michael Schumacher made twice in salary what Nascar drivers made, and was the highest paid athlete in the world in ANY sport. You do realize that a NASCAR car is a tube frame racing machine that bears NO mechanical resemblance to the car whose facade it simulates? A NASCAR car is far more similar to a F1 racer than a producton model. As far as Montoya is concerned...just a couple weeks ago he DOMINATED a NASCAR race, and this is while still getting familiar with the courses and cars. It's just McLaren. Like a few years ago when Hakkinen's car erupted ina plume of smoke on the final turn and Schumacher passed him for the win. Go Ferrari!

It wasn't Osgood's fault he went to NYI. He should have his number retired.

The fact that Lidstrom was the favorite before Pronger got hurt, and Pronger was outplaying Nieds, and that Nieds has not outplayed Nick since then, should be enough to reduce it to Pronger vs Lidstrom. And since Pronger missed games, he doesn't really get a fair shot in that comparison. Lidstrom wins. Of course realistically Lidstrom should have six or seven Norrises going into this season...

Grigorenko will only make the team if Filpulla regresses or they don't resign Bertuzzi/Calder. He's not going to be on the team as the 13th forward, and they already have twelve forwards they may end up going with. I expect Grigs to see a year in the AHL getting acclimated to the different styles and rink size, and giving the team a chance to get a better look at him than they could with him in Russia. I think Grigs still has a ton of potential, but his situation is not like Dats or Z. He had great potential and then suffered a nearly career ending accident. They are going to bring him along slowly.

Phoenix, I think, beat Anaheim pretty badly this season with a Niedermayer-centered game plan. And yes, Pronger not being on the PP hurts Niedermayer.

I would 'eliminate' Nashville and Florida, and replace them with Houston, Kansas City, Portland/Seattle, and Milwaukee/Madison. Detroit and Columbus would move to the East, and we'd have four eight-team divisions. Northeast: Boston, Buffalo, Columbus, Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Toronto Atlantic: Atlanta, Carolina, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Washington Pacific: Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland/Seattle, San Jose, Vancouver Central: Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Milwaukee/Madison, Minnesota, St. Louis

Niedermayer and Pronger being on the same team is enough to help each other. Niedermayer's slump with Pronger out can be largely attributed to the fact he has been focused on much more by opposition that doesn't have to worry about Pronger.

I would like to pay Bertuzzi less, but the fact is that's already a 25% pay cut. It's unreasonable to think that if Bertuzzi plays well enough to be resigned, that his pay would be cut below that.

The Wings have twelve current roster players signed for next year. For purposes of argument we'll use Howard as the backup goalie since he is signed. F Zetterberg 2.65 F Holmstrom 2.25 F Draper 2.128 F Samuelsson 1.2 F Franzen 942k F Filppula 710k F Cleary 663k F Kopecky 450k D Lidstrom 7.6m D Kronwall 3m D Lilja 1m D Lebda 650k G Osgood 850k G Howard 733k Total 24,816 This means we need four forwards and two defensemen, plus two or three reserves, and will have 19-22 million to spend on those positions, depending on the cap increase. Expected contracts (ballpark) for returning roster players: F Datsyuk 5.75m F Bertuzzi 4.55m F Calder 1.75m F Hudler 700k D Schneider 3.5m D Markov 2.75m D Chelios 850k That totals up to 19.8, making a total of 44.616. The Wings can add one more solid forward (Ellis or Bootland?) for under a million, and still have as much as one or two million left under the cap for bonuses and trades. Markov could also be replaced by Sarich for a similar amount. This lineup could yield the following lines: Hudler/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Calder/Datsyuk/Bertuzzi Cleary/Filppula/Samuelsson Franzen/Draper/Kopecky Lidstrom/Kronwall Schneider/Markov Lebda/Chelios Osgood Howard

Maybe we should have started Ozzie against Dallas while Dom 'only' would have had to deal with Nashville...

A gun-toting redneck thug who dropped out of middle school and has nascar-themed grills on his gums?