eva unit zero

That's the thing; Konopka hits 300 because he doesn't do stupid s*** to get himself suspended. Gillies is much more of the blockhead goon type than Konopka. Konopka played 8-9 minutes at even strength for the Isles, plus playing PK. Gillies played THREE. Gillies would probably clear 300, but he shouldn't play an NHL season because he's not an NHL player. He averaged 3 minutes per night and played half a season (partially of his own doing due to suspension) on a team that was hit hard by injuries at forward, yet was still one of the league's worst. He simply isn't an NHL caliber player. Trevor Gillies is like former Portland Buckaroos defenseman Jack Stewart. Name doesn't guarantee performance.

I didn't say Ozzie's future is as bright, given that next year and possibly the year after is it for him. But a healthy Osgood, based on this season, is at least as good as anyone I brought up. Had he remained healthy he could very well have taken the starter role back from Howard.

He had his elbow up and led with it, and he clocked Seabrook hard. That's worth a game or two, I place 50-50 odds on him missing Game 1. You in, Marty?

Hitting a guy into the boards from five feet out would, in most cases, constitute boarding. It has to do with hitting a player into the boards while he is in a particularly vulnerable situation. To take on the persona of many people here who I have argued against in the "clean hit penalized" threads: Keep your head up! If you get wasted into the boards or in open ice because you had your head down, it's your fault and there shouldn't be a penalty! Now, back as myself: That mindset didn't help Kris Draper or Ace Bailey very much, did it?

IMO, the ten best goaltenders not named Osgood who started between 10-40 games this season are: James Reimer Devan Dubnyk Brian Boucher Jose Theodore Tuukka Rask Semyon Varlamov Jonathan Bernier Cory Schneider Brent Johnson Anders Lindback I would argue that Osgood's performance this season compares well with that group.

Joey Mac has been one of the better backups in the league. He's also proven himself as an NHL-level goaltender with a full season as a starter on a bad team on the Isles a couple years back. The strong performance of our backups have been overshadowed by the fact that Howard has struggled yet remained the "unchallenged" starter. Yzerman has learned everything he knows about being a GM from hockey. Yzerman would keep Osgood, as Osgood is one of the better backups in the league, a very good mentor with Cup experience, and has proven himself a very strong playoff performer able to ramp his game up a large amount. Most of the Griffs aren't good enough to crack the Wings' current roster. Better to develop them in the minors as long as possible or necessary and then bring them up than to throw them into the fire before they're ready. A lot of very skilled players don't get necessary development time and flop because of it. Give Alexandre Daigle a year or two in the minors and he's probably an All-Star after developing the pro experience.

Maybe he'll finally play as one of the 12 best forwards on the team. Because at no point this season, other than during the first couple weeks when Hudler was ice cold and Abby and Draper were injured, has he been in that group. He shouldn't even be in the lineup right now; he's the worst forward on the team. Hudler started out with poor effort but Babcock got on his ass and he started busting his ass at both ends of the ice well before he actually started scoring. Franzen is mostly a floater, but he is also a big time offensive threat that the opposition has to focus on even if he's going to be worthless for ten games, because he could suddenly explode and pop in four or five. Modano has some skill but hasn't really managed to convert that to performance, and his effort has been pretty s***ty; he's been the biggest passenger on the team even when he's been in the lineup. Drake was one of the league's best two-way players and defensive forwards in his prime, and was still a quality grinder in his last year. He also was a very good hitter and highly motivated because he had never won a Cup, and was an ideal bottom-six player; Modano is the Wings' #12 forward, has been dragging down any scoring line he plays on this season, and would be a terrible fit on the fourth line. He needs to either play like a real 3rd line center or be out of the lineup, because the Wings would be better off scratching him and playing Eaves, Helm, or Abdelkader up in the top nine. Maybe something like the following: Filppula/Datsyuk/Holmstrom Hudler/Zetterberg/Cleary Franzen/Abdelkader/Bertuzzi Draper/Helm/Eaves Hudler/Datsyuk/Cleary Franzen/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Bertuzzi/Filppula/Eaves Abdelkader/Helm/Draper Hudler/Datsyuk/Franzen Holmstrom/Zetterberg/Bertuzzi Filppula/Helm/Cleary Abdelkader/Draper/Eaves Those lines provide effective checking lines, as well as at least one line proven to be effective recently.

Come on guys, now we have one more thing to play for!!!

Howard hasn't proven anything, and Larsson is a very good prospect. Larsson turns UFA in two years, so we may well see him come back over and play in the NHL. Howard has had one good season and one mediocre season, and is two years older than Larsson. So calling the Howard v. Larsson comparison over is a bit premature.

Kopecky rhymes with Gretzky.

The correct statement is "doing very well right now," not "doing really good right now."

My top 20: Henrik Zetterberg Pavel Datsyuk Sidney Crosby Alexander Ovechkin Steven Stamkos Shea Weber Drew Doughty Ryan Miller Duncan Keith Jonathan Toews Ryan Kesler Zach Parise Cam Ward Ryan Getzlaf Rick Nash Nicklas Backstrom Mike Richards Keith Yandle Jonathan Quick Daniel Sedin

I hate penalty complaint s***. Seriously. Waah, they had more power plays the refs gave it to them! Stuff like that. Yes, there are bad calls sometimes. But refs generally get things right. My only major beef is the apparent tendency to try and call it "even" every game, when it often clearly isn't. It's sort of the reverse; by not giving the cleaner team more power plays, you are making it uneven in favor of the dirtier team. If they're even and should be, great. As for the SJ series... on par is hardly accurate. Yes, the Wings had a hard time maintaining momentum due to penalties. But ultimately the Sharks played better hockey.

Wrong. If the player is in Europe on loan from an NHL team on an NHL contract, then that player does not have to pass through entry waivers as Nabokov did. He may, however, have to pass through re-entry waivers if he is not waiver exempt. Dick Axelsson is a good example. He has played in Europe the entire season, yet the Wings could call him up right now without having to worry about waivers.

That's the thing; you can't. More than half of his stick his hidden from view by his leg when it would be hitting the puck. If he even nicks the very edge of the puck in that moment, it's still a goal. While you say that he said he didn't think it was a goal, it's not conclusive evidence and was called a goal on ice. But he sure thought it was a goal when it happened.

Please stop posting. At 10 seconds in the video, Hossa's stick slightly redirects the puck. At 38 seconds, it's a goal. Proof that his stick hit the puck? The blue of the crease is visible between the puck and the post; this suggests that the puck was headed away from the net on the bounce, which is likely given the angle Hossa was coming at the goal from.

Are you saying that because it should have been:

The fact is that Nabokov already had a contract and was playing in another league this season. Had he not signed in the KHL and simply been training, there would have been no waiver process. And the term "unrestricted" refers to the fact that the player's rights are not bound to a specific team. He can sign with whomever he wants and there is no compensation or right to match, while a restricted free agent gives the team the right to match any offers made as well as to receive compensation if the player is signed away.

Hanlon and Stefan were splitting time, and Stefan played more games in both 87 and 88. Hanlon won 5 in 87 ad 4 in 88, while Stefan won 4 in 87 and 5 in 88. Hanlon won 67 games in the regular season and 9 in the playoffs in his five years in Detroit. He won 20 games once. Cheveldae was the clear, unchallenged starter and had three consecutive 30-win seasons out of four and a half with the team. He also won nine playoff games as a Wing.

Hanlon was a veteran goaltender who played his last couple years in Detroit. Hardly noteworthy. In just the last thirty years he would fall behind Osgood, Vernon, Hasek, Cheveldae, Joseph, Legace, Howard, and probably Stefan if you only include starters. You could argue Ty Conklin, Vincent Riendeau, and possibly even Kevin Hodson from the backups. That would rank Hanlon anywhere from 8th to 12th in THIRTY YEARS. Not worth noting.

Wait... So if Lidstrom wins the Norris he could be better than Harvey, but if he doesn't he's not? WTF? Winning an award doesn't make you a great player. And I said Yzerman could be argued as the third best center ever; he was the only one to dominate the league at a level close to Lemieux or Gretzky during their primes. Everybody pretty much agrees that Lemieux and Gretzky are the 1-2 when it comes to centers and forwards. So take them away, now how does Yzerman stack up comparing his performance in his era to others in theirs? Yzerman is as strong an argument for that spot as Dionne or Esposito. The real question is...where did you come up with Jagr? Jagr was never more than a scoring forward who is a defensive liability. Although he won awards for scoring, he was less dominant on the ice in his prime than Yzerman was. Playing with Mario Lemieux AND Ron Francis on his line Jagr managed a career high of 149 points. Yzerman reached 155 with Gallant and Probert.

That list is crap. Anyone who feels that career fourth-liner Darren McCarty is one of the 25 best Wings ever, feel free to disagree. But I don't recall seeing any of the following names: Marty Barry Ebbie Goodfellow Bill Quackenbush Flash Hollett Herbie Lewis Whoever wrote this really is not that knowledgeable. Of course that is obvious from their write-up on Yzerman in the "top-10 Wings best goal scorers" list. Jim Carey? Really? Let's check the replay. Yep. You make the argument that Lidstrom should be tops because he's "probably the third best player ever in his position" but you discount the fact that Howe is the best all-time at his? Or the fact that Yzerman is the only player who was able to manage the same kind of playing level as Gretzky or Lemieux did during the 80s and early 90s? Yzerman could easily be argued as the third best center of all-time. So what'll it be then? Best RW, third best C, or third best D?

I still have one lying around from my college days.

But they're in Canada, so every person counts for ten Americans.

Yeah, contraction and a draft. Let's just have the NHL buy the teams that are being contracted, dissolve them, and then we'll disperse the players. Phoenix, Atlanta, Florida, and the Isles people say? Pretty high costs for the League. But put that aside. That brings a couple elite goaltenders, a few good defensemen, and some high end forwards. It also completely changes the landscape of the conferences and divisions. So maybe we see divisions as such: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vancouver Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Washington That kind of set up certainly works out. Moving two of the teams to any two of Seattle, Quebec, Houston, and Winnipeg also would work out.