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Pitkanen is 27 and his cap hit is $4m. Bieksa is 29 and his cap hit is $3.75m. Both are UFAs this summer. Who do you want, a decent second pairing defenseman or a bonafide top pairing defenseman?

That trophy is presented by the commissioner to the winner every weekend, and despite how relatively common it is to win, the winner always kisses it...a lot.

Kind of surprised there's no mention of Howard as a runner-up...

Marcel Pronovost, Andy Bathgate, and Adam Oates all wore 21 for at least part of their time in Detroit. Speaking of numbers, I think we should sign Jimmy Carson back to a one-game tryout deal, and he can wear #6. That way Larry Aurie's number would be officially retired (again) and hung from the rafters.

I'm in the Kris Russell camp myself. He'll take home the hardware, you just watch.

Which means he'll make the big moves, because he's got balls.

And Bourque was one of the league's top defensive defensemen. The gap between Stevens' defense and Bourque's defense was far smaller than the gap ever was between their offense. This is why Bourque, not Stevens, was named a post-season All-Star in each of his first seventeen seasons in the league, and a total 19 of 22 seasons.

And he won the Selke despite not even being the best defensive forward on his line. True; if Brandon Inge were a career .275 he'd have 2 or 3 Gold Gloves.

Scott Stevens was always among the league's top defensemen, but never was the league's best in a given season. Kind of like the Brad Park of his era.

Cleary is definitely the player I would most compare Eaves to. However, at the beginning of this year and even last year, I was not one of the ones calling him a 'plugger with decent hands' as you state. I said then as I have said now that he has second-line skill, and would be perfectly fine in that role; it's just that the Wings have such a logjam at forward, and Eaves' is a good skater, very good defensively and plays a physical game. Because of those things he plays mostly on the fourth line and is a key to the PK unit.

Howard is 26, has played 1.5 seasons in the NHL, and has solid statistics. By comparison, MacDonald is 30 and has played 1 full season and parts of others, and has decent statistics. Howard's numbers have been better, but discounting MacDonald as an incapable goalie because he hasn't had the opportunity is stupid. He's a good goalie, and better than Legace. On the Wings and Bruins there was zero percent chance for him to make the team. He went to NYI and had a good season, then signed with the Leafs, where he was supposed to tandem with Vesa Toskala, likely as the starter ahead of Toskrappy. However, Jonas Gustavsson popped up and not only took JMac's spot on the club, but took the starter role and ran with it until Burkie picked up Giguere. Gustavsson and Giguere now run on pretty close to a 50-50 split.

The Red Wings have a secret weapon to use to make the Avalanche go away.

Zetterberg was 3 points behind Datsyuk at the end of the night the last game Datsyuk played. 12-24-36 in 33 games for Z against 12-27-39 for Dats. Since Dats went down, Z has scored 4-9-13 in 10 games, which projects to 13-30-43 over 33 games. Z has been making great offensive plays all season, no matter who he's with, no matter the situation. People were saying his scoring would drop without Datsyuk; instead it's increased by 20%. Z is Datsyuk's equal offensively, and better defensively. It's like the Yzerman/Fedorov situation. If the Wings never drafted Fedorov, Yzerman would have kept on scoring 100 points, even with an improved defensive game. Why? Because it would have been necessary for him to drive the offensive engine. In the 90s, the offense was shifted to Fedorov as the primary force. Yzerman was the secondary offensive force, and was used as a skilled matchup center in much the same fashion that Z is used by the Wings when the twins are split, or how Flip has been used this season. It took away from his offensive performance but his top-end skill, experience, and clutch play led to more wins for the team. Realistically the best two-way player is Lidstrom, but this thread is really about forwards, so he doesn't really apply.

Which is why losing Jiri Fischer was so hard... he was huge, very fast, physical, defensively responsible, good with the puck, and his offensive game was just coming on. Could have had a bunch of Norris trophy wins to his name. As for the Wings' roster? Mursak is out of options, and has shown he's quite capable at the NHL level and fits on the roster. Modano, Draper, Eaves, and Miller are UFAs. Modano will almost certainly retire, Draper is also likely. Keep Eaves if it can be done for under 1.5m, otherwise let him walk; he's good but a 3rd/4th line tweener shouldn't be getting more than that, even if they have the skill to play on the second line. On defense, Lidstrom, Ericsson, and Salei are UFA. Ericsson will be kept, Lids may retire, and Salei may or may not be kept. If Lidstrom retires, my first pick for replacement is Carolina's Joni Pitkanen. Offensively skilled, good skater, good defensively, big body who plays a physical game. One of the better all-around defensemen in the league. Kindl probably stays around, and likely sees more time early on next year. Based on that, he'll either be traded or kept in a full-time top-six role.

It was Howard's "presence" that threw Joey off. Otherwise he would have been able to stop it. But regardless, two s***ty goals for Jimmy and one for Joey, that's crap. Howard's s***storm let the Avs take the lead 2-1, and then allowed them to extend their 3-1 lead into a 4-1 lead. Without those two bad goals, Brian Rafalski's goal at 18:00 ties it up.

Zetterberg is the best two-way player. It's that simple. Datsyuk and Kesler round out the top three. Other good two-way forwards: Hossa, Toews, M.Koivu, M.Richards, Marleau, Backstrom, L.Eriksson

How exactly was Luongo snubbed? Let's take a look and compare his stats (Wins, GAA, sv%, SO) to the five goalies who were selected, and see where Luongo should have come in. Tim Thomas: 19-4-6, 1.77 GAA, .946 sv%, 6 SO Jonas Hiller: 21-14-3, 2.39 GAA, .929 sv%, 4 Henrik Lundqvist: 18-3-3, 2.32 GAA, .924 sv%, 5 SO Cam Ward: 18-11-5, 2.62 GAA, .923 sv%, 2 SO Roberto Luongo: 20-8-4, 2.34 GAA, .922 sv%, 2 SO Carey Price: 21-14-3, 2.31 GAA, .921 sv%, 4 SO Luongo doesn't even compare to Thomas or Hiller statistically. So we can knock those two right off. Lundqvist has slightly better GAA and sv% numbers, and a lower win total but a better record. So Luongo doesn't beat him either. So we're down to Ward and Price. Luongo and Price have very similar numbers, except for the fact that Price has played more games for a weaker team, and has therefore lost more games. But Price is statistically better. So does Luongo beat Ward? Well, Luongo has more wins and a better record, as well as a lower GAA. Luongo also plays for a team with the best goal differential in the league, while Ward plays for a team with a negative differential. Luongo over Ward is certainly a valid argument, but not a snub. Especially given that Pavelec, Rinne, and Vokoun are all more deserving than Luongo.

Z wasn't picked because the NHL wanted to see Crosby get SOME kind of offensive chance...

The second, fourth, and fifth goals were all on Howie. Second goal: Howie gave up way too much on the fivehole and was super-slow closing it. Fourth goal: Howie overcommitted to one side, and made no effort to cross back over when the pass back was made. Fifth goal: Howard was in a one-on-one situation and just gave up with no real effort to try and save the shot at all. Those goals are s***, and an NHL starter should not be giving up that stuff. The fivehole one was a positioning mistake, that might be acceptable as a mistake for a starter. But making no effort to make a save? That's the kind of stuff where he shouldn't even be playing in the NHL in any capacity.

Ozzie's out, so Joey is the backup. JMac showed he's perfectly capable of performing that duty by cleaning up Howie's mess. The question is... when Ozzie returns, will Howard have solidified his position, or will he be going on a conditioning stint to Grand Rapids?

Are you sure about that? I don't think you would have.

The Western Conference is better overall. Vancouver and Detroit are the top two teams in the league as far as point percentage. The other two teams above the .650 mark are Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. One might say "Well, the Nucks and Wings are just beating up weak teams." Weak teams? Six of the eight worst teams by point percentage are Eastern teams. Five of the six worst. Three teams in the Northeast division are in the bottom eight, and yet the top two, Boston and Montreal, are just middle of the pack teams at 9th and 11th overall. So clearly it's not the division leaders beating up on Buffalo, Ottawa, and Toronto. Boston is leading the Northeast division, and yet they would be fourth in the Atlantic and third in the Southeast.

As stated earlier, since Orr offense has been hugely more important for the Norris. Buffy won't win because Enstrom plays more in all situations, scores just as much, and is so much better defensively it's ridiculous.

The second "game-saver" you are referring to..I just don't see what wasso special about it. Howie crossed the crease well and stopped the shot, but it wouldn't be OMGSUPERSAVE!!!!1!!1!!!! if he hadn't, after solidly catching the puck, diving forward like some kind of Super-Hasek. Was he trying to do a front flip in celebration? Good save, but nothing great or game-saving.

Grading Modano above Hudler is a joke. Modano has been no better defensively or physically; arguably worse. Modano plays a much higher percentage of his time on the power play, and averaged more per game overall. It'll all come out in the wash with Hudler's A for the second half, though.