eva unit zero

No, you have to pay a toll to drive there and plane tickets cost even more. And if you LIVE there, the taxes, man...well, don't even get me on that topic...

I like the toothpaste one; because you know it's Draper who took it in the first place.

I know you're a Datsyuk fan, but Zetterberg was carrying the team's offensive load earlier in the season. You might remember from when he was like 5 points above Datsyuk despite only about a quarter of the season played? As for the "Zetterberg has not been performing offensively like he should" he is only 3 points behind Datsyuk. He is on pace for about 90 points. Datsyuk's on course for 97. Not very far apart. Yet Datsyuk is having some kind of wonderful season (which compares offensively to prior seasons he has had) and Z is disappointing offensively despite his pace for a career season. Z has carried the team for stretches during the first half, yet still gets no credit. Maybe it's because he isn't flashy?

My only point initially in responding was to clarify the suggestion that iFlip was the best offensive performer on the team to date. As far as calling him up, I think people, especially the "Flip slappies" as some might say, seem to think that once he is brought up he will be as good as his brother, and that we aren't looking at a Wayne/Brent situation.

If you think so, you shouldn't have put them in one together.

And coming into tonight's game, iFlip's PPG was 0.793 because he had 29 GP, 10-13-23. So two points over the next four games for Ilari?

He was the undisputed best player every year from 1983-84 to 1992-93. That's 10. Fedorov won the Hart in 1993-94, but a little known fact is that Yzerman was on pace for 119 points, which was one fewer than Fedorov scored. Fedorov was the better player then, but many years through the 90s Yzerman was the Wings best player. Such as 1999-2000, when Yzerman was named the first-team center and won the Selke. Yzerman was not always his team's best player. Just about every great player in history has had this occur, where they were not always their team's best player. From Howe to Gretzky to Lindsay to Orr, it's all the same. Even Mario Lemieux had a couple of seasons where he wasn't his team's top player, and the names of the players who outperformed him that season might surprise you. Crosby, in Lemieux's final season, is probably not a shock. The other one is a 28-year old Alexei Kovalev in 2002.

Because with Datsyuk out, we'll need him to play even better?

I wasn't aware strength was a requirement to be a center specifically as compared to playing the wing. You would think I would know about that, having played primarily center for a couple decades now. I can understand the size and strength preference of having someone like Getzlaf or Thornton to a Hudler or Comrie. I get that. But that doesn't make Hudler incapable of playing center. And if you had been paying attention, I specifically put him on the line Datsyuk had been centering because it was between Franzen and Bertuzzi; two big strong wingers. Remember; Gretzky was small, but he had big strong wingers.

Hudler was considered the most talented center in his draft year. He is a natural center and perfectly capable of playing center. He may not be the best option, but a line of Franzen/Hudler/Bertuzzi would work out quite well with Jiri in the middle.

I listed four lines. I didn't say "first line, second line, third line" etc. In fact, it doesn't matter which you perceive as what because regardless of what line a player is on, he'll get as much time as the coach decides. Cleary has spent most of his time this season on the third line, yet he has spent all season in the top six for Wings forwards for even strength TOI. Who is he in place of? First-liner Tomas Holmstrom. Babcock would not sit there with Franzen on the bench for 50 minutes and that's not what I'm suggesting. I simply posted three lines with only a minor adjustment from tonight's lines, and that they were probably worth trying.

Is Datsyuk more valuable than Stamkos, Crosby, Thomas, Miller, Backstrom (the one in Minnesota), Ovechkin, Price, Weber, Doughty, Lundqvist, Bryzgalov, or any number of other guys? Better, maybe. But more valuable? It's a tough argument as to whether he's more valuable than Lidstrom or Zetterberg, let alone people who are on other teams.

Here's one option that could be used, if you make only minor adjustments to the lines used against Vancouver and bring in Draper in Dats' roster spot: Cleary/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Abdelkader/Filppula/Eaves Franzen/Hudler/Bertuzzi Draper/Helm/Miller Hudler takes Dats' spot, centering two big, defensively capable wingers. Eaves takes Hudler's spot, putting his fleet feet and quick shot on Filppula's wing. Draper fills the gap Eaves leaves on the fourth line.

Yes, but you were talking up iFlip as if he had been clearly the team's top player, when he hasn't been. I was just making all the information available.

Yzerman had none of that "flair", either. Stevie was just the third best player in an era featuring two of the top five players ever.

Cory Emmerton is the best offensive performer in Grand Rapids. He's also good defensively. FWIW.

Lecavalier is overrated, not underrated.

Helm is a 4th line center on a Cup team. Saying "I don't want the team to have better players so that the guy I like can play" doesn't help the team. It would be as if I were to say the Wings shouldn't add Brad Richards and Alexander Semin at league minimum contracts just because I want Hudler to play more.

Seems the most likely situation. Definitely what I though, as I don't recall him ever being shifted to forward at any point. About two minutes on the season isn't much though.

What do we do if we put them on a line together, and Hudler comes out with two ES points and Dats comes out with none?

Proof that even Lebda himself didn't realize he was a defenseman!!! Seriously, though, dobberhockey.com shows Lebda having a total of 0.75% of his even strength ice time (or about 7 minutes of the season) played while 2 other defensemen were on the ice. Furthermore, 0.36% of his total time included time spent with Derek Meech and one other defenseman, 0.21% included time spent with Jonathan Ericsson, and 0.02% included time spent with both. So 0.55% of his time was spent with one but not both of Meech and Ericsson, two defensemen Babcock HAS played at forward a fair amount. Meaning Lebda played about 2 shifts of forward. Impressive.

Being someone who will fight when it is necessary is not the same as being someone who will fight for no reason. Bob Probert got 398 PIMs in 1988-89 due in large part to his collection of fighting majors. How many of those were random fights off the draw that meant nothing? Sure they were entertaining, but they had no real meaning and served little purpose. Fighting is a part of the game in the sense that it is used to prevent cheap shots; but having a player who fights a whole bunch just to fight doesn't serve the team. The words "will readily scrap" are not the same as "regularly scrap" because the first statement indicates that the player will protect his teammates by fighting when necessary, while the second simply states that the player fights on a regular basis.

Modano and Draper retire. Salei does not return, possibly due to retirement. Eaves $1.25m Miller $1m Lidstrom $5.75m Ericsson $1.5m Howard $ 3.5m Osgood $1m This is approximately $15m of UFA salary being cut off, and with the three players leaving drops the Wings to 12/6/2 returning from the current roster. So replacements have to be found. The players above cost a total of $13.5m, and there is an expected cap rise of about $2m. This would leave $3.5m to add three players to the roster, either from within the organization or via free agency. The Wings have typically carried 13 forwards and 8 defensemen rather than 14-7, so we'll go based on that. If you figure in Meech and Janik as defensive spares at $550k each, That drops available cash to $2.4m, which could acquire a better third line center than Modano. He is a winger, but with the kind of season Alex Frolov is having, it might also be possible to get him for that kind of price. Brooks Laich might be possible, but probably will be out of that range if he hits the market. Curtis Glencross and Scottie Upshall are other options who might be in that range who are in the 25-28 age range. None are particularly stellar defensively...but neither is Modano. And if the Wings would look to sign a guy like that, letting Miller go and signing a spare or bringing up a guy like Emmerton as the spare would save the team cap space while actually using developed, NHL-ready prospects. Imagine these possible sets of lines for next season if the Wings were to pick up a top six winger like Frolov: Eurotwins together: Zetterberg/Datsyuk/Holmstrom Franzen/Filppula/Frolov Cleary/Hudler/Bertuzzi Abdelkader/Helm/Eaves Miller Eurotwins apart: Franzen/Zetterberg/Cleary Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Frolov Hudler/Filppula/Bertuzzi Abdelkader/Helm/Eaves Miller

Abdelkader, Ericsson, Salei? Sure, they're not heavyweights or enforcers, but they'll drop the gloves. Quit twisting the facts and people might take you seriously.

So let's work this out. On defense: We send New Jersey two skilled offensive defensemen who are currently part of one of the strongest top-four defense units in the league, including the core of our post-Lidstrom defense, and receive a solid defensive defenseman who is the number five defenseman, even playing behind rookie Matt Taormina. At forward: New Jersey trades their best forward, and one of their three forwards who are both capable of being significant contributors and are under 30, and picks up one who is noticeably less skilled. So Detroit gives up two of the league's most skilled offensive defensemen and a secondary forward to gain another high scoring forward and a defensive defenseman, while New Jersey gives up their top forward and a depth defenseman to gain offensive ability from the blueline. New Jersey ends up going from little to almost no scoring at forward for their newfound offensive defensemen to take advantage of, while Detroit ends up giving up a huge portion of their puck movement on defense and adding to the logjam at forward. Terrible trade idea.