eva unit zero

A goaltender deserves no more shutouts than he gets.

Bert was laying on Moore's back. The top of Bert's head does not reach past the middle of Moore's head. The Avs players pile on Bert's back. Where do you get the idea that the pile on broke Moore's neck? The laws of physics certainly disagree with you.

Zetterberg, Ovechkin, Stamkos, Keith, Doughty, Miller. HM: Datsyuk, Lidstrom, Crosby, Toews, Weber

Bert fell because Moore did? That's BS. Also, Bert slugged Moore with his right hand, and then grabbed his head with his left and forced him face-first into the ice surface. A good video that shows a couple different angles of the hit, and also shows the fact that Moore's hit on Naslund was not some dirty Marchment-style knee-hunting, but rather a race for the puck:

Perhaps you don't understand things very well. If you look back into history, using the Gregorian calendar, you will reach 1 A.D., and then what happens after that? When you keep going THERE IS NO YEAR 0. You count down past the year 1 A.D and get to the year 1 B.C., and start counting upwards. To use an analogy: Every year, you eat one banana on your birthday. Then you change and start eating apples instead. If you base a calendar on this change of fruit, the first year would be 1 apple, 2 apples, etc. and before that you would be counting the number of banana years before the change. How do you apply a year zero, when you would have eaten either an apple or a banana?

I didn't miss that one

Bertuzzi is a good player and I can deal with him being on the Wings. I still don't like him. What many of you have forgotten about the Moore incident is that Bertuzzi ignored his coach and stayed on the ice when he was supposed to have left for a line change, so that he could be on the ice with Moore. He then followed Moore around the ice trying to instigate a fight, while Moore ignored him and tried to stay with the play. Bertuzzi got frustrated, punched Moore in the back of the head, and drove him face first into the ice. None of that involves anyone other than Bertuzzi. It's not "the code" unless that changed from having to face fists if you threw a dirty hit to actually having to get injured; Moore had already fought in retaliation for the Naslund hit. Even given all of this, Heatley deserves more hate. He was driving intoxicated, through a residential area, and was going 50 mph over the speed limit. He was going so fast that his car hit an iron gate and SPLIT IN HALF. Dan Snyder, his teammate and passenger, was ejected from the car; he fell into a coma and later died. Heatley served three years probation as part of a plea bargain in which he plead guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide, driving too fast for condition, failure to maintain a lane and speeding. He is technically a convicted murderer, and rightfully so.

My point was that using the Gregorian calendar as we do, if we are to say "team of the decade" and refer to "the 90s" and such, then we must properly recognize where those decades start. If we are simply using periods of ten years, then it makes no less sense to start at the beginning of the NHL and count ten-year periods from there.

As opposed to, say, Shawn, Shaun, Sean, Shean?

Yes, when a baby is born it is 0 years old. Meaning that it has not lived a full year yet. A baby that is born between March 1st, 2011 and February 29th, 2012 will live 365 days and still be 0 years old in that it has not yet reached its first birthday. But you are also an idiot. The calendar we use is based on when the birth of Jesus is believed to have happened. There are years that happened before it, and years that have occurred since. As you clearly are not very intelligent, I will enlighten you. After 1 B.C. came 1 A.D., there was no "Year 0" which fell in between. The first decade A.D was 1 A.D to 10 A.D. There was, it simply was not called as such. But for the purposes of our current calendar system, it matters. Yes, a decade is a period of 10 years. But if we're basing them on numbered decades from our existing calendar, then it's 1991-200 and such. If we're simply basing it on the decade as a period of ten years, then why not divide it up starting with 1916-17 through 1925-26? If we're ignoring decade division from 1 A.D, then why not count starting with the inception of the league? That makes more sense than random division.

The 1990s are 1991-2000, and the 2000s are 2001-2010. Decades don't start on a 0.

Well, compared to labor in the US, it is an additional 20% on average...

I don't think you understand what an antitrust law is.

"Ozzie will be rusty, Jimmy should start." "Don't start him, he'll be rusty and we'll lose!" "He's probably too rusty." "After all that time off he's probably built up some rust, J-Ho should probably be in net." Yeah...because sitting on the bench helps you not be rusty. Play Ozzie. He doesn't have elite numbers, but he's had some damn good games this year. Yes he's coming back from injury, but ya gotta play sometime.

Ann Arbor needs one just as much as Hamilton. Both are in areas capable of supporting a team that have a population which is highly interested in hockey. Ann Arbor is too close to Detroit, you say? You say that Ann Arbor shouldn't get an NHL team for this reason? Hamilton is about the same distance from Buffalo, and only half that from Toronto. Guess that should apply there too shouldn't it? The Detroit metro area has roughly the same population as the GTA. Detroit metro doesn't even include Ann Arbor, and we haven't even started talk places which are within an hour's drive of Ann Arbor such as Toledo, Flint, and Lansing. But one of the real problems with this is this fact; Buffalo draws a lot of their attendance from across the border. If Hamilton gets a team, that goes away and so do the Sabres. Is it worth it to put a team in Hamilton if you know going in that you are killing another existing team by doing it? It would be as if the Bruins had joined the league ten years after the Whalers. The Whalers would have drawn a large portion of their fan base from Boston, and then lost a large part of it when the Bruins joined. Put a team in Hamilton and Buffalo takes is hard up the ass, and probably ends up in Quebec or Winnipeg - if the Yotes aren't back in town as the Jets again.

Instead of rating compared to my own expectations like everyone else seems to be doing, I'm going to rate based on what everyone else was expecting before the season. Forwards Abdelkader: A. Can't seriously give him anything else the way he's played. Bertuzzi: B+ Cleary: A Datsyuk: A- Eaves: A Filppula: B+ Franzen: B+ Helm: B Holmstrom: C Hudler: C+ Miller: B Modano: C Zetterberg: A Defensemen Ericsson: A Janik: INC Kindl: B+ Kronwall: B+ Lidstrom: A Rafalski: A- (He has not been the king of defense Nick is, but he has 12 in 12.) Salei: B Stuart: A- Goaltenders Howard: B+ Osgood: A- Yes, I gave out a lot of A's and B's. but this is grading compared to what people on LGW were expecting from these players, not how these players are performing overall. For example, the general expectation was s***ty defense, no effort, and 35-40 points from Hudler. He's been putting in ok defense, good effort, but his point productionhas not shown up so he's out for 25-30 points. Filppula was widely called for 50-60, maybe even 70 (I said around 55) points plus good defense. Osgood was questioned as to whether the Wings needed to go out and get a veteran backup for Howard, maybe MacDonald was that guy, etc. Things were said like "Osgood is a guaranteed loss" and such stuff. And despite his lack of consistent play time he's played well with poor performances in front of him and had a better season overall than his past two regular seasons. And one guy who is getting no credit? Patty Eaves. Has anyone here even noticed that he has 4 goals in 18 games, which projects to 18 goals and 27 points. He's one of the team's best PKers and best defensive forwards. How in the heck are all of you giving him a ******* C for that? Certainly well above expectations, and actually probably worth at least a B- on straight comparison just from his offense and defense combined. Give the guy some damn credit. Hmm...maybe if Babcock plays Eaves on Datsyuk's wing for a game or two he'll be noticed for his contributions.

Edmonton has been in the red for two decades. The franchise is doing much better financially in the past few years, even without considering revenue sharing, so a move like this should be unnecessary. The only question is the arena, and that can't seriously push the team out of Edmonton.

But, but, Quincey had two good seasons Drake! Cut his minutes in half and he would have scored even MORE for the Wings!

Callahan definitely interfered. Crosby's slew-foot is less certain. Crosby does end up kicking out Callahan's skate, but Callahan sticks out his arm and them leans into Crosby when Crosby is skating up from behind him. Callahan gets his skates tied up on his own before Crosby ever kicks his skate, otherwise he might not have even fallen. I hate to defend Cindy, but not calling the slew-foot is perfectly justifiable the way it happened.

Doc, there is one problem with your statement. Quincey is a good player, but it wasn't a misstep. He did nothing in his entire career as a Griffin to outperform Derek Meech, who was his AHL teammate in 05-06 and 06-07. Meech earned a spot on the Wings' roster in 07-08 as the 7th defenseman, beating out teammate Quincey. In 08-09, Quincey, Meech, Lebda, and Chelios were all competing for the final three spots to fill out an eight man defensive unit. Quincey was unable to earn a spot ahead of the others. As for the "I let him go to give him more playing time" stuff. I have heard people say "Holland said this" but never seen it sourced, and I don't believe it for a second. Holland is not one to simply let other teams take his assets. And if he believed Quincey to be better than Lebda and Meech at the time, then one of those two would have been gone. Now you ask what exactly I mean when I say it wasn't a misstep? Kyle Quincey plays 20 minutes a game and has since LA.. Brett Lebda played 14-16 minutes as a Red Wing. Lebda also didn't play much on the power play, which Quincey does, and did in LA. Why is this important, you ask? Quincey's offensive production is only slightly better than Lebda's was at the same age. Quincey is a much better defensive defenseman than Lebda, but in comparison to Meech he was never significantly better defensively. Ultimately Quincey might be in the same situation as Meech is right now if their roles had been reversed.

It may not have fallen under the exact written "Avery rule" but it was still unsportsmanlike conduct. And that's what he was called for.

No kidding; Selanne is basically a Finnish Hudler with rocket skates. Filppula is FAR more comparable to Koivu, a two-way center with a significant tendency towards passing, than to Selanne, a skilled playmaker and scorer with defensive weakness.

Use your Goldeneye to find the Moonraker that Goldfinger has been using.

If you score four goals and are +6 in one game, and you play 5 games, and end those games with 4 goals, 4 points, and a +1...have you done well? Flip's line had a great first few games but has been offensively invisible for most of the season. Bertuzzi has been shifted around with Datsyuk and Zetterberg, and clicked like crazy with Cleary. But the BFF line, no matter its season numbers, has been very inconsistent. Maybe, and Hudler could too. We'll never know, as it has not and probably will never happen, even for a shift. Hudler is a natural center, this is true. But Babcock has only rarely played him at center due to his size. I have maintained for years that Hudler could do very well in the middle if he centered two big-bodied wingers who had decent third-line skill or better. My suggested second line in 2008-09 was Franzen/Hudler/Hossa. I think that line would have been absolutely killer; two big snipers and a top playmaker? Scary. Put that line behind DZH. As for the "earning the line" comment. Hudler scored 60 points in 2008-09. Yes that was two years ago. But it was also spent largely playing with Filppula. Hudler is on pace for his worst offensive season since his rookie year. Filppula may hit a career high in points this season, but he is playing significantly more than he has in previously seasons. Both players are riding below their normal offensive output, and both players have spent a large portion of their careers on the same line. It's not about whether Hudler is among the top six scoring forwards on the team. It's about whether it's the best fit for the team. Filppula had 2 points on Friday, after a 5 game pointless streak. In those six games, Detroit has scored a ton of goals. Why hasn't Flip's line been producing if it's such a great combination?

I hate to slam people who say I'm right, but... Flip is a solid second line forward. He may not be one of the better offensive second liners, but he's very good defensively. As for points, last year the "second line" level of offensive production (91st through 180th among forwards) was 51 points to 33 points. So scoring 40 points puts Flip's offense as a good level for a second line center. Accounting for his defense, that makes him a *gasp GOOD SECOND LINE CENTER. Hudler has been offensively present this season; he has been creating plays and scoring chances. Unfortunately, he has not ultimately scored many goals or picked up many assists. His normal production is on the edge between first and second line forward. As for defense, he has been less effective defensively this season than he was in 2008-09. However from the games I have seen recently he has started to show more of an effort to serve as a defensive forward, presumably due to his lack of production. Hopefully that carries over when he starts scoring again.