eva unit zero

If my team is struggling to score goals, and I have a choice between: A) a defenseman (Commodore) who is solid defensively but doesn't provide much offense. B) a defenseman (Smith) who is weak defensively but might provide an extra goal worth of offense every now and again. I would use option A every time. Every single time. Why? Better to win 2-1 than to lose 4-3.

Got it. If the rookie 4th liner is playing well, we trade a top-six forward for a draft pick. That makes sense to me. Everyone else on board?

Because putting a rookie and defensive liability will always help you win games over a veteran stay-at-home defenseman. What matters when winning games is goal differential, not goals scored. Preventing one is just as important as scoring one. Commodore wins that battle over Smith. Babcock thinks so too; otherwise Smith would have been on the roster to begin the season.

Ericsson needs to learn how to use his shot in a real game, and how to make an accurate pass at game speed. He has the physical tools right now to be a pretty good point man if he can learn how to put it together; he has not been able to do so in several years of development. At his age, you don't "develop" anymore. Either he'll learn or he won't.

It would roll out like so: Z/Dats/Flip Franzen/Hudler/Cleary Abdelkader/Helm/Bertuzzi Holmstrom/Emmerton/Eaves

If they felt the need to remove Stuart to play someone else during the games Smith is suspended, Janik or Exelby would have been the one called up. Perhaps they are having him serve his suspension and then he will take the ice, but realistically he is most likely only on the roster because the Wings can get some games off of his suspension while Commie is out and then they won't have to worry about calling him up later in the year.

If nothing changes, he'll be 10 goals, 10 assists, 20 points, +20... and have scored a point in every game.

Actually, third line scoring last season - as in the 181st through 270th forward by total points - would be 20 to 34 points. Hudler has ranked as a second liner or better in each of the last three seasons, and a very solid third liner the year before - which was his rookie season. He's a top six forward, and this season will prove to be a first liner.

Bernie Nicholls averaged almost 90 points per 80 games for seven seasons in Los Angeles playing mostly as the second line center. When Gretzky came to LA, Nicholls was placed on his Wing and scored 70 goals and 150 points; one of only five players to hit that mark and the only player ever do it on the wing, although because he was officially listed as a center he is not credited with the record ahead of Jagr's 149 in 1995-96. If you lay out the years Brett Hull played lower lines and then compare them in stark immediate contrast to playing as the go-to guy with a top playmaker, Hull ends up with a similar profile. Hull, fortunately, spent most of his career playing with skilled centermen. Nicholls was often his team's go-to-guy for scoring, or was put in a secondary role where he was easily the most talented player on his line. If you want a guy whose scoring benefited greatly from players around him, try Rob Brown. In his first three seasons he played 199 games, almost all on Mario Lemieux's wing. He scored 106 goals and 239 points in that time. The next season, 1990-91, Jaromir Jagr took that spot and Brown's production dropped enormously; he scored 16 points in 25 games before being traded to Hartford. Outside of those first three seasons, he posted 84 goals and 199 points in 344 games. Over an 80 game season, that is a change from: Lemieux: 43-53-96 Not Lemieux: 20-27-47 His production more than halved when he was separated from Lemieux, despite the fact he should have been in his prime. By comparison, Nicholls' production with Gretzky in the 127 games they played together compared to pre-Gretzky was as follows: Pre-Gretzky: 39-48-87 With Gretzky: 62-81-143 Yes, there is a serious disparity. But Nicholls still averaged 79 points per 80 games without Gretzky, despite finishing his career out as a defensive center and team leader in San Jose. Removing his time with Gretzky and his time in LA and his time in San Jose keeps him at over a point per game. Pretty impressive for someone who "needed an elite center" to succeed. If you take away Hull's seasons with Oates, he averages almost exactly the same points-per-game as Nicholls did without Gretzky. Interesting.

So is Drew Miller. David Legwand leads the league in scoring, and has more than twice as many points as Datsyuk; he's on pace to score 55-137-192 this year. Zetterberg and Datsyuk only have 4 points between them in 3 games. Trade Datsyuk and Zetterberg for Legwand NOW, before we're stuck with old do-nothings and Nashville has the best player ever to lace them up!

That's debateable. Hudler didn't have a great series against San Jose after having done extremely well in 2008 and 2009. He didn't create many chances for the first 15 games or so of last season and then didn't capitalize for the next 15 after that, before finally starting to produce. He ended up having a stellar second half, but overall his season was poor compared to expectations and his previous performances - and ultimately a disappointment - despite the fact his scoring was at low-end top-six forward level. Franzen had a great first half before disappearing down the stretch. He looked good offensively in the first game of the playoffs but was poor defensively, and was then injured and it was hard to tell whether his ineffective play after that was injury-related or simply a continuation of his slump. But overall, Franzen's season came out to about what was expected of him; he put up around 50 points, and led the team in goals. If the second half play of each player continues into this year, Franzen will definitely have some 'splainin' to do. But right now Hudler is the one who is in the hot seat. Well, Ericsson probably moreso, given his new deal, Hudler's past performances in 2008 and 2009, and the way Kindl has been consistently pressing on whoever is above him in the depth chart (nearly stealing Salei's spot last year, pushing hard to take the #5 spot this year) one could say that E is the guy who has the most to prove.

You DO realize that teams can only dress 12 forwards, right? Holmstrom's not in your lineup. Helm is there twice. So what happens; Helm centers his own line AND plays on Z's wing, or the Wings roll three lines and use Eaves, Miller, and Homer maybe 5-6 minutes a game each with half or more being special teams?

Ericsson takes all day to wind up, as quoted above. Meaning he can almost never actually get a slapper off. Hudler has a better - and harder - wrister shot. Plus he can actually get a slapper off from the point. Ericsson also has terrible hockey sense, and pinches at bad times. Hudler might not be great defensively, but he's played the point in Europe and in the AHL and knows when not to pinch. Ericsson would be much more of a weak link than Hudler, because he doesn't provide Hudler's playmaking or hockey sense, and as stated before he can't use his shot in most game situations. Hudler>Kindl>Stuart>Ericsson Hudler doesn't have Williams' speed, but he's not reckless and stupid like Williams. Williams was a good passer with a hard, accurate shot and good wheels. He didn't have good hockey sense and wasn't good defensively. So he made bad pinches and didn't know what to do when they went wrong. Hudler is FAR better than Williams in hockey sense and defensive play, as well as passing skill. Williams' skating might be his only significant advantage.

Jari Kurri is one of the best wingers to ever play. Sure, his stats would not be as good had he not played with Gretzky. But he was an absolutely elite goal scorer, and a top notch defensive forward. In his prime there wasn't a better winger on either side of the rink. I would personally rank him above Brett Hull all-time. Brett Hull had a couple good seasons without Adam Oates. When he was playing with Craig Janney, another top playmaker. But he never scored 50 goals (or 50-goal pace, if you project the 95 season) without Oates or Janney.

It's about the East/West travel. Being in the East means you don't have to play away games at 10:30pm, while the opposing team is playing their away games at 4:30pm. HUGE difference there. Solution: move Winnipeg to the Northwest, Minnesota to the Central, Detroit to the Northeast, Pittsburgh to the Southeast, and Boston or Buffalo to the Atlantic.

Bert's afraid of getting banned for life if he does something suspension-worthy. Especially with Shanahan throwing out suspensions out like candy.

Franzen's lazy play was the direct cause of a key goal against and was responsible for several other significant scoring chances in that 1 1/2 games. If anything, he was a nonfactor if not a negative factor for the Wings in the time before he got hurt. Going back a couple of years, he used to play well defensively. When he first started in the league he was a defensive specialist, and was very effective at it. It was probably around halfway into the 2008-09 season that his defense really started to disappear. It wasn't just lazy backchecking, but his general mode on the ice turned from a hard working forward with a good shot to a lazy forward with a good shot. Franzen is capable of being much better; if he worked as hard as he did in his first three years, he could probably score 40 goals and 70 points while playing strong defense.

Nah, it would be much worse if I were relentless. I would be known as Franzen's biggest hater instead of Hudler's biggest fan.

Hmm, you're right. Over the past five seasons, Franzen has averaged 53 points every 82 games. Hudler has averaged 42 points every 82 games. Before last season it was Franzen with 51 and Hudler with 43. So both players have been quite solid over the past five seasons. Last year, each had a pretty terrible slump that lasted around 30 games. But one is considered an elite sniper and one is considered easily replaceable by LGW posters.

Not inconsistent? His last 27 games last year he scored 2-10-12. With Datsyuk and Zetterberg at varying times. In the 30 game stretch where Hudler was considered to be an AHL player by LGW, he scored 1-5-6. With an unproductive puck-hogging Modano and an injured Cleary. Roberts also was perfectly capable of producing without a slick center; Franzen is too, he just needs to work hard.

This is my point. Franzen signed a contract at the same time Hudler did. Franzen's was based on a couple good runs and hasn't delivered anywhere near as close to the promised product as Hudler has on his contract. People ignore that because "he was a beast two or three years ago in the playoffs." He even admits to slacking off in the regular season. And despite that, he hasn't delivered in the playoffs. Including playoffs last year, he scored 4 goals and 11 assists in his last 35 games. Mostly with Dats, Z, or both. He's signed for what, another ten years? I'll take Hudler at that $4m over Franzen if we have to take the entire ten seasons. Although my bet is on Franzen retiring in around four or five.

Theoretical situation. And in two years, when both of Franzen's knees are 98% carbon fiber and he's contemplating retirement, do you think he'll still outperform Hudler in the playoffs?

Franzen looked like s*** in last year's playoffs aside from a couple good shifts. And then he got hurt, and people started giving him the ankle excuse as to why he wasn't doing well, even though he was skating about as well as he normally did. Zetterberg and Datsyuk were both better in 2010. Datsyuk was FAR better last year. Z was hurt last year but much better when he did play. And Z was better in 09. And 08, for that matter. Franzen did outscore Dats in the last three years, but both Dats and Lidstrom outplayed him. And before you say "Well, that's three top players..." let's look at the last three playoffs both Huds and Franzen played in. Franzen had 44 points in 47 games playing with Datsyuk and/or Zetterberg. Hudler had 29 points in 55 games playing with Filppula, Draper, or Helm. Over 82 games, those numbers work out to 77 for Franzen and 43 for Hudler. Now we take away the requisite 20 that was brought up earlier from Franzen and get 57. That's not a huge difference, given ice time differences between the two. Were it Hudler on Dats or Z's line, would he be the "clutch playoff performer" instead of Franzen?

Franzen can open up ice just fine. His biggest issues are that he's lazy and inconsistent. They're probably related. He could be a dominant two-way power forward (think early 90s Gary Roberts) if he weren't lazy. He used to be a defensive specialist, but then he became a sniper and stopped working on defense.

Lilja doesn't look like Gerard Butler's character in 300. Gerard Butler's character in 300 was made to look like Lilja.