eva unit zero

Cullen is 33 and makes Hudler's cap hit this season, turning UFA in the summer, and has been a consistent second/third line forward the past few years who has played first unit PP time. Umberger has a cap hit of $3.75m the next two seasons (WTF?) while being a 45-55 point scorer playing first-line ice time and second-line PP time. Cullen will be going for a raise. Umberger costs a million more over the same time frame, and is two years older. Plus RJ would cost assets because he's under contract. Umberger's numbers are inflated from playing with guys like Richards, Carter, Nash, Briere, Gagne, while Hudler has had wonderfully productive players like Draper, Maltby, Filppula, Kopecky, Helm, Samuelsson and Cleary on his line during the 08-09 season, none of whom cleared 20 goals or 40 points during that season while Hudler was the highest scoring player of any of the three (Hudler/Cullen/Umberger), despite the fact that the other two were often the second or even third highest scorers on their line based on end-of-season production. Neither Umberger nor Cullen is particularly capably on the wing, and none of the three are terribly stellar on faceoffs, meaning none would be a very good choice to center a checking line, and again I mention only Hudler has shown the ability to maintain his full ability while playing on the wing. So how are either a better choice than Hudler? I'll give you a hint. They're not. Hudler is a better choice to play on the wing with Dats or Z (who he has proven chemistry with, and who have better faceoff skills than Cheeseburger or Cullen) and Filppula on the third line is a much better choice than either. Save money on a player who fits better? Definitely.

Ozzie should have been in after game 2. Now it's just a matter of whether he starts, and if so whether he keeps enough out of the net for the Wings' 2-3 goal offense to actually win. EDIT: Looking at the poll so far, I'm thoroughly amused. Howard has a similar showing in game 3 as he did in game 2, and the poll results flip completely based on voting so far? Interesting...

Since when did he get a raise from the 2-year, $2.875m deal he was given in arbitration that he will be coming back to? And how did he manage it, for that matter? And BTW...there are no better players than Hudler making his cap hit who are available on the free agent market. Before you say "Yeah, but what about the money we're getting back if Lidstrom takes a pay cut or retires?" I will respond with "Hudler is replacing Jason Williams, who costs $1.5m" so that's only a $1.375m increase and it's likely that Holmstrom will take a pay cut if he returns, further reducing that. If Bertuzzi negotiates a deal, he'll likely ask for around $2.5m-$3m so I don't know if he'll be back. But regardless, who do you suggest we sign for $2.875m that is a UFA instead of having young, soon-to-be-prime top-line caliber scoring forward Hudler who can also play above-average defense? I can't wait to hear the response to this. It might be someone as good as RJ Umberger or Matt Cullen!

Play Ozzie. Now. Howard has given up poor goals to cost the Wings the lead and then the game in each of the past two games when the Wings had 3-2 leads in the third period. He should be benched for game 4 at the very least, more depending on whether the Wings lose (year over), win with Ozzie playing well, or win due simply to offensive prowess with Ozzie playing poorly. But regardless, Osgood should start game 4 and Babcock better ******* know it. Some of you have said "Osgood's playoffs started off pretty rough too" and you know what? You'd be dead wrong. Ozzie gave up one bad goal. Yes, it was very poorly timed. But Howard has consistently been giving up bad goals at bad times and killing momentum and leads, while Osgood's rookie year his netminding was the reason Detroit even made it to seven games; had it been Essensa like Bowman wanted, the Wings would probably have been swept. But the Wings are down 3-0 and their goaltender has been shaky at best. They have a backup who has been the league's top playoff goalie in each of the past two years, and was no worse this year in the regular season than he was last year. If you tell me that it's not worth a shot to risk putting Osgood in for game 4 on the chance that he might not f*** up like Howard has been doing, then you are too concerned with your Osgood hate to look at the facts.

Pfft. Reputation. Easy to get reputation points when nobody disagrees with your point of view and/or you don't get involved in "discussions" with other board members.

Hopefully this is so Lebda blocks shots with his face all night.

Why? WHY? Meech > Lebda Janik > Lebda Kindl > Lebda Why Lebda? WHY??? Is McLellan sleeping with Babs' wife and Babs doesn't know about it, and Babs' wife is telling him to make bad decisions?

It'll probably be Howard. Despite having several highly touted prospects, including some who have had solid seasons elsewhere (Joey MacDonald last year, for one) the last homegrown Red Wings goaltender to come out and take over the starting job in his first year or two before Howard was All-Star tender Chris Osgood. Before Osgood? All-Star tender Tim Cheveldae. Chevy inherited in from a long chain of veterans at the end of their careers. The last homegrown starter before Cheveldae? Minor-league goaltender Doug Grant, who started for half a season in 1973-74 before the Wings traded defenseman Ron Stackhouse to Pittsburgh for Jim Rutherford. So unless the pattern breaks, which is unlikely because since Chevy became the outright starter - in other words, since Detroit has started developing and playing their drafted goaltenders - the team hasn't missed the playoffs. Sure, there have been a couple seasons in there where the starter was not homegrown (Vernon, Hasek) but the majority of the team's key players were also built from within at the time. One of Larsson, McCollum, or Pearce may end up in an Andy Moog sort of role for a while (most likely Pearce, as he supposedly has the lowest potential) or it's possible all three end up traded. With Howard approaching his prime and the others younger, it's most likely that Larsson will end up traded if Osgood ends up re-signing, and if Ozzie retires by 2011 then 2011-12 will let us see who is really the better goaltender, Howie or Larsson. If Ozzie stays, then this leaves McCollum as Osgood's "expected" replacement, as Howard will likely have more than enough playoff experience for a young backup to learn from him as he has learned from Osgood, and Ozzie learned from Vernon.

1) I don't have impossibly high expectations for a goalie. I expect a goalie to make the stops he is supposed to make. Howard did that on most occasions during the regular season after he managed to improve his rebound control from the first couple of months. Ozzie was having a decent start to the season, not great but decent, but then Howie took off while Ozzie was out with the flu and Ozzie never managed to shake the rust when he came back as Howie's backup. 2) I don't think Hudler is perfect. I am sick of that s***. I think Hudler is a top-line caliber forward who is an elite-level playmaker, has a good shot, is better than average defensively, and is an above-average skater who could use some improvement in his speed. Perfect? Hardly. I would rate him slightly above Filppula overall, with a different skill set. If I had to pick one for the Wings, it would be Hudler because Flip's primary advantages are speed, faceoffs, and defense, and we have guys like Helm, Abby, Miller, Eaves, Cleary, not to mention Z and Dats who can cover that stuff but Flip doesn't have the playmaking or finishing skill Hudler does. Ideally, both on the team because both have chemistry together, and both have shown chemistry with Dats, Z, and Franzen. That's your top five forwards all having shown the ability to interchange on lines. That's one of the major reasons I wanted Hudler back-plug it in however you want, you have two highly skilled scoring lines with players who have proven chemistry together. And BTW, yes, that does mean I feel Flip is a top-line caliber forward. 3) I fully support Jimmy Howard, and have supported him since we drafted him. I have supported him through all the Larsson/McCollum hype and was against the "Trade Howard, we don't need him" posts that were showing up on LGW this past summer. Howard did put up an excellent performance in game 2. Didn't I say that before? Anyway, you could make 50 saves on 51 shots, but if the 51st is a glove save where you toss the puck towards your defenseman and instead it's to a forechecker who immediately dumps it in the net with 15 seconds to go, how much of a factor was your performance in the loss?. How many Wings fans blame Osgood for the 1994 series loss, even though his goaltending opposite the sieve Essensa was the only reason that series went past five games? 21 year old rookie Osgood, who was playing in his 97th pro game at any level and made a mistake, and the entire series was laid at his feet despite the fact he was one of if not the best player on the team in that series. Osgood gave up 12 goals in five starts, while Essensa gave up 9 in two. Osgood was great for the Wings in 94, yet is blamed for the loss. I don't blame Howard for the loss, nor would I blame him for a series loss because the Sharks have so far been the better team, but Howard giving up weak goals at bad times certainly does not help matters. And I am certainly less forgiving of a 26 year old goalie in his 5th pro year who has had the opportunity to learn from a multiple-Cup-winning goalie all year than I am of a 21 year old whose partners have been All-Star goalies with no real experience under late-round playoff pressure. 4) Osgood's regular season performance is what everyone is concerned about. I will say this, and then end my post: The real concern everyone has been having about Howard is that most of his games have been worse than Osgood's regular season performance over the past two years. So even if Ozzie shows up rusty and giving up a bad goal and 3 goals on the night, that's an upgrade over what Howard has shown most nights. If Ozzie "flips the switch", then it's go time.

Well, let's look at it this way. Figure the average team scores 235 goals, with the average first-line scoring forward scoring 70 points and the average second-line scoring forward scoring 45 points, with the average bottom six forwards scoring 20 points and the average defenseman scoring 30 points. The average goaltending duo makes maybe a total of $4m. The Wings are at $2.1m The average top 4 defensemen make probably about $18, and the bottom 3 defensemen make probably an average of $2m for a total of $20m on the D. The Wings are at $20.2 for the top four, and $3.283m for the bottom 4 for a total of $23.483m on the D. The average top 6 forwards make probably about $20m, and the bottom 7 make probably an average $9m for a total of $29m The Wings are at $24,787,878 for the top 6, and $7,057,333 for the bottom 7, for a total of $31,845,211 Filppula and his $3m work out to a solid second liner making an average second line salary. Next season, the Wings will get more topheavy on the top two lines with Hudler's return, as it will drop Williams from the roster, and it's likely that only one of Holmstrom or Bertuzzi will return. The top two lines consist most likely of Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen, Hudler, Cleary, and Holmstrom/Bertuzzi with Filppula centering a solid third line with perhaps Miller and Abdelkader. As far as trading him, if he can be traded for a reliable goal scorer, that's a good deal. Drop Cleary to the line with Abby and Miller, and we're golden.

Here's how those goals were Howard's fault: The "goalmouth scramble" goal only happened because Howard came 2 light years out of the net. Had he not been five feet out of the crease with two or three Sharks down low, there would have been no danger at all. That was a huge failure on Howard's part and regardless of whether the defense failed to clear the puck, the goalie should have been in proper position and had he been, the puck is frozen and the play stops. The 3-on-1 was dangerous until the Sharks played it horribly. Heatley went to the bottom of the right circle while the other two skaters went to the slot right near the hash marks, where the Wing defender could cut off a pass to either player. This meant that to take advantage of the opportunity, the puck carrier had to shoot the puck or the 3-on-1 would be gone. Howard, who was at the edge of the crease, failed to either absorb the shot or direct the rebound towards the end boards, instead putting it right on the tape of the left-handed Thornton and giving him a wide open net to shoot on from short range. If that rebound goes where it should have gone, there's no goal on that play. It's like the "amazing" Hanzal second save. Howard stopped the first shot with his glove and couldn't trap it, instead throwing it right to Hanzal for a second chance. He stopped it, but it was his fault Hanzal got a second chance to begin with. People think "flashy save, wow!" or "3-on-1, no way the goalie could stop that" without actually looking at what happened during the play. Heatley f***ed that 3-on-1 up and the Sharks were lucky Howard has s***ty rebound control.

It's not how many saves you make. It's when and how you make them. Howard gave up two soft goals in the final 15:20, killing the Wings' momentum. The first let the Sharks tie the game, and gave them much more life. This put the Wings back on their heels as the Sharks increased their attack. Howard gave up another bad goal with only 7:23 remaining, putting the Sharks into a 4-3 lead with little time left in the game. 41 saves doesn't matter if he allows soft, game-changing goals at two pivotal moments of the third period. He could have made 100 saves and it wouldn't matter if he allowed those two goals and it changed the lead and won San Jose the game. As a goaltender, he should assume the most goal support he's going to get is 2-3 goals. If he allows 2 s***ty goals, he better be perfect the rest of the game. While he played well, he wasn't. Especially considering he was more than once saved by a teammate (VS once even called "Great save Howard" for a shot when Howard was flat on his back and the shot hit a kneeling Z in the logo) so there could have been even more bad goals to rant about. Bad goals at bad times are about the worst thing a goalie can give up, and Howard has given up more than a few this playoff run. The offense has come through for him a few times to cover that up, but it can't be there all the time. No team scores 4-5 goals every game... unless they're playing Howard the way he has played most of the playoffs.

Most important and clutch goal in hockey history? WTF? By what measure are you using to define it as that? The fact that Crosby scored it?

I'm 50-50 on it, but if I have to make a decision I would put Ozzie in because Howie has been giving up a lot of weak goals at bad times during this playoff run. People complain "Ozzie is terrible, he'll give up weak goals and a bunch of goals per game" yet seem to ignore the fact that Howard is doing exactly that. People don't want to see Osgood play like he did in the regular season if he can't "flip the switch", yet don't seem to realize that Howard is already playing like that so at worst we'll maintain the same level of goaltending, and probably switch back to Howard for game 4 if Ozzie doesn't cut it in game 3. If Ozzie shows up in game 3 and stuns the Sharks, he keeps playing and we see what he's got in him for this run.

That wasn't a bulls*** call, so much as they just called the wrong penalty. It was an absolute textbook crosscheck, dive or no dive. Bert deserved a penalty on that play.

I would have said Howard was the biggest reason the game went from 3-2 Wings to 4-3 Sharks... Both of the last two goals were weak goals that were directly his fault. 1) He came out of the crease to stop a shot as the Sharks were crashing the net, and dropped to the ice while giving up a rebound that the other team quickly acquires. Now he's outside the crease and unable to get back into position quickly while the puck is in possession of the opposing team. He doesn't, of course, end up getting back in net before the puck crosses the line. 2) He moved to the edge of the crease along the goal line stop a shot off the wing and rather than directing the rebound back to the corner or absorbing the shot, he put the rebound into the slot where there were two Sharks forwards. Empty net, goal. You can make excuses, but those two goals were Howard's fault and nobody else's. This is simply following an unnerving trend where Howard has allowed 3-5 goals in almost every game he's played so far, with at least two of those goals being goals he is directly responsible for.

Shot...rebound into slot where another Shark can put puck into empty net...goal. Stunning play.

Can Howard just make up his mind about whether he wants to play weak or strong and stay that way? This is driving me nuts.

Fedorov started his career as the clear cut second line center behind an already established superstar in Yzerman. Malkin started his career just as good, if not better, than Crosby. Fedorov established himself as a superstar after a few seasons when Yzerman missed 24 games with a knee injury; Malkin established himself as a superstar as soon as Crosby did. After Fedorov established himself, he took over the top role and Yzerman took the second line without complaint. Malkin and Crosby are both top talents, and both want to be paid like top talents, so it would not be surprising to see Malkin end up out of town after this contract or the next one, simply because Pittsburgh can't afford to put that much cap space into two players.

I don't know how far back you go... But dividing it up into stretches of five years, going back to the beginning of the 80s (the earliest hockey I have seen live) and by position, these are the top performances over those five year groups: 2006-2010: Zetterberg/Lidstrom/Brodeur 2001-2005: Sakic/Lidstrom/Brodeur 1996-2000: Yzerman/Lidstrom/Hasek 1991-1995: M.Lemieux/R.Bourque/P.Roy 1986-1990: M.Lemieux/R.Bourque/P.Roy 1981-1985: W.Gretzky/R.Bourque/B.Smith Obviously injury and/or temporary retirement affected certain players coming out on top in certain periods (a healthy Lemieux would almost certainly have been the top forward from 96-2005 if healthy, and Konstantinov the best D in 1996-2000 if not longer) but this has to be based on overall performance for a five year period, which absence does make a difference in.

Huds IS a good offensive center. Just FYI.

So you think that playing a year in the KHL will cause Hudler to regress two years in development rather than improve in ability? That is a ridiculous statement. Even if Hudler stayed at exactly the level he was when he last played for Detroit, he will be more productive than 57 points because he was improving considerably as the 08-09 season went on. In a ten game stretch from Jan 31st to Feb 18th Hudler posted 3g-7a-10pt. That's a point per game, which projects to 25-57-82 over the 82 games Hudler played. In the eight games before that, Hudler scored 2-5-7, projecting to 21-51-72 over 82 games. Over that entire 18 game span, it's 5-12-17, projecting to 23-55-78 in 82 games. Hudler had 12 multiple-point games in 08-09 while playing fewer than 15 minutes (including once scoring 3 points in only 8:34 played). Datsyuk had 30 multiple point games, and Zetterberg had 17, but Dats didn't play less than 15 minutes in any game and Z played less only in the game he was injured, in which he only scored 1 point. This idea that Hudler will be some weak third-line/fourth-line Jason Williams-type offensive force just because he played a year in Russia is ridiculous. How was Helm in 2009 compared to the 2008 playoffs, and then in 2009, and how about now? Howard? Those two are greatly improved over that span, yet spent much of it in the AHL. If playing in a lesser league makes you weaker, how come they improved? How come Howard got so much better than the first time we saw him out of college? How about Osgood during his conditioning stint last season? Shouldn't that have ruined his career by your logic, and made him Conklin's clear-cut backup? Playing in lesser leagues doesn't make you weaker if it gives you the opportunity to work on areas of your game where you could use improvement. Hudler's strengths are offensive IQ, and his shooting, passing, playmaking and stickhandling skills. The things he could use improvement on to become more of the "prototypical" Wings forward (i.e. Sergei Fedorov/Steve Yzerman) would be to improve his footspeed and to improve his defense, although both are above average.

Eighteen. Only six teams in the league, not including O6 teams, have matched or surpassed in their existence the number of Cups that Osgood has won as a starter. Colorado, Edmonton, New Jersey, NY Islanders, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Speaking of such things... People often bring up Cup rings as part of how to measure a player's greatness. The Wings have won 11 Cups. Normie Smith was the starter twice, Harry Lumley once, Johnny Mowers once, Terry Sawchuk three times, Mike Vernon once, Chris Osgood twice, and Dominik Hasek once. In other words, if Osgood having surpassed a great deal of Sawchuk's team records isn't enough, Osgood is also tied for second in Cups as a starter in Detroit.

Hudler is likely to end up as a top-six forward at even strength next year. That's in addition to his ice time on the PP. In Hudler's last season with the Wings, the top six forwards in ES ice time averaged 13:56 at ES. That's 3:19 more than Hudler was getting, a 31.2% increase in ice time. If Hudler gets "average" top-six ice time, the same kind of PP minutes and PK minutes, and produces the same per-minute numbers he produced in 2008-09, he would finish with 28 goals and 38 assists for 66 points. Tell me again how I have nothing that backs that prediction up? Hudler may not have been playing in the NHL, but even if he is the same player he was the day the season ended in 2009 and has not improved overall since then, he'll probably post better numbers than he did over the course of that year.

Realistically, he will probably score about 30 goals and 70 points if he is played on the top two lines like he should be. Possibly even more.