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And yet another thread goes by with things people don't like being blamed as "Bettman's opinions" rather than Bettman representing the will of the NHL's BoG, which is what the real deal is. So many ignorant asses. How come none of you realize that Bettman is little more than a figurehead, who occasionally serves as a mediator between the Board members and his main job is to represent the interests of the League. Commissioner is not the same as President; league President, which came before Bettman, had the power you think Bettman has. The Commissioner's position does not have nearly that kind of power because the Board felt that the President was too powerful. Bettman's primary duties are to serve as a negotiator for the league, representing league positions. He cannot actually agree or disagree to a deal with the NHLPA or another organization; he can merely negotiate concessions for a deal and make recommendations to the BoG regarding a proposal. Part of the reason he was able to push back with such force against the NHLPA in 2004 is that the BoG voted to give Bettman the power to veto any deal the players proposed with the backing of just eight owners, or 26.7%. Ultimately this gave Bettman the ability to push forward the owners' agenda with strength, but only due to BoG solidarity. Look for negotiations involving the NHL, KHL, and IIHF between now and 2014 because that is likely what it will take for the NHL to show up in Sochi. If it doesn't happen, the NHL is not there in 2014, and then comes back in 2018.

Just noticing these two consecutive posts was quite amusing, even though I realize the second was a response to an earlier post.

What makes Maltby a harder worker than a guy like Shawn Burr, Gerard Gallant or Brad McCrimmon?

The big difference is the "out with the old" mentality you are criticizing is people who want Maltby gone because he's a late 30s player who has become a part-time player and is no more effective at what he does that six or seven other guys in the system if not ten. The job analogy doesn't even work; you know why? If Maltby weren't able to find an NHL contract this coming summer, and retired, he has more than enough money to live the rest of his life in luxury. Most of us don't make enough to live even a week in luxury without significantly planning ahead and saving money. A lot of us can't even afford to save money for a vacation at all because we are barely scraping by. And you are sitting here, basically wanting us to feel sorry for Maltby because people think he should be gone. I think you should stop posting while high.

The concourse...

I'm thinking if it is a Detroit deal, it's going to be a minor deal, and Holland has been shopping around Lebda to them looking for the best deal. Despite his flaws and the fact he should not be seeing ice in Detroit, he'd be top-six on every team listed above as having a scout. The only other logical player teams would be looking at who might be traded is Filppula, and even then Lebda would probably be included as the younger, cheaper, more versatile Meech has outplayed him in the same role, and soon we won't have room for both. If Flip were to be traded in a package with Lebda to ultimately clear up space for Lilja, given that May has already been waived, the Wings would be looking at a scoring winger with a salary likely in the $2m range as well as a pick or two, and then recall Abdelkader. Matthew Lombardi? Rene Bourque? Scottie Upshall? I don't know their availability, and neither Phoenix nor Calgary were listed in the title, but those three are all solid scorers in the $2m range who are close to .6 PPG, have just shy of 20 goals this year, and are FAs at the end of the year, with Upshall as a RFA. Make a deal, something like Flip/Lebda to Phoenix for Upshall/Lombardi and a first. That could lead to lines like: Franzen/Zetterberg/Cleary Lombardi(Upshall)/Datsyuk/Bertuzzi Miller/Abdelkader/Williams Draper/Helm/Eaves Maltby Lidstrom/Lilja Kronwall/Ericsson Meech/Stuart Janik Howard Osgood

Cherry is biased; but his bias clouds his vision. He is constantly bashing European and American players regardless of their playing styles, and even moreso if they are not physical players. He is constantly praising Canadian players, and even moreso if they are gritty, physical players. Have you ever seen him get on Sidney Crosby's case or Wayne Gretzky's case for not being gritty, physical players? How about giving some praise to a guy like Danny Markov or Darius Kasparaitis for being heavy hitting defensive grinders who won't hesitate to drop the gloves? Cherry passes himself off as an expert, and he does know quite a bit about hockey. But if he is going to use the label "expert" during his show, he needs to push the bias aside, during the show at the very least.

Shooting percentage is a two-way stat, so it can't be taken completely accurately. Yes, it is a measurement of how many goals you score per shot, so in that sense it measures how accurate your shot is. However, as has been stated, you have to be open, get yourself open, and create opportunities for yourself to be able to take that many shots. Which means that a player with more shots than someone else with a similar amount of goals is likely a better shooter. But the real trick is, how do other players react to you? How does the rest of the league react to Ovechkin, Crosby, Marleau, etc? Ovechkin is always the guy who gets keyed on, and they try to prevent him from getting any shots. He still manages to get shots, and get a LOT of shots, and good ones. And get them in the net. Elite snipers; Ovechkin, Hull, Lemieux, those kinds of guys...these are the guys where shooting percentage is just irrelevant. You have an entire team trying to shut the guy down, and they get a goal or two anyway. Shooting percentage can be valuable information when comparing two guys who play similar amounts of time, focus on goal scoring a relatively equal amount, and are focues on by the opposing team an equal amount. But when you are talking about guys like Ovechkin who you just don't have comparisons to, there's no point in even looking at the stat. Compare Ovechkin's sht% to Marleau's? Oh, wow. Yeah, because if the opposing team keys on Marleau like they do on Ovechkin, they leave open the Thornton/Heatley duo. That's a real similar comparison, isn't it? Yes, Backstrom is a very good center, but he's not Thornton, and Knuble sure as hell isn't Heatley.

Filppula is growing into his contract. When he first signed it, he was overpaid. He is starting to play like a $3m player. We'll see at the end of the deal if he earned the whole thing. Not sure yet whether he's on that pace.

Now we just need Babcock to realize that Lebda needs to STAY scratched and we're golden.

All I said was that if he wants to come back, I'm sure that teams would be interested and I wouldn't be surprised to see him be interested in coming back to be the first Russian to hit the 500 goal and 1200 point marks; I mean he's only got a few years left if he wants to do it...both in terms of age and Ovechkin's production.

No, Howard was not the only Wing who wasn't perfect. But he was the primary, if not the SOLE reason the Wings went from a 4-3 win to a 5-4 OT loss. Do you know why? The Coyotes' fourth and tying goal with 23 seconds left was a pass from Shane Doan behind the net to Ed Jovanovski, who was standing at the top of the crease. Howard didn't see the pass, and was still looking behind the net while Jovanovski slammed the puck through his gaping five hole. Ok, so how is the OT winner Howard's fault? The Coyotes entered the zone, and the puck carrier was driven to the boards. He had been able to center the puck to a teammate, who took a shot from the high slot. Howard simply kicked the rebound away to the corner, where only Coyote captain Shane Doan could get it. The play continued with Doan passing to Lombardi, who would circle back around and then, pass to Doan who had moved towards then net. Doan returned the puck to Lombardi as he continued to cross in front, and Lombardi tapped the puck to Doan as he approached the crease. Howard, rather than staying on his feet and following the puck carrier across the crease or poke-checking the puck away from Doan, simply dropped to the ice as Doan crossed in front of him. Howard has played well this season, but he has been as responsible as anyone and moreso than most for the recent collapses. It's time for Babcock to give Ozzie some real game time, and a chance to prove that he's still got it.

And because he showed very solid chemistry with both of them in Washington. I have been calling this line for Russia since before they announced the teams; it's too obvious as a line with highly skilled players who have recently displayed strong chemistry. And before you make the "Fedorov is washed up" argument; In Fedorov's last season with Washington, he scored 11 goals and 22 assists for 33 points in 52 games, pro-rating to 17-35-52 in 82. He was then, and still is one of the best defensive forwards in the world. No, he's no longer the world's most dominant scorer/playmaker/defender/skater like he once was. But in the NHL he would still be a top-line forward on a large number of teams, and many teams would kill to add a player of his caliber. He signed in Russia because his father had a lifelong dream to see his two sons play on the same team, and he wanted that to happen. It's not at all an unrealistic suggestion that Feds may return to the NHL when his contract is up, pending injury of course. Yes, he'll be 41, but he is still a very swift skater with defensive skill and a powerful shot, and the motivation for Fedorov to play a second/third line supporting role hoping to get at least 17 goals (500 goals) and at least 21 points (1200 points) would not be far-fetched at all. All he needs is a team to take a chance on his ability, which he will get to show in the Olympics still exists at a high level.

No, today's hockey wasn't invented in England. If you use the NHL as "today's hockey" it was technically invented in the United States. If you define ice hockey as a game between two teams played on ice using skates, sticks curved at the end to form a blade, a puck or stone, and nets, then it was invented by the English in England. Rules, team sizes, etc. have varied over the years but the basics of the game have remained the same. If you want to go with the "today's version" argument, then Dr. James Naismith didn't invent today's basketball. The version his students played could either shoot or pass when they had the ball; they could not move their feet or dribble the ball. Fouls, scoring, etc. were also handled considerably differently. Look it up. Origins of sport does not mean "the exact sport we play today by the exact rules" unless you want to say the origin is where the most recent rule change occurred for the most dominant body of that sport.

Clearly, the loss should be blamed on Tim Cheveldae.

I was serious. Hudler is certainly a better option than Filppula to take Datsyuk's ice tie, at least in terms of offensive production. And as that's the nature of this thread based on the OP's post, Hudler certainly belongs.

LA has most of a roster signed for next season with plenty of cap space open. So ultimately, it comes down to what moves do they want to make, and what do they want in return for Johnson? Johnson has been the #4 defenseman for the Kings this year, and hasn't been popular with management. Could the Wings get him for something like Leino, Lebda and a 2nd?

Jiri Hudler?

Before this gets any further, you do know that ice hockey was invented by the English in England, right?

I never said that. All I said was that the three goals Osgood gave up were not WEAK goals. There is a difference between giving up a goal and giving up a weak goal. Backstrom's goal, in terms of shooter relative to goalie, was nearly identical to Brunette's tying goal on Howard in the Minnesota game. Was that a weak goal? No, because it was Howard and only Osgood gives up weak five-hole goals right? And Howard gave up the Wild's second goal because he kicked a rebound right into the slot. Howard is not perfect. He's good. Osgood is not terrible. He's good. The Ozzie haters need to shut the heck up with the "Ozzie hasn't played well enough to take the job back" because of this simple fact: OZZIE HASN'T PLAYED. Based on the last two games, I would pick Ozzie as the starter. Obviously, that's a ridiculous sample size. But the fact that the only sample size Ozzie gets is one game a month whether he gives up 5 goals or 1 goal just proves the point that Ozzie doesn't get a real chance to show he deserves to play.

Howard keeps his head in an Ozzie-like fashion, and gets his rebounds/positioning under control, as well as improving his stickwork (two things I have been calling for ALL SEASON), and he'll be a Vezina contender for years to come. If he can't fix those issues, the rest of the league will figure him out, he won't be keeping his numbers among the elite, and he'll be considered a tier-2 starter at best.

Miller is four months and 11 days younger than Leino. Arguing that Miller will not be any better than he is now while Leino has plenty of upside "because Miller has been around" is hogwash, as Miller is the younger player. It would be like saying Cristobal Huet has better future upside than Roberto Luongo because Luongo has played more NHL seasons. It's a factor completely unrelated to their future potential. No, they won't pull the plug on Leino. And that's not what this thread is about. This thread is "If you had to choose between Miller and Leino, two mid-20s wingers on the Wings who make less than $1m, who would you choose both for the current roster and going forward?" And the decision is pretty clearly to take the younger guy who works harder, has a more rounded game, and has contributed more to the team in his time here. Not a tough choice. If we're deciding "Who do you take if you need a highly skilled winger to play alongside an elite playmaker and a top power forward" then the choice might be Leino. But that's not the question, now is it?

Alexander Ovechkin is now in goal scoring territory that only Gretzky, Lemieux, and Bossy reached (250+ in their first five seasons) and Ovechkin still has half a season to go, plus he's done it in a much lower scoring league. Ovechkin has been the best player at his position since his first shift in the league four and a half years ago. It's not hard to argue he could be considered one of the elite all-time players. I would rank him top-three among LWs right now without a second thought, and I would say that Lindsay and Hull should be looking over their shoulder if he keeps up his amazing play and utter dominance. Offhand, this would be my all-time NHL team. With more time to think I might make some alterations, but I have to go back to work shortly. Gordie Howe Wayne Gretzky Mario Lemieux Steve Yzerman Ted Lindsay Bobby Hull Jean Beliveau Guy Lafleur Maurice Richard Mike Bossy Phil Esposito Stan Mikita Joe Malone Bobby Orr Nicklas Lidstrom Ray Bourque Doug Harvey Cyclone Taylor Slava Fetisov Eddie Shore Terry Sawchuk Vladislav Tretiak As for a 1st team and 2nd team of the best individual seasons of the past 30 years (no player repeats): 1st team: C: Steve Yzerman, 1988-89 LW: Alexander Ovechkin, 2007-08 RW: Brett Hull, 1990-91 D: Vladimir Konstantinov, 1995-96 D: Nicklas Lidstrom, 2007-08 G: Dominik Hasek, 1998-99 2nd team: C: Mario Lemieux, 1992-93 LW: Luc Robitaille, 1992-93 RW: Teemu Selanne, 1992-93 D: Raymond Bourque, 1990-91 D: Brian Leetch, 1993-94 G: Martin Brodeur, 1996-97 EDIT: Defensemen updated.

Drew Miller. I liked him better as a gritty, good skating two-way forward with top-six upside when he was a Duck and before Leino was a Wing, and I like him better with both on the roster. Plus, I think Miller still has that kind of upside. Leino's stock is dropping really quickly; he needs some time to sort out his attitude of entitlement if he's going to play anywhere in the NHL. If Leino played with the grit and speed of a guy like Darren Helm or Stacy Roest, he'd have at least 25 goals and 50 points by now. In terms of raw offensive talent, there are probably only maybe four forwards on the roster who have more than Leino; yet he is one of the worst offensive players on the team. Sad, really.

Babcock: "When Osgood makes a mistake, it's his fault and the only way he'll learn is if he rides the pine for a month." Babcock: "When Howard makes a mistake, it's because he's a rookie and he needs to get right back in there and play some more and learn." Babcock: "When Datsyuk isn't producing, it's because he doesn't have extremely talented players with him." I call BS on Babs.