norrisnick

From the first game in March last year until now (including playoffs), Franzen has scored at a 49 goal per season pace (57 goals in 96 games).

Apparently. Since when are those marks the definition of "breaking out" and why does a "breaking out" have to encapsulate an entire season? Is it not possible that it *clicks* in March as opposed to October? He scored 57 goals along with 39 assists for 96 points in his last 92 games. Because your "book" is stupid. How is doing what Franzen has from March to March any less impressive than had he done it from October to October? Special, is only being used in reference to Franzen developing an elite offensive game this late in his career. Not that what Franzen is now, is special in some sense. He's a great goal-scorer but not particularly special. But the way his goalscoring has popped up out of nowhere IS special.

He's not as good, but still better than anyone else. Lidstrom shouldn't be held to a higher standard than anyone else. You don't win the Norris for getting close to Nick. You have to be better. Automatic claim? No. But he certainly sets the standard. Lidstrom and to a lesser extent Lilly are the only two guys keeping the defensive group from being rock bottom defensively. The woes are pervasive, but Lidstrom isn't adding to them. Can you imagine Rafalski's D if he wasn't next to Nick? Nik and Stuart have been a trainwreck as our 2nd pairing. Kronwall is going to finish the year with more goals against scored while on the ice than Lidstrom. That hasn't happend since 1995 when Paul Coffey did it. Nik is the second option ES and on the PK and he's been on the ice for more goals that Lidstrom. That's abysmally bad and there is no way Lidstrom can help that. So that's the crux of it then. You're sick of the attention he gets. Too bad he isn't Russian, eh? Considering Stevie never won a Hart it wouldn't be anything like it at all. Not to mention he was playing on one leg and literally a shadow of his former self. Nick is still the best D in the league. The only time Stevie had an argument for being among the best forwards was in his 80s heyday when he got blocked out by Wayne and Mario. He hasn't because no one has done anything to beat him. Not Chara. Not Green. Not Boyle. Not Streit. Not anyone.

Nothing. You're barking up the wrong tree, sparky.

Yeah. That play was just barely more embarassingly awful than the botched 5on1 the Caps had earlier in the day. The Caps turned it over and created a breakaway going the other way that Staal then cleaned up for an easy tap in.

Clarke and the rest of the abomination that Shero put together in the '70s hurt hockey more than anything Bettman has ever done.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the product. There is a whole hell of a lot wrong with the marketplace though. When a team has been 1st in the conference for well over a decade, excitement and energy is exceedingly hard to generate. Fans are in regular season mode every bit as much as the guys on the ice are. And sure, if you compare the playoff crowds in Detroit to the ones in cities that are glad just to make it that far, you're going to be left a bit wanting. And if fans turn on the team, they can off themselves as I highly doubt Ilitch or Holland or anyone else associated with the Wings gives two s***s about them. They're in it to win. And back to Bowman. He diminishes the role of fighting on his teams as much as possible. If you can't play, he doesn't have time for you. Dig through the rosters of his teams. The guys that can fight but can't do anything else worthwile find themselves leaving in short order. And finding fighters that can play is pretty hard to do as you've got to find them when they're 17-18 years old and you have no idea how they'll be like in their 20s. Holland would be tickled pink if he could land a guy like Lapointe or 90s McCarty. For every Lucic and Neal and Backes that makes it there are at least dozen big draftpicks that never got anywhere. But pining for those dozens of scrubs or guys like Downey or Norton or Big Snake or whoever else they bring to training camp is just pointless. You work yourself up in a lather over guys that won't make a meaningful impact.

The style of hockey the Wings play has nothing to do with Bettman and everything to do with Bowman. And if it isn't 'real' hockey, then I'm fairly certain you have no idea just what 'real' hockey is supposed to be.

One-timers, high or low, are easier on the offhand wing. On plays where they cut to the net it might make sense staying on their usual side, but usually it's just Nick and Raf and sometimes Pavel passing it around and neither one cuts down low for the backdoor play. Considering we're primarily a shooting/crease crash PP it's stupid not to do so on a 5on3 as well.

Remarkably Osgood may be seen as the steadier of the two, but short of three-peating the Vezina and picking up a Conn Smythe or two on the way to more springtime silver there is no way Osgood touches what Sawchuk did from '51 to '55. And without coming close to those years, no collection of numbers will put him ahead.

Considering our PP as a whole is lapping the league being 5th in 5on3 scoring is pretty bad. Way too casual and deliberate for having such a prime opportunity to score. Why waste 20-30 seconds passing around the edges before you finally put your primary shooting options into position?

The biggest problem is that Nick and Raf take way too freaking long to switch sides. It should be instant. That opens up a ton of options because both are now threats to one-time the puck.

Osgood and Sawchuk have played 22.3% of Detroit's games. What is truly interesting is that Sawchuk had a 47.8% winning percentage compared to Osgood's 57.5% in Red and White.

Easily? No. It is next to impossible for the Flames to catch the Wings. There is no way in hell they put up 12 more points over the last 14 games. That's not happening. Even if the Flames were to go 14-0 the rest of the way the Wings would only have to put up a very pedestrian 9-5 to still end up ahead. Flames go 12-2 the Wings only need to go 7-7. Flames go 10-4 the Wings still get the 2nd seed going 5-9. It's more likely that Chicago catches us and that's not happening either.

Cleary - Datsyuk - Hossa Holmstrom - Zetterberg - Samuelsson Hudler - Filppula - Franzen Kopecky - Draper - Helm/Maltby Lidstrom - Rafalski Kronwall - Stuart Ericsson - Lilly Lebda/Chelios/Meech Osgood Conklin

The best is Ilya Kovalchuk getting busted with the illegal stick. Going to the box with some jobber's stick because he had no legal ones. Then promptly scoring as he gets out and showing off the stick to the opposition as he skates back to the bench.

I don't want Bobby Orr. I want Big Bird.

Background vocals blow Jagger's out of the water.

During Fedorov's 13 year Red Wing career the Wings had more Swedes than Russians only once. And that was Sergei's rookie year when he was the first and only Detroit Russian and the Wings had Johan Garpenlov and Par Djoos on the roster. Hell, for 3 years in the early 90s Lidstrom was our only Swede as we were accumulating the Russian 5 and after Eriksson left and before Zetterberg joined up Nick and Homer were our only Swedes. It wasn't until after the '04-'05 lockout that the Swedish explosion happened.

Antropov was a longshot, but I'd have flipped Flip for him and a pick.

Exactly my point. It's not as if random NTC holders waive their clauses and THEN the team decides to trade them. The GM approaches the player saying they've got a trade lined up, will you waive the clause? And so and and so forth. If a GM tells a player he doesn't want him anymore and he's looking to trade him, more often than not the player doesn't want to stick around. I sure wouldn't.

By being good offensively. +/- is not a defensive statistic.

Players with NTCs get traded every single year. The only thing a NTC seems to insure is that you don't get traded to a team you don't want to play for. But if a team wants to get rid of you, very rarely does a NTC stop it from happening.