norrisnick

They opened for Metallica last night. Ridiculously heavy and pure awesomeness.

Again, Ville made a favorable first impression. He isn't better than Hudler, even defensively. He's taller. That's it.

Hudler at this point is a reasonable upside for Leino. He's a couple inches taller, but they're pretty much the same type of player. He lucked out with a favorable first impression with Babcock, so he has that going for him. But at this point there is work to do for Ville to be as good as Hudler let alone better than him.

His best play is on the PP with Z and Franzen. He does well because they let him have the puck on a PP. When they were together 5on5 Z and Franzen both were playing very individualistic trying to beat defenses by themselves. During preseason they were a 3 man unit. No idea what changed when Toronto came to town. Hudler is best when he's moving the puck around with confidence. He didn't get that chance early in the season and since Jiri isn't one of Babcock's pet projects the patience lasted about 2 games. Put him on a scoring line and let him handle the puck and pass when it's smart to pass and shoot when it's smart to shoot (rather than chucking anything and everything at net) he'll be more than fine.

That rule only applies for multi-year deals and then only for the years after the first.

Which is a ridiculously misleading figure because the Wings have had only one 5 minute major (a fight) and zero 10 minute misconducts. Neither of which lead to shorthanded situations. The Wings have had the 5th most powerplays against in the league. That is bad. Really bad. Especially with the 22nd ranked PK...

Absolutely. Uwe only played 32 games of his 4 year contract. We need that kind of showing from Lebda. I can probably stomach an average of 8 games of Lebda a year.

See thread title...

Pavel winning the Selke was like a team's #2 defenseman winning the Norris. All season long Pavel talked about how playing on Z's wing allowed him to focus less on defense and more on offense because Z was doing all the work. Z applied the positional pressure and sheppharded the opposing players towards the defense and Pavel came up from behind taking pucks away.

Stick with the current plan. Oz likes it. Oz: Two for me. One for you. Two for me. One for you. Two for me. One for you...

That's part of the problem. Conceptually it makes sense for a righty to be out there with a lefty, but it doesn't jive with what we get out on the ice. That's one of Babcock's blind spots and it drives me nuts.

There are three great kids (and then some) at the top of next year's draft. Tavares. Victor Hedman. Magnus Svensson Pääjärvi. Any one of those three would help out the Leafs quite a bit.

Sixty-Seven!!! Sixty-Seven!!! Sixty-Seven!!!

You would think, but if you honestly watch what he does out there on a nightly basis you can't excuse it. He's a righty with better puck skills than Maltby or Chelios. Good job being better than Maltby and Chelios but you can't tell me that putting a guy like Stuart on that point will be a detriment. Hell, with Z and Franzen up front I'd rather have Sammy and Hudler switch positions. Hudler ran GR's PP from the point in '06 when he had his monster season. Better puck skills, decision making, etc... Sammy is better chasing down a guy should a PKer get by him, but Hudler would be better at preventing a turnover heading the other way to begin with.

And it is precisely those elements and Sammy's inability to function at even a basic level providing those elements that have made him the whipping boy. He's a trainwreck with the puck on his stick.

You do realize the one and only reason that Samuelsson is on the point to begin with is because he's a right-handed shot, right? Apparently that disqualifies everyone but Mikael, Maltby, and Chelios. Meech should be using all this extra practice time working on becoming ambidextrous.

So when's Pavel going to start scoring a couple?

He played 4 of 9. Had he played a few more his groin probably would have been a bit stronger/adjusted for the real games.

You mean like Cleary, Draper, Stuart, Lebda, Filppula and Kronwall?

I was thinking of the 2nd goal by Dawes. I can't get a replay of the 4th that goes far enough back to see the aforementioned pass, but I'll take your word for it. However, if it's plays like those that drive Babcock nuts, every single Red Wing has to be infuriating Babcock right now. Guys like Fil, Franzen, Kronwall, and even Datsyuk and Z have made some horrific turnovers in our first 5 games. Plays where they had full control of the puck, which it doesn't sound like Hudler ever had on this play. It's easy to pick on Hudler because he's been blasted from day 1, but it seems those initial perceptions won't ever go away.

That was a pass to Raf who was along the boards. Hudler was at the top of the circle.

If Hudler would have made a play to stop any of those 5 goals scored while he was on the ice, he should have been immediately benched for being wildly out of position and leaving his man undefended.

Hudler - Datsyuk - Hossa Holmstrom - Zetterberg - Franzen Cleary - Filppula - Leino Helm/Maltby - Draper - Kopecky Lidstrom - Rafalski Kronwall - Stuart Ericsson - Lilja Osgood Conklin

Ville only has $25K in bonuses. That's nothing.

Nope. Z was in the middle.