norrisnick

Last playoffs Filppula played 18 games and Hudler 6. Hudler still had more PP icetime. If there is one thing Babcock will not hesitate to do, it's play Jiri Hudler on the PP.

A. One season doesn't make a trend. B. Hudler is more likely to play on the PP than Filppula. You're right that Sammy is a fixture that won't go anywhere, but I don't see Hudler as the guy getting bumped off. He's by far the best playmaker/passer of the 2nd unit. Him and Kronwall run it.

The 2nd unit without Hudler may as well just dump it in and get off the ice. How in the world do you come up with Fil and Sammy move the puck better than Hudler?

What if Lord Stanley when he donated that silver bowl demanded it be awarded in honor of his wife, Lady Stanley who had a great love for the sport?

32. Sergei Fedorov, CBJ 9 (0-1-0-0-2) And he was battling groin and wrist issues most of that season. He picked up some nagging things after the lockout and it's really only been the last couple months where he's been remotely healthy. He tried playing through it but it seriously affected his game. For a while he couldn't even take a slapshot.

For what it's worth here are his Selke vote totals from last season: 20. Pavel Datsyuk, DET 37 (1-2-2-1-0) To compare. 7. Henrik Zetterberg, DET 200 (9-9-5-6-4) 8. Kris Draper, DET 183 (2-11-10-10-6) 39. Johan Franzen, DET 6 (0-0-1-0-1)

Fedorov had 50+ goals 120 points (2nd to Wayne) and won the Selke. One of Bobby Orr's Hart/Ross/Norris seasons would be up there too.

Gretzky in '85 won 4 prior to the Rocket Richard being awarded (Hart, Art Ross, Pearson, Conn Smythe). Bobby Orr in '70 won 4 prior to the Pearson being awarded (Hart, Art Ross, Norris, Conn Smythe). Both would have won 5 that year if the trophies existed. Guy Lafleur won the Art Ross, Hart, Pearson, and Conn Smythe in '77.

Homer or not, but the three Wings should all be in the top 5 of that draft. Lidstrom Fedorov Sundin/Bure/Konstantinov As for Bure vs Fedorov, at their best they had comparable offensive numbers, but Fedorov was also winning Selkes at the time. Fedorov easily.

As you so elegantly mentioned in your first sentence driving is ridiculously dangerous as it is. Why in the world would you make the dangers exponentially worse? Why bring up the 40K fatalities of non-DUI driving? Are you trying to make an implication that driving in general is somehow remotely close to being as dangerous as driving under the influence? If that were your argument you'd have to imply that 1 out of every 3 drivers on the road is over the limit. That is beyond insane. The likelihood of getting in a fatal accident when you've been drinking skyrockets compared to the likelihood when you're sober. That's why there are laws against it. That bolded section following the statement that you were drag racing is telling. One of the biggest problems when one's judgement is impaired by alcohol is that, wait for it... one's judgement is impaired. You may THINK you're driving fine and better than everyone else, but you'd be dead wrong. Decision making is slowed/dulled. Reaction time is slowed/dulled. Hand-eye coordination is dulled/slowed. But the kicker is that you think you're doing just fine. That's the problem. If people realized at the time they were under the influence that their driving capabilities are impaired, they'd never get behind the wheel. But they've been drinking so they drive. If drinking did nothing to one's driving ability there wouldn't be a fuss made. It does, so there is.

Too bad you're wrong. Lidstrom.

Twice.

Because it's like going out on a busy street, closing your eyes, spinning in a circle, and firing a random shot w/ a shotgun. You might hit someone, you might not. Might kills someone, might not. But the fact remains that since so many people do it on a daily basis over 13 thousand people were killed in drunk driving related incidents in 2006. And the number of injuries is undoubtedly far far greater.

Ice time. Cleary and Holmstrom have both played more than Hudler even though Jiri has played in more games. Points/minutes or minutes/point Jiri is 3rd behind Z and Pavel (if you remove PK TOI Cleary does slide ahead of Hudler).

Gainey was very one-dimensional. Just not the dimension you think of first for a forward. He was routinely outscored by Habs defensemen. Bob was a defensive forward in the true sense of the word.

Being Sergei Fedorov would certainly help his chances.

There's a month left in the season. If you're at 100% you haven't been playing hard enough.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...5/80312007/1053

In a week's time Hudler will be the 3rd highest scoring forward on the team behind only Datsyuk and Zetterberg. He's doing so playing #9 minutes.

Not true. He's been the #9 forward in ice time pretty much all season long. He's had a handful of games here or there where he had more icetime, but more often than not he's been on the 3rd line or lower.

I'm gonna have to to go ahead and disagree with that. Pavel can't touch early/mid 90s Fedorov. That '94 season was epic.

Playing is much better than the alternative...

Would you support the Avs retiring Joe Sakic's number?

Lot's of guys have been in the league 5/6 years. Very few have a bigger mouth and/or ego than Sean Avery.

Puppy's offensive output is solidly on par with our current putrid 2nd line. Hudler has been snakebitten beyond belief for two months, but he's still only a couple points off of Avery's scoring pace. And Sean has been playing with the likes of Jagr and Shanahan as opposed to Drake and Downey. The downsides to Avery far outweigh the upsides. He's not good enough or tough enough to compensate for his mouth and ego. EDIT - Some of you guys need to realize that just because you've been starved of having a Probert/Kocur/etc... on the Wings that you don't need to pin your hopes and dreams to any middling fighter that might be available. If you're gonna go, go all out, but please quit pining for the likes of Avery, Asham, Barnes, Bootland, Norton, etc... They suck. Hard. In no way, shape, or form could they make the Wings tough or tilt our effectiveness in the playoffs or anything like that. You may as well be pining for ice girls so you have something pretty to look at as they'd have the same impact on the Wings' success.