norrisnick

Traded to Ottawa for future considerations. Might have been able to land the pick that ended up as Alexandre Daigle!!! Nick got the A during Fedorov's holdout. And I don't see what you're complaining about. Sid got the A part way through his rookie year and you believe Nick is better than Sid. Ergo, Nick should have gotten the C his rookie year.

Basically it boils down to not thinking the Wings hit 113pts again. The biggest thing I disagree with is him thinking that for the short-term Schneider is better than Rafalski. That's crap. The one and only thing Schneider has on Rafalski is shot power. Everything else is in Brian's favor, and the shot power itself becomes a wash when you factor in that Rafalski is one of those seemingly rare righties.

Probably because Nick SHOULD have been captain 16 years ago.

Anyone remember when those pics of Crosby practicing with the Kings came out a few summers ago? He was wearing a Kings sweater to boot. That caused a little stir. Oh and Igor Grigorenko's mug shot for Cherevpovets had him wearing a Washington Captitals t-shirt. Moral of the story is these guys have ties to other players or teams all around the world.

The article lists his height/weight.

Quite a trick considering the UFC didn't even exist until '93. Babalu isn't even the first guy to hold his choke a bit long this year alone. BJ Penn held it about the same length vs Pulver. The only difference being the ref jumped in quicker on Babalu. That and Pulver wasn't lying in a pool of his on blood and tapped quicker (Heath tapping late caused he extra couple seconds to put him out). And none of this even approaches the point that Dana ******* White exhibits anything BUT class. On what basis can he expect more from his fighters if he doesn't show any himself? Oh well... I think my keyboard is dying.....

Rumor has it, Babalu has been kicked out of the UFC by Dana. Complete bulls***.

It was our 1st round pick. Um... forget his name. hockeydb to the rescue!!! Brendan Smith.

You should check out the pictures of last weekend's fight between Babalu and David Heath. That's not Babalu's blood... And the tape around his gloves was white before the fight started.

Babalu isn't ripped, but he's not as chubby as say Fedor who could drop to 205 without too much trouble (he's only 5-10lbs heavier than the top 205ers he just doesn't bother cutting weight). Sobral is fairly thick and probably weighed about 215-220 at the opening bell. I still say he's got a title fight left in him, and if he's smarter about who he matches up with (rather than trying to trade punches with Liddell) he could win a belt. Probably best to stay where he's comfortable than move down and re-establish himself. Or he could take the Couture route and move up to HW after losing to Chuck...

And? I hope you aren't suggesting Heatley is anywhere near Z in terms of defensive play?

I'd wait and see how he fares against the new crop of signees. Apart from one sloppy loss and a couple to Liddell (who I doubt will be standing in his way from here on out) Babalu has an impressive record the last few years. And for the most part his losses are to premier guys (or at least they were premier when he lost to them). Plus he's got a win over Shogun that I'm guessing Mauricio would love to erase.

When people build teams it is usually wise to pick cornerstones that will be around a while longer. Nick probably has 5 great years left in him (if he should choose to stay). Sid probably has close to 15-20 great years left (barring career altering injury). Would your choice change at all if Nick were ckoser to 20 than 40?

Babalu is being investigated by the NSAC, but I doubt he'll be suspended. He held the choke about 2 seconds after the ref tapped him (then started pulling on his arm). Granted that was a second or two after Heath tapped, but you're also told not to let up until the ref tells you. Babalu did admit he held the choke to send a message about respect, but he was quite a long way off of killing Heath. Renato looks like he just came from a shift at the slaughter house... And a before pic...

Just caught the Babalu fight on dailymotion. That thing was bloody as hell!! Total domination. Had Gonzaga not busted his nose that fight would have looked WAY differently. He couldn't breathe. That said, I don't think he's a true contender, yet. Beating CroCop, and only CroCop, does not make you a contender (see Randleman). I hope Dana capitulates on the the Sambo competitions (apparently the biggest sticking point in the Fedor negotiations). Also Couture has asked to fight Fedor. There is big pressure on Dana right now because a Couture/Emelianenko HW Title Unification bout is the biggest sell imaginable out there. Nothing would be a bigger draw as they're by FAR the most popular heavyweights out there and both legends of the sport. And Randy, as unbelievably fit as he is, isn't getting any younger. The only bad thing is that it likely won't be that competitive of a fight. Randy's game, but horribly outmatched.

Yeah, that's got to be a typo. Every single other source has stated the Wings offered 2 years at $2.5M/yr but Danny wants $3.5M+/yr for 3+ years.

So long as they got rid of the lightning bolt on the pants.

Again that's just settling for scraps just because they can/will fight.

That is the perfect example of fighting having a place in hockey. Two elite players and intense competitors going at each other so much it comes to blows. That is something I have no problem with at all. The problem I have is with guys clamoring for fighters just for the sake of having a fighter. Or the 90% of hockey fights that serve no further purpose than two talentless hacks trying to justify their existence in the league by squaring off. The goon/enforcer system is dying. And I say good riddance.

Not a chance. You fit the MO to a T. Including these apologies whenever you get called out for it.

Nope. They're completely different animals. This guy relishes in being some sort of messed bizzaro super fan. Proclaiming his greatness and underratedness on one hand and ranking everyone and their brother higher than him on the other. Jamie just hated Stevie for being greedy and hanging on too long to the point of being a liability.

I'm trying to come up with this guys various alter-egos. drw02, SGY19 (not sure if this one was here or not), anyone remember any others?

Yeah, he was passed over in the most recent draft, but according to the CBA he needed to have played in North America to be a free agent now (unless they subtly changed that since then).

Why do we have to go through all this crap every few months? Here's a pretty good list put together by a hockey historian. http://legendsofhockey.blogspot.com/search/label/Top%2036 Stevie is quite appropriately ranked #19 all time. Nick is at #35. Fedorov isn't on it. Stevie doesn't have a closet full of individual accolades but he has the near unanimous respect of the hockey world. Very few players have been as beloved as Yzerman.

I'm not wrong about the Statue of Liberty play. Nick took the shot from the point. Roy couldn't handle it. Yzerman one-timed the rebound back at Roy. Roy thought he had it. Puck in net. If Lidstrom doesn't destroy Cloutier's (and by extension the Nucks') confidence I don't think we could have climbed back out of that hole. Nick, and a couple other Wings, took looooong shots on Dan throughout the rest of the series and he didn't feel at all comfortable with any of them. He was rattled and rattled bad. I do believe Fedorov won that faceoff to Nick (after quick review, yeah it was Stevie that won the draw back to Fedorov). Nick took the waist high wrister and Hull tipped it in. Nick didn't need the silly trophy either (silly yet you make a big fuss about Stevie being robbed of it....) And Yzerman is most certainly not underrated. He's a legend of the game and most everyone will agree with that. If anyone is underrated it's Lidstrom as he deserves to be right there with Stevie on the all time lists. Fedorov as well. It's a shame he didn't get a Conn. It would have been fitting if the three most important players of that era would all have one and Fedorov had a legitimate claim at any of the three.