C-TownWing

Thanks for validating my opinion on this...he really does have a deceptively strong shot--I remember a GWG he had against Columbus a couple years ago where he just absolutely wired it from just inside the blueline. I didn't think he had that kind of shot until then, to be honest. He also has skills that you wouldn't normally expect out of his player type, like a little bit of a physical edge (not to mention the fact that he takes a hit as well as anyone I've ever seen). Statistically, since the lockout, Datsyuk's been equal to or better than Fedorov at any point of his career, with the notable exception of 1993-1996. Accolade-wise, he's quickly gaining ground as well. Don't kid yourself, there's definitely a discussion here, and I think Datsyuk will end up as the better of the two by the time they're both done.

NO question? Not so sure about that. I'm sort of in the thinking that Fedorov had a higher peak, but Datsyuk will maintain his peak for longer. There's outstanding value in both of those careers, but Datsyuk wins because he actually wants to be here, as someone else said. Dumb question: Why not have Yzerman rate both of them, given that he actually played with both of them? Not to mention the ratings being more fair because they're coming from the same scale. Maybe Mr. Hockey's just a REALLY tough grader. Or something.

Yeah, the real crime here is Buffalo's complete waste of a rare 6-minute PP. Not to say that the call wasn't absolutely brutal, it was. Smith ought to get a freaking commendation from the league or something, given the recent history we've had with questionable hits. Class move by a solid player and guy.

I freaking hate Corey Perry...but that number sounds about right for him to be honest. As for Hossa, the facts say that at least three NHL GMs (Detroit, Pittsburgh, Edmonton) were willing to pay him what he's getting per year. Like my dad always said when I'd brag about Beckett's appraisal of my sports card collection, "it's only worth what someone's willing to pay for it." $10 million: Heatley $9 million: Crosby, Ovechkin $8.6 million: Sundin $8.5 million: Kiprusoff $8 million: Briere, Gomez, Spezza, Timonen, Vanek (these are 08-09 salaries, not cap hits, but I still think it makes my point) Given that list, I'd say any of our top four are worth 8-8.5, especially looking at the giant ball of mediocre most of those guys have been this year.

Good point--suspensions aside, I imagine Crosby was under infinite more pressure to show up at the All-Star Game because of his "face of the game" status than either Datsyuk or Lidstrom. And don't forget, he played in the Q and speaks French, so I'm sure he's viewed as an honorary French-Canadian by some, and the game was in the epicenter of French Canada. I'm perfectly fine with our guys being recognized as top players in the world (and they are) but without having to do all the dancing that a Crosby (and AO to a lesser extent) does.

IDK...you mentioned Thornton, and I think Datsyuk gets just as much run as Big Joe. It's pretty much Crosby/AO/Malkin, then another group of top forwards including Iginla, Kovalchuk, Heatley, Thornton, Getzlaf, maybe a few others, that's not a comprehensive list. I think Datsyuk (and Zetterberg and Hossa) are considered in that group. Now should Datsyuk be considered in that top 3 group? Probably, but I'm a homer. I've said it before, I'll say it again: there's not a single thing involved with the game of hockey that he doesn't do at the highest level. However, I don't think being pretty much universally considered a top 10 forward = marginalization. You act like he never gets respect from anyone, and I don't think that's the case.

The hockey gods elected to take Robert Lang for the season as penance for this.

I haven't seen pwnage like that since, well, the Avs series last year. Just remember kids, think before you post.

Ken, that play uhhhh started with uhhhh some nice work on the uhhhh backcheck by Henrik uhhhh Zetterberg, then Pavel uhhhh Datsyuk picked up the loose uhhhh puck and slid it over to Nick uhhhh Lidstrom...it's 2-nothing Detroit. J/K I love Ken and Paul, they got me through many, many seasons, both online and later on XM before I was able to get Center Ice.

That's hilarious...even though they use Thorne/Clement on the EA games now, I STILL can't watch HNIC without thinking I'm playing a video game. I love how Hughson pronounces "Lilja" too: "Leeeeel-ya." I'm in the boat of watching the games online, so I see a lot of different broadcasts. How can anyone have a problem with Strader/Pang? They're one of the best teams out there. Ken and Mickey are great too, one of the few teams where I don't mind listening to the banter. Razor and whoever the hell he's with (not that it matters) too. Just generalizing, I think the worst/biggest homers tend to be in the non-traditional markets, because they have a mandate to try and get people interested by pumping the team even if they suck.

He is fully to blame for breaking his underpants, however.

That's actually a very good point. Since establishing himself as an NHL player, Hossa hasn't played fewer than 72 games in a season and has only played fewer than 80 twice (8 seasons prior to this year). Zetterberg has never played 80 and has played fewer than 70 twice in 5 seasons prior to this year. Hossa could be at least some insurance that we have two super-stud forwards playing all the time, him and generally-healthy Datsyuk. Franzen has his own injury trouble and couldn't guarantee that.

I did my own homework...one thing to keep in mind is that hockey rinks are bigger than basketball courts, so NBA teams generally have bigger capacities, especially when it's in the same arena. The Blackhawks number excludes the Winter Classic. * means that the team is drawing 99% of capacity or better Considering the Canadian teams mostly get left out for this, the NHL stacks up pretty well... Same Arena NHL draws better: Chicago (21,663*/21,003), Philadelphia (19,441*/14,743), Washington (18,018/16,553), Toronto (19,290*/18,961) NBA draws better: Atlanta (16,544/14,485), New York (19,168/18,158*), Dallas (20,017*/17,595), Boston (18,624*/16,859), Los Angeles (18,997* [Lakers]/16,036 [Kings]/15,451 [Clippers]), Denver (16,949/15,642) Different Arena NHL draws better: Minnesota (18,568*/13,976), New Jersey (15,419/14,863) NBA draws better: Detroit (22,062*/19,741), Miami (17,700/14,948), Phoenix (18,422*/14,892) Different (but similar) Cities NHL draws better: Tennessee (14,523 [Predators]/12,584 [Grizzlies]), North Carolina (15,433 [Hurricanes]/14,197 [bobcats]) NBA draws better: Ohio (19,620 [Cavaliers]/14,937 [blue Jackets]), Bay Area (18,872 [Warriors]/17,484* [sharks]), Central Florida (16,775 [Magic]/16,455 [Lightning]) Oddballs NHL: Montreal (21,273*), Calgary (19,289*), Ottawa (18,863*), Vancouver (18,630*), St. Louis (18,542), Buffalo (18,479), Pittsburgh (16,926*), Anaheim (16,897), Edmonton (16,839*), NY Islanders (13,511) NBA: Portland (20,545*), Utah (19,899*), Oklahoma City (18,578), San Antonio (17,972), Houston (17,483), New Orleans (16,707), Milwaukee (15,215), Indiana (13,490), Sacramento (12,404)

It took me until this year to forgive him for Game 5 against Anaheim, but I'm squarely in Pain Train's corner now. He's easily been our 3rd best D all year, and he brings things to the table (physicality, shot blocking) that we don't necessarily have up and down our roster right now.

That's one thing I'll give people who disagree with me: I had no idea that there were Wings star cams, I think they only mentioned Crosby on the telecast. Also the whole Pierre thing about Crosby being pulled for the last 2 seconds of the period because the Wings might goon it up on him. a) When have the Wings recently gooned it up on anyone? b) Like that's the only way we could hope to contain Crosby. I actually do like Pierre, but he's good for one head-scratcher per game (the wind gust being another of those).

It's not a ship coming out of Lake Erie, there's your hint. It'd be kind of interesting to see a comparison broken down by market: Wings vs. Pistons, Caps vs. Wizards, Bruins vs. Celtics, etc. but I'm already screwing around too much at work so I can't do it right now.

This. Did anyone else notice that from Hossa's goal to the end of the game was a total Wings smooch-fest? "Model organization, from Mr. and Mrs. Ilitch on down?" Anyone? (total aside: Anyone ever notice that the Ilitches are pretty much the only owners in sports who get called "Mr. and Mrs." by the media instead of by their first names? That's respect.) Even the Z interview...him shutting down Crosby was one of the major storylines of the finals last year, why would they not re-visit that when it continued yesterday? I'm as sick of the Center Ice commercial where the Pens "beat" us as the next guy, but there's plenty of Wings love in the media too, and I had zero problem with how yesterday's game was called.

I could definitely see Green winning a couple eventually, just on offense. While no D is going to touch Coffey's usual 100 points/year or so in the near future, the Norris still has a pretty tight correlation with "defenseman scoring leader" most of the time. It's why people occasionally bring up the idea of a defensive defenseman award, because the Norris almost always goes to someone putting up numbers, regardless of defensive play. That said, it's Chara's to lose this year. As disappointing as that is (I want Nick to take a run at Orr's 8 before he's done), I can't legitimately argue it, he's having a great year.

It is. And one female former coworker of mine once said that she found it attractive that a guy was secure enough to admit to a mancrush. Z was never at mancrush status with me before, but he'll be there pretty quickly if he keeps saying and doing things that demonstrate his total awesomeness.

The last 5 Dallas goals came in a stretch of 6:20 too...brutal. I had it playing on my computer while doing something else and kept hearing goal horns every minute. Finally, I was just like "WTF is going on there?" and started watching. Good times. I'm sure Manny Legace's happy anyway.

Exactly...the Sens have fans and they came from somewhere. Presumably, most of them liked hockey and had another favorite team (likely the Leafs or Habs based on geography) before the Sens were around. It's not perfectly analogous since I'm not in Columbus, but I never had anything of an urge to defect when the BJs came into the league. I don't understand how you can invest so much in a team over a lot of years and then just flip it off and pick another one just because they happen to be based closer to your hometown.

This. He calls himself the worst player in the league the night he played us, then acts like a jilted girlfriend when this happens. If he believed what he said, this shouldn't be a shock, right?

Big game to me...that game in Detroit where we blew the huge lead was really the point where I became convinced that something is off, so it'd be nice to demonstrate that we've somehow improved since then, although I'm not seeing it. But here's hoping that a revenge-seeking and still-talented team playing in a tough place to play in front of loud fans flips the "challenge" switch that got us going against SJ in December and Chicago in the 12/30 and 1/1 games. BTW, anyone who thought there wouldn't be a dropoff from Hossa and Malone to Satan and Fedotenko is probably on drugs. No Gonchar is a huge problem too, even with all that firepower up front, the Pens' PP ranks 23rd this year. But yeah, Malkin's been carrying them (and my fantasy team) all year, no doubt.

If it strictly comes down to one or the other and we're not talking about the ability to keep other players, Hossa and it's not even close. I like Franzen a lot, but Hossa is one of the top 10 forwards in the league. If you have a reasonable chance to keep a guy like that, you do it.

Yeah, I never did hear what the story behind that was. As in what the Wings fans were doing to get narc-ed out by The Great One. But it was admittedly a pretty a soft call. Those things tend to even out over a long season, so I'm just glad that we took advantage when we got it. No problem with Gretz being pissed though, I would be too.