haroldsnepsts

Both well put. People suffering from depression don't commit suicide to be selfish assholes. They do it to end pain. It's psychological, but it's still pain and can be constant and unbearable. It's definitely a disease that's swept under the rug too often. Major depression is not the same as just being sad, or cynical, or negative. It comes from brain chemistry and from the depths of who a person is, and is not something that millions of dollars or playing a sport you love will change. Honestly the regular exercise and routine of practices and teammates probably helped, but sadly it wasn't enough. All that being said, I can understand being angry. Even not blaming Rypien, it's a frustrating, tragic situation. I want to be pissed at somebody.

So the Penguins intentionally sat their star player (who was on a 1.61 PPG pace before his injury) for part of the regular season and playoffs, to make some vague point to the league?

To be clear, you're making baseless accusations. No evidence, links, nothing. Of the unexpected deaths, only a couple could even be loosely tied to potential steroids or doping. You really can't see how people might get upset when you come into a thread about a hockey player who just died, and with no evidence at all imply that his death is due to steroids. And then go on and lump a bunch of other hockey deaths in the same category, when they clearly had no link to steroid abuse?

Did you post this in the right thread? What the hell does steroids have to do with the people Hockeytown mentioned? Dan Snyder - car crash Luc Bourdon - motorcycle accident Mandi Schwartz- leukemia Derek Boogaard - substance abuse problem, but it was alcohol and oxycodone Zholtok - arrhythmia, no evidence of steroids Cherpanov - inconclusive, but no solid evidence of steroid use or doping

Yup. I wasn't calling for his head or anything, but at the time I really couldn't understand what the deal was. Honestly I still kind of don't. How a guy with so much talent came up dry for those seasons, then finally broke out. I don't know if it was a confidence thing or what, because it definitely went on for too long for it just to be a fluke, or him being snakebit or something. so strange given the beast he is now.

I'm pretty sure Rypien had been put on leave of absence for personal reasons two or three times while he was with the Canucks. Sounds like he had some demons. Sad, sad news.

The ones about the yellow verification line and in camera nets to help determine goals more effectively seems worthwhile. The offsides stuff seems unnecessary and gimmicky. It's not like players are always going offsides to get a line change or something. Usually it's just mistiming or a missed pass by teammates. As for serving a full penalty even when someone scores, my fear is that because it makes a power play so punitive, refs would swallow their whistles more. Based on Shanny's quote in the article, it doesn't sound like any of these will be adopted soon. They're just collecting information and testing things.

You seriously think Crosby could have come back in the playoffs but the organization decided to intentionally sit him? Players don't get paid for the playoffs, so the greatest expense for owners is essentially gone for every playoff game. Making it to even one more home game rakes in a ton of money for the franchise. I can't imagine why any organization would pass that up, along with that whole trying to win the Stanley Cup thing. Along the same lines, what's the point of them milking it now? What exactly are they gaining? Crosby was on an absolute tear the first half of the season, it doesn't make any sense for them not to want him back into the lineup. He's an impact player that would've greatly increased their chances of making it to the next round. As for the size of the hits, I agree, they didn't look awful. The first one he got caught unaware, but the second one is a play that happens all the time in hockey. The point is that it doesn't matter. Concussions are a fluke thing, and cumulative in nature. Once you've had one you're more likely to get another, and not necessarily from a jarring hit. They did a study on college football players, and a guy could get crushed on one play and suffer a huge blow to the head and not get a concussion, but later the same game could get one from a routine hit. They're a strange flukey thing. I'm sure given his young age and elite talent, they're being extremely cautious bringing him back. But that's not milking it.

I have several issues with this: What has Crosby done to give indication that he is "bigger than the game?" He didn't get his concussions from getting stood up at the blueline. Lindros kept skating through the middle with his head down, probably from growing up playing against guys so much littler than him. This is no way the same thing as what happened to Crosby. Crosby isn't even in the top ten of divers in the league. He did it more early in his career, but he's nowhere near what half the Vancouver and Sharks teams were doing in the playoffs. Losing one of the best players to ever play the game is going to hurt the league for more than marketing reasons. I get sick of all the Crosby marketing and wish they'd spend more time promoting other players, but that's not Crosby's fault. Honestly I hate the little f***. I think he's still kind of immature and he has some little-***** like quality that's easy to hate. But he's 24 years old. There's still time to grow up. And he's an incredibly talented player who works his ass off. I just don't get how so many hockey fans would want one of the best players in the game not to be able to play. Even if just to hate him when the Wings play. I've hated a lot of great players over the year, in part for that reason, because they were great and they kept schooling my favorite players. But it makes it so satisfying when you defeat them. It makes for great rivalries.

Yeah, that was in no way intended as a slight on Lafontaine. I was a fan of his during his playing days as well. Who knows how much more he would've done if not for getting brained by Patrick and then again by Leroux.

I'm hoping it'll be that Holland will make a significant trade deadline move. It's probably Lidstrom's last year, it's time for a big move if there ever was one. But since the poll is most likely to happen, I went with Bertuzzi cutting down on stupid penalties. I feel like he's already made progress in that area but can still improve.

Not exactly a deal, but I think the best one that never happened is not getting Lafontaine as the #4 pick in 1983, so the Wings had to go with their second choice.

So in his 13 season career, you're going to use 25 games where he was returning from a devastating concussion to call Savard a third line forward? Makes perfect sense. Hudler was playing professional hockey in the KHL, while Savard was hoping headaches and other concussion symptoms would go away so he could start working out again. It's not nearly the same thing. And unlike your example with Hudler maybe being an all-star scorer, Savard has actually been just that. Twice. It's not speculation. It's happened. Before the 25 game sample you've cherrypicked between his concussions, Savard had 33 points in 41 games. Before that when he was playing pretty much full seasons his point totals were 88, 78, 96 and 97. In other words, take most of Hudler's stats and double them, and you'll be around Savard's totals. If you're trying to make a case to people that Hudler isn't as bad as people say he is compared to other third line players in the league (which is a relatively sound argument) you only weaken your case and credibility with crazy ass things like including Savard in the mix. And making threats about derailing this thread with your absurd Jason Williams argument doesn't exactly strengthen your case either. Unlike Williams, Savard has put up impressive points totals in one single season. Third? Who is he in front of? Zetterberg? Franzen? It's sure not Dats. Flip does get hate here, but even when he's underperforming offensively year after year, he's a solid two way center who can handle the second line. Hudler has zero other positive attributes other than scoring. So when he's not doing that, he's dead weight in the lineup. Especially when you consider that Flip only makes $125k more than Hudler, and they put up virtually the same point totals. Don't get me wrong, I think everyone is eagerly waiting for Flip to produce more offensively, but when he's not, he's at least still useful.

Wow. Really? That's you're response to this simple misunderstanding? Forget it Eva. All the s*** you get from people here you bring on yourself with dickish responses like this one.

I don't think and never said Franzen is a power forward. I'm not sure how that's relevant. But you said: I don't think it was a leap on my part to infer you were saying Kopecky was a power forward.

I agree with your views on Lebda, Quincey and Meech, but Kopecky was NOT a power forward. And he played 9 and a half minutes a game in the regular season, which puts him behind 11 other guys, not top six minutes. In the postseason that went up to 13 and a half but he was still mostly not a second line forward. And he sure as hell wasn't a power forward. My memory of him is basically as a garbage man cleaning up some pucks lying around the crease after guys like Hossa or Kane did most of the work. I think you should wait and see how he performs in Florida with that ridiculous contract of his before you can go gloating about how right you were.

I should have figured you made this same baseless claim in the this thread. It's not as complicated as you're making it out to be. Williams has in no way averaged 50 points PER SEASON which is all that really matters. Williams turning out to be the best signing of the offseason would be awful, because it could only mean that some tragedy wiped out a massive number of players in the NHL before the season started. If you want to have the Franzen and Gretzky arguments (I'm not sure how they got involved in a Williams discussion) maybe you should start a new thread.

good point. If I want to beat my head against a wall about Williams, I should be doing it in that thread. Sorry for the derailment.

I'm not even going to get into the Wayne Gretzky comparisons when we're talking about Jason friggin Williams. But you agree he's only done it once in his career. It doesn't matter why. Fact is he's only done it once. He is not and never has been a consistent 50+ point player at the NHL level.

It is a meaningless "fact" based on a meaningless sample size. Picking a number of games that happens to equal the length of the NHL season is not the same as scoring those points in one season. It's not like when signing players GM's are thinking "oh he's a 50 point scorer! No problem that 30 of those points will be next season." Please answer me this simple question. In his ten year NHL career, how many times has Jason Williams actually scored more than 50 points over the course of a single 82 game season? No projections, no averaging, no extrapolating, no math. Actual statistical records only please.

No he didn't. It was a draw. And for Perry to fight to a draw against Datsyuk is almost as bad as a loss for him. He had an opportunity to lay a beatdown on one of the Wings star players. A guy he had a considerable size advantage over and one who isn't even a fighter. And Perry managed a friggin draw.

Jason Williams scored over 50 points once in his 10 year NHL career. I can't believe I even have to say this, but that does not make him a consistent 50+ point player, no matter what kind of fuzzy math you use. In the real world, playing real hockey, he cracked 50 points in a season one time. And averaging his career output since 2006 down to 82 games makes as little sense as projecting 11 games to 82. It in no way is any indication of the kind of goalscorer he was.

I know what you're saying, but I would also argue that the better team is usually the one getting these "lucky breaks" or at the very least they're less affected by bad bounces. Also, a lot of times a team can look like they're not getting a break because they're getting soundly outplayed.

Only by Eva math could Williams have averaged numbers that he only actually reached once in his career, when he had 21 goals and 37 assists in '06 (the statistically unusual post lockout year). It doesn't matter what he would've gotten over 82 fictional games. What matters is how much a player actually scores. How many minutes he actually plays.

C'mon Crymson, you're making me agree with a guy named stinky fish taco for chrissakes. Sometimes the Wings actually lose playoff games because they got outplayed. this. Over a 7 game series the bounces and questionable calls generally work themselves out. The team working the hardest tends to have the most luck. In 2008 that was the Wings.