haroldsnepsts

What makes you think he knew he had some "internal problem." Playing hockey is a risk, but it's not one that's usually life or death.

Amen. I'm a big Cheli fan, but I really wished he would've hung em up after last playoffs. I know he had knee surgery, but now that surgery and this injury for a 46 year old player, it's going to be a hard road back to being valuable on the ice. The Wings like to have their players "overripe" as Holland calls it by keeping them in the minors for so long. Now they've got a logjam and had to let a potentially good player go for nothing.

Unfortunately, yes. Details are sketchy, but they were apparently unable to revive him. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=252547&amp...os=secStory_nhl

That's too bad to lose him that way. It's too early for me to tell, but Quincey seemed like he could develop into a good physical stay at home defenseman.

As you probably remember, at the time I figured it had to be some advanced thing Niedermayer and Burke had worked out. A big part of that was because I found it harder to believe that Scott would put his team in such a bad situation, and easier to believe Burke would exploit every loophole he could find. But more and more, you're right. It looks like Niedermayer really did leave Burke in the dark. And it really f*cked that team over. Honestly I don't think Niedermayer should get the C back. Not because he allegedly colluded with Burke, but because he didn't behave in the best interest of the team. Yes retirement is a difficult thing, but he took it to the extreme, and look at the Ducks lineup as a result of all the cap-related moves Burke has had to make. And it's not about Niedermayer being classy, though up until last year I thought he was. I honestly think they should have kept it with Pronger. He's likely not going anywhere, he's dedicated, and love him or hate him, he is a good leader. Whereas Niedermayer may be gone next season. And the Ducks could probably use some stability.

They've gotta keep room for a 46 year old with a busted knee.

I was surprised not to see a comment or thread about this, but Kimbo got exposed last night and was KO'd in 14 SECONDS by a relative no-name. And the punch that felled him was an average looking jab that didn't even make great contact. http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-e...o&type=lgns

Anyone know if it's the same knee he had operated in this past offseason?

Actually it means amplitude modulation.

Which must be why NNick took umbrage at outrageous statements like these: I didn't see anyone making any ridiculous point projections, or even saying he'd be the best player in the league. Mostly just general comments that the kid is gonna get better. Of course it's not for sure, but nothing is. Relatively speaking, it's a pretty modest statement.

Okay, I'll try and keep this concise to limit your opportunity to blow things out of proportion. Can you show me exactly where someone said anything close to Crosby's "meteoric rise?" Maybe I missed it, because I didn't see anything anywhere near that. Several people, including myself, merely made reference to how young he is and that he'll get better, which to me doesn't seem like a particularly outrageous statement. When we're talking about a player who won the Art Ross, Hart, and Pearson by the time he was 20, I guess to me it's pretty clear he's near the upper levels of his game so there's no implication of "meteoric rise." Mainly because I'm not sure what would constitute a meteoric rise for someone who's already achieved so much, short of winning the Stanley cup as a one-man team. No one made any claims that I saw of him scoring 300 points, or dominating everyone in the league, or anything of that nature. You can't see any other inference besides "look what Pavel did since he was 21, Sid is going to do the same"? How about "Datsyuk is a mature player of 30 years old with 6 years of NHL experience on one of the consistently best teams in hockey. Whereas Sidney is 21 years old and probably not done maturing physically or mentally, and has only been in the league 3 years on a very young team. So when comparing the two keep in mind the kind of complete player Sid could be when he's 30." To me it's pretty self evident. and you seriously think he only has to "get a bit better defensively?" His total PK time for all of the Stanley Cup playoffs was 3:29. Less than the length of two penalties. He averaged 10 seconds of PK time per game. As I said, that means anytime the Pens are shorthanded, their best player is on the bench. And that's just the PK. He's not a two-way player. There's room for more than just a bit of improvement. Seriously though, let's make things a lot simpler around here. From now on, people will a post a topic, then we'll wait for you and Eva to hash out what the correct view is (you can take turns or flip a coin or something). Then we can all chime in to agree with it. Because I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting tired of having to lawyer up every time I make what looks like a fairly modest statement in here because it's been cross-examined and is full of faulty assumptions that seem mainly to serve the purpose of arguing for arguing's sake.

I swear NNick, I think sometimes you analyze my posts just to find something to debate with me about. Where exactly was I applying Datsyuk's development curve to Crosby? Where did I say his development would take the exponential leaps that Datsyuk's had? People were commenting on how right now Dats is the more complete player of the two, which he is. I was calling attention to the age difference and difference in NHL experience to highlight that Crosby still has plenty of time to become more complete. That's not the same as saying, "Datsyuk was at point x when he was 21 and look at where he is at 30, so we'll take Crosby's performance as a 21 yr old, multiply it by the Datyuk-performance-factor, and by age 30 he will be...." Remove Datsyuk from the equation. Crosby is 21 years old and going into his 4th NHL season. So for starters he's barely matured physically. And with only three NHL seasons under his belt, there's still plenty left for Sid to figure out in the NHL. Even offensively, more experience at this elite level is only going to make Crosby better as he becomes more savvy about the game. Right now he's relying mostly on his speed and his raw talent. As he gets older he'll be able to pick his spots more and make the players around him even better. His defensive game is probably the best example where he can improve. We saw very clearly in this playoffs what a detriment it is to his team that he's not on the PK. And what an asset it is to have Z and Dats out there on ours. Right now taking a penalty is double punishment for the Pens. They're shorthanded and it keeps their best player off the ice too. He has plenty of room to improve in his two-way play. Sure his point totals might suffer a bit, but it'll make him even harder to play against and ultimately help the team. He can improve on his faceoffs. He was 49% in the postseason, and barely above 50% in the regular season. The ideal is for him to become a key faceoff guy so they don't have to throw someone on the ice other than him to take key draws and screw up line combos. He has room to improve on the intangibles. Team leadership, dealing with officials, dealing with the extra abuse he takes on the ice as a star player. Crosby is already one of the elite players in the league, but I disagree that he doesn't have much room for improvement left.

NM. I'm too slow once again.

Agreed. I can see comparing players as they are right now, but I think it is important to keep in mind that Crosby is 9 years younger than Datsyuk and this will only be his 4th year in the NHL. When Datsyuk was 21 he wasn't even in the NHL.

You're kidding, right? Domi would've destroyed that guy. I never liked Domi, but he's a tough little bastard. I would've loved to watch him destroy that fan. Anytime some drunken fan thinks he's a tough guy and starts swinging, the refs should let the hockey player beat on him a few minutes to show him how things really are.

Are you sure? I thought there was talk about shortening the preseason but it required approval from all teams in the league.

Why not? Afraid he won't take it off for all those times he gets in a fight?

nm got all excited because I thought it was a live feed. but that link is just a loop of the hit. Damn!

I agree with a lot of your post, but other than Turtle, who are some players McCarty has cheapshotted? I've never considered Mac to be someone along the line of Cheli, who has cheapshotted plenty of guys throughout his career, especially early on.

Agreed. And I never quite get the logic of "playing professional hockey = accepting total lack of privacy." Like because people pay to see him at Joe Louis, it means that it's appropriate and expected for people to bother him at home and in other non-hockey related settings. People may do it, but that doesn't mean it's not an intrusion and stalker like behavior. It's kind of stupid and immature, like seeing your teacher at the mall for the first time in junior high and realizing she actually goes out and shops too. Almost like they're normal people. OMG! Mrs. Kiernan shops at Target?! No way! edited for typos and grammar

Then don't look in the thread. It was pretty clearly titled "Pictures of Lidstroms House" and it's no secret that he makes over $7 million a year, and was making around $10 million pre-lockout. I think your anger about the bailout may be misplaced. I really wouldn't want to see the mansions of the CEO's who ran their companies into the ground while collecting multi-million dollar salaries and have golden parachutes.

While Mac isn't nearly the talent Lemieux was, Darren never even missed an entire season in the NHL (minus the lockout) and is only 36. The Turtle is something like 43, isn't he, and has been out of the NHL since 2003. That's a loooong time, especially for a guy his age.

I'm sort of hoping for that myself. That might actually be what it takes to get rid of Millen once and for all and clean house.

This discussion is still going on? Here's the quote from the guy who got hit: "He was sorry about it – but that happens, it’s nobody’s fault.” Good lord we need the season to start.

Eva, we get it. You're certain Lilja will be moved. Do we really need to have this discussion in every single thread?