haroldsnepsts

It sort of balances out the Hasek slappies on the other side of the argument.

wow Chicago has our number. wtf?

we're not. he's getting 1.5 mill this year.

one bad period does not give a goalie a .869 sv % (and falling) Dom has not looked himself this year. It doesn't mean it won't change, but right now I think it's something to worry about.

no kidding! talk about making an immediate impact.

What's scary is the kid is listed at 6'4" and 220 lbs at the age of 19. He could still pack on 10-20 lbs as he gets older. Then you're talking about Bertuzzi size.

Wings 3 Hawks 0 Hasek has a long history of coming out and standing on his head in games after he's been yanked from the net. Hopefully that's what'll happen tonight. It'd be great to see the "old" Dom instead of the old Dom.

In case the link hasn't been posted yet: TSN: Bryzgalov claimed by Phoenix

Someone's gotta tell Lucic to lay off the body shots, this isn't boxing. Otherwise, great fight by the kid.

You mean Lang wasn't the worst player to ever lace up a pair of skates??? Lang currently has 6 goals 12 assists and leads the team at +7. He's one of 7 players on the Hawks that even has a positive +/-. Not bad for a guy who's so lazy he never backchecks, right? Lang has played one more game than the Wings, but as you mentioned, the only player with more points than him on Detroit is Zetterberg. I still think it's better for the team that he's gone, but he didn't deserve half the crap he got here.

Amen brother. He's so over the top melodramatic these days. He rarely writes about hockey anymore, but I knew he wouldn't pass up the chance to write some dewey-eyed self-indulgent piece on Yzerman's retirement. Besides, ever since he crossed the picket line during the Free Press strike, good ol' Tuesdays with Scabbie has been pretty much dead to me.

Yes he has. http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=304735

I think you're right. That's also why I probably rank 97 as the best one, and 2002 the least exciting to me. Because I think the 97 and 98 wins were with teams that could still be built under the cap. But the 2002 team, there's no way. So when they interviewed him seconds after winning his third Cup, he said that one was the most satisfying? shocking! I'd be pretty surprised if at the time he said "I think the first one was best" when he's literally just won his third.

I'd have to say '97. I may get flack for saying this, but honestly the 2002 team was the least interesting of the three to me. I don't think it was necessarily "bought" in that high payroll doesn't necessarily equal the Cup, but it certainly didn't hurt. That team was like an all star team. And the main reason it could be was because of the massive payroll Ilitch could afford to take on. I mean, think about that roster and the line combinations Bowman could throw out there. Shanahan, Fedorov, Hull, Yzerman, Robitaille, Larionov, Datsyuk, Draper, Maltby, Homstrom, Lidstrom, Chelios, Fischer, Olausson, Duschene, and then Hasek in net. It's great they won, but wasn't really as fun to watch because with the level of talent on that team, anything short of the Cup would've been failure.

I was thinking the same thing. It's funny how a couple losses suddenly makes people here a lot more open to change. Exactly. It's better to have two scoring lines for our opponents to contend with AND have the ability to put the ZDH line back together when necessary.

I disagree. He's had one really bad game (the last one). But he's looked shaky and less than stellar in several of his other starts this season. That's not to say he's done. It is more of a concern with an old goaltender who's been out with a hip problem and has had groin problems in the past, but he could also return to form. I think the point most people here are making is that Ozzy is playing very well right now and should get the bulk of the starts until Dom gets his game back together.

I'm guessing he meant Fuhr, not Dom. at least I hope so.

Exactly. To claim that somehow Hasek = long playoff run is b.s. Cujo had a .939 sv % in '04 over 9 games. Detroit just could not score. For comparison, Hasek sv % last year was .923, which is still very good. And in 02, it was .920. Plus if you took Hasek's save percentage over the first two rounds in 02, it was lower because of the slow start against vancouver, where he gave up 16 goals in 6 games. The difference over the years has been playoff scoring, or lack of it, that determines how far the Wings go. In '02 the Wings and Hasek survived a slow playoff start because they were still scoring. In '04 Cujo played incredibly well, but the Wings didn't give him any leads.

Hextall is a great example, because he was 6'3" and 200 lbs. And yet the pads on him are still smaller than they are on goalies playing today.

To me, this is the most cogent point in the article: I'd be all for going back to wood sticks, just so I wouldn't scream my head off when a Wings player has a wide open net and I watch the blade of their stick go flying off as they try and slap it in. The thing is, if it really made such a big difference in puck control and catching passes, wouldn't more players even at the NHL level be using them? I wonder if it's because composites have been around long enough now that these guys never used wood sticks at the elite levels.

Bertuzzi not able to play because of a concussion? Boy, that must be an unexpected blow to him, getting knocked out of the game like that. So sad. I guess I could say something about how it's karma, but that might just be piling on after the concussion. I wouldn't want to rub his face in it.

Agreed. Last nights game was a debacle on many levels, but this isn't just one game where Hasek has let in some questionable goals. He has not looked great yet this season. His numbers are terrible. I think of GAA as more of a team stat, and Hasek should benefit from a defensive team like Detroit, but he's got a 2.76 GAA and a .869 SV %. The sky is not falling, but it definitely is cause for concern. We've got a 42 year-old goalie who's playing poorly. It's not out of line to wonder, is this the beginning of the end?

Dom has zero trade value. If he is injured or doesn't work out for some reason here, he's done for good.

exactly. He's the bigger, younger, meaner (okay maybe just as mean) version of Chelios.

I agree. He's sort of in the Chelios mold. He's more of a defensive defenseman than Cheli was in his early years, but nasty to play against.