haroldsnepsts

that's exactly my point. He better deliver or this was a huge mistake Holland just made. No one is gonna want to trade for a an overpaid playoff failure with that many years on his contract.

It's not an excuse. With big money comes big expectations. You expect your regular season leading scorer to also deliver in the postseason. Datsyuk better deliver, and soon.

I don't think Pavel deserves 7 million this season. And the linemates shouldn't factor in. You play with who your linemates are. That's it. Holland's gambling is killing my nerves. Betting on Hasek's groin, Bertuzzi's back, and now locking up a super-talented but playoff underacheiver for 7 years. so far his gambles have paid off. I hope this one does too. A bad showing in the playoffs by Datsyuk pretty much overshadows all the other deals for me. Bert and Hasek he got for practically nothing.

i'm surprised they wanted a longer deal. Didn't holland offer a longer term contract last time, and it was Pavel pushing for the shorter term?

it really is for 7 years? guess the local media got it wrong and TSN had it right. So that would lock him up until he's 35 years old. Man, that's just too long a contract for anyone not named Crosby or Ovechkin.

holy crap I hope those details are wrong.

Sure a case can be made, but not a good one. I'm not saying Dats is bad defensively. But there's a big difference between being responsible defensively and being the best defensive forward on the team. In a clutch penalty kill situation, it's gonna be a guy like Draper on the ice. It's not a knock on Dats. He's just not the best defensive forward on the team. The guy's got crazy skills, but seriously, let's keep some perspective here.

Datsyuk deserves praise for his two way play, especially this season. But you're off your nut if you think he's as good or better than Drapes and Z. Draper's main focus is shutting other guys down. He doesn't have to worry too much about making plays or scoring goals. I don't want to turn this thread into something that looks like bashing Dats. I'm not. But to call him the best defensive forward on the team is definitely over the top.

As long as Draper and Zetterberg are on the team, you really can't.

wow. then I kind of wish they had signed him after the playoffs, even if it cost a little more. I hope this is another Holland gamble that pays off. his luck has been pretty good this year.

That was the thing that really irked me about people defending Tootoo's actions, claiming he had to do it to defend himself. Situations like that happen all the time in hockey, but as you mentioned, most respectable players will get their gloves and stick up to protect themselves, then drop the gloves.

If there were beer involved maybe?

still better than some people who have their head planted firmly up their own ass. seriously man, this thread was started by someone saying Ozzy was worse than even the minor league goalies in the system. Are you gonna support that statement?

seriously. He kicked things off by saying Osgood is worse than the minor league goaltenders. Think about that statement for a second. You may not like the guy, but let's have a reality check here, okay? Any thread that starts with such an idiotic statement is clearly a bashing thread.

I wholeheartedly agree. The shootout must go. Honestly I think the ice scraping girls (or whatever they're called) is pretty cheesy. Just send an arena guy out there to do it. It's just funny to me how irritated some people (females *cough*) seemed to be by their very presence.

I think it's funny how much grief the ice sweeping girls seem to get in these threads. They're not even cheerleaders really. At least they serve some purpose, even if they are dressed like Hooters girls. As I mentioned in an earlier thread about them, I don't know if they still do, but the Red Wings used to have somewhat scantily clad girls leading fans out in between periods for Score-O, when they were giving away cars.

A lot of other people said Fedorov wanted to leave. I'd be amazed if you could find any quote from him that even came close to it. Even if it was true, Fedorov has generally said good things about the team and chosen his words carefully. Feds was definitely moody and it seemed like he wanted to be the one and only star, but I don't remember him ever saying he wanted to leave. If I were watching some other team, like if Colorado was playing Nashville, and the crowd in Denver was quiet most of the game, only making a lot of noise to boo Peter Forsberg, my reaction would be "what a bunch of lame ass fans they have."

They should definitely keep the troughs! it's a piece of Joe Louis history. And it really tests your stagefright.

True. It's just stupid that they manage to find the energy to boo Fedorov, but can hardly manage to make noise the rest of the time. A lot of games I've seen on t.v. the Joe is like a library.

don't you feel like your coming down with something, like a nasty one day cold?

I think it depends a lot on who is staying next year and for how much. Lang, Datsyuk, Maltby. And to a lesser degree, how he performs in the playoffs. Even if he doesn't do that well, I don't know that it would be a dealbreaker from Holland's perspective since he's hardly played at all this season and just joined the team. I definitely want Calder back, though not at his current $2.95 million. It's got to be somewhat of a relief for him not to be THE guy on a team. Hopefully taking the spotlight off him a little will allow him to get his game back.

I agree that Feds is a shadow of his former self. But I bet a lot of GM's would've been more than willing to gamble on him if not for his $6 million price tag for next season. If he were a UFA, it would've been a totally different story. and more on topic, while I think the booing of Fedorov is stupid, I'm not happy when anyone scores on the Wings, no matter who it is.

exactly. if you look through the thread, pretty much no one is saying that is true.

Much ado about nothing. Had Lunqvist really taken a "big windup" and laid a slash on her squeegee with his goal stick (wow that sounds dirty), he likely would've knocked it clear out of her hands. and the girl who claims she was spit on said she felt something wet on her back, and assumed it was one of the players and they did it on purpose. and yes, Dom and Lundqvist and probably every other goalie in the league is doing it to try and keep the ice shavings in the crease. If it were officials skating over to clear it, the goalies probably would take it more seriously and feel like they had to move out of the crease. By the cheerleader girls or by someone else, the crease should be cleared. They've already got the supersized pads, they can live without a snow fort in front of the goal line.

I agree that to have an exciting stanley cup playoffs, you need the powerhouses. It gives some people a favorite team to root for because they have a great chance at winning the Cup. And it creates a situation for the underdogs to try and take them down. It makes for better stories and drama in the playoffs. Especially when you have some of the same players going against each other several years in a row (colorado vs. detroit). Having different teams every year isn't as compelling. Parity isn't always good.