Heroes of Hockeytown

Somewhat related; didn't really wanna make a new thread for it. Thoughts from the fourth line: "Every time we get out there, we get scored on," Kopecky said. "One thing goes wrong and then everything goes wrong. Everything we touch, it's going wrong. It's just tough luck, and you have to overcome it. Play simple, just do your own job, and everything is going to be fine." "It's pretty obvious -- really, anything that can go wrong right now is," Draper said. "We just have to keep coming day in and day out and keep working on it, and you hope sooner or later it'll turn."

How would anyone know that the fight prevented an injury if that injury was prevented? To the point, though, man games lost to injury as of one month ago: Link. As this isn't an official stat tracked by the NHL, it'll have to do. As you can see Detroit is near the bottom. Since most injuries happen during the regular course of the game (any old innocent check, hit with a shot, just skating around), the man games lost are more or less a random occurrence. I don't really get the enforcer to prevent injuries argument, if in fact there is one being put forth. There are a number of valid and legitimate reasons for fighting in hockey, but this is not one of them. No one is going to second guess making a hit or getting involved in a scrum because they're afraid their tough guy will have to fight the other team's tough guy.

Considering that he's Marian Hossa? Yeah, I'll take it. He didn't hit a damn thing, but at least he was swingin'. Compound that with a 6-2 thrashing, and the Ghost of ESAD should be stayed for another night.

By the power of NHL.com I can. On the backend: Markov, Tyutin, Gonchar, Grebeshkov, Volchenkov, Zubov. In goal: Nabokov, Khabibulin, Bryzgalov. They've got enough forwards to put together three good lines, and if I remember correctly they had some non-NHLers come in to make the forth line in Torino who impressed. The two other forwards you could include could be Fedorov, Frolov, or the other Kozlov.

What a beast. The spinorama to get loose and still getting the shot away while on his ass. Amazing sequence.

Amazingly, no breakaways. One mindfart in the form of a bad change, and one shot through a screen, but it was all good. Not many scoring chances to speak of. Conks did what he had to do. Great night. It's nice to see the Wings shellac a team like they used to. And maaad props to Hossa for droppin' the mitts. You won't see that every day.

I'd say that ship has sort of sailed in Detroit now that Hartnell, Forsberg, and Kariya are gone. Tootoo is probably this board's most hated active player, true, but overall I'd say the Preds draw a big "meh" around here these days.

No, Marty was just a guy that had one great season. He continued to produce at about the same rate as before that for four of the next five years.

I very rarely end up listening to out of town broadcasts so I can't comment on it.

I listened to them once, I'm alright with them. They didn't strike me as unintelligent or too one-sided. They're homers, in the same that Ken and Mick and all the local broadcasting teams are homers.

I agree with what you're saying in principle, but this a bad example. You've taken the point into the realm of absurdity. It's reasonable to make guesses about players potentially getting an extra 5-6 minutes a game; the same can't be said for 40.

Being a pro just means you get paid to do something. You could be doing any kind of work, and if a co-worker you trust says "You suck!" you'll probably feel bad. Money's got nothing to do with it. The majority of sports interviews are boring because no one wants to cause any trouble. That may not entertain you, but it's a perfectly reasonable goal.

Well, we're far enough away from discussing things empirically that all I can say is I see it differently. I don't think that defensively the Wings are as bad as they're showing. When they get up for big games (Hawks, Sharks, Pens) they've played shut down hockey as good as I've seen but most nights they're bored and just mail it in. They don't play well and that hurts a goalie like Ozzie who's got no confidence right now (despite what he says to the media) and needs them to be strong for him. If the playoffs started tomorrow, I don't wanna say the team would flip a switch, but I think the skaters would be OK. Ozzie on the other hand wouldn't be.

All I can say is, I disagree. The Stuart-Kronwall pairing was a disaster and the fourth line has been a mess; and the rest of it's been out of sync and just not sharp. It's getting better but it's not great. Certainly better than November, when even Nick was having trouble. The defensive struggle has compounded with the shoddy goaltending to make the Wings goals against a bizarre contrast with their record, and likely the only reason it isn't in the absolute basement is because the Wings have the puck most of the time anyways.

People need to absolutely come off this point. Quality, not quantity. Some nights I swear to god it's a breakaway relay in our end.

They were certainly different. "A shell won't fall in the same crater twice." Is that some kind of Russian idiom? Or did he just invent that on the spot?

Gotta disagree. The passes I've seen Hudler make are far and away more impressive, and numerous, than Flipper. The stats don't necessarily bear that out, but it's what I've observed. In the same way Sammy gets lots of garbage points from dicking around on the PP and not really contributing, Flipper to me has been propped up by Hossa's play of late and isn't really impressing me.

Brian Propp.

Back when the world was young, Ken Hitchcock was with the Flyers, and someone was dumb enough to make Eddie O a coach.

He is not. Presently he's on pace for 41 points.

Yeah, well, thems the breaks. I've said it before -- the NBA has LeBron, the NFL has Peyton, the NHL has Sid. You can't very well promote every good player in the league. With all due respect to new fans of the game, I don't really care what they think or expect. Once they've had the opportunity to learn and understand the game, I'm sure most would come to recognize Crosby's skills just the same.

I don't. Any comparison to Gretzky is absurd and unfair, so there's no reason for him to take flak for that.

I was going to mention this. Clever guy, that Datsyuk. Very subtle with his humor.

There's a nine point gap between Malkin and Crosby. Appreciable, but not exactly huge.

Bugger off, crybaby.