Heroes of Hockeytown

Maybe as a guy that plays on the top line and #1 PP unit. He'd be behind three forwards for sure at even strength and four on the power play in competing for ice time. He had a bad season but I agree he could easily bounce back and be productive here, but 40-50 points is probably a more realistic projection if he did. Which wouldn't really separate him from Bertuzzi in that way, but there are other qualities worth discussing, in addition to price tag.

That would be a terrible exchange. Zetterberg is a premier shutdown, two-way forward in the NHL, who has led the team in playoff scoring the last three seasons, and leads the league in playoff goals scored since the lockout. Kovalchuk is just a guy that can pick a corner. Which is a neat trick, the Wings could use a guy like that, but certainly not at the expense of a player of Hank's caliber.

No, I'd say a plus/minus change of 10 isn't very significant. A difference of 10 goals for/against over the course of an 82 game season is no measure of a defensemen's worth. For example: Duncan Keith, finished with a +21 this season after going +33 the previous one. Do you think he's a worse player this season than last, now that the Hawks are on the verge of winning the Cup? I actually tried to find more "top" defensemen to be compared to Nick in this way, but most are so wildly inconsistent (as opposed to Nick who has always been a plus player by a wide margin) I'd have to go back more than one year. Nick is one of only two NHL defensemen during the last two years to finish top 10 in both plus/minus and points, sharing the honor with the illustrious Mike Green.

They seem to be moving in no particular pattern, as they've already done Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Lidstrom.

I'm not sure what you mean by "real" points. Points are points -- it matters not from whence they are scored, so long as they're scored. But yes, Mike was not very generous with ice time in this category for Hudler, but it's not as if he was terribly unproductive at ES. Half of his points came there, after all. Mike won't have the luxury of being able to fill his spot on the top two lines with Hossa or Samuelsson this season, though. He'd really have play poorly to get booted off the top two lines next season, I think. I think he'll do okay. I know from watching him last year that some of his weakness are exaggerated by some posters (argh he is so tiny how will he ever score goals in the national hockey league), and his capabilities exaggerated by others (HUDLER SCORES THE MOST GOALS EVERY OTHER SECOND IN THE NHL, GIVE THIS MAN SOME AWARDS); the truth likely lies somewhere in between.

This is true with regards to his even-strength ice time, but Babcock didn't leash him on the PP. He was 5th in PPTOI last season (probably would have been 6th if Homer hadn't missed a lot of time), and finished tied for 4th on the team in PP points. He basically ran the 2nd PP unit, so for all the hand-wringing over whether or not he's too small and soft and so forth to be trusted with an even strength shift, he's pretty much a sure thing for allowing the Wings to ice two very deadly power play units.

This is fine with me. Some of the talk of him taking $4-5M was a little out there, I can't recall any time when a player of Nick's caliber would take such a paycut. I know that Duncan Keith and Chris Pronger have been mentioned for their lower cap hits, but it's not the same thing. Both of those guys are locked into deals until they're 40+; they are probably going to be very overpaid for their cap hits in their final seasons. We know exactly how good Lidstrom is right now, and he's being paid accordingly for right now.

Seems good. We'll have the opportunity to see everyone eventually play with everyone anyways, due to injuries and line-juggling, I'm sure.

He stuck his knee out on Fisch and caused him to miss almost the entire 2003 season. And then Fisch had a terrible 2004 season when he was still trying to recover from the ACL tear, it may as well not even count. Hartnell was also a big fan of running Detroit goalies in his time with the Predators, I remember him ramming somebody (Leagace, I think) and injuring him for a time too. And those are just against the Wings, he's left his mark on other teams, but probably don't get as much notice because unlike, say, Pronger, who is well known for his dirty play, Hartnell has never done anything notable hockey-wise in his career to warrant any attention.

You might remember Scott Hartnell's dirty knee-on-knee hit to Jiri Fischer that basically stole two seasons from him. I don't really hate Leino but it is very annoying how he was the absolute worst Red Wing on the team for months and months and then out of nowhere becomes this playoff dynamo once he leaves. But sometimes that's just how that goes.

This has got to be the most obnoxious Finals I've watched not involving the Wings in a long time. I'm annoyed at anything that happens and irritated at all possible outcomes. The games were good though.

I guess the main question for some of you guys is whether or not you believe the team could be improved with the $7.45M in cap space that would open up if Kenny were to play hardball with Lidstrom. A defensemen would need to be brought in, and ones that are any good aren't cheap, probably $4-5M, so you've a couple extra million to play around with. But I don't think you can improve the team with a new Dman that's a downgrade from Nick and one other bargain signing with the remainder. This year's free agent crop of Dmen seems good, but they'll be more next year, and the next, on and on and into infinity. So, there's no real urgency to get younger now and forgo re-signing Nick.

If there wasn't a cap maybe, but I'm pretty confident in Kenny's decision to re-sign Franzen instead, then and especially now. I bet the Hawks were expecting more from him but I'm sure they're not really complaining, considering where they're at. And in any event, I think people get too hung up on the number of goals -- any play that helps create a goal is as good in my book, and Hossa did work in Game 1 with two deft passes to set up Brouwer goals.

Naturally, Hossa, Kopecky, and Leino all do work in this game. This universe is confirmed to be terrible, I'm on the first interdimensional rocket out of here.

I doubt Leighton would get the nod if they won, considering he didn't start playing until halfway through the second round. He's been good, but from watching the ECF the Flyers really gave it to the Habs, Leighton wasn't challenged much in that series and his numbers (spectacular though they are) reflect that. Unless he has a really terrible series (in which case they probably won't win so it's a moot point) I have a tough time imagining anyone but Richards getting it for the Flyers.

I don't know how much he can do to turn that mess around in one year -- maybe have a heart to heart with Vinny Lecavalier and use the old Stevie Y magic to get him to stop being a useless hanger-on and start being the 50 goal man he can be. In any event, you are Detroit's favorite son, Steve, and we wish you best of luck in all your future endeavors -- until the time comes for you to return home!

Whoa, imagine that, a Finals schedule that isn't completely buttf*** retarded.

Even though the Wings lost to San Jose I don't think it's necessarily true that they would have lost to Chicago; all of the games were so close and turned on such lucky/fluky plays, if they played them all again the outcome could have been very different. They don't, which is right and proper, but Detroit's loss to San Jose and San Jose's loss to Chicago doesn't naturally imply the transitive property of Detroit losing to Chicago. However, it's definitely true that the Wings are a weaker team and the Hawks are a better team this season, a considerable shift from last year in fact. The loss of Sammy (who was clutch), Hudler (less so), Hossa (for whom I know there is no love lost but probably had his best series in the WCF), Cleary scoring like a maniac, and Ozzie being in beastmode; versus the Hawks solidified goaltending (via some complete nobody with a funny name, but that's the trend) and continued ascension of their young folk, probably doesn't spell a happy ending for the Wings.

Well, I don't think that's going to happen. He's going to be 35 next season, which of course doesn't mean he's going to suddenly become useless but he probably only has a couple seasons of quality hockey left in him. And his reputation for fading in big games will probably hurt him too. He had the chance to do some really great things this season -- starter on a stacked Olympic roster, only to get obliterated by archrival Canada; getting the conference finals and having a shot at the Cup, only to be swept -- but didn't end up accomplishing anything. I mean, a goalie that regularly plays 60-70 games and wins 30-40 of them is going to receive interest from some team that needs goaltending help, but it's not really the same thing as Kiprusoff, who was a virtual unknown before having his great '04 run (although having since receded into mediocrity without winning anything of importance, so take heart in that). Nabokov is a known quantity and it's not all that great.

Unless their hotel gets attacked by a pack of leopards I think the Hawks are going to be able to skate into the Finals considerably healthier than the Wings were.

What a lousy Finals. Oh well, time for the Leino Train to keep on rolling to a Conn Smythe.

He seems to be doing that a lot lately, but at least he gets it right once in a while.

Since the Hawks are in, it's basically anyone from the East, please. All of these draft day heroes winning the Cup in consecutive years, the NHL's wet dream. Ugh. I have no interest in seeing Pronger win again and the Habs already have enough Cups but I guess it's the lesser of all evils to go with the the bleu blanc et rogue. What a s***ty playoffs this has turned out to be.

Ha, maybe they should waive Jimmy so they don't hurt this guy's feelings. Sorry, Danny, there's too many guys and not enough spots -- thems the breaks with being a goalie.

He was on the top lines in Detroit a lot of the time, but the top lines kept changing with the injury situation. It looks like he spent the majority of his season with either Hank and Dano, or Flip and Willy, but ended up doing a lot of other things with a lot of other players half the time. I don't know why he couldn't put it together here but he has been dominant for Philly so far in the playoffs.