datsyukismyfriend

because, on average, he's on the ice about a minute longer than datsyuk per game.

lol, that just made my night a whole lot better!

anybody watch the post game? what did babs have to say?

we had all these players last year (hudler, flip, etc)! pluss we had lang, bert, and clader, thus, last year we had more depth. get it? you can't gain depth by getting rid of players and replacing them with players in your own system. lang's 50 points will be tough to make up. it's not that i don't think highly of flip and rex, but we already had both of them on the team last year. and i think it's going to be tough to find offense when our first line isn't clicking. we had that problem to some extent last year, but at least we had lang.

fair enough.

if you're conceding that each is as effective as the other when it comes to keeping the puck, the what does it matter if one does if physically and one does it shiftily? i guess we just disagree. i think they're different means to the same end.

my point is that they're each as effective as the other when it comes to keeping the puck.

he's not strong on the puck in the sense that it's hard to get him off the puck physically, but in the sense it's hard to get a hold of him because he's shifty. zetterberg is stronger physically on the puck, but the end result is tha, i'd say, they both end up with the puck at about the same rate.

good

i didn't want to enter into this debate, either. but datsyuk is strong on the puck. and he battles along the boards about as good as anyone for his size. there'll be two players stacked behind dats along the boards fighting for the puck and more often than not datsyuk will either skate away with it, or pass it out. he's pretty remarkable in the way he thinks the game. he's almost always a step ahead of the opposition, defensively and offensively. i don't think he gets enough credit. now, i'm not saying datsyuk is better than z, or more valuable, but i will say i think it's a harder distinction to make than a lot of people are making it out to be. it's hard to compare them because they have different styles. but the bottom line is that their styles complement each other very well and neither would be the player he is now if the other wasn't there.

he definitely has a chance at the top ten, but i doubt he'll crack. it's not a knock on z, but, like you said, there is a lot of talent for the top ten. it doesn't necessarily mean he isn't good enough, either, but playing in the detroit system tends to limit point production in favor of team defense. a lot of players around the league don't have as much of a problem in that way. that's why i think it's more realistic z wins the selke.

how does any of what you said support the comment that we have more depth? i'm not sure what your argument is.

i think people are jumping the gun a bit here. he's had a fantastic start, but to think he'll keep this pace up is unrealistic. you guys really think he's going to tally 164 point's this season? aside from lemieux and gretzky i don't think anybody's ever cracked 160. anyway, this could be a break out year for z, but i doubt very much he'll lead the league in scoring. i doubt he'll be top ten. i think our highest hopes would be that he got the selke, which i think is a definite possibility.

i'm not sure how losing bertuzzi, calder, and lang and bringing nobody else in gives us more depth. all the guys we have up front now we had in the system last year. we are definitely thinner up front. i don't see hudler or filppula making up for lang and bertuzzi. it's not going to happen. aside from that, we had both those guys last year, so last year they were already part of our "depth". defense we lost markov and schneider. we brought in rafalski, whom i prefer to schneider, but still, we have nobody to make up for markov, so i feel we are thinner on d as well. so i'm not sure how people think we're deeper. edit-i forgot about drake. he is a veteran presence and gives us some grit, so that's good. but other than his few fights, he's been invisible.

lol. oh man, this is a can of worms you don't want to open.

i'm sure lang gets up more the detroit games than any others at this point. all his points have come against us. i watched the san jose chicago game a few nights ago and lang looked like his usual turnover self. i had nothing personal against the guy, i felt bad for him, but i'm glad he's not on the team. that said, he gave us 50 to 60 points a year and we've got to find a way to make that up. i doubt it's hudler.

thats awesome. great for non-michigan folks since we can finally see some post-games.

that, and he's only scored against the wings. it's karma. and what the hell is lang doing on the pk???? the hawks are crazy! anyway, it's clear the hockey gods are a little riled that we passed on poor bobby.

that goal was ozzy's fault. oz should have been hugging the post. anytime somebody scores a goal from behind the red line it's the goaltender's fault. lebda was there to take away the pass, play the middle, which is exactly what he did. osgood, no matter what, has to play the shooter and absolutely needs to be hugging the post in that situation.

it's just one game, that's true, but the worst thing about this loss is that those two points were pretty important considering our west coast trip coming up. eveybody knows how notoriously lousy the wings are when they swing out west. i have a feeling the standings will look a little different after next week. it just sucks to have lost three points we should have had against a team we were up by two goals against each game because those points would have come in handy in about a week. oh well.

boulerice is a goon, plain and simple. this isn't the first time he's done something like this. i'm happy with 25, but more would have been fine. cross-checking someone in the side of the head?!?! c'mon! players like boulerice are bad for the game.

i've heard they both wanted to follow lang and sopel to chi-town. truth is, they both were leaning that way already when j-will defected last spring.

i watched the hawks vs the sharks the other night and after seeing lang turn the puck over about 20 times in the neutral zone and across the blue line i remembered very vividly why i'm glad he's gone. and when they don't produce? balanced scoring is important. when you're a one line team and that one line hits a dry spell you're screwed. i don't know what the answer is with the players we have, but we need another scoring forward.

he also had several blatant give aways, one of which resulted in a goal against. i'm not saying he doesn't have talent. but he's done very little to show me that he can utilize his talent and put it all together. tons of players have talent or potential or whatever, but very few actually put it all together. it's still early and he's relatively young, but i think the wing's have bet on a losing horse.

lilja dropping the gloves is a pretty rare sight. he has size, but doesn't really use it. last years playoffs were and exception. this year he's been relatively invisible in terms of physicality, i think.