skacore

sweden in the lockout year

I would break my favourite to least favourite into 3 groups, no specific order within the groups Pavel Datsyuk Niklas Kronwall Dallas Drake Aaron Downey Daniel Cleary Nicklas Lidstrom Henrik Zetterberg Andreas Lilja Valtteri Filppula Tomas Kopecky Tomas Holmstrom Matt Ellis Brian Rafalski Dominik Hasek Kris Draper Chris Osgood Mikael Samuelsson Kirk Maltby Mark Hartigan Derek Meech Johan Franzen Brett Lebda Jiri Hudler

well he is retired... I gotta go with Jason Blake

I have faith that Kopecky will work out as well, when he was with the Griffins, his physical play and grinding game really evolved when he was on a line with Darryl Bootland and Ryan Barnes as his wingers. I can't really decide who should "sit" because that won't happen, but Drake or Maltby would have to be the guy who would (Maltby). Franzen/Samuelsson will never sit, but I'd like to see one of them moved in the near future to free up a spot upfront

The italics is irrelevant when they are being used as a playoff rental The bold is a joke, Havelid cannot match Blake or Foote's physical pressence, which is what we need most on D right now

For the sake of conversation I'll bring this up.. when I was watching the game tonight and saw the collision between Heatley and Drake, although Drake fell, Heatley was the one who got injured.. earlier this year, Drake collided with Matt Greene was it? on Edmonton... and he broke his ankle.. I was thinking to myself, wow does Drake put other players in these "accidental situations" on purpose? Nah...no way he could pull that off, but if anyone has mastered the ability to injury another player, wouldn't it be the savy veteran Dallas Drake? (I don't really believe that theory )

Lilja lost? WTF? lol...

I was wondering if any of you Griffin fans went to the game on November 1st and if you remember Jonathan Ericsson's fight with Anthony Stewart? Any details? I know Stewart is one tough dude and I was excited to see Ericsson fought, just curious if he got pummeled or what haha... thanks

I don't know about beat, but realistic matchups for Kopecky could be: Fisher, Redden, Foligno, Donovan, Bass not going to hold my breath though... and as for Downey, I never expected him to be in the line up for tonight's game, just wishful thinking I guess... it would make the game so much more intense. I don't like how the team preaches about how they respect Downey's job and appreciate his enforcer position but they don't even utilize him as one, they use him as a 14th forward who plays due to injuries, not circumstances.. kinda dumb

If there's one guy in the league who can single handedly make his opposition dress an enforcer it's Chris Neil, but appartently not us

I'm pretty sure it's rookies vs. rookies

Helm needs a full year of AHL more than any prospect IMO, he needs to work on his strength to play at the NHL level but I wish we had Quincey from the start rather than Lebda

HOW? Ruutu won the fight, but Tucker was embarressed? not at all... First of all Ruutu was not the underdog, he had 2 inches and 20 pounds on Tucker and that's being generous, and he's an underrated fighter and has won more than he's lost for sure. Tucker gave it his all and he received more than he gave but he still landed his fair share, he was cut open but did he return to the game? yeah.. Tucker will go toe to toe with guys much bigger than himself, win or lose that's not being embarressed. Taking those rights and staying on his feet just makes me respect Tucker so much more, what a heart and soul guy (when he wants to be), wish we had him

I'm sure they just locked each other out and threw a couple meaningless punches... I doubt anyone would go toe to toe with their own goalie

nope I loved it as well.. Blake is a whiny little ***** and this spiced things up a bit, it makes for an exciting game. Blake was the one who was chirping Downie after the McAmmond hit, he was saying s*** to the media like Downie should never play in the NHL... he shouldn't open his mouth where it doesn't belong

I don't buy it.. if you watch the interview Zajac sounds like an idiot, he can't even look up while he's talking and he basically just stuttered the same few words for 2 minutes. I think he is just staying to draw some negative attention towards Hatcher or something. In the scrum Zajac stuck his hand in Hatcher's face, who was most likely wearing a mouth guard and biting on it so if Zajac stuck a finger in there and it was chomped on then it's his fault for going after Hatcher's face anyways

where did you hear that Kopecky would be out? last I heard he was good to go and he will be in instead of Hartigan

Yeah Boogaard was the Wild's MVP in game 4 I think it was, when Wild actually won. I think it was the game or the game after Brad May's suckerpunch on Kim Johnsson and the fans were chanting "BOOGAARD, BOOGAARD" and then he was sent on the ice and no Duck wanted anything to do with him... I'm not sure Parros was in the line up that game

Mirasty is about as bonehead as they come, I love him but he can't play hockey at all, no way he ever cracks Detroit's line up. He isn't even the greatest fighter, just really, really entertaining

yeah definitely not looking forward to Maltby's return...the guy has been going through the motions for the past 2.5 years and he's more than expendable

he really isn't... I'm on the bandwagon as well but Lucic will not go with most heavyweights in the league, and he IS being challenged (I recall Peters challenging him on numerous occasions about a month ago). At 6'4 220 I expected him to go with anyone he could, like most rookies "heavyweights" would, but he is going after middleweights and light heavyweights...not saying he hasn't been impressive, because he has, and I hope that one day he does challenge for the title but he's not even close right now beating guys like Boll, Bell, and Tarnasky. Until you are beating the likes of Laraque, Brashear, King, Boogaard, Godard, Belak, Roy, Orr, Ivanans, Parros, Shelley, Parker, McGrattan, Peters... you are nowhere near the title... right now Shawn Thornton is the heavyweight in Boston and all the players in the league realize that

Personally I would say: Kopecky 1-0-0, landed better on Sharp Lilja 0-0-2 , 2 draws with Begin and Phaneuf Drake 1-2-1, win agaisnt Burish, draw with Perry, losses to Wisniewski and Mayers Downey 2-0-3, wins over McLaren and Boll, draws with Shelley, Fedoruk, and Davison You have Downey losing to Boll where I think most people felt he won.. I was skeptical at first giving Downey an edge for coming back strong and proving he is a better fighter, I felt I just saw what I wanted to but the consensus at hockeyfights.com and dropyourgloves.com felt that Downey got the win as well... either way it was a good, close fight.. I just felt Downey taking the fight over proved he was superior

Coyote0106, if you saw the game tonight, how did Ericsson do tonight? I saw he picked up the instigator package.

I just found this on YouTube haha.. some band Stone Bogart made a song about Dallas Drake when he was a Coyote... some really good clips of Drake in the video I think the Joe needs to play this after his fights or goal, if he ever scores

I think he will go with Stortini