RusDRW

While I fully agree with your assessment and conclusions it is still funny how you mention "Malkin started his career just as good, if not better, than Crosby".

sharks are bigger but no way they are tougher than Phoenix. In fact, sharks allow us to play our puck possession game. This is the biggest positive thing I see now. Williams disappears against hard checking teams. I think he could be good against SJS.

I somewhat agreed with mindfly at first. But then I took a look at our roster. Who are those soft euros bringing nothing to this team? Homstrom? no ******* way he is soft. He is fearless. Datsyk? He is exactly what we also need - top end Euro talent. Ericsson? He can fight. He is just not that good at playing hockey? Kronwall? Do you remember those hits? I guarantee he will bring few more this time too. Zetter? Can you name me more clutch player? Filppula? He is very good hockey player, no doubt about that. Perhaps not your classic top end talent but I wouldn't trade him for, say, Moreau (who is pretty gritty). Lilja? Yes. Then you have good old Canadian boys in Eaves, Miller, Williams, Draper, Bertuzzi. They are not gritty at all. They often backs off from tough contacts along the boards. These are players who are making this team look bad against big bad boys from, say, Anaheim. But I'm OK with that (well, except for Williams) as long as they outplay Anaheim in hockey. Just drop Lilja and add Carkner in the midseason. Trade someone for, say, Walker or Clarkson or Carcillo or... the list goes on. And we are fine. We are two players away from a good solid hard-checking "Canadian style" team.

IMO, the bottom line is that there is no reason to be disciplined in this league. That's sad.

Det 1 Pho 2 Kronwall for Det, Prucha and Vrbata for Pho

we'll lose in six games. These two teams have different reasons to play in the play-off. Phoenix just want to go deep. Detroit plays for the Cup. However, our players understand that they cannot win it all this year. That's mental thing. We are much better at playing hockey anyway, we just do not have reasons to put all the efforts and beat them...

last time I've seen Abs playing he had nothing to offer offensively. But I still prefer Abs rather than Drapes in our lineup. My suggestion is to sit Drapes and dress Abs. Then, allow Williams to center our third line. He is still much more creative with the puck than Helm. This would give us more or less offensively minded third line while out fourth line would still be very fast and hard checking... Cleary - Williams - Eaves Abdelkader - Helm - Miller

this and without smiling And for those who think that extending series is fine and all. These artificial "extensions" do affect the final outcome of play-off match-ups. Last year's Pens-Caps series come to my mind when I think about this. Caps were up 2-0 going to game 3 in Pittsburgh, where 9 penalties were called on Caps and 2 on Pens. They still took it to the overtime where they lost 4-5. That was series changing moment and no further explanation is needed why. I do not really like Caps, I hate Ovechkin's selfish style, etc. but I'm still pissed about that. Refs just decided to give Pens one more breath they didn't even deserve and they turned that series around.

I'm 100% sure there will be ugly calls and Coyotes will be given all the chances in the world to win this series. You just need to consider NHL as a corporation that may easily screw one of their best departments in favor of the struggling one. We'll lose this series no matter how we play. I had exactly the same feeling last year before SCF.

And now we are at this again. The worst part of it is that is that I really, really respect Sydney. He is exceptional talent and all... but his fans want him to be involved in every ******* thread related to hockey. This is where this hate for Crosby starts. The funniest part for me is that I do not really like how Ovechkin plays the game. I think he signlehandedly may ruin Was chances for the Stanley Cup with his selfish plays... but there is no chance to discuss this stuff. At each and every board related to hockey there are these Carmans switching attention to his guy just in the beginning of all discussion.

Backstrom is getting his credit. Semin does not play with Ovechkin. A part of being a fan is to know your rival team well.

I didn't notice that...

all the goaltenders except for Tim Thomas has nothing to do with the best play of the year. They just got some luck. At least, Thomas did that on purpose. Miller, Hossa were lucky too. Nash is a clown. I would say the best were Sedins and Dats but even those were not that spectacular. We didn't have outstanding moments this season, especially, compared to those last year (Towes, Nash)...

Doughty was exceptional in all seven LA games I've seen this year. I watched more Chicago games and would say there is nothing very special about Keith. He is good, no doubt about it, but not great. Same with Greene. So my choices: 1. Doughty 2. Lidstrom 3. Keith or Greene or Pronger or etc. The winner will be Keith though. Simply because no one else from Chicago will get personal award.

Really? This is a bit strange. Guess this is because it is *NHL* HOF not hockey HOF.

It is relatively easy to compare for me. I've seen Larionov in his prime (back in late 80s) playing for Red Army. He had an excellent players around him in Krutov and Makarov and he never looked like he is the best on that line. I would say he was an excellent passer with very good hockey sense. There are (were) a number of players that are (were) better than Larionov was in his prime (e.g. Thornton, Crosby, Forsberg, Gretzky, Lemeaux). Pav is unique. I've been watching hockey for more than 20 years and I've never seen a player like him. He can do everything better than any player in the current NHL and his skills are on par with greatest ones. And, in addition to that, he can do things I've never seen in hockey. This last thing makes him better.

one off-topic question. What does it mean in English when few words are put in parentheses? For example, in that article regarding Eaves I see "It's a credit to guys like Drapes, (Nicklas Lidstrom), (Brian Rafalski) and (Chris Osgood)." Is it so that he didn't mention Lidstrom, Rafalsi, and Osgood? Or are those guys assumed by default?

this. I even had an intention to stop wathing NHL.

I would put LA in this list just after Vancouver. Their offense is like a sleeping giant. If they find a way to wake it up nobody would feel comfortable against them. At least we know what to expect out of Chicago and San Jose.

not necessarily... People around me just do not know what NHL is

I don't get why Wellwood is so wanted here... He is good and all but he lacks few minor things... heart, intensity, commitments. Accidentally these are things our coach really like.

you make too many conclusions out of a single game. Why didn't you make them after epic 3-2 SO win over Switzerland? that was the game when everything was on the line for Canada. They put everything in it. I wouldn't say Russia wasn't ready, but, obiously, that wasn't the best day for us. Combinations of these factors led to 7-3. Not a big deal after all.

that's exactly what the rest of the world don't like about NA. You can't win without trashing. You can't lose without excuses.

officiating is my only concern. It may ruin the game just like Canada-US group games was almost ruined by that timely call on Johnson late in the third. It was always this way playing in Canada and will always be...

I can see where it goes. Canada destroys Germany, then Russia and Canada annihilates each other, Finland beats the winner of this pair just to lose to Sweden for the second time in this tournament.