egroen

Chara, Green and Lidstrom are the front-runners now - with Keith (terribily underrated) and Wideman looking on from the outside. Weber's game has not been good the second half of the season and Green is everything Boyle is - but even more offense. Despite not being as strong defensively, Green has a crazy plus/minus that could give him the win if he scores 30 goals and 80 points. Chara has been annointed since the first month of the season when Lidstrom showed chinks in his armor. It's going to be pretty close this year, but if Lidstrom keeps up his play, I strongly feel he deserves it and hope the voting agrees. The Wings atrocious goals against may be used against him, as well.

I just hope we see a 100 point season - been a while since we have had a Red Wing over that mark. What a great accomplishment.

My stream died - yup. Probably for the best... Now it's back. Crap.

I'd love it if they brought in Joey Kocur to teach a few pointers, like he did with Jiri Fischer. Fischer came back and destroyed Hartnell with one punch, ala Kocur. So beautiful to watch. I think Lilja, Kopecky and Cleary would sign up for classes... maybe even Samuelsson. Though Sammy doesn;t ever get tough until a ref is holding him back. Not sure if we will ever really see Franzen fight - just doesn't seem in his nature.

I just value defenders higher, and someone with that size and skill on defense, with the maturity to compete for an NHL position right away, would be too much to pass up. We very well could have Datsyuk/Hossa/Zetterberg playing at a high level for the next 4-6 years -- probably not so with Lidstrom.

I didn;t realize how much he had fallen off... Todd Marchant might waive his NTC if the Ducks are out of it.

I would take Tootoo in a second. Neil wouldn't be bad at all. Gratton and Roberts could be available.

Hedman, no question.

Schneider already went for a 2nd and 3rd -- there is your first metric for D this year. Factor in that Montreal probably paid a bit of a premium to get Atlanta to sign on it early. Holland holds his cards close to the chest - last year he stated he was probably not going to do anything, and he ended up getting Stuart and trying for Hossa (as well as Fedorov). So it's tough to put much stock in his comments. If you are planning on trading a layer, the last thing you are going to do is rip him apart to the press, as well. He is reluctant to trade away recently signed players, especially when they signed for a discount - though I am not sure that is true in Filppula's case - but to assume he is not even considering trading Filppula if it means he can keep any combination of Hossa/Franzen/Hudler is probably a mistake.

... And I think we just heard the entirety of Florida's goals this year.

Wrong. the correct answer is: Because he was an RFA. You have a lot more flexibility and options when signing RFAs. In a situation where you have a handful of UFAs and one RFA to deal with (as Holland does), you get handle on the UFAs first.

There's a decent chance Hal Gill will be available at the deadline

Perhaps you can explain to me why Filppula went all the way to arbitration last year, if he is so important to the team?

Osgood has just been unlucky... in 90% of the games he has played this season I'm rooting for Ozzie, but let's not sugarcoat it and say this season has been anything but a disaster for him so far.

Or it could have something to do with Hudler's RFA status? Just maybe?

I'd like to give Holland more credit than that - I would certainly hope if he has the opportunity to keep a better player he would consider moving Filppula (after the season).

Unless you are making a significant roster upgrade, trading Sammy (or Filppula, Kronwall, Hudler, Lilja, Lebda, etc.) at the trade deadline is a huge mistake. You want to win the Stanley Cup this year. Depth is vital.

Draper is immovable -- he has a no-trade clause and his contract went into effect after the age of 35 -- so even if he retires, is sent to the minors or even dies, his remaining salary is figured into the cap.

You'll have to add Chara, since he has already been annointed as the Norris winner since the first month of the season because Lidstrom has obviously "lost it".

Alright, instead maybe he has just plain gone straight to being a s***ty goalie in that time?

Unless you are arguing that the Detroit Red Wings have absolutely the worst defense in the league this year, this argument falls flat on its face. Almost every single game, I watch the Wings have more quality scoring opportunities than the oposing team -- their goalies just end up stopping a higher percent of them. Osgood is having his worst year ever. Period. - it is not the fault of the defense. I can understand people arguing he still has time to improve, but I can't believe anyone still thinks Osgood is being hung out to dry by the Wings' defense.

I was just curious as to how much Hossa was helping Filppula'a game recently, because to my eyes, it was pretty significant. So I quickly went through the past few games, where Filppula has been putting up points nicely, and here is what I found: 6 out of 7 of Filppula's points have come as assists before Hossa inevitably touches the puck. The other was a secondary assist on a Lidstrom goal. No big significance, I was just curious, and thought I would share.

Watching games at the Joe, you can just see the low confidence level of Osgood so much more than on the tube - he just looks smaller out there than I have ever seen him. He is indecisive and hesitates a lot more - not sure whether to come out or go back in net. Very frustrating to watch. In all honestly, I feel awful for him right now -- and I hope he can pull out of it. Quick.

Holmstrom! Huddles blows him away defensively I think one pure offensive player per line in the top two is just fine. Now Hudler and Holmstrom on the same line, yeah that could spell disaster!

I think Lilja is playing much better than last year and so is Lebda. Kronwall and Rafalski have always been guilty of retarded plays, they are just being pointed out to us more often now. This is all subjective of course, but I would say perhaps 10% of our increase in goals against are due to less stellar defense than last year, but a full 90% is due to abysmal goaltending. It is a statistically weird year - that's for sure. The home and away PK difference has been crazy.