sibiriak

No, but they threatened to, if the refs wouldn't "help" them.

Even the Cunuck announcers said that the Canuck player did a sales job on that last high sticking penalty against the Wings.

Hasek tried that gamble twice and lost both times. Second ended up a goal. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Oh,what a save by hasek. Remember "Having a slinky for a spine-priceless" commercial?

Well, you are correct about the Wings scoring at least one goal

Thanks. Made my day.

I'd be willing to go as high as 5 or 6 worst weeks dropped (my last week, for one ).

One should listen to Don Cherry more critically. Especially when he is touting a Canadian player over a Russian one for an award. Jordan Staal ( C ) Pittsburgh has played 69 NHL games this season and was a '-' player in 11 of them and a '+' player in 21 of them, for an impressive total of +16, according to nhl.com. The Pittsburgh coaches choose to play Malkin more than Staal. Do you think they are purposefully trying to hamper their team? That said, 28G, 10A in 69GP for 38 pts for a young rookie is very good. Just not good enough to be chosen over Malkin (31G,43A,66GP), P.Stastny (23G,44A,70GP), or Kopitar(18G,38A,63GP).

Friday: Toronto @ Washington Montreal @ Pittsburgh NY Rangers @ Atlanta Buffalo @ Tampa Bay Chicago @ Anaheim Columbus @ San Jose Saturday: Carolina @ New Jersey Toronto @ Montreal Philadelphia @ Ottawa Boston @ NY Rangers NY Islanders @ Florida St Louis @ Edmonton Dallas@ Nashville Minnesota @ Calgary Colorado @ Phoenix Detroit @ Vancouver Columbus @ Los Angeles Sunday: Tampa Bay @ Washington Buffalo @ Atlanta Ottawa @ Pittsburgh Los Angeles @ Anaheim San Jose @ Colorado Phoenix @ Dallas

Someone is bitter that OSU beat them in football, basketball, and probably uker (sp?) too.

The sign and trade is frowned upon, but it does happen. I can't think of who just now, but wasn't some big name signed and traded just this season?

Or Toledo Wings

From what i've seen when Datsyuk and Ovechkin played together on the Russian national team, their playing styles don't mesh very well. I don't know about their human-to-human relationship, but I have hard time believing that a shy retiring 28 year old family man would be more than good aquaintances with a rock-star personality type single 21 year old. They certainly are unlikely to hang out together. In short, Eklund is full of it, as usual. IMO, Ovechkin needs someone like Marc Savard (he's not available, but someone who plays a similar style). Someone who likes to get the puck and get rid of it fast, not carry it all the way up ice. Ovechkin and Datsyk on the same line would probably require two pucks in play.

So you see, JLA is West from NWA Noway Detroit gets to go East then. Seriously speaking, I live in Columbus, so I'd rather see Detroit live 4 times a year than once in 3 years. As to original rivalries, they seemtobe important only for the purists. If Detroit plyed ina more competitive division, much of the impetus behind a move to the east would be gone. And in 5-10 years, the Central may become the strongest division in the NHL, we just don't know. If Chicago gets their act together, Columbus finally hires a competent GM, Blues continue to improve, the Central may become attractive to watch fairly soon. Also, more interconference games will eventually be scheduled. It'll take a few years but it will happen. So I don't think moving to the East should be high on the Wings list of priorities. But building a new arena at least 2.5 miles to the east from the Joe may be

Damn Britishweights and measures system. If done correctly the 2'49'' of longitude at Columbus lattitude should convert to about 3.43 miles. Sowe shouldbe talking about city landmarks coordinates, rather than whole cities. Anyone knows the GPS for Joe Louis vs Nationwide arenas?

Columbus Latitude: 39 57 40N Longitude: 082 59 56W detroit Latitude: 42 19 53N Longitude: 083 02 45W So Columbus is 2' 49'' to the East from Detroit. That's roughly 200 miles. Sothe westernmost suburb of Columbus is still to the East from the easternmost point in Detroit. Nice try. Come back when you have a better argument for moving East. BTW, Atlanta is farther West than either Detroit or Columbus. EDIT- Oops, got beat to the punch. Must learn to type faster

The 5-7% number is a guess. How much of an insurance premium would you pay to secure an income stream of $6mil. a year for 3-5 years? Could be 1-2%. But as long as he can be signed for less than the market value, even if by $10000, it would be a good idea. I am not sure I understand your "perform or be traded" point. The management signs him in good faith, and can then trade him (or anyone else w/o a no-trade clause) if a right deal comes along. The player doesn't have to be consulted beforehand, or even warned about a possible trade. So no ultimatum is necessary.

OK, send your vote in. It is simple, really. You sign Datsyuk to a contract now, offering him 5-7% less than his expected UFA salary would be. Then, if he underachieves in the playoffs again, you trade him to the highest bidder in the off-season. There will be takers, because Datsyuk would be signed for less than his full UFA salary. Refer to my above post for the reason Datsyuk might agree to that. You really should read the post that I was replying to as well as the reply. You wouldn't be confused then. Injury risk does get factored in, and every impending UFA in the league would sign with his team, if the offer is high enough. It is a risk/benefit analysis excersize.

For Datsyuk, the advantage of signing early is in insuring himself against the risk of injury or bad playoffs leading to his UFA market salary being much lower than anticipated, which he would protect himself from by agreeing to a small discount off his expected UFA salary to signwith Detroit before playoffs.

Then you trade him and get something in return. Which would be more than the nothing the Wings get if they let him walk. Also, signing him pre-playoffs would almost certainly come at least slightly cheaper than his UFA market salary would be. Which makes it easier to trade him later, if Holland so decides.

Does the name Ryan Smyth ring any bells? At least Datsyuk didn't have to be traded because of $100,000 a year.

Look, regardless of what you think of Datsyuk and his past/future playoff proficiency, the choice isn't between signing Datsyuk now or after the playoffs. The choice is between signing Datsyuk before the end of the season, or competing for his services on UFA market. Because from a player's point of view, he'd have no reason to sign with Detroit on, say May 25th, instead of waiting for a few weeks and testing the market. But if a decent offer is proffered before the playoffs start, than Datsyuk would have to account for the risk of bad performance/injury. And that would be an incentive to accept an offer less than the "market value" whatever he thinks that is.

So how much does an average NHL top 4 defenseman make, in your opinion? Because that's what Markov is. His 2.5 mil. is not "rediculous" by any stretch. Phillips makes 2.2, Corvo makes 2.5, Brewer makes 2.0, Berard makes 2.5. And I'd rather have Markov than any of those players.

"I am not a gossip, but here's what I heard, take it for what it's worth." This is the oldest cop-out in the book, duh.

Do you have a source for the actual interview Kovalev gave to a Russian radiostation, or are you going by "La Presse" reports of it, that Kovalev categorically denied?