sibiriak

General rule of thumb for the "official" NHL players measurements: height is 1.5'' less than listed, weight is 15 lbs less than listed. I think they are weighted and measured in skates and full gear on

If you take three steps to hit someone it is in itself charging. Read the rulebook. This hit was late, to the head, leading with his elbow, he got 4 games and should have gotten a couple more. And I would hate to see this d... in red and white, just like I don't like seeing Bertuzzi in it. I can tolerate Bert only because he hasn't done anything objectionable in a while.

I have felt this for some time, but the words crystallized in my mind after today's game. The Wings no longer have the personnel to play the puck possession style of hockey effectively. Even when all the injured guys come back, they still wouldn't have the skill to outplay most teams like they used to. 20 years of late draft picks have finally caught up with us. Our prospects have skill, but not enough to overcome the size/speed deficiency. I foresee some lean years in Detroit, before the farm system can be replenished with sufficient talent to play our style again.

If he were tanking, he would have pretended to change up the lines for the 3rd period of a 0-3 game, to get some scoring, but he would have put Datsyuk and Zetterberg together with some scrub, like Abdelkader, to make sure they don't score. Oh wait...

I would agree that a stocked farm system might be used as an excuse for an underperforming team's GM, but that excuse will not serve for very long. 1 season at most.

Again, it doesn't matter what happens in GR, as long as the NHL team is doing well. Different teams manage their personnel differently. Some develop their draft selections and then call them up, some call them up sooner rather than later, some rely more on signing free agents etc. As long as your main team is winning, no one is going to ask the GM any questions about the farm team. Results are paramount, how you got there doesn't matter at all. So Holland is doing to be evaluated by the fans, and, more importantly, by the ownership based solely on the Wings record. That is my point. How well the Griffins have done will not even be part of the coversation.

I have to disagree with your bolded statement. In pro sports, the performance of the top club IS the performance of the organization. As a GM, you will get fired for not making the playoffs a few years in a row, even if your farm team wins a championship in every one of those years. If your top club lacks players, yet your farm system is bursting at the seams with talent, some kind of action needs to be taken, no?

What is the difference between a spear and a slash? Both are wacking someone with a stick. In fencing, a thrust is usually preferred to a cut. They always say "a point beats the edge".

Do you remember when Larionov slashed Lindros and broke(fractured) his leg in retaliation for some rough stuff? To me, that was a smart move, 5'10'' 170 Igor squaring up against Lindros wouldn't have been a fair, level field fight, it would have been suicidal stupidity. Yet you can't let goonery pass without response, either. If I'm in a bar fight, and there's a convenient stool to hand, I'm gonna use it and not worry about fighting fair. Fair fights are for suckers.

I never understood why in hockey some ways to hurt people are considered OK and honorable, but other ways are gutless and childish. If your leg or jaw is broken, what difference does it make wether that was the result of kneeing, boarding, a slush, a spear, or a punch?

If you called Franzen a soft Euro, I'd agree with you. But Filppula is not soft. He plays hard and busts his ass every shift. He is a very good 3rd line center that the Wings have to sometimes use on a 2nd line, because they don't have anyone else.

The winning team in that KHL consolation playoff doesn't get the first overall pick. It gets an extra first round pick. So the advantage the winner gets is not all that great. And for the KHL teams that don't make the playoffs the season ends in February. To not be playing hockey in the middle of the winter in Russia is absurd. So in order to extend the season, a consolation tournament with a decent prize fund ($500,000 to the winner and half to the runner-up) and a somewhat meaningful draft pick as a reward seems to be a good idea.

What do you mean? I can't make any sense out of this sentence.

I seem to remember that pic. Didn't that turn out to be just a fan taking picture with Pavel?

If he plays, it's going to be 4th, maybe 3rd line checker role. Not the same role as Nyquist or Tatar would play.

With 48 games they could have played 1 vs every Eastern team, 2 vs own Conf and 3 vs own division, with 1 more game against somebody, a traditional rival or division rival or Columbus Instead, its West only and not even the equal number of games vs own division. What genius came up with that one?

Try khl.ru, but it's on at 6 am EST. I hope khl.ru or youtube will have video clips tomorrow

Either they honor the contracts or they don't. There's not much room for "slyness" there. If there are legal loopholes in NHL contracts, which I very much doubt, then exploiting them is fair game. Just ask Bettman. It's all largely academic now, the only NHLer still left there is Visnovsky. And it seems he would rather hang them up then play for the Islanders.

Here's Pavel's KHL All-Star penalty shots. He won that event, by the way.

Wow. NHL owners, if you ever thought you could do without the players, good luck finding a replacement player who can do that.

That would be the clip to post, otherwise I didn't get your reference.

?? That was last year and they did win.

Well, McKinnon got away with a crosscheck in the face today. Shalunov got 5+game+extra game for a similar hit against the Slovaks. Sometimes the refs see it and sometimes not. See you in the final, if you can beat the US again that is.

Yes, I watched the game. And yes, Camara probably deserved 2 min.rough at most. But there were other things that were not called, especially in the 3rd. Also, did you watch any of Russia's games? Yakupov's carreer WJC stats: 1G +11 (!) A. He "should be more concerned about passing the puck to his teammates instead of trying to be someone he's not (Datsyuk)"?

After Canada's performance against the Slovaks today (58 PIMs, 2(!) 5+20 miscondacts) maybe it is the Canadain media that should be the ones "clarifying" their statements on the subject of dirty play?