kozac

Kovalev (if he's in fact selected) will be looking to prove himself and when he plays with a purpose he is one of the best players in the world. An "inconsistent" Semin put up 79 points in 62 games last season. That's a better PPG than Datsyuk, by the way. I assume the reason you called him inconsistent was due to his performance against Pittsburgh in the playoffs. He was playing with a broken foot. Plenty of teams (including Detroit) are/were very interested in Morozov. The guy just likes his life over there and doesn't want to come back to the NHL. He's done very well in the international competitions for Russia (see world championships 2008 and 2009) Frolov plays on a horrible LA team which explains the unimpressive statistics. He is consistently one of the leaders of the team though and other players in the NHL have a lot of respect for him. I think it was Datsyuk who said that Frolov is the most underrated player in the league. Fedorov is just like Kovalev, he can play very well when he has a purpose (see playoffs with Washington the past two seasons, as well as world championship 2008) Look, I'm not saying that Russia has it wrapped up or even that they are the team to beat (Canada still is), but to say that Russia does not have good depth is just plain wrong.

Big kid, don't know how much of a goon he is, but looks like a good fit in Anaheim

Top 4? How about Kovalev, Semin, Frolov, Morozov? That's another 4 of 1-st liners. Putting Fedorov on the 4th line somehow doesn't look like a weakness to me.

Yeah I remember his golden years with the Islanders, he carried that team. I have a lot of slovakian friends and they're all excited about him playing in the Olympics. They think he will singlehandedly win a medal for them. I just laugh at them.

Agreed.

I think they did have a reason because Pittsburgh offered him a nice paying long term deal and he went to the team that just beat them in the finals for 1 year and for less money. I know everything you're going to say (he just wanted the best shot at the cup and he picked Detroit), but if I was a Pens fan I'd be pretty pissed. He basically said "Pens suck and I don't want to play for them" with that move. Put yourself in their position and you should understand.

You guys sound exactly like Pittsburgh fans about Hossa last year even though you have no reason to be (and they did). The offer Detroit made to Hossa was basically an insult. Get over it and move on. And for your own sake please don't boo him in Detroit next year.

I'm not sure if this was posted earlier, but I just read on a Russian site that Hudler signed a 2 year deal with Dynamo worth $10 million dollars! Combine that with much lower taxes and if this is true I can't say I blame Jiri. Get that money kid.

Ovechkin had previously stated that he reads message boards. So its not too far fetched that this could be real.

NTC isn't that big of a deal. Few players won't waive it when asked anyway. Just think about it, the team comes to you and basically says that nobody likes you here and we don't need nor want you here so you can either wave your no trade clause or we will waive you. Most people have pride i think. This whole thing basically sounds to me like this: Holland promised to sit down and talk, so he will keep his promise, but he will low ball Hossa and make an offer he has to refuse.

There is nothing that I want more right now (in hockey). They won the rematch and now we need round 3 to declare the undisputed champ. This, however, is highly unlikely as there will be a lot more teams from the East than just Washington and Pittsburgh that you've mentioned. The West I pretty much agree with.

Don't you think a lot of the Penguins were playing with some bad injuries too?

I feel so privileged to know this information.

If only we had someone better then I'd agree with you. Rafalski is obviously playing hurt and it shows. He has no speed and therefore less time to make a good decision with the puck. And he's pretty bad on the defensive end because he's just slow (again probably due to injury)

Nice interview at the end with him too. He seems like a stand up guy.

This must be the "grit" you're talking about: Oh no!!! Our very own sweetheart and fan favorite Kris (one of the classiest players in the league) Draper with a dirty play? Impossible! Must be a Bettman conspiracy!! Stay objective my friends.

He was yelling at the linesman because the face-off drops weren't fair. The Pittsburg centerman never put his stick down and the linesman still dropped the puck and never called it back every time. Also, the first goal by Pitt was scored after a missed offside. I think the yelling actually helped and the face-offs became fair after the first. I'm not making excuses here, just explaining to you why Babcock was trying to get his attention. The Wings got outplayed, made too many mistakes which Pitt capitalized on. Also Rafalski is slow and at this point (injury or otherwise) is hurting the team, as seen on Staals shorthanded goal.

Yes they do, but the embellishment shown by Crosby was completely over the line. Too bad the Wings didn't score on that play.

Marian Hossa has 6 goals this post season. All of them were scored in games 4 of every series so far. He scored 2 goals in each of the game 4 against Columbus, Anaheim and Chicago. Here's to this trend continuing on Thursday!! Booooooooo! (Go Marian Go)

Also, I should point out that the Wings scored 6 goals in each of those game 4's and, needless to say, won every time

It seems that every single hockey fan hates Bettman, so how is he still he commissioner?

From the Pensblog: Hossa breaks Dupuis' stick, as everyone knew he was gonna hit Malkin coming out of the box. The puck may have left the zone. No one cares to even mention it again. Hossa gets the puck in the wake of Dupuis' stick. It eventually goes in. Can't argue, with the pensblog now can you? The "evidence" presented at the beginning of this thread is obviously shopped and invalid

Now do you believe me that Datsyuk's foot is broken and has been for a while?

Human nature. Plain and simple. Most people suffer from inferiority complex and will never admit a defeat. They will always make up some sort of excuse no matter how ridiculous it sounds. It takes a big, confident man (Lidstrom) to admit defeat and not make excuses.

I'm more inclined to think that Datsyuk has been playing with a fractured foot since sometime towards the end of the Columbus series and has now aggravated it to the point of not being able to play. Think about it. His stops on a dime, quick bursts, quick sneaking up from behind just haven't been there. Hopefully I'm wrong and it really is just a big bruise. I've gotten big bruises on my feet from blocking shots and I was fine after 4-5 days though. We will find out after the playoffs are over, I am sure.