toby91_ca

Not sure why everyone continues to try to feed conspiracy theories, but I went to NHL.com today and didn't see anything on Crosby or the Pens. Regarding promoting the Sweden games...why would there be big promotion of meaningless exhibition games? The promotion of this should really be in Sweden, not North America. There is some promotion of the Blackhawks playing there, but their game is happening today, I'm sure you'll see some news about the Wings playing there when they ACTUALLY play tomorrow.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think this is a re-retirement. Pretty sure he never retired before.

He's not exactly a big fish in a little pond in Sweden either.

Not really, he was a backup with the Wings and towards the end of his term with the Wings he did get some games in, but only due to injuries really. He left the Wings for a starting role....so really, after he left the Wings, he became a starting goaltender in this league, something he never was with Detroit....however, he never was as good as the stats might have suggested, as we have seen. Also have to take into account that the guy is soon to be 37, which tends to be on the old side for goaltenders. I'm haven't bothered to do any research, but I bet if you had a look at the goalies in the league today, whether starters or backups, the vast majority would be much younger than that.

On your bold predictions: 3) I was going to comment that I would guarantee this won't happen because he isn't eligible, but when I looked it up, I see his birthday is in October, just missing being too old by a couple weeks (doesn't turn 26 until after Sep. 15th deadline) 9) This is probably quite the longshot. They were the most penalized team last year with 1,434 PIMs, so they'd have to basically double that for the all-time record.

Like who? You'll get the odd person talking about them getting older, etc. every year, but I think the general consensus from most is that they will be right there as one of the best again. I know they can't keep it up forever, but I don't think this is the year they take a significant step back. Going 18-4 in the first 22 games might be stretch though.

It's not. The minimum is around $40k and the average is proabably $70-80k. This is "okay" money, but you have to remember that these guys can only earn this salary for a relatively short period of time compared to an average person out in the work force. This is why players that feel their chances of making the NHL have gone choose to go to Europe.

Maybe it's different in Canada, but I've watched several games through a Versus feed, but on a Centre Ice channel.

Interesting that, of the 10 seats in view, only 5 are occupied.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=292512 I'm a bit surprised after how well he has played.

I think it's difficult to compare due to the real nature of the AHL. To generalize, the AHL is a league that is mostly made up of young, North American born players looking to make the jump to the NHL. If you are really good and really close to making the jump to the NHL, but not quite there yet, you are probably in the AHL (for most NA born players). If you are getting older...approaching 30, and you have only seen limited NHL time, you are probably deciding if you will stay with the AHL and hope for an NHL break, or you are bolting to Europe because you will earn more money there.

Orr happened to collect the Hart and Art Ross in '70 as well.

I'm not sure it proves much, there was really no option but to step down. It's not like he was just the head coach of the team, he was involved in so many other aspects....part owner, managing partner, etc., etc. There was really no way he could have stayed on considering the current state of ownership. I know people keep bringing up that he was paid $8 million to coach, but the $8 million was not a "coaching salary" it was far more related to his other roles and he was brough to Phoenix, largely as a marketing initiative and that's what he was really paid for. But back to your point, I do agree that great players do not necessarily make great coaches, but in Gretzky's example, I think it's hard to reach a conclusion, he really had nothing to work with. Think about how frustrating it must have been for a guy with that much talent to be coaching a team that perhaps had the least amount of talent of any team in the league.

His replacement is Dave King

He was drafted by Dallas and then traded to Calgary that Fall. He made his NHL debut in the playoffs with Calgary that year. I'm not 100% sure as I don't remember seeing it as I don't religiously follow every teams training camps, but I suspect (as an 11th overall pick), he would have attended the Stars training camp and probably played in a couple pre-season games.

Well, he finished 2nd to Gretzky twice and 2nd to Kurri twice, so I think it's very possible that without Gretzky, Kurri wouldn't have scored nearly as much and Bossy would have 4 more scoring titles. There is also another year where Bossy scored 51 goals in 67 games. A few guys scored a few more goals than him that year, but had he played a full season, he would have easily finished 2nd behind Gretzky again.

How many guys scored 50 or more goals in 9 straight seasons? There's only 1. Granted, I think Bossy's stats may be a little skewed in that, had he played like 1,400 games, his per game stats would have surely dropped towards the end....the same was I see Lemieux's stats as being a bit skewed ona per game basis. But still, hard to argue with 9 straight 50 goal seasons and had Gretzky not come along, who knows how many goal scoring titles he would have had. Not only Gretzky, but Gretzky feeding the puck to Kurri, who took 1 or 2 titles as well.

Fleury was a rookie the year they won the cup I believe, he wasn't that crutial. There were far more important players that year, like Gilmour, Mullen, Otto, etc. THE most important player in their cup run was MacInnis and he's my pick for them. He had 31 pts that playoff season (compare that to Fleury's 11). Fleury's ppg stat with Calgary is only slightly better than MacInnis's, but MacInnis is also a defenseman. However, the best ppg in team history was probably Nilsson. For Chicago, I'd throw Stan Mikita's name out there, he played a lot of years with them and I believe he never played anywhere else. Him and Hull played around the same time and I believe Mikita edges him in both points and awards, although both have a lot of each. Also, Hull wasn't there as long and played elsewhere.

No offense intended, but I really don't think you have any idea what you are talking about on this one.

Where did you hear that? Based on all the information I have been able to gather, this has absolutely nothing to do with it, in fact, I've never even heard of any issues with salaries dropping.

I think too many are reading out of context. It is very true that Detroit's best players are getting older, you can't really argue that. When those players decline or are gone, if the talent is not replaced, they will be in trouble. They have done a great job of keeping the talent level high for close to 20 years, so you hope it continues, but all teams go through phases, so you also have to expect it will happen to them. However, everyone probably needs to go back and read the lead into to the preview:

I have no idea what list you are talking about. Pronger #2?, Jagr? You sure you are looking at a current list? Edit: The list I'm looking at has Getzlaf at #7 and the 3rd best Cdn behind Crosby and Luongo.

No such conclusion at this point, he first has to play well enough in training camp to earn a spot and at the same time, sign a contract. If all that happens, then yes, he'll be playing in the NHL this season, but even then, not likely to be a regular, but you never know.

Not really depressed at all, I would have preferred a sweep then to be so close not to get it, but shortly after, it's like, so be it, what's done is done, it was a good year, let's look forward to next year. I generally don't think too much about hockey for a few weeks (except for around July 1st and few days after I pay close attention), take some more time off and then I really look forward to the upcoming season by the end of July, early August.

No kidding, especially from a guy who's barely played for the organization. He's played a total of 60 games in his career with Detroit, but considering ice time, that really the equivalent of about 13 games or less for a guy like Datsyuk. Also, of those games played, a grand total of zero have been playoff games.