toby91_ca

What's the point of the post you might ask? Who cares if Sykora scored a hattrick? Well, it was the first hattrick of his career, again, so what? The big deal here is that he had previously racked up 44 games in which he had scored 2 goals, making him by far the most games with scoring 2 goals with no hattrick.

You might want to be careful as you are starting to sound a lot like those that argued that the Wings were not that great, their record is inflated due to the division they played in.

Definately still too early to tell, they haven't separated themselves that much from the pack, but if they do pull this off, it would be pretty interesting. If you think back of others teammates that have finished 1-2, the ones I can think of have been linemates (a centre and a wing). With Crosby and Malkin, they are both centres and rarely play together. They will obviously have some overlap (powerplay, or while playing together when they are trailing in the 3rd), but for the most part, their points are coming from different goals.

Ummm, you could actually make a pretty solid argument that the Pens play in the toughest division in the league. If you'd ever want to make such an argument of inflated stats do to competition, look to the Southeast division.

I think it's complete BS like this that perpetuates the idiot, Crosby is a whiner talk, or he's a little *****. Firstly, the game against the Rangers, they lost, he had 1 assist, the game he had 4 assists was last nigh, which they won 5-2. I'm not seeing the whining here. He was getting targeted (from an enforcer, which is kinda out of the ordinary), he keeps going into the situations to take more punishment and all he does it fight back against the guy that's been going at him all night, I'm really, really struggling to see the problem with this? Is this just baseless bashing because it's Crosby....no it can't be that, that wouldn't make sense around here. What would be the preferred approach here? Take a beating and ignore it and let some of his teammates fight his battles like most superstars would?.......hmmmm, I'm thinking he's get bashed more in that scenario, so again, perhaps it's bash Crosby no matter what he does, that seems to make the most sense. I actually watched the Rangers game (well some of it, I missed the first period where most of the targetting was happening), but I did catch a between period interview where the guy asked him about all the attention and punishment he was receiving. Crosby's response was something along the lines of "no big deal, I deal with it every game".......are these whining comments? I swear it gets really pathetic around here when it comes to this guy. It has gotten to the point that if you see video, or a picture of Crosby talking to a referee, there will be tons of people calling him a whiner, I just don't get it. I suppose as team captain, he should stay as far away from the officials as possible.

Based on the TSN poll, more than 50% think it's not enough.

No kidding, it's like 12-1, which is why a lot of people (including myself) feel his career wins and career win/loss record is at least a little inflated. In terms of his 12-1 record this year, I truly believe that the record has almost nothing to do with him, the team is simply scoring more goals then he is letting in. I understand the defense hasn't played very well, but that's when you really get to see what your goalie is made of. Through the early part of this season, he hasn't looked very good, it's that simple. Does this mean he deserves to be bashed? No, he is the goalie for this team, let's not bash the guy, but if he's playing poorly, no harm is actually pointing out a fact. I'm not sure if there is a lot of bashing going on anyway, I generally stay as far away from goalie threads as I can, they can get ugly.

Indefinite just means the number hasn't been set yet. It was indefinate pending a hearing with the NHL. For his comments alone, probably warrants 1-3 games, but I think most people are thinking he should be gone for 5 because everyone is getting sick of the guy, including his own team and if you read Bob MacKenzie's recent article, it looks like there is a chance that he'll never play a game with them again, they are really fed up with the guy.

I didnt' read them all, but this ignorant comment caught my eye - it was one of the first ones: If the person had any idea at all, they would have known that there was about 19,000 people at the game last night, about the same amount that have been there every game this season, which represents about 110% of normal seating capacity.

I understand that, the game would have had a better story line, would have been more exciting, but you could say the same thing if they were playing a home and home series where Avery viciously cross-checks a guy in the face in the first game......let's see what happens in game 2...payback. However, you don't ignore the incident and not suspend just because it will make the upcoming game less attractive.

So, I was listening to the radio yesterday and they were discussing the passing of Ted Rogers and talking about the great person he was, etc. Doug MacLean was on and he was comparing to a few other guys he's worked for that basically built themselves up from nothing and said the one thing they all had in common was that they truled cared, they always worked hard, they were good people, etc. Anyway, he told a story about Ilitch back in the day when he worked for the Wings. He said Bryan Murray came into his office on a Friday afternoon to let him know that the both of them had been fired. At the time, he suggested he had about $7,500 to his name. In any event, he rec'd a call Monday morning from Mr. Ilitch who said, "you got fired on Friday right" - MacLean responds with "yes or whatever" and Mr. Ilitch says that he still has a year left on his contract and if was without a job in a year's time, come back and he'll hire him back. That's just the type of guy he is. Also, MacLean suggested his dad passed away about 7 years ago and Mr. Ilitch made a donation in his name (not a big deal, except MacLean and Ilitch were not in constant contact, he was simply an employee back then...an assistant coach.

I'm not sure I understand the cry out against the suspension from the league on here. From what I can tell, the only people complaining are those outside of the league and some fans. Everyone around the league seems to think it's warranted, including his own teammates and team management. The Stars are really getting fed up with this guy and they were going to suspend him anyway if the league didn't, so whether the league suspended him or not doesn't matter, he wouldn't have been playing anyway.

I was being generous with the pt projection, really just illustrating that even with that, total won't be that high.

Ignoring money, the choice is very, very easy, but of course, you can't ignore money. I don't think it comes down to choosing between the two of them anyway.

You mean when he was a rookie at the age of 26 and put up 16 pts in 80 games? Or the following year (at 27) when he put up 30 pts? Wait, maybe you're talking about last year (28) when he put up 38 pts? Let's get a grip on reality here. This year will probably be Franzen's true coming out year when he puts up some serious point totals, but he is 29 (or will be in a couple weeks) and I don't see him being too much better for any significant extended time.

I think the issue is that you really have no choice but to look at what he's done in the AHL, I mean, that's really his only experience so far. I wouldn't look at that and suggest he's a star because of it, but I think to defend a guy from an argument that he's a bust, it's certainly legitimate. I also think you need to put things in perspective. Ryan has put up 77pts in 70 AHL games at the age of 19-21, the guys you mentioned were all older when they produced in the AHL. Hudler had his first big year in the AHL the year he turned 22, Kopecky the year he turned 24 and Haydar didn't even step foot on AHL ice until he was 23, his first big year was at the age of 26. Ryan is 21......21, how can anyone be suggesting he's a bust?

What do you mean by major points for his career? Using my definition of major points (assuming you are talking about career totals) he won't come close, but I'd be interested in what you are thinking. My thoughts on Franzen are quite simple: - He's awesome considering what expectations were a couple years ago (my expectations anyway), he's on a major hot streak - However, I don't seem him ever being a 100pt type guy, but I could be wrong. - I think he finishes his career with somewhere between 500-650pts (just a wild guess more than anything)

Yeah, but come on, he's 21 already.....note sarcasm.....

As much as I like the guy as a person (this actually matters with voters to some degree) and as a player, my answer is no. It is difficult to argue against some of his career stats, but save percentage and GAA is really hard to compare across eras and wins is really a function of the team more than anything else. I truly believe that a goalie's stats (especially wins) are more impacted by the team than other players' stats are impacted. This year is another great example of that. Osgood has not played well at all, yet his winning percentage is excellent, because the team has been good enough to win. That said, you could probably say similar things about all the great goalies (such as Roy and Brodeur for example). But I'd be willing to bet (without researching, certainly would be the case for Roy and Brodeur), they have other accomplishments to back up HOF worthiness. Osgood has no real individual awards, has only been an allstar twice in his career, etc. Perhaps some of that is because onlookers simply overlooked his stats, but I have to be lumped in with those that simply didn't feel he was an elite goalie in this league and I don't know how you put someone like that in the hall of fame simply because they have a great win total and some cups, which to me, are more a function of the team.

Hard to say, but I will say this, for Datsyuk to play 19 seasons, he'd be finishing his last year at almost 43 years old. Now, obviously some guys have played to that age, but the list is really not that long.

I think it's interesting to see some comments regarding his poor stats having to do (partially) to the poor defensive play thus far by the team. I agree with this, somewhat, but at the same time, people have argued that his really good stats in previous years were partially due to the great defensive play of the team.....and were shot down by many on here. You can't have it both ways. I like Ozzie, but I truly do think some of his results (wins) are a little inflated beyond what his play would suggest. He's way up there on the career list, but I don' think he's way up there with the best goalies all time. Take this year for example, he hasn't really played that well, yet he has a record of 9-1-4.

1929-30 Boston Bruins (18-2). There are actually quite a few great records from teams who were cup finalists, not winners.

An extra $2 million in consolidated league revenues would raise the cap by a grand total of $36,000. In other words....it would make no difference at all.

So far during the 2008/09 season: Average NHL attendence = 17,101 Average NBA attendence = 17,264 Not really much of a difference. Not sure the NHL needs an owner like Mark Cuban, isn't he up on insider trading charges from the SEC? Granted, it's only alleged.

Why??