toby91_ca

My bet is that it goes even lower than that and if it doesn't, I have to think something fishy is going on. Combine the current economic environment issues with the fact that the Cdn dollar has fallen about 20% or so in the last year, the caps gotta fall and by more than just $1-2 million I would think.

That's your comeback?? Seriously, if that's the only argument you have, I think you need to do a little better. He only had 3 goals in the playoffs the year before and only 1 the year before that. John Druce once scored 14 goals in 15 playoff games, that didn't vault him into super stardom. Franzen is nowhere near top 20 right now. That's not to say he won't be there by the end of the year, but as of right now, no way.

If it wasn't a slash, how did he knock the stick out of the Oilers hand? Mind power? Seriously, I think that kind of a play is almost automatic if seen by a ref. If you bat someone's stick out of their hands, you'll end up with a slashing penalty or unsportsmanlike. I must say that I have seen that call missed as well, but I would have to assume that the ref did not see it. However, I'm sure some refs choose not to call it as well if the stick falls too easily.

YOu're right, but I think the original point is still valid (Hossa is relatively the same age). They were both born in 1979 (Hossa the beginnin of the year and Franzen at the end). Franzen will be 29 in a month, Hossa is 29 now, will turn 30, early next year.

He had better luck with Kellie Pickler (American Idol)

Let's not forget, refs are human and simply make mistakes sometimes as well. Case in point...and the reason I bring this up is because it was hilarious when it happened. I was watching a game over the weekend (BUF vs. PIT) and a player on BUF slashed at a player on PIT ended up breaking his stick across the PIT player's stick (I can't even remember the players involved). The ref must have seen some of this out of the corner of his eye and assumed that the PIT player slashed the BUF player from and broke the BUF player's stick. The PIT player was given a slashing penalty. They then showed him sitting in the box as he watched the replay on the "jumbotron" and immediately pleeded with the ref to watch the replay (not that it would matter). Stuff like that (blantant missed calls) happen, it's just a part of being human. Based on my experience, I think the real problem is consistency, not that phantom calls are made late in games to get teams back into it. I also think that make up calls are made at times when a ref feels a borderline call was made on one team so the next borderline call they see, they make, even if they would have let it go earlier. I think in most cases, those are legit penalties, just not consistent calls.

I think if you actually did a study, you might find that teams leading into the 3rd period may get called for penalties later in the game, but I don't think that would point to any conspiracy. Firstly, I have no idea if that's what you'd find, but if you did, it would make sense to me. If you think about it, the later the game goes, the team that is down will get more desparate and really push for a goal....as this is happening, the leading team generally goes into defense mode to try and protect that lead, which tends to make teams play more of a clutch and grab game, which, in theory, would lead to penalties.

Semin has actually played most of the year on a different line than Ovechkin. I think it was only the last couple games that they were put together. Putting those them together has jump started Ovechkin's game, but Semin was already way up there in pts before they were put together. I think he's injured now, but just day to day, not sure. I think the guy will keep scoring goals and points, but it's doubtful that he'll keep the pace he's at.

True, and unless someone gets voted in as starter who doesn't deserve to even be in the game, it doesn't really matter. No one really pays attention to who actually starts the game anyway and I guess I haven't really seen many examples of guys voted in that really shouldn't be in the game, it's just the possibility that bugs me. I like the idea of only being able to register one vote, but that is very difficult to accomplish when you have online voting.

It's threads like this that make me think that fan voting should end, or at least modify it somehow.

Ummm, I'd like every team to be scoring more per game, but to put things in perspective, the Wings currently lead the league with 3.61 goals per game. What they need to improve on right now is keeping the puck out of their own net. In terms of scoring 4 goals per game, well, I don't think any team has done that since the 1993-94 Wings (15 years). In terms of 5 goals per game, other than the 1970 Bruins (close to 40 years ago) no team in the history of the game has done it besides the Oilers over 20 years ago. No team has come anywhere near 6 goals per game.

Agreed. The suggestion that .24 is not that big of deal over in Eurpoe and .50 may be somewhat normal occurence (I know those words weren't used, but it seemed to be implied) would appear to be complete BS. While there have been occurences of BAC above 0.5, a lot of people would actually be dead at that level. Progressive Effects of Alcohol[1] BAC Behavior Impairment .01–.06 Relaxation Sense of Well-being Loss of Inhibition Lowered Alertness Joyous Thought Judgment Coordination Concentration .06–.10 Blunted Feelings Disinhibition Extroversion Impaired Sexual Pleasure Reflexes Impaired Reasoning Depth Perception Distance Acuity Peripheral Vision Glare Recovery .11–.20 Over-Expression Emotional Swings Angry or Sad Boisterous Reaction Time Gross Motor Control Staggering Slurred Speech .21–.29 Stupor Lose Understanding Impaired Sensations Severe Motor Impairment Loss of Consciousness Memory Blackout .30–.39 Severe Depression Unconsciousness Death Possible Bladder Function Breathing Heart Rate >.40 Unconsciousness Death Breathing Heart Rate

Not really much to explain it, just a bit of a slump. Everyone goes through it, he just happens to be going through it for the first part of the season, so it's more visible. It's funny though, Semin has looked good, but to me, Ovechkin has looked better so far this year. If you looked at the stats though, it isn't even close. Then again, I've only seen 3-4 Caps games so far this year.

McCarty may not score 1 goal and 1 assist all year, let alone in a single game.

I think the most surpising result for me is that 60% of respondents think Holmstrom will score 40 goals. Or is it that people think he "can" but really won't? Maybe people are overreacting to his 5 goals in 5 games so far, but he's never scored more than 30 in his entire career, I don't seem him getting 40 this year. Edit: In terms of weakness, I think it is the forecheck right now.

Meaning?

I agree with the hit totals really not having much to do with good defensive play. Take Ovechkin for example, he's right up there with the leaders in terms of hits (or has historically been) and based on the few games I've seen him play so far this year, it seems his defensive game is getting less and less. Some will look at the scoresheet and see that he is getting lots of PK time and think that he is playing more defense now, but it's not the case, he's out there to provide an offensive threat on the PK, which appears to be working for them (not necessarily Ovechkin's personal stats). I think more teams should try to incorporate offense into their PK (it's certainly more exciting if nothing else), the Wings cetainly do it. You'll rarely, rarely find Ovechkin across his own blue line, so hits should be taken with a grain of salt at a minimum, or ignored all together. That said, who am I kidding, you can't even look at stats at all to try and assess who's the best defensive player. I agree with the thought that Z should have won the Selke (over Datsyuk at least). Datsyuk won because of his takeaway stat if you ask me. In terms of best 2-way players on the team, they are obviously Z, D and Hossa. In terms of best pure defensive player, well, that's a different story that I won't bother getting into right now and it's a debate that happens every year when discussing Selke (a league thing, not a Wings' thing)

Ottawa started 13-1 last year and we all know how that worked out for them. Not sure why anyone would even look at a 3-1-1 record and be concerned, seeing as that would prorate to about 115 pts for the season.

Osgood's record = 5-6......and just in case you are wondering, Hasek's record = 6-11, so......perhaps he could learn how to lose more from Hasek.

The value of the Cdn dollar has decrease by about 15% in the past year, I think that will have a real impact on the cap, before you even consider otehr economic factors.

See Ruutu and Pens fans.

Seems like more baseless Crosby bashing to me and the thread really has nothing to do with Crosby. I don't see any whining here. I think the full facts were conveniently left out here. That was Malkin's resposne when asked why he thought Ovechkin seemed to go out of his way several times during the game to try and hit him. I watched last night's game and I have to be honest, Ovechkin was getting away with a lot of attempted hits that shoudl have been charges. The announcers were actually all over him last night for various reasons (charing, bad decisions and floating). Several times he was behind the Pens' defense when the puck was in his own team's corner. However, he was still all over the place and getting scoring chances like crazy.

I agree that their games tend to be pretty boring, but not because of goal scoring, which is why I've always been against making nets bigger, etc. More goals doesn't = excitement to me. I think you also have your facts slightly wrong. I don't remember them ever being the lowest scoring team in the league and I actually think they score a lot more than their reputation suggests. They have been near the bottom the last few years, but not at the bottom. If you look back over the past 10 seasons, they have actually been in the top 15 in scoring 7 times. They finished top 5 in scoring 4 times (5th, two 2nd's and a 1st, yes, that's right, they actually led the league in scoring in 2001). They also finished 7th in scoring one of those years as well.

Timing???? Very odd.

Probert and Kocur did not play on the really bad teams in the early 80's, they both really broke into the league the same year (85/86). It was a pretty bad team that year, but after that and ever since (except 1 year) they have been pretty decent.