toby91_ca

I can't give Ovechkin the Hart if his team misses the playoffs, unless he wins the scoring race by a signifcant amount, which it doesn't appear will happen. I wouldn't be against him winning the Pearson though. Interesting stat though, this will be (or certainly appears as though it will happen) the 1st time a Russian player has ever lead the league in scoring. Russians will finish #1 and #2. You can blame a bit of that on Crosby missing 20+ games, but what about all the other non-Russians? I think part of it is Ovechkin and Malkin elevating their games and part of it is that some others really fizzled out a bit. These 2 are the only ones on pace for 100 pts I think, with Ovechkin on pace for 111. That seems like a low total to win the scoring title, or shoudl I say "should be a low number to win the scoring title." Argument for Blake not to win Masterton because "it" happened this year, well, Kessel's cancer happened during the season last year and he barely missed anytime because of it and he ended winning (I think)

Nice......funny thing is, that game wasn't even all that long ago, I'm guessing around 1980. Okay, so that's awhile ago, but at least in my life time, we're not talking about the 50's or 60's here. No reason why goalies can't still be that size.

No, it's Dick.

Brett Hull was quoted as saying he wouldn't have even scored 300 goals without cheating (i.e. the curve on his stick). The only reason I can come up with for the rule is safety. With bigger curves, shots are going to be travelling with more velocity, rising high and potentially with less accuracy (not sure about this, but I'm guessing). To me, I'd be more worried if I was one of the other 9 players out there than I would if I was the goalie, who should be protected pretty well.

I think people are too quick to look at +/- stats or takeaways and figure that must be very important when determining who the best defensive forward is. I'm not saying Datsyuk isn't good defensively, but to suggest he is a lock for the Selke is a bit of homerism.....throw on top of that the thought that Zetterberg is #2. Is is entirely possible that the top 2 defensive forwards in the league play for the same team, but it is highly, highly unlikely. For the record, in my opinion, it is probably the most difficult award to judge by simply looking at stats.

Whether the refs notice or not is not relevant. They can't simply call a penalty because they see an illegal stick, the opposing coach would have to call for measurement.

I'm not sure it is as widespread as you would think, but for argument sake, let's assume it is. I don't think your scenario would really play out. If I was coaching a team knowing a couple of players were using illegal sticks, I would call for measurement on the other team and just get my guys to switch sticks.

It takes less than a second to change a stick, it would take about 20 minutes to change a goalie's equipment. Point being, you can't really employ the same methods with measuring sticks. You can measure a guy's stick, but how do you know what stick he is actually playing with?

Hmmm, you'd think a "true fan" would know these things

I would guess that a lot of the fans going to games in Buffalo are actually Leaf fans who can't get tickets in Toronto.

Anyone hear any rumours on Kilger? The Leafs traded him at the deadline to Florida and he is yet to report. He requested a leave for personal reasons (he had a similar leave with the Leafs awhile ago as well). He was granted the leave and was to report on March 1st, but hasn't shown up yet. He is currently suspended because of this. I haven't heard any actual rumours other than some media speculating that the truth probably isn't pretty. They wouldn't say publicly what the rumours were because they were, in fact, rumours. Has anyone heard the rumours?

Parros took exception to Ben Eager going after Pronger, who I believe was playing in his first game since breaking his jaw and had a protective shield on. Eager turtled of course. Normally, I'd laugh this off as no biggie, but Ben Eager is possibly the biggest piece of garbage in the league, so I'm glad someone went after him.

Their "Rumours" album was decent, I've never heard their "Rumors" album

There is probably both, but the media I was listening to was talking about "rumours"

I don't know the rumours, I just know that there are rumours.

If a division winner would never have less points than needed, then you'd never have to guarantee a playoff spot for them. I'm more against them being seeded 3rd, but if a team ever made the playoffs, seeded 3rd and actually only had the 9th highest points, I would certainly be pissed being that team with the 8th most points. In terms of why have divisions......for scheduling purposes.

To save time: Record without Crosby = 11-7-4 (.591 win%) Record with Crosby = 27-16-3 (.620 win%)

Ovechkin scored 3 goals short handed 2 years ago, so what? He has barely played on the PK since, while Crosby has been getting increasingly more PK time with experience, especially this year. Please do me a favour and answer to very simple questions, which you have seemed to ignore: - Okay, no one was talking about scoring titles, but can you explain how more goals = better player and total points should be ignored? - Could you please provide the stats that back up your claim that the Pens did better without Crosby?

So, to sum it all up, Ovechkin is better because he scores more goals? If you look through history, the best goal scorer year after year is rarely, rarely the best player. Rather than try to counter everything you said, since I don't have time, I'll just pick on a couple things that you just seemed to throw out there without thinking, which bugs me since many people read things and take it as fact. I think it is tough for Ovechkin to be a better PK player when he only plays about 9 seconds per game on the PK. The Penguins were NOT doing better without Crosby, they were doing well due to some hot streaks from Malkin, Malone, Sykora and Conklin, but their overall winning percentage when Crosby was out was lower than before he was injured. You know, you can really rip up any player if you really wanted to, but why bother? I like a good discussion of who is the better player (wich is difficult to do since their games are so different), but I find myself simply having to defend a player because the arguments being made are so off base and simply insulting certain players in an attempt to build up another rather than looking at what each player actually brings to the table. If I wanted to bash Ovechkin, I'd probaby say something like this: - In looking at his hattrick the other night, the 1st goal was a combination of a great pass to put him in on a breakaway and the fact that he was floating (however, no one is a better floater than Lecavalier) - hey, 2 bashes in one! - His 2nd and 3rd goals were the result of him simply getting near the net, receiving a pass and redirecting it in the net... wow, excitement!! That's what I would say if I wanted to bash someone, but in reality, I would look at it and say, great game by Ovechkin, highlight reel goal by breakaway from the defenders and the other 2 were the result of his great ability to skate around and get in a great position to receive a pass and score.

Why should they even be guaranteed a playoff spot? Teams in a weak division already have the advantage of being able to play weak teams more often.

You make some good points, but it is not a matter of giving the refs power for the sake of it. The issue is time.

Are we really at the point of caring where coachs are ranked on a list?

Are you suggesting that hockey was not invented in Canada?

I used to have some understanding as to the logic behind seeding the division leaders first before the rest of the teams by points, but I honestly can't remember my logic. I think it makes little sense to do this. I think I've thought about it before and rationalized that you have to give the benefits of different teams playing different schedules and that's why the division winners have to be there, but that really doesn't make sense to me anymore. I look at it this way, if you are in a very weak division, you have the advantage of playing a large portion of your games against weak teams, so your total points should reflect that anyway, but you also have a better chance of winning your division and guaranteeing a playoff spot. On the other side of that, if you are in a very tough division, not, you at a disadvantage of having to play tougher teams, which will hurt your overall points and make it difficult to win your division, you could also miss out on the playoffs because of the division winner in a weak division. Based on the current standings, it's not a huge issue, but it used to be that one of Carolina or Washington could reach the playoffs as the 3rd seed while another team with more points misses the playoffs. Also, some may think it would be better to finish 6th in the conference than 2nd because they feel the #3 seed is weaker than the #7.

$2.65 million. His new contract wouldn't become effective until July 1, 2009, it's from that point forward that you average the salary over the contract.