toby91_ca

I have to say it, Chelios is still able to play a bit in the NHL, but he certainly is nowhere near a top defensemen, which is who should be playing on an Olympic team (and I am talking about today). He's skills are only going to diminish more over the next 2 years.

The thing that bugs me a little is that I think this deal makes him the highest paid goalie in the league, which doesn't quite sit well with me. Then again, the contracts of the other top tier goalies are a little more dated, making them not exactly comparable, but I still don't like the optics.

With respect to Osgood, there is no question that he appears to be struggling: First 23 games - only 3 losses and only 2 games with sv % under .900 (lowest being .875) Last 8 games - 5 losses, 5 games with sv % under .900 (combined in those 5 games = .785) However, I think the team as a whole has more to do with it. I honestly believe that goalies playing in Detroit tend to have their statistics inflated a little due to the team (check the history, pretty much ever Detroit goalie over the past 15-20 years has pretty good stats). At the same time, when the team is struggling, the goalie's stats will struggle as well (well, this is pretty much true for any team and any goalie, so it really isn't saying much). My bigger picture point, the team is making mistakes, which is leading to bad games for Ozzie. Theorectically, he shoudl be bailing the team out on those situations, but you can't always expect that. When the team makes very few mistakes, his stats will be excellent, when some mistakes are made, he will be exposed a little bit.

Sure, the Wings "want" to improve at the trade deadline, but to think there are any serious problems with the team is laughable. They are in a mini-slump right now (could extend to a big slump, but doubtful). Lidstrom was -3 last night, that tells you how bad of a game he had. Lidstrom had a bad game, does that mean he sucks now? Of course not, he had a bad game, like every other human, most guys have more bad games than he does. He and the team will move on and be better....no biggie. Will they win the cup? Who knows, but if anyone ever thought a march to the cup was going to be anywhere close to easy because of the season they have been having, they haven't been watching hockey long enough.

Statistically, Blake is a much better shot blocker than the "shot blocking machine" Stuart. Blake leads the Kings with 113 blocked shots in 53 games. Stuart has 76 blocked shots in 53 games.

Neither am I, but to be fair, I think the only reason he did that is because of the punch in the back of the head.

I understand, but I think it is pretty clear that Shannon falls down without being touched by Khabibulin. I think the poke check misses him entirely.

I think that forward motion rule was modified in that the player has to continue moving (i.e. can't just skate in a stop, wait for an opening and shoot). However, even if the forward motion of the puck rule still existed, if you watch the puck, it's moving towards the net the whole time.

Nah, it should be a pretty easy call. Khabibulin tried for the poke check and missed, Shannon spinned away, lost his footing and fell into Khabibulin. Whether Shannon purposely made contact or not is irrelevant.

Seems very bizzare, there has to be some other reason why he wanted that purse.

Maybe. To be honest though, he probably gets away with some things as well. There is always going to be bad calls, you'll never get away from that as long as you have human involvement. The fact is, Homer pushes the envelope in front of the net and he spends far more time there than most players in the league. Its only natural that there will be some bad calls. It may seem that he is unfairly targeted since the bad calls against him are normally resulting in goals being taken away, while bad calls against other players just result in penalties for the most part. In terms of yesterday, I was not at home, didn't see the game, don't have any emotion behind reviewing the replays, etc., but in terms of such an important point in the season, etc.....ah, whatever. If the Wings were fighting for a playoff spot, sure, I would look at it a little closer and be a little more bothered by it, but until it REALLY impacts them (playoffs), I'll hold off.

True. He played a few more seasons and apparently, after retirement, suffered from OCD, but he also suffered from this during childhood, nothing to do with the incident.

You can argue plenty with that, starting with the FACT that he cleary was IN THE CREASE. I've watched the replay a few times and I don't understand how someone could argue that both of his feet were not in the crease. Yes, he kicked at least his right foot out, but does it even matter, they were both in when contact was made. Also, lets assume both feet were OUT of the crease, which they were not, would that even matter. Even if his feet were out, his ass was clearly in the crease. Think about it, if the puck is over the goal line, but it isn't touching the ice, is it not a goal since it crossed the goal line??

He makes $3 million, not $4, but maybe still a little too much (based on the way he's played this year anyway).

Assuming Burnstrom will be signed by Detroit is probably going too far at this point.

Of course, he had to change his name first.

I have a bad feeling that the cap may go down the following year or later. I think a lot of this has to do with the very strong Cdn dollar that wasn't captured in last year's increase and now the dollar has come back down a bit, it will be interesting to see what happens. The hope would be to increase TV revenues over the next few years to make that a non-issue.

I read your original post and I know you didn't try to argue that Bondra was the best goal scorer, but you did try to display how he is up there with all the greats just because he scored a large % of his team's goals in comparison to those greats. I think that statistic is severely flawed and completely irrelevent.

Actually, his point is quite valid in terms of disputing against simply looking at number of goals scored as a percentage of team goals scored. All that is going to show you is how you compare to the rest of the players on your team. If you are on a team full of losers and you score 50% of the goals, that doesn't mean you are a better scorer than a guy that scores 10% of his team's goals. His point was simply with reference to the % thing, not with goal scoring in general.

1996 Wings: +144 1977 Canadiens: +216 (amazing) 1976 Canadiens: +163 I haven't tried to check to see what other teams might have great stats like this, I just went and checked the obvious (checked the Oilers as well, I think their best was +132 (several years of +100 or better)

I have no idea what Dom's intentions were and it doesn't matter. I'm just looking at what he actually did. In this goalie's case, he came out with a poke check, in Dom's case, he came out with a slide tackle. Dom in no way tried to poke check the puck, if he did that and ended up tripping Gaborik I would agree that there is no penalty, but when you slide into a guy with your stick completely in the opposite direction of the puck, it's a no brainer penatly.

BS, the only similarity is that both goalies rushed out to challenge, its completely different after that. Dom didn't go for the puck, this goalie did.

Lemieux's gpg was not .822. I hear about Malone all the time, but I have a hard time comparing stats to those that existed almost 100 years ago. His scoring was insane, but others scored similar totals in the same era. Actually, Lalonde had a better gpg stat.

You have to remember though, being a good defensive forward doesn't necessarily mean you would be a good defenseman. Your positioning and actual defensive play would be totally different.

I don't think your on crack, but I think you may be a little dillusional if you think Bure is the best goal scorer ever. I posted a quick snapshot at Bossy's stats.