toby91_ca

Agreed, Bure was a great goal scorer, no question, but there is absolutely no way he is higher than Bossy on my list. Bossy: 10 year career, 9 of which he scored 50+ goals. In fact, the only year he didn't score 50 in his career was his final injury riddled year in which he only played 63 games. In those 63 games, he still managed to pot 38 goals (good for a tie for the team lead with Lafontaine). He also had 5, 60+ goal seasons in his first 9 years.

Someone emailed this to me yesterday and I couldn't resist sharing. The day after the leafs missed the playoffs (again), they were at the ACC cleaning out their lockers. Bryan McCabe invited the boys over on Canada day for a party, all the players agreed to come. "Can you all bring beer?" he asked the team... Tucker suggested that McCabe call Paul Maurice, invite him, and tell him to pick up the beer. Maurice agreed to this and said that he would pick it up and bring it to the party. Canada day came, and Maurice loaded up his car with case after case of beer for the team and headed over to McCabe's place for some fun. On the road, he got stopped at a light and heard the car next to him honking like crazy, and some man yelling: "GO LEAFS GO, GO LEAFS GO!" Maurice unrolled his window, and looked at the man, Leafs flags still hanging all over his car. Hey Coach the man yelled "What's with all the beer???? Maurice replied "I picked it up for McCabe!! The man looked at the beer in the back for a moment before yelling... "Good Trade, Good Trade!!!"

They are currently 1 point out of the playoff picture and you can never count out a team with a goalie like Luongo, but it doesn't look good right now.

Not gonna happen....unless by some miracle he comes back really early. I think he's projected to play in the last 10-15 games at best. He'll also be a little rusty I'm sure. No way he gets those 37 points.

I think other teams fear the depth more than anything. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are emerging stars who I believe strike a bit of fear into the opposition, but I think for the most part, teams just fear the fact that the Wings are a great "team." You can't simply come in and focus on shutting down a certain player or two. Interesting, with Osgood and Hasek being #1 and #2 in GAA, I really don't think the opposition has a fear of facing the goalie that they would of a Luongo let's say. I may be misguided, but I just don't get that sense.

huh? I'm not letting facts get in the way of anything. It's good that they are #1 and #2 in the GAA standings, I was just pointing out that it didn't have to be that way for them to share the Jennings. Heck, they could be #2 and #7 and still win it.

Oops, didn't actually answer your question. The last time I saw it was last year

I think you may be confused about the award. It is a team award mostly and more often than not, two goalies from the same team win the award. The award goes to goalies playing for the team that have given up the fewest goals in the league. To win it, you must play at least 25 games. So, theorectically, 3 goalies from the same team could share the award. In very rare circumstances, goalies from different teams could share it. The goalie with the lowest GAA average doesn't necessarily win it, but if they play 70+ games, good chance that they do since that would mean that their team doesn't give up a lot of goals. EDIT: For further clarity, if the Wings finished this year giving up the fewest number of goals (looks like they are pretty much on track for that) and Hasek ended up with a GAA of 9.53, he'd still share the Jennings.

The only reason I mentioned Clark is because he was a defenseman when he was drafted. He was converted to forward when he came into the league.

I would never vote for a player to be MVP if his team misses the playoffs, I just can't do it. History suggests he wouldn't have much shot either. I could be wrong, but I think, since 1960 (go back too far and you simply lose comparison), only 1 guy won the Hart while his team missed the playoffs and that was Lemieux in 1988. In that year, he scored 168 pts, the next leading scorer on his team had 79pts. Gretzky only played 64 games that year (149pts), so that was a contributing factor as well. Ovechkin would have to lead the league by in scoring by a significant enough amount before I'd consider him MVP if his team misses the playoffs. I don't seem him leading the league in scoring, let alone by a significant enough amount.

Wendel Clark?

Not surprisingly, there are several Wings that, statisticly speaking, have already set or are on pace to set career highs this year.

Here's the brief story: After junior, he started his career in the NHL at 20 years old (didn't play at all in the AHL). He won a spot on the team in training camp and actually played pretty well to start the year, but then he got hurt. From that point on, his NHL career was pretty much done, with a big reason why being business (he had a two-way contract and always did from that point forward). He did make it on to some teams over the years simply because the teams had no choice since he played so well in pre-season, even lead the entire NHL in scoring one pre-season. However, he was never really given a decent shot. After his brief stint with the Wings, he signed with Phoenix with the hopes of getting back to the NHL. He actually contemplated remaining overseas, but wanted to give the NHL one last shot. He actually got some decent time there for 8 or 9 games due to injury, but after that, he was stuck back in the AHL again. I am a little biased on him, I'm not going to lie, his set back is his skating. Not that he is a bad skater, he is a great skater to the average player, well, even to a high level player, just not to top end NHLers. Other than that, he's got a lot of tools. His shot is well above the NHL average. I think he could have had a decent NHL career had some circumstances been different. Fast forward to the current year, he actually had another year left on his contract with Phoenix, but if he was going to be stuck in the AHL, it made far more financial sense to go overseas. I ran into him in the grocery store in Nova Scotia, I pretty much only see him once or twice a year, normally in Nova Scotia, even though I live in Toronto and I knew at that point that he'd be overseas. I'm not sure what happened with Zurich, if he was injured or what, but that didn't last long. Apparently, he must be on a tear in the last couple games. Last I checked, he had 7 goals and 11 points in 10 games, I check today and he has 11 goals and 17pts in 12 games....so, 4 goals, 7 points in his last 2, not bad. In terms of AHL ability, he could certainly be on e of the top players in that league, but he would only be making about 1/3 of what he can make overseas. If he isn't in the NHL, it doesn't make sense for him to be in North America.

Gretzky played the last half of his career with a pretty bad back. He didn't miss many games because of it, but he certainly wasn't the same player after that hit from Suter.

His goal total of 894 may seem like the most touchable, but really, no one is even close to that at this point. Howe had 801, which is a long way from 894 and he played almost 1,800 games. There is only like 10 or 11 guys in the history of the league that have played more than 1,500. Chelios is 46 and hasn't hit 1,600 yet. The next closest is Hull with 741. That gap of 153 goals is pretty huge. Hull was a little older before he started putting up the big totals though. In any event, I suggest we defer this discussion for another 5 years, it is way too early to think he has any reasonable shot at getting 900.

If he keeps his production up and is in the top 5 point getters or so, he should definately be a front runner. However, I wonder if he'll get consideration regardless. If they miss the playoffs again, I don't hink he should get consideration unless he is running away with the scoring title, which I think is doubtful. Ovechkin is not the type of player that will run away with a scoring title, most goal scorers are not.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves though. If Ovechkin keeps up this pace and scores 68 this year, his first 3 years in the league would look like this: 245gp, 166 goals. Gretzky's first 3 years: 239gp, 198 goals Gretzky was also 2 years younger. The only thing Ovechkin has going for him in that race is that he is a pure goal scorer and Gretzky was a playmaker. As Gretzky got older, his goals tailed off as he was much more of a pass first guy, actually, he was always that way. Even when he had insane goal totals, his assist totals were much higher. Anyway, Ovechkin will slow over time, it's natural law really. Also, you have to wonder if his game evolves over time as he matures, which could take some focus off of shoot, shoot, shoot. Now, if Mike Bossy could have stayed healthy and played 1,500 games or so, that would have been something.

I'm surprised it's only the 5th fatest, seeing as there really hasn't been any huge goal scorers during that period. Bure had 2 seasons in the high 50's, but other than that, the leading scorer during that span was only high 40's/low 50's.

It's funny how things change over time. Gordie Howe was a god in many people's eyes and people talked about how fierce he was throwing elbows, etc. Same with Messier back in the 80's. Now, guys that throw elbows are punks.

What about Chelios? I've always gone with the saying "you hate playing against the guy, but you'd love to have him on your team." Even if you love him on your team, doesn't mean you like him. I can't think of many players that I disliked prior to joining the Wings and then liked them after they became Wings. Hasek for example, I respect his abilities, but I really don't like some of the crap he does/did and I'm not a big fan of his personality. The fact that he is a Wing doesn't really change that.

I'm thinking being physically closer is more important.

Well, Phaneuf has accomplished a lot more to earn this contract than Kronwall had at the time he signed his deal for $3 million a year. He's also over 4 years younger than Kronwall and has played about 60 more games in the NHL.

I'm not seeing how this makes sense, someone would have to explain it to me.

Yeah I know, but that's expected. When you try and hit someone and he starts to move, it's only natural to throw your elbow/forearm out like that. There's nothing wrong with a forearm/elbow to the chest.

How on earth would he catch him with an elbow to the face? I'm not even sure if I would say his elbow was chest high, maybe, but it was clearly way below the head.