toby91_ca

Why don't they simply let Basillie buy the team and move it, you know it is going to end up moving eventually anyway, it's only a matter of time. Wonder if Basillie creeps back in here. Also, you gotta believe his offer doesn't need to be as high now.

Pretty good read. Couple comments made me laugh a little:

Max. is 23 pretty much all year, the roster size opens up later in the year. Can't remember if it is just after the trade deadline or just for the start of the playoffs. Either way, you can carry as many guys on the roster as you want come playoff time.

I think you are confused. The earliest Downie could possibly play for the Flyers would be there 21st game of the season. They are currently trying to have him play in the AHL, which he normally would not be able to do as the NHL normally honours NHL suspensions. If he were to be allowed to play in the AHL, they would call him up periodically so he is on the NHL roster and gets credit for missed games, therefore, ending the suspension as quickly as possible. The way I understand it, his suspension does not start ticking down until he is forced to miss games, so if he is playing in the AHL, the games don't tick away until he is called up to the NHL and starts to miss games. Theorectically, he could not be eligible to play in the NHL for the whole year. Not really. Generally, right now, they are cracking down on jumping into a hit, they need to deal with that agressively first and that's is part of what this suspension is about. The next step is to think about how to reduce the other head shots that occur in a normal/legal body check (mostly when guys are crouching with their head down. This one is probably going to have to be dealt with using a lot of judgement, which isn't ideal, but I don't see any other way to deal with it without eliminating hitting all together. If you think about it, how does a guy like Chara throw a shoulder into someone without catching their head? He would have to get himself in an awkward croached position to do so.

On the topic of leaders not necessarily being top scorers with their team. Have a look at these few examples from last year: - Lapointe (24pts, 9th in team scoring) - Clark (39 points, 7th in team scoring) - Mellanby (36 points, 4th in team scoring) - Taylor (6 points, 17th in team scoring) - Arnott (54 points, 7th in team scoring) - Drake (12 points, 14th in team scoring) There are some examples where the team's most prolific scorer is their captain and in some of those cases I agree with the choice and in others, I do not think the person should be captain at all.

Some more recent ones: Chelios and Draper.

Great arguments for Datsyuk being a better player, but not for being a better leader. The best leader on your team could be a guy that goes the whole year without scoring a single point.

But do Draper's superior communication skills outweigh his lack of stick taping ability?

Not a bad theory. If I recall correctly, I think everyone thought that he would have much rathered a return to New York than come back with Toronto.

Interesting, I didn't realize he had a no-movement clause, thought it was just a no-trade. You would have thought that those discussing the possibility would have known this....but obviously they were just throwing the idea out there. This makes his contract even more stupid on Mr. Ferguson's part. Not only did he throw way too much money his way (pretty much negating any possibilities of trade even without a clause), he throws in a no-movement clause.

Haven't the Wings rotated in the past as well though? Didn't Chelios wear an A on the road and someone else at home or some similar arrangement? Edit: They also had rotating captains back in the early 70s.

I haven't heard anything like this, but to be honest, I haven't been that close to Leaf news lately (just on and off). I really don't see that working all that well. McCabe's biggest (only?) asset is his big shot from the point (great on powerplays). He's very similar to Souray. I don't think he is the greatest skater, so he won't be flying up and down the ice on the wing, which is much more important now than it was 5 years ago. The only thing I heard, while more an idea than a rumour, is that the Leafs could send him down to the minors and get some cap relief. This is one thing a rich team could do to get an advantage. Eat the salary, but get the cap space to add more salary. It was discussed a little awhile ago, but haven't heard much about it since.

I think you are a little confused as to the decision making proces that goes into deciding who would make a good alternate captain. Personally, I think Draper has more leadership qualities than Datsyuk, granted, I'm not sitting in room. Who is the better all around player on the ice is completely irrelevant. Take Pittsburgh for example, Crosby was not given the "C" because he leads the team in scoring. That probably forms part of the decision (rightly or wrongly), but he was given the "C" because he leads by example, works harder than probably anyone on the team, etc. If you look around the league, you'll find Captains who are role players and pretty low down on the scoring charts for their teams in some cases. You'll have other cases like Crosby for example, where you have super talents that will dominate offensively, etc. and are given the "C", but it's not because they are super talents. Because guys like this have so much talent, the spotlight is always on them and they are looked upon by their team, the league, etc. to lead...they are pretty much forced to be leaders and naturally develop those traits.

I didn't say I liked it, I was simply commenting on how they might work the rotation. Personally, I don't like the idea of rotating the letters, simply because there is a 3rd guy who may be deserving. I'm probably like you, I don't like it, but it doesn't really make that much of a difference to me. What I dislike a little bit more is when teams rotate the C around to various guys throughout the year.

Running out of time for that to happen though.

The answer is quite simple....because someone is going to end up getting killed...literally. Players are much larger now, move much faster, with more damaging equipment being worn. It is only a matter of time before someone ends up getting killed unless the NHL seriously cracks down on this type of thing, which is hopefully what they are trying to do now. Allowing players to police themselves could help as well, but the NHL needs to take a firm stance on this sort of thing and make it absolutely clear that they are trying to rid the game of these types of hits. From what I have come to understand, pretty much all the players are on board with that. Guys like Pronger play with a bit of an edge and get their elbows up everyone now and then. Being as tall as Pronger is, the elbows will tend to connect high on guys...like it or not, height is a factor. That said, Pronger is guilty of some dirtly play, no doubt, but I think if you compare some of Pronger's recent incidents, they haven't been as dangerous as the Downie hit. One was an elbow while he was bascially standing still or skating backwards. This will do some damage for sure, but not as much as if he rushed off like a madman and at full skating speed tried to drill someone with all his force. While I think Pronger deserves to be suspended in those situations, I don't think we are talking about 20 games like Downie's incident, but I'm sure if Pronger does something like that and only gets a few games, people will pass it off as the NHL being light and not following through when it matters. We'll see, it really depends on the specifics of the incident. I'll hold my judgement until one such incident occurs this year (hopefully there won't be any). Think about this for a minute.....what do you think the results would have been if you replaced 5'10" Downie with a guy like Eric Lindros of old. McAmmond might not be conscious right now in that scenario. Oh, one last point, I have to imagine that the only people that have the point of view that this sort of thing isn't a big problem and something that needs to be addressed is either moronic, or has no personal connections to any of the players in the game.

I have to imagine that the owners of the Kings and Ducks were compensated for these types of losses. I wouldn't be surprised if they are netting more money this way than if they played the games at home.

I'm assuming 1 will be non-rotating with the other two rotating between home and away games, or they will simply each take turns without the "A"...2 games on, 1 game off, and so on for each.

You are starting to sound idiotic now. From all the player reaction I have heard on the Downie hit, none of them think it is simply a part of the game or shoud be part of the game, they are completely against it, why would you think it is part of the game if those actually playing it do not?? Are you Steve Downie? Could you have found a more useless video to back up your claims? 75% of those hits were shoulder to chest or shoulder to shoulder. I agree that there were some headshots in there, which the NFL has tried to avoid and has done a great job of that over the past 5-10 years...which is why you probably didn't see anything from the past 5-10 years in that video. Some of the stuff looked like it was from 50 years ago.

I agree that ESPN doesn't give the sport I love much credit, but when you are running a business, you run it to make profit and hockey doesn't do that well for them I guess....but they are partly to blame for that one. Do you really see Illitch as all that influential? He doesn't pay much attention to the baseball team as he does to his NHL team. To be honest, if I wasn't a Wings fan, I bet I wouldn't hear much about this guy at all. Howe - does he even have much influence in the hockey world...let alone the sports world anymore? Yzerman - still has some influence in the hockey world, but pretty insignificant in the sports world in general. Gretzky - maybe 10 years ago, still influential, but not enough to make a list of the most influential.

Tardif.....I've never heard of a Tardis.

Looks correct to me.

Had it not been for the assist record by a left winger I would have challenged the answer (I overlooked the left winger record). As already mentioned, he didn't technically "Set" the record for assists by a rookie, he merely "tied" and existing record.

Huh? I couldn't see #20 in those photos, but I am confused by your reference to "scruff."

Assuming you can actually get a working video, will it show the results of the hits (any fines, etc.?) FYI: