toby91_ca

He should be suspended though, that's the rule. If he's really hurt, he shouldn't be able to play the next game. That's what happened with Lidstrom and Datsyuk (I think) and perhaps Crosby. Crosby I'm not sure, one year he went to the game but didn't play, so it wasn't like he wanted to go the beach instead. Another year, I think he may have been forced to miss the next game or he may have not played in the game before the ASG. I understand the rule, if you are really hurt....prove it type of mentality and you shouldn't be playing your next game, but I really dislike the rule. Everyone is likely hurting in some way and some guys are playing with nagging injuries, the extra few days will help them, but they don't want to miss a game that matters (the ASG does not matter). I do understand its importance from the league perspective though. Interesting to see what happens, perhaps they've changed the rule.

I think Edmonton has always been known to be one of the "small market" teams, but I'm not sure what criteria is used. Edmonton is the 2nd smallest NHL city in Canada I think (only Winnipeg is smaller). I'm sure Edmonton is larger than some of the US cities with teams though.

Panarin is 2 years under the age limit, so it's not close. In terms of age and professional hockey experience, I doubt it would be used against Panarin. If you remember Ovechkin and Crosby's rookie years, Ovechkin won the award even though he was 2 years older and had 4 years of professional hockey experience. They were only separated by 4 points. 14 point differential is actually very significant.

Ovechkin only missed 34 games due to lockout...so that'd give him an extra 20 goals, not 100. Unless you are thinking he would have played the 04/05 year...which wouldn't have been a given and if he did, highly unlikely he would have put up big numbers (one less year of experience and quite a bit different of a game (rules) before the 05/06 year. If you assumed he played that year, anything beyond 30 goals would be really unrealistic I would think, so that put him out approx. 50 goals overall. Let's not forget...at the age of 30, Gretzky had about 720 goals...after that, he missed some time due to lockout as well and got hurt right around the age of 30 and was never the same after that. Ovechkin looks like he could take a run at 894, but I don't think he's really as close to making that a discussion point as many would think. He'd have to score 40 goals a year for the next 10 years...yeah, he'll probably score more than that some years, but 2 major variables: 1) will he play another 10 years to the age of 40? and 2) even if he does, those goal totals will start to drop dramatically as he ages...its inevitable.

Highly unlikely he catches Bowman, it's almost unthinkable actually. He'd have to coach for another 10-12 years assuming he wins at a rate of 40-45 a year, which likely isn't possible either. That put him close to 70 years old....possible, but I highly doubt he'd be coaching that long. Bowman coached for about 11 more years than Joel as well...so winning % is about in line with Bowman. If he gets on with a hot team, he may stick around long enough....who knows....that's what happened with Bowman and Detroit. Joel is with such a team now, but it's unlikely that maintain their status for the next 10 years .

Ahhh...I should have clued in when reference was made to Howe's record since it's been a long time since he's held records for overall NHL.

Am I missing something? Yzerman - 692 g, 1,755pts Howe - 801g, 1,850pts Differential = 109g, 95pts

Number of 30 goal scorers has dropped off alarmingly over the past couple years: 05/06 - 47 06/07 - 42 07/08 - 28 08/09 - 39 09/10 - 24 10/11 - 29 11/12 - 30 12/13 - 29 (pro rated for short year) 13/14 - 21 14/15 - 15

I haven't really heard anything about him retiring next year....how much validity is there to that? Not that it would be shocking, he will be 39. In terms of Yzerman, he's 95 points behind Howe I think, not 54....even 54 would have been a struggle to reach even if the lockout didn't happen.

Washington is 0-1 against both Dallas and San Jose and 1-1 against Pittsburgh and Florida...winning record against everyone else.

Well that's probably the first time I ever saw someone point out a milestone that adds regular season and playoffs. When I saw the title of the thread I was thinking.....there's no way he's at 1,000 pts yet (I thought he was approaching 900)....so then I was thinking it might be a question as to what we think his chances are of getting to 1,000.

I think the 4 that are currently on pace to hit 20 will be the ones that get there by end of year (but it's not a given, no one is really projecting to put up too much more than 25). I think it's highly unlikely anyone else hits 20, but you never know as huge totals wouldn't have to be put up to reach it (example, Datsyuk is only on pace for 12 assuming he plays the rest of the games, but he's need to produce at a 29 goal per year rate the rest of the way to get there....it's not likely, but possible) - I also think it would be too optimistic to think he and everyone else would play all remaining games. Bill, your predictions are extremely optimistic with, not surprising, Larkin leading the way in the overly optimistic category. I must say though, while optimistic, not completely unrealistic.

Overall results wise, I'm pleased, but it is a bit concerning that the scoring leader on the team only has 30 points 42 games in. It would be less concerning if there were 5 or 6 guys in that range and it's just a balanced scoring approach, but that's not the case. I'm not worried about Datsyuk yet as he's coming off an injury, but he will be 38 soon as well, so I can't assume he'll just get better and better. Back to results though, the fact that they are not scoring a lot, but still able to pull off wins and have a decent record is promising and the type of play that will be helpful come playoff time. A team that wins a lot during the regular season and has a huge +/- differential isn't always prepared for playoff hockey as the games will be closer. My glass half full way of looking at it.

Weird yes, but technicality obviously. Didn't Zetterberg play in the 2007 game though? I consider Crosby a 10-time all star though, i'm sure he'll pass Scott someday in terms of all star games played.

Bill...did I see you mention that you also think he's selke caliber as well?

I must admit that I was surprised Crosby was left off the roster, it makes no sense to me. He's he had an absolute horrible start to the season...but that's also by his standards, his offensive stats are still better than almost half the forwards on the roster (10 of 24). The all star games if for the kids and for your corporate sponsors, you want to showcase your stars...it's mind boggling that he wouldn't be selected unless there have been behind the scenes requests to leave him off due to nagging injury (playing through but doesn't want to end up in situation he and other players have been before with the AS game). Crazy to think though, he's actually only played in 1 all star game. He would have been there based on performance every year, but missed 5 due to injury, 3 due to Olympics and 2 due to lockout.

Bill, didn't you suggest that his stats are as good as anyone in the league, or something like that? How is 27pts comparable to 59pts? There is nothing elite about 27pts in 39 games. Arguing whether he's the best of the team right now is one thing and possible, but that doesn't make him elite. I agree with others though, it's all in perception of the term. In my mind, there are very few elite players in the league, if there are a lot, then how could you really call them elite? Some teams have 1, some have more than 1 and some have none.

Defence is easy...it's because that's how it is spelled everywhere else in the world and since the NHL was established outside the US, the spellings wouldn't use the US version.

It's not idiotic Canadian spelling, it's Center in the US and Centre pretty much in every other English speaking country. Similar to the use of imperial system vs metric, US appears to be the odd balls

I'm not sure I'd bet much money on either one of them having a successful NHL career

Leftwinger....just curious, where are you getting the $6B in profit figure a year for Delta? Aren't they more like $500M - $1B? Not even in the ballpark of $6B. They did have $10B a couple years ago, but that was due to a $8B tax benefit (just accounting - they released an allowance on tax losses)

Agreed with the above. I've lived in Toronto for the past 17 years, but grew up on the east cost of Canada. Leafs are loved across the entire country and also hated across the entire country (every seems to have a strong opinion). Montreal is basically in the same bucket. My guess is that generally speaking, Western Canadians (other than transplants) would hate both the Leafs and Canadiens. This is the same politically as well, lots of people in Western Canada (Alberta specifically) aren't too fond of Ontario. I'm probably in a bucket of having a strong dislike for the Canadiens, but not having much of an opinion on the Leafs prior to moving to Toronto. Having been in Toronto for awhile, I'd say that I do tend to pull for the Leafs a bit (which goes against the general rule of either loving or hating though). I think I tend to pull for them a bit simply because of the excitement it builds in the city if they were to go on a run. It was amazing the vibe going around here this summer/fall with the Blue Jays.

"frankgrimes"...I had to check....went and watched Talbot's 2 goals in game 7, which one do you think was offside? I must admit that I'm just seeing a real time reply and it's not HD, but neither even looked like close plays at all at the blue line. He carried one across with a team trailing several feet behind him and the other was a dump in from center, which again, didn't even look close.

I must admit that I was surprised when he was hired in the first place. I know their previous coach came out of nowhere and took them all the way to a cup, but I would have thought they would go after a high profile guy at that point in time with the team.

I must say that I've thought about not wanting to pressure my son into hockey. I have a son and daughter and they participate in almost everything, swimming, soccer, etc., etc. I didn't care about many of those (I also played several sports growing up, but quite them all - organized leagues anyway - when they started to conflict with hockey). I've played hockey all my life and still do, so I really wanted my son to play as well....but conscious of not wanting to be one of those parents. Luckily, he absolutely loves hockey, his favorite activity, he's 6 and in his 3rd year. On the Patrick O'Sullivan story, he's written a book about this. He was a guest on The Fan 590 (Toronto radio) talking a bit about this. He did mention that the book isn't entirely accurate as he tamed down the abuse a bit as reality would have been too much for readers. Apparently he has no relationship with his mother now, he didn't get into details, but I'm guessing it's because she didn't do anything about trying to stop it.