toby91_ca

First round of playoffs has always been the best in my eyes....for the most part. I do find myself less interested now. Of course, part of that is the Wings being out, but it's more than just that.

Can't say I agree with anything Kurri had to say.

I'm sure I'm in the great minority amongst Wings' fans...haven't read any of this thread at all, but I didn't like the hit, I thought he left his feet and get his elbow/forearm up. I think he's gotten away with very similar hits over the past several years as well (less lately), which I also didn't like. I love the open ice hit, but the ones he's thrown, like this one, are pretty dangerous and the thing that I really don't like is that he seems to pick his spots...wait for that player that is vulnerable with their head down. I wouldn't have been saying the same things 10 years ago, but a lot of things have changed and for good reason, even though I love seeing big hits like that, it's really not good for the long term health and safety of the players. It does take some of the entertainment out of the game, but I don't think there is really any choice.

He's not wrong, the Wings do it more than any other team in the league. I'm honestly not a fan of it, for the same reason I'm not a fan of a bunch of other things that go uncalled. That said, the bigger question is why other teams aren't doing it more. Obviously the officials let it go, so instead of whining about the Wings getting away with "cheating", why don't other teams do more of it?

I heard that Katz really has a hard time firing people (in any of his businesses) - this is probably why Lowe would still be around in some capacity.

As already mentioned, it is not a forward only award. However, it is very rare for a defenseman to win it. Before Campbell, it had been 57 or 58 straight years of forwards winning it. Wings' dmen have won it 4 times though. It does make sense though if you think about it...forwards have at least a 100% greater chance at winning purely based on number of players, then factor in that most dmen....to be really good, you need to have a bit of a mean streak. There are several exceptions of course, Lidstrom being one of them.

Another example of a decent guy, but one you hate on the ice. I've said it a few times before, but there are very few players in the league that I truly see as complete...you know whats....the first that comes to mind is Lucic.

It really does suck to be the Pens right now and think about how their fortunes could have been different in prior years if Fleury was as calm and as good as he appears to be now. Now that Fleury plays well, you've got a team that is playing without 3 of their top 4 defensemen and while Crosby is playing well, Malkin is clearly hurt or slumping horribly.

I don't think the hit was overly dirty, but I do think Wilson is a bit of a dirty player in general. I could probably be talked into it being a dirty hit though, while he didn't jump into it, elbow him, etc., the guy was in a vulnerable position, not expecting the hit as he didn't have the puck and Wilson clearly had no interest in the puck. I think he was called for charging, which is possible, but I think interference would have been the better call.

I totally understand that other fans do the same thing....to which I wonder....what's the point? At the end of the day, what play ends up winning the play of the year? The one from the guy playing for the most popular team? The most tech savvy? Anyway, I'm not bothered by it that much as it really makes no difference, it's just a silly play of the year showdown. All I care about is watching the plays, not which ones getting voted as being better than the others.

Correct, regular season only and voting has already been completed. If voting hadn't been completed yet, we wouldn't have finalists yet since the finalists are simply the top 3 vote getters.

I'd prefer to see the best player of the year be declared as such...not simply voting for the guy from my team and doing so by voting as many times as I possibly can (every 5 seconds or more)...makes no sense to me. In all honestly, I'd vote for the Vrbata play vs. Zetterberg, but I don't think either will go too far here. The Nyquist goal is a different story though. I don't think it was quite as good as it appears (the fact that he skated around with the puck for so long makes it seem better, but I don't think he put up with enormous pressure with the puck) and the actual goal was kinda weak. However, it was very good and I can't think of any other play of the top of my head that jumps out to me as being better, so that one will get my vote for now (not sure what it will go up against).

Will be interesting to see what Bob Nicholson does. Will he clean out everyone in the front office (specifically Lowe and Mctavish)? Was interesting, I was listening to the radio yesterday and the question was posed to an Edmonton media guy regarding how the public would react if Gretzky was announced as coming on board as the GM. The guy said he could believe he was saying this, but he thinks the reaction would be negative. While Gretzky still walks on water in that town, they'd see it as the same old thing with another guy from the old boys club from the 80s, even if his name is Gretzky. They want a seasoned GM who has been there and done that, proven track record. With McDavid coming in, they do have some flexibility in maybe moving some of their older skilled forwards to fill the holes that they have.

His scouting report suggests he needs to work on his strength and skating. I'm less worried about strength as I am about skating, for obvious reasons. Skating will be the big stumbling block in terms of making it in the NHL. My main concern is that I've always assumed that you either have the skill or you don't. Sure, you might be able to improve a bit, but I don't see any major improvements coming. There have been several examples of poor skaters thriving in the NHL, but it's getting less and less these days.

Everything I've seen and heard (first person) is that the larger ice surface actually slows down the game and doesn't not increase scoring (actually decreases it). Now, this is not based on detailed analytics, but if you have to use such a measure, than any impact really wouldn't be worthwhile anyway. I'd suspect, with hearing from many different sources, all saying the same thing, scoring would decrease with a larger ice surface. In terms of different size ice surfaces in different rinks, I don't see how that would be a problem though. Sure, the current rulebook includes the measurements, but they'd just have to make changes there. If the league ever wanted to change the sizes, it would have to be phased in anyway, where you end up having differences rink to rink for a period of time. Shouldn't be a big deal since it has been an extremely small portion of the NHL's history where all the rinks have been the same size. I'm guessing you wouldn't have to go back many years before you start seeing differences.

Wow, I just noticed the 6 Dmen the Pens will be starting on D for game 1. I knew they'd be in big trouble anyway since losing Letang, but I didn't realize how bad of a situation they are in. I read something earlier that made me chuckle....they had to play most of their final games with only 5 D (due to cap issues) and one of the good things going into the playoffs is that they are able to call up some Dmen from the AHL....I don't think that is the thing you want to hear about as being positive....able to call up AHL guys, yeah!! Another reason why I can't stand the fancy new advanced stats....PIT has the best stats of any other team over the past 25 games (fancy stats)...yet they absolutely were free-falling during that period. Some might say they played well (backed up by stats) and that is was mostly bad luck that cost them games.....I don't buy much of that at all though, that would just be coming from people trying to make sure the fancy stats should still have a lot of weight.

No real worries on spelling and punctuation....that's what editors are for isn't it?

Ha, I'm the opposite...I'm a numbers guy (math was easily my best subject), not a words guy. I did like the writing as well, apart from spelling and punctuation in parts. I'd have to agree with the overall conclusion in that 16 is the magic number.

Ice time for star players is down because PPs are down, simple as that.

I share the same sentiment on scoring, but in terms of leaders, it really is no different than last year. The one real difference was Crosby getting mono. He wont the scoring title by 17pts last year, the rest of the leaders were still only in the mid-80s or so. There was still only one 50 goal scorer (and that was only at 51 goals). There were still only 2 more 40 goal scorers and then only another 18 - 30 goal scorers. So, looking at last year, some would argue that Crosby played the last quarter of the season with an injured wrist and maybe he would have been able to put up closer to 120pts, but even if that was the case, you'd still be left with one guy putting up those points, everyone else, not only sub-100, but sub-90. I know the days of Gretzky putting up close to 200pts are long gone, but I'd like to see more than what I'm seeing. If there is going to be a guy that separates himself from the rest of the pack consistently (like Crosby), I'd want to see him putting up more significant numbers. If everyone is more close, than I'm fine with that leader only getting 110, let's say, but there should be a handful more just behind that at 105, 107, etc.

Personally I don't think it makes sense to look at the regular season and judge whether it was a success or a failure. If it makes sense to do so, it probably means the team isn't very good at all (one that would be very happy just to make the playoffs = success). Here's how I'd judge the season after it is finished: Success - make it past 1st round Neither - lose in 1st round Failure - miss playoffs So far though, they look to be exceeding expectations and well positioned to have a successful season. We'll see if the regular season results are indicative of how good the team really is.

I have absolutely no problem with any of it. Restricting ticket sales to local area is nothing new and it makes total sense. If you can sell all your tickets to locals, more power to you, why would you want it open to anyone. In terms of the logo issue, it's not like they are banning other logos from the building, only an exclusive club within the building....again, that just makes sense and if you don't like it, it really is the proprietor's decision, there would be no grounds to call discrimination, etc. In fact, I'm pretty sure a corner store owner can choose not to sell to someone for any reason they want (not that this is the same scenario)

Forget about finding "ties" almost everyone in the game has ties to every team in some form....the hockey world is a pretty small place.

Rooting for the Pens tonight is not mandatory. While it may be the best course of action in terms of securing the playoffs for the Wings....there's a chance that the Pens could be on the outside looking in if they get overtaken by Ottawa. So....interesting dilemma in cheering decisions.

Hard to say whether it's age catching up to him or not. Not unusual for any player to go into a slump like this, but I do worry as it would make sense to be age and health related as well....later in the season....number of games catching up to him, etc. I'll assume slump for now though, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried at all. He has been terrible on the draw the past 10 games, that for sure. Prior to that, he's been better than ok for the majority of games.