toby91_ca

I became a fan of the team for the dumbest reason ever probably. I grew up in Nova Scotia where most people are either Toronto, Montreal or Boston fans. My dad is a Montreal fan, but he isn't really big into sports in general, so I didn't really have an influence there (not sure why I'm so big into sports and my dad not). I began playing hockey at a young age in the 80s and loved the Oilers and Mark Messier, can't remember why, but mostly likely picked it up from friends of mine and they were the powerhouse team at the time. When I got a bit older, I started collecting hockey cards, like a lot of people at the time. One of the cards I had was a 1990-91 Fedorov RC. It was worth a lot compared to most of the cards in that collection, so I figured, if he plays well, the card will be worth more money and I started cheering for him and the Wings at the same time (back in 1990 I guess). I was only big into collecting cards for 2-3 years, but that's what got me into cheering for the Wings over 20 years ago.

Very difficult to look at that in isolation and consider there to be some sort of depth problem. Think about it this way: Datsyuk is on the 1st line, Zetterberg is on the second line....so, the 1st and 2nd line are combining for 57% of the scoring....so 43% for the 3rd and 4th lines. Looking at it that way makes the percentage look really good from a depth perspective. I know you can't look at like that, just pointing out that it is not that simple just to look at the stat the way it has been done in this thread either.

I'm not overly concerned as this was really expected to be honest. The question is how well he'll be able to adapt and how good he can actually be in the future.

He got hit in the mouth the first shift of the game...won't return. What that means post this game, I'm not sure.

Don't see how it was a punk move. Players negotiate no trade clauses so they can control where they go or don't go...he exercised his rights, it's pretty simple.

The thing is, the actual players Pittsburgh traded only have an outside shot of even making it to the NHL and I think the others were a 1st round pick (probably 30th overall) and a 5th I think. They really didn't give up much of the future.

No, Calgary had a deal in place with Boston, Calgary thought they were trading him there and Boston thought they were getting him. Iginla chose Pittsburgh instead, it was that simple and was communicated clearly as such straight from Calgary GM and Boston GM.

They've only given up 9 goals in their last 9 games.

He hasn't shown that he's capable of scoring more than 20-30 pts yet. That's not the type of player people make too much of a fuss about if he gets benched. I think the biggest issue is that he was drafted 8th overall, so there are big expectations.

No kidding....they did lose about 8 games out of close to 70 played though

With education comes change

I think you missed my main point. I would argue though that whenever a goalie scores, it's not always because of luck. There has been a few times where it was because of their good shooting ability. Not all goalies could should shoot the puck down the ice into a net like Hextall. Net being empty is lucky I guess, but that's completely different than a scenario where the goalie happened to be the last that touched it. My point on this one is that he was extremely lucky that the play wasn't stopped when he touched the puck.

Well, this one is more lucky than most. There was a delayed penalty coming and Brodeur touched the puck, but didn't have enough to be considered in possession, so no whistle. The puck then gets picked up by Staal I believe who then passes to a teammate but misses, deflects off the boards and down the ice into the empty net.

There is a couple serious flaws in your predictions. 1) they are on pace for 53pts I think, not 50 and 2) compare what they are on pace for to some made up prediction of 55pts seems odd. If you do that and project all the other teams, there will be less than 16 teams making the playoffs. If you want to keep it real simple, if you project everyone now to the end of the year, looks like they finish in 8th. So, there is a real risk of not making the playoffs, then again, it's really only the top 2 teams in the conference that will be out of reach as well. #3 to #12 in the conference are separated by only 6pts.

I know you are not even close to being alone in this, but you appear to lack any knowledge at all on the seriousness of blows to the head and concussions. This is not a toughness issue.

You could probably use the same comment for all of the games he plays.

I saw the 2nd and 3rd periods, it was wide open at times, but most of the goals I saw were due to very poor goaltending than anything else. I bet PIT was thinking they were picking up a much better backup than what they got. I starting watching during the 1st intermission and I caught Coach's Corner. Cherry had something interesting to say and I'm torn between thinking he's out of his mind, or that he might be right. He suggested that if Crosby used to play the way he plays now, he'd never have run into the concussion issues. I sort of only half caught it, but I think the gist of it is that he's not running around stiring up s***, retaliating, etc., so teams aren't taking runs at him (except Philly). The one flaw it that thinking is that his concussion did come from a cheap shot (unless you think it was on purpose). Though the hit he took against TB the following game might have been, but I think that type of hit happens a lot. Anyway, not sure if anyone else caught that, if so, thoughts?

Sorry, but that does not happen 100x a night. A guy getting cross-checked in front of the net is by no means comparale to this at all. I think you've acknowledged that, but haven't considered how much of a difference it actually is. I think 5 and a game is enough though. I think the issue is that the other player ended up getting hurt.

Why the baseless type comments? Where are the bad calls on Tootoo? Where is the video showing Datsyuk getting a penalty for falling down? What are the things Crosby is able to do? Pittsburgh has had 85 power plays so far this year and have had to kill 85 penalties. By comparison, Detroit has had 90 power plays and and has had to kill 84 penalties. Does that really show anything? Not really, but it's better than simply spouting off comments. I'd love to see the video of the call on Datsyuk though because I've seen several of the same calls this year.

So, this is what I can gather from hand passes in general: - on the faceoff, they want draws taken as intended, not by falling to the ice and swatting back with your hands. They made the rule that results in a penalty if you place the puck with your hands on the faceoff (doens't matter what zone of the ice you are in). After the faceoff is complete, you go back to regular hand pass rules. - What I don't really like is that hand passes are allowed in the d zone, but nowhere else. Got me thinking back about why this is the case. From what I remember hearing, I think the rationale is that when a defending player would lose his stick, he was immediately try to pass the puck with his hands to get a stoppage in play. To avoid the delay in the game from such a stoppage, they decided to allow hand passes in the d zone. There are some GMs out there today who would like penalties to be assessed for hand passes in the d zone. Some might think this is a complete flip (i.e. not simply going from allowing it in the d zone to not allowing but, but going even further and calling a penalty?). The thing is, if they decided to simply not allow it anymore, it would actually give the defensive team an advantage by being able to get a stoppage in play by doing it. So, you either leave it as is (my preference), or assess penalties.

I actually think the one where he gets hit near centre ice in the playoffs and falls down holding his face was worse (there was no contact anywhere near his head).

I was probably watching a different feed because I didn't see any replays of what happened. Presummably though, he touched the puck with his hand off the draw? If that is the case, I disagree that it is hardly called. From the games I've watched so far this year, that call is pretty much automatic. I don't like it, but that's the way it is. I don't mind the rule, but when when guys play the puck with their hands in such a way that is is obviously not what the intention was going into to try to win the draw, I don't like it. That collateral damage of a rule though that is meant to eliminate something else.

So, I think the record they've set it pretty impressive, but just to play devil's advocate a bit...whcih I think is okay because this isn't a Blackhawks board, does anyone think the record is a bit inflated? - They aren't playing against the whole league....because of shortened schedule, more games are played against a smaller number of teams. Say what you will about whether the Western conference is stronger than the Eastern (which I agree with when looking top to bottom), they are avoiding playing against some of the other strong teams in the league. - of the 19 games they've played this year, only 6 have been against teams that currently have more wins than they do losses (I'm simpflying it to W and L and avoiding OT and shootouts for a minute). - Of the games they've played against teams with more W than L (LA (9-8), they are 2-0, STL (10-8), they are 1-0, VAN (10-8), they are 1-1, ANA (13-4), they are 0-1). Impressive regardless of how you look at it, but I think one could take a view as above as well. The other thing not mentioned about the short season is that you could look at it as being that much more impressive as well because with so many games in such a shor time, you are bound to come out flat every now and then (they've avoided that so far in terms of it not resulting in a regulation loss).

What? Not illegal change because he was already standing? What are you talking about? I agree with the sentiments suggested earlier. If it was deemed that he did not leave the bench to start a fight (legal line change), then why was he suspended at all? The league has a rule, automatic 10 game suspension for leaving the bench to start a fight, but they have a really hard time enforcing it. They will do everything they can to wiggle around that....unless it is a goon coming off the bench of course, that would be an easy call for them to make.

Looked more like hip to me, didn't deserve a kneeing major at all if you ask me. However, I still think it might be a suspendable type hit because at no point was the player he hit in contact with the puck.