toby91_ca

TFP is generally not very reliable, however, not sure why Steve would want this position anyway. I know he'd likely jump if a good opportunity came his way, but you have to imagine that most guys want to stay clear of Tampa.

I agree, in principle, with Mitchell's complaints, but if you look at the incident involving him, it wasn't that bad, just had unfortunate results. He wasn't hit from behind, he was hit from the side, into the boards (he was off balance). I probably would have called it boarding, but I'm sure how you would argue for a suspension out of that.

I have no idea where you got your stats, but your reg season games for Chicago are way off, as are your playoff games for Detroit. The others are correct. Here are the actual numbers: Chicago: Reg season: 664 Playoffs: 65 (reg season pts/PIM: 487/1,495, playoffs pts/PIM: 48/133) Detroit: Reg season: 578 Playoffs: 103(reg season pts/PIM: 152/613, playoffs pts/PIM: 28/104)

Not sure what you mean by the jersey being placed in the Hall of Fame, that's not how players are represented from the perspective of being inducted. There is a room with all of the members represented on the walls. There is a plaque for each player that shows their face and a bio. Not sure what you are referring to with respect to Shanahan, he's not even in the HOF. Might you be referring to this? Creepy, I just posted the same excerpt. And you are correct, players do not go into the HHOF based on any team representation.

What are you talking about? On the day of his induction, he'll be wearing a suit...actually, he'll be wearing a HHOF sports coat. This isn't baseball. Also, he's won 1 Norris with Montreal and 2 with Chicago and he's played the most games with Chicago. For whatever reason, I remember him most from his days with Montreal...probably because when I was younger, I lived in Nova Scotia and HNIC was always Montreal games.

That's true, but players similar to Maltby in terms of calibre are normally retired out of the NHL by now or normally don't stick around as long as he has to begin with. If a player like that wants to continue playing, perhaps the AHL is the best spot...others have done it.

This has nothing to do with jail time. He is not in jail, he served his time (whether it was long enough or not is another question...actually, I haven't followed it at all, so I'm not even sure if he served time, I'm just assuming). Anyway, the pardon isn't something that got him out of jail, it essentially removes the incident from his record (it's not that straightforward, but that is essentially what the pardon is about and why people are upset about it.

I think his assumption is that Lids wants $5 million, but rather than sign him to a one year, $5M contract, spread the cap hit over 3 years, assuming he'll retire after the 1st year. So, its a 3 year deal for $1.67M per year. However, the big problem is that if Lids retires after the first year, he doesn't get his $5 million, he only gets paid for the year he played.....but the cap remains. I'm sure you could play around to work something out to pay him well next year and get the cap hit down, but I'm all for not having cap hits for guys that are no longer playing and I'm sure they wouldn't do something like that. If he is played his last game, I'm a little disappointed that it wasn't well known, then he could have gotten a proper send off from the fans. Pretty sure he'll be coming back though.

Kovalchuk is a great player, but he certainly isn't at the level of Ovechkin or Crosby. I don't see Kovalchuk bringing much more than pure stats, so if you look at that alone.......he's never scored 100pts in his career and only broke 90pts 2 times in his career. Both Crosby and Ovechkin have been in the league for 5 years and have both scored more than 100pts 4 times. The one year Ovechkin's worst year was 92 pts and the one year Crosby didn't score 100pts was when he missed 29 games (well on his way to 110+pts).

I don't think it's an odd stat at all. You probaby didn't get the numbers right, when you say the team that eliminates the Wings win teh cup, with teh exception of 3 years, that's not true, actually, it's only be 2 years where the team eliminating the Wings won the cup (ignoring when the Wings actually lost in the Finals). Ignoring the years the where the Wings have won or lost in the Finals, there have been 8 seasons (starting in 1996, since the Wings were in the Finals in 1995) - I used 1995 as the starting point since that is the year you chose. Of those 8 seasons: 3 years - the team that beat the Wings didn't make the Finals 3 years - the team that beat the Wings lost in the Finals 2 years - the team that beat the Wings won the CUP So, 5 out of 8 years, the team that beat the Wings went to the Finals to either win or lose. But think about this...if you make the playoffs and lose in the first round, the team that beats you has a 25% chance at getting to the finals. If you lose in the 2nd round, the team that beat you has a 50% chance at getting to the finals. Pretty decent probabilities.

Did you watch any of the game or are you just looking at a box score? I didn't see the holding penalty, but he deserves about 5 or 6 to every 1 he gets called for. I did see the slash and it was one of those hacks across the stick where the stick breaks. I can't remember the last time that wasn't called a penalty, it's almost automatic now. I do find the Montreal crowd extremely annoying about not getting calls. Every time one of their players falls down, the crowd is looking for a call and are very loud about it, even though they seem to be diving around more than any team I've seen (Sharks included). There was a part where I just had to shake my head though. A Canadiens player ended up fighting for a puck with Crosby and his stick broke in half and the fans just lost it...looking for a call. Why was there no call you ask? Well, the Canadien player slashed Crosby and broke their stick on him. So while the fans are losing it looking for a penalty call, they should be thankful none was called against them. I'm probably being harder on Montreal because a few of my friends are Canadiens fans and I think they need to be brought back to reality. I rarely, rarely watch them play, but they truly are diving around more than I have seen from any other team (all teams do it these days, but they are the worst).

That looked like a fan blog rather than an article written by a professional. Sure there may be some truths to it, but for the most part, it looked pretty unprofessional to me. It does scare me a bit sometimes to think about the future...what if Lidstrom retires? Datsyuk will be 32 later this year, Franzen 31, Zetterberg 30. Sure, they should still have some really solid years left, but they will start to slow down sometime over the next few years. The key is the injection of the next stars as we go. That is the unknown and the unknown is what scares me. Guys like Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Franzen have come along to somewhat replace guys like Yzerman, Fedorov and Shanahan, but who is going to replace them in the next few years? Who is going to replace Lidstrom? Edit: every team faces the same challenge though, which is why you tend to see teams go through peaks and valleys. Detroit has been very lucky to stay successful over the past 15-20 years though.

How often do you flip/flop teams? Just kidding though, as a kid (in the 80s), I was an Oilers fan, for obvious reasons, didn't really have any real ties to any teams being from Nova Scotia (my dad has always been a Canadiens fan, which for some reason caused me to hate the Canadiens). I wasn't a Gretzky guy though, I liked Messier. I've been a Wings fan since the late 80s though, after I got a little older. Well, they are only up 2-1....Washington was up 3-1 and lost. Also, they experienced the same troubles with them in game 3 as they did in game 2. It was tied 0-0 going into the 3rd. Fact is, they have only scored 2 non empty netters in the last 2 games. Tonight's game is in Montreal, if the Pens lose, the series is tied 2-2, not sure how you can't have some doubt. If the Pens win, you do have to like their chances going back home with a 3-1 lead though. Edit: glad they start at 7 and the Wings at 7:30, gives me a chance to catch some of that game before the Wings start and in between periods. Then again, Montreal does make the game pretty boring to watch.

The Pens would have to get by Montreal first. Don't think you can discount how much having Staal out of the line up hurts either.

I think that was his expectaton coming into the series. As a Wings' fan, it doesn't look good at all, but I just look at it as one game at a time now. Sharks haven't won anything until they win that 4th game and that 4th game is typically the toughest. The Wings are down 3-0, but they have all been 1 goal games. That said, the realist in me thinks going 5 or 6 games might be the limit. If I was a Shark's fan, I'd be very happy right now, but if they lose game 4, I'd be thinking, okay fine, let's win game 5 and get this over with. If they lose game 5, I'd start getting extremely nervous thinking about going into game 6 knowing that if they lose, it goes to game 7 where anything can happen.

I understand that, but the question was with respect to what would be most profitable for the league. I'm not an expert, but I would assume that new fans will bring in more revenues and existing fans would likely not be lost.

So is Pittsburgh original 6 or Canadian? In terms of ratings, which won't have an immediate financial impact I don't think, more longer term, I think Pittsburgh vs. Detroit would bring the most fans to watch. Part of me thinks having San Jose in the finals might help with the south, but you have to imagine a lot of the people in the North east will be uninterested. An original 6 final would be great for the dedicated fans, but would that really do much to bring in new fans?

My take on all 3 plays: - Homer slashing - he did give him a bit of slash from behind, ticky, tacky call, but you can't do that when you are behind the play with the ref standing there watching. Not a good call in my opinion, but not a total phantom call either. - Zetterberg's no goal - honestly, I think this could have gone either way. I have no problem with it being called off, especially based on the other no goal calls so far in the playoffs. He stuck his foot out (had he not moved his foot forward, it probably would have been okay). His foot also came off the ice, which isn't good. Pissed because a Wings goal was called back, looking at it from a certain perspective, but if I was a Sharks fan, I'd be really pissed if that counted. - Homer interference - not sure what the issue is here, he was an idiot, clear interference if you ask me. A Sharks fan might even go the extra mile and suggest he took a dive as well after skating around the pile.

Not over until it's over....no matter what the odds. I do agree though, the content of a lot of the threads on this board currently are pushing me a way a little bit.

I must be the only one that doesn't see the huge deal here. Yes, he's a ****** for doing what he did, should have gotten his ass kicked and all that, but some are suggesting he should be kicked out of hockey?? If he had hit a defenseman it would have been a good clean hit, probably wouldn't have even knocked him down. The goalie was not hurt in anyway whatsoever. Let's be clear, I don't think it was a clean play that should go unpunished, but if this happened in the NHL, I'm guessing he would have gotten his ass kicked, but only a 2 min penalty on the actual contact with the goalie....not an indefinite suspension (by the way, I think there were other things going on that played into the suspension).

Wouldn't be the first time Savard bit someone, I think he was suspended last time as there was video evidence....not sure if there will be this time.

Based on the way you phrased it, no, not as enthuisastic, but I will still watch for sure, I'm a hockey fan. I live in Toronto and often hear that there are a lot of Leaf fans around, but not necessarily a lot of hockey fans. Funny statement, could be true, not really sure. In any event, Leaf part aside, I'm not included in that bucket of being a fan of a particular team, but not necessarily the sport as a whole. That said, I may not put every effort into staying up late watching Sharks games.....although, I likely will if it's the finals.

The Wings' penalty in last night's game got me thinking about this. I'm not sure why, but this year, I have noticed this incident happen several times (10-20 times in various games, probably more). The situation is this: - player is leaving the ice on a change, player jumps on the ice to replace him and the puck comes up along the boards and hits the skates of the player leaving the ice. Of all the times I have seen this happen (which is a lot - see above), there has NEVER been a penalty called. The penalties I have seen called happen when the player coming on plays the puck or otherwise gets involved with the play before the player leaving gets off the ice. While this goes against my understanding of the rule and the rule I have been used to playing with, I just figured that's the way it worked in the NHL (even though, when that happens, it sometimes takes away great scoring chances....doesn't seem fair). So, last night we see Filpulla (I think) go to make a change and then decide to turn and make a play on the puck. Clearly, this is a penalty, but I got to thinking....why is this different than the scenario I just described above (other than intent)? I checked the rule and here is part of 74.1: Edit: Something strange happened there before I could finish my thought (must have hit a wrong button)....anyway, does anyone have a similar memory to me and have difficulty figuring out why they don't call the first example as a penalty. Based on the rule, it clearly should be.

I think you missed my point. I wasn't questionning why more calls are being made this year and the Pittsburgh example doesn't really fit my fact patter anyway, that's simply too many guys on the ice....not involving a line change scenario. My question was really why a certain fact pattern (guy leaving ice touches puck) doesn't get called as a penalty, while it should.

High sticking incidents get missed all the time, while difficult to understand coming from a fan's perspective that has the benefit of several replays, I can understand why they tend to get missed in real time. Watching the Mtl vs. Pit game on Friday night, Crosby took a high stick that went uncalled as well, he ended up leaving the game for several minutes to get stitches. I wouldn't be surprised if you randomly decided to review tape from any game and ended up finding 2 or 3 high sticks that end up getting missed.