Probert 5 For Fighting

Terrible fight, for what it's worth. And I'm 100% sure Mickey Redmond had nothing to do with that play-by-play. It was Gary Thorne and Bill Clement, I believe.

It's better to be overrated than not rated at all. Burke is not the GM everyone makes him out to be, but he's better than the dogcrap Toronto has dealt with for how many years. And I can't really fault him for letting Penner go. Would YOU pay a guy like him or Filppula 4.25 million right now?

I don't completely disagree with you as far as Matthias being expendable considering the organizational depth - but the reality is he's considered a better prospect than any forward we've moved up in recent years. Is his loss going to kill us? No. Not by longshot. But we essentially gave away a top prospect, which is not something Detroit can often be accused of doing. I'll give you props for even uttering the name Stacy Roest, but definitively saying he Matthias would have been just another Roest is ridonkulous.

Matthias was ranked as the 12th best prospect OVERALL by The Hockey News. Your prognostication is complete rubbish - offering nothing but your own uninformed opinion in your analysis. Somehow, eva knows more about the talents of Shawn Matthias than anybody qualified to say so - a player scouts are unanimous in saying that we screwed the pooch by trading. Matthias is a very good prospect. He's not Kyle Turris or Steve Stamkos, but he is a tier or two below. I'm not riding the guys jock or upset we lost him. In hindsight, it was just a horrific decision considering Bertuzzi's even farther fall from grace and Matthias evolvement into one of the top prospects moving up to the NHL next season. A guy with a similar skillset to Johan Franzen, packaged with a mean streak. But hey, what do scouts know? eva concluded he's Dallas Drake. Move along.

You're kidding, right? If you're good, you'll make the team. Darren Helm went from average prospect to playoff dynamo. Matthias would have been the highest ranked prospect in our system if he were around(way the hell ahead of Emmerton and Leino that you just mentioned). A career AHLer? Please. The slate is anew every season. Detroit's forwards are essentially two superstars and a bunch of guys jockeying for positions, so Matthias would absolutely compete.

It's too bad we gave up a top 10 overall NHL prospect for this guy. Matthias will be getting some solid playing time now in Florida, and could turn out to be a point producer like that Statsny kid - but with even more potential with that 6'3" frame. One of the few bad moves we've made lately.

I don't care what the man says, but he clearly looks like a Link-reject from Legend of Zelda.

Is there any doubt that Jasper will one day win the Hart and Conn Smythe? A+++++ pick

Psst. He's 18 years old playing his first year in the OHL. Draft picks often have to be taken BEFORE they break out. Calling anybody worthless on draft day is weak.

That's okay. It's a very common train of thought in a populace that largely believes in intangibles as opposed to actual athletic abilities. If you want to reform your life, join the church of firejoemorgan.com

Oh God. No he does not. He knows what he can do. If he ever wins a Cup, it's not because he did it by himself, but because he was just a piece of a championship team that stepped up at the right time. Pittsburgh failed against Detroit, not just Malkin. He proves himself by doing what he usually does - score lots and lots of points. He's 20 years old for crying out loud. His game is still being tweaked.

Please don't argue semantics now. Franzen, Flip and Hudler may not have scored 50 points yet, but they will at their current rate of growth, and you know it. While Shanny gets worse and worse, they get better and better. And you're actually trying to tell me that Ken Holland brought in DMac as a publicity stunt? No. He gave him a shot to redeem himself from all his past troubles, signed him to a minor league deal, and he worked his way back on the team. It had nothing to do with what the fans thought. Holland thought he could be a solid physical presence on the 4th line - which he was for a little bit. He didn't dress in the Finals because guys like Helm(another guy who contributes more than Shanny with his skating and defense) stepped up and played better. Fans are the income, and they're coming to see a great team. Not a nostalgic team with Shanny on the roster because he was good 10 years ago. The fans want Cups, and that's what this staff works to provide. This tangent you're starting to go off on with advertising is a bit odd. Shanny can't play defense and he can't skate. He has no place on this team. Game over.

He's an athlete. Athletes don't care what a bunch of fans and journalists with too little to write about make up about them being unable to handle the "pressure" or "win the big one."

Results: All the above players I mentioned are better, faster, and more skilled skaters than Shanny right now. You can pretty much pencil in Franzen and Flip for 50+ in their 3rd full season, with Franzen possessing true superstar potential. Hudler put up 42 points in just 13 minutes a game during the regular season, and 14 points in just 11:36 minutes a game in the playoffs. Shanny, meanwhile, had 46 points playing over 18:30 a game during the season, and just 5 points in 17 minutes a night in the playoffs. Extrapolating Hudler's statistics, he was a much more effective offensive player than Shanny this year. And the team doesn't give a s*** what players the fans miss. Like crymson said, he pretty much sucks now.

Who's to say they all come to the NHL because it's better, though? For years, the NHL has proven to be the best economically - which is why so many defected. If Russia or Sweden or Czech Rep or whatever is going to start offering guys more than they make here, you don't think they'd leave - especially if superstars like Malkin start the trend? Euro leagues arent slouches. The Swedish Elite League features far better defense than NHL games. The Russian Super League is a treat. Those league teams can compete with North American talent. I don't think it's a matter of competition all that much.

Sweet Jesus it's always good to see somebody who speaks with logic and rational around here! Agreed wholeheartedly. As for the move itself, I think it would be great. And just think, if Malkin starts a trend of players defecting to play for higher-paying teams across the pond, hockey organizations can put together a World Cup championship or something. The Detroit Redwings vs. HK Moscow for world bragging rights. Live on NBC or something. It'd be awesome. The NHL needs to crosspromote and expand as much as possible.

And he still isn't part of the solution. He's slow, terrible defensively, and contributes nothing outside of the PP. "Now that its been a few years" means he's even older and slower and less effective than he was before. 50 points? Franzen, Flip, Hudler and Cleary are all capable of that, and they all contribute more than Shanny. As for fans - this team wont make itself worse to appease fans who miss Shanny or Mac. 2.5 million is an awful amount of money to give to the guy I just described. And giving up a 1st rounder for him would be one of the worst trades ever.

I mentioned Lidstrom's discount because it allows you to lock up guys like Kronwall longterm, giving you the Big 3 for years to come. Nothing you have said indicates a skew in East vs. West mentality. All you've shown is that Pitt and Philly want to lock up some of their young stars, and you keep comparing them to the Redwings. If you don't think that's poor sample size, I don't know what to tell you. That's a bad way to go about trying to prove something. Outside of Detroit and Anaheim, no team has had the chance to spend that kind of money on star defensemen. And them being in the Western Conference has zero to do with it.

Gee, you don't think that's because Lidstrom is taking a huge paycut to stay here, and we were fortunate that Rafalski wanted to come home and play here? Every team wanted to sign him last offseason - and that includes a helluvalot of East teams. We can manage to have a top 3 like Lids, Rafalski and Kronwall because Lids is taking about 2 million less than he's worth. I don't have any problem with you saying Detroit has the best front office in the league and they manage their cap efficiently, but suggesting there is some sort of difference between the East and West in philosophy is completely ridiculous and unprovable.

For the last time. You have zero evidence to support that inane theory. Pointing out Jeff Carter re-signing and Pittsburgh looking to retain Hossa is a horrible sample size that'll get you an F in any statistics class you take trying to reject the null hypothesis.

Jeff Carter is projected to be a top 2-line center with excellent defensive skills for years to come in Philly. They really like him, and he has tremendous upside. They signed Richards to a huge deal early in the season, and he didn't slow down and continued his PPG pace - He's the face of their franchise and their young Steve Yzerman. The Briere deal they made was a lot worse, in my book.

Dude, the way your goals look mean diddlys*** unless you're making a youtube video. I can't believe this need to be pointed out to you. Creative goals are not a superstar trait. Shanahan didn't score 600 goals with ballet slippers on. Hell, I bet you can't name a single "creative" goal Gretzky ever scored - because it's entirely irrelevant. It's stupid. It's so many other negative adjectives I can't think of. One more time, that is awful rhetoric you are using.

Wow. That might be the worst rhetoric I've ever seen.

Smythe: Player judged to be most valuable on his team in the playoffs. Ergo, their best player. Nowhere does it suggest that your best player can carry your team(unless you play in the deadpuck era and your name is Dominik Hasek) because, you see, it's damn near impossible. I've yet to see it. When it does happen, though, I'll let you know. Datsyuk, Lidstrom, Kronwall, Franzen, Rafalski, Osgood and co. had as much to do with it as he did. The bottom line is, trying to seperate Zeta and Crosby based on the TEAMS head-to-head matchup is weak.

Sorry, I need that $155 to fill up my Camry up to a quarter tank on the way to work tomorrow.