Zetts

As some people have mentioned, he'll likely be asking for an unreasonable amount, if he wouldn't sign in Pitts., where he supposedly loved playing. While I hate him on principle, he's someone who would be good to have on the team. Not for too much though...maybe 2.5 tops?

Two different trades. And it's "Smyth".

Oh, I agree, special teams are killing us. I just don't think we should ignore the other issues. The two issues are partially related too: Franzen: 0 pp goals with 2:05 pp toi/game Filppula: 0 pp goals with 2:27 pp toi/game Hudler: 0 pp goals with 2:33 pp toi/game Holmstrom: 0 pp goals with 2:58 pp toi/game Bertuzzi: 0 pp goals with 0:36 pp toi/game Cleary: 0 pp goals with 1:36 pp toi/game That's definitely a problem. Obviously the penalty kill is far from pretty, but these players are a huge issue too.

That's not an excuse in the playoffs. None of them are just returning from some sort of serious injury - they're just not cutting it. The fact that they're not scoring more is definitely an issue.

Bertuzzi and Holmstrom both have NTCs, as does Cleary except that his expires 30 days before next year's trade deadline. Certainly none of them are being traded in the off-season. We don't have a huge number of slots that we can upgrade this summer. So the players that you want gone will still be in the lineup as I highly doubt that Babcock would sit all three of them (or any of the three of them for more than a game or two). Up front I assume that Draper and Modano (and maybe Miller) will be gone, but who cares? 2 of the three have been scratched anyways. Like it or not, we'll have a nearly identical group of forwards next year.

You must really dislike Kronwall's hits then seeing as he almost always carries over top of the other player.

And then the owner, seeing how much he sucks, made the executive decision to put him on waivers, at which point he would be claimed by the Oilers.

I don't know what you're talking about. They've got Lebda...they're set.

The highest terms I would take Phaneuf at would be second pairing and 3 million or less. Just thinking about Weber gets me excited, but I'm hardly getting my hopes up. He might not be able to fill the hole Lids would leave, but he could come close enough, and give us a further element of grit that everyone would love.

...obviously. There is no precedent of Savard receiving favoritism in the league so there's no reason to think that was the basis for the rule change. There is (at least in the eyes of many members of LGW) a heavy Crosby favoritism in the league, so if a rule change was based on him, it's obvious that there would be greater scrutiny.

I know that everyone has soured on the All-Star weekend. I likely won't watch it this year either. But I really think you should go. It's a once or twice in a lifetime opportunity to see some of the best players of this generation all together at once. If it were me, it would only come down to the money. If you have the money to spare, I say do it. If money's tight, I certainly wouldn't stop paying bills to go watch it.

YES. That was easily the stupidest recent rule change. Painting little random zones on the ice where only some players can play the puck?! It gives it the feel of some sad game an elementary school gym teacher came up with. And more importantly: Rule changes like that make the game MORE complicated for casual fans (or new fans) to follow. Changing the size of zones by a foot or two is something that I'm completely fine with. But adding more complicated, unnecessary rules is counterproductive. Here's an idea for the next rule change: Maybe the defense shouldn't be allowed to touch the puck inside the circles in their own zone. That would increase offense too. Oh yeah, and I feel like the huge success of the WWE suggests that a whole lot of Americans like violence, including families.

Osgood has definitely been better this season. He has had some soft goals, but his play has, at a bare minimum proven that he's an extremely capable back-up. I just want to get this #400 out of the way. Usually I can watch the game, but unfortunately, for this game I have to be one of "those people" who just watches the highlights and judges. Last night he looked less than stellar. Maybe the pressure of this win is affecting him?

Hudler is irritating me too...but how is that in any way a valid point here? We're talking about the stupidity of a reckless hit. And then you essentially say, "You can't say it's a stupid play because he has as many points as Hudler." WTF? Oh, and that should have been way more than 2 games. He could have killed the guy.

Yet you still managed to get a dig in on him...

So, I know this is likely skewed a little bit by the number of teams, amount of time they've been in operation, etc. Somebody, if they feel so inspired, can feel free to adjust for that. But I don't think that those factors are too significant here. Anyways, at least the raw numbers: OHL: 1983 players drafted to NHL WHL: 1719 players drafted to NHL QMJHL: 960 players drafted to NHL http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=31877 Oh yeah, and I'm pretty excited about this Callahan kid too.

I think that we can agree that they all suck. (Or in Leino's case, used to suck.)

At least it's not as atrocious as calling Hudler "Rex" instead of Jiri. I mean, what the hell?

I guess it's in a reasonable range. The thing is, you could find suspensions to compare it to that would make it seem too long, and others that would make it seem too short. I don't even try anymore to guess at suspensions. The NHL really needs to work on this.

A little over-optimistic I think. Callahan has, from anything I've heard, never been projected to be anything more than an energy player if he actually pans out at all. Suggesting that he could produce like Hank or Dats...not going to happen. Ferraro just got that change of scenery, did he not? Jensen is a long shot to be a high-level player, but you never know I guess. And Dick is all but done here. I'm all for being optimistic, but realism is important too.

They were talking about Matthias.

The first one.

Not surprised that it would happen with the Oilers, it's a joke of a franchise. Just another reason to hate them.

Sexton is shorter than Doan. It's just the laws of physics.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=333690