Drake_Marcus

Thanks

This.

Agreed- the Blues/Dives game should be exciting.

This game made me sad in my heart. Or maybe my left lung, whatever- I'm not a professor of anatomy. Here's hoping the Wings come out swinging and dominate in the playoffs! :octo: GO WINGS! Also, on an unrelated note- I found a sperm emoticon:

Thank you God for making Babs take Filppula off Datsyuk's wing. Why he thought Filppula was a good finisher for Datsyuk was beyond me. He still could've put Filppula on Z's line and let Val dish the puck to Zetterberg, but whatever, as long as Datsyuk has a finisher on his wing instead of a distributor I'm happy.

Abdelkader won't be here next year unless there's a real roster shake up. Abs is waiver exempt and has one year of pro hockey experience. Based on all the past prospects the Wings have had I'd say the odds are stacked against Abs being here next year.

We will because Leino's a top six style hockey player and Helm is a 3rd/4th liner who plays the forechecking/grinding/energy role. Even though Leino is a better hockey player on the score sheet, Helm is one of those players who has a critical role in the playoffs. Helm will start on the 4th line in the playoffs because he brings something the Wings are lacking in and Babs has a bit of a hardon for him. Leino will be the first man to step in if a forward is injured or needs some time in the pressbox to reflect. Leino's been a professional hockey player for longer than Helm (don't forget he's got years of experience as a pro in Finland), but yeah, Helm's been here in the playoffs so that definitely works in his favour. Assuming the Wings make a deep run this year we'll definitely see Leino. He definitely outplayed Helm when they were both called up, so Babcock won't need much encouragement to try Leino if someone goes down or starts playing like crap.

Friday: Nashville @ Minnesota Columbus @ St Louis Calgary @ Edmonton Dallas @ Anaheim Saturday: Carolina @ New Jersey Philadelphia @ NY Islanders Chicago @ Detroit Vancouver @ Colorado Boston @ Buffalo San Jose @ Los Angeles Ottawa @ Toronto Pittsburgh @ Montreal Tampa Bay @ Atlanta Washington @ Florida Minnesota @ Columbus Anaheim @ Phoenix (Screw the ducks- I'm going to use these predictions to live out my dreams) Edmonton @ Calgary Sunday: Detroit @ Chicago St Louis @ Colorado Boston @ NY Islanders NY Rangers @ Philadelphia Well this week isn't as well researched as my weeks usually are, but I'm taking a cue from the Red Wings and going into cruise control, regardless of who it disappoints.

Cool. See you in the playoffs. If the Wings play the Blues in the first round I've got $50 between the two of us that the Blues would end up playing golf (watch out for those carts). Ya that does suck for teams like yours, I guess. But if you're relying on someone else to help sneak you in the playoffs you don't deserve to be there. Edit: Deserved some bold action.

Yeah, but the real problem with that line is that Filppula can't finish. Filppula's a puck distributor not a finisher. I'd rather see Filppula dishing the puck out to Zetterberg than Datsyuk dishing the puck out to Filppula so he can shoot it wide or hold onto it for 2 seconds to long. Put Franzen up with Datsyuk instead.

Interesting point. It should be noted that Mike Green's scored 31 goals. 4 were game winners, none in OT, 3 were empty nets. Nick Lidstrom's scored 16 goals. 4 were games winners, 1 in OT, 1 was an empty net. So in terms of the clutch goals, Lidstrom is on par with Green. However, Green's goals are 10% superfluous (ENG), while Nick's goals are only 6% superfluous. That being said, 25% of Nick's goals were game winners, while only 13% of Green's goals were game winners. And don't go saying meaningless goals scale up as the player scores more- Ovechkin's got 55 goals and 10 game winners- thus his goals are 18% game winners. Jeff Carter's got 45 goals with 12 GWG for a 27% GWG percentage! Your point that all goals aren't created equal definitely merits closer examination, however NHL.com doesn't provide us with details on how important the goals scored are. More elaborate stats packages do exist, but they nearly always require subscriptions.

Kopecky's better off as a fabric softener spokesman than a fighter. Seeing Big Rig and Abadabadelkader with ~3 fights a year is great. We just need guys that play great hockey and aren't afraid to man up. When you subtract staged fights, there aren't so many instances where fighting's a necessity, so having 3 or 4 guys who fight 3 times a year should be more than enough. With Big Rig, 'Kader and Pain Train that's 3 of that type of guy. Train Hudler to swing low and swing hard and we've got 4.

While that's possible, I'd look at it more along the lines of a pure business decision made by a proud french-Canadian. Dion is from Quebec, so there's the motivation she'd need to partially invest in the Canadians. Don't forget that it wouldn't be a love-affair type of purchase- the Canadians make s***-tons of money and the Bell Centre venue/events ownership is a cash cow too. Add to that the fact that everyone else she's teaming up with is also Quebecois and you have pretty reasonable motivation.

Same thing happened to Kindl last year... and it's happening to Kindl again! Hopefully Pyett will bounce back- this is only his rookie season and the AHL is a real tough league to jump into without the physical tools and conditioning of a pro.

Nah- having Rafalski off the blue line has actually helped reduce the turn-over trouble this team has had Here's hoping Rafalski comes back well rested and with his concentration focused on defense.

When I said bad news comes in pairs I was referring to the double post!

They say bad news comes in pairs...

Crap Get well soon Pain Train.

Quoted for truth.

I wish you were wrong

Still rings true

Damn! You beat me too it. Ask any SJ fan- the Blues always play them really well... I'm not sure if that will translate to the playoffs, but St. Louis always brings their a-game to SJ games.

For example- with Mike Green. People would think his decent +/- would indicate he's a capable defensive player, yet he plays almost zero PK time and is second of all defensemen in give aways, with the 4th most give aways in the entire league. His time on ice is pretty deceptive too (I've dropped players in these stats that have played less than 25 games since there are a few 1 or 2 game players that skew the stats): --105th for 'defensemen' in short handed time on ice per game(2:27) , --28th for 'defensemen' in even strength time on ice per game (17:57), --2nd for 'defensemen' in powerplay time on ice per game (5:23), --6th for 'defensemen' in total time on ice per game (25:48), Separating his time on ice out into just Washington 'defensemen' yeilds even more surprising results: --6th in short handed time on ice per game! (ie. the last d-man on the roster that his coach would put out!) --1st in power play time on ice by an amazing margin- the next highest pp time/game d-man on his team is only out for 1:26 per game! Compare that to Green's 5:23 per game! That means he gets 376% more PP time than any other d-man on his team. --1st in total time on ice per game by 5 minutes. Just throwing that out there

Anyone watching the Flames vs. Canucks game? It's pretty good so far. Should be a really entertaining game since the winner will take the NW crown home.

I feel the same way I want Florida to make the playoffs this year. The young players on that team have worked so damn hard to make the playoffs, they're just coming up short towards the end. It's too bad, though, because they could be a good team in the future if they keep a certain free agent defenseman this summer and manage to continue cultivating and retaining talent. The NHL has nothing to gain from the Panthers failing to make the playoffs but has something to gain if they can make it.