Drake_Marcus

Most definitely. Or at least Holland and Babcock have given that impression.

Agreed. I completely disagree. Crosby trying to stick up for Malkin in that situation is no different than when Downey stuck for Lids after the Lapierre hit. Both hits were legal, but both were heavy, heavy hits on a star player. Someone's got to stick up for their star player when a big, possibly injurious hit goes down. It's a stupid move on Crosby's part only because he's walking into a situation where one star player is potentially hurt and he could've walked out with both of the Pens stars injured. The last thing the Pens need is Cindy to get hurt.

He's put together an impressive rookie season in the AHL. He seems to have it figured out right now, while Cory still hasn't put up the numbers he was expected to in the AHL. It'll be interesting to see how both these players do next season. Hopefully they both take that next step.

Yes sir- it was a sweet play and very Red Wings-like. That first goal on Osgood was his only bad one and I'm more than ok with Osgood letting in one bad goal a game if he's only going to let in one other goal. Two goals against? Very, very, very good. No one's going to walk into the playoffs with a sub-2-GAA. The high octane offense of this team can definitely bring us a cup if Ozzy only lets in two goals a game in the playoffs. Really nothing to complain about in this game. Zetterberg was clearly snakebitten, though- how many times did he set Cleary or Franzen up with an great scoring chance only to come up empty-handed?

I'll answer it! "Hello. No, I've been here the whole time. What do you mean you've been calling for 2 months!?!"

Friday: Tampa Bay @ New Jersey Toronto @ Philadelphia Buffalo @ Washington Atlanta @ Florida Calgary @ Minnesota Nashville @ Chicago (this was a really tough one to call) Saturday: NY Rangers @ Boston New Jersey @ Buffalo Montreal @ Toronto Philadelphia @ Ottawa Tampa Bay @ NY Islanders Pittsburgh @ Carolina (could they extend their home winning streak to 11?) Columbus @ Nashville St Louis @ Dallas Vancouver @ Edmonton Anaheim @ San Jose Phoenix @ Los Angeles Sunday: Minnesota @ Detroit Atlanta @ Washington (another tough call but Atlanta's played Washington well this season and is hot right now) Pittsburgh @ Florida (Pitts is still bad away from home and Florida needs this win desperately) Chicago @ Columbus San Jose @ Anaheim Colorado @ Vancouver

Hanging around the net making bad decisions? If you don't see him there look for the guy standing alone after trying to make the big hit instead of the safe defensive play.

If you can find them it's worth it if only to catch the look on his face and sound of his voice when he ends the interview. Zeee Wings are going to be skating their bags off at some point this weekend.

^ This. I know we all want to believe that Holland can have both Franzen and Hossa sign on the dotted line, and I'm sure he could work that out if he started trading and dumping players.... But a balanced, deep team where Datsuyk, Zetterberg, Hossa, Franzen, Lidstrom and Rafalski all reside is something we should only really bank for the remainder of this season... If Holland can pull that rabbit out of his hat then we're all really lucky fans, but let's not assume he will because more than likely you're setting yourself up for a rough summer.

"Take that damn visor off you Russian bastard!" "Nyet! I trust mine eyes to Dr. Rammani, not angry little man in plaid jacket!" Edit: Red Occctobbber

He didn't design or assemble them, but he did encourage and enable their ape-s*** crazy hard-ass play.

I actually made a very good argument for why I chose Yzerman as opposed to a guy like Gretzky or Lemieux. Believe me- I considered both of them. Yzerman had a greater long term impact on a single franchise than Gretzky had on any of his 4 teams. As far as the Yzerman level of skill vs Gretzky level of skill- they were both super high end players, yeah- Gretzky had an entire extra gear in his goal scoring engine, but Yzerman had a far, far greater positive impact on the franchise that drafted him- his legacy in that respect is still ongoing. No one is crazy enough to argue against choosing Gretzky based on skill! I just happen to hold more admiration for Yzerman. How couldn't I after watching Yzerman in the 2001-2002 season (especially in the Olympics and playoffs)? Edit: (Torry) Spelling

Caption: Kronwall- "Guys take a look at this... I think someone put shaving cream on my glove".

Time to throw a second offering into the ring: Player 1: Jordin Tootoo Player 2: Sack of train whistles Coach: The entire cast of HeeHaw

Bwahahaha classic. Bettman could be the perpetually disappointed owner that denies media in the locker room!

Hey now- threadcromancy is a perfectly cromulent word.

Terrien did just sign an extension with the Pens... and well, as they say: desperate times call for desperate measures.

Crosby and Malkin are 3rd and 1st overall in scoring, respectively. Obviously those two are getting it done (Cindy has a 12 game point streak too). But both players have been scoring all season. That's nothing surprising. That being said- Gonchar is certainly not a slouch right now. And is it really a coincidence that the Pens were floundering at the bottom of the standings while Gonchar was injured only to get red hot after his return (well it took a few games for him to get back into shape after being off the ice for months). The exact same argument can be made for the coaching change- and it's a great counter-argument to make. But I really think that Gonchar's veteran presence and credibility within that locker room was something the Pens were really missing. Just 'cause Gonchar is terrible defensively doesn't mean their defense wasn't dependent on him. Edit: the title was supposed to end with "resurrection" but obviously got cut-off.

Don't worry- his career just took a quantum leap forward

I can only assume you have what I should politely call a "learning disability". I graduated first overall with a major in physics and minor in math, so I think I'm qualified to explain why I can "seem to do [my] math". You see the "math" works like this: A) 5:37 (2nd Period): Green gets 1st assist. B) 10:55 (3rd Period): Green gets 1st goal. (total points: 2) C) 12:18 (3rd Period): Green gets 2nd goal. (total points: 3) When event B happened Mr. Green offically "scored his first goal of the game and nailed that 2 point night down". Please point to where I stated that he ended the night with only 2 points? Here's where the second hint pops up in that oh so difficult to understand sentence: "I had LGW opened to see how quickly Shoreline would pull the thread up from the depths." It appears that the first part of the sentence where I said "As soon as he scored his first goal of the game.." I was prefacing my choice to open LGW and look for your threadcromancy by explaining the moment in time when I decided you'd resurrect this thread. Now please don't waste my and the rest of our time by forcing me to giving you a basic lesson in read comprehension. God only knows how you managed to misconstrue your struggles with reading as being a math mistake on my part. Edit: fixed italics code.

Hahahaha. As soon as he scored his first goal of the game and nailed that 2 point night down I had LGW opened to see how quickly Shoreline would pull the thread up from the depths. I'm disappointed he waited until the game ended! Bye bye undead thread. See you again Friday night!

Player 1: Yzerman for obvious reasons... He can do it all- Selke winner and 155pt season scorer. Oh yeah, and he can be your franchise captain for two decades, play his way to a cup with a knee that's been cut in half and has so much damage it's excruciating to walk on and he'll mentor and mold your rookies into the same type of quiet, classy, self-sacrificing player he was. This man was a draft choice that ended up impacting the on-ice team the Wings field for 30 years. Yzerman's influence and example will continue to be felt by the Wings locker room until his contemporaries retire... that's not something many if any of the other men he played with (Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier) can claim to their credit. Think about it- Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom, Draper, Maltby, Holmstrom- all of those men were molded by Yzerman's example. That type of incredible ability to impact a team for 20 years then retire and still tangibly impact the next generation via his incredible example is just remarkable and possibly unprecedented. Player 2: Bobby Orr. I really wanted to pick Lidstrom but I'd love to be able to see Orr play for an entire career without having his knees handicap him and force him to retire in his prime. I love Lidstrom, but it's just be too cool to get to see Orr play for an entire career! EDIT: Coach that isn't Bowman? Hmmm... Toe Blake won 8 cups in 13 seasons... so I guess he must know what he's doing too

No problem

QFT. At least this guy will have a totally bad ass nickname- The Hitman.

? No there isn't. There's a difference between criticizing the team and what a few posters do here. The overwhelming majority of people who post non-sycophantic comments do so at a level that can only be described as "criticism". Characterizing people who post any sort of doubt as 'flipping out' or 'bandwagon fans' is an inane trend on these forums that apparently won't die. Edit: Punctuation.