Drake_Marcus

Still leaving a few players out: Ericsson was skating hard all night and carried the puck up the ice at every opportunity. His effort level was definitely at or above where it should have been. Holmstrom was doing his thing just as well as anyone's asked him to. He looked fine in front of the net and his screen almost led to a goal if not for a lucky bounce for MacDonald. ... ummm.... Kronwall looked ok on the power play... lazy at other points, but considering how lack-luster the defense was tonight I guess that's enough for a pass. There were probably a few other players... it's hard to remember all of tonight's hard workers in that sea of mediocrity. So I guess my main point was that Ericsson looked real good out there in addition to Datsyuk, Filppula and Osgood (mostly).

Really? Filppula's shooting instinct is s*** (for a top six player that is) and his shot itself is very average... while Zetterberg has great shooting instincts and a great shot. Datsyuk has the more leathal wrister, sure- I can agree with you about the comparison to Hudler there, but what else? I really see Filppula as a poor man's Datsyuk without the scoring instinct and Hudler as the poor man's Zetterberg without the 'size' (whatever size you could say Z has ).

While he doesn't possess the scoring upside of a player like Pavel, he can certainly hold onto a puck and set-up plays when he's on his game. However, the strike against Val hasn't changed and he'll have to shake it if he plans on being a star in this league: consistency. Once Filppula learns to consistently play like he has over the last few games he'll be worth every penny he's paid. The problem has never been one of a lack of talent, skill or even dedication. Filppula just needs to learn how to play at his maximum intensity and effort each night and start turning his hot streaks into, at the very least, consistently luke-warm play. That's the knock against almost all young players- Hudler needs to master it too, but it's roughest for Filppula. Even during the playoffs last year there were stretches where he was one of the worst players on the ice (the entire Nashville series and most of Colorado) and there were stretches where he was one of the best (he was amazing against Pittsburgh, which of course is good since that series mattered the most!). Once Filppula's got the streakiness thing figured out he should write the solution down and hand it to Zetterberg.

No it's not. This thread already has a list of people who scored like Green without winning the Norris. The Norris isn't the "highest scoring defenseman" award. It's for the "best defensemen". I can't see how more of the same from Green changes his very well known weaknesses. Gordie,Sid&Ted's post was right on the mark. I really can't see how Green adding two more assists tonight suddenly makes "he scores points!" a more relevant counterpoint to "he's a terrible defensive player". As far as publicity matters to the Norris- well Lidstrom would've already lost to Dion if s***-tons of publicity had an effect on the Norris. Green's defensive failings are just as widely publicized as his ability to score goals. If Green wins it this year then the Norris has been tarnished. Green's an amazing offensive player. His ability to score is a game-changer. But his pathetic defensive play is, well... offensive.

The Wings have one more loss than the Sharks.

What a joke of a game tonight. I'm almost glad to see the PP faultering if only to get Babcock to realize that Sammy is not a good person to have on the point when Ericsson's 100mph slapshot is sitting on the bench- I don't effing care what hand he shoots from. Samuelsson was singlehandedly responsible for that SH goal- and that's because we got caught with a forward trying to play defense (not that I can blame him for not being a defenseman). Normally that risk is mitigated by the whole PP thing, but Sammy is horrible at holding the damn line too (is anyone else of seeing the puck constantly get past him on the blueline?). For the love of everything holy- put Ericsson and Kronwall out as the 2nd PP D-pairing. Oh, and Babcock: GIVE UP ON THE KRONWALL-STUART PAIRING! It hasn't worked for one freaking game this year. Not one. I know you want to see the pairings from last year's playoffs suddenly form up again, but Kronwall and Stuart haven't played well together all year. And the Lidstrom-Rafalski pairing hasn't looked much better defensively. Rafalski is 10 times better defensively when he can't count on Lidstrom to clean his messes up for him. The Wings don't need Rafalski to get them more goals. The Wings need Rafalski to prevent more goals. The best games I've seen Kronwall play this year were when he was paired up with Lidstrom and when he was paired with Ericsson. The worst? When he's paired with Stuart. Rafalski, on the other hand, has played pretty well paired with Stuart and would probably play well paired with Ericsson. I know people will want to blame tonight on Ozzy, but he let 2 goals in on 30 shots... that's a pretty decent save percentage and a respectable goals against. That first goal was pretty brutal, but I blame Babcock for having a forward on the point more as much as I blame Ozzy. The second goal was actually a rough play by Lidstrom- I have no idea why he let his man have his stick free for that chance. Still- 2 goals against? Not bad. 0 goals scored? Bad.

Did you read what Doggy said? They ranked these players the exact same way. Furthermore- this is a fantasy hockey article. Green is going to get you more points in your fantasy pool then the legitimate Norris candidates. To top that all off- TSN has had Green ranked there for the last 3 ******* months. What's the point of reminding us of some old information in an old, dried up thread? Nothing has changed about Mike Green.

According to one of the flames fans on that forum this is the photo of the guy (I'm not sure if he has a valid source for it, but it's funny none-the-less): The site won't let me direct link to it Ummm an insane crank-calling Asian dude with a mullet? I'm not sure this story can get any more awesome. :rotflmao:

Fact: Mason's so bad ass he doesn't need a spleen. (Actually I think he was playing with undiagnosed mono for the majority of that 5(?) week period)

I agree with you here, but I'm just saying that Mason's played his team into a very solid playoff spot the likely won't split. The jury is still out on whether those other guys will be playing in mid April. If the Wild manage to make the playoffs then Backstrom deserves serious consideration for the Vez and for even the Hart.

Smart guy. Switch Cleary and Kopecky and we're thinking alike Now what are your Defensive pairings?

Ugggg these defensive pairings are brutal: Lidstrom-Rafalski Kronwall-Stuart (a common pairing to see on the ice when a goal is scored on the Wings) Ericsson-Lebda (Lebda is roaming while Big Rig provides the D? I'd rather let Ericsson roam and Lebda paint Easter eggs) Meech-Chelios Here's how I'd do it in the playoffs: Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom Hudler-Franzen-Hossa <-- Hudler will perform better here than on the third, and Filppula will likely play better on the 3rd Samuelsson-Filppula-Kopecky <-- Filppula makes the 3rd line much more dangerous, Helm isn't good enough offensively Helm-Draper-Cleary <-- Can you say speed, grit and energy? Oh and they're great defensively. Leino (depressing that he'd be a scratch but Babs loves Helm too much to put Leino in first ) Lidstrom-Kronwall <--These two have played great together this year Rafalski-Ericsson <--Rafalski plays better 5-on-5 when he's not dicking around and counting on Lidstrom to save his ass Lilja-Stuart <--Fact: Ericsson's played better than Stuart this year. Lilja's been awesome this year Lebda-Chelios <--Speedy but useless- meet useful but slow Osgood Conklin These lines are more representative of how the individual players played this year, while the current lines are clearly Babcock's attempt to try and force last year's team into reemerging.

Great thread Doggy. I look forward to your updates.

Friday: Tampa Bay @ Washington Toronto @ Buffalo (this is actually a really tough game to call... I'm picking Buf because they have to win this game) NY Islanders @ Detroit (amazingly- the Islanders only have 8 wins on the road! Wow.) New Jersey @ Chicago Vancouver @ Colorado Edmonton @ Anaheim (another tough call- I'll go with the f***s 'cause the Oil played Thursday) Saturday: NY Rangers @ Pittsburgh (I dunno why, but I'm feeling like the Rangers might surprise Pitts) Los Angeles @ Nashville Boston @ Toronto (could be a bad pick by me, but TO is coming off a back to back and plays terrible at home) Buffalo @ Montreal Carolina @ New Jersey Philadelphia @ NY Islanders Ottawa @ Atlanta Florida @ Dallas (tough call- both teams have only 3 wins over the last ten) Columbus @ St Louis (tough call...St Louis has been great at home recently and Columbus is rotten on the road) Minnesota @ Calgary Phoenix @ San Jose (Phoenix are spoilers against the Sharts, but I can't bet against the Sharts at home) Sunday: Nashville @ Detroit (Revenge is a dish best served cold) St Louis @ Columbus Ottawa @ Tampa Bay Boston @ Philadelphia Vancouver @ Chicago Minnesota @ Edmonton Colorado @ Anaheim

Of course!

I disagree strongly there. Malkin and Crosby are better offensive players than Datsyuk and Zetterberg. Superior implies they're leaps and bounds over the heads of Dats and Z. You can make the case for that in Zetterberg's case, but certainly not in Datsyuk's case. If you apply the increased ice time Crosby and Malkin get to Datsyuk he's scoring nearly the same points. Earlier in the season someone did the calculations and it put Datsyuk over Malkin if they had equal time on ice and power play time. My point is that they certainly aren't "superior" to Datsyuk. They're putting up better offensive numbers than Dats, for sure, but they're not outclassing him or anything. They're certainly outclassing Zetterberg this season, however. I full expect Z to rebound next season. Lots of players have off years after a cup victory (although the finals losers often have rough years too). EDIT: Also I disagree on the "all they need to focus on" part. At the start of this year both Malkin and Crosby were pushed to improve their defensive game and used on the PK. Obviously that plan fell to the wayside to some extent, but they were asked to be more responsible.

Quoted for truth. Mason is by far the most important player on the Jackets. No one's saying Rinne isn't impressive! But he happens to be playing great for a team that's sitting about the same placer they were last year. Mason's carried his team on his back half way up the standings.

Woh. I strongly disagree with you here, but this post certainly isn't a flame. You give everyone other than Steve Mason bonus points for their great numbers when they're on a strong defensive team, but throw that out the door for Mason? How can you reconcile the rankings you gave Backstrom and Thomas relative to Mason then? I read your post, but I still can't fathom why you put Thomas and Backstrom ahead of Mason when they're equally gifted with strong defensive schemes in front of them. You strongly reward great goaltenders on horrible teams, but don't give that same credit to Mason? Mason is the only reason why the Jackets are 6th in the West. Why do you give Backstrom's performance so much credit when his team, a better team on paper, is out of the playoffs? Lastly, I think your rankings fail to account for consistency. Miller's performance this season was not worth a placement in the top ten for the first half of the season, same goes for Fleury- he was retched for the first 2/3rds of the season. Look at the teams these goalies are playing for. Rinne's team is exactly where we'd expect it to be in the standings based on their performance over the last few seasons. Hiller's team? Same deal except they're even worse off then we'd expect. Plus he's playing behind 2 Norris winners. Really, only S. Mason, Vokoun and possibly Luongo are on teams that have played far above expectations.

Agreed- I think ARice must have meant that D and Z are the two best all-around centres in the NHL.

Franzen isn't even close to being the most underrated player in the NHL. All of the following players are more underrated than Franzen: -> Duncan Keith -> Alexander Semin -> Jeff Carter -> Mike Richards -> Marc Savard -> Shea Webber I assure you- after last year no one can say that Franzen is flying under anyone's radar.

Is it just me or does anyone else think there are human body parts in that garbage bag?!?

Hell, I wouldn't even be polite about it. I'd also remind him who that ******* union works for.

If anyone can replace Lidstrom's effect on this team it's someone of Luongo's calibre. He can't have the C, though, that's reserved for persons with a 12 year contract.

The Wings would be screwed if they lost Hudler in this situation. No one will give them fair value because they know we're up against a wall. I'm not happy with the thought that the Wings would have 4 forwards being paid at least $4 million, three of which would be making over $6 million. Not the situation you want to be in if you're hoping to maintain even a modest level of depth.

Et tu Hossa? *Dear baby Jesus, Please don't let both Hossa AND Franzen sign this season. Please make sure the Wings maintain a defense-first policy. Also, please make sure the Wings keep Hudler and Leino, even if it's at the expense of Filppula. Thanks! Marcus*