Drake_Marcus

Rask would be my choice as well. The only thing that worries me about him is how rare it is for a goalie to look bad in Boston since the year after the lockout. Maybe it's really good coaching, maybe it's a great d-core, it could even be excellent scouting/management or maybe it's plain old luck. I have a hard time believing luck would explain such consistent numbers, though.

^This. Marc-Andre Fleury is wildly inconsistent. You might as well flip a coin at the start of the season to decide whether to play him or wait it out for his bounce-back year. And as far as his status as a #1 pick goes... well look at this draft class: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_NHL_Entry_Draft No one in the Pittsburgh organization should be proud of that first overall choice.

Who needs a young, legit two-way centre on an affordable contract anyway? Top six players who can kill penalties, skate and make plays are a dime-a-dozen.

That'd be a fantastic argument if I hadn't included both sets of stats. For the record-- it's retarded to think Hudler will finish the season at a point per game pace. Only Eva would argue that. If Hudler does score 29pts over the remaining games it'd be fantasic for the Red Wings but Eva won't be able to point to statisical evidence for making that prediction.

Yet we're told time and time again that being a repeat offender warrents extra time added to the suspension. Cooke's not only a repeat offender he's had two highly discussed dirty hits in the last frigging week. The hockey world is buzzing about this douchebag and Campbell had a chance to lay down the law without worrying about offending a soul. s***, I doubt his own teammates would argue much.

Wow... looks like the suspension (if any) will be no more than 5 games: Both hearings will be held over the phone, meaning any suspension would amount to five games or less.

I triple checked the numbers before posting that long discussion earlier. Looks like I should have quadruple checked. I'm not arguing that at all. Hudler's had a garbage season from s***town. I just don't buy that he hasn't turned a corner since Datsyuk went down. He looks like a completely different player compared to October and November. Filppula's been consistently productive all year. To be honest I was most excited that Val's been consistent this year. If he can consistently play at this level he'll continue to put points up and refine his game.

This is a chance for the NHL to set an example without worrying about having to do something bold like punish a star player. Can't wait to see how Campbell screws it up. Cherry won't stand for punks messing with his Bruins.

All things considered we should consider ourselves lucky it's just a sprain. Get well soon Val!

Still wouldn't be the worst move an Islander GM's ever made. Snow's been the GM since the summer of 06. This is his 5th season as the GM of the Islanders. How many seasons would it take for him to earn himself a share of the responsiblity for the retard rodeo on long island?

I'd kill to have a Brendan Morrow type on this team. He's a heart and soul guy who can provide clutch scoring in the playoffs. Be realistic. We'd have to include Meech.

That's horses***. Not only did I go out of my way to explain the justification for taking certain periods of play into account but I also used broad timelines like 'the past 18 games' and 'every frigging game since Datsyuk was injured'. I didn't drop games in between two dates or even stop counting recent games where he went cold (as you did with Val's last 3 games). If anyone's cherry picking it's the guy who truncates the stats at the end of the data set because that's when his favourite player went cold.

That's simply not true. I went through his game-by-game stats for my last post.

Don't forget Igor Grigorenko. He went from World Junior scoring champ to fighting for his life to learning how to skate again all the way to bust.

This confuses me a bit. I just checked the game by game stats for both Hudler and Filppula. Starting with the December 23rd game against St. Louis (the game right after Datsyuk was injured against Vancouver), their stats looked like this: Hudler: 20gp 4G 10A 14pts (0.70 pts/g) Filppula: 20gp 4G 9A 13pts (0.65 pts/g) If you move up to the Colorado game on the 27th of December when Hudler really broke out: Hudler: 18gp 4G 10A 14pts (0.78 pts/g) Filppula: 18gp 4G 8A 12pts (0.67pts/g) So Hudler's scored about 18% more pts than Filppula over that time. Regarding your point per game pace for Filppula the best streak I could find was his 13pts in 13 games between Dec 26th and Feb 2nd. In the three games since then he hasn't scored a point. Given that his point per game streak was broken at this point I don't see how you'd extrapolate his performance over the final 29 games of the season as being at a point per game. Over the whole season they break down like this: Hudler: 48gp 5G 15A 20pts (0.42pts/g --pro-rates to 34pts in 82 games) Filppula: 50gp 12G 19A 31pts (0.62pts/g --pro-rates to 51pts in 82 games) In their last NHL seasons they had the respective totals below: Hudler: 82gp 23G 34A 57pts (0.70pts/g) Filppula: 55gp 11G 24A 35pts (0.64pts/g) Basically we can say that over this entire season Filppula's performed at the level we expect of him based on his past NHL performances. On the other hand it's clear that Hudler's performed very poorly over the whole 48 games compared to his past NHL performances (0.42pts/g this season vs. 0.70pts/g his last season) BUT over the last 18 games of this season Hudler's performance has been right on target with his performance in the past (0.78pts/g over the last 18 games vs 0.70pts/g in the 08/09 season). So we can draw one of two broader conclusions about this 18 game span for Hudler: 1.) His performance over the first 30 games of the season was very poor due to his poor transition from the KHL to the NHL in terms of conditioning and the way the NHL game is played (pace, rink size, etc). This was compounded further by the impact his scoring drought had on his confidence. It took him far too long to readjust to the NHL but now that he has (taking the game against Colorado as the turning point), his play is back up to level one expects based on his previous NHL seasons. This conclusion is supported by the point per game averages for each time period as well as qualitative observation. 2.) At some point between the 2009 SCF and the start of this season, while Hudler was in the KHL his skills declined to the point that we should expect him to be a 0.42pt/g player from here on out. The last 18 games are just an extended fluke and the statistical similarity between that stretch and his play over the full 08/09 season is a coincidence. Hudler turned 27 in January so it's hard to believe the 2nd conclusion is realistic. Moreover, he's always relied on his skills to overcome his lack of size and comparitive lack of strength, so a decline in his potential peak physical coniditon between ages 26 and 27 wouldn't explain the dip in his performance over the first 30 games of this season. If Hudler left for the KHL at age 33 and came back at 34 I could see how the 2nd conclusion would be reasonable. Hudler's entering his peak NHL age now so it seems unlikely that a year in the KHL would permenantly diminish his skills. The facts remain that since Datsyuk was injured, both Filppula and Hudler stepped their games up significantly. Filppula's performance this season is in line with where we expected his development curve would be while Hudler's 48 game performance has been a significant disappointment. Over the last 18 games Hudler's brought his game back in line with expectations and his previous level of NHL Play. Whether those 18 games represent a turning point or a fluke is really up to you. Realistically I think Hudler should finish the season at a 0.70pt/g pace. That would give him 40pts on the season. If he continued at the pace he's had over the last 18 games he'd finish with 43pts. Either way it'd be a huge coup if he managed to match his 57pt total from 08/09.

Interesting. I've taken the liberty of examining the D's stats to verify this give-away problem. http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats.htm?fetchKey=20112DETDADAll&sort=giveaways&viewName=rtssPlayerStats Rafalski: 44 GvA & 5 TkA in 41 Gp (more than 1 turn-over per game) Kronwall: 34 GvA & 15 TkA in 53 Gp (less than 1 GvA every 2 games) Stuart: 31 GvA & 5 TkA in 41 Gp (about 3 GvA every 4 games) Salei: 26 GvA & 13 TkA in 52 Gp (1 GvA every 2 games) Ericsson: 25 GvA & 8 TkA in 45 Gp (about 1 GvA every 2 games) Lidstrom: 20 GvA & 25 TkA in 53 Gp (about 2 GvA every 5 games) Even if we adjust for the fact that E plays about 2 mins less per game than the guys above him the GvA stats aren't damning. What about hitting? http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats.htm?fetchKey=20112DETDADAll&sort=hits&viewName=rtssPlayerStats If you divide the number of hits by the number of games played they look like this: Stuart: 2.32 Hits/Game Salei: 1.48 Hits/Game Ericsson: 1.47 Hits/Game Kronwall: 1.42 Hits/Game Rafalski: 0.98 Hits/Game Kindl: 0.72 Hits/Game Lidstrom: 0.55 Hits/Game So Ericsson's virtually tied with Salei for 2nd in hitting amoung the defense. He's 2nd on the defense in +/- with 8. Ericsson's Time on Ice: Even Strength: 16:50 Min/G (tied with Stuart for 2nd amoung the D) Short Handed: 1:05 Min/G (5th amoung the D) Power Play: 0:10 Min/G (6th amoung the D) He's 4th on the defense in pts with 14 in 45 games and is on pace for 5G 18A 23Pts in 74 games (assuming he plays all of the remaining games this season). Over a full 82 game season he'd pro-rate to 26pts which is respectable for a 3rd pairing defenseman who gets 10 seconds of PP time a night. The most interesting thing I see in those stats is that Kindl is averaging 0:54 of PP time per game but has 0 pp points this season and only 1pt (a goal) in his 25 games this season. In only 0:10 of PP time a game, E's at least got a pp goal to show for it. Agreed. I think he'll get bolder when it comes to hitting guys along the boards as he gets more comfortable out there. As time's passed he's gotten more physical around the net and on the boards (in terms of pinning guys) so hopefully he'll develop that part of his game too.

That's a pretty knee-jerk reaction, don't you think? Ericsson's having an excellent sophmore season. He's been great on the boards and around the net and hasn't been making nearly as many bad pinches (aside from that one last night). All you can ask is for young players to get better each year and E's definitely having a much better season this year then last.

It's a bit odd that he hasn't yet. How much longer will the players tolerate this ******* taking liberties with the league's stars? I guess Pronger's gotten away with it forever so maybe nothing will happen to Cooke. Kane went Tyson on his ass. Knocked him ooouuutttt.

Wow... terribad choices in my honest opinion. Smith's a waiver goalie at this point and Meszaros for Stuart is a lateral move made at an extremely high cost (prospect + high pick). Stuart has established chemistry with the team and we know he 'works' for the Wings. The entire league's had multiple shots at Meech via waivers. What's changed since then other than his getting older?

I hope they can stay together and be productive. That would allow Franzen and Bertuzzi to stay on Zetterberg's line and as we saw in the playoffs and in Ottawa we know that line can dominate. We'll have to watch this Datsyuk line and the Zetterberg/Bert/Franzen line play together long term to really know if they're good combos or just flashes in the pan. But damn... if the top two lines are Hudler/Datsyuk/Cleary and Franzen/Zetterberg/Bertuzzi that leaves a mix of Filppula, Modano, Homer and Eaves to play the 3rd (assuming Homer can play the third, otherwise he'd move down to the 4th and play limited 5-on-5 time but extensive PP time). A 3rd line with Val, Modano and Eaves on it makes the team very balanced and formidable. Filppula's shown he can punish other third lines with his puck skills.

The Detroit News just posted an article with quotes from Holmer, Dats and Osgood regarding their status. Datsyuk: Holmstrom: Osgood:

I know, right? But Jarnkrok is skinny enough to make two guys look undersized. Part of that is who he's skating with in those clips. Fast guys in other leagues often look average in the NHL. The other issue is with a player's first few strides. If they can't get up to speed quick enough it's a big problem, even if they're fast once they get up to speed.

Oh. I must have confused his draft size with Jarnkrok. Yeah, I looked his scouting profile up and you're right on his size. Like you said-- he needs to improve his foot speed to get it at the NHL level and he also appears to need work on this 2-way game.

Not really. Players in his situation almost always have an out clause included in the contract allowing them to go to NA if directed to by their NHL team. The SEL and FEL have been very generous when it comes to allowing movement of NHL drafed players (at least when you compare them to the KHL). In reality Pulkkinen needs to work hard this summer putting muscle on. He's not physically ready to play in the AHL at this point. If he comes to the Summer prospects camp in great physical condition the Wings just might give him a shot in the AHL like they did with Tatar.