unkempt

Political animosities aren't everything and there are other things that play a role too. BTW as far as I know the Finnish have a quite a history with the Russians too, dont they? According to the cited article, Hudler has been promised to center their first line. This, imho, was much more important for him, although there are other factors: money, distance to Czech Republic, larger rink favors skilled players, ...

Nooooo!!!

Seems to me that the only thing we can agree on this thread is that CAP SUCKS.

You're right on every count. "Å™" is among the rarest sounds in all languages, I once read in the Guiness Book of Records that it exists only in Czech and in some Chinese dialect. And it can be likened to "rzh" merged and pronounced as one sound. Foreign speakers of Czech have a hell of a time trying to learn it

QFT!

The way the game was reffed I am surprised the \Ducks didnt play a 5:3 power play the last two minutes But, hell yessssssssssssssssss!!!!! I will try to sleep now, but I doubt I will ...

nicely done :-)

I have a feeling that Lidstrom is just picking up speed ... milestone or no milestone, all should beware of Nick!!!

too early - the playoffs are still two months away :-D

It is an argument keeps reappearing across discussions - if you gave Hudler more icetime, his performance would decline. I will throw you a gauntlet - do you know of any actual case, throughout the NHL, where a player was given more ice time and his performance suffered as a result (all other parameter ideally remaining the same - linemates, proportion of ES / PP etc.)? And as a side note, I offer another explanation for Hudler's limited ice-time: Is it too far-fetched to suspect that Babcock is limiting Huds ice-time to prevent him from getting more points and thus eliminating all possible chances of resigning him? I mean, given three more minutes (+20%), is it unreasonable to believe that Hudler's point total could climb into high seventies? How could you offer 2.5mil to a player with 78 points for the season? edit: grammar, grrr.

Osgood's sv% and GAA might be 2 reasons. Not showing much signs of improvement, another.

Yeah, and Tim Thomas was also an underrated goalie that nobody wanted, once.

Let's not be too rash here. Let him catch up with Filppula first.

one word: smokescreen Anderson for Filppula anyone?

Hey Frozen man, I am not bothered in the least :-) Feel free to dig deep into the deficiencies of my yeoman education :-) I share your feelings, language has a fascinating life of its own

on second reading, ehm, you're most probably right ... ............ and I dont care if it is a conspiracy or not. If it helps Hudler stay in Detroit, it is fine by me :-)

uh, uh, cold start, maybe? I actually meant a statistically significant decline ... two games mean nothing season wise, because such two game lows may be caused by any number of reasons ... big party, angry girlfriend, minor flu, whatever ...

Mastodonts were prehistoric elephants ... he probably meant something big and wanted to be innovative

Have a look at the link that you posted - there are three dots in the middle which means that something in the middle got skipped : http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4204377 edit: clarification

Here is a crazy explanation: maybe Zets is not playing up to par exactly because it is his contract year and he can sign for less and thus remain a part of the best NHL organization without too much of a hometown discount :-)

I got it, badass! :-)

And if Emery doesnt pan out, then what? You are left with three malfunctioning goalies, two with low-confidence issue, one with "high-confidence" issue.... We need to bring up one of our eager young AHL goalies and send Ozzy down on a conditioning stint.

Well, I agree with both parts. And I think that - with his current SV% and GAA, Ozzie would not even be picked in the waivers. DO IT!!! That might really spite him and get him back into it!

Wings win 5 to 2. Hudler with a hattrick :-) There is a first for everything!

With our current cap room we cannot afford a proven top flight goalie anyway. Unless we trade some of our current stars. Which is not going to happen. Although if Holland could get a top 10 goalie for Rafalski, it would be a good deal. (I dont know if he has an NTC or not)