Anomalously

Didn't Lidstrom win his first Norris Trophy at 30 or 31 and continue dominating the NHL long into his 30s? I think that Buccigross points to Orr and Gretzky at 22 as if these are the primes of normal NHLers when most players are just rookies at 22 really speaks to the fact that he's uninformed here.

He scored more than half of those goals on the powerplay. You play on a powerplay with Sid or Malkin - you'll put a few in, too. That's essentially what he is, a guy with a shot but no other attributes. He got put on waivers by the Lightning, eventually traded and sent down to the AHL the second he was with the Canucks for a reason. He doesn't bring much to the table except a few goals. It goes against the Wings' philosophy to go get goals for goals' sake.

To the people mentioning that Osgood wasn't on the list: the author limited it to one player per team. Ovechkin and Getzlaf didn't make the list either, because the author picked their 'tenders as the game changers for those teams. Both were absolute beasts in the postseason.

Tim Thomas in net is the glaring piece that's missing here. Beyond that, I think Langenbrunner's in the lineup and some young guys like Pavelski, Backes, and Ryan get long looks. And no Raf on the back end seems odd, why is he scratched over some of these really young and unproven guys?

Theo, Opie, bewarethepenguin, etc. -- you're all bordering on breaking the forum's rules, be it for trolling, baiting, ad hominem attacks, or derailing threads. The thread is about Hossa's return, not about Frost or Nazis.

Ah, ok. There was no word or phrase in there as to say, "as opposed to," "versus," "in contrast," etc., or even numbers to suggest one thing was different to the other, until you mentioned Pavel and his numbers, hence why I thought Thornton was a puzzling example.

Great example.

162 games played. 50 goals. 113 assists. 163 points. In the playoffs. Four consecutive 20-point performances. In the playoffs. And 3 Cups with the Wings. Some have thrown around Shanahan -- Shanny? 72 playoff points (44% of Fedorov's total in 65% of the games). Fedorov's points-per-game in the playoffs eclipsed Yzerman's -- and is almost identical to Howe's. Further, only 18 players have more playoff points than Fedorov if you only count his resume as a Wing. Of them, only Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, Bryan Trottier, Jean Beliveau, and Mario Lemieux have more with just one team. And four of those guys are associated with the Edmonton Oilers dynasty of the 80s. No, Fedorov isn't a lock. But he should be (and yes, it feels like I've made this argument before...)

He takes almost as many faceoffs as Z and Pav and wins more than 60% of them. It's not make-or-break, but I'm glad he's only out two games. He steps it up in April, May, and June.

Nash more instrumental than Mason? The team is 8-11-3 (.886 ppg) without him, 32-18-6 (1.25 ppg) with him. A third of the guy's wins have been in shutouts. Hey, a point-per-game is a point-per game, Nash is a great player... but they're a different team with Mason between the pipes. They were going to play for a top-5 pick until this guy took the top job. (Nitpicky to just throw one name out there, yes, but I'm just saying that there's plenty of possibility for disagreement is all.) If I get time, I'll try to compile a list, but there's only a couple I see as set in stone: Getzlaf in Anaheim, Bouwmeester in Florida, Backstrom in Minnesota, Streit on the Island, Malkin in Pittsburgh, Ovechkin in Washington...

I think if I were Nash and saw Oshie, I'd have lowered my center of gravity significantly and gave it to Oshie. I think he was late enough that Nash could have defended himself (but may not have expected to get it like he did).

18 years since the Wings have drafted an NHL-caliber goaltender? Coincidentally 18 years in a row they've made the playoffs. Some curse that must be.

What aging player would want to go to Tampa Bay? First Andreychuk, now Roberts? Especially Andreychuk, since he was their captain. If I were a free agent, I'd go there last.

No. TPBM loves gravy on their fries.

How is developing guys in your system in games that don't matter much a man crush? I will never understand that line of thinking...

nada surf?! that inspired me to listen to this song (nada surf, blizzard of '77)

Army Navy: My Thin Sides.

$13.5 million. Chump change.

Why did Datsyuk take $6.7 million per year? Is it because he's a jerk, too?

Feel free to join the regulars in the LGW Chat. There's been between 5 and 10 of us the last few games!

Nope, I usually take the bus where I go during rush hour. Austin traffic is fun, isn't it? tpbm still has a film camera (as opposed to a digital one).

Yep. tpbm works on weekends.

Well, let me know when your distribution goes from its alpha stage to its beta stage, which hopefully provides for fellow Texas LGWers. I'd give it a shot.

"No goal" calls against Detroit aren't the issue. He says the call last night was a marginal one. It was a call that could have gone either way. I think the real issue is with officiating in general. If you want to cite both calls as reasons why consistency needs to be improved, I see your point. But this "The ref made a bad call against Detroit last week, so this call was fine!" argument doesn't really follow.