Echolalia

Is that a vote for Lidstrom

Don't worry, we're currently working on a more accurate top 20 right now a few threads over. Feel free to contribute to our research. At the moment our team is investigating who the second best player in the league is.

Okay voting is done for the top player and the results are as follows: Ovechkin came in the top spot with 12 votes (35%). Lidstrom came in second with 7 votes (20%), Dats in 3rd with 6 votes (18%), Crosby in 4th with 5 votes (15%) and Broduer, Zetterberg, Downey and Getzlaf trailed in last with 1 vote each (3%) That's a total of 34 votes. For the top 30 votes, Ovechkin, Datsyuk, Lidstrom, and Crosby all received one less vote. note: percentages all rounded up. 1) Ovechkin Now to begin voting on the second part: Besides Ovechkin, who do you feel is the best player in the nhl? You have about 24 hours to cast your vote. Any votes for Ovechkin will be thrown away. Also, can people bold their answers from now on to make counting votes easier? There were a couple instances in the first round that a comment seemed pretty ambiguous. Finally, I'm wondering whether the mods would be willing to edit the subtitle of the thread to accommodate what round we're currently in (currently voting on 2nd) to keep people from voting on rounds that have already ended. If this is too much trouble don't worry about it. And I'll start things off with voting for Datsyuk

How long can you talk about sports for before you say the word "obviously"?

Is this a vote?

How much of a benefit does Scotty reeeaaaally bring to the table?

is this a vote for Datsyuk? edit: I've decided I'm going to close voting for 1st place later this evening. I'm still waiting to hit at least 30 votes, but more is better. I'm going to take two sets of data: 1 for the 1st 30 votes in each place (to keep data consistent), and an overall tally. If you haven't voted please do so. I'm looking at you titanium2, Bannedforlife, and STICK. Each of you are currently "reading" this thread and have yet to vote

C'mon, that doesn't count as a vote. You're coach of the Russians in the Olympics, its a tie game against some other team for the gold and its overtime. Who do you want on the ice the most? Fair enough. Your vote stays where it is.

So are you changing your vote from Ovie to Dats?

Sure am. The person below me will vote for in the top 20 thread in GD

I've actually been entertaining this idea in my head. There are some issues with this, though, like what happens if there is a flurry of votes while I am off line and we end up with 45 votes instead of 30 for one round, or what happens if we can't make the quota each round. I've been thinking about it though. Right now I have 26 votes if my math is correct. I'm thinking of closing down the polls for the top spot around 4pm, but we'll see. So get crackin with the votes

Not to mention the fact that the Wings have only had Winter Classic jerseys for one year.

I don't mind the chatter, debating is always fun, but I'm thinking that I will implement a put-your-decision-in-bold rule for the subsequent rounds to make it easier to tally everything up. I'm thinking I will close voting on this round later today, depending on how the voting progresses. I want a decent sample size for each round, so I don't want to close rounds off prematurely, but at the same time I don't want to drag a round on forever to get an extra couple votes, because this could turn into a 10 year commitment. GET THOSE VOTES IN! We're still looking for who you think is the top player!

Of course it will be biased. Sports is all about bias. Read the disclaimer. And I intend for this to take a while. Last time I checked we still have about a month to go before any actual hockey is being played. So no issues there I hope. Besides, I think (ideally) I will be updating the list once a day, give or take a day or so here and there, provided people keep voting. My biggest worry is when we get down to the 17th and 18th spots, people just won't care to vote anymore. But still, its something to pass the time. Also, there's nothing wrong for voting for a player repeatedly until he gets picked. By design that is expected to happen. Remember, most people will have to change their picks, because the majority vote is what is accepted. That means the majority of who voted last time have to pick a new person, so I expect things to stay relatively fresh. edit: I'm going to throw my vote in for Dats.

I still hate basketball.

I can't stand basketball

Whats the deal with Washburn

Yeah, the guy wearing the $60,000,000 suit is holding the elevator for the guy who doesn't make that in four months. COME ON!

Actually when mm is lowercase its millimeters. Uppercase "MM" has been known to represent million, although its technically inaccurate. Its based off Greek, where M is 1000, and MM is supposed to be 1000 1000, or a million. This is incorrect, though, because when two numbers are placed next to each other in Greek, they are added, not multiplied, so MM is actually 2000, but people still understand it to be million, regardless. I don't know if 1.75M is technically "multi" million, either, because you're talking about less than 2 million. But if you want to include non-integers less than 2 that's fine. But I just bustin' your chops ESAD, everyone knows what you mean.

Actually I heard something similar from a peewee coach. Apparently this guy held practices at a place that some of the Blackhawks frequently go to to practice (I assume its kind of like the Troy Sports Center of Chicago), and sometimes he tries to set up a couple minutes between practices where the kids can skate with the players. From what he says, everyone is always eager to spend time with the kids except Kane, who is pretty impatient with the whole thing. I don't know if its true or not, but after hearing about this taxi thing and then your experience, Zion, I'm pretty convinced that its accurate.

Mew-Hawaii and for any mew fans out there: get the new cd its unbelievable.

I'll be happy to admit the Hawks are better if you can come up with some actual facts to back that statement up. Maybe a comparison of how many Cups each franchise won? Not fair? How about how many Cups each franchise won in the past 10 years? Still not fair? Okay lets try Presidents' trophies for the past 10 years. Still not fair?? Okay, how about just division championships for the past 10 years. You still don't like it, you say? Okay, how about who won the best of 7 matchup in the playoffs last year? Still not good? Okay lets forget about the Hawks are better than the Wings argument. We'll call that one a draw. How about some evidence that Huet is better than Ozzy? Cup rings? Oh yeah, you don't want to go there. Playoff appearances? No, still too unfair... Career numbers? Not accurate? Okay, how about just playoff numbers. Still not good, huh. Time as number 1 goalie? You don't want to go there, either? Okay, we'll call this one a draw, too. The Wings have a long history of winning games and series and Stanley Cups on lucky bounces. I mean, they don't really have any skill, right? Just about everything they do is just really lucky, it will wear off sooner or later. Probably sooner. I mean the luck has been going on for more than 10 years now, and all I keep hearing about are those damn bounces that keep more deserving teams like the 97 Flyers and the 98 Caps (badass even without Ovechkin) and the 2002 Canes and Avalanche teams (that Avs team is by far the best in history) and the 2008 Pens and the 2009 Chicago Blackhawks from rightfully claiming the Stanley Cup they worked so hard to get on skill and skill alone. It just sucks when some lesser team swoops in and wins it all all on luck. Oh well. 2010 is the year of the HAWK!!! Can't argue with facts. I'll be the first to admit we're a 1 line team and Lids needs to be traded for a bag of chips. Hell, if we had Seabrook we probably would've beaten your team without having to rely on luck! I mean all Lids does now a days is get his testicles busted. What good is that?

I doubt anyone will look in here but whatever... I was wondering what your largest league was (most participants) when playing fantasy hockey, and what everyone thinks is the ideal size for the type of league they play in. Thanks!

1) Like you said, Rafalski won't waive the no-trade clause 2) Zherdev has said he wants at least 4M, but most likely closer to 4.5-5M. 3.33M/year is not going to fly with him. 3) Highly unlikely that Kovalchuk signs for 6.5M/year, especially considering that's pretty much what his current cap hit is. 4) Lidstrom at 4M is zany. 5) This roster has way too many uncertainties as it is. Assuming Schneider is still playing next year, assuming Axelsson is some prodigy and not only is capable of second line minutes his rookie year, but that Holland and co. are comfortable with him in that spot, assuming Kindl, Kolosov, Abdelkader, Ritola, etc are ready to be promoted, assuming the cap doesn't drop, assuming Draper doesn't retire, assuming Howard is actually NHL material, assuming Ozzy doesn't retire or start to suck.

A roster including - Dats - Franzen Zetterberg - Leino Filppulla Cleary - - Draper - Schneider Stuart Kronwall Eriksson - Ozzy Howard takes up 36.7M, which leaves 20.1M to fill in those blanks with the players you suggested. This base number is current finances already tied up in contracts, and your contract for Schneider, so there's no real way to lower it. So the question becomes how do you split 20.1M up between Kovalchuk, Zherdev, Axellson (unproven at the nhl by the way), Helm, Abdelkader, Lidstrom, a 6th defensman, and possibly a 13th forward/7th defensman for injury's sake? Penciling in Kovy at 7M is a discount, Zherdev purportedly wants 4.5M (but lets do 4M for the Red Wing discount), Axellson at .75M cuz he'll be a rookie, Abby and Helm will both be getting new contracts: lets be optimistic and pencil them in at 1M each, Lids at 6 is a big discount that many LGWers don't think will ever happen, and the 6th dman and 13thF/7thD can be anything above league min because I have no clue who you want to put there. But doing the math: 7+4+.75+1+1+6=19.74, which gives you .35M to fill in those last two to three spots. That isn't even enough money for 1 of those spots to be filled.