Echolalia

Smith is definitely better than the forums generally believe. Overall this has been a pretty good year for him so far.

I personally don't think the potential for Marchenko is there. I think right now Smith is a better player than Marchenko will ever be. But who knows for sure.

Elias is not a name I would have thought up if someone had asked me who the top 4 are

Howard's past few games have been pretty solid if I recall correctly. This should be a good opportunity to build on that.

On average our forwards are bigger and taller than the Flyers. I think the bigger issue is our guys are simply unwilling to play as heavy as them.

He's the Blackhawks's Osgood

Lol creepy

Green is so bad defensively it's unbelievable

Ehhhhhhhh this year Mrazek has been consistent, at least until February, but last year he was a roller coaster. One night he would get pulled for 5 goals, the next night he would post a shutout, then follow that up with another 4 goal game. He was all over the place. Anyway, maybe he needs the pressure of fighting for the top spot to play his best hockey. When Mraz and Howard were still alternating games they were both playing solid. I'm fine with giving Howard the next game. Give Mraz's groin some more rest if nothing else.

Bold move by Blash to put Glendening on the power play and it pays off

This.

Larkin is due for a big game. Facing off against Panarin should be motivation enough.

Eh. If the Wings were defending and Glendening hooked Spezza like that LGW would be in an uproar, especially because the whistles were put away up to that point. It was a weak call that was helped along with a dive. Not that I'm complaining lol. Jimmy deserved the W and it would have sucked to spoil AA's big game by not winning it.

Haha

Lol Nyquist is such a diver. At least it got Jimmy his win.

Just chiming in to comment on the torrid pace of this one. It's like a playoff game.

Lol we should go back to the cheesy 90s graphics for the anniversary. The more obnoxious the better. We can have a dancing baby gif with Hudler's face on it.

When determining who is a better individual player? Absolutely I value individual stats over team stats. That's common sense.

If you want to look at comparing their primes take the best statistical season from each player and compare it. Their best season is by definition "their prime". If that's too small of a sample size take their top 3 or even top 5 statistical seasons. And you keep going back to Stanley Cups, Gold metals and these other parameters that in no way measure an individual's talent, which has been demonstrated multiple times in this thread to be a silly way to approach the problem. I don't know why you keep having to rely on that.

Billyboy was only comparing stats up to age 27 for each player. So Datsyuk only had a few season in the NHL and Toews had like 8. That conveniently excludes Datsyuk's other cup, selke trophies, and half of his statistical output, and compares it to Toews' entire NHL career. Thus Toews is clearly the best player. What Billyboy failed to do is include Emdog in the competition, and when we look at his stats, its clear Emdog is truly the best: Taking both players stats from December 17th 2011 we have: Emdog: 2 goals 1 assist 3 points +2 2 faceoffs won Toews: 0 goals 0 assists 0 points +0 0 faceoffs won Emdog is clearly better in every statistical category. THE STATS DONT LIE

What's the significance of going by their career successes only up to age 27? I'm failing to see how that is a necessity to determine who is the better player. What it does do is skew the numbers horribly in Toews' favor. You're essentially comparing what Datsyuk was able to do in 3 years to what Toews was able to do in 8 years, and then arguing that because Toews did more in those 8 years hes the better player. Also, regardless of how you want to cut the seasons to try to argue your case, Stanely Cup count is a horrible indicator to determine who is better because its a function of team skill, not individual skill, and also has a lot to do with luck, health, and relative quality of opposition during the cup run. Case in point: you know who has more Stanley Cups than Toews? Jeff Beukeboom. Going by your criteria that would make him a better player. We both know that's absurd. Conn Smyth: Also a problem. Based on relative quality of teammates (and opponents during the SCF) during stanley cup run which makes it a flawed stat to use for a couple reasons. One is that the Blackhawks have won the cup more times than the Wings have during their respective careers (and particularly during your little age restriction), so Toews has had a way better opportunity presented to him to win it than Datsyuk. In addition to that, the winner of this award is measured as a comparison of players in that particular final, and not throughout the rest of the league. Toews winning the Conn Smyth means he was better than his teammates in that particular cup run and thats about it. It doesn't assess how he compares to people on other teams (maybe with the exception of whoever lost in the finals that year), nor does it assess how he compares to players in different years. Mike Vernon has more Conn Smyth trophies than Dominic Hasek and Brodeur (and that's without putting a cute age restriction on the criteria). It clearly doesn't mean he was the best goalie of the three.

Allegedly Montreal has been asking around to see what he's worth to teams.

richards with two defensive zone giveaways in one shift

to be fair i don't think anyone actually is having this discussion. At least in this thread, everyone seems to be in agreement that Mrazek had a couple bad games, and those two games shouldn't represent his status to the team or his overall ability to be a goalie.

wow nice play