March 28th Player Poll Results!

[CrazyCanuck 0]

http://www.thehockeynews.com/en/news/news.asp?idNews=24100

Compared to 2005-06, how is the NHL product this season?

1) About the same (167) 62%

2) Better (84) 31%

3) Worse (20) 7%

How do you feel about the NHL schedule format?

1) There should be more games against the other conference (248) 89%

2) Like it the way it is (25) 9%

3) There should be fewer games against the other conference (6) 2%

What would you do to change the shootout?

1) Nothing, it¹s fine the way it is (197) 70%

2) Expand it to five shooters per side (58) 21%

3) Abolish it (25) 9%

Would you consider a shorter regular season knowing it would mean 10 to 15 per cent less revenue from gate receipts?

1) No (175) 63%

2) Yes (103) 37%

What should the NHL do about the delay-of-game penalty for clearing the puck over the glass?

1) Keep it as is: a two-minute minor (128) 46%

2) Treat it like an icing: no line change for offending team (110) 40%

3) Revert to the way it used to be: no penalty (38) 14%

Are you open to the idea of bigger nets?

1) No (236) 84%

2) Yes (44) 16%

Do you think a point should be awarded for an overtime/shootout loss?

1) Yes (210) 75%

2) No (70) 25%

What is an appropriate penalty for fighting?

1) 5 minutes (273) 97%

2) 10 minutes (5) 2%

3) 20 minutes (3) 1%

4) Game misconduct (0)

Would you rather see a fourth-line roster spot go to:

1) An enforcer (177) 66%

2) A skilled player who can play the power play and participate in the

shootout (93) 34%

Would you support increasing the number of teams in the playoffs?

1) No (223) 79%

2) Yes (59) 21%

If you could play for any NHL team (other than your own), which would you choose?

1) Toronto Maple Leafs (34) 14.4%

2) New York Rangers (29) 12.3%

3) Detroit Red Wings (19) 8%

4) Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks (18) 7.6%

5) Dallas Stars (15) 6.3%

6) Colorado Avalanche and Montreal Canadiens (14) 5.9%

7) Minnesota Wild and Tampa Bay Lightning (10) 4.2%

8) Phoenix Coyotes (9) 3.8%

9) Calgary Flames (8) 3.4%

10) Anaheim Ducks and Florida Panthers (5) 2.1%

11) Nashville Predators, Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins (4) 1.7%

12) Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers and San Jose Sharks (3) 1.2%

13) Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres (2) 0.85%

14) Carolina Hurricane and Edmonton Oilers (1) 0.42%

To what city would you least like to be traded?

1) Buffalo Sabres (40) 16%

2) Edmonton Oilers (28) 11.2%

3) New York Islanders (24) 9.6%

4) Pittsburgh Penguins (18) 7.2%

5) Florida Panthers (17) 6.8%

6) Carolina Hurricanes and St. Louis Blues (13) 5.2%

7) Washington Capitals (12) 4.8%

8) New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers (9) 3.6%

9) Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens (8) 3.2%

10) Calgary Flames (7) 2.8%

11) Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings (6) 2.4%

12) Nashville Predators (5) 2%

13) Los Angeles Kings and Ottawa Senators (4) 1.6%

14) Philadelphia Flyers and Phoenix Coyotes (3) 1.2%

15) Atlanta Thrashers, Minnesota Wild, San Jose Sharks and Toronto Maple Leafs (2) 0.8%

16) Anaheim Ducks, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning (1) 0.4%

What is the toughest building to play in on the road?

1) Detroit Red Wings (41) 16.4%

2) Calgary Flames (37) 14.8%

3) Montreal Canadiens (25) 10%

4) San Jose Sharks (21) 8.4%

5) Philadelphia Flyers (14) 5.6%

6) Toronto Maple Leafs (13) 5.2%

7) Edmonton Oilers and New Jersey Devils (12) 4.8%

8) Ottawa Senators (9) 3.6%

9) Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers and Nashville Predators (7) 2.8%

10) Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild and New York Rangers (6) 2.4%

11) Anaheim Ducks and Pittsburgh Penguins (5) 2%

12) Tampa Bay Lightning (4) 1.6%

13) Vancouver Canucks (3) 1.2%

14) Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals (2) 0.8%

15) Atlanta Thrashers, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Los Angeles Kings (1) 0.4%

Who is the best player in the NHL this season?

1) Sidney Crosby (144) 56%

2) Joe Thornton (20) 7.7%

3) Vincent Lecavalier (14) 5.4%

4) Marian Hossa (13) 5%

5) Nicklas Lidstrom (12) 4.6%

6) Martin Brodeur, Alexander Ovechkin and Roberto Luongo (8) 3.1%

7) Teemu Selanne and Martin St. Louis (4) 1.5%

8) Daniel Briere and Jaromir Jagr (3) 1.16%

9) Peter Forsberg, Evgeni Malkin Scott Niedermayer (2) 0.77%

10) Erik Cole, Pavel Datsyuk, Rory Fitzpatrick, Eric Goddard, Josh Green, Jarome Iginla, Mike Modano, Ryan Miller, Brian Rolston and Henrik Zetterberg (1) 0.38%

Who is the most respected player in the NHL?

1) Joe Sakic (166) 63%

2) Nicklas Lidstrom (30) 11.4%

3) Brendan Shanahan (19) 7.2%

4) Martin Brodeur and Chris Chelios (7) 2.6%

5) Rod Brind’Amour, Jarome Iginla and Scott Niedermayer (6) 2.2%

6) Sidney Crosby and Jaromir Jagr (3) 1.1%

7) Teemu Selanne and Mats Sundin (2) 0.76%

8) Zdeno Chara, Rob Blake and Martin St. Louis (1) 0.38%

Who is the most hated player in the NHL?

1) Sean Avery (168) 66.4%

2) Jordin Tootoo (14) 5.5%

3) Darcy Tucker (9) 3.5%

4) Jarkko Ruutu (8) 3.1%

5) Marc Savard (7) 2.7%

6) Chris Neil (6) 2.3%

7) Sidney Crosby (5) 1.9%

8) Donald Brashear and Matt Cooke (4) 1.5%

9) Matthew Barnaby, Jason Blake, Zdeno Chara, Ben Eager, Steve Ott and Brendan Shanahan (2) 0.79%

10) Derek Boogaard, Dany Heatley, Ryan Hollweg, Sean Hill, Cam Janssen, Paul Kariya, Ryan Kesler, Kirk Maltby, Dominic Moore, Steve Ott, Michael Peca, Dion Phaneuf, Chris Pronger, Maxime Talbot, Raffi Torres, Ryan Whitney and Brandon Witt (1) 0.39%

Who is the most overrated player in the NHL?

1) Sean Avery (17) 8.5%

2) Bryan McCabe and Brad Richards (16) 8%

3) Pavel Kubina (9) 4.5%

4) Marc Savard (8) 4%

5) Jaromir Jagr (7) 3.5%

6) Shane Doan and Ed Jovanovski (6) 3%

7) Jonathan Cheechoo (5) 2.5%

8) Todd Bertuzzi, Kevin Bieksa, Rick DiPietro, Bobby Holik, Sheldon Souray and Alexei Yashin (4) 2%

9) Sergei Fedorov, Hal Gill, Derian Hatcher, Cristobal Huet, Dion Phaneuf, Sergei Samsonov, Jeremy Roenick and Saku Koivu (3) 1.5%

10) Jay Bouwmeester, Dan Cloutier, Sidney Crosby, Adam Foote, Shawn Horcoff, Olli Jokinen, Paul Kariya, Olaf Kolzig, Rick Nash, Marcus Naslund, Petr Nedved, Vaclav Prospal, Jose Theodore, Joe Thornton, Darcy Tucker and Marty Turco (2) 1%

11) Daniel Alfredsson, Patrice Bergeron, Joel Bouchard, Jason Blake, Martin Brodeur, Anson Carter, Zdeno Chara, Mike Comrie, Peter Forsberg, Dominic Hasek, Nikolai Khabibulin, Alex Kovalev, Matthew Lombardi, Roberto Luongo, John Madden, Evgeni Malkin, Willie Mitchell, Chris Neil, Alexander Ovechkin, Brendan Shanahan, Bryan Smolinski, Ryan Smyth, Eric Stall, Mats Sundin, Alex Tanguay, Tim Taylor and Doug Weight (1) 0.5%

Which of these under-22 players would you select as a foundation for you franchise?

1) Sidney Crosby (202) 76%

2) Alexander Ovechkin (39) 15%

3) Dion Phaneuf (11) 4%

4) Evgeni Malkin (9) 3%

5) Other -Dan Fritsche, Ryan Getzlaf, Karl Lehtonen, Mike Richards and Mathias Tjarnqvist (1) 0.4%

Which NHL arena has the best ice?

1) Edmonton (152) 58.4%

2) Calgary (22) 8.5%

3) Montreal (21) 8.1%

4) Detroit (13) 5%

5) Minnesota and Toronto (9) 3.5%

6) Carolina (6) 2.3%

7) Ottawa and Vancouver (5) 1.9%

8) Pittsburgh (4) 1.5%

9) Buffalo and Colorado (3) 1.2%

10) Nashville (2) 0.77%

11) Atlanta, Boston, Columbus, Dallas, Los Angeles and Philadelphia (1) 0.38%

Which NHL arena has the worst ice?

1) Anaheim (42) 16%

2) Rangers (41) 15.7%

3) Florida (40) 15.3%

4) San Jose (19) 7.2%

5) Phoenix (18) 6.8%

6) Tampa Bay (17) 6.5%

7) Toronto and Washington (13) 4.9%

8) Dallas (10) 3.8%

9) St. Louis (7) 2.6%

10) Los Angeles (6) 2.2%

11) Boston, Carolina, Chicago and New Jersey (5) 1.9%

12) Atlanta, Buffalo, Columbus and Nashville (3) 1.1%

13) Edmonton, Islanders and Pittsburgh (1) 0.38%

What’s your position on the visor issue?

1) Keep it optional (214) 77%

2) Grandfather it for all players entering the NHL (44) 16%

3) Mandate it for all players (20) 7%

If you had a son who was an NHL prospect, would you prefer to see him play:

1) U.S. college hockey (140) 52%

2) Major junior hockey (104) 39%

3) European hockey (26) 10%

4) Other (0)

What’s the best thing about your job?

1) Living dream/playing/adrenaline/sold out buildings, etc. (111) 43%

2) Friendship/Teammates (32) 12%

3) Money/Lifestyle (26) 10%

4) Travel/other cities/road trips (25) 9.7%

5) Times off/Summer (22) 8.5%

6) Playing against best/competing (11) 4.2%

7) Everything (8) 3%

8) Fans (6) 2.3%

9) Women (5) 2%

10) Naps (3) 1.2%

11) Winning (3)1.2%

12) Fame (2) 0.78%

13) Hotels (1) 0.4%

14) Media (1) 0.4%

15) Trainers (1) 0.4%

16) Video Coach, Steve Summers (1) 0.4%

What’s the worst thing about your job?

1) Travel/flying/sked/missing family (104) 42.6%

2) Injuries (33) 13.5%

3) Nothing (25) 10.2%

4) Losing/slump (17) 6.9%

5) Media/questions/etc. (12) 4.9%

6) Uncertain future/Job security (9) 3.6%

7) Trades (8) 3.2%

8) Pressure (7) 2.8%

9) Practice (5) 2%

10) Politics/Business side (3) 1.2%

11) Working out (3) 1.2%

12) Backchecking (2) 0.81%

13) Back-to-back games (2) 0.81%

14) Protein shakes, watching video, late nights, filling out forms, fighting, autographs, missed childhood, girls, money, Cam Janssen, getting yelled at, pre-game skate, coaches and being booed (1) 0.4%

Which of the following phrases most closely resembles your opinion of the NHL working environment?

1) Somewhere in between (161) 60%

2) Progressive and open-minded (55) 21%

3) Old boys network (51) 19%

So do you guys see any surprises? Comments?

[YoungGuns1340 1]

http://www.thehockeynews.com/en/news/news.asp?idNews=24100

So do you guys see any surprises? Comments?

Toughest building to play in: Detroit.

....because Detroit is good at home???

[Barrie 900]

I wonder who said "girls" was the worst thing about being in the NHL?

I think it's pretty cool that we we're voted the "toughest building to play in on the road".

[Echolalia 2,961]

I'm suprised Crosby wasn't considered overrated, as well as Chelios not being the number one hated player

Detroit hardest place to play

[CrazyCanuck 0]

Toughest building to play in: Detroit.

....because Detroit is good at home???

Toughest building to wear a Canucks jersey in without your life being threatened multiple times: Detroit!

[chelios4eva 0]

I'm suprised Crosby wasn't considered overrated, as well as Chelios not being the number one hated player

Detroit hardest place to play

Yeah I'm pretty surprised chelios wasn't even a choice. As for Crosby, I wouldn't call him over-rated by anymeans.

[YoungGuns1340 1]

I'm suprised Crosby wasn't considered overrated, as well as Chelios not being the number one hated player

Detroit hardest place to play

Sidney Crosby is #10 on the overrated list, right next to Dan Cloutier.

I wonder who said "girls" was the worst thing about being in the NHL?

Paul Kariya

[Heroes of Hockeytown 694]

How do you feel about the NHL schedule format?

1) There should be more games against the other conference (248) 89%

2) Like it the way it is (25) 9%

3) There should be fewer games against the other conference (6) 2%

I call this one, "Gary Bettman Is A Big Stupid Liar."

What should the NHL do about the delay-of-game penalty for clearing the puck over the glass?

1) Keep it as is: a two-minute minor (128) 46%

2) Treat it like an icing: no line change for offending team (110) 40%

3) Revert to the way it used to be: no penalty (38) 14%

And this, "The Fans Don't Know s*** Just Go With The Second One."

Edited March 28, 2007 by Heroes of Hockeytown

[YoungGuns1340 1]

Yeah I'm pretty surprised chelios wasn't even a choice. As for Crosby, I wouldn't call him over-rated by anymeans.

Im sure there are some pretty good shut-down defenseman who have no trouble with him.

[WingsZR2 1]

diggin the respect

[YoungGuns1340 1]

Toughest building to wear a Canucks jersey in without your life being threatened multiple times: Detroit!

Maybe its the toughest building to play in because its so ugly to look at??

[Viperar 16]

Biggest thing on this list to me was the changing of the schedule to more games out of conference...this is a big factor i support and so do the players it seems

[Wings_Rule_1010 4]

Which NHL arena has the worst ice?

1) Anaheim (42) 16%

Saw that one coming. Wasn't Schneider when he was mic'd up during last game that said they were playing on duck ice, because it was so bad?

My personal favorite was the answer to what is the worst part of your job? And someone actually voted being booed.

Edited March 28, 2007 by Wings_Rule_1010

[Guest Agalloch]

Dan Cloutier is overrated? I thought it was widely accepted that he sucks?

[Vincanni 1]

Who is the best player in the NHL this season?

1) Sidney Crosby (144) 56%

2) Joe Thornton (20) 7.7%

3) Vincent Lecavalier (14) 5.4%

4) Marian Hossa (13) 5%

5) Nicklas Lidstrom (12) 4.6%

6) Martin Brodeur, Alexander Ovechkin and Roberto Luongo (8) 3.1%

7) Teemu Selanne and Martin St. Louis (4) 1.5%

8) Daniel Briere and Jaromir Jagr (3) 1.16%

9) Peter Forsberg, Evgeni Malkin Scott Niedermayer (2) 0.77%

10) Erik Cole, Pavel Datsyuk, Rory Fitzpatrick, Eric Goddard, Josh Green, Jarome Iginla, Mike Modano, Ryan Miller, Brian Rolston and Henrik Zetterberg (1) 0.38%

I LOLed.

[Louisville 112]

Wow...no love for being traded to Buffalo.

[YoungGuns1340 1]

Wow...no love for being traded to Buffalo.

Its got a lot to do with the city.

I LOLed.

haha I didnt even notice that. Thats gotta be a joke.

...I like how no Wings were overrated except for Hasek.

[HockeyCrazy3033 168]

LMAO I wonder what guys were the 2% that said the best thing about their job is the women. Hahaha

It's great to know the Wings are the toughest to play against on the road, AND that they'd love to be traded here...well 3rd place.

[Vladinator 0]

What is an appropriate penalty for fighting?

1) 5 minutes (273) 97%

2) 10 minutes (5) 2%

3) 20 minutes (3) 1%

4) Game misconduct (0)

Would you rather see a fourth-line roster spot go to:

1) An enforcer (177) 66%

2) A skilled player who can play the power play and participate in the

shootout (93) 34%

The response to these 2 questions reinforces what so many of us have said repeatedly. Fighting is, and will remain an important part of the game...

[Barrie 900]

Its got a lot to do with the city.

I'm only an hour West of Buffalo, the city is a joke. I'm not surprised they topped the list.

[Bluedevils_13 0]

Worst thing about your job?

two people voted for back checking (lol), and one person voted for Cam Jannsen(lollerskates).

How is Marc Savard one of the most hated players in the NHL?

And a HUGE WTF to the person who answered the- What kid would you build your franchise around question, by picking Dant Fritche over Sid and Ovechkin.

[TheLegend19 1]

And a HUGE WTF to the person who answered the- What kid would you build your franchise around question, by picking Dant Fritche over Sid and Ovechkin.

It was probably Dant Fritche himself.

[C-TownWing 0]

...I like how no Wings were overrated except for Hasek.

Bert too...

Who is the most overrated player in the NHL?

8) Todd Bertuzzi, Kevin Bieksa, Rick DiPietro, Bobby Holik, Sheldon Souray and Alexei Yashin (4) 2%

I was also surprised to see Cheli not get a single "most hated" vote, and he's pretty high on the "most respected" list. Getting old does wonders for your rep. Or the players didn't like having their e-mails read.

Edited March 29, 2007 by C-TownWing

[Barrie 900]

I was also surprised to not see Cheli get a single "most hated" vote, and he's pretty high on the "most respected" list. Getting old does wonders for your rep. Or the players didn't like having their e-mails read.

The guy is 45 and is taking a stand for the entire PA. He could easily just finish his career and keep his mouth shut. I'm sure the players have a lot of respect for him.

[FinRedWing 172]

Which of these under-22 players would you select as a foundation for you franchise?

1) Sidney Crosby (202) 76%

2) Alexander Ovechkin (39) 15%

3) Dion Phaneuf (11) 4%

4) Evgeni Malkin (9) 3%

5) Other -Dan Fritsche, Ryan Getzlaf, Karl Lehtonen, Mike Richards and Mathias Tjarnqvist (1) 0.4%

Really?