Round 1: Comparitive Stats for Detroit and Columbus

[Drake_Marcus 890]

I had a few hours to kill before bed tonight...

So I've pulled some stats off NHL.com and arranged them below. Additionally, I've calculated some pertinent percentages.

Please note that this took me more than 5 hours to collect, calculate and assemble here, so please don't re-post this somewhere else without asking me.

Season Stats:

Last ten games:

Wings: 3-6-1

Jackets: 3-3-4

Home and Away Records:

Wings: 27-9-5 Home / 24-12-5 Away

Jackets: 25-13-3 Home / 16-18-7 Away

Home and Away Winning _Percentages:

Wings: 66% Home / 59% Away

Jackets: 60% Home / 39% Away

Situational Winning Percentages I:

Wings:

--> 1 Goal Games: 58.5% (Rank: 4th)

--> 2 Goal Games: 52.9% (Rank: 12th)

--> 3 Goal Games: 75.0% (Rank: 3rd)

Jackets:

--> 1 Goal Games: 55.6% (Rank: 9th)

--> 2 Goal Games: 54.5% (Rank: 9th)

--> 3 Goal Games: 37.5% (Rank: 22nd)

Situational Winning Percentages II:

Wings:

--> Leading After the 1st: 78.8% (Rank: 12th)

--> Leading After the 2nd: 81.0% (Rank: 24th)

--> Trailing After the 1st: 41.7% (Rank: 3rd)

--> Trailing After the 2nd: 33.3% (Rank: 1st)

Jackets:

--> Leading After the 1st: 71.4% (Rank: 21st)

--> Leading After the 2nd: 87.5% (Rank: 12th)

--> Trailing After the 1st: 25.0% (Rank: 18th)

--> Trailing After the 2nd: 12.1% (Rank: 18th)

Situational Winning Percentages III:

Wings:

--> Score First: 80.4% (Rank: 2nd)

--> Trail First: 38.9% (Rank: 8th)

Jackets:

--> Score First: 68.3% (Rank: 15th)

--> Trail First: 31.7% (Rank: 17th)

Goals For Total and Per Game: *

Wings:

--> Home: 156 GF / 3.80 GF/G (Rank: 1st)

--> Away: 133 GF / 3.24 GF/G (Rank: 1st)

--> Total: 289 GF / 3.52 GF/G (Rank: 1st)

Jackets:

--> Home: 108 GF / 2.63 GF/G (Rank: 27th)

--> Away: 112 GF / 2.73 GF/G (Rank: 16th)

--> Total: 220 GF / 2.68 GF/G (Rank: 21st)

Goals Against Total and Per Game: *

Wings:

--> Home: 115 GA / 2.80 GA/G (Rank: 22nd)

--> Away: 125 GA / 3.05 GA/G (Rank: 16th)

--> Total: 240 GA / 2.93 GA/G (Rank: 19th)

Jackets:

--> Home: 106 GA / 2.59 GA/G (Rank: 14th)

--> Away: 117 GA / 2.85 GA/G (Rank: 10th)

--> Total: 223 GA / 2.72 GA/G (Rank: 10th)

Power Play Totals:

Wings:

--> Home: 24.7% (Rank: 4th)

--> Away: 26.4% (Rank: 2nd)

--> Total: 25.5% (Rank: 1st)

Jackets:

--> Home: 12.2% (Rank: 30th)

--> Away: 13.4% (Rank: 30th)

--> Total: 12.7% (Rank: 30th)

Short-Handed Goals Against:

Wings:

--> Home: 3 (Rank: 8th)

--> Away: 1 (Rank: 2nd)

--> Total: 4 (Rank: 2nd)

Jackets:

--> Home: 6 (Rank: 27th)

--> Away: 6 (Rank: 28th)

--> Total: 12 (Rank: 27th)

Penalty Kill:

Wings:

--> Home: 80.4% (Rank: 20th)

--> Away: 76.4% (Rank: 29th)

--> Total: 78.3% (Rank: 25th)

Jackets:

--> Home: 84.5% (Rank: 8th)

--> Away: 79.6% (Rank: 21st)

--> Total: 82.1% (Rank: 13th)

Short-Handed Goals Scored:

Wings:

--> Home: 4 (Rank: 12th)

--> Away: 2 (Rank: 23rd)

--> Total: 6 (Rank: 21st)

Jackets:

--> Home: 4 (Rank: 16th)

--> Away: 4 (Rank: 15st)

--> Total: 8 (Rank: 14th)

Shots per Game:

Wings: 36.2 (Rank: 1st)

Jackets: 28.9 (Rank: 21st)

Shots Against per Game:

Wings: 27.7 (Rank: 2nd)

Jackets: 27.8 (Rank: 3rd)

Hits And Blocked Shots:

Wings:

--> Home: 788 Hits (Rank: 21st) / 332 BkS (Rank: 29th)

--> Away: 692 Hits (Rank: 29th) / 409 BkS (Rank: 29th)

--> Total: 1480 Hits (Rank: 23rd) / 741 BkS (Rank: 30th)

Jackets:

--> Home: 1110 Hits (Rank: 6th) / 448 BkS (Rank: 25th)

--> Away: 809 Hits (Rank: 16th) / 574 BkS (Rank: 17th)

--> Total: 1919 Hits (Rank: 8th) / 1022 BkS (Rank: 21st)

Give Aways and Take Aways: **

Wings:

--> Home: 346 GvA (Rank: 13th) / 196 TkA (Rank: 27th)

--> Away: 263 GvA (Rank: 9th) / 249 TkA (Rank: 14th)

--> Total: 609 GvA (Rank: 10th) / 445 TkA (Rank: 27th)

Jackets:

--> Home: 153 GvA (Rank: 3rd) / 248 TkA (Rank: 19th)

--> Away: 227 GvA (Rank: 2nd) / 259 TkA (Rank: 10th)

--> Total: 380 GvA (Rank: 1st) / 507 TkA (Rank: 18th)

Face-Off Percentage:

Wings: 55.1% (Rank: 1st)

Jackets: 51.2% (Rank: 11th)

Season Series: ***

Game 1:

Box Score

Event Summary

Teams: Columbus (Away) vs. Detroit (Home)

Date: November 28th, 2008

Result: 5-3 Win

Detroit Stats:

+ Team:

--> PK: 0-6/08:13 // 100.0% Success

--> PP: 2-5/08:09 // 40.0% Success

--> Goals & Shots For: 5 GF / 35 Shots

--> Goals & Shots Against: 3 GA / 16 Shots

--> FO%: 61%

+ Individual:

--> Lidstrom: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, +1, 2 S

--> Datsyuk: 0 G, 2 A, 2 pts, +0, 2 S

--> Zetterberg: 1 G, 1 A, 2 pts, +1, 2 S

--> Kronwall: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, +0, 2 S

--> Hossa: 2 G, 0 A, 2 pts, +0, 5 S

--> Franzen: 0 G, 1 A, 0 pts, +0, 5 S

Goaltender Stats:

--> Osgood: W, 3 GA, 16 S, 81.3% Sv%

--> Leclair: L, 4 GA, 35 S, 88.2% Sv%

Game 2:

Box Score

Event Summary

Teams: Columbus (Away) vs. Detroit (Home)

Date: January 6th, 2009

Result: 3-0 Win

Detroit Stats:

+ Team:

--> PK: 0-3/06:00 // 100.0% Success

--> PP: 2-4/06:07 // 50.0% Success

--> Goals & Shots For: 3 GF / 40 Shots

--> Goals & Shots Against: 0 GA / 23 Shots

--> FO%: 51%

+ Individual:

--> Lidstrom: 0 G, 2 A, 2 pts, +1, 3 S

--> Datsyuk: 1 G, 2 A, 3 pts, +1, 5 S

--> Zetterberg: 1 G, 0 A, 1 pts, +1, 4 S

--> Kronwall: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, +0, 2 S

--> Hossa: 1 G, 0 A, 1 pts, +0, 6 S

--> Franzen: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, +0, 5 S

Goaltender Stats:

--> Conklin: W, 0 GA, 23 S, 100% Sv%

--> Mason: L, 2 GA, 39 S, 94.9% Sv%

Game 3:

Box Score

Event Summary

Teams: Detroit (Away) vs. Columbus (Home)

Date: January 27th, 2009

Result: 3-2 Loss (OT)

Detroit Stats:

+ Team:

--> PK: 1-3/05:49 // 66.7% Success

--> PP: 1-2/02:43 // 50.0% Success

--> Goals & Shots For: 2 GF / 23 Shots

--> Goals & Shots Against: 3 GA / 23 Shots

--> FO%: 55%

+ Individual:

--> Lidstrom: All-Star Debacle, Did not play.

--> Datsyuk: All-Star Debacle, Did not play.

--> Zetterberg: 0 G, 1 A, 1 pts, +0, 0 S

--> Kronwall: 0 G, 1 A, 1 pts, -1, 0 S

--> Hossa: 1 G, 0 A, 1 pts, -2, 4 S

--> Franzen: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, -1, 4 S

Goaltender Stats:

--> Osgood: L, 3 GA, 23 S, 87.0% Sv%

--> Mason: W, 2 GA, 23 S, 91.3% Sv%

Game 4:

Box Score

Event Summary

Teams: Detroit (Away) vs. Columbus (Home)

Date: February 13th, 2009

Result: 3-2 Loss

Detroit Stats:

+ Team:

--> PK: 0-4/07:04 // 100% Success

--> PP: 0-4/07:04 // 0.0% Success

--> Goals & Shots For: 2 GF / 34 Shots

--> Goals & Shots Against: 3 GA / 25 Shots

--> FO%: 48%

+ Individual:

--> Lidstrom: 1 G, 0 A, 1 pts, +1, 3 S

--> Datsyuk: 0 G, 1 A, 1 pts, +1, 3 S

--> Zetterberg: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, +1, 5 S

--> Kronwall: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, +0, 0 S

--> Hossa: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, +0, 3 S

--> Franzen: Injured, Did not play.

Goaltender Stats:

--> Osgood: L, 3 GA, 25 S, 88.0% Sv%

--> Mason: W, 2 GA, 34 S, 94.1% Sv%

Game 5:

Box Score

Event Summary

Teams: Columbus (Away) vs. Detroit (Home)

Date: March 7th, 2009

Result: 8-2 Loss

Detroit Stats:

+ Team:

--> PK: 1-2/03:13 // 50% Success

--> PP: 0-6/10:34 // 0.0% Success

--> Goals & Shots For: 2 GF / 46 Shots

--> Goals & Shots Against: 8 GA / 28 Shots

--> FO%: 48%

+ Individual:

--> Lidstrom: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, -3, 2 S

--> Datsyuk: 0 G, 1 A, 1 pts, -3, 4 S

--> Zetterberg: 1 G, 0 A, 1 pts, -4, 7 S

--> Kronwall: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, +0, 1 S

--> Hossa: Injured, Did not play.

--> Franzen: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, -2, 3 S

Goaltender Stats:

--> Conklin: L, 1 GA, 5 S, 80.0% Sv%, Pulled

--> Osgood: L, 7 GA, 23 S, 69.6% Sv%

--> Mason: W, 2 GA, 46 S, 95.7% Sv%

Game 6:

Box Score

Event Summary

Teams: Detroit (Away) vs. Columbus (Home)

Date: March 15th, 2009

Result: 4-0 Win

Detroit Stats:

+ Team:

--> PK: 0-4/08:00 // 100% Success

--> PP: 1-5/08:00 // 20.0% Success

--> Goals & Shots For: 4 GF / 30 Shots

--> Goals & Shots Against: 0 GA / 23 Shots

--> FO%: 41%

+ Individual:

--> Lidstrom: 0 G, 0 A, 0 pts, +2, 1 S

--> Datsyuk: 0 G, 1 A, 1 pts, +1, 3 S

--> Zetterberg: 0 G, 1 A, 1 pts, +1, 2 S

--> Kronwall: 1 G, 1 A, 2 pts, +1, 3 S

--> Hossa: 1 G, 0 A, 1 pts, +1, 3 S

--> Franzen: 1 G, 1 A, 2 pts, +1, 5 S

Goaltender Stats:

--> Osgood: W, 0 GA, 23 S, 100% Sv%, 1st Star

--> Mason: L, 4 GA, 30 S, 86.7% Sv%

Season Series: ***

Game Results:

--> Home: 2-1-0 // 3.67 GAA // 3.33 GFA

--> Away: 1-1-1 // 2 GAA // 2.67 GFA

--> Total: 3-2-1 // 2.83 GAA // 3 GFA // 2 SO

Detroit Stats:

+ Team:

--> PK: 2-22/38:19 // 90.9% Success

--> PP: 6-26/42:37 // 23.1% Success

--> Goals & Shots For: 18 / 208 Shots (34.7 SF/game)

--> Goals & Shots Against: 17 / 138 Shots (23 SA/game)

--> FO%: 50.7%

+ Individual:

--> Lidstrom: 5 GP, 1 G, 2 A, 3 pts, +2, 11 S

--> Datsyuk: 5 GP, 1 G, 7 A, 8 pts, +0, 17 S

--> Zetterberg: 6 GP, 3 G, 3 A, 6 pts, +0, 20 S

--> Kronwall: 6 GP, 1 G, 2 A, 3 pts, +0, 8 S

--> Hossa: 5 GP, 5 G, 0 A, 5 pts, -1, 21 S

--> Franzen: 5 GP, 1 G, 2 A, 3 pts, -2, 22 S

Goaltending Stats:

+ Detroit:

--> Osgood: 5 GP, 2-2-1, 1 SO, 3.2 GAA, 85.5 Sv%, One loss in relief of Conklin

--> Conklin: 2 GP, 1-1-0, 1 SO, 0.5 GAA, 96.4 Sv%, Pulled Once

+ Columbus:

-->Mason: 5 GP, 2-2-0, 0 SO, 2.4 GAA, 93.0 Sv%

--> Leclair: 1 GP, 0-1-0, 0 SO, 4 GAA, 88.2% Sv%

* Note: These stats do not include shoot out winners in the GF/GA like most stat listings do (even though that goal shouldn't really count towards your totals in either direction).

** Note: These stats are kind of insanely subjective. For example- the Islanders are apparently Take Away gods at home- 622 (1st by more than a 100), but they're very average in that area on the road- 236 (19th). The home totals for GvA and TkA have HUGE variances- (for TkA the teams vary between 622 and 157 at home) while the road totals are very evenly distributed (for TkA the teams vary between 294 and 197 on the road). It's pretty clear that some rinks are very, very liberal in totaling give aways while others are very conservative.

*** Note: This was really freaking time consuming for me to assemble. I literally had to write out each stat by hand using the box scores then add and calculate everything from there. NHL.com was of very little help here!

**** Note: Individual statistics collected from (or calculated using stats taken from) nhl.com's 2008/2009 regular season database.

[wingsfan93 0]

I love you,

[Drake_Marcus 890]

I love you,

Thanks

[hoogs 8]

Man I didn't realize how bad our PK was..........WOW

[HD30 6]

Wow, just wow. These stats are amazing thumbs up for a job well done.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Wow, just wow. These stats are amazing thumbs up for a job well done.

Thanks

[servo 15]

Leading After the 2nd: 81.0% (Rank: 24th)

you're an animal for putting this together! Great job!

ughh! This is why we didn't destroy the regular season win record. If you bring this up to our typical 90% range and we easily win 15 more games!

[Vladifan 680]

Thank you! Geeze, I can't imagine the perserverence and stamina required for this, but THANKS!

Meanwhile, we also don't look real good on blocked shots, do we?

sooprahz, sooprahz.....

[stormboy 47]

Situational Winning Percentages I:

Wings:

--> 3 Goal Games: 75.0% (Rank: 3rd)

Situational Winning Percentages II:

Wings:

--> Leading After the 1st: 78.8% (Rank: 12th)

--> Leading After the 2nd: 81.0% (Rank: 24th)

--> Trailing After the 1st: 41.7% (Rank: 3rd)

--> Trailing After the 2nd: 33.3% (Rank: 1st)

Power Play Totals:

Jackets:

--> Home: 12.2% (Rank: 30th)

--> Away: 13.4% (Rank: 30th)

--> Total: 12.7% (Rank: 30th)

Penalty Kill:

Wings:

--> Home: 80.4% (Rank: 20th)

--> Away: 76.4% (Rank: 29th)

--> Total: 78.3% (Rank: 25th)

Hits And Blocked Shots:

Wings:

--> Total: 1480 Hits (Rank: 23rd) / 741 BkS (Rank: 30th)

great work dude. i've already posted it on five sites claiming authorship.

anyway, i've bolded/underlines a few things that i find interesting. the three-goal games/75% win stat i found surprising. i guess because our few blowouts against have been SO bad they stick out. (like, we haven't had a lot of 5-1 or 6-2 losses, but those 8-0/2 ones stick out.) interesting that, all said, we blowout teams more than we are blown out, by a wide margin.

secondly, we obviously have unstable third periods. we give up tons of leads, but we also take a lot more come-from-behind games than other teams do. i think this illustrates our 08-09 wings perfectly. when they feel like turning it on (trailing to start the third) they are more capable of that than any other team. however, when they're not trying, they give up tons of leads to hungry teams. let's hope they flip the switch.

thirdly, yeah, our PK has sucked, but their PP has been god-awful. they say your goalie is your best PKer, so let's hope that ozzie's improved form of late carries through here. if we can boost our PK a bit with their already-bad powerplay, i think we could realistically keep them to a handful of PPGs in a potential seven-game series. that could be KEY, depending on how things go. with our PK struggles, i'm glad to be playing a team with a bad PP. hopefully, if we win, it'll give us a little more confidence on the PK for when we meet better teams down the road.

lastly, hits and blocked shots. i didn't expect much different in our hits category--hopefully kronner and stuart step it up a bit like they did last playoffs. i feel like filppula's been tossing his weight around a bit as of late, and i'm pretty sure that zetterberg and especially dats have been laying off big time of late, probably under orders from babs. hopefully dats brings some of that hitting back in the playoffs that has been absent the last few weeks.

as far as blocked shots, that's a really disappointing stat for me. one way to frustrate the hell out of another team is to block shot after shot--i know this because its happened to us (the first round loss against edm comes to mind immediately). to me, that stat shows a lack of commitment on the part of some players. especially with our goaltending struggles, just about everyone should be doing their damndest to get in the way of shots. how do teams like LA, colorado and NYI commit to blocking shots more than we do? this is especially worrisome with lilja (our best shot-blocker) out of the line up.

anyway, great analysis, good stuff to think about.

edit: spelling

Edited April 13, 2009 by stormboy

[Chunkylover 26]

Situational Winning Percentages II:

Wings:

--> Trailing After the 1st: 41.7% (Rank: 3rd)

--> Trailing After the 2nd: 33.3% (Rank: 1st)

If I'm reading this correctly this is a pretty positive statistic. This makes me believe these guys can step up when they want to.

Hits And Blocked Shots:

Wings:

--> Home: 788 Hits (Rank: 21st) / 332 BkS (Rank: 29th)

--> Away: 692 Hits (Rank: 29th) / 409 BkS (Rank: 29th)

--> Total: 1480 Hits (Rank: 23rd) / 741 BkS (Rank: 30th)

A few weeks ago I reviewed the hitting and shot-blocking statistics from the last two seasons and found that there is and increase in the playoffs in physical play and sacrifice over the regular season. I believe we will see these stats increase again this year.

[Guest micah]

Please note that this took me more than 5 hours to collect, calculate and assemble here, so please don't re-post this somewhere else without asking me.

Part of me wants to say "you're a virgin, aren't you?" and another part wants to say "great job, thanks!". I'll go with the later out of appreciation;)

Nice job.

[Frozen-Man 144]

Great work. Thanks so much!

[toby91_ca 620]

ughh! This is why we didn't destroy the regular season win record. If you bring this up to our typical 90% range and we easily win 15 more games!

I think you need to work on your math. Moving the winning percentage from 81% to 90% when ahead after 2 would result in a maximum amount of additional wins of 7. Of course, this assumes they were winning after 2 periods in every single game of the year, which is obviously not true.

Moving that stat to 90% probably results in an additional 4 or 5 wins tops.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

*** Note: This was really freaking time consuming for me to assemble.

Unbelievable job! And thank you for sharing with us. Take the rest of the day off...with pay!

[digitaljohn88 4]

Some interesting stats for Steve Mason, who has been dubbed by some as 'that hot rookie goaltender that we all hate to face in the first round':

Pre-All Star Break

17-11-2 .926% 2.05GAA 6SO

Post-All Star Break

16-9-5 .904% 2.53GAA 4SO

In April

1-2-2 .883% 3.08GAA 0SO

Hopefully his cold streak continues into the playoffs.

[Heroes of Hockeytown 694]

as far as blocked shots, that's a really disappointing stat for me. one way to frustrate the hell out of another team is to block shot after shot--i know this because its happened to us (the first round loss against edm comes to mind immediately). to me, that stat shows a lack of commitment on the part of some players. especially with our goaltending struggles, just about everyone should be doing their damndest to get in the way of shots. how do teams like LA, colorado and NYI commit to blocking shots more than we do? this is especially worrisome with lilja (our best shot-blocker) out of the line up

Primarily has to do with the Wings having the puck all the time, I'd wager. If the Wings are putting 40 shots on the other goalie and the other team can only manage 20 or whatever, obviously the Wings are controlling the play and won't even have an opportunity to block shots.

Some guys don't take to blocking shots, of course, and maybe this season they haven't committed to it as well just because they're no use in getting hurt in any regular season game.

[ComradeWasabi 109]

--> Leading After the 2nd: 81.0% (Rank: 24th)

--> Trailing After the 2nd: 33.3% (Rank: 1st)

These numbers represent the entire season right there, folks.

[seeinred 1,488]

Awesome work. Thanks for the time and effort

[Guest mindfly]

Wow nice effort

[MannyK 16]

nice work!

[hokike 1]

I found only Mason's decreasing stats surprising but other than that, stats reflect very well Red Wings reg season.

Thanx, Drake!

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Thank you! Geeze, I can't imagine the perserverence and stamina required for this, but THANKS!

Meanwhile, we also don't look real good on blocked shots, do we?

sooprahz, sooprahz.....

Thanks

[YoungGuns1340 1]

I'm hoping we blow most of thse statistics out of the ******* water.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

great work dude. i've already posted it on five sites claiming authorship.

anyway, i've bolded/underlines a few things that i find interesting. the three-goal games/75% win stat i found surprising. i guess because our few blowouts against have been SO bad they stick out. (like, we haven't had a lot of 5-1 or 6-2 losses, but those 8-0/2 ones stick out.) interesting that, all said, we blowout teams more than we are blown out, by a wide margin.

secondly, we obviously have unstable third periods. we give up tons of leads, but we also take a lot more come-from-behind games than other teams do. i think this illustrates our 08-09 wings perfectly. when they feel like turning it on (trailing to start the third) they are more capable of that than any other team. however, when they're not trying, they give up tons of leads to hungry teams. let's hope they flip the switch.

thirdly, yeah, our PK has sucked, but their PP has been god-awful. they say your goalie is your best PKer, so let's hope that ozzie's improved form of late carries through here. if we can boost our PK a bit with their already-bad powerplay, i think we could realistically keep them to a handful of PPGs in a potential seven-game series. that could be KEY, depending on how things go. with our PK struggles, i'm glad to be playing a team with a bad PP. hopefully, if we win, it'll give us a little more confidence on the PK for when we meet better teams down the road.

lastly, hits and blocked shots. i didn't expect much different in our hits category--hopefully kronner and stuart step it up a bit like they did last playoffs. i feel like filppula's been tossing his weight around a bit as of late, and i'm pretty sure that zetterberg and especially dats have been laying off big time of late, probably under orders from babs. hopefully dats brings some of that hitting back in the playoffs that has been absent the last few weeks.

as far as blocked shots, that's a really disappointing stat for me. one way to frustrate the hell out of another team is to block shot after shot--i know this because its happened to us (the first round loss against edm comes to mind immediately). to me, that stat shows a lack of commitment on the part of some players. especially with our goaltending struggles, just about everyone should be doing their damndest to get in the way of shots. how do teams like LA, colorado and NYI commit to blocking shots more than we do? this is especially worrisome with lilja (our best shot-blocker) out of the line up.

anyway, great analysis, good stuff to think about.

edit: spelling

Yeah, I found that all these stats definitely support the general feelings most of us have had this season- that the Wings struggle to lock up games but they can 'turn it on' and come back almost at will.

I found the blocked shot total very frustrating too. I really, really wish we retained Markov after the 06-07 season. If we had Markov, Lilja, Stuart and Ericsson on the back end we wouldn't be so vulnerable to injuries. As it stands now the loss of Lilja really impacts this team's ability to hit and block shots effectively. Having another big guy that does that (Markov) in the line up would do away with the Lebda and Meech type players. Of course we'd still have 8 D-men in that scenario, but I think we could realistically dump Chelios and whichever of Lilja, Stuart, Markov wasn't doing the job. Ericsson looks great on the third pairing and will quickly mature into a 2nd and eventually, a 1st pairing player, so we really don't need to keep Meech and Lebda around. Still a log-jam back there, but at least it's a gritty log jam

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Part of me wants to say "you're a virgin, aren't you?" and another part wants to say "great job, thanks!". I'll go with the later out of appreciation;)

Nice job.

Quite the opposite The gym was closed for Easter, hockey is done for a few days and my girlfriend is busy studying for exams... I had nothing else to do!