A very intersting article I found regarding Filppula and 09 Finals

[Guest EZBAKETHAGANGSTA]

<a href="http://communities.canada.com/edmontonjournal/blogs/hockey/archive/2009/06/17/the-sad-case-of-valtteri-filppula-in-the-2009-stanley-cup-finals.aspx" target="_blank">http://communities.canada.com/edmontonjour...cup-finals.aspx</a>

Was bored and was googling what the scouts had said about our players during their draft years and this game up. I found it funny given the recent discussion about him, and would like to use this as a tool to point out while he is playing <b>GREAT</b><i></i> now, that was not always the case as some would belive.

For those to lazy to read the article, the following included stats tell you all you need to know.

EVEN STRENTH SCORING CHANCES, FORWARDS, 2009 CUP FINALS

Scoring chances for/against Scoring chances plus/minus.

Cleary 32-4 +28

Kennedy 21-3 +18

Franzen 29-12 +17

Malkin 32-17 +15

Zetterberg 31-14 +13

Holmstrom 16-5 +11

Hudler 15-4 +11

Staal 22-12 +10

Fedotenko 19-9 +10

Crosby 26-17 +9

Guerin 20-11 +9

Datsyuk 11-3 +8

Helm 14-8 +6

Kunitz 17-11 +6

Hossa 17-12 +5

Cooke 12-7 +5

Talbot 18-15 +3

Abdelkader 3-0 +3

Leino 3-0 +3

Samuelsson 12-9 +3

Maltby 5-4 +1

Satan 4-4 0

Adams 4-6 -2

Dupuis 2-4 -2

Draper 2-3 -1

Filppula 12-20 -8

EVEN STRENGTH SCORING CHANCES DEFENCEMEN

Kronwall 13-15 -2

Gonchar 11-14 -3

Lidstrom 14-20 -6

Ericsson 8-14 -6

Lebda 2-11 -9

Scuderi 3-12 -9

Letang 6-16 -10

Gill 3-15 -12

Rafalski 13-26 -13

Stuart 6-19 -13

Eaton 5-20 -15

Orpik 4-21 -17

Edited March 7, 2010 by EZBAKETHAGANGSTA

[seeinred 1,488]

Good thing scoring chances don't win and lose games.

Did you actually watch him play during those Finals?

[rage 24]

Yeah, love the guy and all but come on!!! lol

[rage 24]

He's a good, skilled, smart little player, this Filppula. He just wasn't ready to contain an Evgeni Malkin with something to prove. Did Detroit have other options?

[/b

LMAO!!!!!!!!!

[Nev 1,085]

Wait, you needed this article to tell you that Filpulla was outplayed by Malkin in the '09 finals?

However, the article isn't above talking complete and utter bollocks

Filppula simply wasn't used to playing against such a dominant offensive force as Malkin, the New M. Had Filppula ever been asked to perform such a role? I'm not a regular observer of the Wings, but it appears that most often, Filppula has been slotted in against fairly mediocre opposing players.

This isn't at all what happened last season for Filppula, who faced mediocre competition in both the regular season and in the playoffs

Um, no. This is the same Filpulla and the same Malkin who faced off the year before in the finals. That time Filpulla totally dominated Malkin, and it was to me the most crucial (and most surprising) matchup of the '08 finals. I was totally confident Z/Dats/Lids would shut down Crosby, I was fearful of what Malkin would do to our 2nd line.

In 08, those fears were unfounded. In 09 Malkin played like what he was - one of the top 3 players in the world. Its no disgrace that a 2nd/3rd line centre got outplayed by an all-star future HOFer.

[Guest mindfly]

Trade Filppula

[Hockeytown_Ryan 122]

Trade Filppula

[mmamolo 287]

yes Malken outplayed Filppula in the 09 finals.

yes, the article is completely uninformed.

Waste of time.

[Z and D for the C 712]

Up until now I was sure that Filppula was better than Malkin. Good thing this article saved me from my ignorance!

...

The facts are, last playoffs Filppula sent half of the games on the third line, was third in points for forwards and tied for third in +/- with Franzen at +8.

And just for kicks, looking around at that behindthenet.ca website, though this year Filppula sits at #12 for "Quality of teammates", he is still fourth in scoring for forwards.

[superstarsingh 23]

Yep. Trade him. It was his responsibility to shut Malkin down and his alone....IGNORANCE.

[Guest EZBAKETHAGANGSTA]

Some of you guys are ridiculously bad at seeing the point of a thread.

[Guest EZBAKETHAGANGSTA]

Good thing scoring chances don't win and lose games.

Did you actually watch him play during those Finals?

Yes I did, and I didn't like what I saw at that given time. The point was to finally shut up all this "He was a beast in the Finals" myth that so many people on this site seem to advocate.

And no, Filppula did not "shut down Malkin" in 08, broken ribs did that.

Val is playing great now, and I would never trade him unless it was part of a package for a legit star player, but the amount he was overated in the past few years was bordering on asinine.

[superstarsingh 23]

Haha yes. I apologize. I am just outraged at the writer for essentially blaming the loss in the SCF on Flip. I am grateful for Flip. He is a solid hockey player, he always has been. This season he is showing that he can be a bonafide second line centreman. He's the poor man's Zetterberg and I for one am happy with that (partially because the real Zetterberg is a Wings as well). I would not say that his play was poor last June. A player's game cannot be judged on scoring chances.

[Nev 1,085]

The point was to finally shut up all this "He was a beast in the Finals" myth that so many people on this site seem to advocate.

The 08 finals, yes

And no, Filppula did not "shut down Malkin" in 08, broken ribs did that.

Riiiight. I think Flip playing on damaged knee ligaments throughout the 08 playoffs evens the injury excuses out.

[Guest Crymson]

I think it's pretty funny how people start threads about how bad they think some of our players are and then actually try to convince the rest of the people here that said players are bad.

It reaches the realm of flat-out ridiculous and sad when people try to convince others here that the team is bad---or, worse, that the team will not reach some specified goal.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

<a href="http://communities.canada.com/edmontonjournal/blogs/hockey/archive/2009/06/17/the-sad-case-of-valtteri-filppula-in-the-2009-stanley-cup-finals.aspx" target="_blank">http://communities.canada.com/edmontonjour...cup-finals.aspx</a>

Was bored and was googling what the scouts had said about our players during their draft years and this game up. I found it funny given the recent discussion about him, and would like to use this as a tool to point out while he is playing <b>GREAT</b><i></i> now, that was not always the case as some would belive.

For those to lazy to read the article, the following included stats tell you all you need to know.

EVEN STRENTH SCORING CHANCES, FORWARDS, 2009 CUP FINALS

Scoring chances for/against Scoring chances plus/minus.

Cleary 32-4 +28

Kennedy 21-3 +18

Franzen 29-12 +17

Malkin 32-17 +15

Zetterberg 31-14 +13

Holmstrom 16-5 +11

Hudler 15-4 +11

Staal 22-12 +10

Fedotenko 19-9 +10

Crosby 26-17 +9

Guerin 20-11 +9

Datsyuk 11-3 +8

Helm 14-8 +6

Kunitz 17-11 +6

Hossa 17-12 +5

Cooke 12-7 +5

Talbot 18-15 +3

Abdelkader 3-0 +3

Leino 3-0 +3

Samuelsson 12-9 +3

Maltby 5-4 +1

Satan 4-4 0

Adams 4-6 -2

Dupuis 2-4 -2

Draper 2-3 -1

Filppula 12-20 -8

EVEN STRENGTH SCORING CHANCES DEFENCEMEN

Kronwall 13-15 -2

Gonchar 11-14 -3

Lidstrom 14-20 -6

Ericsson 8-14 -6

Lebda 2-11 -9

Scuderi 3-12 -9

Letang 6-16 -10

Gill 3-15 -12

Rafalski 13-26 -13

Stuart 6-19 -13

Eaton 5-20 -15

Orpik 4-21 -17

You seem to have a big fascination with Filppula. Why is that? I think you are the only one thinking that most think that Filppula is better than sliced bread or whatever else. You're making too big of a deal out of something that barely exists in people's heads anymore, if it does.

Edited March 7, 2010 by SouthernWingsFan