The new TBL

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

He'll score more points than Hudler next year.Not many true power forwards left in the league today.He's definitely the power forward of the league.

[newfy 695]

He'll score more points than Hudler next year.Not many true power forwards left in the league today.He's definitely the power forward of the league.

He's probably a top 7 true powerforward today. Iggy, Getz, Mike Richards, Hartnell, are all better now but I would take him over Hartnell. Kesler if you consider him a powerforward is probably a bit better as well but either way Downie is only 22 and he's right there in the top 7

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

I'd really only consider Downie and Getzlaf true powerforwards.When I think of a powerforward,I think of a guy that puts up points and is constantly under the other teams skin.When I think of a powerforward,I think of recklessness.I don't consider Iginla or Richards powerforwards because they definitely put up points,and they have their mean streaks here and there,but they don't put up the mass amounts of fighting majors and penalty minutes needed to be considered a power forward in my mind.

[newfy 695]

I'd really only consider Downie and Getzlaf true powerforwards.When I think of a powerforward,I think of a guy that puts up points and is constantly under the other teams skin.When I think of a powerforward,I think of recklessness.I don't consider Iginla or Richards powerforwards because they definitely put up points,and they have their mean streaks here and there,but they don't put up the mass amounts of fighting majors and penalty minutes needed to be considered a power forward in my mind.

Yeah Getz doesn't fight that much but he's always mucking and scrumming. I think youre right about Iggy now but 6 years ago he was a beast. Richards plays like a power forward but his 5'11 frame is what might make me think maybe hee's not a true power forward.

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

Jarome Iginla was the complete package before the lockout.These are the power forwards in the NHL in my mind:

Steve Downie

Ryan Getzlaf-always grinding,always mucking

Ryan Clowe-Agressive as hell.Willing to go with anyone.Puts up points.

Milan Lucic-See Ryan Clowe

Any additions?

[cjm502 165]

Well you say thats his only asset about anyone who has been in a fight before pretty much. His stats are nearly identical to Lilja's but because he can fight really good he's a pylon who should be in Grand Rapids.

Go to a Lightning forum and read a little. They all HATE him with a passion. Some were joking that they would have given a team their 4th rounder just to take Walker because he has negative value. Everyone is saying Walker sucks because he does, not because he fights.

[jollymania 162]

Jarome Iginla was the complete package before the lockout.These are the power forwards in the NHL in my mind:

Steve Downie

Ryan Getzlaf-always grinding,always mucking

Ryan Clowe-Agressive as hell.Willing to go with anyone.Puts up points.

Milan Lucic-See Ryan Clowe

Any additions?

Backes

Personally I have a much broader range for "power forwards" it is always subjective, and i actually wouldn't consider downie one, unless you consider a guy like Correy Perry one

Edited July 20, 2010 by jollymania

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

I do agree that David Backes is one.Brenden Morrow is a true power forward in my mind as well.

[newfy 695]

Go to a Lightning forum and read a little. They all HATE him with a passion. Some were joking that they would have given a team their 4th rounder just to take Walker because he has negative value. Everyone is saying Walker sucks because he does, not because he fights.

Well Tampa is my second team and I watch them a lot and I see no reason to think he's worse then Lilja. Lilja gets hated on here pretty good, same with guys like Bert (even though the coach deems him worthy to play top 6 minutes), people are constantly hating on Stuart here as well.

I'm not going to let reading a lightning forum affect how I see a player when I've probably watched as many Tampa games as those Florida fans have. I mean really the hate on Stuart on this board is pretty high, but do you not ttihnk he is a legit top 4 defenseman?

Backes

Personally I have a much broader range for "power forwards" it is always subjective, and i actually wouldn't consider downie one, unless you consider a guy like Correy Perry one

Perry is more of a big agitator. Yeah Downie agitates and is a pest, but he also will back it up a hell of a lot more then Perry does. He hits much harder then Perry as well.

[Broken 16 381]

Well Tampa is my second team and I watch them a lot and I see no reason to think he's worse then Lilja. Lilja gets hated on here pretty good, same with guys like Bert (even though the coach deems him worthy to play top 6 minutes), people are constantly hating on Stuart here as well.

I'm not going to let reading a lightning forum affect how I see a player when I've probably watched as many Tampa games as those Florida fans have. I mean really the hate on Stuart on this board is pretty high, but do you not ttihnk he is a legit top 4 defenseman?

Perry is more of a big agitator. Yeah Downie agitates and is a pest, but he also will back it up a hell of a lot more then Perry does. He hits much harder then Perry as well.

Do you fabricate this hatred just so that you have something to argue about? Because I honestly don't see this hatred that you are always claiming. Is there Brad Stuart Hatred Society posting in some hidden forum somewhere? Seriously. Where is this hatred beyond a few people? Even that is questionable. Sure, he gets dogged when he has a bad game... just like everyone else. Including Lidstrom. Are they the same handful of people that also hate Cleary? (another player that you like to claim board hatred on)

[newfy 695]

Do you fabricate this hatred just so that you have something to argue about? Because I honestly don't see this hatred that you are always claiming. Is there Brad Stuart Hatred Society posting in some hidden forum somewhere? Seriously. Where is this hatred beyond a few people? Even that is questionable. Sure, he gets dogged when he has a bad game... just like everyone else. Including Lidstrom. Are they the same handful of people that also hate Cleary? (another player that you like to claim board hatred on)

Just because you don't hate those guys doesn't mean others don't hate them. If you actually don't think after this past season there wasn't a lot of Stuart hate on this board then I don't know what forum you were posting on. Cleary does get hated on quite a bit as well actually.

Fact of the matter is, fans of teams hate on their own players because they see them every single game and every single little mistake they make. We all hated Sammy, look at him this year..

[Broken 16 381]

Just because you don't hate those guys doesn't mean others don't hate them. If you actually don't think after this past season there wasn't a lot of Stuart hate on this board then I don't know what forum you were posting on. Cleary does get hated on quite a bit as well actually.

Fact of the matter is, fans of teams hate on their own players because they see them every single game and every single little mistake they make. We all hated Sammy, look at him this year..

Again... I think your are fixating on a few, irrational posters and running with their hatred. I've been lurking this forum for long before I actually signed on and I can honestly say that you are blowing this hatred thing WAY out of proportion just to try and prove your point. You do it a lot and it's completely unjustified, imo.

I guarantee you that everytime you make these claims of hatred, 90% of the readers on this board are scratching their head wondering what the hell you are talking about. Just because some pin heads may have made a couple of Lazy and Sucks threads about these guys doesn't mean that there is a board wide hatred for them. In fact, in those few, insignificant threads, there are usually more people defending the so-called 'hated' than people piling on.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

Anything is possible; after all, they are in the Eastern Conference.

[achildr1 255]

Dustin Brown

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

Dustin Brown a power forward?

[newfy 695]

Again... I think your are fixating on a few, irrational posters and running with their hatred. I've been lurking this forum for long before I actually signed on and I can honestly say that you are blowing this hatred thing WAY out of proportion just to try and prove your point. You do it a lot and it's completely unjustified, imo.

I guarantee you that everytime you make these claims of hatred, 90% of the readers on this board are scratching their head wondering what the hell you are talking about. Just because some pin heads may have made a couple of Lazy and Sucks threads about these guys doesn't mean that there is a board wide hatred for them. In fact, in those few, insignificant threads, there are usually more people defending the so-called 'hated' than people piling on.

I'm not blowing it out of proportion anymore then what those Tampa fans would be saying about Matt Walker. Every board is the same. There is hate for players that don't deserve it and its that exact same hate for Walker on the Lightning boards as it is on here.

I still don't get how everyone is saying Walker hardly belongs in the NHL? His stats are pretty well equal to Lilja's pre concussion on an awful team

[achildr1 255]

Yea, why not? 60pt player. From what I hear he's a big hitter. Not too much of a stretch.

Getzlaf is probably the only real one.

Downie is my #2

But I would put Brown in with Lucic, Clowe, and the like.

[cjm502 165]

Well Tampa is my second team and I watch them a lot and I see no reason to think he's worse then Lilja. Lilja gets hated on here pretty good, same with guys like Bert (even though the coach deems him worthy to play top 6 minutes), people are constantly hating on Stuart here as well.

I'm not going to let reading a lightning forum affect how I see a player when I've probably watched as many Tampa games as those Florida fans have. I mean really the hate on Stuart on this board is pretty high, but do you not ttihnk he is a legit top 4 defenseman?

Lilja USED to get hated on. Bert gets hated on a lot. I dont really see much Stuart hate. We can all agree nobody got hated on as much as Williams. Put it this way, Walker is their Williams. Go to HFBoards and read all the pages about the Gagne trade. Half of it isnt even about Gagne, its about how much Walker sucked. If any team dislikes one of their players this much because of his playing ability (or lack of) there is no way in hell I would want that player on the Wings.

[achildr1 255]

Brown isn't as big obviously. But niether is Downie if I'm correct.

[Jesusberg 1,256]

I know it's obviously too early, but does anyone wanna wager a guess at what the Tampa's lines will look like?

Malone-Stamkos-St. Louis

Gagne-Lecavalier-Downie

?-Jones-Purcell

Fritz-Thompson-?

Maybe James Wright or Paul Szczechura work their way back into the line-up? Both had kind of disappointing seasons, so I'm not too sure. I also wonder if someone like Bochenski (UFA), Hall or Parrish (UFA) could work themselves onto the team too. All of these guys seem like afterthoughts, but no one was particularly impressive on their farm team in Norfolk last season.

Ohlund-Kubina

Hedman-Clark/Lundin

Lundin/Clark-Smaby

Lashoff

Defense seems a little bit clearer. Lundin played quite a bit with Hedman last year, but I wonder if Clark coming in will bump him down to the 3rd pairing with Smaby. I could see Lashoff working in, and maybe Mihalik getting himself some ice time too. I'm pretty sure they're done with Paul Ranger. Anyone know anything else about him?

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

Bochenski went overseas.We haven't seen much of Adam Hall.He's been in the AHL,but who knows.They're gonna have a skilled,feisty team.That's for sure.

[Stu in Israel 0]

I'm very pleased with the work of Ken Holland as GM of the Red Wings, so it's no surprise that Steve Yzerman had to go elsewhere to be a GM. Here's a link to an article about his early season moves with the Tampa Bay Lighting. I'm not too good at making these links, I sent it to myself my Email, and it worked, but the fact that it hasn't come out in red when I pasted it may mean that my link won't work. Sorry!

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2010/07/tampa-bay-lightning-like-a-phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes.php

I'm very pleased with the work of Ken Holland as GM of the Red Wings, so it's no surprise that Steve Yzerman had to go elsewhere to be a GM. Here's a link to an article about his early season moves with the Tampa Bay Lighting. I'm not too good at making these links, I sent it to myself my Email, and it worked, but the fact that it hasn't come out in red when I pasted it may mean that my link won't work. Sorry!

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2010/07/tampa-bay-lightning-like-a-phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes.php

Great! The "paste" didn't come out in red, but it did come out in red when it was posted

[Yzermania19 1]

The link is good, Stu - it works just fine! I read that article on Monday...Stevie still has a lot of work to do, but he has certainly impressed so far. However, the real test will be once the season gets going. That's when we'll see what kind of impact the moves Stevie has made will have on the Lightning, and whether the team can make the playoffs next spring.

LOL at "Summer of Stevie!" The Lightning fans are so happy to have an owner and GM who know what they're doing, they're ready to erect a statue in Stevie's honor outside the arena, before a game is even played! There have been mentions of Stevie being an early candidate for Executive of the Year. And the hashtag "yzermanisjedi" (complete with "Yoda-ized" Yzerman quotes) was trending for a while on Twitter after the Gagne trade. But time will tell - the Lightning players haven't even got their skates out of summer mothballs yet, and training camp is still seven weeks away. One thing is for sure - it's going to be fun keeping an eye on the Lightning this season.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Yzermania19

[Creasemonkey 30]

I hated it when he left. Hated it, hated it, hated it. I've never known the Red Wings without him. The soreness has given way to acceptance though, as even at the peak of rivalries, other teams fans couldn't hate the guy. No way I can start now, and while I can't say I'll root for the Lightning, I'm far more interested in the team. Love to see what kind of lineup they have after SY gets another couple years to really make it his team.

[VM1138 1,921]

Do you fabricate this hatred just so that you have something to argue about? Because I honestly don't see this hatred that you are always claiming. Is there Brad Stuart Hatred Society posting in some hidden forum somewhere? Seriously. Where is this hatred beyond a few people? Even that is questionable. Sure, he gets dogged when he has a bad game... just like everyone else. Including Lidstrom. Are they the same handful of people that also hate Cleary? (another player that you like to claim board hatred on)

Not to get invovled, but Stuart is hated on pretty bad around here. Considering how knowledgable most fans are about hockey around here, it always amazes me the crap Stuart gets. He's easily a great defenseman. Now, with the experience he's gathered at Detroit, he could easily be a top 2 on most other teams. He's always been great for the Wings. Same with Rafalski, though Rafalski makes more mistakes than Stuart, he's still one of the elite and gets crapped on relentlessly.