Wing Across The Pond

 

Right on.   

 

Unfortunately, we don't have much of a striker.     Chelsea fans will understand.  

 

I don't know much about formations but if I'm looking at that right, Helm/Flip are defensive mids, Dats line are attacking mids, right? And I'm guessing the striker position doesn't do as much work as everyone else except trying to score goals?

Soccer  (4-2-3-1 formation)

 

 

                        Howard

 

White - Ericsson - Dekeyser - Kronwall

 

                 Helm - Filppula

 

      Brunner - Datsyuk - Zetterberg

 

                      Franzen

It still amazes me how much North Americans are getting into football/soccer. It's nice to see from a British perspective Now if only you could do the same with rugby! 

I like that team as well, although would like E in the defensive midfield slot for his occasional long ball peaches. 

From someone who played rugby all through high school, that is a common misconception. Why do you think we dont wear any pads?

The only legal hit involves wrapping a guy up to take him to the ground. Even a shoulder to shoulder hit is not legal.

Not quite true. Tackles can be made anywhere from the neck down as long as the arms are wrapped around. You can hit shoulder to shoulder as long as you wrap the guy up like you said. The choke tackle is huge in the game today, really effective, high body tackle. Good to see you played a great sport though I want it to get bigger in the US.

Must admit I only saw the hit on the suspension video and had to agree with everything said by Shanny. It did look like it warranted a ban.

Yes, love hockey from the 80's points and fights eveywhere! Notice how when the NHL tried to get rid of the later, the former also declined? Why is that I wonder?

 

As for other things. Gretzky and mario where great defensive players. They understood all to well, that the best defense is a great offense. The other team can't score when you have the puck and are scoring on them. Which is what they did. Now would Datsyuk have more points? yes. but also keep in mind he isn't a natural goal scorer. he is a setup guy. The 3 I mentioned and many others were goal scorers. Heck is datsyuk as good as LeFluer was? No. Hull? No. I really haven't even touched on the guys from the 60's-before my time. But Bossey, Trottier, Dionne, Howe, Esposito, etc... Were all better than datsyuk.  Sorry if I misspelled some names.

Now that does not mean Datsyuk isn't great. But is he even the best playing in his era? As RW fans we are naturally blind and say yes. I am not sure he is. Top 10 yes, but best? No. As for today, he isn't even top 10 anymore. More 25-30 range. But again that happens to all of us with age.

But they could score when those 'great defensive players' who were too busy scoring, left the ice. Not to mention, scoring a tonne of goals doesn't mean you're good defensively it just means you can score. So moot point really. And if you want to make a point of it, Dats is put on the ice to stop people from scoring, by playing in both their end and his own.

You can disagree if you want, which is fine. But there ae many players would consider better than Datsyuk and Z. Go back to the basics. What is the primary goal in hockey? To win. How do you do that? Score goals. Datsyuk has only broken the 30 goal per year mark 3 times, out of 11 seasons. he isn't even a point per game guy for his career. Really close yes. But when you start talking once in a generation players, I think of guys tha can score 120+ points per season. Guys like Gretzky averaged for his career 2 points per game! Super Mario was almost 2 points per game, and if not for cancer would have blown The Great One away for career numbers. Stevie had 6 seasons where he went over 100 points, Datsyuk has none. His career high was/is 97.

As a forward you are measured on points, wins and Cups. On 2 of those 3 Datsyuk has work to do. Needs more points and more Cups. At this point in his career, not sure he is going to get those.

And compared to what Dats does, they're boring as ****. Axe wasn't disagreeing, he was simply pointing out that Dats IS a once in a lifetime player, which was your criteria before you changed and started talking about points and scoring.

Spend Ericsson's pro career moulding him from a forward into a defenceman. Gets good on defence. Dress him as a forward.....

Not to mention Kronwall isn't that stellar offensively. He's just our most-offensive minded dman. Maybe a great passer but not those two. Maybe Rafalski from 4-5 years ago. That'd be good

Why not Der Kaiser, kind of like Beckenbauer?

Darn... got there before me:

"Der Kaiser"

EDIT: Not to mention Beckenbauer is probably the best defender of all time.