Shady Ultima

How dare he insituate that Datsyuk was not one of the top 4 best skaters in the leauge last season... seriously the nerve .

Face it, everyone's entitlted to their own opinion and I am sure if you really think back at how he played in the regular season you cannot say with a straight face that he was as dominant as years past. He was still great, and easily a game breaking player, but if you think that he was among the 4 best players in the league last season, you are delusional. That's not to say he was a bad, or even should be anywhere close to the 30s as the guy comparing him to Stall suggested, but seriously guys lets get our blinders off here... he had a bad season, and if you don't belive me go re-read GDTs. You could tell he was tired, worn out, and for a portion of the season disinterested for a stretch of 20 or so games from December-Febuary.

Honestly, I'm surprised he is at 4th. For a long time there, he looked so disinterested in the game, especially when it was practically him and a bunch of AHL'ers.

Ah, it was Boston he played those two years for.
It seems that Adams was the reason that he lost some of what he was. Forcing him to lose weight seemed to have really effected him.

And I didn't know he played for LA for a season.

And they're an original six team too so there's no, "B-b-but the Wings have been around longer!"

Also, I mean, two owners?  And Toews?  Toews is definitely one of my favorite players in today's game but I really don't think he's worthy of puckmore status just yet.

I think it's sad, because they HAVE the history there. The guy who wrote that probably didn't even know who the Blackhawks were 5 years ago.

And if the ticket prices were higher, the attendance would be even lower

Logically yes, but almost (if not all) of the Canadian teams sell out every single game without fail.

PK #2 Abdelkader, Cleary/Miller if hes still around
           Salei, Ericsson/ Kindl when hes playing

I highly doubt anyone would want Kindl on the Pk. My idea is

PP1 - Z/Dats/Franzen
Raffi-Lids

PP2 - Huds/Flip/(Bert/Homer/Cleary)
Kronwall/Modano

PK 1 - Eaves/Helm
  Lids/Salei

PK 2 - Abs/(Flip/Z/Dats)
  Kronwall/Stuart

true but wont every player want more money if the cap hit is higher

They will, but the players who are locked up can't change a contract mid-contract.

Mitchell probably won't be coming here. Janik/Kindl and E will be the bottom pairing, and I'm scared to see Kindl/E as a pair. Kindl's defensive abilities make Lebda look like Lidstrom.

I personally believe the best possible lines for the defense would be

Lidstrom - Raffi
Kronwall - Janik
Stuart - Ericcson/Kindl
Ericcson/Kindl

Stuart is our 2nd best defensive dman, and since Lids is #1, Stuart gets to babysit. It sucks to have him on the third pairing, but we could make minutes more evenly here, with a strong d player with a strong o player on each line. I also like the idea of Kronwall/Janik. Janik sucked according to stats while he was with the Bolts, but Stuart sucked when he was a Shark, and look at him now.

While financially Wash/Pitt makes sense, it's not the smartest.

Philly/Boston was poor in ratings compared to Wings/Hawks. Boston/Montreal would have been HUGE.

I don't get why they don't market the Canadian teams vs the American teams. Case in point, the Us Vs Canada World Juniors and Olypmics had more people watch then any of the WC. Get the Canadians involved.

Vancouver/Colorado is a great idea, as someone mentioned. Only Edmonton/Calgary and Toronto/Ottawa should play each other from Canada, and they'd probably bring in more ratings in Canada AND America then Boston/Philly did.

Go look at the replay of the goal. He lifts his leg, and banks it with a pretty obvious kicking motion towards the goal.

That goal was kicked in. Extremely obviously as well.

Guess that the kicking rule will be a controversy again for a week.

Despite some Hawks fans being s***, I'm rooting for them 100%.

I don't get why everyone hates Quenville. He's a great coach, who finally has a good team in front of him... and didn't have to play the Wings... He's deserved this chance for a long time.

Crosby did not "skip out" on the handshake line.  He was mobbed by reporters and likely didn't even notice the handshake line had started.

That is on the media, not Crosby.

True, but notice how that didn't happen to anyone else? Bettman's marketing of the Kid made those reporters act like assholes. They should have been fined for not waiting until the handshakes were over.

And, if Crosby was a respectful person, the first game where Detroit and Pittsburgh played each other in the 09 season, he should have shook Lids' hand.

A bit on Kabanov...he started the year in Moncton with the Wildcats, as i'm a wildcat fan, i have heard many stories about this kid. He missed about 45 games with a wrist injury, he came back expecting to be on the top line and first PP unit, when that didnt go his way, i was told that he said put me on the top line or im going back to russia, and a few players stood up and told him that they would help him pack, so he was not well like ethier ...but he is a serious talent watchen him on the ice when he did play reminded me of datsyuk , he has some sick puck handling skills, so it might be worth the risk

I'd rather not have another Leino around here. "Put me in, or else"

This McIlrath kid does sound pretty kick ass, we'll see how it comes out though.

It seems people are putting a lot on Kindl being great next year. He seems to be getting Leino-like levels of excitement.

Can someone please explain why? Every time I have seen him, or found clips, he is a clone of Mike Green, but with less offensive capabilities.

We rip Raffi apart for his mistakes, this guy will make Ericsson look like Lidstrom by comparison.

I'd rather keep Janik, just saying.

Meanwhile Halak is looking like a god? He's been the backup and never showed he was better than Price. The defence is the same from game 3 and game 4 from round one, but Price got killed, Halak didn't.