Dano33

Ryan Callahan of the NY Rangers...great work ethic, blocks shots, hits, scores, and lays it all on the line every night

Don't get me wrong here.  I'm not saying that the LA Kings are the model franchise of the NHL.  But they are, (IMO) clearly, the best team in hockey right now.  They had a rough regular season, as a lot of new pieces needed to gel.  But they are 11-1 in the playoffs, and that's incredible.  

IF we wanted to mold our team after theirs - as good a team to pick as any IMO - how would we do it?





*I'm penciling players into our lineup to mirror theirs (not where they'd actually be in ours).

Top Six:

D. Brown(0.66PPG, 6-0, 204, 27)---A. Kopitar(0.93PPG, 6-3, 225, 24)---J. Williams(0.72PPG, 6-1, 191, 30)
D. Penner(0.26PPG, 6-4, 242, 29)---M. Richards(0.59PPG, 5-11, 199, 27)---J. Carter(0.62PPG, 6-4, 199, 27)

Z. PARISE(0.84PPG, 5-11, 195, 27)---P. Datsyuk(0.96PPG, 5-11, 197, 33)---V. Filppula(0.81PPG, 6-0, 193, 28)
T. Bertuzzi(0.54PPG, 6-3, 235, 37)---H. Zetterberg(0.84PPG, 5-11, 195, 31)---J. Franzen(0.73PPG, 6-2, 220, 32)

...Datsyuk's smaller, but he more or less matche Kopitar.  Zetterberg more or less matches Richards.  Franzen more or less matches Carter.  Filppula more or less matches Williams.  Bertuzzi's not as physical, but he more or less matches Penner.  THE ONE element our top six is REALLY missing is a Dustin Brown-type player.  ZACH PARISE's not the same kind of player (better in some regards, worse in others), but he's the closest thing there is, and signing him goes a long way to close the gap.





Bottom Six:

D. King-(0.52PPG, 6-3, 234, 22)---J. Stoll(0.27PPG, 6-1, 213, 29)---T. Lewis(0.10PPG, 6-1, 194, 25)
J. Nolan(0.15PPG, 6-3, 227, 22)---B. Richardson(0.14PPG, 5-11, 191, 27)---K. Clifford(0.15PPG, 6-2, 208, 21)

*?????*---*?????*---G. Nyquist(0.39PPG, 5-11, 170, 22)
*?????*---*D. Helm(0.38PPG, 5-11, 195, 25)---*J. Abdelkader(0.27PPG, 6-1, 215, 25)

Cleary(0.44), Miller(0.31), Eaves(0.10), Emmerton(0.14), Mursak(0.12), Sheahan(0.00); UFA: J. Hudler(0.62), T. Holmstrom(0.32); GR: Conner(0.38), F. Brunnstrom(0.20), Andersson(0.00)

...I think Helm matches Richardson.  Even though he's smaller, I think Nyquist more or less matches Lewis.  Even though he's not as physical, I think Abdelkader more or less matche Clifford.  But King and Nolan, there is absolutely no one on this team that even close to matches up to either.  If we want to match up against the Kings in that regard, we'll need to look outside the organization.  And really, we don't have a third line center with offensive abilities like Stoll either.





Defense:

R. Scuderi(0.11PPG, 6-1, 219, 33)---D. Doughty(0.47PPG, 6-0, 212, 22)
W. Mitchell(0.32PPG, 6-3, 208, 35)---S. Voynov(0.37PPG, 5-11, 199, 22)
A. Martinez(0.24PPG, 6-1, 206, 24)---M. Greene(0.18PPG, 6-3, 232, 29)

B. Smith(0.50PPG, 6-2, 195, 23)---R. SUTER(0.58PPG, 6-1, 198, 27)
N. Kronwall(0.44PPG, 6-0, 190, 31)---*N. Lidstrom(0.49PPG, 6-1, 193, 42)
I. White(0.42PPG, 5-10, 191, 27)---J. Ericsson(0.16PPG, 6-5, 220, 28)

J. Kindl(0.24PPG); RFA: K. Quincey(0.36); UFA: B. Stuart(0.26PPG); GR: D. Janik(0.11PPG)

...IF we signed Suter, I think he would match their top point producer, Doughty.  I think Lidstrom more than matches their number two point producer, Voynov.  And I think Ericsson more or less matches their biggest defender, Greene.  Our next three guys - Kronwall, White and Smith - IMO, are all more talented than their next three guys - Mitchell, Martinez and Scuderi.  But also significantly smaller in all three matchups.  And that's just something that we're not going to be able to change any time soon.  So we'll have to go with talent.





Goaltending:

J. Quick(26)
J. Bernier(23)

J. Howard(28)
J. MacDonald(32)

...Jimmy's no Quick, but who is?  He's about the closest thing we could ever hope for.  Probably could use a more reliable backup as well, but I have no idea who that would be.





Summary:

...We're never going to be as young as the King's.  That's just not going to happen.  And we're never going to be quite as big as them, especially on defense.  But if we added Parise.  If we added Suter.  If we added a third line scoring center.  If we added a couple of power forwards.  We could come very, very close to mirroring this excellent team.  And, IMO, we might actually have a slight edge talent-wise.





Potential Lineup:

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR ROSTER
My Custom Lineup
FORWARDS
Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Zach Parise ($7.000m)
Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m)
Gustav Nyquist ($0.875m) / Two-Way Center? ($3.000m) / Power Forward? ($3.000m)
Justin Abdelkader ($0.866m) / Darren Helm ($1.000m) / Power Forward? ($3.000m)
Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) / Jan Mursak ($0.550m) /
DEFENSEMEN
Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.000m) / Ryan Suter ($7.000m)
Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Ian White ($2.875m)
Brendan Smith ($0.875m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m)
Doug Janik ($0.513m) /
GOALTENDERS
Jimmy Howard ($2.250m)
Joey MacDonald ($0.550m)
------
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $70,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $69,699,962; BONUSES: $37,500
CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $300,038

lol Detroit, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Chicago, San Jose & Boston all out... Suck it bettman

What's good about that?

I'd rather see those teams still in the playoffs being a hockey fan.  Would make it more interesting.  

Washington is still a good team for the league, but the Western Conference playoffs will be unwatchable in my book.

Holland. Of course, to some people the grass is always greener on the other side. It takes a certain sort of mindlessness to always buy into that style of thought, but that failing is, sadly, common for humans.

Yzerman had a successful team last season. This season his team was well out of the playoff race by Thanksgiving. Were this to occur with the Red Wings, people would be calling for Holland's head. But because of the aforementioned style of thought, many people here believe regardless that Yzerman would be better. For that matter, they believe that replacing Holland would be guaranteed to bring about an increase in the Wings' fortunes. It doesn't make a whit of sense.

The Wings won't win the Cup every season. But Holland has produced a level of consistent success unmatched by any other GM of the past 15 years. The reason we see so much screaming about Holland when the Wings don't go deep in the playoffs is, ironically, because of that consistent success.

It is not an accident that the young fast teams with great goaltending are leading the way.   All GM's should have seen this coming when the hooking and holding was taken out of the game.    It allowed the speedy players to have the biggest impact.   Experience and skill are no longer hallmarks of the game.    Goals scored are not mostly the pretty goals by skilled players in the playoffs.   They are scrappy and rebound goals put in by great skaters who will go to the net.  But it starts with great defense as well as goaltending and the defenders have to contribute to the scoring by picking up the rebounds.   EVERY line on the team has to have speedy good skaters.  Every skater, IMHO, has to be good enough to kill penalties if necessary, although, you can not expect your highly skilled 5 on 5 goal scorers to spend time on every penalty kill.

NONE OF THE ABOVE.

add the selection "The Preds" thats whose to blame. they beat us. they out played us. end of story.

Don't want Weber?  Are you out of your mind?  Get over the incident, it was so 4 games ago now.  I'd love to have a mean, big, tough, solid defensive player back there like Weber.

Apart from the puck not being there, leaving his feet, and shoulder to the head - clean hit!

I'd rather get rid of Holland than Babcock.

esteef

My first try at a GIF, haha I know it's awful I had to do it though

Dunno why it takes soo long to refresh edit: fixed

If Gary has his way the Pens will be pencilled in for sure.  After all, Crosby is his favourite player...  I don't think in any way that the Pens are the best team in the NHL.  I would still put a HEALTHY Wings team ahead of them as well as a Bruins team that doesn't take a month off.  The Pens won 11 in a row and are still in 4th in the East and not topping their division.  They've been really good in that stretch, but don't forget they were 7th or 8th before their run started.  Playoffs are fun for parody...

Dats is back? I went to NHL.COM and it isn't even mentioned.



The OP must be mistaken, the NHL always promotes the return of their star players.

He's not back yet. If Dats gets 2 points in his return then they might have a headline...Its not like Dats missed 90 games because of a broken dome like kid the sid did. All you haters made Crosbby famous...but in all reality, Crosby is the best player in the league, hands down..and he's still only like 15 years old.


I'm glad Datsyuk is back, but can one player solve a whole teams scoring issues? I guess we'll find out.. Maybe Franzen sits with his back spasms and Nyquist gets the nod, Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Nyquist  Fil-Z-Hudler Abby-Helm-Miller  Holmstrom and whoever those 4th line guys are. Pretty solid looking lineup on paper.

I was valedictorian of my eighth grade class.

Dude...  Not cool.  I hope a mod deletes it.

it is just a joke, no need to go crazy

Made this for fun. Too soon?

Absolutely too soon.  I don't want to say definitively one way or another becuase frankly I don't know the state of his condition, but the way his arms flailed on the ice is a sign of severe brain damage.  Voracek might be messed up pretty badly right now.