nhl NHL 06/07 - Page 21

quote SummonerSupreme

Let's see who helps Crosby carry that team...Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Mark Recchi, Ryan Whitney, among others. So they can afford a loss there. Now who carries Anaheim besides Selanne? Maybe Andy MacDonald and Scott Niedermayer, both Defensemen.

Have you ever watched the Ducks?

First of all, Andy McDonald is a center, not a defenseman. And you're forgetting someone by the name of Chris Pronger, giving Anaheim arguably the best two defensemen in the world with Niedermayer and Pronger. They also have Beauchemin on D who is having a very good year. They have great goaltending with Giguere and Bryzgalov, Giguere is having a career year. And on offense they have one of the best second lines in the league with Getzlaf, Perry, and Penner. Selanne is a great player and should probably be considered for the Hart, but no way is he doing it all by himself in Anaheim.

ohhh Colton Orr completely destroyed Todd Fedoruk. But the worst thing of all was Chris Simon's stick to the throat to one guy on the Rangers can't remember who. Leafs have two games against the Sabres this weekend they need to win both if they wanna make the playoffs. Ryan Miller is playing like the piece of shit he really is, and Buffalo all together hasn't been playing well at all lately, so hopefully the Leafs get the benefit. They need strong goaltending from Andrew Raycroft, and great play from forwards Mats Sundin, Nik Antropov, and Alexei Ponikarovsky. If the Leafs continue there play they should be able to gain four points this weekend. Montreal is losing right now to Boston right now so that is good. I agree with SS Luongo is gonna get Vezina, he has played incredible, and he in my opinion is the best goaltender in the NHL!

As for Rookie Of The Year, Staal and Malkin are good choices, but how is Kopitar? He was having a prett good season when I check back in Jan, not sure how it is now.

If the Avalanche make the playoffs, I think it will go to Stastny, if they don't, I think it will go to Malkin. I really don't think Staal has a chance, he's just been grossly outperformed by the other rookie on Pittsburgh.

Discussion About Phazing Fighting out of the NHL Arises

Heard this on ESPN but was hard to find this story online. To be honest, I haven't liked hockey as much as I did before the lockout since I liked the physical play, which has gone down for a more open ice kind of play. I enjoy goalie saves and sweet goals and all, but that was in the game before the lockout as well. Quite frankly, if they wind up taking fighting out of the NHL, which occurs less often to begin with, the parts that are exciting about hockey will just dwindle down more. The Olympic hockey is okay in short bursts, but I always wished there was more physical play in those games (or any physical play at all in women's hockey). Hockey has been my favorite sport for my entire life, that would change if the physical play in hockey is decreased even further.

Ok, so maybe when you dig deep into it, Malkin and Staal seem like pretty close competitors, and maybe reputation really is the biggest thing Malkin has going for him. But at a glance, Malkin appears to be the better player. On paper, Malkin looks like the better player (in points, anyway).
In no way is Staal unworthy of the award, I just think he's been in Malkin's shadow all season. At least that's the impression I got, not being a big Pittsburgh fan and all, and I would be willing to bet that many people also got that impression.
I just feel that if it were down to those two players, Malkin would take it. Staal may be better that Malkin in some categories, but Goals, Assissts, and Points are usually the biggest ones for forwards.

Since the Calder is pretty much a rookie points race, another worthy candidate, Marc-Edouard Vlasic of the Sharks isn't even being consdired. He's a 19 year old Dman straight out of Juniors and he leads all rookies in ice time. I think he's clocking about 22 or 23 minutes a game. He very rarely makes a defensive mistake, has excellent positioning, and plays in all game situations. I don't think he should win over a couple of other players, but it sucks that he's not even getting considerations.