Pepist

Tough to add players from older days, but here goes for Sweden (feels like I've made some glaring omissions but there you are): sundin - forsberg - näslund sedin - sedin - håkan loob sven tumba johansson - zetterberg - kent nilsson franzen - bäckström - alfredsson lidström - salming kronwall - kenny jönsson öhlund - norström Pelle Lindbergh Henrik Lundqvist Pekka Lindmark

Dominant in his prime. Sad to see him go. 1.12

Yes, he's been injured. Which is why he said "when he's on the ice". 30 points in the low scoring, defense first SEL are great numbers. His 14 points in 9 games in 07-08 was the best PPG in the league that year. So yeah, I don't know what you consider domination, but I wouldn't use the words 'washed up'..

Agreed. That said, he is still on pace for 97 points at this stage..

Yeah.. Or let's try one that people actually agreed with: "Wade Redden, Brian Cambell, Bouwmeester, Timonen, Vishnosky and Phaneuf all made more money last year than Lidstrom will make this coming season. Pretty sure I'd rather have Lidstrom on my squad if I were making a serious run at the cup over most of the players on this list. Lidstrom is a legend and is amongst the hockey elite of all time. All players would look up to him and this is a massive element to any team. This is a good signing. Lidstrom deserves to get paid. "

'He' this and 'he' that - I'm pretty sure Lids' got an agent that was angling for market value, which would be waaay over 7-8Mil. Sundin got 10 million for f***s sake. Nick took a discount. He was +22 on a team that was a collective - for most of the year and finished a collective +2 or something. He still had 50 points. He still played the most minutes against the best players and played all power plays and all power kills. Exactly who would you replace him with that would fetch 6.2Mil on the open market? Let's not even mention his legacy. Some people are saying he's 'above average'. You can't be serious.

I rarely go to Spain, but I'm often in southern France. Your only chance is a hotel with American channels. You can usually get the big ones, NBC being the most common. When I lived in England Channel 5 (I think) used to televise NHL games on wednesdays, maybe you can get that in France or Spain. But yeah, they basically don't know what hockey is. Maybe try at http://www.myp2pforum.eu/?

Arrrgh. This is too late! I can't do it. Are the games available to download somewhere tomorrow? I remember they used to be.

Number eight was always one of my favourites. That's the Conn Smythe right there! Anyway, great job!!

MVP: Hank will have I third straight Conn Smythe worthy post season. He always wakes up for the playoffs. Sleeper: Holmstrom tips 20 goals? But it might just be Lids. He is the silent assassin, after all.

Hehe. They are an entity I know what you mean. Funny how Hank is maybe considered because Daniel was injured. Only way one of them could possibly get it..

He kept the exact same scoring pace when Daniel was injured (19 games). He just gave Burrows and Samuelsson career years too.. Also, consider that no player has had more even strength points (83) since Jagr in '95. I'm not saying it's clear cut that he should get it, but it's certainly not clear cut that he shouldn't. It also counts that he's in the western conference and, like I said above, scored 21 more points than anyone else in that conference. That's more of a Pearson stat though, I suppose. As is the fact that his points/minute played is nearly identical to OVs, ie better than anyone else's but them two (and I think possibly Daniel actually). Also, 1/2 of a duo; last time I checked, Backstrom was fourth in scoring with 101..

Sedin had the same points per minute as Ovechkin, but get this: he had 21 points more than anyone else in the western conference. I'd say that is impressive.

This made me LOL, literally. I kind of like Nashville though. Like the whole music scene..

Just came home from a concert. Four points?!? Let's get some watch threads going! (and let's refresh the Z one..)

Hehe, that was my first thought too

why is z in the box?

great start. way to go lilja..

Yeah, but the Sedins have never been better, and Kesler, Burrows and, yes, a vengeful Sammy scares me a little bit. Luongo, not so much actually. Could be their year. Either way, Sharks will choke (knocking on wood).

I love Franzen.

Lidstrom. Gold standard D all year, picking it up offensively now that we need it most, and he is +20 on a team that is a collective -8. Compare that to the other d-men with a good +/-..

Great game. Not much more to say. Canada deserved to win this one, but I was rooting for the USA and I think I gave my poor sleeping dog a heart attack when Parise tied it. Team USA were obviously tired after that. Unfortunately, the mvp made one mistake. Congratulations Canada!

Sweden doesn't really work like that though. The first reaction -- on the night -- can be quite loud. But then it's all very understated. Like *cough*, well.. that wasn't very good. And they express 'surprise' at some of the things BÃ…G did. This is how Svenska Dagbladet's commentator puts it, before giving some of the examples I posted before (http://www.svd.se/sportspel/nyheter/svenska-fallet-mot-slovakien-var-tungt_4328151.svd): Tre Kronor had to play catch-up the whole game, and the longer the game went on those of us in the gallery in Canada Hockey Place looked in wonderment at the odd coaching of the team that Bengt-Ã…ke Gustafsson offered. But in general, the discussion quickly turns to, 'what do we need to improve until next time?'. Mikael Renberg for instance, even on the night, had mostly constructive critique to offer. Except for disappointment.

I posted some things that were said in the GDT. We all knew what they were going to say, but here goes anyway: After two quick and fairly fluky goals in 37 secs Slovakia pulls the whole team behind the red line. It is impossible to play through. Sweden comes back in another 37 secs, but continues to try to play through the mid zone and consequently gives up yet another goal on the counter-attack. Coaching change? Dump and chase maybe? Use Z, Backstrom, Sedins, Foppa, Franzen, Alfredsson down low, put some pressure on? Nope. No change whole game. Another goal is given up, in exactly the same way. Everyone agreed, even during the game, that Sweden should have changed tactics after the first two goals to dump and chase since Sweden, frankly, had superior players, and especially and significantly many experts at cycling down low. Which leads us to.. .. Only Weinhandl had less TOI than the Sedins among forwards in this game (a whooping 8 mins through the first two periods). Is it just me, or is Henrik Sedin second in league scoring? Let's not play him. BAG defended this by saying that shifts are different, some longer some shorter. But Daniel's and Henrik's shifts were no longer or shorter than anyone else's. Only fewer. They had only 16 shifts each. The Sedins were possibly Sweden's best players at cycling in the offensive zone. Last minutes. After a good shift by the Sedins and Foppa in the last two minutes, the final shift and push is given to defensive center Sammy Pahlsson, Tallinder and, yes, Weinhandl (the guy they played the least the whole game). Honestly, what was BAG thinking here? After the game one of the disappointed pundits basically said, this is unforgivable. Sweden plays an aging Slovakian team whose best players were in their prime in 2002. They have defenders ('Drako or whatever their names are') that wouldn't hack it in Rögle (second tier Swedish league). Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, Sweden should win this game. Yeah.