Only true hockey fans give the correct answer: Christian.

It's only this year that any separation (pardon the pun) has been evident between the two. Slight offensive nod to Daniel and physical to Hank.

In an interview a couple of weeks ago it was interesting to hear that Hank dominates almost all games between the two outside of hockey. Daniel does beat him at something regularly but I can't remember what it is.

Wow, never felt more like Cwise then I do right now. It's not even the loss tonight, it's the last two weeks and all the stuff that's been happening to me. This sucks. Oh well, prob shouldn't have been stirring up trouble all the time. Sorry everyone. I'll keep to myself. Good luck everyone. Hope your teams succeed, and even if they don't win it all, know that they tried their best.

do you remember when you were like keevin back when you didn't even have 1000 posts? You evolved, which is what I hope he does.

You trollin'.

FYP, and...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2UP86bciVA

Don't worry, the Penguins will probably win a series! Probably against the Flyers, too.

One more thing about the Sedins. Both have seemingly improved every year for 10 years. Quite amazing really. Started out as weak 2nd liners maybe even top 3rd liners and progressed all the way to a top 5 or better line in the league.

you're all pwned and the Caps win again

Don't think this was posted, but 11 teams may changing be changing jerseys next year.

Sabres look to be dumping the Sluggalo logo in favor of their updated retro logo, Flyers may wear their Winter Classic jerseys on the road, and the Pens will get rid of the awful power blues.

i was on an airplane, missed the rangers-islanders game. wtf was '3D' and how sucky of a marketing gimmick was it?

so Sedin is 1st in the pts race? that's what's up

The TSN guys had a pretty long conversation on why they think Henrik should be given the Hart this year. I'm a pretty big homer and I don't believe he has a chance unless he ends up beating Ovechkin by 5-6 points.

With that said, I can see their point. The Caps have absolutely destroyed teams this year even without Ovechkin in the lineup. Sure, he's the best player in the league, but he's also on the best team in the league. A team that would probably still be best in the league if you traded Ovechkin. The MVP is given to the player who makes the biggest difference on his team. Luckily, we haven't had to see the Canucks without Henrik this year. We had to see them without Daniel, but he's the goal scorer of the 2 and you can't score goals unless someone is feeding you wide open goals.

If you don't give Ovechkin the Hart based on his team I don't see how you can give it to Henrik who is on a pretty stacked team as well. They have two 30 goal scorers not including Daniel Sedin. Kesler is nearly a point per game player this year on top of being a likely Selke candidate again. Then of course you have arguably the best goalie in the league in Luongo. I'm not saying Henrik doesn't deserve consideration, but his supporting cast has been phenomenal too.

I don't know who deserves the Hart any more but it's probably Ovechkin. I thought Crosby had a good shot at it but he's playing some of his worst hockey lately and really hurt his chances. Should still be a finalist though, imo.

Those flowing blonde locks got everyones love..


And in regards to my discussion on Buf/Mon lack of highlights, I was more so in anger that there would be almost no discussion over a great ending to a game that could determine playoff position as much as Caps/Pit. Though Was is locked into #1 seed so with Buf and Mon both able to move up depending on the result you would hope for a little more love.

I realize that the NHL will and NEEDS to market their 2 biggest draws right now as much as possible so they will push every matchup they have and they are praying to god Buf or NJ does not knock off one of them or god forbid they have to play in 2nd round again and not ECF. Without Ovie/Crosby we would in no way/shape or form get as much coverage at all as we do now...They hopefully are the Magic and Bird of the NHL resurgance

Thank ****ing god, Sabres classic is so much better though it will mean I have a home and road slugs jersey I will dump somewhere...

The only answer to this question is "whichever one is getting punched in the face"

I was wondering when the Sluggalo logo was going.. I remember Quinn a few years ago saying it was going to go. I really hope that guy is way off on what the 3rd jersey will look like... his rendering of it looks awful.

If they go with the word Buffalo and the tail with text/a logo under it, I can't imagine a design I actually would like. It always looks dated. I guess Minnesota's alternates aren't awful, but I still don't like them that much.

I'll do my best. Can't get too in depth because of a test today, but I'll give you my answers.

Geddy Lee's 5 keys to the season if Calgary's finally gonna win a playoff series and contend for the Cup:

In one word: poorly. Arguably the biggest disappointment for Flames fans this season, the dream 1-2 punch Darryl Sutter envisioned when he acquired Jokinen from Phoenix never really materialized. We saw flashes of competence from Jokinen during the middle of the season, but nothing that ever justified his "star no. 1 center" billing. 11 goals and 35 points in 56 games, as he said himself, "isn't going to cut it when [he's] making $5 million." Jokinen's real legacy might be his cost and return...Flames fans have been quick to point out had it not been for Jokinen's salary, Calgary would've had a fighting chance to retain the services of Michael Cammalleri; had it not been for the trade, Calgary would still have Matthew Lombardi on the books and still have their 1st round pick for this summer's draft...but worst of all, somehow Jokinen's upcoming UFA status was parlayed into Ales Kotalik at $6 million over the next 2 years. Obviously you can't look at the trade this way, but a lot of Flames fans are saying to themselves "Cammalleri, Lombardi, Prust and a 1st rounder for Chris Higgins and Ales Kotalik??"

The armchair GM could've told you all along that it wouldn't work; two shoot-first power forwards playing together isn't a surefire recipe for success. Although I do think when they played together and committed to establishing a cycle down low instead of playing off the rush, they were much more effective as a duo. There were occasional sparks and moments of brilliance, but you never got the feeling that these two ever developed true chemistry. Ultimately, I think Calgary got Jokinen 2 seasons too late.

When you think about it, considering Iginla hasn't played with any one line consistently this year and hasn't been offered much in terms of offensive support, the fact that he has 68 points through 73 games, along with his 9th consecutive 30+ goal season, is no small feat. Still, you can't help but think, if only he had a true star center to feed him the puck, what would he be capable of?

VERDICT: UNMITIGATED DISASTER

This is a tough one to evaluate. Thankfully, the entire vaunted "franchise core" - Iginla, Kiprusoff, Bouwmeester and Regehr - stayed healthy all season, missing only one game between them (Regehr for personal reasons). Rene Bourque, who is Calgary's second-leading scorer, missed 9 games in late '09 with an undisclosed injury (believed to be a concussion), David Moss has missed 18 games due to complications with a recurring shoulder ailment and Cory Sarich has only played 48 games this season because of an improperly healed broken foot, but all three are now healthy and back in the lineup. Still, Calgary's injury woes didn't stop there: Nigel Dawes only recently returned to the lineup after missing 16 games with a knee injury, Chris Higgins is still out of the lineup with what's believed to be a possible broken foot and worst of all, Daymond Langkow's season looks to be over after a scary neck injury caused him to temporarily lose feeling in one of his legs. The last one hurts; even though he's having an off year, Langkow had played all 72 games leading up to his injury sustained in Minnesota and was a key factor in many of Calgary's big wins this season, including their 2-1 win in San Jose in December and more recently their 4-2 win in Detroit earlier this month.

Even still, did injuries kill Calgary's season? Absolutely not. The stars are healthy and this can't really be used as an excuse.

VERDICT: HEALTHY ENOUGH

I don't know how to answer this one. Only 2 goals and 26 points through 73 games, with a +3 rating, probably looks dreadful for $6.68 million/year. And I've talked about this at length before, so I don't really want to go over this again too in-depth. But I think this was a tale of two seasons for J-Bo. He was fantastic through the first 3 months of the season, even if the numbers painted a different picture. Top 3 in ice time per game league-wide, top 3 in shifts per game league-wide, leading the Flames in +/- for most of the season, he did everything Darryl told us he would...except score. I still think J-Bo and Duncan Keith are 1A and 1B in the league when it comes to the best overall skaters in the NHL. Jay also delivers a breakout pass as good as anyone in the bigs and wins plenty of battles and races to loose pucks in his own end. But I just don't know what happened to him leading up to the Olympic team selection.

Anyone who's writing him off already though is an idiot. He's still only 26 years old, even though it feels like he's played forever. He has all the physical attributes needed to dominate. He's in the first year of a 5-year contract and with Dion gone, from here on in it's the J-Bo Show on the blueline. He'll be given every opportunity to thrive in Calgary...and if he doesn't, then fine, he's just not that good. But I'm predicting a big bouceback year in '10-'11, if only because I think the man who's most disappointed with his play this year is himself.

VERDICT: BUTNAHHHHHH, OR MAYBE?

Miikka Kiprusoff has bounced back in a big way. His 2.21 GAA (4th in the league) and .923 sv% (5th) have silenced a lot of critics this season...even though he only has 32 wins. Nevertheless, Kiprusoff is without a doubt Calgary's MVP this season, and it's scary to think where they might be without his stellar play. Quite simply, he's been brilliant. He should get a nomination for the acclaimed Ryan Miller Vezina along with Ilya Bryzgalov, but he probably won't.

Phaneuf, on the other hand, never really found his swagger again. At the time of the trade, Dion had 10 goals and 22 points in 55 games, but his defensive play was suspect yet again and tension between Phaneuf and the media was prominent all season long. Rumours of trade demands, questionable off-ice behaviour and dressing room blowups didn't help to improve his play, and as we all know now, the rest is history.

This isn't the post to discuss the Phaneuf trade. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. I really like Ian White and I'm a Matt Stajan fan, but I'm somewhat lukewarm on Nik Hagman and I wonder what kind of return would've been available for Sutter had he waited until this summer.

VERDICT ON KIPPER: YES
VERDICT ON DION: TORONTO

I think so. At their peak, this team played like a finely-tuned machine; rarely making mistakes in the defensive zone, disallowing the opposition to freewheel in the neutral zone and committing to a 4-line game with emphasis on puck battles down low and an exhausting cycle game that wore down defencemen over 60 minutes. It worked like a charm right up until mid-January, when the Flames hit the skids hard for whatever reason. I don't care how bad of a team you are, 9-game losing streaks just aren't an everyday occurrence in this league. They just don't happen. I don't blame Brent for the failure this season.

At times, I think this team could be more creative off the rush. Certainly the power play is unacceptably awful once again and that needs to be addressed somehow (I guess we really do miss Cammalleri). Still, Brent has delivered as advertised, making the Flames much more defensively responsible and far more disciplined than they ever were under Keenan, who effectively ran a 2-year long gongshow at the Saddledome. This was a damn good hockey club right up until the 9-game deathstreak...and even still, they're gonna finish with 90+ points and a winning record once again. Brent certainly isn't the main problem...and if we're gonna be completely honest with ourselves, until Iginla gets a true star sidekick at his side, Calgary won't win a Cup anyways.

VERDICT: YES

That's all I've got for you jabronies right now.

That Jokinen trade was horrific, and in the end it's probably F'd the franchise for a while. The failure of that probably helped instigate the panic that led to the Phaneuf trade, and I can't see how that ever turns out well for Calgary.

EDIT: I don't care how bad Dion was this year and last, he's only 24.

You can say this about Dion, too, minus 2 years.

All that said, it's entirely possible it was just never going to work for him in Calgary, especially after they signed Bouwmeester.

That's true Zurvan, but here's the fundamental difference imo:

Bouwmeester > Phaneuf

Today? Sure

Ceiling? Nope

i can't get into it just now but i don't think the phaneuf trade was a panic move, even if phaneuf is only 24 you can no longer sit around waiting for talent to develop when that talent is being paid 6 million a year

I gave up on the "Scott Stevens with hands" projection a long time ago. Dion Phaneuf is Al Iafrate, 20 years later.

scott stevens did have hands, he scored almost 200 goals