And that ladies and gentlemen is the American viewpoint on just about anything

yep... and america's opinion is the only one that matters ;)

moy, cmon you're smarter than that. Do you honestly believe jersey sales are a direct reflection of the notoriety of a given player?

Look, I told you before and I'll say it again: hockey fans in Canada are NOT like hockey fans in the US. In Canada, we'll follow all the teams, know all the star players, we'll eat live and breathe hockey during the season. In the US, non-hardcore fans follow their local team and that's pretty much it.

Believe me moy, people know who Steven Stamkos is. As I said, they were ready to throw Steve Yzerman under the bus for not picking him for the Olympics. Trust me, this country knows exactly how valuable and how good he is.

I think it's time you just admitted that you just don't like Toews. No one will think any less of you, just admit it man :-P

I do like toews.... and I do believe jersey/merchandise sales are a direct reflection of fan favoritism.... which is the bias I speak of in a fan vote. For instance 6 players from the all-star game in 2011 were selected by fans. By your standards, 4 of the top 6 'elite' players in the league are penguins (Sid, Letang, Malkin, Fleury) and the hawks have the other two (Toews, Keith).

If I were GM and I were to pick Toews over stammer as my franchise guy I would be building a completely different team around him than I would around stammer. Its hard to gage stammer cause he is sooo young w/ sooo much untapped potential.

With toews you get that quiet leader that never quits, never says a wrong thing... lets his work and work ethic do the talking. I'd have to get some scorers around him and toews will/should be able to hold them to his own standards and desires to work to win, making them better. You know what you get with Toews.

With Stammer (a guy that had most of his 45 goals in the first half of the season last year... A guy who scored 50 goals in 80 games before he could legally drink in Tampa) you get an amazing scorer who still seems to have a ton more upside if a coach can get him to play all 82 games like he did the first half of last season. He is coming into a leadership role and being taught by guys like vinny and st louis.

For me personally - I'm not sure who I go for. I like what they both bring to the table.... but if I had to choose I might (slightly) lean towards stammer cause I would hate to be the GM that passed on a surefire (IMO) 100+ point scorer for an 80 point 2 way player. On the other hand - Toews brings the work ethic I would expect from a team. Close call. Either way - a fan vote does not directly correlate to a player being 'elite' (i.e. the best of the best) as originally suggested when you posted the article.... imo.

as for this argument there may be some merit....

"Look, I told you before and I'll say it again: hockey fans in Canada are NOT like hockey fans in the US. In Canada, we'll follow all the teams, know all the star players, we'll eat live and breathe hockey during the season. In the US, non-hardcore fans follow their local team and that's pretty much it."


That said - americans eat, sleep, and breathe nfl football and follow 'all' the teams moreso than any other country (via fantasy football websites) - but they still vote like idiots imo on cbssports, yahoo sports, espn, etc... and they still have fan bias in their voting. maybe its just that americans are stupid. a case could be made for that.

Toews is a leader, Stamkos hasn't proven that he can handle that responsibility yet.

Posted by mudbone1969 on 8/23/2011 7:24:00 PM (view original):
Toews is a leader, Stamkos hasn't proven that he can handle that responsibility yet.

I agree. You know what you get with Toews. Stamkos hasn't done anything to make me believe he can't lead though. I was impressed with how quiet he was when negotiating that contract.... and that he took below market value to remain in Tampa.

There are 90+ NHL 'leaders' wearing a 'c' or an 'a' on their sweater and countless other leaders without the honors. Granted Toews is one of the best on that list..... there is only one player in the NHL that has scored 95 goals the last two seasons.... and that player just turned 21.

Like I said... I think it would be close. Toews is a straight up gamer.

Wanna know why we let byfuglien go? This is precisely why: a near 290lb dusting byfuglien was arrested on a drunk boating charge and refused to take a bwi test. Yeah, I'd much rather have bolland, Sharp, hammer or even Brian Campbell.

Darren Wolfson, who is a contributor to ESPN 1500 radio station in Minnesota, broke the story and tweeted Thursday that Byfuglien refused to take a sobriety test and that the player weighed in at 286 pounds, far more than his usual playing weight of around 245.

That's a lot of beer.

Good luck Winnipeg.

Posted by holer on 9/1/2011 6:45:00 PM (view original):
Good luck Winnipeg.

And good riddance...I wonder if help be a Norris contender again this year?

Did Buff really play at 300 lbs in the WHL? I read that somewhere.

Minor Hawks signing yesterday - Brandon Segal, 1 yr.

Posted by andru2797 on 9/1/2011 2:35:00 PM (view original):
Wanna know why we let byfuglien go? This is precisely why: a near 290lb dusting byfuglien was arrested on a drunk boating charge and refused to take a bwi test. Yeah, I'd much rather have bolland, Sharp, hammer or even Brian Campbell.

All those guys have zero character, except maybe Bolland..guys like Buff win u cups ..you need guys with a edge ..Buff was the only reason Chicago beat Vancouver ..i will swear by that forever..and if Vancouver had Buff last year we would be cup champs ..its the intangibles that make a winner ..and Buff is a winner..i would love Vancouver to pick up a player like him