statisctally, you are correct. they are being carried by their under 30s. but 27, 29 and 28 isn't 20, or 19, like pittsburgh. detroit's top guys have 10 years on pen's top guys. anywho, break down on detroit's roster below:
Henrik Zetterberg #40
Position: Left Wing (Age 27) Njurunda, Sweden (12,11,23)
Pavel Datsyuk #13
Position: Center (Age 29) Sverdlovsk, Russia (9,11,20)
Johan Franzen #93
Position: Center (Age 28) Vetlanda, Sweden (13,4,17)
Jiri Hudler #26
Position: Center (Age 24) Olomouc, Czech Republic (5,9,14)
Nicklas Lidstrom #5
Position: Defenseman (Age 38) Vasteras, Sweden (3,10,13)
Niklas Kronwall #55
Position: Defenseman (Age 27) Stockholm, Sweden (0,13,13)
Tomas Holmstrom #96
Position: Left Wing (Age 35) Pieta, Sweden (4,8,12)
Mikael Samuelsson #37
Position: Right Wing (Age 31) Mariefred, Sweden (5,7,12)
Brian Rafalski #28
Position: Defenseman (Age 34) Dearborn, MI, United States (2,9,11)
Valtteri Filppula #51
Position: Center (Age 24) Vantaa, Finland (4,6,10)
Brad Stuart #23
Position: Defenseman (Age 28) Rocky Mountain House, Canada (1,6,7)
Kris Draper #33
Position: Center (Age 37) Toronto, ON, Canada (3,1,4)
Dallas Drake #17
Position: Right Wing (Age 39) Trail, BC, Canada (1,3,4)
Dan Cleary #11
Position: Right Wing (Age 29) Carbonear, NL, Canada (2,1,3)
Darren Helm
Position: Center (Age 21) Winnipeg, MB, Canada (1,2,3)
Darren McCarty #25
Position: Right Wing (Age 36) Burnaby, BC, Canada (1,1,2)
Brett Lebda #22
Position: Defenseman (Age 26) Buffalo Grove, IL, United States (0,2,2)
Andreas Lilja #3
Position: Defenseman (Age 32) Helsin, Sweden (0,1,1)
Mark Hartigan #44
Position: Center (Age 30) Fort St. John, BC, Canada (0,1,1)
Chris Chelios #24
Position: Defenseman (Age 46) Chicago, IL, United States (0,0,0)
Kirk Maltby #18
Position: Left Wing (Age 35) Guelph, ON, Canada (0,0,0)
Chris Osgood #30
Position: Goaltender (Age 35) Peace River, AB, Canada (13-3, 1.45 GAA)
Dominik Hasek #39
Position: Goaltender (Age 43) Pardubice, Czech Republic (2-2, 2.91 GAA)
following players have not played in playoffs:
Justin Abdelkader #8
Position: Left Wing (Age 21) Muskegon, MI, United States
Aaron Downey #20
Position: Right Wing (Age 33) Shelburne, ON, Canada
Jonathan Ericsson #52
Position: Defenseman (Age 24) Karlskrona, Sweden
Jakub Kindl
Position: Defenseman (Age 21) Sumperk, Czech Republic
Tomas Kopecky #82
Position: Right Wing (Age 26) Ilava, Slovak Republic
Derek Meech #14
Position: Defenseman (Age 24) Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Mattias Ritola
Position: Center (Age 21) Borlange, Sweden
detroit's roster comes down to the following: import european's, play a unique style of game, shut down other team's offense, become stanley cup champions. honestly, that is f&@king ridiculous. top 8 statistical players are from europe? jesus christ. this isn't fair at all. since detroit has always had a thing for euros, free agent's from europe will want to go there to be more at home, and the cycle repeats itself. over half the team is from europe, while the remaining 10 players are from canada/USA. maybe the NHL should impliment a rule where over half of your team has to be from north america? boston has a total of 5 players from europe. if you add the 11 detroit has on their active roster, and add the other 4 players, they have 15. 15 to 5. that's a big difference.
pittsburgh's roster is as follows:
24 Kris Beech (Age 27) Salmon Arm, BC, CAN
87 Sidney Crosby (Age 20) Cole Harbour, NS, CAN
9 Pascal Dupuis (Age 29) Laval, QC, CAN
28 Adam Hall (Age 27) Kalamazoo, MI, USA
18 Marian Hossa (Age 29) Stara Lubovna, SVK
48 Tyler Kennedy (Age 21) Sault Ste. Marie, ON, CAN
27 Georges Laraque (Age 31) Montreal, QC, CAN
71 Evgeni Malkin (Age 21) Magnitogorsk, RUS
12 Ryan Malone (Age 28) Pittsburgh, PA, USA
10 Gary Roberts (Age 42) North York, ON, CAN
37 Jarkko Ruutu (Age 32) Helsinki, FIN
11 Jordan Staal (Age 19) Thunder Bay, ON, CAN
17 Petr Sykora (Age 31) Plzen, CZE
38 Jeff Taffe (Age 27) Hastings, MN, USA
25 Maxime Talbot (Age 24) Lemoyne, QC, CAN
Defensemen
3 Mark Eaton (Age 31) Wilmington, DE, USA
2 Hal Gill (Age 33) Concord, MA, USA
55 Sergei Gonchar (Age 34) Chelyabinsk, RUS
58 Kris Letang (Age 21) Montreal, QC, CAN
44 Brooks Orpik (Age 27) San Francisco, CA, USA
4 Rob Scuderi (Age 29) Syosset, NY, USA
5 Darryl Sydor (Age 36) Edmonton, AB, CAN
19 Ryan Whitney (Age 25) Boston, MA, USA
Goalies
35 Ty Conklin (Age 32) Anchorage, AK, USA
29 Marc-Andre Fleury (Age 23) Sorel, QC, CAN
30 Dany Sabourin (Age 27) Val D'or, QC, CAN
As boston, pittsburgh has 5 players from europe, the rest Canadian/american. pittsburgh top 8 stats people? (crosby, hossa, malkin, malone, gonchar, sykora, talbot, staal) (CAN, SVK, RUS, USA, RUS, CZE, CAN, CAN) half from europe, half from canada. not as severe as detroit with all 8 from europe, but close enough.
anyways, long story short, NHL has a problem with the league's superstars being european's, which isn't good. we're taking the best players from europe and training them here, while there league's diminish, and our home grown player's don't have the chance to play because the NHL is full of euros.
fcuk detroit. [:D][pdie][r]