Tuesday 10 Qs: Bettman, Kang, Sheary, Marcus

My personal feeling is a bigger ice surface. Watching worlds, it's obvious the larger ice surface allows faster, skilled players the ability to avoid the clutching/grabbing

Unfortunately, I think the league missed the bigger ice surface window, given how many newer/new-ish buildings there are. At some point (I forget when), the league issued a mandate that eliminated any new buildings with shorter neutral zones, a la the old Boston Garden. They could have mandated that new buildings either have the larger ice surface or be built with the larger ice surface in mind. To go to a larger surface now, teams would have to give up about four rows of the really high-priced seats to put in the larger ice surface.

I think a bigger factor in the worlds is that the officials call a different type of game. Tighter officiating can make for a faster, more offensively potent game, but there's no appetite - or at least not sufficient appetite - for that game in NHL power circles.

Every time i watch olympics or international hockey i pine for the larger ice surface. So much more fun to watch. Always takes me time to get back used to NHL size, almost as if it's unnatural...

No, Mr. Yzerman, so you can stop planting the seed.

i actually don't see why not. Sure Pouliot is a beast, but if there's a team like Tampa that has an obscene amount of offense (young, too), yet you could go for a young elite puck moving D to go with Hedman, i'd listen to that trade request all day long.

for the pens' sake, seeing dumo/harrington/chorney/maatta/tanger/cole, i think that could grow to be a solid 6 d-men, but looking at our wing depth..i think our need is FAR greater at wing. I would package pouliot to get a Taylor Hall, as we know Edmonton wants to get more balanced. I dont know what it'd take to get him, but Sid/Eberle/Hall looked pretty good together at the Worlds

Its funny hearing some Pens fans talk trade. They dont want to give up anything of value ( their young Dmen, Sutter) and want elite young players back. Doesnt work that way.

I hope they do consider what you and Mike propose. Got to to give up something of value to get something back.

Uh, the suggestion was Jonathan Drouin.

Another team wants to overwhelm us, then we should be all ears, including offers for Letang or Maatta as well.

Guilty as charged :-). At least I put a spin on it!

No fake trades! There are plenty enough places on the big Internet machine for that sort of thing! :)

Obviously protected Cutch....pitchers were simply lobbing fastballs underhanded in fear of possibly facing Justin Morneau with a runner on.

I absolutely LOVE that this was asked!

I would like to see Barca win, as Messi is the best ever football player. I have watched almost all Barca games this year. Juve play more than the "cattanacio" Italian style and are very dangerous on the break with Tevez always a danger. Possession should be well in Barca's favor...it is just a question pf creating and scoring enough chances vs Tough defence and Buffon in goal.
Close game - but barca play the beautiful game as well as it has ever been played.

I agree, Juventus has a great team with Tevez up front and Pogba and Marchisio in the middle among others however I just think the talent level of Barca is too much for their defense to contain. Barcelona shredded Bayern Munich's defense (which is no pushover) in the semi-final the last couple of weeks. I don't think the usual strategy of defending for most of the game that Juventus uses will work against this team, then again who knows because nobody expected them to knock off Real Madrid last week so anything can happen, should be a good game regardless.

Isasse15 -
Italian style is the cattanacio ( cat and mouse) style that is defend and try to score one goal in the break and win 1-0. I call it "anti-football" and Jose Mourinho is an expert in this type of football.
Barca under Guardiola always had the problem of breaking down strong defence, where 10 men were in their own box.
THAT is my major worry for the final...that Barca will be frustrated and Juve will hit them on the break.
Having said that, vs Real, Juve showed they are a team capable of playing more open football and attacking frequently. However, if they try that with Barca , i can only see one result - Barca are just to good at open football.
because of the way Barca play - which on their day is sheer delight to watch - i can only hope for a Barca win and that Messi shows off his skills ( again) on a major stage. he really has been back to his best this year!

Not sure what to do with this, DJ, as Kapanen is legitimately 5-11. Comparing him and Johnson doesn't work.

This had him at 5'9" and 160 lbs. Never stood next to him so you'd know best.

http://lastwordonsports.com/2014/04/15/2014-nhl-draft-profile-14-kasperi-kapanen/

Point being there's room for smaller/faster players in NHL who are gifted. KK would seem to need only a bit more strength/bulk.

Since that Q didn't fly, here's my substitute, after an observation:

Most would agree Geno is one of the most powerful skaters in NHL, but he never seems to employ a snowplow stop followed by a wrister/slapshot (a la Datsyuk) so we get a lot of elegant skating but little production.

As you watch him, what do you feel he can do to UP his game -- other than the simplistic "score on the PP"?