**Since I'm ripping off Steve Simmons' sub-hed, I might as well start with him:

One year later, it's hard to imagine how Sidney Crosby and Ryan Miller were left off their respective Olympic hockey teams. The presence of either could have changed the medal picture in Turin...

No argument here on Crosby -- I said as much numerous times a year ago -- but Ryan Miller? I prefer not to use the word, because people have a tendency to equate it with "sucks" (and because the player himself has no control over it), but it looks like Ryan Miller has surpassed Scott Niedermayer as the most overrated player in the league. It's Grant Fuhr all over again.

Miller doesn't suck; he provides the Sabres with exactly what they need, which is capable goaltending to buttress their fantastic offense. He also makes some highlight-reel saves (the stick save v. the Bruins on Monday was phenomenal). But he is not (at least yet) in the top tier of goalies in the NHL.

A reasonable definition of this might be "a goalie who stops a lot of shots that the average goalie would not". The available data from Stats God JavaGeek indicates that Miller does not (click on Goalies, then SQN% at the top of the table which is SV% corrected for Shot Quality, i.e. distance from net, wrist or slapshot, etc.. Then keep scrolling down until you find him in the middle.). This backs up the Forechecker's work from December, where (at that time) Buffalo's goalies were allowing exactly as many goals as you would expect with average performances.

Give Miller credit. Just don't give him the Vezina, or the freaking Hart Trophy, as I heard recommended on XM Radio early this month. Also, apparently Simmons isn't a Crow fan: "..Reason to smile on a Sunday: Marc Crawford is in last place...". How has this guy never gotten punched in the face?

**In case you hadn't noticed, the Nashville Predators are now the #1 team in the NHL, with 21 more Ws than Ls. Anaheim has gone 2-3-2 since Pronger went out, 2-5-2 since Giguere & Beauchemin went out. The Preds look to be full value for it, too: good in all three facets of the game, good goaltending, good at home and on the road. Their 4-1 shootout record helps a bit, but it's not that gaudy.

**Mirtle has a thoughtful take on the Selke where he refers back to a previous post here. Two things:

1. Patty from Modesto is a Jim Rome Show reference
2. The dig at Brind'Amour was a bit off the cuff, which I try to avoid, so, Sorry. All I did was look at his 28 ES points combined with his +7 and conclude that, OK, he's not Mr. Shutdown. For all I know, on balance, he may deserve it -- but like Mirtle says, there's no reason why the discussion can't include the considerable amount of data available. Just how often are goals scored when Player X is on the ice? How effective (objectively) is his penalty-killing? How tough is his opposition?

**Related: I had an epiphany on how to restore some cachet (credibility? desirability?) to the Lady Byng Trophy, apart from dropping the "Lady" -- give the vote to the refs. Maybe no NHLer wants to be known as "gentlemanly" no matter what, but it's the refs who know best who are the whiners, the divers, and the guys who are always trying to get away with something.

Also: have them vote for a coach, same criteria. All we see on TV are coaches yelling; they all do. And sure -- arenas are loud places. But we really don't know who's abusive, and who's "asking questions", or thereabouts. Surely someone (Hockey Canada?) could use this Model Coach award as part of their efforts to promote sportsmanship (manners and perspective) in minor hockey.

**Oiler fans: if you haven't been following mudcrutch's Score.ca blog, then you may not be aware that this guy is on your roster:

He is sometimes referred to by fans as the "Macedonian Bobby Orr."

So you got that going for you, which has gotta be nice.