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Nice pun lol Rick McCann if actually interested. No one big. He was up and down between the main club and affiliates for a good 10 years. Have to admit it's pretty special having a few boxes of old memorabilia from back then. Still have a few programs with him and Howe and others in it as well as many international items. I will share one story that has always stuck with me. One game my father took a hard slapshot off the ankle in a game but continued to play. After the game he realized his ankle had swollen up immensely and ended up being taken to the hospital for a blot clot it had caused. The result was that he had to get his vericose (sp?) vein stripped from his leg. Very serious condition if not treated immediately. Anyways shortly after this happened he was having a dinner with Howe (said it was steak and lobster lol) and the ankle/leg was swelling so bad that he couldn't even get up. No pressure on it at all. Howe, without hesitation, picked my dad up in his arms carried him up several flights of stairs and called the team doctor. This is an old vet doing this for a rookie in the old days. Howe being Howe I guess. Class act.

What is it like to play on the same line as Dan Cleary?

This I agree with This not so much.

During the course of this season there have been several posters who have criticized this team's Coach, GM, Owner and all of the players (if not most of them). So, it got me to wondering: Why do you cheer for the Red Wings? For me, I cheer for this team because of the character of the organization. From Illitch to Holland to Babcock and all the players. There is something about the members of the organization that seems to come across as competitive, yet humble. We have had some great players and some great success, and now in facing adversity, the players, Babcock, Holland and Illitch all seem to still be focused on winning. So why do you root for the Red Wings?

I saw the Wings play the Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens with my ol' man 22 years ago. I arrived as a Leafs fan and Steve Yzerman changed that by halfway through the first period, even as a ten year old I could see that his team was the team I wanted to watch. I never looked back LGW

I agree, but in his defence it doesn't need to be on every page of every thread.

Ok then ignore it.

The usage of this quote was clever at first. Several thousand uses later, it is getting very tiresome, even more so because it comes up in almost every single thread about the team.

- Its a class act organization that's run right, starting with the ownership down to the players. - Its an original 6 team with a rich history and has had some of the greatest players of all time. - When they're at their best, their style of play is mesmerizing. The passing, the skating, the whole flow of the team was just incredible to watch at times. - I don't live in Detroit and I wear Red Wings gear ALL the time (the logo is even tattooed on my arm) and I'm known as that "Red Wings fan" (like their's only one or something). I like being known for that. Its a good feeling.

Thats like asking me why I breathe....

Why do people think that being a fan and being critical are mutually exclusive concepts? If those who didn't get angry when the team plays like s*** didn't care about the team, they wouldn't get angry.

Are you flippin' serious? You are NOT allowed to see Rob for a week or until you get your senses back, whichever is longer. Friggin' men waltzing in and leading our sweet, innocent little girls astray... Hockey. Peanut butter, jelly, or both?

I've seen quite a few posts referencing how we will be in trouble next year moving to the Eastern Conference and playing some tough, physical teams. I was skeptical and wanted to see how we've stacked up in the recent past. Now I know that these stats were with #5 on the blue line but its not like he made us all that physical so here goes.I also included out record against the existing NE division 2011-2012 season: 10-7-1 against the East, 4-2 against the NE 2010-2011 season : 12-4-2 against the East, 6-0 against the NE 2009-2010 season: 9-6-3 against the East, 4-2 against the NE Just for kicks against the big bad Bruins: November 3, 2009 2-0 W February 11, 2011 6-1 W February 13, 2011 4-2 W November 25, 2011 3-2 W SO I know past success is not a prediction of the future but I think people's fears playing in the East are overblown. I think a lot of people think of the team as "soft" and its true that the Wings don't hit like other teams and aren't as physical...but they can still win! Moral of the story, no matter what conference, everyone always needs a big, physical scoring winger. We aren't getting one so we go to war with what we have.

Well I guess my username says it all. Father played for the Wings through the 60s and 70s. Was also the captain of the first European NHL (Detroit) affiliated team the London Lions. Needless to say I was a Wings fan from birth. Also it's a coincidence I live in London Ontario.

Growing up in Eastern PA, my dad tried to raise me a Philly fan. It worked for the Phillies and, for my early years, the Flyers. Don't give a flying **** about basketball, and will only watch football if no hockey is on. Fast forward to 1983. We travelled to Farmington Hills to visit family who was living there at the time over the Christmas break. My 12th birthday was Dec. 20th, and they knew my dad and I loved hockey. The Wings game on 12/23 was my present. Due to the less than stellar record of the team back then, we had nice seats. A rookie named Steve Yzerman scored his first hat trick against the Toronto Make-Beliefs (or Maple Laffs, take your pick). I thought his name was the coolest sounding, and it started with a Yz, which reminded me of Rush (who I was and still am a huge fan of), and seeing the Wings uniforms live made me realize how awesome they are compared to any other jersey. I was hooked. Dad made lots of "dead things" comments to rib me, and I only got to see games if hey played the Flyers for years. In college I was also able to get the Pittsburgh feeds when they played the Pens and espn2 had several Wings games. I was also very active on the Red Wings listserv out of MSU that Dave Vergolini used to run. When the Blue Band came out for the PSU-UM game quite a few folks on the listserv stopped by the practice field we were using to say hello to the trumpet player in the Yzerman jersey. When I graduated in 1995 and moved to my current town, I was actually able to pick up the WJR radio feeds depending on the weather. Once Time Warner cable started carrying Center Ice, I was a happy man. A big reason why I'm such a diehard fan of the Wings is that, as others have said, the organization, from the top down, has been, since the Ilitch family bought it, has been a class act. Yzerman and Lidstrom are two of the classiest players and leaders the sport has known, or ever will know. I've taken more than my share of harassment living in enemy territory over the years, but rock the jerseys proudly. Games 3 and 4 of the 1998 Cup Finals were the best live games I've seen, and seeing Konstantinov on the ice for that cup was a beautiful moment (and I was glad I wore my Fedorov jersey for game 3 so I had the Konstantinov jersey on for it). Now that the Pens and Sens AHL teams are on both sides of me within an hour, I wish they'd play the Griffins so I could see our prospects live.

I unintentionally caught a playoffs game against the Blues in 1989 on channel 50. The Wings won and moved on to face the Oilers. Two games later, Yzerman returned from his awful knee injury and no one on Detroit skated like her did. I was sold.

*shrug* It's a product of my exasperation.

I was born a Wings fan. My dad named me after Steve Yzerman. I grew up on the couch with my old man watching Yzerman and Probert, then the 91 draft made us a power house and I loved all the guys we've got over the years. Lids, Vladdy, McCarty, Fedorov, Shanny, Hull and Robitaille for the 02 Cup... This organization in my lifetime at least has always tabled an amazing product and I've always liked most of, if not all of the players on our teams. This year there's a few I'm not a fan of, as well Ulf Samuelsson coming to the Wings I hated, but the general product has always kept me a huge fan. Being born a Wings fan, I only became a bigger fan watching all the guys mentioned above, and then the Grind Line, the Russian 5, the rivalry with the Avs, Dats and Z have been my favorite players since Yzerman retired hence "Z Winged Dangler" which is basically a mash together of Dats and Z. Even the last few years where this team has been losing guys, needing to create a new identity, kind of like the misfit in school that no one wanted to play with, trade with, help out at all...I still like the different things that Holland has done aside from just getting rejected in trades. Look at the guys we drafted in the past few years. We have some guys in our system that are in all likelyhood going to be superstars for years in the NHL. The Wings for me are the first and last part of my day. I wake up, get to work 15 minutes early and drink my coffee while I check LGW and TSN for Wings news, and at lunch, and when I get home every day. No matter how good, or how bad they're doing I'll continue to follow them and they'll always be my favorite team. And I love puck possession.

Because given the same opportunity, neither of them scored in the NHL the way Brunner did. And both of them were developed here. That's why. Without any seasoning or development, without knowing the system, without a training camp or any knowledge of his teammates Damien Brunner has scored more goals than Nyquist and Tatar have combined...in their entire NHL careers.

It was 1993 when I decided to become a wings fan, I was 5 years old, and my dad was a leafs fan, so it created the perfect household rivalry, my uncle soon after bought me my first wings jersey, which i promptly covered in pizza grease at the red wings games lol. I always loved the dedication we had to winning while being very classy about it, I could never be a sharks fan, or a nucks fan, or a canadien fan for this exact reason. I support my wings through thick and thin, I've seen 4 cups, not something most people can say! LETS GO WINGS!!!

We have Abdelkader on our top line. I'm sorry, but I'm not searching for answers as to why we can't score. Abdelkader is a 3rd line player at best.

No matter whether he stays or goes - those jerseys are an encapsulation in time due to their very nature. Any player's jersey that you get will be representative of that one particular game.

Gaborik just had a goal too. That's five points in three games for him with Columbus. Must be nice.

He is still fun to watch and is currently tied for the league lead in goals. For me, the only player that is more fun to watch is Datsyuk.

Guys missing from last years team: Lidstrom Holstrom Stuart Hudler Bertuzzi Helm that's 6 regulars out 18 regular skaters - fully 1/3 of the team. Veteran guys that they brought in to help Coliaccavo Sammuelson Tootoo 2 of the 3 have missed almost the entire season. Rookies that are filling in: Lashof Smith Kindl (partial season experience) Andersson Nyquist/Kindl Based on this, just to make the playoffs have been a struggle. I am glad we didn't mortgage our future. One or two more expensive free agents were not going to replace the 1/3 of the team that we lost.