55fan

12 is retired, so no dice there. However, this will no longer be an issue. In a bold move for diversity, the NHL will remove its ban on non-Arabic numbers, and will allow Roman numerals equal status. Hossa will wear XVIII. In a related story, Chris Osgood's personal website will receive a record number of hits from guys looking for porn.

My source (read: my imagination) says that he will recoup the money he could have made elsewhere with product endorsement and will be wearing 7-11. Seriously, 81 is the most likely. Welcome, Hossa, whatever number you are!

I do think that Drake will be riding off into the sunset (with our thanks for a job well done last season), but I agree that DMac and Downey need to be there. They are needed for morale in so many ways. Kenny was talking about 2-way contracts, and since we still need to sign Flip, it now looks like this is the way they will be signed. Please, Kenny, don't forget our "heart and soul".

Maybe Mrs. Lang could play. Czech Mate=Win. Oh, yes, the topic: I'd take Jagr if the price was right. I'm rather fond of him (considering he's a non-Wing).

Travel back in time a year and you will have a lot of company in your opinion. Last year at this time, there were anti-Kronwall threads left and right. He's soft. He's injury-prone. He's a waste of money. It was all said, and it's all done. He has made it through a full season without a season-ending injury and people are seeing him for the force he can be. He plays his style. No, he's not big enough or tough enough to play it, but he does it anyway. On the other hand, let him get a sliver in his pinkie, and the tune around here will change.

OK, if you think this is a stupid question, then it probably is, but I've never followed the contract parts of fandom until last summer when I joined here. It was just whomever was there, was there and I cheered for them. So here's the question: Can a team have some sort of a behaviour rider in a contract? In Emery's case, it might have to be on and off ice behaviour. Could the Wings have a stipulation that if, say, he gets arrested or if he fights a teammate that his contract would be void? Also, if a player is suspended from the team, how does that effect the cap? I don't want him. I'm just asking what is possible if the Wings do choose to take him.

Well, I guess those of us who doubted the person who reported this in the Water Cooler when it happened have some apologies to issue. I'll start. I'm sorry I doubted you. I'm glad your friend got off and that he found a sympathetic lawyer. Power to the octopus people! Go Wings!

Along the lines of using the search before starting a topic, may I also suggest being specific in the title. Most people are good at this, but if a topic is entitled "the best thing about the Wings", or something of that nature, it is hard to scan the first several pages to see if anything has been written about the plethora of d-men. That may be the best thing about the Wings, or it may not. (This is just an example. I am well aware that much has been written about our d-men.) So now the question at hand is how to find out if we are stupid before we post and have others inform us of that fact. The great challenge of the truely stupid is that they (we?) don't realize it.

I kind of doubt that Drake will be back, based on this article: Drake article As for the D-men, I'd like to see more of Ericksson (hopefully I'll get the spelling down if he's a regular).

If I won it as a player (not likely as I'm a rotund, arthritic, middle-aged female) I would take it to Wolsely, Sask. That's where I lived as a little kid, and where I learned to skate. If I had a day as a fan, I'd take it to places where people who really deserved to celebrate could share in it: children's hospital, vetrans' hospital- something like that. I have resolved the "to touch or not to touch" question by deciding that I will only touch the Cup if it is handed to me personally by a Red Wing during the summer after a Red Wings championship. As for what I would do: I would read all the names on it and kiss the names of my favourite players. No sex. I'm too old to care, and I don't even want to think of the logistics.

Not really. Prisoners are sometimes still around after the beginning of April.

This is cool. I'll have to set the VCR for this. At least it won't be like last year when I almost got kicked out of a bar when Pronger was on one of those late shows and I expressed my feelings about him. Fortunately the bartender was a Pens fan and gave me a free drink to settle down.

My guess is that he will retire. To have been one of the best goalies to have ever played the game, and to now be a Stanley Cup winner, it just makes sense to go out on top. As for the Wings, we still have Ozzie, and Howard looks promising. We'll never have the 1-2 punch we had this season, but a team of goalies like we had in Dom and Ozzie is a rare occurance. Thanks for everything, Dom. Enjoy the rest of your life knowing you're a true champion.

I'm tickled to hear DMac may be coming back. I love Downey too, so I hope he's back as well. Maybe if Mac has a full summer of training and camp as well, he'll be in good enough shape to take Drake's place if Drake retires (has anyone heard anything about that?), in which case we get to keep both.

Thanks for the great site for discussing hockey and for having a water cooler where we can discuss other stuff with the friends we have made here. Enjoy your summer. You've earned it. They should let you have YOUR 24 hours with the Cup, Matt.

Thanks for the links. Way to put things in perspective. We may live or die with the Wings, but either way, we have clothes. Here's hoping that the Pens have a bunch of fans all over the world.

When I first joined here, I was a hardcore Ozzie fan who thought Dom was very talented. Now I am a hardcore Ozzie fan who thinks Dom is talented and loves Dom and thinks Ozzie is talented. They're 2 sides of a coin who have each others back and whether it's heads or tails, we all win. They've figured this out, and it works; on and off the ice. Now if we could only teach Congress this trick.

Duh. I'm a moron. Thanks for that. Love your sig, btw.

Who says babies can't grow beards? That was totally cute.

41 regular season games OR 1 SCF game. Petitions may be made for unusual circumstances, but rarely are. I think we have all our guys covered. AFAIK, Mac was the only one who hadn't hit 41 regular, and he played last game. If anyone knows differently, please correct me. Side note: I wonder if Homer hadn't been injured if they would have put Mac in for a game to qualify him. I think they would have.

Just a couple of observations in favour of thanking Sid the Kid: 1) He has attracted new fans. This gives us an opportunity to educate them. There is a young boy at my church who crowed on about Sidney Crosby and how he was going to kick Detroit's butt. This was during the first week of the playoffs. All he knew about hockey was that Sidney played for Pit, and Sid was great. This gave me the chance to "introduce" him to players like Shanny, Sakic, Modano, Ovechkin, and other greats who were in the playoffs. He paid attention because he knew who Sid the Kid was. By the end of the Dallas series, he was engaging in intelligent conversation about how Franzen being out effected the Wings in that series. Young kids latch on to Crosby because he's one of them. Then we can take it from there. I'll make him a Wings fan yet. 2) How many casual fans of other teams stop watching when their team is out? They may pop in for a peak if someone has 3 wins in the final, just to see the Cup awarded, but thanks to Sidney Crosby, we now have fans all over the continent who are tuning in to see that whiny little brat get beaten. Disclaimer: I think Sid has great talent. I believe when he has a chance to mature, he will be remembered as one of the greats on and off the ice. He has shown that he is willing to try and to do what is asked of him. I couldn't live with the public pressure he faces. His handlers haven't had much time to work with him, and this is his first appearance on the big stage. Flaws are more noticable in the brightness of the spotlight. Detroit is fortunate that we have so many role models in our locker room for our younger players. So... Thank you, Sid. Thank you, Detoit. Go Wings.

Under: regular season: The goalies. Sure, they didn't have to stop as many shots as they would have if they had been playing for defensively crappy teams, but I recall they both got hung out to dry more than once; and yet they stopped the pucks when it counted. Yet through it all, everyone went on about how they had it "easy" because of the D. Hey, if they had played for a different team, they'd have been just as good- they'd have just had to do it more often. Under: playoffs: Dallas Drake. Man, what a hitting machine! What energy! What drive and emotion! I have developed a serious thing for this guy. Over: no one really has been overrated. Guys get hot, and everyone cheers. Some get accused of being bandwagon fans for giving credit where it is due if they haven't supported a guy throughout the whole season. Franzen is a prime example of this. So's Ozzie. Kronner might fall into this category, but I am biased there. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how people handle it. If a guy is having a good stretch, I see no problem with giving him the credit that is due. The problem is that people tend to go right back to trashing the guy the second he isn't Mr. Perfect. (See Raf, Hasek, Lilja, Sammy and others.) Then we get a war going. Honourable mention, under: Mac. No, he's not Hank or Pavel, but he has overcome so much this year, in more than just his game. He has gotten a lot of press for overcoming his problems, and rightfully so, but his determination to get back on the ice has kind of taken a back seat. Considering that he didn't play for the end of last season, had no team to go through camp and the beginning of the season, and was in treatment when the other guys were working out like mad dogs, the fact that he is playing is nothing short of phenomenal.

As much as I hate to see the guy on the ice when we are playing, he's still a person, and I'm glad he and his kid are living their lives healthy. Now we just need to teach him that Homer is allowed to breathe in the blue paint area without a penalty.

You know, Mr. Z, now that I'm older, my equipment manager gave me some new stuff. Since you're an old guy, can you tell me if what he said is true? Does the cup really change everything?

My sister got it for me for Christmas. She found it used online (e-bay or some such thing). She said it was quite a reasonable price; so reasonable she bought me 2 books! Good read.