GMRwings1983

You mean he didn't toughen up from his years of playing with Detroit? Shocking.

Well, athletes today are bigger, stronger and better trained and nutritioned. So yes, I do think the average athlete would dominate if transported to the past via time machine. Oh, and everyone knows Babe Ruth was black.

He would have been ahead of those guys too. In any case, any average athlete today would dominate if they were transported via time machine to the past. That doesn't make a Dan Cleary better than a Howie Morenz or a backup QB better than a Johnny Unitas.

Going into this game (and some broadcaster mentioned this), the Wings were dead last in the NHL in blocked shots. To me that shows an unwillingness to sacrifice the body and a lack of commitment on doing everything possible to keep the puck away from the front of the net. In today's era, blocking shots is immensely important, as the Pens showed us in games 6 and 7 of the Finals last year. So why don't the Wings do this as well as others? I know Howard has been good recently, but he's still facing way too much rubber because of point shots. Our players hardly ever go down to block the shots, as the stats so obviously show. I don't know if it's because of the coaching strategy or some kind of overall laziness on the team, but watching the Wings and watching our opponents, it's apparent that they work much harder to prevent point shots than we do.

Dude, Mathie Dandenault transported back to the 1950's would be the best player in the NHL. Doesn't mean he's better all time than Richard or Howe. Babe Ruth is the best baseball player of all time, precisely because he was ahead of his era and better at his era than anyone else at theirs.

Lindsay played in a different era. I talked about this earlier when comparing Reed Larsson's numbers with Pronovost's. Neither Datsyuk nor Zetterberg are as highly regarded by hockey experts in all time ranking as Ted Lindsay. They're not even close. Lindsay is one of the greatest left wingers of all time. They recently renamed the Pearson award to the Lindsay award. I see your point, but Hasek is a better goalie than Roy or Brodeur. At his peak, he reached a level those two never did. Osgood not only never won the Vezina, he was only top 5 in voting once in his career from what I remember. It wasn't just the Hasek's and Roy's holding him back.

No kidding. Half the posters who responded have been banned. I remember we were last or close to last every season in this category. Not sure what it's like now. My main point in the past was that we played a collapsing PK style, yet refused to block shots, which I thought was the stupidest strategy. If you're going to give up the point and can't clear the crease, you need to block shots.

I had no idea that you were a little kid. Wow! Talk about being ahead of your age group. Well, this is the era of a goalie getting hot and standing on his head, so they're in prime position.

That's right, I almost forgot. It did take him forever to get in, though. Andreychuk should get in eventually as well. But yes, the Wings have set an extremely high standard for who should be retired. Osgood is just not on the same level as the other names in the rafters. If you want him to be up there, then the team needs to change its standards. If they do that, they open a Pandora's box. And I'm sorry to say, how good you were compared to your peers is something that's judged strongly by the HHOF. I think that will be one of the reasons Ozzie doesn't get in is because of Brodeur, Roy and Hasek. It may not be fair, but it will be looked at. Yzerman was also not on the same level as the best centers of his generation, but he was more of a superstar than Osgood and was an easy HHOF induction.

I'm sure Prust and Weise are standing around and watching it happen.

Franson would have blocked that shot with his big body. Thanks Kenny.

Where?

We've beaten some good teams in the last month. We just suck against the top teams in our division.

We're not good enough to beat Carey Price in a seven game series. Not even close.

And the exclamation mark will be our deadline signing of Franzen.

On the bright side, 9th is so far below that we'd still be in the playoffs. But I don't think we'll fall that far. This is a middle of the pack team.

I feel no doubt that if he were on this team, he could solve the enigma that is Carey Price.

Somewhere, Dan Cleary is smiling.

Even if Datsyuk didn't slip, Plekanec had way too much space. Lazy defending by the entire team.

I hope not. Unless Price is injured. Then again, I don't want us to play Boston either. Not sure how we'd fare against Tampa.

Ericsson is reminding me of Gomer Pyle in "Full Metal Jacket" Total f***up.

Get off your pony. I didn't say he sucked. I just don't think his number belongs up there with the other players the Wings have in the rafters. Most posters here and most knowledgeable hockey people would agree with me that Osgood isn't a Sawchuk or a Lindsey or a Lidstrom. I also don't seem him being in the HHOF. Osgood is a very good goalie that will never be considered an elite goalie. He was never one of the two or three best goalies in the league. He never won the Vezina. Hell, I think he was only top 3 in Vezina voting once in his career. He is above most of his peers, but below the top echelon of his peers like Hasek, Roy, Brodeur and Belfour. Some would rank him below Cujo as well, despite the latter's lack of team accomplishments. His numbers are impressive and reflect a great career, but much in the same way that Dave Andreychuk's numbers or Dino Ciccarelli's numbers reflect a great career. Yet, those guys are unable to crack the HHOF or be considered among the greatest forwards in league history. It's not just about numbers. But hey, those are all dumb arguments, because kipwinger doesn't like them. Let's retire Ozzie number and proclaim him a top 10 all time goalie.

Argument is that hockey history will not rank him as high or as important to the Wings as the other players in the rafters. Also, this team won Cups with three different goalies during a six year period. That makes it look like they could win regardless of who is playing in net. The top 10 goalie of all time argument I won't even touch. I hope you were just basing it on total wins.

BTW, for those people who think Shanny's number should be up there, Derek f*****g Meech wore that number since Shanny left. You think the Wings take that number seriously? At least Nyquist is a good player, but no, the Wings are not retiring that number.

They're talking about Lindstrom.