GMRwings1983

So should we be praising Holland for moving these players, or criticizing him for having these players in the first place? And what happened to Hudler? He had 76 points in Calgary in 2015. Did he get hurt?

Come on. Mario would kick your ass.

Deadmarsh was tough, but the other two were useless fighters.

Their barn? Denver had a team for two years at that point. That barn didn't scare anyone. Their roster in 1997 was weak physically. Even the modern day Wings could goon it up against that team.

I feel that way too. However, Belfour was amazing at that time, much like Roy was. It'd be hard to beat him and a motivated, hungry Dallas team. The Wings had more offensive talent, but they'd be much weaker in goal than the Stars. Don't see Buffalo beating the Wings. That was years before we'd start our alarming trend of getting beat by hot goalies surrounded by crappy teams.

Here's a thought. If Chris Simon was still on the Avs roster in 1997, how differently does that game go? He was arguably the top enforcer in the league the year before. They didn't have a tough roster in 1997, and it certainly appears they tried to beef up after that. Can't be a coincidence.

I've heard rumors that the Avs were embarrassed by Lemieux not fighting back, but if he was dazed by McCarty's gloved punch, I'm not sure what he could have done differently there. I looked, and the 1999 team had Parker, Deadmarsh, Odgers, Russell, Belak, Rychel, and Dingman. It's true that many of the guys I mentioned were punching bags, but that was still a very tough team compared to what the Wings had. Maybe that's why the Wings tried to get tougher (dirtier) during the deadline. Still, Holland should have traded for a better backup goalie instead.

We'll be talking about 2013 for years. Kenny was for some time.

I thought we lost in 1999 because God hated the Wings for acquiring Ulf Samuelsson, Chris Chelios and Wendel Clark. Three of the dirtiest players you can imagine. What was Kenny thinking? No he wouldn't have. He would have won, but it wouldn't be some serious beating. Lemieux wasn't an enforcer.

Looking at Lemieux's fight card, he did win a few fights, but not many. He had 50+ fights in his career, so he'd definitely beat Draper on experience alone. Still, Lemieux was not a feared fighter and I think Draper should have challenged him. Nothing wrong with what McCarty did, but Draper did look weak there for sure.

You make it sound like Claude Lemieux was the second coming of Joe Kocur.

Wow. The two teams had an amazing, high scoring game in 1996. I don't remember if it was in Pittsburgh or at the JLA, though. You would have remembered that game.

Is that the game where Probert had that long fight with McSorley?

We don't fire people, we make them quit.

Oh yeah. Shows how irrelevant he's become.

I forgot Wendel Clark and added him to the list. Would have been funny seeing him win a Cup as a Wing. Grimson is another guy I wish won a Cup in Detroit.

None of those players is in the same class as their top guys. There's a reason those guys were such high picks. And forget Mrazek. That guy needs to have an exorcism in the offseason to ever be the same. BTW, I hope Iginla (yes, he's still playing) is having fun there.

They, at least, have players you can build a franchise around. We don't. I wish we had those first two guys you mentioned.

Yeah, it's a shame that he, Probert, Wendel Clark, and Coffey didn't win a Cup with the Wings. Coffey at least, won Cups elsewhere, but the other two never had that privilege.

Not sure what happened to them this year. They have several players that have way more upside than anyone on the Wings. They've underachieved for sure.

If you can't grow facial hair, you can't be a power forward.

I want Blashill to be publicly fired by both Vince McMahon and Donald Trump.

What do you mean by "modern era"? The team in 1986 was pretty awful from what I remember. If you mean in the last 25 years, then this is easily the worst team we've had.

I see. I'm guessing Crawford screaming at Draper had to do with Draper not challenging Lemieux to a fight. Lemieux said during a round table interview that he did with McCarty that he offered Draper a chance to fight him to get revenge. Kind of like Malkin and Wheeler last week.

Does anyone remember why the Wings didn't go after Colorado or Lemieux earlier in the 1997 season?