GMRwings1983

Twist didn't become an elite fighter until he came to St. Louis on steroids. He was a good enforcer in Quebec, but became elite in St. Louis. So yes, size did matter to him, because it made him better once he was roided up. And Domi constantly fought against guys that were 6'5 or 6'6. You're telling me it doesn't matter when a 5'8 or 5'9 guy takes on guys 9 inches taller than him? I'd say it definitely matters. No one else Domi's size ever took on guys that much bigger than them. So that tells you how special he was, that no one else did what he did. Oh, just for your information, I don't have Domi in my top 5. He's in the top 10, though. Probert got his ass whooped a lot also, but I'm not taking him out of my top 5 because of it.

Well, I've already posted what I think of Janik, so I was just saying....

Twist was great, but he was jacked up on roids and had terrible balance as well as a suspect chin. He threw too many uncoordinated punches. No way he's the best overall fighter, and he isn't a top 10 guy for me. Tie Domi was a more well rounded figher than Twist and didn't really have any weaknesses outside his size, which wasn't really a weakness for him. He was not an overrated fighter by any stretch. If Twist was Domi's size, he would have been murdered in the NHL with the style that he fought. Calgary did have some great fighters, most notably Sandy McCarthy, who I'm sure most hockey fans have heard about. Same with Berube. I have Probert ahead of Kocur, but I can see how you'd put him ahead of Probie. Kocur had a stretch there in his prime where he was undefeated for several years.

I agree. He was probably about 5'10 on skates, which is how they measured him. Teams often list players as being bigger and lighter than what the really are. Looking at photos of him outside of the rink, he looks about 5'8 or so. Kocur was 6'0 from what I remember, and I've never thought of him as a smaller guy that was great pound for pound.

What would happen if I started a "Praise Lebda Thread"?

I hope Boogaard does terrible things to the Pens players tonight. Seriously, though, the Wild aren't in the Pens league as a team. Don't know why Versus picked this game to broadcast, other than wanting to show off Crosby some more.

Yeah, what others have said. He's a big stay at home defenseman who fights. With Lilja out we don't have anyone else who can do that. Especially since Stuart and Ericsson don't fight, and in Ericsson's case, he's too prone to turnovers and being caught out of position. Also, he seems willing to actually block shots, which our team traditionally sucks at.

I didn't know Ray Ferraro even wrote columns. I knew he was a color commentary guy for some games, but I figured that was all. Don't forget that the Wings were the team that retired him in 2002 when he played for the Blues.

By tops, I hope you mean your favorite, and not who you think was actually the best fighter.

Kocur stopped playing right around the late 90's, when the bigger heavyweights became rampant all over the NHL. He didn't have to face off against them as much as Domi did in the last decade. Also, Domi was listed at 5'11, but he had to be no more than 5'9. I think a three inch height difference is significant somewhat. As for Jonathan, he was smaller than both of them and was one of the all time best.

That still doesn't excuse putting Martin Lapointe on your list. The guy was a wrestler more than a fighter. Based on your criteria, Shanahan should have been on the list, since he was a much better fighter than Lapointe. Same goes for Primeau.

There's a lot of fighters better than Kocur pound for pound. The best pound for pound fighters were Stan Jonathan and Tie Domi.

1. Bob Probert 2. Joe Kocur 3. Stu Grimson 4. Mel Bridgman 5. Wendel Clark 6. Troy Crowder 7. Brad May 8. Brendan Shanahan 9. Darren McCarty 10. Gordie Howe

If we traded Yzerman for Yashin, I imagine that would be on the list.

You forgot Mel Bridgman, Troy Crowder and Dennis Vial. They all played in Detroit, albeit two of them past their fighting primes, and one before his prime. Also, you overrated Hatcher and underrated Tiger WIlliams. Other than that, the list looks O.K., since no one's list will look alike.

I'm a realist, unlike you. We're not going to catch the Hawks in the standing. Anyone who thinks otherwise is asking for a little too much to happen.

How is it good that Chicago lost? We're not going to catch them anyway. We'd be better off with Anaheim losing.

I wish Sean Avery was still here, but that trade didn't look too bad trading Kuznetsov and Sean Avery for Schneider. Kuznetsov was a bust and Avery at the time didn't look like anything special. Now he's a good offensive player and a great agitator. Still, I wonder how things would have turned out had we not made that trade. Would Avery have been too big a distraction to this team's success, or would the leadership here have shut him up sufficiently to change his career trajectory?

He also has less goals this season than Hal Gill.

No we won't. Kronwall has been injured a lot, and I don't think Meech and Lebda can fill in either. This team will have to bring in a top d-man if Lidstrom leaves. We won't be O.K. with what we have now filling in, especially since Rafalski is getting up in age also.

When was the last time a team deliberately made their starting playoff goaie into a backup in the regular season only to make him starter once the playoffs began? To start Ozzie in the playoffs, if we make it there, would be detrimental to Howard's progress as a player. He's earned that right, unless Babcock just gets his s*** together and announces now that Ozzie is the starting goalie now and in the playoffs. Until then, Howard is the starter in my book. He's playing all the damn games and important ones at that. This is our playoffs right now, and who's behind the pipes for us?

Cleary's shoulder looked fine during that goal he scored.

Probably shouldn't even count as a fight, since Cleary didn't drop his gloves. He should of fed Setoguchi some uppercuts when he had his head down.

If only Leino went to the net as often as Helm does. All forwards should constantly crash the net instead of standing around so much.

He'll probably retire. His play this season will humble him into realizing that he can't perform at a high level anymore.