GMRwings1983

If Fedorov and Shanahan aren't going to have their numbers retired, then neither should Osgood.

And you missed the sarcasm in mine.

If Lebda worked half as hard to improve his game as he does on his party skills, we might have a great defenseman on our hands for the future.

Really? Which posters are you talking about specifically?

So is this really it, or is he the boy crying wolf again?

I just hope we don't sign Quenneville as one of our assistants, or else we can forget about repeating as champs.

I was hoping Tie Domi would become their coach, but I doubt he wants to get into that profession. Oh well, I guess Wilson will at least get them into the playoffs every year, and at this point Leafs fans wouldn't mind choking in the playoffs each year over their current situation.

Several of you omitted Sammy, and I seriously doubt that Babcock would all of a sudden lose faith in him after a good Finals for Sammy, when he's shown such unconditional devotion to him during all the times he sucked.

Kocur was friends with Dave Lewis, and was not assoicated with Babcock's staff. I'd love to see Probert become an assistant coach. Can you imagine him flipping out on the bench during a scrum?

All I'm saying is that Ozzie made a great diving effort, but even though everyone keeps showing the replay slow-mo, with the puck dancing down the line, at that time the clock had already expired.

Don't forget about the World Cup of Hockey (formerly known as the Canada Cup). That could give someone the Quadruple Gold Club possibly However, as far as I know, there is no World Cup scheduled any time soon, with the last one being in 2004.

Who would have thought when he left Detroit after the 2001 season, that he'd be back 7 years later to win the Cup as a starter for the Wings. Amazing story. BTW, I'm not trying to take anything away from Ozzie, but I've seen the replay a million times, and Hossa's last second play would never have counted, since the clock would have expired on him. I was just wondering if anyone else noticed this?

I think I'm madly in love with my new avatar.

I was surprised he wasn't 1st because of seniority and the possibility of not returning next year.

The players have been instructed to always smile around him, for fear of upsetting him somehow.

They do this every year on the Tonight Show. All Leno will do is make comments on whether they have missing teeth or not, and some other generally idiotic jokes about hockey players. I doubt they'll even get 2 minutes of airtime.

This explains why they were playing "head games" with fans and media.

Downey only sat in the stands for half the regular season, and he isn't any more talented than McGrattan. Yeah McGrattan won't play in the playoffs, but as I already stated in another thread, having an enforcer is good for the regular season for entertainment value. I don't want to see this team avoid fights in the regular season while everyone else is fighting. There's hardly any fighting in the playoffs, so I can't fault the Wings for not dropping the gloves at that time. McCarty isn't an enforcer at this point. Besides, Mac will likely be the one sitting in the stands.

Horry has won 7 championships.

I'd kill to have McGrattan in Detroit. Yeah, I know he's not going to help us in the playoffs, but what does that matter. The regular seasons have become boring and jaded for me, so why not spice things up a bit and draw some more fans to games in the regular season? We know we'll be in the playoffs anyway. Once the playoffs come, he can be a healthy scratch for someone else just like Downey was. That worked fine this year from what I can remember.

Exactly. He does, however, make a good point about us needing a top 10 heavyweight, especially with the possibility of Lilja not returning for next year.

At times Helm looked like a veteran who was playing for his last chance to win a Cup. He was flying around out there playing with tremendous tenacity on every shift. I can't believe they waited so long to give him a chance. He should have been a regular all year, especially with the injuries we had at forward. Hopefully he'll get better defensively, which he will learn from the other centers on the team. Then he can become a force on the 3rd and 4th lines. I like Downey, but he's not even close to being a top 10 heavyweight.

The instigator penalty and the lack of enforcers has made the NHL into a softer league than what it once was. I don't mind them calling inteference penalties, but I wish they'd call less goalie interference penalties, and call more diving by itself, instead of calling a penalty, and then penalizing the other player for diving. This way, diving is not deterred by the league at all. Also, say what you want, but there's a lot more Europeans now than there's ever been, thus there's going to be less hitting and fighting in the game, because that's not the style of hockey they play overseas. However, first thing is first. Get rid of the instigator penalty, and lets see some more enforcers back in the league doing their thing. It's good for physicality and for the entertaiment value.

I still don't know if Cleary is a top 6 guy or a top 9 guy? I guess a lot of that depends on whether we sign any big time free agent forwards this summer.

Right, then we could go after bona fide #1 defenseman with that money. Great idea!