StormJH1

I really don't get all the negativity against Hossa in this town. This time last year, the same people on this site were telling Pittsburgh fans that they had no ownership interest over Hossa, and that they should've known he was a mercenary and nothing more. When he signed his one-year deal here, shouldn't we have gotten the same message?!
Hossa was a great two-way player for the Wings all season, and was probably their most consistent goal scorer. Datysuk, Lidstrom, and Rafalski had limited effectiveness in last year's playoffs, and they missed 14 games combined. Hossa's shoulder was destroyed, and he didn't miss a single game. Yes, Hossa was not effective at all in the final two rounds, but why is it that people use injuries as the excuse for all the other slumping Wings, but Hossa's just "sucks"? Pavel Datsyuk had one goal in 16 playoff games last year...secondary scoring (Cleary and Franzen, primarily) had to carry us to Game 7. But okay, it's much easier to blame the guy on his way out the door.
I had an interesting conversation with a non-Red Wings fan about Fedorov recently. I told him that the a significant portion of Wings fans felt betrayed by Fedorov, even though we won 3 Cups with him, because of his exit to Anaheim in 2003. My friend found that surprising, but not because Fedorov won 3 Cups with us or because he put in 13 good seasons for us--my friend's point was "Why would Detroit fans have wanted Fedorov back...he only had one more good season left in him."
It's the nature of Detroit fans (particularly from our big spending, pre-lockout days) to want, want, want, and expect everybody to want to play here and only here. But if you're mad at Hossa for leaving, don't you have to balance that against the negatives of Hossa STAYING? As in, taking a $6.5 million cap hit for a guy probably already past the prime of his career, and with serious shoudler issues requiring surgery? I have a Hossa Winter Classic jersey, which I wear from time to time. How is Hossa any more of a "traitor" than Martin LaPointe, Shanahan, Fedorov, or Samuelsson? (Or is this a business, after all?)

I think people have vastly underestimated the depth of this Phoenix team. People kept talking about Shane Doan like he was the only legitimate scorer on the team, and I don't see that at all. They may be lacking pure top line scoring talent, but they have secondary scoring all over the lineup, plus, their defensive corps has been getting invovled.
I think if we win, it could take 7. Next game is so huge, though. If we win Game 4, I could see us dropping Game 5 on the road. If we lose Game 4, uh oh. Also, there's a good chance Osgood plays if we get to 3 losses, no matter what. It doesn't even have as much to do with how Howard is playing (which is pretty shaky) as it does with history and the fact that you don't want to get eliminated wondering how your historically clutch playoff goalie might have played differently--even if he's done nothing on the merits to suggest that he'd play well this year.

Selfish how? The guy has posted better than a 3.00 GAA or 89% save percentage over the past two seasons. Honestly, if the alternative had been somebody more prominent than Ty Conklin last year, he probably never even gets the chance to play in the '09 Playoffs.
And from a fan's perspective, this thing is only going to get worse and worse with time. Osgood turns 38 in November. If he left after this season (and Howard plays well in the playoffs), there's a good chance much of this will be forgotten and he'll be remembered primarily as the winner of the 1998 and 2008 Cups, and a potential Hall of Fame candidate, based on his overall credentials. If I had the choice, I don't want to see another season where Osgood plays once a month, sucks, and then complains about inconsistent playing time again. I don't want to see this thing turn more sour.

Selfish how? The guy has posted better than a 3.00 GAA or 89% save percentage over the past two seasons. Honestly, if the alternative had been somebody more prominent than Ty Conklin last year, he probably never even gets the chance to play in the '09 Playoffs.
And from a fan's perspective, this thing is only going to get worse and worse with time. Osgood turns 38 in November. If he left after this season (and Howard plays well in the playoffs), there's a good chance much of this will be forgotten and he'll be remembered primarily as the winner of the 1998 and 2008 Cups, and a potential Hall of Fame candidate, based on his overall credentials. If I had the choice, I don't want to see another season where Osgood plays once a month, sucks, and then complains about inconsistent playing time again. I don't want to see this thing turn more sour.

Selfish how? The guy has posted better than a 3.00 GAA or 89% save percentage over the past two seasons. Honestly, if the alternative had been somebody more prominent than Ty Conklin last year, he probably never even gets the chance to play in the '09 Playoffs.
And from a fan's perspective, this thing is only going to get worse and worse with time. Osgood turns 38 in November. If he left after this season (and Howard plays well in the playoffs), there's a good chance much of this will be forgotten and he'll be remembered primarily as the winner of the 1998 and 2008 Cups, and a potential Hall of Fame candidate, based on his overall credentials. If I had the choice, I don't want to see another season where Osgood plays once a month, sucks, and then complains about inconsistent playing time again. I don't want to see this thing turn more sour.

I don't hate Samuelsson, just like I don't hate Hossa or Kopecky. The idea that you root for these guys as Wings and then suddenly they're complete garbage the day they choose or are forced to put on a different sweater is kinda fraudulent to me.
Sammy's comment wasn't arrogant or angry. He simply welcomed the matchup (what's he supposed to say?)
To his credit, you can think of a long list of former Red Wings (from Lapointe to Fedorov and beyond) who thought that they might be more productive playing a bigger role on a different team, but Sammy actually proved his point this year. I'm sure he hasn't forgotten that we revived his career, like we did for Cleary and countless others.