Uncle Danny

This thread is so full of awesome. I love you, drumnj.

I'd have no problem with a Modano jersey, but I won't be picking one up. I'm stoked that the hometown boy is likely to close out his career in his old stomping grounds and will applaud the s*** out of him from my couch here in CA during his Detroit debut...but I save my jersey funds for long standing players on a given team. I'm still rounding out my collection of original six jerseys, and Modano/Detroit just doesn't fit that mold.

Hey folks, honest question here. I'll be open in admitting that the extent of my GR following is done on this site, so forgive me if this is a silly question, but... How does ownership of AHL teams work with regard to NHL ownership? By this I mean, does Illitch Holdings own the Griffins outright, so all salaries come out of the same pool as the Wings (cap notwithstanding)? Or is there a more complicated setup? Is this scenario enforced as the only way for AHL affiliates to be held, or is there no true boilerplate for such things? Also, I understand it is common for coaches (and players) to cut their teeth in the AHL -- is the same true for front office employees? Thanks in advance!

Oh come on now, for pete's sake... the answer in the other 14k threads asking this question was no, and it's still no. A resounding no.

Ahh, this is the tidbit I was after. I wondered what incentive the AHL has to play nice with the big boys if ownership was disparate. This now makes sense. The bit on the coaches I'm sure leads to some heated discussions, but also makes a ton of sense since we want the kids learning the right brand of hockey for the bigs. I got to wondering since we so raped the GR roster this season due to injury, and the results in the AHL standings seemed to reflect that. If I'm Dan DeVos, that can't make me happy. Thanks to you both for the replies

http://ballhype.com/video/chris_osgood_nick_lidstrom_on_leno/ EDIT: Not a video, but worth mentioning to your friend http://www.angelfire.com/ak/kevin1914/lateshow.html

Back on topic, I laughed when I first saw the clip, but in retrospect, it was a pretty low thing for him to say. To Burish: You just won the Stanley Cup, beating the man you're being asked about. Show some respect and be a good winner. You don't have to like Pronger (I certainly don't), but a simple "no comment" with a chuckle would have gotten your point across. Not only did you just put a huge target on your back for the next time you play against Pronger, you also you showed a large lack of (wait for it) class by berating a defeated opponent. Not cool. Don't get me wrong. I'm not outraged or disgusted by this, and I'm sure he regrets saying it today once the euphoria of winning the Cup wore off some. I just don't think that's the way a professional should handle himself... But it sure was funny.

I went with Carcillo. If age was not a factor, or if we're talking only about a single year contract, then Pronger would be the obvious choice. Carcillo is the youngest of the bunch, not even to his prime years yet. He, Avery and Tootoo all bring roughly the same thing to a team, and he doesn't have the history with Detroit that the other two do (Tootoo as an opponent, obviously). Avery, I think, would be my last choice. Not only is he the oldest of the agitating forwards here, but he's also got no small reputation as being quite a jerk in the dressing room (e.g. Dustin Brown). I've personally never heard that said about the other two.

Forgot to mention them ealier, but Drew Remenda and Randy Hahn out of San Jose are pretty good too. Remenda in particular does a good job of putting aside homerism in favor of calling a good hockey game.

Thorne and Clement were solid. I've also always liked Jim Hughson. I've also always had a soft spot for Panger, although I'll admit that it may be due to his playing time in Saginaw (my original hometown) and friendship with Yzerman. This one will be wildly unpopular, but I seriously enjoy watching Pierre McGuire. The guy is an encyclopedia and loves the game more than just about anyone else I've seen -- he's also a huge weirdo and excels at making his broadcast partners and interview subjects uncomfortable. I may not agree with most of what he says, but manoman is that little freak entertaining. Oh, and Mickey, Dave and Ken, of course!

VERBEEK's sake, please make it RIENDEAU!

I could not possibly agree more. I am a hockey fan first and a Wings fan second... diehard on both accounts. I love the way Toews, Hossa and Keith play the game, have many friends from the Chicago area who are longtime Hawks fans and generally root for the West over the East since that is my team's conference. Of course I'd be rocking the winged wheel and cheering my heart out for the Wings if they were still playing, but they're not. I still enjoy watching hockey, so the team I'm choosing to back until the offseason is the Hawks (nevermind that, once the Wings got bounced I was praying for a Sharks/Habs final....grumble). This makes me less of a fan? That's plain silly.

The Tampa article alluded to this indirectly, but I think this was a brilliant move by the Bolts for the following reason: The Lightning have been the very definition of a poorly run team from the top down for years now. Poor ownership, poor management and so on. Now, with a new, seemingly dedicated, single owner, was the right time for them to alter the entire culture of their front office. When Stevie was drafted by the Wings, Illitch was a new, seemingly dedicated, single owner of a team in shambles. It has been said time and time again that he thought the organization should run as a family, with loyalty, mutual respect and tons and tons of hard work as the cornerstones. And you know what? It worked. 20 odd years later, the Wings are renowned as one of, if not the, best run organization in all of sports. This is the only NHL culture Yzerman has ever known, and one that was successful largely because of his own commitment to those cornerstones. Now, I don't know a ton about Vinik, but I have to believe that in their discussions, he must have displayed to Stevie that he shared in this philosophy, and wanted to bring the best parts of it to Tampa. If I'm Vinik, what better way to erase years of fundamental toxicity and to begin a winning tradition than to bring on one of the men responsible for making Detroit respectable again? I'll miss having Yzerman in Detroit, but I'm actually finding myself eager to see Tampa turn things around with him at the helm.

I doubt we'll see much poaching, but when I heard the news I immediately thought that this means Holland does have another friendly trading partner in the East. This can only be good news.

Do I feel betrayed? Not in the slightest. The man gave decades of his life for some of the best entertainment I've ever witnessed, and I'm ecstatic for him and his opportunity to take his career to the next level. I am absolutely saddened, though, that for the first time ever at the NHL level, Stevie is representing a team other than the Wings. Like several others have already said... at least now I have an official second favorite team. I hope he knocks this one out of the park, with ten consecutive finals appearances (all of them seven game losses to the Wings ).

What about Barry Smith?

Sorry if I was misunderstood. San Jose is a big place, even larger than the more widely recognized Oakland and San Francisco. But... San Jose came to prominence due to its relative position to the state capital and SF/Bay Area. It was never a "major" city in terms of history, and saw its growth only in the modern era. Detroit, on the other hand, was once the country's 4th largest city, behind only Chicago, LA and NYC. The lays of the land are completely different as a result. JLA is near the center of Detroit proper, which was built to support almost 5x what San Jose has become. Of course we all know how that turned out, but the architecture, zoning and general layout are vastly different because of this. HP sits neatly right off the highway, near the airport and some high rise hotels. JLA, by contrast, sits on the river in the middle of what was once a booming urban center. I'm not saying one is better than the other, only that to compare them is silly. It's like comparing a 4x4 work truck to a two seat hybrid vehicle. Both have their place, but you can't really draw many parallels between them. StubHub. I worked there for years and years. Great little site

You're spot on about HP. It's actually a really great place to watch a game. Good replays, good lighting, enthusiastic but not douchey crowd, easy access to beer and food, plenty loud and not really a bad seat in the house. I do have to take exception to saying JLA is in the ghetto, though. Unless you define all of Detroit as a ghetto, JLA is in a pretty good area. It's a little old, but you're within spitting distance of several nightlife areas and, despite it being near an older urban center, it's incredibly safe down there. I mean, San Jose is just a suburb of the Bay Area anyway, so comparing the location of HP to the Joe, which is smack in the middle of a major city, is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. Both have their charm. And for the record, I've been to both barns tens of times, and will, in fact, be at HP tomorrow night for game 5 (proudly rocking my red).

That might be the most sig-worthy typo(?) I've ever been witness to. Hats off.

Yes, you're right. I now blame Obama for that horribly slow line at the DMV I had to endure last week. I stand corrected.

I share your general anger at the officiating (although this particular event wasn't a missed call), but what the hell does Bettman have to do with this? Incompetent officiating is one thing, league wide conspiracies are quite another. (HINT: The former exists, the latter does not)

No, I won't watch "with as much interest and enthusiasm," but I will definitely still watch with interest and enthusiasm. It will hurt like hell, but I love playoff hockey, and that won't end if the Wings bow out.

Just an addendum to the English portion of what I typed. It's also worth noting that the landscape in the US for Russian immigrants is far different today than it was during Fed's time in Detroit. Fedorov defected from the Soviet Union at a time when I'll bet 99% of our country had never met an off-the-boat Russian immigrant. The influx of Russians was beginning, but most of the people coming to the US from USSR at the time were families with children and not 22 year old kids like Sergei... and I'm quite sure Detroit was not one of their main destinations. This almost certainly led to some of the brooding and sense of isolation that were hallmarks of #91's stay in Detroit. Flash forward 20 years, and all those Russian children are now adults in the US (think: Larionov's daughters) and make for a much softer landing for kids moving across the planet to play in the NHL. There is also (thank you, Igor and Slava!) a much wider acceptance of and appreciation for Russian players than there was in the early 90's. I guess this was just a long winded way of saying that I think the larger Russian communities available today in the US, coupled with a more Euro friendly atmosphere in the hockey world will help Malkin to avoid some of the pitfalls Sergei could not. His road should be easier, and that's a good thing.

Sorry to continue the hijack, but a couple of things pop out to me here. 1) As much as I love Datsyuk (and believe me, I do), he's nowhere near the talent that Fedorov was. I won't rehash at length what's already been said, but Fedorov in his prime was the best player in the NHL. He could, quite literally, do it all, and do it all better than anyone else. His head for the game was only overshadowed by his physical gifts. 2) I know this is nitpicking, but I can't even put Lidstrom in the same category as Sergei in terms of pure "talent." Lids is one of the smartest players ever to grace the game, and his play style reflects this. He's not the biggest, strongest, fastest, and doesn't have any discernible skill (e.g. a blistering slapshot) that puts him ahead of the competition. His game is all about his head. Sergei, while not on the level of Lidstrom, still had an insanely high hockey IQ AND physical gifts few could approach. I'm not saying Fedorov was a better player, necessarily, only that based on pure talent, I've yet to see Red Wing approach what #91 had in his prime. As for Malkin, I doubt it will be an issue. The team continues to win, and Crosby and Malkin's individual successes are largely helped by the success of the other. He's also far less comfortable with English than Feds was, and seems to enjoy the limelight a fair bit less. I honestly never saw Fedorov leaving as a measure of dissatisfaction with living in Stevie's considerable shadow, and more a measure of a rough period in his life (women will do funny things to a guy's head, no?) that led to a decision he stated regretting later. If anything, Malkin should take a lesson from Fedorov and not mirror his mistakes. He's got a great thing going, and I hope/think he knows that. As much as I dislike Crosby for his hype, I like Malkin and his game. The hockey fan in me hopes they continue their success together. It's always more fun as a fan when you have a worthy adversary to root against, Malkin is a pretty likable foe and they both are sure fun to watch play.