Electrophile

No, because Kris Draper is not one of the best forwards the Red Wings have had. However Chris Osgood is arguably the greatest goalie the Red Wings have had.

So the fact that he holds nearly all the goaltending records for this organization, more than Terry Sawchuk, means jack squat? Alrighty then. Again I'll say, if one of the greatest goaltenders in the history of the franchise doesn't get his number retired by that franchise, they should stop retiring numbers. I'm not some Osgood slappy who thinks the sun shines out of ass, but I can look at what he's done as a Detroit Red Wing and what other goalies for the Wings have done and say......hey.....he's done more. Shouldn't that warrant #30 in the rafters? Furthermore, I wasn't talking about players just at Steve Yzerman's position. I'm talking about the fact that in toto there have been many players in the history of the NHL better than him. Steve still got his number retired. Many of those players won far more Cups and individual trophies than he did. Steve still got his number retired. Getting your number retired by the Red Wings is in honor of what you've done for this franchise during your career. Based on his CAREER NUMBERS WITH THE DETROIT RED WINGS, Chris Osgood should have his number retired.

You don't have to be the best in the NHL to get your number retired by the Wings. There have been a lot of players in the NHL better than Steve Yzerman, but no one was better AS A WING. And that's what gets your number retired. Chris Osgood is one of the greatest goalies this franchise has ever had, and if that doesn't get his number retired, then no more numbers should ever be retired by this organization.

I'd hate to see Steve working or being a part of any other organization, because he's the living embodiment of the Detroit Red Wings. It would be like Joe Montana working for the Patriots or something. Or Derek Jeter getting traded to the Red Sox. That said, we can't keep him chained to a chair for the rest of his life. If he's going to go, I at least hope he's happy and successful wherever he ends up.

I said "essentially". That implies there are exceptions.

Bigcock? Bigdick? Call me crazy, but it would appear you don't like Mike Babcock.

If that's the case, then why are so many people claiming we're not that good? I mean, we have more points than the defending champions. If we're bad, what does that say about Pittsburgh?

I didn't feel like I was personally affronted when he left, so now that he's coming back for next season, I'm quite happy about it. We need all the depth we can get and whatever way he can help, we're glad to have it.

I know the team has a rule about who gets their number retired and essentially, you have to be a lifer......but when the day comes that Ozzie retires, I sincerely hope the team considers making an exception for him. I wouldn't say that about just anyone who has played for this team, but Osgood is arguably one of the greatest goalies this franchise has ever had next to Sawchuk. That's not faint praise.

This. I'm sorry, but if you're so pissed off at the fact that the Red Wings are a majority European squad.....go watch another team. I don't know what else to tell you. It's a completely asinine thing to dislike the team for, frankly. You can be mad that the coaching may not be what you want, or that certain aspects of the team's play isn't as strong as it should be......but complaining the team is mostly European? That gets a solid Whiskey Tango Foxtrot from me.

Well, the last two times you've done this, it's worked....so here's to three times being charmed.

This was more than a bad loss, IMO. We weren't just outplayed, we were overpowered. They had something like 12 or 13 SOG during the 3rd, we had 4. They just sat their fat asses in our zone and took shot after shot after shot. Better not see that during Game 2.

I hope we win tonight to give Babs a nice birthday present. :siren:

Anyone but Crosby.

Good. I love Yankee Haters.

Nothing would make me happier than seeing the Canadiens advance.

Win. Just win.

The only reason there's no salary cap in major league baseball is that the owners would never agree to a salary floor, and without a floor there will never be a cap. The NHL doesn't have the problems the MLB does with small-market teams hording money. Teams like the Marlins, Royals, Pirates and Orioles get a ton of money each year in revenue sharing and then pay their players in Monopoly money. That's why the disparity between teams like the Yankees/Red Sox/Mets/Dodgers and those squads is so great. On one side you have the teams that are willing to spend nearly anything to get players and on the other, teams willing to spend nothing. A floor would force them to operate at a competitive level, but they'd never agree to it. The NFL has a similar cap situation, where the floor is something like 84%. Meaning, if the cap was $100 million, the floor is $84 million, forcing all teams to operate between the two numbers. Obviously the players have to have the talent to win the games, regardless of how much the team's operating payroll is. From what I've read and seen about the NHL's cap situation, I don't think those problems exist. Which is why their cap works. I actually applaud the NHL for a workable cap situation.

Edited because I've taken this thread waaaaaay off-topic.

I'm not sure what this random listing of players is supposed to represent. Players you don't like? Players we acquired via trade/free agency that won championships? Help me out here. I'm a Yankees fan, been one since 1994 so yeah, I'm going to defend them if I think the reasoning people are using to disparage them is faulty and/or dumb. We spend a lot of money, I've never said otherwise. I think it's great and am grateful we have an owner willing to part with however much he thinks he needs to in order to insure a quality product will be on the field every season. We may not win the WS every year, but at least the best possible team to achieve that is playing every night.

I initially misread the headline as "Unclassy move by Phx, player blown by ref" and thought.....gee, that explains all the s*** calls against us in the series.

Not to turn this into an MLB discussion, but I get real tired of that which I bolded. All teams pay for their championships -- no one pays their players in circus peanuts. The Yankees spend a lot of money on players because they can and because the system allows for it. No one said anything about Boston and their two championships, when they had exorbitantly high payrolls, in fact the 2004 squad is the highest-payrolled team to win a WS. The majority of the players on the dynasty teams and the current team are products of our farm system, not free agents or trade acquisitions. We "bought" our championships the same way every other team that has won a WS has "bought" their championship. It's asinine to think there's something wrong with a team spending the money they have on the players they want to get the results they desire. It's called capitalism. Whenever people use the above bolded excuse for why they hate the Yankees, it says one thing and one thing only: I'm jealous that my team doesn't have the financial resources to compete in the current market and therefore I'm going to hate the team that can spend the most. Period.

As a dyed-in-the-wool Yankees fan, I completely agree with this. People who hate the Yankees don't hate them because of the players or the ownership or the new stadium or anything else like that. They hate them because they're good, and because they win. I've had to deal with people like this for the last 16 years now, that includes before the dynasty era with Torre at the helm. I was a fan when Buck Showalter was the manager. It's jealously pure and simple, and the more they say it isn't, the more it's obvious that it is. The Wings are the same way. We've had almost two decades now of going to the playoffs and since 1997, have won 4 Stanley Cups. Considering that I believe we're the only team in that time span to win multiple cups.....that's damn impressive. Players will take substantial pay decreases in order to stay here, including signing essentially lifetime contracts so that there's no chance they'll end up elsewhere. We have an amazing owner who goes out of his way to make the team more like a family than a professional sports club. Not to mention, great fans. So yeah.....it's jealousy. We win, we're good at winning and everyone else can't stand it. In short, they can kiss our asses.

Happy Birthday, Nick. Hope you celebrate many, many more.

Someone should remind the Coyotes that this is what happens when one of your moron players dares to touch an octopus. We just teased them by losing Game 6. They had no prayer.