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So Howard doesn't get criticized for the same error (or not error) because of things that happened in other games? Makes sense. This is further proof that those blaming the Washington game on Ozzie, and other similar Ozzie bashing, are simply haters. You know why it's proof? Because Howard was more at fault for the Wings' blown lead tonight than Ozzie was against Washington, and Howard was barely at fault, if at all. But, to use your logic, "Ozzie gets a pass because he won two Cups and has about 400 wins." There. See how pointless that kind of statement is?

I only got a quick look, and I thought it went over. Regardless, Howard's entire body was under the 3 foot mark when the puck reached him. I just thought it was an odd looking save attempt.

I'm amused. Everyone's upset about how quickly goals 2 and 3 game, and the fact that they shouldn't have happened. But nobody is blaming Howard for tonight, even though: Brunette's goal, down to the shot placement and distance, was a copy of Backstrom's goal on Osgood. Havlat's goal was a direct result of poor rebound control, as Howard kicked the puck out into the slot on the initial shot. Earl's goal came in part because Howard lost track of the puck, and didn't realize it had popped back in front of the net. Everyone seemed to think Ozzie was giving up nothing but soft goals the other night, but this is the first comment on anything about Howard. On a side note...am I the only one who noticed that Zidlicky's shootout goal went over Howard's shoulder yet was in the bottom half of the net?

I would put Lidstrom in my top three, ahead of at least Myers.

Why Canada is not superior: 10. England invented hockey. 9. Bacon? Ham? Which is it? 8. Half the nation is French! 7. Hockey Canada has retired two numbers (66 and 99), yet #7 Cliff Ronning is the all-time leading scorer with 156 points, 14 more than Gretzky and Lemieux combined. 6. Big red leaf. What's next, paper snowflake? 5. Don Cherry. 4. Claude Lemieux. 3. Celine Dion 2. Patrick Roy 1. Howie Mandel

Bertuzzi's penalty and Lidstrom's penalty were both legit penalties. Yes, the Cap players involved were big name players. That doesn't mean the penalty was called for that reason. It ALSO doesn't mean the Wings can do more to restrict that player from creating offense. While I don't recall exactly what the calls were, both should have been penalties.

It's possible it might be Ovechkin/Fedorov/Semin since they played together in Washington.

He didn't lift his stick on Backstrom's goal. The fact that Backstrom scored because he got to shoot from four feet out without any Wing giving him trouble because Stuart s*** his pants does not make it Ozzie giving up a soft goal. Yes, the goal should not have happened. But because Stuart should have played Backstrom tighter instead of allowing him to walk right in while the Caps were on the PP.

So what, exactly, was Osgood supposed to do? Close his fivehole before Backstrom shot? That's what would have had to happen for him, or Howard, or 99.9% of goalies in the world to have stopped that shot. And guess what? Osgood closes his fivehole and he leaves his left and right sides wide open. There was not much he could do once Stuart let Backstrom walk in and then around him like that.

Yes, it IS a knock against Osgood. It's like me saying "Crosby isn't a diver, he just embellishes every time he gets hit." You feel that Osgood's numbers are better than his ability because of the teams he has played on. That's a knock on Osgood. What other goaltender EVER gets that kind of treatment? I honestly can't think of another goalie who has ever been treated like that, with the "He just did well those years because the team was awesome" like people say about Ozzie. Yes, Ozzie has played for some great teams. so did Roy, Brodeur, Sawchuk, Dryden, Fuhr, Vernon, Plante, Smith, Hextall, Belfour, and pretty much every other goaltender you can think of that people consider to have been "great" in their time. They all had great teams. Luongo hasn't had great teams; he's also won two playoff series, been named to the NHL second all-star team twice, and stopped a high percentage of low quality shots during his nine season career. Osgood has answered questions about being sat for a dozen consecutive games, for a month between starts. I've already addressed the fact that Howard took over the starting job when Osgood went out with the flu. Including games Osgood played while sick (such as the Toronto game) Osgood had 12 starts in the Wings' first 15 games, missed four games while Howard started and Larsson backed up, and Osgood has had seven starts in the 30 games since. Howard has played extremely well, but Osgood has not played poorly given that the majority of his games came when the Wings were an NHL roster playing at an AHL level rather than an AHL roster playing at an NHL level. Let's be straight for a second. Osgood joined the Wings when the Wings had a goaltender, Tim Cheveldae, who had been seventh and fifth respectively in Vezina voting the previous two seasons. Osgood had the starting job before the halfway point of the season. Bowman didn't trust a rookie for the playoffs, so before the deadline the Wings traded Steve Chiasson and Cheveldae to get Bob Essensa, who had been a Vezina finalist just two years prior. Osgood took the starting job back by the end of the season. It's not like Osgood is some chump and the Wings have created this aura around him. He TOOK the starting job in Detroit. He took it by force from Cheveldae, Essensa, and Vernon before Bowman finally relented. And even then, the Wings would later trade for Hasek, sending Osgood to a temporary exile due to the fact he made four times as much as Legace. Osgood would carry an Islanders team that had been the league's worst team the previous year and had changed very little within a game of the second round of the playoffs. The Islanders would eventually trade Osgood to St.Louis to make room for the golden boy, Rick Dipietro. In St. Louis, Osgood would again carry the team, as the Blues would only score 191 goals in 2003-04 yet Osgood would lead them to the playoffs, playing 67 games and winning 31. No team scoring fewer goals made the playoffs, and Dallas would be the only other team to score fewer than 200 and make the postseason. Osgood didn't win against Washington, and his numbers weren't great. But he did play well. Most fans watching the game thought this for most of the game. Know how I know? The 'fan vote' player of the game was very close between Osgood and Datsyuk with Filppula as a distant third when they put up the numbers in the third period. Hard to be the player of the game when you're playing poorly. Osgood made quite a few very big saves, and the first two goals were defensive breakdowns that led to, respectively, an open-net one-timer and a top forward with a free shot from below the hash marks. The third goal was a bad line change, which prevented any kind of defensive effort, and Osgood was screened by an opposing forward and his own defenseman. How some of you are calling any of those 'soft' goals is pure proof that you are either Osgood haters, or simply Wing haters.

Bradley was in behind the defense and had a open net backdoor. Yep, Osgood's fault. Stuart did nothing but ice dance with Backstrom and prevent any other Wing from playing him, allowing him to get in close and then walk around him for a point-blank chance. The third goal was on a bad Wings line change, effectively five Caps and two Wings (Lebda and Ericsson) on the ice on a rush, and Osgood was screened. Yep, completely weak goals and totally Osgood's fault. Howard would likely have cast a spell after it went in to reverse time so that he could stop the puck at the point of entry. That bastard Osgood didn't, and we lost because of it.

Mediocre goalies don't challenge for the Vezina several years in a row. Just sayin.

And Duncan Keith has been almost as productive offensively as Green this season, while playing very well defensively. Keith will win the Norris unless Lidstrom keeps up his recent offensive 're-discovery' through the end of the season...which I think is more likely than not.

Osgood went down with the flu, but kept playing. After the Toronto game, in which Osgood clearly could no longer play well enough to stay in, Howard took over. In the next three games, Howard gave up a total of 6 goals on 81 shots in 180 minutes played. Solid numbers. Other strong numbers? The Wings scored 19 goals in those three games. Howard has been the starter since that point. Osgood played through the flu, Howard played three games with the 1985 Edmonton Oilers in front of him, and suddenly Babcock didn't trust Osgood in net anymore. Osgood has started six games of a possible 33 since the Toronto game, which he wasn't even healthy for.

Well then. We'd better take down the banners of Sawchuk, Lindsay, Howe, and Abel as Yzerman and Delvecchio are the only guys up there who spent their entire pro careers in Detroit, and are therefore the only 'true' Red Wings.

Just imagine if all three of Grigs, Vladdie, and Fisch had been able to play out full, healthy careers with the Wings instead of having the accidents they had?

A polar bear....flying a fighter jet...blowing up the Earth....and playing hockey in space? Can anyone say WTF?

Lidstrom has been very good defensively, although his offense has been less than we would normally expect. Even though he's not "The Nick" I would still probably at the very least consider taking him first of all defensemen. Green doesn't even merit consideration because of his one-dimensional game, Niedermayer is in the same scoring range and not nearly as good defensively. Keith, Boyle, Doughty, Bouwmeester, Pronger, Chara, and Weber are the other guys who would get a look or two. A healthy Kronwall would also be on this list if he had continued the way he was playing instead of being injured; his offensive pace would put him at 10th in defense scoring and he was performing very well defensively.

Art Ross: Ovechkin Richard: Ovechkin Hart: Ovechkin Pearson: Ovechkin Calder: Myers Vezina: Miller Selke: Madden Byng: Marleau Norris: Lidstrom. If I had to pick someone else? Keith. Adams: Gretzky; him stepping down was the best move he could make for the Coyotes.

Yep, trade our fifth or sixth best forward prospect (which Fleischmann was) and a draft pick for the league's leading scorer. Dumb trade right?

That line should be Abdelkader/Filppula/Miller

I got to see the real Cup in person in downtown Ann Arbor, and even place my whole hand over the 1955 Wings. Have a picture too.

I had a crazy thought. What if NHL teams were only allowed to draft players from their own state/province, or a state/province/country that does not have an NHL team? Following this, I wanted to see what the Wings would look like in this kind of NHL. Rules: Teams can elect to keep up to 3 players from current roster. The team will then be filled out to 23 players using only "local" players, or players from the team's state/province. Teams who cannot fill their roster from 'local' players will be allowed to fill their roster from remaining unselected 'non-local' players. Detroit's roster based on these rules would be, before any cap considerations: G: Ryan Miller G: Tim Thomas D: Nicklas Lidstrom D: Brian Rafalski D: Tim Gleason D: Andy Greene D: James Wisniewski D: Matt Hunwick D: Matt Greene F: Henrik Zetterberg F: Pavel Datsyuk F: Ryan Kesler F: David Booth F: Brian Rolston F: Mike Modano F: David Legwand F: Mike Grier F: Jim Slater F: Chad Larose F: Doug Weight F: Andy Hilbert F: TJ Hensick F: Justin Abdelkader Note: Drew Miller would be included in place of TJ Hensick, except he was born in Dover, NJ despite his family living in East Lansing; note older brother Ryan's birthplace of East Lansing.

No for both. The retirement, I don't even need to explain. As for first ballot? Sundin will be there. Perhaps Forsberg. Tom Barrasso may still be kicking around, Ed Belfour if he isn't inducted within the next couple seasons, Curtis Joseph will be eligible, Randy Carlyle and Mark Howe are still eligible for selection as well. Pavel Bure is another who might not be in by then. Belfour will likely be in before Shanahan is eligible. Belfour's induction might see Barrasso finally inducted as well, given their similar career histories and numbers. Joseph and Sundin are eligible the same year as Shanahan, as well as Forsberg if he hangs it up after this season. If they don't count Elitserien or KHL when thinking about the HHOF, then we have another three guys Shanahan will never be in ahead of: Jaromir Jagr, Sergei Fedorov, and Chris Chelios. But I believe they do count all professional leagues, so Shanny lucks out. But although he will get in, he will almost certainly not be on the first ballot unless the voters have a very short memory in his year.

Abdelkader is already at $850. He will likely go to just under $1m for 2-3 years, with Helm getting the $850 for a similar period.