Heroes of Hockeytown

Junior Parm is here.

Who cares where they're from? A hockey player's a hockey player and should be judged on his own merits.

It should go without saying that the Wings management knows what they're doing. If they pick a tiny European guy, okay. They've had a pretty good run with that before.

The example doesn't work if the aggressor happens to be the Jonas Brothers. He didn't, but in all other situations Sammy proudly carried on those fine Langer traditions.

I don't know that s***-talking after the whistle and giving someone a facewash but then never once dropping the gloves really makes you any tougher than the typical Red Wings "skate away and say nothing" maneuver.

I'm inclined to agree that if they made the roster tomorrow there's no way Homer would be on it, but if he manages to get back on track for the first half in '10 it's in the realm of possibility.

Wouldn't rule out Leino or Homer either.

I remember when this guy, along with Kyle Calder and Tyler Arnason were the future of the Blackhawks. I think they're in a little better shape with Kane and Toews.

The greatest success and biggest failure in the history of the Red Wings just might be skipping town. Here's to you, Sammy, the creator of -- and solution to -- all of the Wings' problems.

But, as Kenny knows, much of the difference comes from PK time versus PP time.

Yzyman. A troll of the ancient world. This foe is beyond any of you. Run!

"Sitting back and playing maximum defense" ≠"not trying." This is something that happens in virtually any close hockey game.

Fixed, because there's not a sport where this doesn't happen.

Yes.

I can honestly say I was very surprised to see that Green didn't win the Norris. Very pleasantly surprised, I should add. Although for all the reasoning that could have gone into the Green vote (lolgoals), basically anything falls flat on its face trying to compare Chara to Lidstrom. No offense meant to Chara, who's a great player, but he's not as good a defensemen as Nick, and didn't have as good a season as Nick, and virtual any statistic can bear that out, which is the only thing Green will ever have on our main man.

Mike Green is going to win the Norris, I feel confident in saying. I'd be very surprised if Nick won it. Pavel should win the Selke and Byng, I figure, but obviously he's got no chance at Hart. Could be either of them, but my money's on AO.

Rafalski and Stuart aren't going to be traded, so it's a non-issue, but an NTC, as if often clarified, isn't really a way to prevent a player from being traded so much as preventing a player from being traded to a team he doesn't like. If acceptable accommodations are made a player would waive his NTC; nobody wants to play for a team that expressly doesn't want them.

He directly contributed to two goals, including one by Abdelkader... He did a good job.

How exactly do you accomplish that? Everyone's got to play. Players get hit and block shots all the time, sometimes it injures them and sometimes it doesn't.

Matt, you're a lovely human being, and I thank you for making this place where Wings fans from all over the world were able to share these last two wonderful seasons together.

I miss football.

Everyone but Nick was pretty guilty of making ill-timed pinches in this series. At some point someone's got to take these guys aside and ask them if maybe keeping the puck in is worth a nearly guaranteed goal against. If you're not sure, don't step up.

I guess if that's what you're all about, okay. Except in Game 5, and not even then until Cleary got the goal, the Wings struggled to beat the Pens forecheck. They were better in some games than others, but they never had a real good handle on it. Tonight they couldn't muster anything at all until the Pens fell back into "oh my god don't lose the game" mode.

They just got beat. The Penguins totally dominated them from the start to very nearly the finish.

Hossa's not as good as either player when healthy.