Heroes of Hockeytown

I doubt I could explain with such brevity the entirety of my philosophical outlook on life. Well done, Lou.

As sure as I know anything I know this: I didn't aim to make any reference. I must be so good at it I keep on doin' it accidentally.

Please rise, and may we suggest you remove your hats for the singing of the Czech National Anthem, performed by our own Robert Lang: The Red Wings greatest team in the world, All other teams are run by little girls, Red Wings number one giver of Kickassium All other teams have inferior Kickassium. Joe Louis home to best ice in the league, Its length sixty meter its width twenty meter, Zamboni system a marvel to behold, It remove 80 percent of cuts from players' skates. Red Wings! Red Wings! You very good team, From dominance of Zetterberg to bumbling of Lilja, Red Wings friend of all except Nashville Predators, They very noisy people with bone in their brain. Come grasp the mighty stick of our leader, From the top of its knob to the tip of its blaaaade!

A little argumentative this morning, eh?

It was a mistake to retire 99 league wide.

It does. Every time Bob forces me to criticize him, somewhere, a rose turns to black and is no more.

Philly is gonna go hard after Biron and will probably lock him up. Giguere ain't bad. I'm surprised Backstrom is up there; is that correct? He's been great for the Wild, but he's still inexperienced at the NHL level.

Yeah, I'd have to go with Bob, too. He's been hot and cold, but what's consistent throughout are his costly turnovers and obvious lack of effort at both ends of the rink.

We're gonna have trouble seeing eye to eye here, I think. So now you're asking me, "What did he do besides that thing he did?" I think we're done here, man.

I agree insofar that Steve and Mario were more important to their team's success than Wayne, but that's a nothing big. There's no Oilers dynasty without Wayne--we'd be talking about the Canadiens or Flames right now instead. If you ask me, it's the age old argument: do you score more rolling lines with great linemates or being the top dog and being out there constantly. In any event, you certainly don't outscore everyone so totally unless you've got some great ability. I don't much care for arguing this particular point; it was your dismissal of Gretzky (post Oilers, Suter hit) that sort of irked me.

Yikes, that's pretty brutal.

What you're saying is he's not as good as those guys because those guys played through a serious injury. Let be the first to tell you: no player wants an injury. That's no reason to look down on Wayne because he never played with debilitating knee/back problems. And the 1993 Kings are pretty much as good as you're gonna find of a player hiking a team on his back and taking them to the Finals. Well, unless you brought a time machine with you, all we have are those very same numbers you seem to dislike so much. Here. Shave a thousand points even off his career numbers. Still second all-time. Oh, is it that you think the teams that Steve and Mario won their Cups on lacked talent?

Why do you think so?

"Stop counting the years when he was at the peak of his game" is basically what you're saying, which is ridiculous. Why? His stats are more than good enough to prove his greatness.

Steve's got 32 points on Mario in 600 extra games. There's a lot that goes into that, of course, but the bottom line is that no one had as much raw talent as Mario, Steve wasn't even close. There's plenty to like about both guys but in terms of offensive talent Mario was the best of the best.

He won three scoring titles and an MVP. He led the Kings to the Stanley Cup Finals, far and away outscoring anyone that year in the playoffs (I'm fairly certain no one's come close to his 40 points since then). To me that's something.

I'd prefer the reverse, given each goaltenders historical and recent dominance over those squads.

At ease Cap'n Giant Text, all is forgiven. You're right, though, the edit is on the fritz. EDIT: But not for long.

Gretzky served as captain on every team he played for in the NHL (reserve captain in New York).

I had a Hot 'N Ready + Crazy Bread last night for dinner and let me tell you: still a pretty good pizza for a damn good price. Though Hungry Howie's is starting to grow on me...

You should queue up the highlights of yesterday's Avs game and listen to him when Hejduk nets the OT winner... ay ay ay, he damn near wets himself.

We certainly aren't in Nagano anymore.

I think the Nashville guys are jerks, and the Dallas guys are crybaby *******. There everyone loses.

I agree. The Wings inability to cope with Western Canadian hockey is maddening. There are a myriad of reasons why any particular game is a loss (tonight, our still-depleted line up is as good as any), but adding "it was a West Coast team" to the list presents huge problems in most foreseeable playoff series. Their trap was also noticeable and stifling. The good news is this: we have yet to really play the Canucks when firing on all cylinders, and we won't unless we meet in the playoffs. We've beaten the Flames twice, trading blowouts and winning a tight one, and we essentially went 1-1-2 against the Oilers, where 2 means ties, since they were lost in the shootout. Still, it's something that looms large over everything they'll try to accomplish this spring.

It's been a while since he's seen playoff hockey. He'll be 39 next time they come around; to say age hasn't degraded his playing ability is silly. Still, he's better than he's showing in C-bus. I think I'm a year away from knowing whether or not I'd like to see Kenny pursue him.