Hank

I don't think Lemieux really cares about being respected or not. He won 3 cups in his career and even won a Conn Smythe trophy with New Jersey. He's no heavyweight and he never, ever claimed to be one. I've seen a handful of his fights and most of the time he came off pretty even. McCarty winning the rematch is debatable but the fact he hung in with a supposed top-teir scrapper like McCarty tells you he's no panzy and would have killed almost every average joe on the show if they went after him. Like Barrie said, all of this happened 11 years ago. Draper won 3 Cups after this incident and many Avs didn't agree with what Lemieux did either. Lets all drop it and remember the payback that this idiot received. That would be the biggest insult of all to him.

You guys all make me laugh. I'm no Lemieux apologist by anymeans (I despise the guy too) but this guy was not exactly a panzy on the ice. I've seen him fight a few times and he knew how to hold his own. Sure, he turtled vs McCarty and he looked like a fool doing so, but doesn't anyone here remember the rematch where Lemieux dropped the gloves on the opening face off? He stood toe-to-toe with Darren and I thought he did really well. In fact, some think he got the better of McCarty. I guarentee you that 95% of the people on this board would have had the crap kicked out of them by Lemieux if they dropped the gloves with him. Or at the very least drawn even. But certainly nobody here would have KO'd him or come close to it. Also, the one "Joe" who was from Michigan told MLive.com that Lemieux was a really nice guy off the ice so I'm positive he only played up this highstick incident for the camera. And I'm just as positive all those comments were for entertainment purposes too. Look at the reaction he got from a few people on these boards? He did exactly what we all wanted and expected him to do and now I'm sure there'll be a lot of people trying to find this episode on youtube or on rerurns. This show certainly got what it wanted from Lemieux.

Just heard on Team 1270 that a 'reliable' source has said that there is a deal in the works that would send Datsyuk for Ryan Smyth and a high draft pick. I'd do this deal.

I hope Gregorenko doesn't turn out to be another Slava Kozlov. Before Kozlov's accident scouts were saying he had more talent than Federov. I also remember reading that some scouts felt Iggy's upside was just as good as Ovechkin's. The Wings have to seriously start hiring chauffers for these Russian prospects.