b.shanafan14

Really sad to see him go. I always thought he was a good guy. Hard nosed and a great leader. Video of his retirement press conference on http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=289675

Looks like a shot at a unique design that missed the mark on several levels. Granted this is (hopefully) a very early iteration, but not a great start. And I hate the idea of the United Center model, doing nothing really well and making for mediocre ice conditions at best.

God, I was trying to forget how bad Cujo was in goal, how bad Lewis was behind the bench, and how big Giguere's pads were... On a lighter note, great to see Shanny, Hull, and Homer all hamming it up. "Pssh! Everyone is jumping on the Hull 700 bandwagon. Not me, Dandenault 24!"

Tee Hee.... optimistic ain't he?

Worthy of discussion, especially since some hits are often questioned, but the countdown doesn't exclude questionable hitters. Either way, pretty cool. Good on ya, Kronner! http://watch.tsn.ca/nhl/clip321147#clip321147

Lidstrom's retirement will be a much greater blow to the team then Stevie Y's was. He is still the team's beat player, barnone. Yzerman's retirement was sadder than Lidstrom's will be. Lidstrom, whenever he hangs them up, whether it is now or in two years will go out as still one of the best players in the league. No knock on Lidstrom by any means, but Stevie was an absolutely gutsy SOB. He played through things few players could throughout his career and was still one of the best in the league. Steve came in and was handed a franchise at such a young age and turned it around, not only through skill but heart. And watching Steve play those last 4 years or so when you could tell he wasn't able to do as much as he wanted was really tough. Lidstrom will is loved by fans for good reason, but Steve was one in a billion. Tough to say who was better at his position. Lidstrom is the second best defenseman of all-time next to Orr and the best as far as i'm concerned at playing the defensive position in a more traditional sense, whereas Orr was Gretzky on the blueline. Steve did more on two bad knees than most anyone else did on two good ones. If he had gone his whole career healthy he could have put up astronomical numbers. But Steve also had tremendous intangibles, ridiculous determination (not that Lidstrom doesn't, just less adversity), and completely changed his game for the good of the team. Basically, Lidstrom was perfect, Steve had to deal with imperfection. Lidstrom was always overshadowed, but more because of playing a subtle game. Steve and Shanny were well loved and were media savvy where Lidstrom before Steve's retirement was taken for granted. Lidstrom had a harder time getting the respect he deserved from the league, taking so long to win his first Norris. Lidstrom should gave had at least one or two more. When Steve was in town, there was no one else that could match him, so I suppose you could say Lidstrom was overshadowed, but so was everyone.

Not at all. That was last off-season's biggest facepalm for sure, and turned out even worse than we could have feared. Useless.

I've actually watched plenty. In fact, I believe I've watched all of Philly's games since the first round to be honest. I just don't have the kind of man-love you have for Ville, that's all. Ville had displayed no effort. This isn't about his ability to score at the clip some fans were thinking/hoping he could. This is about what he did with his opportunities. Players have done plenty more with less, and if you actually watched any Wings games with Leino this season, you'd see that he was by far the softest on the puck and that outside of a few flashes of brilliance, he was an all or nothing player. He would try a cute play, get knocked off the puck and give up. Saying it makes no sense for a player to come all the way over and not give it their all is true and it does sound stupid, and yet you see it all the time. The game is different here, period. Its not Ville's fault. But what was the problem from day one and was Ville's fault was the apparent lack of "drive". Red Wings fans want effort, at least most that I know of. Look at Helm, Abdelkader, Hudler, Holmstrom, players that aren't the greatest talents in the world but take what they have and break ass to get ahead. This isn't just a Leino thing. I didn't like Lang when he was here cause he would float. I don't like Bertuzzi most of the time because he is the one with the size and would often prefer to let smaller players like Filppula and Zetterberg go get HIM the puck when it has to be the other way around. Leino was a role-player, he didn't fit the role, didn't show Red Wings management anything that said he was going to eventually fit the role, so he was traded. Both parties are better off and I wish Ville the best. But as Red Wings go, I had the highest hopes for him and saw really no effort what-so-ever when the going got tough. Word.

Leino punched his own ticket out of town. He had some early success and surprised a few people and then chose to rest on his laurels. He looked pathetic in the corners, hardly put in the effort to skate, and did absolutely nothing to grab the opportunities that were given to him. If you want to blame anyone for Leino leaving, blame Ville. I know I was really pulling for Ville at the beginning of the season, he had the tools to get the job done, but didn't have the constitution to do said job. Maybe he realized he had blown a golden opportunity with a great team and the trade to Philly woke him up, knowing much more slacking meant going back to Finland a failure. He is doing better than he was doing here, but he still hasn't really impressed me in Philly, doing some of the things we knew he was capable of while still having his moments of floating around.

Haha god, I love Shanny. Still the best character in the history of hockey, in my opinion. Another funny one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8psv4H5yYJA

I agree. It also has a lot to do with the scheduling of the arenas like HP Pavilion and United Center that do a lot of events. The concerts in San Jose screwed over the Wings in the first game with the quick turnaround. I do agree, this two games at practically the same time then no hockey the next day BS is pretty lame.

I've thought about this a lot lately, being that I hate every team that is left to one degree or another: Flyers Habs Sharks Chicago I hate the Flyers, but I think they have the best chance of beating the Western team and they have less of really a "big story" I would be opposed to. My hate for them is more bland. As for the Habs, I actually find myself oddly liking the team they have assembled starting with Cammelieri. Unfortunately, the worst thing about the Habs has been and always will be their fans. Absolute zealous morons with the booing of USA anthem and riots after WINS. Plus, they already have 23 cups, no need to add to that pomp. The Sharks really rubbed me the wrong way with the diving all series. Thornton is still pathetic, only getting physical when his team is being blown out and he is throwing a Crosby (aka tantrum). Heatley just makes me sick as a hockey fan, imagine if he was touted as the missing piece (even though he has done jack these playoffs). And finally, the Blackhawks would be the worst. Their fans have already crawled out from under their rock to all act like they never left the miserable franchise. I can't hate Toews, as much as I try. But the rest of the team is easy to hate. Byfuglien gets away with so much in the crease, Homer must just be just beside himself watching at home. Kane is a pathetic little worm and Quenneville should never win a Cup. Then we come to Hossa. Oh Marian, the third time is the charm, lost twice as a rental and picks a team to call home and wins it the very first year... :puke: Blackhawks

So just to be clear, the argument is that Howard is theoretically better than Leighton and Niemi and thusly he is championship caliber? So Luongo is a champion? Or Nabokov? Or Kipprusof? Or X-goaltender that is better than 5th string tender Leighton or Niemi? Prove it on the ice. You aren't a champion til you are a champion, period. Fun to speculate and all, but so far not so good with Howard. He'll use this as a growing experience I'm sure, but so far Leighton and Niemi have done far better in their first go-round than Howard did in his. And saying basically "if Leighton and Niemi can do it, anyone can do it, Howard is anyone, Howard can do it" is a pretty feeble argument after going out in 5 games in the second round .

No slash/slewfoot, but Vokoun definitely looked more like a defenseman getting hit on a forecheck than a goaltender. Should have been some penalty. Team Canada is 90% ****** bag these days as it is.

Really? All the teams that haven't gotten a Winter Classic showing and Pittsburgh gets 2 of what will be 4 (5 if your count Heritage)? God, I hate the NHL more and more each day. Ratings boom for sure, but what we're really seeing is another example of the NHL's M.O.: fans of hockey are going to hate this between the overhyped Penguins going in there twice in 4 years and the months of Sidney Crosby vs. Alexander Ovechkin exploitation they are already strangled by, BUT we might get a few NBA fans to watch! In other words, screw hockey fans, we've done worse, we're going after the NBA crowd! In fact, is it cool if we just trade fanbases, NBA?

Ouch...

Is it sad that the whole time I'm reading that article, I can't help but impose Keating's weird cadence? Words... pause..... woooooooooords, pause..... word.

http://watch.tsn.ca/off-the-record/off-the-record---may-11/#clip300656 Good ol' Aaron seems to take it a bit personal. It is funny that a team like the Wings can spend the last 19 years competing for or winning the Stanley Cup and they lose to a good team on an off year in the second round and its about "what happened" and "are they finished". Gotta love the media...

I love the argument that they are "used to it". By that logic, get there twice and you should be there for life instead of getting exhausted from one trip after the other. The media just doesn't like the explanation to be that the Wings have been better than any other team in the last 4 years and playing that much hockey is draining. Its more fun to speculate that the previous 19 seasons of excellence are FINALLY over. Not so fast

Great job fellas! Come back healthy and hungry next season, show the league what you're really capable of!

The Red Wings were definitely not playing to potential in any game but Game 4, but they were all close and the refs decided 3 of the 4 San Jose wins. That is the most frustrating thing at this point. The Wings didn't have it this year and we all knew it and really did decent considering the personnel turnovers and everything, but the refs were a huge factor this entire series and it was FAR from even. The hit on Franzen last night and the goal that followed was the series in a nutshell: SJ gets soft power plays one after another, it finally looks like Detroit earned one but apparently didn't, SJ scores. It always seemed like the soft or phantom calls on the Wings were the powerplays they would score on or right after SJ was given a break on a relatively obvious penalty. This series was horrible for any fan of hockey. I'm really disgusted with a league that allows their officials to decided games of this importance at this rate. The Wings weren't going to win the cup this year, but the fact that they weren't even allowed to determine their own fate is pathetic. I have a horrible taste in my mouth after this season. Way to ruin hockey again NHL!

Please.... god.... no.... Why would Babcock switch up a winning lineup and for Williams of all people?? Lets hope he keeps his sanity, I thought Ritola was a huge improvement and could at least play with the fourth line. http://www.detnews.com/article/20100508/SPORTS0103/5080354/1128/SPORTS0103/Wings-halt-Sharks--momentum

Why is Luongo thought to be so great again?

The Wings have played below their capability all series, from the goaltender out. Last night was just about as good as they could play, but in the end they really only won one period, so its hard to get a gauge. I was pretty worried in the third because the energy level was non-existent and instead of playing like its tied, they were forming bad habits and playing sloppy because it really didn't matter anymore. That's my biggest worry, that this game was a pretty fluky win, to one degree or another and the Sharks are now in a better position because of it. The Sharks now know to take the Wings seriously and play them tighter and the Wings now, whether they admit it or not, will have inflated confidence. I'm hoping I'm wrong and the Wings just realized again what they are capable of and now will play like that from now on, but I'm more apprehensive that the Wings will come out flat and the Sharks will come out pissed off, putting the relaxed Wings away with conviction. Either way, GO WINGS!

Just read this article a few minutes ago. I totally agree. I understand the Wings had to win games down the stretch just to get in and then to improve their position in the playoffs, but its when the whole "ride Howard" thing really started that bothers me. There was a period in the season when the Wings were losing games no matter who was in goal and it really just mattered if the injury-hampered Wings had brought enough offense that night. This was the period when the Wings should have been having a rotation. Because of the drama between Babcock and Osgood, Ozzie was essentially shelved in December. There were periods when Howard seemed too cool off a great deal and a perfect time to get Osgood some games and rest the kid, Babcock refused. Coming out of the Olympic break, with a team refreshed, Babcock again had a chance to get a reasonable rotation going, but refused. Howard was able to play above his ability and steal some games down the stretch which every Red Wings fan should be grateful as hell for. But now that Howard has cooled off (like he had throughout the season) and is playing more like a rookie (which is understandable) we are without a backup fit to relieve him. The thing that angers me most about this is that of all the teams in the West, Detroit should have ZERO excuse for goaltending as their backup Osgood (or so he was before being "retired" by Babcock) is not only the lone goaltender in the West with ANY kind of post-season success, but has two Stanley Cup rings as a starter, one actually coming in relief. Babcock wasted an asset plain and simple, and now the Wings are on the brink.