shadow47

Hossa suffers a knee injury, out for the season. Wings sign Sundin. Osgood demands a trade, ends up in Phoenix. Wings sign Hasek out of retirement. Wings head into their last game of the season two points behind the Flames for the eighth seed (albeit with more wins) in the West with the match played in Calgary. Sundin's goal on a center ice prayer with five seconds left past a befuddled Kiprusoff in the third vaults the Wings into the playoffs against the 1-seeded Sharks. The see-saw series goes back and forth until Darren Helm scores the winner in game 7 after Nabokov makes a bad clearing attempt giveaway to Helm and he fires it in the open net late in the seventh game continuing San Ho's bad luck in the playoffs. Red Wings sweep the surprising LA Kings led by Hart winner Nik Khabibulin. Another seven game series sees the Wings surpassing the Ducks. Anaheim leads 4-1 late in the third until an own-goal by Neidermayer with four minutes left spurs the comeback. Lidstrom draws it to 4-3 before Hudler ties the game with seconds left in another back-from-the-dead finish. Early in the first overtime Pronger accidentally bounces the puck into the net off Giguere's backside for the decisive marker, sending the Wings to the Finals against the Devils. New Jersey builds a 3-1 lead in the Finals and is poised to clinch the series in New Jersey, holding a 3-2 lead in Game 5 into the final minute before a Johan Franzen hat trick in the final minute revives Detroit, who dominates Game 6 9-5 chasing Brodeur. Game 7 in New Jersey is a classic goaltending duel, featuring Martin Brodeur's last game (he announced his retirement earlier in the season) and likely the final appearance until 2010 of Dominik Hasek. Hasek makes 19 saves in a seven overtime marathon, the longest game in NHL history to cap the most amazing Final series ever. New Jersey's would-be game-winner is waved off after video review after it is determined that Patrick Elias directed the puck into the net with a high stick despite not being on the ice for the goal. Twenty seconds later Darren McCarty walks through the entire New Jersey team and fans on his shot but the puck eludes Brodeur for the winner. Hasek is named Conn Smythe winner. 2010--Hasek retires, Wings shocked in the first round by surprising Columbus Blue Jackets. Mats Sundin quits team in Game 4 due to "lack of heart". 2011--Hasek comes out of retirement, Wings win record 65 games, finish first. First round is a grudge match with the Philadelphia Flyers, oh did I mention Detroit is now in the East? Detroit won this series in six games. Second round is a rematch of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals, Devils and Red Wings. The Wings win the first two games at home but the Devs make it a series by taking the next three games. Theoren Fleury scores the game winning goals in Game 6 and 7 to validate his tryout contract and lead the Wings to the Conference Finals against, who else, the Hamilton Predators. Hamilton defenseman Niklas Lidstrom scores four goals against his former team in Game 1 to encourage the first year team but Zetterberg gets six to win the game and the Wings sweep to head to the Finals against Chicago. With Huet out of the net for the Hawks, Patrick Kane's goal gets by a frozen Hasek to lift the Hawks to a tie. Hey hey, 48 year old Vladimir Ruzicka's goal past a stunned Huet finishes the overachieving Hawks. 2012-Hasek retires, the Wings sign Marc-Andre Fleury, but lose in the first round to the pesky New York Islanders. 2013-Hasek unretires, leads a ragtag bunch of Red Wings including Starbuck, Brisco County Junior, Theoren Fleury, The Rock, half the 1998 Czech Olympic team, etc. to a fourth place finish in the West. Well, Zetterberg and Datsyuk are hurt, so it's up to deadline acquisition Georges Laraque to make it seem worth it with a first round game-winner against the Rangers led by team captain Jimmy Howard. Did I mention Naslund is still on the Rangers? Well he is. Anyway, they lose. In the second round, Detroit (that is, all those guys) make a super series against the Devils, and they actually win it! New Jersey has sucked ever since Brodeur retired and Kevin Weekes just can't cut it in net. Oh well. So, where was I...oh, in the third round, hey it's Crosby and the Penguins, yet to win a Cup, they're having so much trouble. No one wants to play in Pissburgh due to s*** ownership, so Sid has to do it all by himself. He wishes he were more like Gretzky but he isn't. Loss. Detroit plays and beats the Canucks in their first Finals since 1994. After Luongo jumped ship to the Penguins in 2010 they had to get someone so they picked up Fred Brathwaite out of the German Elite League, made him Captain, and here they were...unfortunately, Hasek gets this awesome like anti-gravity pads and actually gets up after saves now (making them). It was pretty cool. Anyway, I guess Detroit won that series and...won the Cup. 2014-Well anyway, Hasek retires every other year, this goes on for like twenty years, one year Detroit wins the Cup, the next year they miss the playoffs...weird, huh? 2035-Dominik Hasek declares the 2035 season his last. Players don't wear equipment anymore, it's just twelve naked men mucking and grinding. So the season's are a hundred games long though, but it didn't really make much sense. Detroit gets a first and third round bye and plays Sokol Kiev in the first round. They won that, but they still had to deal with the Honalulu Pigs...well that series didn't go too well till Alex Rodriguez finished the game with a 2-goal score from the center polygon. That was f***ed up. And seriously, did I mention Hasek had these plasma torpedoes in his pads? He did. So, where was I? OH, the Wings won the Cup, they beat the Ducks in the Finals, J.S. Giguere III was like eleven feet tall but they just shot five hole and scored. They scored like three times. It was weird. Then Hasek finally retired, and the Wings went on this psychedelic drought of like nine hundred years, and the world started melting, anyway, that was the end of the world, they never won another Cup.

Game. Set. Match. Let's see what there is in the fridge...

I was struggling to edit my post and gave up...in my opinion Yzerman should've won it in 2002. I've never seen a player play with pain the way 19 did that season... ...Nik is Nik but him winning makes about as much sense as Recchi/Selanne winning MVP in the All-Star in SJ the year Nolan called his shot (technically was asking Hasek to let one in after stopping two breakaways as admitted by Nolan)...yeah, Dom was a part of a great, HOF team in 2002 and finally won a Cup...and yes, Vernon was basically worthless and won the Conn Smythe because no one else stood out that year, and the Wings won in '98 DESPITE Osgood. Yes, that is accurate. Osgood was solid in 2008, great. Edit: If you saw 20 games live of Hasek's in his prime you would not be slagging him.

You are claiming Hasek's Buffalo years' save percentage is inflated due to a high number of low quality shots. I am stating that if you plan on doing this, you should adjust for the underrating of Hasek in 07-08 based on his low save percentage as a result of Detroit decreasing the amount of low quality shots against. His (half)season in Ottawa would suggest he is capable of handling a high shot total (he was close to the league lead in save percentage that year) at an advanced age. I really think you are buying into others (detractors) opinions on Dominik's shot quality in Buffalo, you don't have to explain to me what it was I was seeing, I watched all the games, and rewatch many. Buffalo was a low scoring team, obviously, low scoring teams have no choice but to attempt to play defensive games, unfortunately they sucked at it. I beg you, please watch at least 20 random games from those seasons and get back to me. Edit: Buffalo was NOT a defense first team...they were a forecheck team that relied on its transition game and the fact they had the best goaltender in the league. Lindy Ruff hated changing on the fly because it would prevent the team from getting in on the players exiting the defensive zone, Hasek started his "must get rid of the puck rather than cover" crap so Buffalo's small, quick forwards like Audette, Dawe, etc. could get the puck up-ice and generate a rare scoring chance that wouldn't be possible if they were just skating and attacking. Smehlik was slow and sloppy with the puck, Wilson was a 6'4" softy non-NHLer, most nights the Sabres looked asleep...even though the management actually tried building Hasek a team in 2001, I don't blame him for asking for a trade.

I've often felt your opinion was overrated, here's why: I can send you fifty game tapes proving Buffalo's defense was pathetic, absolutely pathetic. To be a Buffalo fan and have to rewatch these games and the number of times Rick Jeanneret was forced to say," Wilson clears, NOT OUT!!!" you would not believe it. Why don't you ******* BE THERE before you start making grand statements about overrated statistics. You're just basing this on some baseless arguments dotting the Jim-Kelley-loyalist media. You aren't exactly proclaiming Dominik's 2007-08 as underrated are you? Comparing Anaheim 2003 to Buffalo of any year is a ******* disgrace.

Brodeur has annoyed me for various reasons: I always felt his job was one of the easiest in the league for a number of seasons facing the fewest shots in the league for NJ, a team that reprogrammed the way hockey was played with their rewarding all-defense style of play, and thus found people's high ranking of him a bit misguided. His book seemed wrought with gossip-oriented assessments of his fellow players, a little expose for hockey players who are usually taught discretion first. That said, "the best in the business" as Mike Emrick loved to call him has proven himself in recent years and despite his lameness I can appreciate his play. Uhhhhhhh...I forgot the point of this. Well, anyway, Dom is the best I saw, don't know about Sawchuk, Tretiak, etc. but in his day Dom was way ahead. I would say Luongo is the best these days, Brodeur is in the thick of things but his style is becoming outdated and he's winning Vezinas these days on name alone, Roberto is huge and as solid as they come. Hasek's not-so-great save percentage is because the ******* team gives up 15-20 shots a game assholes, the year before he did fine .91something and the year before that in Ottawa he was .92something. If he "played on an average team" his s% would've been higher seriously. Obviously he wasn't great last year but he was old...duh.

Voting through the years -- Hasek, Roy, Brodeur & More (Other Goaltenders in serious Hart consideration as well as other notables) ... just FYI for people who wondered how close the races REALLY were 1993-94 Hart 1. Sergei Fedorov 194 (31-11-6) 2. Hasek 86 (6-15-11) 3. John Vanbiesbrouck 74 (7-11-6) 5. Roy 26 (3-3-2) Vezina 1. Hasek 99 (15-8-0) 2. John Vanbiesbrouck (6-10-4) All-Star 1. Hasek 224 (40-6-6) 2. John Vanbiesbrouck 104 (6-20-14) 3. Roy 86 (7-13-12) 6. Brodeur 5 (0-1-2) 1995 Hart 1. Eric Lindros 63 (10-4-1) 2. Jaromir Jagr 27 (2-4-5) 3. Hasek 23 (3-2-2) Vezina 1. Hasek 104 (17-6-1) 2. Ed Belfour 25 (2-4-3) 8. Brodeur 7 (0-2-1) All-Star 1. Hasek 73 (14-1-0) 2. Ed Belfour 32 (1-8-3) 1996 Hart 1. Mario Lemieux 439 (34-10-5-1-1) 6. Grant Fuhr 52 (1-3-2-2-5) 12. Brodeur 9 (0-0-1-1-1) Vezina 1. Jim Carey 52 (5-7-6) 4. Brodeur 31 (4-3-2) 8. Hasek 9 (1-1-1) 9. Roy 5 (1-0-0) All-Star 1. Jim Carey 181 (25-17-5) 3. Brodeur 84 (12-6-6) 7. Hasek 8 (0-2-2) 11. Roy 1 (0-1-1) Save Percentage (regular season) 1. Hasek .920 2. Daren Puppa .918 7. Brodeur .911 11.Roy .908 1996-97 Hart 1. Hasek 519 (50-2-1-0-0) 2. Paul Kariya (239 (3-21-9-4-5) 4. Brodeur 115 (0-7-6-11-13) 8. Roy 31 (0-2-2-0-7) Vezina 1. Hasek 120 (22-3-1) 2. Brodeur 73 (3-18-4) 3. Roy 25 (1-3-11) All-Star 1. Hasek 237 (40-12-1) 2. Brodeur 174 (13-35-4) 3. Roy 47 (0-5-32) 1997-98 Hart 1. Hasek 499 (43-7-4-0-0) 2. Jaromir Jagr 308 (4-25-16-4-1) 4. Brodeur 115 (1-5-7-8-11) Vezina 1. Hasek 126 (24-2-0) 2. Brodeur 57 (2-14-5) 5. Roy 5 (0-1-2) All-Star 1. Hasek 259 (50-3-0) 2. Brodeur 159 (3-47-3) 6. Roy 1 (0-0-1) 1998-99 Hart 1. Jaromir Jagr 543 (51-4-1-0-0) 3. Hasek 172 (4-10-8-5-7) 4. Curtis Joseph 118 (1-5-10-7-2 16. Brodeur 1 (0-0-0-0-1) Vezina 1. Hasek 73 (8-10-3) 2. Curtis Joseph 64 (10-4-2) 4. Brodeur 17 (1-1-9) 9. Roy 1 (0-0-1) All-Star 1. Hasek 220 (35-13-6) 2. Byron Dafoe 121 (10-19-14) 4. Curtis Joseph 46 (6-3-7) 6. Brodeur 21 (3-0-6) 8. Roy 4 (0-1-1) 1999-00 Hart 1. Chris Pronger 396 (25-9-11-8-4) 2. Jaromir Jagr 395 (18-22-9-4-4) 3. Pavel Bure 346 (11-18-16-9-3) 4. Olaf Kolzig 139 (2-3-12-10-8) 12. Brodeur 6 (0-0-0-2-1-3) 18. Hasek 1 (0-0-0-0-1) Vezina 1. Olaf Kolzig 110 (14-13-1) 2. Roman Turek 79 (9-9-7) 5. Brodeur 8 (0-1-5) 7. Roy 5 (0-1-2) 8. Hasek 4 (0-1-1) All-Star 1. Olaf Kolzig 197 (29-14-10) 2. Roman Turek 186 (23-21-8) 3. Martin Brodeur 48 (2-9-11) 2000-01 Hart 1. Joe Sakic 585 (53-6-2-1-0) 2. Mario Lemieux 272 (8-17-10-6-5) 4. Roman Cechmanek 89 (0-2-8-10-5) 5. Brodeur 64 (0-4-4-4-4) 8. Hasek 42 (0-3-2-3-2) Vezina 1. Hasek 85 (9-12-4) 2. Roman Cechmanek 65 (7-9-3) 3. Brodeur 42 (7-2-1) 5. Roy 19 (2-1-6) All-Star 1. Hasek 160 (19-18-11) 2. Roman Cechmanek 154 (19-17-8) 3. Brodeur 143 (18-15-8) 4. Roy 46 (3-7-10) 2001-02 Hart 1. Jose Theodore 434 (26-16-9-5-2) 2. Jarome Iginla 434 (23-18-12-5-3) 3. Roy 283 (8-15-12-11-5) 4. Sean Burke 172 (2-4-16-10-7) Vezina 1. Jose Theodore 105 (15-9-3) 2. Roy 105 (12-15-0) 5. Brodeur 7 (1-0-2) 6. Hasek 6 (0-1-3) All-Star 1. Roy 226 (30-24-4) 2. Jose Theodore 210 (26-25-5) 4. Hasek 31 (1-4-14) 5. Brodeur 6 (0-1-3) 2002-03 Hart 1. Peter Forsberg 508 (38-13-6-2-1) 2. Markus Naslund 342 (5-26-17-7-4) 3. Brodeur 311 (14-12-11-10-2) 12. Roy 10 (1-0-0-0-0) Vezina 1. Brodeur 131 (24-3-2) 2. Marty Turco 59 (3-12-8) 4. Roy 17 (1-2-6) All-Star 1. Brodeur 243 (39-14-6) 2. Marty Turco 194 (20-29-7) 6. Roy 12 (1-1-4) 2003-04 Hart 1. Martin St. Louis 1016 (97-5-1-2-0) 2. Jarome Iginla 253 (2-20-15-3-9) 3. Brodeur 213 (2-14-11-11-7) 4. Miikka Kiprusoff 193 (0-19-7-7-4) 6. Roberto Luongo 167 (2-10-8-8-13) Vezina 1. Brodeur 89 (15-4-2) 2. Miikka Kiprusoff 55 (5-9-3) All-Star 1. Brodeur 307 (39-33-13) 2. Roberto Luongo 232 (32-19-15) 2005-06 Hart 1. Joe Thornton 1058 (67-48-9-1-4) 2. Jaromir Jagr 974 (48-49-30-0-1) 3. Miikka Kiprusoff 561 (10-24-45-20-8) 12. Brodeur 22 (0-0-0-6-4) Vezina 1. Miikka Kiprusoff 140 (25-5-0) 2. Brodeur 48 (2-10-8) 7. Hasek 4 (0-1-1) All-Star 1. Miikka Kiprusoff 599 (113-11-1) 2. Brodeur 232 (6-59-25) 7. Hasek 20 (0-5-5)

It is impossible to rank players. Period. Sure you can get a group together of the men that really excelled, but if you tried saying Brodeur or Hasek was "better" than the other, you really can't. There is no possible way...the fact is that Roy, Brodeur, Hasek (and others to their eras) were special in their accomplishments and the way they played, while a group of guys like Felix Potvin, Byron Dafoe, Roman Cechmanek etc. had their highs but didn't breach the elite group. But again, you can't truly rank any of them without sounding like a moron. Ranking players you’ve never even seen play, as is the case with most people...absolutely ludicrous. So if a person hasn’t seen a guy like Tretiak or Sawchuk playing in a large number of games, not just their best games, or their SCF appearance or something, you can’t say with any competence that Brodeur/Roy/Hasek are better than they were, nor can you say that they are better than B/R/H. I am a goalie myself and was a big fan of the idea of goaltending from an early age. I had the guys I enjoyed watching, like Hrudey and Vanbiesbrouck starting in 1992-93. At the start of the 1996-97 season I had an interest in the Buffalo Sabres because I loved their announcer Rick Jeanneret‘s enthusiasm and had seen highlights and heard and read stories about Dominik Hasek, though I rarely caught games since ESPN barely ever showed the Sabres and I did not have ESPN2. I ended up watching nearly every game Hasek played starting then until the 1999-2000 season when he was out most of the year. After a break in which I watched “only” half or more of his games, I watched the entirety of the 2006/07/08 seasons. As someone who witnessed the bulk of Hasek’s NHL career, and attended 5-6-7 games live, as a student of the game and having played hockey for fifteen years, I feel I have a credible perspective. Hasek reached his peak in the 1998-99 season, a season in which he was literally unbeatable. And I mean that he probably had his own damn team score on him as much as the rest of the league did. It's not something you can understand unless you watched the games yourself...there was a feeling when a game started that it was Dominik against the other team, and that was it, there was an awe in watching an individual control a game the way he did. Not “at times“, every single game. Goals from the Sabres could not be expected, it was a given the other teams would have clear lanes to the net all night. It was in these MVP years that Dominik got into the habit of diving so much to try to generate powerplays and handling the puck since his d-men would just make a mistake and keeping the play going endlessly to try to increase his offense‘s transition game--he was not just the goalie of these teams, he was their spokesman, the face of the team, and their absolute leader in every respect, he couldn‘t rely on his team to do a damn thing so he HAD to do it all himself, along with stopping 30-40 shots a night...he was probably most valuable in 1999, a season he didn’t win the MVP because people thought it was just too inconceivable that a goaltender could deserve the award three years in a row. But he did. Knowing he won two Hart Trophies in 1996-97 and 1997-98 is perhaps only half the story as he was a finalist three other times finishing second for the Hart in 1993-94, third in 1995, and third in 1998-99. People who say things like "reputation" etc. are the reasons Hasek won awards are just confused. Dominik earned his reputation. I watched plenty of Brodeur games starting with the 1994 playoff run (how could you avoid it with the amount of exposure ESPN/Fox/ABC gave the Devs?), he has raised his game in the past five years out of necessity, similar to Osgood. It’s wrong to spin his situation that because he has deserved Vezina trophies in his recent seasons he must have in the 90s, but overall his career has earned him more collective accolades than probably anyone. Roy‘s career was half-done when I first saw him play. Patrick was an old-time JS Giguere with his chest pad but that wasn’t why he was great. Roy was a mental goaltender, he had an enormous ego and it gave him power in the net. Of course most Wings fans will have bad associations and emotional biases, but the objective ones can appreciate his place in history. Again, you can’t compare a Roy to a Brodeur to a Hasek (to a Tretiak to a Sawchuk, don‘t get me started on era comparison), for doing the same job all these guys were very distinct in the way they did it. Roy had his aura, Brodeur his determined steadiness, Hasek his unpredictability. If you insist on grading goaltenders against one another, it’s important to look beyond statistics and awards, because those, as the arguments in this thread would show, are completely subjective. Roy would have won this and this but not this on the Sabres, Hasek never would’ve won a Vezina on the Devils, etc. These kind of conjectures should be thrown in the trash. Collect a large amount of game evidence on each completely unique player and draw your own conclusion, improvable though it might be.

By Frantisek Bouc Staff Writer, The Prague Post August 20th, 2008 issue http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2008/08...s-to-return.php -------------------- Czech hockey legend Dominik Hasek may soon be able to confirm the old "third time's a charm" axiom. The forty-three year old goalie retired in June after helping the NHL's Detroit Red Wings capture the Stanley Cup. "My body is still ready, but I lack motivation," Hasek told reporters in Detroit at the time. Once back in Prague, however, he succumbed to second thoughts. Make that third thoughts: In the summer of 1999 he summoned TV crews to a Prague news conference where the great Czech goalie announced he was preparing for his last NHL campaign. Hasek said his decision was final and that he called the conference in order to avoid speculation throughout the season. But he missed a number of games due to a groin injury, so he continued to play. The next summer, he left Buffalo for the Detroit Red Wings and dedicated himself to winning the Stanley Cup. After bringing home the trophy in 2002, Hasek called another end to his career. Yet once again, he decided on a comeback. Now he's considering a third. "It won't be in the upcoming season for sure," Hasek says, "but I cannot rule out that I could start playing again later." He insists, though, that another season on the NHL circuit is out of the question. "I don't want to talk about it at the moment," he explains. "It's clear, however, that I wouldn't go to the NHL. If I were to return, I would play with a Czech team." Following his most recent retirement, Hasek returned to Prague in order to focus on the management of Dominator, the sportswear company he launched in 1998. But after just two weeks on the job, he closed down the firm's European opperation under mounting financial debt -- hinting, though, that he might reopen operations in the future. The man known as The Dominator sees nothing wrong with this kind of career back and forth. "When reaching such a triumph [the Stanley Cup], one's motivation naturally lowers," he points out. "At the time, I simply had a feeling that I would hardly be able to keep a 100 percent focus -- and so I decided to quit." "I'll see what's going to happen in one or two years," he adds. "I always base my decisions on my feelings." ------------------------------------ Dom will stay in great shape with his biking and trainer Bruk and would be a novelty in the KHL which should be booming in another season or any Czech team. Can you say 2010 Olympics?

Yeah but wtf is with that Huet signing?! Stu-pid.

This story makes me so ******* mad. What's that puss Nadeau doing just standing there and then doesn't even try to tie Roy up, and just lets himself get beat down? It's hockey, *******, stop pretending like it isn't...what does he think is going to happen? And now this, because of all the press, normal everyday people seeing fighting that MUST GO PUNISHED! so assault charges are filed. It's ridiculous, Roy Jr. did nothing criminal and yet has the threat of criminal charges being filed against him? I will say this a million times, "That's hockey, that's hockey, that's hockey..." Yeah, fighting's frowned upon, it is still assault if a 25 year old punches a 25 year old in a bar, but in the NHL it happens nightly unless heavens there's a freak accident like the Bertuzzi situation etc. that results in a media storm and then extra punishment is doled out. This sort of PR bulls*** needs to be kept out of the sport. Edit: the main point of this is my outrage at that Nadeau kid acting the "victim". As a goalie you dream of the day when your number gets called like that, and this ******* kid humiliates himself. Absolutely humiliates himself. It is beyond comprehension to me.

Why do people want him? He is overrated and inconsistent, he has no upside either...

Who has had more concussions, Hasek or Richter/Dafoe/anyone who has had a concussion wearing a fibreglass mask because Hasek never had one in the NHL, and he wore the Cooper SK2000 bucket for nine years in the NHL and more in the Czech leagues. The SK helmet is very round (like the Jofa helmets that goaltenders used to wear, no not the Gretzky model) so they're made for deflecting the shots without absorbing the impact, obviously they are just plastic. There is a flat spot however (terrible design error) right on the forehead and when hit here it crushes the skin between the helmet and bone thus the stitches. If you look at results though these guys getting concussions get hit in the flat sides of the fibreglass masks and that's how they get head injuries. So yeah, glass masks sitting on a table compared to a helmet are going to be stronger, in a game situation functionally, results tell you that both have their drawbacks.

Why does no one care about this? This is a ******* travesty! You can't throw the Cup into a swimming pool but you can use it as a toilet or a baby bathtub? That makes no sense, f*** you NHL, I certainly don't want the Cup now if I ever did...

Drake was absolutely integral to the Cup run year past, and was one of the five hardest working Wings overall during the postseason. That said, it's unlikely he could duplicate such a put-it-all-on-the-line, heartfilled playoff having achieved the ultimate prize. But he was more than Detroit could've hoped for in the playoffs, probably right to send him on his way with all the forwards around but it's hard if he wanted to come back to say "No thanks" after the way he played.

How Yzerman didn't win Conn Smythe in '02 I will never know...

It is nuts to pretend Osgood deserves anything more than a hearty handshake and a "job welldone" from the organization. Yeah, he's friends with Ken Holland and Mike Illitch, that does not mean that he has ever been considered of the league's best goalies (by anyone but Detroit fans in the two years they weren't sworn to hating him), the closest he came to a Vezina was runnerup (?) in '96 and then faded quickly out of fans' and voters' minds, has been the weak link on many Wings playoffs teams (not last year obviously), he's won some Cups with Detroit, but when you consider that all of their core guys like Draper, Holmstrom, etc. have all won the same amount you can't really say that # of cups should send him to the Hall or to the rafters. Win totals are a team stat. This Chris Osgood post-2008 playoffs love-fest is getting ridiculous.

I miss when the playoff DVD would be a true "playoff DVD" following both teams run to the Finals, the earlier teams and series, etc. I used to have the '93 Playoff VHS and I loved watching it...just watching the winning team can be less fulfilling because you miss some of the story of the overall playoffs.

You know, when you're on a losing team, and you're one of the top players and getting the most ice time, +/- can be deceiving. Tampa's goaltending last year was not topnotch to say the least and Boyle's rating suffered, wasn't his fault though, it's unfair to bring up that stat at face value. It's pretty easy to be on a team like Detroit and have an amazing rating because +/- is not really an individual stat, I'd like to see Lidstrom's +/- on Tampa.

Zherdev+Hitchcock=no

Hossa deal sucks. Sundin is about 1000 times better. I mean why make such a big deal? Stuart figured to resign, he signs for 3-4 million and is not that great a d-man anyway (remember the deadline most people were like "he's on par with Lilja") and with all the young d-man in the system, it's kind of a throwaway signing...Conklin is a 1-year stopgap that isn't even needed because Howard should be in the league this year and Osgood is "The Man" quoting 90% of the people on this board, and Hossa compares to Yashin on the heart front...best offseason ever??? Give me a break.

This deal is not all it's cut out to be, Hossa is essentially a full season Rent-a-Player which will mess with people's heads, his own dedication to the team etc. knowing he will be gone after one season, plus he's a disappearing act in the playoffs except against Osgood who he owns. Sundin is a heart and soul leader, a Swede, and a right-handed shot and would've been a much better choice and I'd have paid $1 million or two more to get him for one year (why is Sundin looking for 2 years if he's not even sure he wants to come back for NEXT year?!)...

Clearly Emery's rookie season of 2006 will show the entirety of his goaltending ability.

Listen guy, I don't know what you know about actual goaltending, it wouldn't appear to be much since you think it is easier to play the way Giguere does. Is there some valor in falling of position and allowing goals? Giguere's style and that of most goaltenders today is to be in position, square, etc. for every shot, rebound, on and on...that was a Roy trademark and if you consider the alternatives it really is the best plan, the goalie always wants to be in the best position to stop the shot. That's what every goaltender no matter the style of play strives for and it takes discipline, athleticism, intense focus, and practice to successfully carry out that plan. The equipment does not make as much difference as you believe, take a look at the effect on scoring the last decrease caused...yep, nothing. Everyone adjusted and scoring is right back to a reasonable level, it's not they changed just the equipment either, plenty of rules to screw the goalies and that didn't even do it. Rules changes and equipment shrinkages had ZERO EFFECT. Zero. Seriously, it is a shame that you can't appreciate the play of a guy like JSG, he is one of the best positional and technique keepers in the league, won a Conn Smythe in a losing effort, SWEPT THE RED WINGS, has been consistently solid, and was great again this year. Yes, he started as a backup, just like every goaltender in the league with the exception of an angelic few rushed to glory (though that "glory" didn't turn out too well early for those guys, Fleury/Dipietro/Luongo), but now he's one of the best in the world, just because you don't like him don't deprive him of the respect he's due for his skill and accomplishments.