Wow, Pittsburghers are really ticked

[Earthhuman 8]

Here's a question, what if the Wings sign Zetterberg, and then there's room for Hossa or Franzen, but not both? When it comes down to it, I say sign Franzen, because some things are more important than goals.

[sjradio 0]

Was Therrien crying in the background?

No he was having his own press conference crying that Ken Holland was obstructing Ray Shero.

[OhioWing 0]

And now they lose LaRoque.

Take away all of the sharp objects and any lengths of rope - massive depression of all fans to follow.

[edicius 3,269]

No he was having his own press conference crying that Ken Holland was obstructing Ray Shero.

:rotflmao:

[KevinD 1]

Name one person in this world that actually has a sack full of doorknobs.

Hi, I'm Kevin. and I'm a doorknob salesman.

no, not really.

[Guest wingsjunky]

yeah its ridiculous for a teams to ask that kind of loyalta of a UFA they picked up at the trade deadline. However i imagine most pens fans probably just started watching their team in the 2nd and 3rd round and so i could see why they would have the impression that Hossa was a franchise type player.

[HkyTwn 5]

i think it was pretty even between crosby and hossa but both were better than fleury. whilst he made a lot of big saves and had a couple of great games he also gave up a lot of weak goals at crucial times.

Yeah, like when he sat on the puck.

No he was having his own press conference crying that Ken Holland was obstructing Ray Shero.

HAHAHAHA.

[hamip1998 3]

yeah its ridiculous for a teams to ask that kind of loyalta of a UFA they picked up at the trade deadline. However i imagine most pens fans probably just started watching their team in the 2nd and 3rd round and so i could see why they would have the impression that Hossa was a franchise type player.

QFT

I used to get annoyed at Preds fans until I figured out that some were just ignorant. Pittsburgh has had successful professional franchises in the past. The fans should know better, therefore I cannot discount them as being ignorant. The only other explaination is that they all jumped on the bandwagon once Sid was brought to town.

They like to bash Detroit. Sorry guys, having spent time in both places, those hulking empty steel mills are pretty depressing. While I didn't hang out in the mean streets of Detroit, downtown was not bad at all and left a lot better impression on me than Pittsburgh.

Growing up about an hour west of the PA border may be skewing my opinion, but for me, they way that they present themselves as sports fans point to only one thing: an absolute lack of class on any level. They obviously feel so bad about themselves and the toilet that they call home that they drag everyone else down at all costs.

[Guest Four]

Well, The Pens are still one player under a full forward line up..

Maybe we should give them Lilja just to say we're sorry - I'm sure he cant be worse as a forward.

[RockyMountainWingGal 108]

Well I can sympathize to a certain extent, I was a bit annoyed when we lost to Anaheim in the WCF and then Schneider and Bertuzzi changed out of our uniform and right into theirs.......But annoyed was where it ended, I wasn't completely irate or blaming them or either club.

Wound up being a blessing. Raffi rocked in Schneider's place and Hudler was a better depth player than Bert was last year. I was annoyed too when they bolted - but the Wings are pretty savvy at not overpaying for the product and it paid off.

Pens fans have a right to be angry at Hossa - he turned down a pretty good long term offer from a good young club. But he was a trade deadline rent-a-player and you always gamble with that. They should certainly not blame the Wings for "stealing Hossa" as the one writer put it. Holland basically got a phone call and offer from Hossa's agent - one only a fool would turn down.

[Kira 451]

If they're looking for sympathy, I suggest a dictionary.

[SwedeLundin77 460]

They can cry all they want, Hossa is not the only player who jumped ship. And besides that, he was a rental and that was all that was certain. They act like Hossa was their Sundin or some s***, and it's obnoxious.

The fact that the guy left there for a shorter term and less money than he could have gotten elsewhere, just shows him to be classy and more concerned with winning than a huge paycheck, at least all the time. I firmly believe that he wants to stay in Detroit longer than a season, but we couldn't offer him the salary he was looking for just yet, not until we shore up our future captain at least. Once again, and this is a guess, but I think he knew that and took the short term in order to give KH time to work on Zetterberg's contract, as well as Franzen's too.

Hossa simply chose the smart choice, I mean look how well Pitt retained their players... geeze. Makes you wonder just how concerned is Lemieux with winning compared to making money. Ilitch wouldn't let that s*** go down after coming so close to a cup. Take care of your players and they'll be loyal.

[Doggy 130]

I like the Pens. I hope they remain competitive. I'm sure they will.

[Outsider 42]

I fired off the following email after reading that piece of trash he wrote....

Mr. Collier:

Wow. Talk about sour grapes.

In your rant about how the Pens might have won the Cup had Hossa shown up in Games 1 & 2, you should perhaps have mentioned that had Malkin, (a Player you list as an "indispensible"), shown up in the Finals AT ALL....

The Pens might have forced a Game 7. Might have.

Sour Grapes, sir. Jilted. Dumped. Cast aside for something better.

I know it is difficult to face, and certainly not the most palatable admission to make, but the Wings were simply BETTER.

After years of missing the Play-Offs altogether, and banking "can't miss" talent to the tune of no less than TWO First Overall Draft picks, and many other high first rounders, by virtue of years of being TERRIBLE, the Penguins have finally become a Play-Off Team.

And now everyone in Pittsburgh is talking "Dynasty", and how but for a bit of luck and a few breaks, the Pens would have won it all. Trust me, the Pens received all the "luck" and "breaks" they could possibly wish for in the form of embarrassingly one-sided officiating. The very same Officiating that has been blasted for it's obvious bias by many members of the National media. The Pens couldn't even beat Detroit with a number of extra men on the ice, all of whom wore stripes.

And yet, Hossa is nutty because he views Detroit as the "better" Team?

How Mighty the humble have become in so short a time, and not far removed from a time when they struggled to reach 60 points on the Season.

Your Team was so bad, for so long, that they can now boast 2 First Overall picks, 2 Second Overall picks, and 1 Fifth Overall pick on the same roster. Congratulations. Better hope they do something with all that talent because, as you are probably aware, there are no guarantees that raw talent and a plethora of high draft picks garnered through years of bottom dwelling will Win you anything.

Just ask the Ottawa Senators.

So, they finally make it back to the Play-Offs only to be swept out of the First Round. They follow that up with a trip to the Finals. Again, Congratulations. But in the quiet moments, when you're all alone and can analyze the past Season and Post-Season, ask yourself....

Would the Sens have posed much of a threat to ANY Play-Off Team? Were the Ranger$ any good? The Flyers? Fact of the matter is, maybe ONE of those Teams even MAKES the Post-Season if they play in the West. MAYBE. As a matter of fact, while the Pens posted 102 points in 2007-2008, had they played in the West, they'd have been a middle of the pack Team.

That was proven when they met a REAL Team in the Finals. Had it not been for the Officials doing everything in their power to ensure the Pens had a chance, they could very well have been swept.

A Trip to the Finals is not always a guarantee of good things to come.

Calgary made it. Hasn't sniffed anything close since. Ditto Edmonton. Carolina and Tampa Bay WON the Cup. Where are they now? Ah, yes....Tampa is rounding out THEIR roster with high First rounders and a recently acquired First Overall. Ottawa....well, need I say more?

Best hope that your Pens follow not in the path of those Teams, but in the path of that one Team you've come to hate so much because you just simply can't deny that they are, quite simply, the better Team.

Despite all of the disappointments, the early exits, the incomprehensible collapses. Despite being too old, too soft, too European. Despite drafting at the BOTTOM of the barrel for a decade....

Four Cups. Count 'em up. Four. Four Cups in eleven years. They are the Gold Standard. The Measuring Stick. Your young "Dynasty in the making" can only hope to accomplish what they have. Hell....HALF that.

Until they've got at least one under their belts, they're just the Team that lost to the Champs. Just like all the others. No less, but certainly no more, either. And a modicum of humility, rather than the chest thumping and talk of "Dynasty" that's been coming out of Pittsburgh since the Pens made it out of the First Round, might better please the Hockey Gods.

But hey....what would I know about going from Dynasty to Dross?

Sincerely,

An Islanders Fan

[SpankEmRed 1]

I shot this one off to him yesterday morning:

***************************

Subject: you might want to drink some milk...

It might dull down those sour grapes of yours.

I don't want to feed your already bleeding heart over Sid, Malkin and whoever else is left of the other Penguins, but if I were on that team I would get so tired of Crosby's Jesus-complex. Ovechkin is hockey's darling now, the trip was short for 'Sid the Kid' I guess. There's a lot of tears in Pitt over your sports teams I'm sure, but don't go bagging on blue-collar Detroit just because we won a hard-fought battle with your Penguins. Both teams showed up and played well and it was the game of inches and seconds that made it fair and exciting.

Your attitude stinks about Detroit and I would be surprised if your column and opinions were very popular in Pittsburgh... what you wrote about Hossa isn't journalism or commentary or even an editorial. It sounds like crying over a beer that you'd hear right after the final game ended earlier this month. Get over it, Detroit won because they were better and that's why Hossa flew the igloo.

Ronald A. Miller

Lansdale PA

******************************

Funny how 'sour grapes' is so fitting here that everyone is using it. Think he got the picture?

Edited July 4, 2008 by SpankEmRed

[hamip1998 3]

Awesome email Outsider. That pretty much sums it up.

[Drimo 0]

Outsider, that was a great email and it really drove your point home.

[Guest LivingtheDream]

That reporter sounds like a true Homer, the lowest form of life in sports writing. Imagine how much he whines next season when the Pens get knocked out early, or dare I suggest, not even make the playoffs. They were hardly built for the long term and it will show.

[chuklz 15]

This has it about right, Hossa was dangerous pretty much every shift he took. I too ended up making him my focal point, with Crosby second. Fleury basically won game 5, but wasn't that great other than that, right up to when he crapped the eventual Cup winner into his net.

I said from the second Pittsburgh got Hossa that it was a good trade if they win the Cup this year, but a bad one if they don't. They didn't win the Cup and now have zilch to show for Army/Christiansen/Esposito.

I really don't get where they thought they'd realistically be able to re-sign him. With the cap as it is right now, you can realistically carry 3 huge-money players (for us, Lidstrom, Hossa, Datsyuk right now, Lidstrom, Zetterberg, Datsyuk next year). 4 probably puts you in Lightning hell. I think they have to be a little pissed that they bailed on Malone as early as they did. If they'd known that Hossa was gone in advance, they probably keep Malone.

And I don't get the bitterness from their side at all. He's not Sergei Fedorov. They didn't smuggle him from behind the iron curtain, he didn't spend over a decade and win 3 Cups and a handful of indiviudal awards there. He was a rent-a-player. His Wings tenure will end up being longer than his Pens one, and should he leave after this season, Cup or not, I'll say "thanks for giving your best shot at it." We know what the rules are, what's on the table. They should have too.

I think that about covers all the subtopics going on here...

I think that for some reason because they have Sidney the Great Pitts fans feel like they are owed a cup. They also saw Hossa hustle his ass off in the finals as if he were really committed to the team. It's disappointing to find out a.) You suck, didn't realize it because you don't watch any Western Conference games, and b.) He was doing it for him, not for them. Whats going to piss them off even more is when he has a great season in Detroit and he signs on long term (like Stuart) because of the organization and regardless of the cup. If he moves on- doesn't matter to us either, because you're right- he's not Feds and we're used to rent a players.

[Guest Four]

It'll be a sad day when Hossa departs from our team, hopefully it wont be next year. At the same time, I'd rather have Z and Franzen extended so Hossa staying would be rather hard to fit unless he's willing to only take about 5.5-6.5M a season and we have major cut backs from a huge group or we have lots of retirees after this season.

[Copenhagen848 58]

I disagree. I thought Hossa was their best player on the ice, by far. Fleury had one unbelievable game but he also let in some soft goals that really handcuffed his team. (The Zetterberg goal, for example). Crosby didn't do much to impress me except in game three. Plus, Cindy's defensive skills leave a lot to be desired. Hossa played very well both ways and it got to the point where I was looking to see if he was on the ice instead of whether Crosby or Malkin were on the ice because he scared me.

I totally agree, I got scared every time he touched the puck....he was their best player by far.

[Electrophile 3,554]

This is my response to said Pittsburghers:

"Cry me a river, build me a bridge and then get the f*** over it." The Red Wings have done nothing wrong, they've not acted in an illegal, immoral or unethical way. All this whining makes you look even more like spoiled babies. Hossa is a Wing now, accept that.

[Outsider 42]

You know, it can't be easy. Marion Hossa was, without doubt, THE Free Agent Prize this off-Season. He's also a monster of a Player, one of the elite offensive Players in the Game.

And while Gene Collier gives a somewhat stiff nod to this fact, he ALSO refers to this great Player as "Sidney Crosby's right winger".

"Sidney Crosby's right winger". Nice.

And Collier's not the only one. There are many articles out of Pittsburgh in the wake of this signing where the writer(s) bemoan Hossa's foolishness in giving up the opportunity to play with Crosby, as though Sid was Jesus, and Hossa lucky to even be allowed into his presence, to play on the same Team, let alone on the same line with him.

Because we all know the Wings roster is peppered with garbage, and Hossa will never get the opportunity in Detroit to play with any really "great" Players.

Sheesh.....

[WingNut 25 5]

You can't help but laugh at what is happening to Pittsburgh right now. They got the ultimate gift in the #1 pick that allowed them to get Crosby and should have been long gone from the city of Pittsburgh. The salary cap got put in place to save teams like them and then BOOM the system blows up in face. They go to the Cup finals and then there is a mass exodus out of town. Why would Hossa want to stay there just to play with Sid? Dats and Z proved they are better than Sid and he'll have much more fun playing with them. Message to the city of Pitt: QUIT YER BITCHIN AND STFU!!!

[Doggy 130]

I totally agree, I got scared every time he touched the puck....he was their best player by far.