Posted 13 March 2012 - 05:57 PM
You sure that wasn't cprice12 writing that article, pretending to be unbiased yet always alluding to great moments in St. Louis history trying to belittle the Red Wings at the same time?
Come on really? One playoff loss to them in 20 years? Sure the Oates trade hurt at first, but it never got the Blues anywhere. If Oates would have stayed a Wing, things would have been different, sure, but things would have turned out different too! You probably don't make the trade for Carson, which doesn't bring you Coffey, which doesn't get you Shanahan. Who would you have rather had? Oates or Shanahan? If you make the playoffs that year, you don't draft Primeau, who also brought you Shanahan. Maybe Fedorov doesn't defect at the Goodwill games and he re-enter's the draft and gets drafted by someone else and there is never a Russian 5. You cannot mess with the space time continuum. Things happen for a reason. You can say that the Oates deal was one of the worst made, but in the end, it was one of the best things to happen to Detroit since 1983.
The Blues can have Hull & Oates and all the goals and assists. I will take the back to back Cups in the 90's and then the two more in the 2000's. What does Oates have? Stats....period. What does St. Louis have? Nothing....are they ahead of the Wings? Sure, will they finish ahead, probably, but you don't need the #1 seed to win the Cup...the Wings have proven that, time and time again!