Hack&Lube

I'm not trying to badmouth him, just trying to point out that he really needs to take advantage of and be grateful for this opportunity he is getting and then to make amends with the people he has wronged. You can probably see I'm from Calgary and there were quite a few stories floating around for those 2 seasons and articles like this show they aren't unfounded. Hope he does well.

Draper himself said that he wasn't on speaking terms with Darren because of a lot of things that happened for years and it took something for them to sit together and talk about helping DMac back into hockey. He is very lucky to have friends that can help him so much. He earned a lot of goodwill for his years of service to Detroit, that counts for something, but I don't think any other player in the league would get a chance like this.

I've seen this story now (http://www.freep.com...RTS05/802260397) and indeed I know that Grinder is one of the most popular characters in Detroit but he was a pretty awful guy up in Calgary, married a girl, abandoned her, but not before racking up 20 grand in gambling charges on her credit card, took her truck, and drove to Detroit, giving her his "Dear John" via a note he left in their house along with other debts. I hope he truely realizes that he is being given a chance almost nobody else in the league would ever recieve let alone most human beings. It's very much undeserved and he had better realize how fortunate he is to still have friends in good places. It's not even about him battling his own demons and fixing his own problems, it's about all the people he has hurt along the way and continue to hurt or even arguably stolen from.

I wish him the best of luck and hopefully he makes the use of the NHL paycheck he'll be recieving instead of squandering it again (and also repaying those that he owes so much to)...but if Stevie Y was the epitome of class in the NHL on and off the ice, DMac is the epitome of a lack of class off the ice.

I said months ago that Cleary was Detroit's best player against the Flames and this confirms it (i can't find the post, it might have been on Detroit's board on HF).

Cleary has always been the best Detroit player against the Flames and I'd say he was your MVP.

I'd like to mention the Darian Hatcher elbow to the head on Matthew Lombardi in 2004 that concussed him for 1.5 seasons. Hatcher only got a 2 game suspension for that.

The suspensions given out this year were done so based on Collin Campbell's pre-playoff meeting about discipline this year and so the Flames were made the example which is how it should be. I feel bad for the coach though (although Playfair is not very popular amongst Flames fans anyway) since the 25K is a big chunk of change for a coach who makes a mere fraction of what the players under him make.