No more Lindros comparisons for sure. Actually winning the Cup, no matter what the player's actual contribution may be, makes a HUGE difference. But my fundamental issues with Cindy won't go away. Never have been a fan of narcissism, media hype, whining, sulking and one dimensional play, and will never be. But no gratuitous trash talk until we meet again ...
REPEAT loser Hossa is history in Detroit. We would have been in the SCF without him, period. Sure he's a very good player when things are going well, and backchecked + tried to cycle the puck along the boards, but that's hardly worth the millions he got. The least we expected were at least 3 quality shots, stick side and high, per game. Didn't happen. He had two guys on him at all times but so did Hank, the Mule, Pav on one good foot, and Cleary. Very good players, I use the term "great" sparingly, need to be at their best when their team needs them the most. He was far from that. Looks like we still have to wait more to fill the void left by Shaney and Slava Kozlov long ago.
His departure will allow us to keep the far more useful Val and Hudler, and offer Conks and Helm better contracts. Also, after Sammy leaves as expected, we can get a solid defenceman in addition to Kindl and relieve Stuart, Mr. one-critical-turnover-per-game, of half of his games. The real question is: can he ever be as good and reliable as our D kids, Ericsson and Lebda?
Anyway, if Cheli and Draper retire and Nick moves back to Sweden for his kids, I hope he doesn't yet, our salary cap situation allows a great deal of flexibility. Griffins continue to produce diamonds for us and our scouts find them in the rough.
That said, Hossa is no scapegoat. Everybody in Detroit recognizes the fact that we lost because the Pens were better when it counted the most. Fleury, please don't call him overrated any more, stopped everything we threw at him and that is the stuff of legends. In the end, it was he who made the critical difference by keeping the Pens in several games by withstanding our surges, so that sadly underrated excellent players like Talbot, Fedotenko and Guerin could put it away. He was definitely my Conn Smythe winner, taking nothing away from the great Malkin.