WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


DAMN RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry man, i've been playing hockey for 20 years and watching it for 21 years...

The Stanley Cup is like my Christmas time...

Hank = MVP doesnt get better than that.

Great series all the way around. No lack of excitement this yr. I'll say this for the Pens. Going from worst in the conference two yrs. ago and almost having to leave town to pushing an elite team to the end in a tough six game series is damn impressive. This team has a lot of playoff hockey in front of them for the next ten decade.

true for the exception that they're going to have serious contract issues because of when they signed crosby, malkin, fleury and staal.

Their contracts will make it so they can keep 2 of the 4.

They're going to pull a Sabers and probably lose their entire talent pool.

They have a shrewed enough GM that they'll be able to keep the young nucleus and build from there w/ smart trades like they did this yr. They'll win several Cups before it's all over.

wow the habs get permission to talk to sundin. i would have been shocked if sundin had gone to a team like pheonix or nashville but the habs

YAWWWWWWNNNNNN

Pens are going to lose some talent.

Malone's gunna be gone. Staal.. maybe, Hossa probably wont stay cause of the salary cap, Geno's got a Russian contract that's far in excess of what he's getting paid now - Because the Russian League is in direct competition with the NHL on the world's spectrum.

Out of Fleury, Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Hossa... i'd expect to only see 2 of those back. Maybe 3 at best - but with 3 coming back the're going to lose all of their 2nd and 3rd line scoring.

You know they're going to keep Crosby, and Fleury, but Malkin, Staal and Hossa im not so sure about. If they keep one of those 3, then players like Gonchar, Dupuis, Sakora, etc are going to be gone. Malone's already on the block. Orpik is talking to the Rangers, etc..

You have to ask yourself, is it really worth it to sign Hossa and Lose Malone, Dupis, Sakora, Orpik and Gonchar?

I really doubt it. The Pens made some really BAD moves going down the stretch. They signed Talent too quickly and they knew, in particularly with Staal, that they would catch up in contracts. They're not the first team to do this, nor will they be the last. Instead of building a "franchise" with success in 5-10 years, they build an allstar team with 1-2 years and blew their chance to win the cup. That's a huge gamble and they lost.

There's a reason why Detroit's been here for 12 years at the highest level. They draft well, they make smart trades, and they grow in house players. Consider the fact that the Redwings have not drafted in the first round in YEARS. Zetterburg and Datsyuk and Holmstrom were piss poor round picks and molded into superstars. They locked up both Zetterburg, Datsyuk, Kronwall, Lidstrom, Rafalski, all of their 2nd and 3rd line players, etc. These players, for the exception of Dallas Drake who might retire and Dominic Hasek, who no one cares about here in Detroit... are the only changes we've made besides bringing in Brad Stuart, which filled in perfectly when Chelios went down.

Most writers and commentators would take issue w/ that. Shero was highly praised for putting this team together and pretty much everyone who follows hockey says this team will be very good for years to come. Time will tell. One thing we know for sure is that the Wings are very old and will be challenged to stay competitive as the young pens team matures.

Shero did a good job of putting a team together to compete in the playoffs, there's no doubt about that.

I agree that they're youth is their biggest asset, maybe for the exception of Roberts, and Laroque. Hall Gill was a great addition to the team and he will stay.

The pens have a bright future, no doubt about it, but they are not immune to the mistakes they've made. They had the choice to sign Jordan Staal after playing 9 or 10 games. If they sent him back down to wilks scranton for the rest of the season they could have avoided this contract issue. That particular year, the pens were in no form ready to compete for the cup.

There was no need to sign him. The only reason Hossa would stay is because he says he has chemistry with Crosby and, lets face it... Hossa wants to be on a winning team. Too bad his agent is in charge of where he goes, not Hossa.

My point with the Redwings, is that ... yes they are an old team, but they are in house. The cog's that turn the winged wheel are players like Draper, Maltby, Cleary, etc. They've got some millage left on them for sure. But even when they retire you've got the Filpulas, Hudler's, Samuelsson's of the world that no one talks about.

My point is this - Lets say CHelios retires.. we've still got Kronwall and 2 upcoming top tier D men in the Adirondack Redwings. The worst player on the wings roster is Andreas Lilja, and he's still a D man most teams would not mind having.

The team is built on structure and players are interchangeable. A player like Hossa would never work in Detroit, that's why Federov left. However a player like Rafalski, fits perfect. We dont really have the need to sign all those superstar names, we're one of the teams that's on the low end of the salary cap.