Red Wings signed Marian Hossa...

I hear he is pretty good.




Thats him on the right with Cindy Crosby last year. He played with Atlanta before being traded to the Penguins later in the year.



Wings got a bargain.

One year, just a shade under 7.5 million dollars.

Only thing that this signing proves is that the Red Wings are an organization dedicated to winning, and players around the NHL prove that. They got one of the elite players in the NHL for a bargain....


...And he'll be on the second line


I'd imagine that Hossa will be on the second line along with Val Filppula and Johan Franzen. You don't see guys with 648 points in 701 games played on the second line.

What to expect of Hossa:

You'll see a guy that fits amazingly well in the Red Wings' puck possession style. He is impossible to knock off the puck, and he is a weapon on the backcheck. He may not be the most physical guy in the bunch, but he is far from soft. Expect a guy that will wow you sometimes. He has loads of talent and the tools to bring that talent out.


Why this is great for the future:

The Red Wings have about 4 million left under the salary cap right now. They've still got to make decisions on whether to sign Filppula, Chelios, Downey, and McCarty. They should be able to atleast grab Filppula and Chelios.

Its also a great signing for next year. Henrik Zetterberg's contract will expire and he will undoubtedly command upwards of eight million dollars per year. The expiring contract of Hossa will give us cap room to re-sign Z.

Wings win the Cup.

Wooohooo! Hank wins the Conn Smyte.

My personal favorite, Dallas Drake winning his first Cup!

Last night was great. Channel 7 and 2 had great coverage through the night.Its great to see these guys who work so hard win the cup -- clinches the fact that they deserve it as much as any other team in the NHL.

Another championship for the city of Detroit!

The sense of pride you get from this is incredible. You watch guys like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg get drafted, grow, and now they are Stanley Cup Champions. Amazing to see, it really is.

Photos Courtsey of the Detroit News.

Stay tuned for more on the Red Wings' Stanley Cup victory throughout the week.

Weeee are the champions, mah friends.

BOOM.

Hello, Stanley.
And hello new template!

Red Wings lose in 3 OT Thriller

Its a tough loss to swallow, the 4-3 triple overtime game, but the Red Wings are as close to the Cup now as they were before Game 5. Unfortunately the series does head back to Pittsburgh, but the Red Wings proved they could win at Mellon Arena. Hopefully history repeats itself.

I don't have much time but I'll get in some observations really quickly:

A) Officiating for this series blows. Phantom calls on both sides. Datsyuk got called for tripping last night when someone on Pittsburgh just lost an edge. Also, the two goaltender interference calls were crap.

B) Red Wings clearly the better team. They pelted Fleury all night last night.

C) Fleury won the Penguins game 5. Quite simply. He was amazing last night.

Now onto something that I had been ironically discussing via e-mail with a reader. We were discussing how sudden death overtime is pretty dumb and then ironically just happened to cost the Red Wings a game last night.

Last night's game was a perfect example of my problems with overtime in the NHL. Pittsburgh played not to lose. They sat back on their skates for 2.5 overtime periods and scored a lucky goal on a shot that was deflected, screened, or both.

How to fix it. Make overtimes 10 minute periods. Take away sudden death. You play until an overtime period ends without a tie. This makes both teams be aggressive rather then playing a defensive game.

Random Comments 2/10

• Curtis Granderson was in Africa with MLB's ambassador program as a part of not only Black History month, but also to hold clinics to help spread the game. You can check out the pictures from the trip on Curtis' myspace page.

• Red Wings winger Dan Cleary may be out 6-8 weeks with a fractured jaw. After having surgery, Cleary will now have his jaw wired shut for over two weeks. Fun.

• The SportingDetroit love luck continues once again, with the Purdue Boilermakers up ending the Wisconsin Badgers last night in Madison.
  

• Rich Rodriguez was on SportsCenter with a short interview last night. To summarize, he basically just said that WVU was a good place, but Michigan is Michigan and it was the chance of a lifetime. He also got emotional when he addressed the death threats his family has endured during his switch. The video can be found on youtube HERE.

• Apparently Brian McNamee decided that everyone in Roger Clemens' fav 5 also used steroids since he has now accused Rogers' wife of "taking it in the butt" as well.

The Clemens family poses for a family portrait, circa 2003.