Abel to Yzerman
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Quenneville: Hossa May Start Next Season In Goal
by IwoCPO on 07/02/09 at 02:31 AM ET
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Here’s what you do when you reach the Conference Finals and you fall short. You spend some money. And you spend it with one thing in mind and that’s taking the next step. You came so close that getting past the team that beat you is an obsession. We know all this. The Wings have been there. Twice in the last twelve years. A Conference Finals loss does weird things to you.
In Chicago’s case, it led them to sign Marian Hossa and his Mini-Marian, Tomas Kopecky. They also signed John Madden. They became stronger and they are going to be giving the Wings one heck of a run for the Central Division title next year. We knew this the moment Hossa signed.
But…
Like I said, they’re going to have a real nice regular season.
Huet and Crawford. Is that the tandem that is going to unseat the Wings as Western Conference Champs?
Oh. We’ve got ourselves a barn burner. Don’t get me wrong. It’s got all the ingredients. A defection last year of a hockey god. Some good regular season games followed by a fairly decent playoff series where the vanquished got a bit violent at the tail end of each loss. Young Hawks learning how to lose. A cheap shot that affected the Wings for the Final. And now a superstar switching sides under our noses.
But rivalry or not, unless Dale Tallon makes one more move before April of 2010? This thing is nothing more than a regular season sideshow because the Hawks aren’t doing squat with that goaltending. And while the core of the Wings is locked up for the better part of the next decade? The three most important Hawks are all up for new deals next summer with precious little cap room to maneuver under.
Oh, and don’t forget the Wing Bitch behind the bench. Woops.
Table that. Yes, they’ve got Hossa so we’ll be talking Chicago all year. And we’re going to address his signing here in a few. First, though, forget about Chicago for a second and let’s strictly deal with what the Wings have in front of them. Here are the cards Tick Tock’s dealt Uncle Mike, and it looks like this hand isn’t going to change.
Zetterberg, Franzen, Datsyuk. Filppula, Cleary, Hudler (assuming).
Draper, Helm, Homer, Maltby, Leino (assuming). And at least one spot for one more whether that’s Abdelkader or a UFA. A core of twelve forwards as deep as any across the NHL.
Lidstrom, Rafalski, Kronwall, Ericsson, Stuart (thanks George). A top five better than any in the league. Period. Add Lilja into the mix, subtracting Chelios and, somehow, Meech. Lebda stays unless something else better comes along and the blue line is still stacked.
And the inevitable regular season resurgence of Chris Osgood is a discussion for another time. Jimmy Howard’s place in the organ-I-zation is also tabled for now.
The depth isn’t what it was with Hossa. No getting around that. The firepower isn’t either. But a few things will make up for that, namely chemistry. Not to say it was bad with Hoss. I’m not claiming that. But I will say that I believe a team responds when the players who choose to stay...stay. Does that makes sense?
Now. It makes no difference how you feel about the departure of Hossa. It matters little to him and it definitely has no bearing on anything that happened the last twenty four hours. But it’s something to discuss because the emotion of this situation drives everything we, as fans and as readers of this blog, do.
Despite some sort of telepathic game I tried to play with Kenny Holland the last few months, where I honestly believed that every time I wrote “he’s staying”, Tick Tock was taking notes and nodding his head? The signing of Franzen probably sealed Hossa’s departure and the less reactionary of us understood and accepted that. There just wasn’t enough pizza dough to go around.
Oh. Re-phrase. There’s plenty of money to spend. But because of Little Gary’s lockout and his perverse CBA and the Cap number that he has flashing in neon next to the blown up picture of him and Rosby at Neverland Ranch? Because of all that, the money just sits there.
And because it does, Hossa had to move. He had to and we understand it. The idea that he’d stay for far less, that he’d take so much less to try and win again in Detroit...it could have happened, but we all knew the likelihood wasn’t great. And that’s not even really understanding all the economics of it. Maybe you do. I know I don’t. I’m certain I have no concept. Guess who does though? The anti-Digger.
Read this to see how Marian Hossa, when he made the decision to give himself one year’s run for a Cup, cost himself 30 million bucks.
So how do we handle this? Marian Hossa, on the surface, left Detroit...where he could have made forty-five million over ten, to play in Chicago where he’ll make approximately 1.2 or 3 million more per season. And while it is disturbing to see him go to a team obviously stacking up to compete with the Best Team in Hockey, you have to respect that he didn’t go to LA or somewhere else only to lose for 7 or 8/season.
And no, LA is not making the playoffs this year.
And he didn’t want to leave Detroit. Unlike last year, when his comments leaving Pittsburgh sent that city into a tailspin? Does this really piss you off? Are you Hossa haters now, after reading this?
“Ken was saying after he signed Henrik Zetterberg he was going to try to sign either me or (Johan) Franzen and you have to be happy for the guy (Franzen), he improved big time and he deserved everything he got. With the salary cap, it would be tough for me to return.,” Hossa said. “Otherwise, if there was no salary cap, I was sure I’d still be in Detroit.”
Not exactly, “I’m going to the team I feel gives me the best chance to win the Cup.”
Hate the guy if you want, but I know you won’t. Boo him if you must, but you won’t do that either. You’ll have three chances to do so if you want to, but I don’t see it happening. Economics forced his hand and his competitive nature sent him to a contender. It’s as simple as that.
It’s troubling that Chicago has another gun, but it’s not enough to cause me to break out the pitchforks or the voodoo dolls. The guy gave us a good run, a good shot and a good year. He gave himself one season to throw some caution and a lot of money out the window. Now it was time to get down to business and that’s what he did.
But, unfortunately for him and fortunately for us, his glove hand isn’t as good as his wrister. And the Hawks are going to need that glove a lot more come April or May.
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Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 07/03/09 at 03:19 PM ET