Congratulations on the write up Captain D.  Also, you look like Helm in that picture, so congrats on that too.

Posted by monkey from here to Timbuktu on 11/18/09 at 07:02 AM ET

Lots of brain candy this morning.  Hear hear, Chief.

Posted by MarkK from Maryland on 11/18/09 at 07:12 AM ET

I nodded along all the way to the bottom two on that list.

Rosby?  Really ?  Come on…seriously?

Posted by 42jeff from Minot, North Dakota on 11/18/09 at 08:11 AM ET

Congratulations on the write up Captain D.  Also, you look like Helm in that picture, so congrats on that too.

Double bonus.

Great stuff.

Posted by Nathan from the scoresheet! on 11/18/09 at 08:14 AM ET

I nodded along all the way to the bottom two on that list.

Exactly. And the line that I found most offensive,”......he led his team to two straight Stanley Cup Finals….....”

Howzabout, “He was a member of a team…..” or even “he was captain of a team….”
I can live with that. Barely. But to attribute any quality of leadership to Sidney Crosby, to this point, is a travesty.

Posted by dougie on 11/18/09 at 08:23 AM ET

Excellent.  Nice writeup on Captain D. 

Thinking about Lidstrom as player of the decade reminds me how mad I am at the fact that he lost out on the Norris last year because he was playing against his own legend.  Even with this list, I’m sure there are some sportswriters out there (especially on the East coast) who would put Brodeur in front of TPH because they don’t get(take) the opportunity to watch him on a consistent basis and see exactly how he dominates every minute he’s on the ice.

Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 11/18/09 at 08:49 AM ET

The Norris trophy may be the most difficult to award as it requires looking beyond the stats sheet and watching potential candidates play a bunch of games.  If one wants to name a reasonable candidate, that is.  We know most MSM don’t watch games, which is why Mike Green was nominated last season.

And a good write up on Polo (a new nickname for someone around here) a player I knew little to nothig about.

Posted by VooX from Behind the Bar in the Hasek Club Car on 11/18/09 at 09:13 AM ET

Always nice to read an article about RW legends and old-school hockey. And good for Pelletier for giving props to Lidas. Sometimes I rewatch certain games and just focus on his play ... sort of my own iso cam. He’s consistently amazing, and I’m trying to appreciate him as much as I can while we still have him. As much as I love Hank and know that he fully deserves to wear the “C”, I’m not looking forward to it, because that means TPH has decided to hang ‘em up. It can’t be as traumatic as Stevie leaving, but it will be pretty damn close.

And what’s this ... I miss a few days and suddenly half of the 19 are lawyers? WTF? Where did all the pharmacists go?

Posted by Bella on 11/18/09 at 10:33 AM ET

I remember seeing that game in 1978 when Polonich got his face smashed in by Wilf.  Maybe that is when my dislike for Colorado hockey teams started.
Polonich was a fiesty warrier for the Wings.  So were players like Henri Boucha, Paul Woods, Reed Larson, Bugsy Watson and others.  These are unheralded Red Wings.  Awesome penalty killers, and layed it on the line for the team.  As a teenager back then, even though the teams generally sucked in the 70’s and early 80’s, they were fun to watch because of their love for the winged wheel.  Combine that with lite em up scorers like Redmond and Dionne, and of coarse bench clearing brawls.  That was good enough for me.  Of coarse, little Gary-ass would have hated it.

Posted by Jeff from Loveland, CO on 11/18/09 at 10:58 AM ET

I can’t believe that Rosby is on the list.  I mean WTF?  Damnit, it actually cheapens all the other players on that list.  Including TPH.

Posted by ITDeuce from The Land of Ice and Snow on 11/18/09 at 11:02 AM ET

@Baroque:

And accept my standard apologies for rambling as usual.

Nothing to apologize for, B.  I asked for your opinion.  Thanks for sharing it.  I actually agree…not to sound like a yes man or anything.  As for the ‘in league’ comment, I meant only that you used to write for Gramps’ (late lamented) blog.  That was all.  Seems to be him against the rest of us when it comes to Jimmy.  Whatever.

The Norris trophy may be the most difficult to award as it requires looking beyond the stats sheet and watching potential candidates play a bunch of games.

Which is why it so often ends up being the Art Ross for defensemen.  Absolute travesty.

Good call on Dennis Polonich, Chief.  Never saw him play and don’t know much about him aside from what my father tells me, but he was one of his favorites, and that of a lot of fans.  A real pain in the ass glue guy, a fan favorite who played bigger than his size.  Corazon, baby.

Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from Fortress Europe on 11/18/09 at 11:31 AM ET

Sometimes I rewatch certain games and just focus on his play ... sort of my own iso cam.

I do this at games too. You can watch him or Dats the entire shift and they’ll inevitably get the puck. Obviously, both work hard but it’s amazing to see their timing and spatial awareness in action. King Lidas will take two strides and seemingly coast but will magically be in the exact spot a teammate needs him to be. When he’s at his best and carrying the puck up the ice you can see how nervous the other team is because they’re tying to think on the same level and the effort is shattering their little worlds. He looks like a dad playing with his middle school son and their friends. Just incredible.

I never got to watch Polonich play but that write up helped me appreciate his contributions. We’re lucky to have the history we do.

Posted by Osrt on 11/18/09 at 11:48 AM ET

Forget Crosby, I got to #8 on that list, twitched twice and vomited on my keyboard.  Putting Pronger at the bottom of any top 10 list is like…well…it’s like hockey goatse.

Well I’m sorry, but it is.

Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 11/18/09 at 11:51 AM ET

Well I just posted this in the wrong thread….
I went to every home game in the 70’s until they moved to the Joe.
I remember Polonich, and he was a real glue guy, full of energy, not much of a skater.
I had only been watching live hockey for about 25 yrs so I really had not learned to appreciate
the job he did.  You would watch him skate down the ice from behind and he always looked like a bow-legged bull dog.  Wasn’t that big but very solid and hard to tip over.

NIce post, bringing back memories of Giacomin, Dennis Hextall, Nick Libbet, Walt McKechne, and Danny Grant.  I think Grant was the next captain.  They must have traded Rick Lapointe when Polonich was captain.
I remember Delvecchio sending McKechne out for every faceoff no matter how tired he was.

Polonich:
“There were just too many general managers and I had 11 coaches in eight years,” he said. “There were some good coaches, but they weren’t allowed to stay behind the bench long enough to really do anything with the team.”

My brother ran into Dennis Hextall last Saturday, and he said the same thing.

Posted by HockeyTownTodd on 11/18/09 at 12:03 PM ET

Excuse me while I go find my ‘Needs adult supervision’  tee shirt.

Posted by HockeyTownTodd on 11/18/09 at 12:08 PM ET

Interesting, only three of those top ten players don’t have a Stanley cup.  One of em hasn’t had enough time in the league yet, the other came within one win in 04, and the third person…..well that guy is just Joe Thornton.

In a completely unrelated matter. if any of you haven’t seen this on the kk main page or anyone else, it is awesome….some swedish guy scores, tries to celebrate like Ovie and fails miserably

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4_MKH1ldHI

Posted by Itrusteddrrahmani from Nyc by way of A2 on 11/18/09 at 01:25 PM ET

Mike Heika, Dallas Morning News says that one of the Wings favorite whipping boys at the JLA isn’t playing tonight:

Marc Crawford said this is a good place to play Auld, and that Turco is scheduled for tomorrow against Columbus. I never should have assumed I knew what was going on, and I should have asked yesterday about the goalie situation, but there was no indication to me that this was happening.

Turco is healthy and skated extra today.

Crawford said they still are planning on playing Turco a lot, but that this decision just made sense to the coaches (and I do believe Andy Moog and Mike Valley have a big say in these matters).

Heika also notes some line juggling by Scotty Bowman’s bitch, Marc Crawford:

And so it is that one of the Stars’ top combinations will be playing on different lines Wednesday against the Detroit Red Wings.

For the first time this season, and one of the few times since they were put together on a line back in 2006, Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow will play on separate lines. Oh sure, Ribeiro was on his own for most of last season when Morrow was injured, but the duo has been the heart of the Stars’ offense for the better part of three seasons.

Khan(!) has the Wings’ lines:

Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Leino-Zetterberg-Cleary
Draper-Helm-Eaves
May-Abdelkader-Miller
Maltby (out)

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Lebda
Meech (out)

Howard (starting)
Larsson
Osgood (out)

Posted by Jeff OKWingnut from Quest for 12 on 11/18/09 at 03:40 PM ET