The Pittsburgh Gazette ran an article this week asking why someone would want to leave Pittsburgh for Detroit. Yes Detroit. He amended his statement by closing and saying the young kids like to go there because it is a party place. This all came after Hossa signed a one year deal for the Wings and was offered much more money elsewhere but opted to play in Detroit. However, he beat up the Wings for signing free agents and suggested no loyalty (for lack of better words) in athletes today. Imagine that, leaving a team that lost to the Wings in 6 games for the prospect of winning a Stanley Cup.
He beat the Wings and their free agent signings up quite a bit. First he mentioned Conklin leaving Pittsburgh and it wasn't as bad as the Hossa comments, but wasn't Conklin the one which carried the Penguins while Andre-Fleury was injured. Yes, carried them was the remark. However, after mentioned no loyalties he didn't seem to mention the following free agent signings of Sykora, Thibault, Talbot, Sydor and Conklin. Slight error on his part? No, it is because it were the Pittsburgh Penguins signed those guys as free agents. He beat the Wings up pretty bad about free agents signings and re-stated the "loyalty thing in sports" and playing out the career for the same team. Guess that statement must have went out the window when Ray Bourque signed with the Avalanche and won the cup. Sorry Pittsburgh sport writer, no credibility in your statement there, try again.
As for the Wings free agent signings, lets look at the players that were on their team they drafted. Kronvall, Drake, Osgood, Zetterberg, Franzen, Datsyuk, Quincey, Hudler, Filppula, Meech, Kopecky, Holmstrom, Osgood and some guy named, Lidstrom. Do you know how many of them were Number One overall draft picks? None, nada, nil, zero, zip, zilch, nooooone.
A few hours ago Sports Illustrated writer, Allen Muir wrote this article (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/ allan_muir/07/04/cup.locks/index.html?section=si_l atest) suggesting that the Canucks go after the Wings Valterri Filppula as a Restricted Free Agent. Good thinking Muir!!!!! After the Canucks have lost Naslund as well as the kitchen sink they go after a young, Restricted Free Agent. If the Wings offer him $2.5 million and the Canucks or any other team offer more, the Wings will get that teams first overall pick in the 2009 draft next year. Hmmmm, let's think for a second. Vancouver signs Filppula for about $4 million a year and the Wings get the Canucks first draft pick based on their record and placed finish for next season. Has anyone looked at the roster? It is looking worse then the Wings farm team, the Grand Rapids affiliate.
What he failed to mention is Ken Holland must be licking his lips for the Canucks GM or any other to offer an RFA of his a dollar more. Imagine what Holland is thinking in Detroit. We won the cup this year, may have a better then average chance to win it next year and the Canucks signed Filppula and the Wings have the very first overall choice in the NHL draft because the Canucks win about 25 games. No brainer there for Holland. Filppula is a great young player but this is a business. (I will whisper this for the Vancouver fans only hear this. Todd Bertuzzi is looking for a new home.) Please add this footnote for Bertuzzi and Matthieu Schneider if you would and ask them this question. "How is that career move to California working out for you after leaving the Wings?" Now, when is the Wings ring ceremony?
Well, first of all, its the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and that article was written by Gene Collier. He usually writes articles that have a humerous or sarcastic bent on them. He wasn't entirely being serious about it I bet.
I search the Gazette and found the article (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/081 85/894547-61.stm) and here is the C&P of it (with my notes in UPPER CASE IN IT.)
Hossa must see something many don't in Detroit
Thursday, July 03, 2008
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Have you seen that commercial where the guy is encamped on the sofa with his woman, hostage to some tear-jerker chick flick, when he's interrupted by a ring tone alerting him to cell phone photos of his buddies, all busily gambling and canoodling and partying in ...
Detroit?
Honest to God.
Well, Marian Hossa saw it, or at least that's the most plausible explanation (NOW WHY IS IT PLAUSIBLE???)for yesterday's events, because Sidney Crosby's right winger with the Penguins signed a one-year free-agent hockey contract for $7.4 million with the Detroit Red Wings, who beat the Penguins in the Stanley Cup final last month. Mr. Hossa settled for up to $74 million less than he might have gotten on a multiyear deal from any number of breathless suitors, I guess because, like our man in the commercial, Mr. Hossa doesn't want to lament that, given the available choices, he could have "done the 'D.' "
Of course, that's not the way Mr. Hossa put it.
"When I looked at it, I wanted to have the best chance to win the Stanley Cup, and I felt Detroit is that team," he said in an evening conference call from somewhere in Europe. "I knew I could get more somewhere else. But of all the teams I could choose from, at the top there were two teams [Detroit and Pittsburgh], and at the end of the day I had to make
a decision, and I felt best about Detroit. (GUESS THIS EXPLAINS HIS THEORY ON MONEY VERSUS WANTING THE CUP)
"Pittsburgh has a great team, great people, great organization. I had to compare the two teams, and there's a little better chance to win the Cup in Detroit. (GUESS THERE IS A REASON HE MADE THAT STAEMENT AFTER A 4-2 SERIES LOSS)I had a great time with Sid and playing on the power play with Geno [Evgeni Malkin], but the team in Detroit is something special. I know it's a short term, but we never talked about a one-year [deal] with Pittsburgh. We just talked about a long-term deal. I totally believe Detroit has the kind of team that can win it again." (EVERYONE ELSE THAT ISN'T PLAYING IN HOCKEY TOWN NOW IS THINKING THE SAME THING AS WELL)
Really.
You know I could point out here that the difference between the Penguins and the Red Wings, fresh from the same delicious Stanley Cup final, needn't be measured in miles. (MILES? WHAT HAS THAT TO DO WITH ASTANLEY CUP AND DETROIT? mONTREAL WAS INTERESTED AND THAT IS FARTHER FROM PITTSBURGH THEN DETROIT)I could point out that if Marian Hossa gets to Mr. Crosby's last-second rebound in Game 6 a split second quicker, or if Marian Hossa shows up at all for Games 1 and 2, that the Stanley Cup might today be in the possession of his employer as of the day before yesterday, but no.
I'm not saying that. (WHAT ARE YOU SAYING SINCE YOU SAID IT?)
Mr. Hossa was a force for the Penguins, well worth the gamble general manager Ray Shero took Feb. 26 in trading potentially a small fortune for him, and worthy of all due respec
(THEN QUIT DISRESPECTING HIM AND DETROIT)But the summer sometimes brings a more visceral fallout.
So there is this: In the space of 29 days, Detroit rips from Pittsburgh its fiercest playoff predator, Mr. Hossa; its backup goaltender, Ty Conklin, who put a mesmeric spell on opponents in the injured absence of Marc-Andre Fleury; and, oh yeah, the Stanley Cup itself and all of its fashionably glorious cache. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, all diverted to the same increasingly maddening destination. (SOUNDS LIKE A PRETTY GOOD CAREER MOVE AT THIS POINT)
Pittsburgh thinks often of Cleveland as its rival metropolis, (ONLY IN FOOTBALL AS CLEVELAND HAS NO HOCKEY TEAM - APPLES COOMPARED TO ORANGES - RIGHT?)and sometimes of Philadelphia, but with this week's free-agent fiasco, is there a place somewhere generating more frowns 'round town than Motown? (ONLY IF YOU LIVE IN PITTSBURGH)
The research that begot the ad campaign extolling Detroit's "hot cars, cutting edge music, Vegas-style gaming, diverse culture, and championship sports" reportedly concluded that among 11 regional cities, including Chicago, Toronto, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, Detroit was the only one perceived to offer a travel experience appealing primarily to young adults 21 to 34. (THATS BECAUSE THEY CAN GO TO CANADE VIA THE AMBASSADOR BRIDGE AND DRINK)
Mr. Hossa is 29.
Yeah, they're geniuses out there.
The exhaustively analyzed free-agent period, still less than 72 hours old, now has the feel of failure for the Penguins, but that's probably not right. (MAYBE HE WAS READY TO LEAVE
WHEN THE CUP WAS BEING HOISTED BY CHELIOS THAT NEVER PLAYED IN THE FINALS ON PENS HOME ICE)
Mr. Hossa was a stinging loss because, unlike Ryan Malone, Jarkko Ruutu, Adam Hall, Mr. Conklin and their ilk, Mr. Hossa is irreplaceable. The club could spend years trying to fill that void, but it was never terribly realistic that the Penguins could have Mr. Crosby, Mr. Malkin and Mr. Hossa at the same time for an extended period. By signing Mr. Malkin this week, Mr. Shero did pretty much half the optimum in terms of keeping his indispensables. A long-term arrangement with Mr. Fleury remains a must, and room under the salary cap must be prepared.
In his conference call the day he landed with his fourth team in four years, Mr. Hossa said again and again what a difficult decision he'd just made, and how he felt good about it, almost as if he were still trying to convince himself of that.
He apparently won't be dissuaded until it's clear the Red Wings won't win a second consecutive Cup, (I WILL TAKE THAT BET FOR NOW)and if it were the Penguins who precluded that eventuality early next June, some wounds around here might close.
Wonder if Mr. Hossa would take a one-year deal to play in Pittsburgh in 2009-10? (MAYBE IF HE WINS A CUP AND THEN LEAVES VIA FREE AGENCY)
Man, we need one of those commercials.
Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com.
First published on July 3, 2008 at 12:00 am
Post Gazette or Pittsburgh Post Gazette - whatever.... You still got the point. And of course, after I just read your bio you sound like a bitter Penguin fan now that I see you support the Steel City. Should have known.
The Penguins also lost Laraque, so the big man Orpik will have to get his face beat in protecting Sid the kid now. I see Laraque using Orpik or Cookes face for a TKO 20 seconds after the gloves drop.
It's okay, you have every reason to be disgruntled. You just because the second place team in "Spanksylvania."
Last edited by badflatulence on July 5th at 5:19 PM.
Ah, ok whatever. I actually have very little bitterness over the Pens losing in the Cup Finals. Sure, I wanted them to win, but it didn't happen like that, and life goes on. I happen to be very content to be a Pens fan.
Did you ever think he was playing to the crowd? A lot of people in Pittsburg felt that way about Hossa leaving (I wasn't one of them by the way). What the goal of newspapers writers? To sale newspapers. And thats probably an article written for that purpose. Plus, he is writing for the Pittsburgh audience, you think he cares if he offends you or people in Detroit with that piece?
Good point thesupposedbuckles. I guess if you look at it in your perspective that is like saying, all women are capable of being prostitutes. But just because they are qualified doesn't mean they are. Isn't the object of everything sold to make money? The more I read from the Penguin bloggers and the Pukesburgh Gazette, the more they show their ignorance. One of the most ridiculous posts was on the Detroit News message board during the playoffs. The #### from Harrisburg wrote (and I think I have a screen capture of it); "the greatest thing to happen to Detroit hockey over the past ten years was Drapers facial reconstruction by Claude Lemieux and Konstantinov's paralysis as they both were well deserved. To me, that justified why abortions were legalized and why we need to stop inbreeding in Pennsylvania.
Retired military now with another Federal Government Agency. Are thankful to have served with many great soldier and will continue to have my
www.deadgrunt .com
military service site up and running, regardless of how many emails the DoD sends me asking me not to! I am a Michigan sports fan and Charles White did not cross the goal line in the Rose Bowl before he fumbled.
