Lidstrom Retiring??

[sseagle]

Word on the street... guess the wangs are toast!


http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2012/5/30/3 ... -red-wings

[glen a richter]

Good! Now all we need is to sign Brad Stuart away from the Wangs, leaving them two short on D. Dare I suggest/hope/pray the end result is a middling Detroit team that might even find themselves in a position to miss the playoffs? Or is that just wishful thinking?

[ViPeRx007]

Say what you want about the Red Wings or the fact that Lidstrom played for the Red Wings. As a hockey player though, the dude was great at what he did...for a long time. Obviously I won't miss the Blues playing against him, but when a player of his caliber retires it's always a bit sad, regardless of the the team he played on. I've always respected the way he played the game and he seemed like a good person off the ice as well. I wish him the best in retirement.

[STLADOGG]

Happy and sad at the same time, odd.

[cprice12]

Finally.

[sseagle]

I'm hearing squeaks of Holmstrom following him... links when I can find one

[DaDitka]

This is the Wings man....we all know they'll end up trading for EJ and he'll suddenly become the best D man in the league or their will bring up some kid that makes Howe look like a slouch.

But yeah for now......I'm excited.

[fargoblues]

I respect Lidstrom even as I dislike him for wearing the wang.

If Holmstrom follows him into retirement, I will not have any such mixed emotion.

[dmiles2186]

One of the best d-men of all time, no doubt. It will be weird watching the Wings without him on the team. As a fan of a team in his division, I'm not sad to see him go.

[kodos]

Lidstrom has been the one constant in the Detroits amazing run... and more and more I'm convinced that he was the main catalyst of them being an elite team, year after year, lineup after lineup...

Glad to see him retire.

[cprice12]

I'm hearing squeaks of Holmstrom following him... links when I can find one

I heard during the season that Holmstrom was probably going to retire after this year.

[WaukeeBlues]

I echo a lot of the "respect" lingo from a few of you. Lidstrom and Yzerman were always class acts and no matter my feelings of the team on a whole; always had a grudging if not frustrating respect for those guys.

I think the Red Wings are finally ending their era. It's about damn time.

[glen a richter]

One thing I'm almost positive of is that without a guy like Lidstrom getting ample ice time, we are about to see just how bullcrap Jimmy Howard actually is. The Wings have typically won in spite of their goaltending because they had solid defense (look at Osgood, for a prime example). Howard is nothing but a cheap whiny little vomit head and he'll be exposed for what he really is with a significantly weaker defensive fortress in front of him. I, for one, can't wait to watch him get lit up more often next season.

[WaukeeBlues]

One thing I'm almost positive of is that without a guy like Lidstrom getting ample ice time, we are about to see just how bullcrap Jimmy Howard actually is. The Wings have typically won in spite of their goaltending because they had solid defense (look at Osgood, for a prime example). Howard is nothing but a cheap whiny little vomit head and he'll be exposed for what he really is with a significantly weaker defensive fortress in front of him. I, for one, can't wait to watch him get lit up more often next season.

I think the Wings have won their last Central Division title for a LONG time.

We've obviously turned a corner, the Predators certainly have, the Hawks even are finally looking like they are stabilizing from their devastating 2010 offseason, the Jackets have a #1 overall coming their way... all the teams in the Central are getting better, with the exception of one

[gaijin]

One thing I'm almost positive of is that without a guy like Lidstrom getting ample ice time, we are about to see just how bullcrap Jimmy Howard actually is. The Wings have typically won in spite of their goaltending because they had solid defense (look at Osgood, for a prime example). Howard is nothing but a cheap whiny little vomit head and he'll be exposed for what he really is with a significantly weaker defensive fortress in front of him. I, for one, can't wait to watch him get lit up more often next season.

I think the Wings have won their last Central Division title for a LONG time.

We've obviously turned a corner, the Predators certainly have, the Hawks even are finally looking like they are stabilizing from their devastating 2010 offseason, the Jackets have a #1 overall coming their way... all the teams in the Central are getting better, with the exception of one

*psst- the Blues won the Central this year.

I agree that all the teams in the Central are improving with the exception of the Wings, but I think that argument would hold more water if we hadn't been saying it every season for about 10 years now...

[cprice12]

One thing I'm almost positive of is that without a guy like Lidstrom getting ample ice time, we are about to see just how bullcrap Jimmy Howard actually is. The Wings have typically won in spite of their goaltending because they had solid defense (look at Osgood, for a prime example). Howard is nothing but a cheap whiny little vomit head and he'll be exposed for what he really is with a significantly weaker defensive fortress in front of him. I, for one, can't wait to watch him get lit up more often next season.

I've been saying that about Howard for a while now.
He is one of my more hated players because of his attitude and how he runs his mouth.
And yeah, I think he is vastly overrated because of the team that he had in front of him.

[DaDitka]

Well, I hate to point it out...but the Wings now have over 26 million in cap space to spend this offseason.

That means they can/will spend half the entire Blues payroll in free agency this summer.

[ViPeRx007]

Well, I hate to point it out...but the Wings now have over 26 million in cap space to spend this offseason.

That means they can/will spend half the entire Blues payroll in free agency this summer.

Exactly. I'm not sure why some people think they're just going to roll over now. If anything, they'll probably get better.

[glen a richter]

Well, I hate to point it out...but the Wings now have over 26 million in cap space to spend this offseason.

That means they can/will spend half the entire Blues payroll in free agency this summer.

Exactly. I'm not sure why some people think they're just going to roll over now. If anything, they'll probably get better.

Or.... the new ownership will play it smart and run up the price tag on someone they don't really want but know the Wings want. Then Detroit has to overspend, screwing them out of cap space. Meanwhile, we lock up Parise and voila, instantly better Blues team.

[ViPeRx007]

Well, I hate to point it out...but the Wings now have over 26 million in cap space to spend this offseason.

That means they can/will spend half the entire Blues payroll in free agency this summer.

Exactly. I'm not sure why some people think they're just going to roll over now. If anything, they'll probably get better.

Or.... the new ownership will play it smart and run up the price tag on someone they don't really want but know the Wings want. Then Detroit has to overspend, screwing them out of cap space. Meanwhile, we lock up Parise and voila, instantly better Blues team.

Ok, let me simplify this: It's Detroit....and it's St. Louis. Detroit doesn't need to sign free agents. They just need a 7th round pick who will turn out to be the greatest player ever. Obviously I hope I'm wrong and they run themselves into the ground but I've seen this story play out too many times to be too overly optimistic.