Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[WM Wolverine]

Most exciting play in hockey is the 1-on-1 match-up of offensive player vs goalie yet the rules make that extremely rare.

[Optimus Prime]

WM, it's called a breakaway and good defenses prohibit unimpeded attacks on their goaltender, at all costs.

[WM Wolverine]

Yet the rules in hockey make it even tougher.

[Optimus Prime]

August 9th, the day I became a Kings fan.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/article...l-history.html



Gretzky: "I have no regrets. The only thing I think back on are friendships and people I don’t get to see as often. And the fact that I often wonder how many championships we could have won – seven, eight, nine? I don’t know. There were a lot of Hall of Fame players who were part of that team. Sometimes I think, wow, it might have been fun, but you never know what turns life is going to take."

[Optimus Prime]

In the end, the most hated man in Canada. Peter Pocklington got his, bankruptcy in California and criminal conviction for hiding assets!

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ex-oile...case-1.1269959

[Tony G]

The owner at the other end of the deal didn't fair to well either.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1997/02/17/222192/

[Optimus Prime]

NHL top 10 hits, some truly great ones.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20VnKXG7854&feature=youtube_gdata_player"]Top 10 Hits of the Year - 2013 - YouTube[/ame]

[WingsFan]

The Wings will honor Nick Lidstrom by officially retiring #5 on March 6th when we host the Avalanche.

[Optimus Prime]

Speaking of Gretzky, the stick he used to score his 1,000th lifetime goal when he was just 13 years old —mind you—THIRTEEN, was auctioned off for $38,838. That’s right. For the price of a down payment on a house, you could own a 13-year-old’s hockey stick. Wow.

Wayner used to chalk his stick tape with baby powder, naturally every kid in Canada did the same.

[Tony G]

Ex-Wing Shawn Burr dies at 47: 'A big loss for the hockey community'

12:11 AM, August 6, 2013




Shawn Burr / Detroit Free Press file photo


By George Sipple and Helene St. James

Detroit Free Press Sports Writers




Shawn Burr. / Mary Schroeder/DFP

Shawn Burr, whose upbeat personality made him a fan and teammate favorite during his time with the Red Wings, has died. He was 47.
Burr had battled cancer in recent years, but died about 7 p.m. Monday after a fall down the stairs earlier in the day at his home in St. Clair that caused massive brain trauma, according to Dave Goetze, who runs the Shawn Burr Foundation. Goetze said the decision was made to remove him from life support after he was given a poor prognosis.
Kris Draper played only a couple seasons with Burr but said anyone that was around Burr any significant amount of time had a good time.
“If you were in the same room with him, you knew you were going to laugh and you knew it wasn’t going to be quiet,” Draper said. “He was definitely a guy that had a lot to say, talked a lot, had some unreal one-liners. Very quick, very witty. Just a great guy to be around. I probably saw him more in our golf tournaments than I did playing with him.
“It’s a big loss for the hockey community. The sad thing is we all know he was sick and he was battling cancer. From the sounds of it, it was something that wasn’t related to the cancer that he was fighting.”
Chris Osgood overlapped with Burr during Burr's last seasons with the Wings and remembers a guy who never stopped talking - or laughing.
"He was a funny guy, a nonstop talker, always had a trick to play," Osgood said. "My first game as a rookie, he put my name upside down on my jersey. He was the guy in the ‘90s who kept everybody else relaxed. He did the dirty work for the team on the ice and then kept the guys relaxed in the dressing room."
Burr was drafted by the Wings seventh overall in 1984, debuting with them the following season. He would go on to play 16 years in the NHL, completing his career with the Tampa Bay Lighting and San Jose Sharks. He produced 181 goals and 259 assists for 440 points in 878 games. His larger-than-life personality shone through in interviews and on the ice. After departing the Wings after the 1994-95 season — which saw the Wings go all the way to the Stanley Cup finals — Burr went from Tampa Bay to San Jose and back to the Lightning for one last go-around, in 1999-2000.
He returned to the Detroit area to live, joining the Wings' alumni association. The quality of the games may have changed, but Burr's personality hadn't.
"I know some of the other guys on the alumni team, they told me he'd sit in the dressing room and talk non-stop," Osgood said. "Then he'd take a shift on the ice, and when he was done with it, talk again.
"He had a lot, a lot of energy. He always had something going on."
Burr was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in February 2011, but underwent treatment, including chemotherapy. He eventually underwent a bone marrow transplant operation, came through it and beat the cancer back.
Keith Gave, a former Red Wings beat writer for the Detroit Free Press, said Burr was someone that teammates and media members gravitated to in the locker room.
“It’s devastating news to me,” Gave said. “Shawn Burr was not only a fun guy to watch play hockey, but he was one of the finest people I ever met.
“In the dressing room he made us laugh and he made us cry. He was the kid in the corner in tears at the end of every season when they got knocked out of the playoffs. Most of all, he made the game fun for everybody. He shared the experiences with everybody. His teammates tolerated him because he talked to so much and opponents hated him. He was a Claude Lemiuex-type.
“In the end, probably talked his way out of Detroit. He talked too much for Scotty Bowman’s liking. He always had a crowd of media around him, because he talked and he spoke well. I would compare him a little bit to Kris Draper. He was one of those guys you gravitated to.”
Gave said Burr always had a few new jokes to tell on a daily basis after practice.
Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill played with Burr on the Red Wings and remembered him being a fun-loving guy.
“Just full of life,” Nill said. “He was always talking in the dressing room. Character guy. Always had a smile on his face. Just a good man.”
Donations or memorials can be made to the Shawn Burr Foundation, P.O. Box 610812, Port Huron, MI 48061.

[Optimus Prime]

Reliving all this Gretzky talk has me all teary-eyed.

Gretzy's Hockey IQ was off the charts, many times he knew what opposing players were going to do before they actually did. He had an intuitive sense and saw the ice like no one else.


While Crosby is the best in the game today, no comparison to Wayne Gretzky IMO.

http://nbcprohockeytalk.files.wordpr...tzky.jpg?w=320

http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/i...-wayne-gretzky

[WingsFan]

Reliving all this Gretzky talk has me all teary-eyed.

Also makes you an old teary-eyed fart OP :-)


1988 – Yes 25 years, today - Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial player transactions in hockey history, upsetting many Canadians.

RIP Shawn Burr, good guy funny. Another guy Bowman shipped out before the Cups starting rolling in.

[geo weidl]

OP, check out the link below on the Gretzky trade. Tried to just upload the video, but I'm not that tech savvy. A little cheesy at times, but some interesting incites.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2013/08/08/sp-nhl-the-national-gretzky-trade-25-years-anniversary-video.html

[Optimus Prime]

Tell Me about it Packy, mid-40's but feel great. Exercise more and eat better than I ever have in the past.

Thanks George, I will never forget that day and actually had a close connection at the time with Gretzky & many of the Oilers. My best friend (Leif Bjornson) dated then married a girl that lived next door (Wolf Willow Point) to coach Glen Sather. Through her parents we attended nearly every public/private Oiler function, you wouldn't believe it, we knew no shame. Pat Bowlen (Oilman/Denver Broncos Owner) lived across the street at the the time.

I will never forget that day, I caught an earlybird (AC) to Toronto that morning 6 am from Edmonton, connected to Windsor. My girlfriend from Michigan picked me up at the Windsor airport and informed me that Gretzky had been traded. I told her there was no way in HELL that happened and so sure of myself, I bet her $100 bucks. By the time we made it to here parents in Grosse Ile, it was all over the news! When I left Edmonton that morning Gretzky was an Oiler, when I landed in Windsor late afternoon, he was a LA King.

Molson House in Edmonton, the infamous Fur Trading Cabin/Media House where Gretzky and Pocklington announced the Trade.

[WingsFan]

Were around the same age, I here ya OP - I try to eat better myself (still like my beer, but only weekends now)


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEk1qQ02Fe4"]The Trade - YouTube[/ame]