At 39, I still have Lidstrom as the best defenseman in the NHL, and in my opinion, the debate shouldn't be where does he rank among the current defensemen, but where does he rank all-time? Everybody is fighting for second behind Bobby Orr, but who is next? Lidstrom? Ray Bourque? Somebody else?
The Detroit Red Wings have been one of the most successful teams in sports the past two decades, qualifying for the playoffs an incredible 18 years in a row, winning six conference titles and four Stanley Cups.
One of the primary reasons for their consistent success is a player development system that is second to none in the NHL. I remember watching the Stanley Cup teams of the late-90's, and even the 2001-02 team, and foolishly thinking that once they lost players like Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan and The Russian Five (my goodness, those teams were stacked) they would eventually fall back to the pack and have, at the very least, a couple of down years. Not even close.
Before Bobby Orr entered the NHL way back in 1966, the idea of a defenseman scoring 100 points would have been considered lunacy. After all, forwards were rarely coming within spitting distance of the century mark, and defensemen were never really used as offensive weapons. Orr, of course, changed all of that, and not only became the first rearguard to ever lead the NHL in scoring, he eclipsed the 100-point plateau an unthinkable six times.
When it comes to surprises, last week's revelation was like finding out Iran's elections were juiced for the incumbent. If you want shocking news, however, you've come to the right place.
We are ready to reveal all the players who failed baseball's 2003 drug test. The results were supposed to be kept confidential, but Alex Rodriguez's name was leaked to Sports Illustrated and Sosa was outed last week in the New York Times.
There are 102 names to go. This drip-drip-drip could go on for years, but we're not going to let it.
The real NHL awards will be handed out Thursday night in Las Vegas, so FanHouse decided to hand out its own special awards for the 2008-09 season.
It's designed to maintain competitive balance and parity across the league, but if you waste valuable salary cap space on free agents that don't pan out or contribute the way you expected, you're pretty much stuck without a paddle because nobody is going to bail you out and take that albatross contract off your hands.
Introducing the FanHouse nominees for the Wade Redden Award for Wasted Cap Space.
It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We'll be running our division-by-division preview of the offseason beginning later in the week, but we wanted to give the two top dogs their own space. Yesterday we took a look at the Red Wings. Today: the summer outlook for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Thanks to Max Talbot's two-goal performance in Game 7, along with Marc-Andre Fleury's buzzer-beating save on Nicklas Lidstrom, the Pittsburgh Penguins brought home their third Stanley Cup. General manager Ray Shero now has the task of dealing with 10 unrestricted free agents and finding a way to construct a team that is capable of keeping the Cup in Pittsburgh.
It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We'll be running our division-by-division preview of the offseason beginning later in the week, but we wanted to give the two top dogs their own space. Today: the summer outlook for the Red Wings. Tomorrow, the Stanley Cup champion Penguins.
The Red Wings came within one game of repeating as Stanley Cup champions. A goal or two here or there, and their mission – and Marian Hossa's – is accomplished.
Instead, Detroit's first question mark going into the summer months is Hossa. It's widely expected he'll re-sign with the Wings for five years or so, but that will push Detroit essentially to the limit when it comes to the cap, which is projected to be about $57 million again.
It was a pretty big deal when Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, for the first time in his NHL career, missed a playoff game in the Western Conference finals. The future Hall of Famer missed Games 4 and 5 against the Chicago Blackhawks (both Detroit wins) and, as it turns out, he had a pretty good -- and extremely painful -- excuse.
He was having his testicle operated on as a result of an injury suffered in Game 3.
The handshake line that follows every NHL playoff series is a great tradition. The teams battle it out for four, five, six, or seven games. When it's all over, the two teams line up at center ice, take the gloves off their right hands, and shake hands with each other.
That disastrous Game 5 performance by Marc-Andre Fleury seems like an eternity ago, doesn't it? The Penguins' 24-year-old goaltender was brilliant in their Games 6 and 7 wins, and in each contest was responsible for the game-clinching, game-saving and game-winning saves to help the Penguins claim the third Stanley Cup in franchise history.
On Friday night, with 6.2 seconds to play in the season, Fleury made two of the biggest saves of his career as he not only turned aside a shot from Henrik Zetterberg through traffic, but he also stopped future Hall of Fame defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom on the rebound as time expired. Video after the jump.
FanHouse's Adam Gretz takes a look at his top 50 players in the NHL. No. 8 is Detroit Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg.
So it turns out Sammy Sosa was a steroid freak.
The real NHL awards will be handed out Thursday night in Las Vegas, so FanHouse decided to hand out its own special awards for the 2008-09 season.
Thanks to Max Talbot's two-goal performance in Game 7, along with Marc-Andre Fleury's buzzer-beating save on Nicklas Lidstrom, the Pittsburgh Penguins brought home their third Stanley Cup. General manager Ray Shero now has the task of dealing with 10 unrestricted free agents and finding a way to construct a team that is capable of keeping the Cup in Pittsburgh.
The Red Wings came within one game of repeating as Stanley Cup champions. A goal or two here or there, and their mission – and Marian Hossa's – is accomplished.
It was a pretty big deal when Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, for the first time in his NHL career, missed a playoff game in the Western Conference finals. The future Hall of Famer missed Games 4 and 5 against the Chicago Blackhawks (both Detroit wins) and, as it turns out, he had a pretty good -- and extremely painful -- excuse. 
The handshake line that follows every NHL playoff series is a great tradition. The teams battle it out for four, five, six, or seven games. When it's all over, the two teams line up at center ice, take the gloves off their right hands, and shake hands with each other.
