Hossa would have been nice to have around, but we got him from Pittsburgh knowing that the odds of keeping him were darn near impossible. Pittsburgh got him at trade deadline as a hired gun, same thing. He wants to be on a winning team to win a cup, not be on a team to help it win. If you know what I mean. Frankly, even though I was glad to have gotten him from Pittsburgh, I think that the way he left them to come to Detroit was kind of *****ey. They were in finals and he jumped ship.
Anyway, his loss was not unexpected, and he tried to win that way and now I think he will settle down and try to win on a team that he can actually be a long-term part of. They should be contenders for at least several years.
Kopecky's choice is to go out and create his own destiny. I think that he is a very good player and on a team that is not as stacked as Detroit, he will show himself very well. But both losses for Detroit opens up some ice time for some younger players who look to be very good as well. Leino, Helm, Ericksson...
EDIT: I forgot Abdelkader! He also looks to show much promise!
I'm excited again to have a team that is not expected to win the cup! Each year it seems Wings fans cry their eyes if the Wings don't win every game, or win the cup. Get over yourselves! The Wings lost this year simply because they didn't win one of the first two game in Pittsburgh. If they have fought harder to win one of those, they likely would have have the Pens running scared. Instead, Pittsburgh realized they had a chance and fought back hard, just like a champion needs to do to win it all.
I'm very happy so far with the way things have turned out for the Wings. They still have a core group, and some of the veterans will be retiring and hopefully this will be the first year in a long time where the young players will have a good chance of getting tons of ice and learning the NHL game.
It's about as close to rebuilding as you can do in Hockeytown!