Gordie Howe

It seems there is some confusion about the current state of health of Red Wing hockey hero Gordie Howe.

Clarification was reported yesterday to ensure that Howe's fans knew the truth. 

When it comes to reaching the peak of stardom with a signature team and then moving on at the end of their career, hockey Hall of Fame players are hard to beat; they've simply all done it.

There may not be a sport that is more closely associated with its country than Canada and hockey. 

Whether it's the national team or club teams, Canadians are always proud of their stick wielding, puck handling heroes.

For the most part, Canadian hockey fans think of all hockey players fondly, unless of course they play on a rival team, but they hold their own kin most closely in their hearts.

Canada has had the greatest crop of hockey players to come out of one country. That fact then raises the  question - who are the greatest of the great?

For the past 20 seasons the Detroit Red Wings have made the playoffs, and for quite a few of those seasons, they have at least made it to the conference finals, winning four Stanley Cups over that span.

Many look back on Detroit's great players like Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman, and Terry Sawchuk, to name a few.

But one would be remiss not to mention the great fights that Hockeytown has witnessed over the past few decades.

Teemu Selanne's five-point game last night gave him 75 points on the season, and has shown that age is just a number for some players. If the Ducks end up making the playoffs this season, they have Selanne to thank for that. 

He began his career with an outstanding rookie season where he scored 76 goals—an NHL record for rookies—and hasn't stopped since.

Its a debate that has raged for years and will continue to rage long after this column.

Who are the greatest hockey players in the history of the great sport of hockey?

With this list, I tried to be a fair as possible in considering every aspect I possibly could. 

Taking into account everything I could think of and not necessarily in this order: era they played, stamina, how injuries effected total numbers, of course statistics and the competition level they faced.

When looking into Detroit Red Wing lore, many great names come to mind.

When asking who are the best Red Wings in team history, the first name that pops up into mind is Gordie Howe.

Before we get deep into thought about any other player, let's just give the scoop on Mr. Hockey.

For kids that don't know too much about the Wings legend, here are the basics.

He suited up in 1,687 games for the winged wheel, scoring 786 goals, adding 1,023 assists for 1,809 points.

Very, very good numbers.

I’ll warn you (and myself) right now—this is the type of article that will entitle me to all the hate mail and angry comments in the world. However, it’s both exciting and challenging to determine who the best teams in NHL history are. After all, there have been over 1,000 teams that have played a season in the NHL, starting in 1917, when the NHL was formed from the fledgling National Hockey Association. 

Love it or hate it, fighting is as much a part of hockey as Zambonis and shaking hands at the end of a playoff series.

In the past, the only way to make sure your star player received fair treatment was the threat of retribution. The prevailing philosophy was, “If you hurt our best player, we’ll make sure you wish you didn’t.” As recently as the late ‘90s, teams would be crazy not to keep at least one enforcer on their roster.

One of the long-standing icons of the Detroit Red Wings and the NHL is Hall of Famer Gordie Howe.

Three years after his arrival, Gordie began to show the prowess that would make him the most recognized athlete in Detroit for nearly 60 years.

Howe’s performance, along with Ted Lindsay, Red Kelly, Sid Abel, Terry Sawchuk, and several other Hall of Famers built Detroit into a league powerhouse in the six-team NHL and beyond.