There is a HUGE downside to the Hossa signing.

No, I'm totally serious.  Really.

Here's the downside (and if anyone else has hit on this already,
apologies). 
The downside is that anything less than a Cup this year would be a
complete 
disappointment... and winning a Cup is really, really hard to do.

You can't keep Stuart and add a legit top 10 offensive guy like Hossa and 
then think anything else but complete world domination was the goal.

That is a ton of pressure.  A galactic ****load of pressure.  From day 1, 
every game is going to be analyzed to the nth degree.  A 3 or 4 game win 
streak even more of a disaster than it usually is for us.  The team -has-
to 
win the President's.  They -have- to dominate everyone.  There's no room
for 
'hey, shucks, we're just going to try our best and see what happens'.  No,

**** that.  This roster says they should be able to fall out of bed and
win 
60 games.  This is like the bizarro version of the Avs.

And do you know ehre all this pressure is going to lay most heavily? 
Where 
the constant grinding expectation of complete success with no excuse for 
even tem****ary failure will hit hardest?

Wait for it....

Waaaaaaaaaaaaait for it...

My boy.  My blowup fetish doll model.  Chris freaking Osgood.

I am officially tight around the anus with stress.  And we're still 3
months 
out.

Why am I stressed?  Because before the Hossa signing, who gave a ****? 
It's 
almost impossible to win back to back.  About the last five years the team

that wins doesn't even get out of the first round.  So, obviously, there 
were no real expectations from me regarding Ozzie.  He won a(nother) Cup,
he 
was off the hook.  Now, totally on the hook.  Why?  Because the Wings are 
dominant at forward.  Easily the best group of forwards in the NHL... and
I 
mean easily.  We're approaching the point that you could almost take two 
other NHL teams and make an all-star amalgamation of their forward corps
and 
not be able to beat the Wings talent for talent.  Allso, the Wings are 
dominant on defense.  They've got the best or second best top 4 in the
NHL, 
and I'd take their top 6 over anybody's.

Where are they not dominant?  Goaltender.  Where are they nowhere close to

dominant?  Goaltender.  Unless Ozzie goes out there and posts another 
1.9-2.1 GAA, .920, 30-6-4 season he's going to be the scapegoat.  I can
see 
this coming from a hundred miles away, and it pisses me off.  It's like 
April 15th.

I don't know how it is going to be possible to enjoy this season.  Every
win 
will be because they were supposed to, every loss is going to be because 
they gagged.

I'm... I'm honestly almost annoyed at the signing.  That seems nuts.  Am I

nuts?

:)