Perusing hfboards and the comments on other weblogs, I'd have to say that I think Chris Pronger accomplished his mission yesterday. For a week, his wife got a thrashing. He holds one press conference and tells everybody - between the lines, granted - what we already knew, and now he's back to being public enemy number one. Smart man, he is.
Quite why many people seem to think getting booed or being hated in Edmonton - or any other city - really matters to him is beyond me. Everybody ranting and raving about how he should look out watched the San Jose series, where he was booed. He's been booed before in other cities. He's been getting run his whole career: first because people wanted to see what he was made of, more recently because they knew the answer to that already and wanted to send a message or carve off a piece of glory for themselves. Cheechoo laid as good a hit on him as you'll ever see, and Pronger gave it right back the next game. He doesn't care. If he did, he would have long ago curled up and died.
Don't get me the wrong way - if things go sideways for the Ducks next season, I'll admit now that I'll be feeling a vicious sense of vindication then. And I'm not too big to admit that if he never wins a Norris or Hart again, and his team never makes he Finals again, that I'll be quietly pleased.
But he's an ex-Oiler now, and as others have said, they've moved on after losing better players and better leaders than big #44. He's made the best of a bad situation, and so will Lowe's team. Players come and go, trophies are won and lost, but the big Oil Drop lives on, and that's all that matters.