Add Ron Francis to the growing 2006 retirement list with Scott Stevens, Mark Messier and Al MacInnis. They will not be returning to the 'New NHL'. It's a darn shame these players that have menat so much to fans and to the sport of hockey had their careers end the way they have. It's especially sad to lose MacInnis and Stevens after terrible injuries that even served to cut short what now will be their last NHL seasons. They all should have been able to go out the way that Gretzky and Bourque ended their long careers, not like this.
It just sucks... just like the lockout, it sucks for fans, it sucks for players and it sucks for the sport.
