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This has to be a tongue-in-cheek post, right? If not, holy effin crybabies Batman. That is some of the most childish reasoning I think i've ever seen. I mean, that's the kind of stuff 12 year olds base their likes and dislikes on. The way people look? Really? Byfuglein- Show me the cheapshots? Aside from wildly hacking at Andy McDonald, the guy plays a very straight up game. Cheap shots my ass. You don't know what you're talking about. He's a big guy yes, but he's also a guy who can play power forward AND defense, has great hands, can score 15-20 goals and is showing up big time in the playoffs. IMO, he should've been on Team USA. As for his celebrations, they're nothing compared to AO. I'd love to have Buff on the Wings. He's exactly the player they need. And he never shies away from a confrontation. He has more fights than anybody in a Wings sweater these days. Hossa - Traitor? Really? Because he came here as a free agent for 1 season? You're as big a freaking baby as those Pens fans who cried the same thing. Whaaa, whaaaa! Sharp - so basically you don't care that it was an accident and that he apologized to Lidstrom. I guess you must hate every player who ever laid a hand on Lidstrom. Maybe Lids should get to wear a special jersey like a quarterback in practice so everyone knows he's not allowed to be touched. Give me a break. It was an accident. Aside from that Sharp hasn't done anything to anyone. He's just a good, skill player. Kane - I'll admit, I love him because he's a US kid. You cannot deny the talent either. For his smallish size, he's just fantastic and far, far better along the boards than somebody his size should be. The whole cab driver incident seems to be shrouded in some he said, she said but I hardly think it puts him in Sidney Crosby territory the way you're hating on the guy. Kopecky - seriously? You might as well hate Brent Sopel too. He had about as much impact in a Wings sweater as Kopy did. I guess you hate Shanahan and Fedorov too for leaving. Ladd - pretty much tougher than anyone on the Wings. And you don't like him b/c he looks odd. Who are you, freaking Brad Pitt or something. Show us a pic of yourself Mr. God's gift to women. Puh-leeze. Campbell - This is another player who has never done anything to warrant hate. Sure, he's overpaid. I guess that's enough reason to hate him like a jilted little girl. Eager - For a guy who says he loves rough stuff, Eager should be a dream come true for you if he were on the Wings. A 4th liner who can ACTUALLY SKATE and contribute!!!! let's see here, he's fought Janssen, Ivanans, Rypien, Murray, Jackman, Stortini, Rupp, Boll, Lucic, Parros, etc....Yeah, what a "wannabe". My respect meter for you is hovering perilously close to zero right now.

Are they going to show the game, or just talk about how ******* great game 1 was. Enough over-analysis already. Get on with the show NBC! Don't say those things on a Wings forum. I doubt any of their retard fans were shouting "Go Wings" in the Finals last year.

This topic of conversation is getting WAY too personal. You may not agree with people's decision to cheer for one team over the other in this series, but some of the posts here are getting out of hand. If you don't agree with another member's choice or reason in who they're cheering for, that's fine. But responding in the manner that I've seen the last few pages have been childish at the least, and bordering on the edge of breaking the Forum Rules at the worst. Keep the discussions civil please. Either agree, or disagree, but at least give other members the common courtesy of respecting the decisions that they have made and move on.

I love everyone who thinks they can expound on Chicago sports traditions. High-lare-e-us. I'm laughing here. Go Hawks....my dad is under the weather right now and could use the win.

I dont care if it's tradition or not, yelling through the anthem just furthers Blackhawks fans as ignorant pricks. Go Pronger Go!!!

Can a mod please just leave this thread here and let it be... if you keep moving them, new ones are just going to keep popping up... if anything, move the old ones back and merge them with this thread, then when it goes official later today/this week, just change the title and lock it. Agreed, but until it becomes official, for all we know, it will be closer to 5....

I'm rooting for Chicago because I think they deserve it. They had to go through both the first and third seeds, they flew out West for two of three possible playoff series, and they're just flat out the better team. Also, I like Toews, Sharp, Keith, and Seabrook, and I harbor no ill-will against Hossa or Kopecky. On paper, they've got an insane roster; Hossa, Toews, Kane, Keith, and Seabrook are all superstars. I personally think some of you guys let other teams' fans bother you too much. The 'Hawks winning really doesn't matter all that much; I think we'll still retain our bragging rights. We're still a powerhouse team remaining in contention, we've won more Stanley Cups in the last fifteen years than they have in the history of their franchise (literally; 4 > 3), and we've beat them in every playoff series we've played with them for the last twenty years. Not to mention the fact that they have 15 players signed and they're already over next year's salary cap with a young stud goaltender that may win the Conn Smythe. All of those things add up and make me pretty confident that I can root for the Blackhawks without giving their fans too much leverage on us.

I hate Pronger more than any player in this series, but in the end, I just can't bring myself to root for Chicago just because of him. I hate the Hawks more than I hate Pronger. Way more.

You guys do realize that Hawks fans despise the Wings more than any other team. I doubt they've rooted for us in any of our SCF matchups. Why should we root for them? What the hell kind of fans root for their rivals, who hate them in return and say "Red Wings Suck" at every game, even when we're not playing? And who cares about Pronger already? You hate him more than our biggest rivals in the Conference? And I say there's plenty of despicable Hawks players. Kane, Bufflin, Kopecky, Hossa, Campbell, Eager. I hate these rejects just as much as the Flyers cast of a-holes.

A few thoughts... Stan Bowman has said on numerous occasions that Hossa's role on this team is to be the guy who leads the way towards a strong two-way game. He's the guy who out-hustles everyone back to help on D and that's what Bowman wants out of him. He's got tons of scoring depth, but those guys needed to learn from another scorer how to play a complete game and Hossa's greatly helped in that area. He seems to be raising his scoring game thus far in the Stanley Cup Finals. 2 assists and a generally great performance in game 1 and the first goal in game 2...tough to say the guy isn't answering the call when it counts more than ever this year. And sure, his scoring's been down, but he's played a different role on this team and no one watching and critiquing these games has been short of praise for Hossa's overall play. It's looking pretty likely that the Hawks are about to go up 2-0 on the Flyers in the Finals, and you've then got to think that there chances of winning are pretty damn likely. It's tough to rip on the guy when he's playing for Stanley Cup right now and we've been done for awhile. Franzen's outscored him, sure, thanks primarily to a great single game effort. He was non-existent a great deal of the time in the playoffs and unlike Hossa, when Franzen's not scoring, he might as well not be on the ice. Hossa's going to be great whenever he's on the ice, in every situation you can throw him into. He can score. He can be a playmaker. He's an excellent 2-way player. He never takes a shift off and he out-hustles everyone on the ice. He's a complete player. I have no doubt that Hossa's head has hindered his offensive performance thus far in the playoffs after 3 years of questions and supposed "curses." It's got to bother him. But he's come into the Finals to win and again, he's answering the call thus far. If they win it this year, thus silencing Hossa's critics and removing the "curse" and the pressure, watch out. He'll be better and better in the coming years when he's able to just get out there and play his game. And I still wish he was a Wing...

Burn in hell, Hossa

Since the Hockey Gods have pissed on the Wings all year, Kopecky would probably KO Carcillo with one punch. Then Leino will demolish Bufflin with a bodycheck at center ice.

I love Carcillo. What a game so far. These teams are reeeally starting to hate each other. Shame we never see this in Detroit games any more. Real shame.

Gretzky must have been in Russia and saw Pavel play as a kid.

Way to to. You picked the one part of Eva's argument where you could bash him. By the way, going with the 'compare with the right players'-argument that you put forward: how well do you think Hudler would do if you put a guy like Rick Nash and Huselius on his wings or Cammalleri and Gionta? For me there's a lot to be said about opportunity - in Detroit he's not going to become the 1st line center and therefore get those kind of minutes and wingers because of a guy like Datsyuk. If you actually become objective for a minute - do you really think that Hudler wouldn't improve upon the 57 points he had last time he was in Detroit if he played more minutes? Would he get better results than Lecavalier, Kopitar, Staal, etc. do when they're at their best - no. Would he get better than Vermette and Gomez - yes.

I'd still take him on the Wings in a heartbeat.

Exactly how familiar are you with Chicago? In high school, two brothers I played with were from Chicago. My father-in-law's best friend commutes for work from Chicago to Ohio every other week. I've visited the United Center a number of times and spoken to friends who lived or currently live in Chicago. They all say the same thing. Bad ownership sticking it to the fans really caused a lot of bad blood. It wasn't just that the Hawks stunk. It was that they stunk an the owner was like F--- YOU! on top of it. Heck, he blacked out their games for crying out loud. And look what happened as soon as the old man was out and the son took over. Completely different story. Band wagon fans are everywhere, even in Detroit. Personally, it's been my experience that you can't ever really bash the fan base of an Original 6 team. There's far too much history and too many people who actually do follow the team. I don't buy for one second the argument that selling out games is the only true measure of whether a team has a solid following or not. Every team has its down times. Dead Wings ring a bell? Illitch trying to give away cars to get people into the building ring a bell? It's arrogant and hypocritical to bash Chicago for basically going through a cycle like we did, like all teams do. And you're just doing it out of convenience really. You're better than that.

Hawks win the Cup.

How the hell was that a penalty? That was beautiful.

Wrong. You want to say that Lidstrom is better than Pronger, be my guest. But to say that he is clearly better is just flat out wrong. Right now, I would take Pronger over Lidstrom on a one year deal for next season, in a heartbeat. Just because other players are overpaid, doesn't mean everyone should be overpaid. Alot of the salaries people are referencing are from contracts that were written before the full pinch of the cap was felt. Look at Rafalski. The market is still a little weird. It doesn't say you are right.

I guess Lids also stole his slap shot from Al Macinnis.

bertuzzi averaged 3 more minutes of ice time per game during the regular season, and 4 during the playoffs. bertuzzi - 44 points ladd - 38 points bertuzzi usually played with guys like datsyuk, filppula, etc. ladd played with guys like brouwer, bolland, etc.

if lids retired, holland could then keep lebda and give him his much deserved pay day who CAN the wings get if he leaves, while still being cap responsible? volchenkov is reportedly gonna be thrown approx $5mil from the Caps. no way is he worth $5mil. i don't care how many shots he blocks. volchenkov = stuart, and lots of you guys for whatever reason want to hang stuart who was great last year with a horribly injured team. http://www.sportscity.com/nhl/2010-nhl-unrestricted-free-agents-by-position/ realistically from the list in the link above, what good defenseman won't be re-signing with their current team? anyone who thinks vancouver is letting mitchell walk is ******* nuts. and corvo's gonna rot in ottawa. tallinder's resigning with BUF. that doesn't leave much if lids retires. the wings would have to trade some prospects/picks to get a good solid top 4 dman. with kronwall, stuart, rafalski, ericsson in the lineup, possibly lilja and kindl in the mix. on the way up is brendan smith, gleason fournier and adam almqvist. kolosov and janik are also potential players that have value. even logan pyett isn't too bad. the wings could keep a good core of those dmen and trade a couple of them to get a top 4 guy. they also have some pretty good forwards coming up (callahan, tatar, raedeke, nyqvist, ferraro, coetzee, nestrasil, andersson, ritola...) tell me for one second that with all the guys i mentioned that the wings can't pry a pretty good dman from a team and still have a good prospects crop at the end of the day. i'd personally package tatar, mcgrath and kolosov and a pick or 2 and see what comes in return.

Looks similar but damn, Pavel does it sooooo much smoother.