Leaderboard

Please do not let this be the final GDT of the year, Wings.

You may recall that you guys whipped our asses pretty good in Game 4 last year. If, however, the Sharks learned their lesson from last year's beatdown and look like they're going to get the sweep this time around, enjoy watching what could be the final games for some of the classiest players in the league. Here's the link to a nice tribute to these guys from ESPN.com: http://sports.espn.g...erre&id=6487568 Whether your season ends after Game 4 or you live to fight another day, Red Wings fans have a lot to be proud of. Lace 'em up . . . drop the puck . . . and may the best team win. I seriously wish you didnt follow me up there. As nice as you seem I wish nothing but the worst for your team. I hope for injuries, penalties and loss after loss. Smug is Smug and sadly you dont know what it is to win. You can keep hoping for the S word but as imminent as it may be you still havent sat at the edge of your seat with your father when your team won in 2002 and said that there would never be a team as good as this EVER. Youll never stand next to your girlfriend and hear that your team won the cup for the first time in over 4 decades. You will never be laid up in a hospital and watch you team win the cup after a horrible motorcycle accident and you will never get to hope your runaway dog comes back while you watch your team win the cup in 2008 and then have him show up the next day. You may love your team My team won and it won A LOT. My team changed my life, my team gave me a reason to live, my team brought a family together, and my team gave me a reason to believe, Your team lost. Even if they win they cant do what the Red Wings have done no matter what. Heres to the Wings and heres to the guys that gave me so many great memories.

Quik someone post a pic of the sharks with the cup!

I know we're all hoping Friday's not Nick's last NHL game ... but if it is, he's had an incredible career. Fun to look back: Lidstrom's 10 Best Playoff Goals No. 1 on the list is the bomb that broke Dan Cloutier. Definitely one of my favorites. Edit: I think this is fine in this part of the message board, but if not, feel free to move it mods. Thought it was a cool find on a random blog.

I don't fault you for having a personal connection to your team, but this post makes you sound like a complete jerk. You are trying to claim that only the red wings could possibly inspire wonderful personal attachments and stories, but similar stories can be found across hockey and across sports in general for everyone's team. Everyone knows the Wings have won a lot. Congratulations. I'm glad that's improved the quality of your life, but that doesn't quite make you a better person than anyone else. So keep rooting for injuries, enjoy what that karma brings you in life sir.

With 20 consecutive seasons in the playoffs, six SCF appearances and four Cups in the last 15 seasons, the Red Wings have been the closest thing the NHL has had to a dynasty over the last two decades. Winning the fourth game in a playoff series is always tough, but to do it at The Joe, against a great team like the Wings is even tougher. Take it from a guy who knows both teams that will line-up against each other in Game 4. You may recall that you guys whipped our asses pretty good in Game 4 last year. If, however, the Sharks learned their lesson from last year's beatdown and look like they're going to get the sweep this time around, enjoy watching what could be the final games for some of the classiest players in the league. Here's the link to a nice tribute to these guys from ESPN.com: http://sports.espn.g...erre&id=6487568 Whether your season ends after Game 4 or you live to fight another day, Red Wings fans have a lot to be proud of. Lace 'em up . . . drop the puck . . . and may the best team win.

Franzen. He is the prime example in my opinion of what is wrong with this team now days. 2008 he was a machine. But you know what? The first 3/4 of that season he was a checking line player who worked his ass off. When he got 1st line time, he exploded offensively ad had an amazing post season. Since then, he has become a scorer, and that has totally changed his work ethic. All season long he has been floating around on the ice. People can say "as long as he shows up for the playoffs" all they want. I don't buy it. The guy was a workhorse before he became what he is now, and that is the Mule this team needs. He could have been a 40 goal scorer this season, but he decided to take the last couple months of the season off. I don't recall the Red Wings of the late 90's doing that... I say try and package Franzen for a true power forward, who will do what ever it takes to win, ALL YEAR LONG. Bring in a couple nasty bastard for the bottom 6, tweak the defense to make it bigger and meaner, and we have a team that can do some damage again. We need a few nasty players who can wake this team back up when they play like they are half asleep. The talent and depth is there, it's the heart that isn't. This team needs a Mule again, and I really don't think #93 is living up to that name anymore... This team doesn't need big changes. It either needs a bunch of smaller one, or just one big one to shake things up.

History begins tonight! esteef

Yeah, that's a toughie. Howard can't assume the puck is coming at 10 mph. He also shouldn't be assuming that it's coming at 100 mph. And what if Setoguchi doesn't even shoot? Howard wouldn't have been able to get back across the crease if Setoguchi passes back across the ice; it's an open net shot. All Howard had to do was plant his damn skate; he can cover the part of his pad that comes off the ice with the stick that is otherwise in front of his body serving him no purpose. And voila! He stops the shot. Knowing not to fling yourself out of your crease is basic goaltending. While he has been impressive for most of the playoff run, he has steadily declined as the pressure increased. Goalies like Hasek and Osgood played their best in high pressure situations. As for Boyle's goal; my main complaint about Howard on that play is that he dropped to the ice when Wellwood sent the puck across to Boyle, and basically crab-walked over to try and square up to Boyle. Furthering that, Howard dove forward when trying to make the save, offering up more open net. When he swiped his glove at the puck, the entire top half of the net was available. Howard didn't try to "block" the shot, he tried to "grab" the shot. He didn't try to put his body in front of it, or simply get his glove in the path; he swiped at it. Take away one of those decisions, Howard probably stops that puck. Take away all three, and Howard definitely stops it. Hudler is the popular scapegoat around here, I won't deny that. And his first 30 games of the regular season were not spectacular by any stretch. But the fact remains that since Christmas, even if you remove the time Hudler played with Datsyuk, Hudler has outperformed Franzen. And if you look at the stretch Hudler played with Dats, it's hard to argue who has better chemistry WITH Datsyuk. Hudler has outperformed Franzen in the playoffs, and everyone was giving Franzen plenty of leeway in the regular season because "he'll be great in the playoffs." Well he's not. Hudler's been on of the team's top forwards. Babcock has said so. Ken and Mickey have said so. You have always hated him because he's small and European. Good for you. As for Filppula... wasn't it just a few months ago I was classified as a "Filppula hater" by this forum? I lose track of these things, outside of those like yourself who simply can't acknowledge positives about a player.

Lets face it, there have been 3 times in HISTORY that a team has came back from a 3-0 deficit. (Some people say 4 teams have come back) The Following Teams Did It: Toronto Maples Leafs vs Detroit (1942) New York Islanders vs. Pittsburgh (1975) Philadelphia Flyers vs Boston (2010) The real question is...Do the wings have what it takes to make history? My Answer Is Yes. Here are some things that need to happen for us to win this series: The Team Needs To Wake up 3rd and 4th Line Scoring Improved Penalty Kill Momentum Shifting Moments LOCKDOWN Defense Intimidation Coaches need to prepare the players better Confuse the other team OUTWORK the opposition If we can get the breaks and take this step by step, a miracle can occur. We will need the inspiration from someone to find a way to get ourselves out of this hole. The only way this can happen is if the Wings play to the ability we've seen. They need absolutely flawless hockey from this point out. My Predictions: Game 4: Wings 3-1 Game 5: Wings 2-1[OT] Game 6: Wings 3-0 Game 7: Wings 4-3[OT] BELIEVE

Anyone remember the days when the Wings led after 2 they would always close out the third without having to go to OT and lose? Remember when they were winning by a goal the lead would increase to 2? Or if they didn't score a goal they would stifle the opposition and thus the opposition wouldn't get a sniff at the tying goal? Remember the puck posession game that worked brilliantly in the 2008 playoffs? Those were the good old days that appear to be long gone and done now!

In a game we pretty much absolutely have to win, how the hell do Salei and Ericsson get more even strength ice time than ******* Nicklas Lidstrom? It's like Babcock thinks Lidstrom's a powerplay specialist now or something. If anything, that would be $6M man Rafalski. Nick wasn't out for even a second of the penalty kill (which let up 2 goals...coincidence? Probably not when your best penalty killer isn't on the ice.) Kronwall and Stuart probably spent too much time killing penalties compared to the others--obviously wearing them out. I haven't really felt the need to criticize Babcock so much before. Even if Lidstrom's lost half-a-step and isn't perfect anymore, he's still the one defenseman in the league I would want out there in any given situation. What was the point in limiting Nick's ice time all season? I would think it would be so he could play over 30 minutes in games like these. EDIT: Also, I just had to mention how I loved seeing Flip, Mule and Hudler suck on the OT powerplay for 1:30 while I don't think Pavel and Hank even got the first 30 seconds. It was only the most important powerplay of our season.

We can always live in a dream world and you can keep making GDTs for the Wings until the SCF.

"Let's Go Wings" chant every four minutes. Any anti Niemi chants?

One has to believe that this streak of loosing one goal games to the Sharks is going to turn in our favor at some point. Whether that's the next game or next year or some other time in the future I don't know. But these things have a way of evening out. Look at our run over the past 20 years. In the early 90's we couldn't find a way to win in the playoffs and Colorado got the better of us a couple years in a row. Then the tables turned and we we got the better of them. Look at the 2008 and 2009 Stanley Cup finals. One year we get the better of Pittsburg, the next they get the better of us. This is just how hockey works. All we can really hope for and believe in is that starting in game 4, the Wings start to find ways to win by the slimist of margins instead of being on the other side. And if the Sharks win this thing, we tip our hats to them and put faith in our future. But winning 4 in a row is not impossible (especially when the games are so close). We've already done it once this post season, lets just believe our boys can do it again. GO WINGS!!!

So if this does work do not make one for TB.

The wife and I went down there last night and the crowd was wild. It`s probably the feed you get from tv. There were at least 6 or 7 thrown after the anthem and there was one or two thrown later in the game at some point during a commercial break near the San Jose bench. The place went nuts every time one hit the ice. I also took notice about the noise level. When you watch it on tv, you usually don`t hear how it actually sounds at the game. It was loud as hell many times. The crowd would also go nuts when they were showing past fights up on the overhead, esp the one with Roy. There were many chants and of course the place went ear splitting when Heatley or whoever got Kronwalled. Yeah, the place was rocking. As for the lower bowl, the place was packed but at the intermissions, the bathroom lines were long as hell, and I really mean long as hell, that I said f*** it at the first period and tried again later. I can`t imagine the end half even getting to their seats by end of the next period. I checked again after period two and well, lets say just I decided to hold it and actually made it to home lol. You would see a bunch of people return down the lower bowl about half way through a period I noticed. The bathrooms at the Joe are a joke. I didn`t count, but when I did go before the game started (went in when the doors opened at 6:30) I think there are about 6 stalls/urinals in them? For that size crowd thats beyond ridiculous. Plan ahead if you are going Friday night... *Edit* There are the port-a-johns outside the Joe too but not sure they would let you out the doors for them. Even if they did, you`d still have lines going across the river to Windsor...

We havent had a good defense since Barry Smith left. Even when we won the Cup in 08, our defense was suspect, but ever since McCrimmmon has been here...... :puke:

extra jinx. Niemi Shutout with 7 -0 sharks win

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaHAtN3VGmg

good job, Big Joe

One needed change will be the end of the Holmstrom era hopefully. He was only effective in front of the net and now the league has basically taken that away from him by targeting him.