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Oh, my... I miss that team and those days, so much. Baby Dats with his goal #7 - meaningless at that point, but a harbinger of things to come. I watched my recording of this game so many times, I actually had the announcers comments memorized on the goals. LOL~ Freddy Olausson! Love that guy. Igor, Nick, Dom, miss them all. But, I'm looking forward to next season, let's see what you've got, kids. Thanks for posting, Mikey. Fun memories!

There's no question that Markstrom stole game 5 as well as playing a pretty big part in the entire series. That was one of many HUGE saves that he made last night. That one on Sproul, another one on Bertuzzi, one on Larkin, and several others. There was also a fair amount of luck on their side, with us hitting what had to be 4 or 5 posts, a couple in the last couple minutes alone... It's been a great run so far, I hope they can win the next two and have another shot at the Calder Cup. Odds are against them but it's definitely doable...

With Mrazek in net it would have been very different series...

Osgood played well in St. Louis. Then he was let go for Lalime, who was supposedly an upgrade. lol

Not sure if I read your post correctly. Other Capitals have had great seasons during that stretch. Semin, Backstrom and Green have put up big numbers. Ovechkin has just scored more than them. Their problem in the playoffs is the production from other players is never enough when it counts. That's why they've never made it past the second round. But it's not like he's played on a talentless team, where it's natural that he will lead them in goals and points every season. He's deserved that record because of his play and consistency.

".....the Red Wings taught the Avs to play!"

Here's a thought. With the emergence of Abby, Tatar, and Nyquist as regular scoring threats. And with any potential FA acquisitions that Holland picks up, maybe Franzen gets pushed down the depth chart a bit. Or, at the very least, he gets to take advantage of easier matchups/usage. And in doing so, he isn't asked to shoulder as much of the offensive load as in years past. As a secondary scorer I think he'd be incredibly valuable. He'd (theoretically) carve up third line competition.

The Blues would have lost. They've already shown they can't beat Chicago. Or anybody, for that matter in the playoffs.

Not a chance. Andersen (25) is still pretty young and made it that far. Plus, they still have John Gibson (21) waiting in the wings behind him and he's pretty spectacular. I wouldn't be surprised to see him be the starter at some point next season. Howard may get dealt, but it won't be to Anaheim.

Can't believe tampa made it to the finals after we gave them the series with a goalie who's greatly overrated And I didn't want Chicago to win, wanted a new winner .... The 2 teams I didn't want to win ... I can honestly say I'll be watching the nba finals hoping lebron loses over watching the nhl finals this year

After how uninspired the Lightning looked against us in the first round, I'm pretty surprised they made it this far. Experience means a lot and the Hawks, unfortunately, have that edge. But the Lightning are a high scoring team, have beaten 3 other original 6 teams to get here and might be fresher not having played a bunch of multiple OT games against a physical team. I want the Lightning to win, but I really can't see how that will happen. Bishop is shaky and the Hawks forwards are way deeper than TB's. I mean, seriously, as we saw in the first round, if you take away Tyler Johnson, this team is basically done. Hoping it'll be TB in 7, but it'll more likely be Chicago in 5 or 6.

No we send him to the salt mines!

Do we still promote Blashill if he loses Calder Cup?

You might want to check the Wings roster from their glory years (I'm assuming you're talking 1996ish to 2000). Yzerman is the highest draft pick. Then next I think is Marty Lapointe taken 10th overall. Fedorov was taken in the 4th round. Lidstrom in the 3rd. Shanahan the Wings traded for. Draper was acquired for a dollar. Not quite the same as getting Toews and Kane in back to back drafts.

Yeah Holmstrom was one of a kind. He paid the price in front of the net. He never got many assists but he was a big part of so many Red Wings goals with his butt planted at the top of the crease. I miss #96 too. Speaking of the infamous game 7 vs the Avs...the Red Wings 4th line in that game was Holmstrom-Larionov-Robitaille. I think that line scored 5 of the 7 goals. That team was stacked.

There really isn't any reason to take this discussion too far afield. Anybody who's been around LGW for a while knows the kinds of reactions that Franzen has received around here. And the criticisms have definitely gone pretty far beyond observations of his play. If people genuinely feel bad for him, that's fine. Who am I to say how you should feel about the guy? I was just making an observation that there were an awful lot of people who had nothing good to say about him and wanted him gone at any cost. Many went so far as to feminize his name (because chicks are lame bro! durrrrrr). And some of those same people now act like they really give a crap about the guy...so long as he still leaves, of course. I wish the guy all the good health in the world. And if he wants to continue playing hockey, or trying to play hockey, who the hell am I to wish otherwise? He and his doctors certainly know better than I do whether he's subjecting himself to anything unwise. And he and his family are far more capable of weighing the risks and rewards of playing than any of us.

I think you missed some pretty relevant contextual information. I'm talking about the fans, on this site, saying those things about him. Not other players, on the ice. I think it's trashy for fans to attack the guy personally, and then pretend to have sincere concern for his person later on. Regardless of his work ethic. I don't care what other players say to him on the ice.

So because he doesn't play up to his potential we should all expect, and participate, in the pejorative speculation about his sexuality, mental health issues, and criminality? He's been accused of everything from being a homosexual to intentionally defrauding the Wings by faking the severity of his injury. It's over the top. And the fact that he's "polarizing" is no excuse. Wings fans LOVE to go on and on about how classy they are. And how loutish and ignorant other teams' fans are. But in the case of Johan Franzen, quite a lot of Wings fans have been completely and totally trashy.

I could also argue that the Wings could disguise a coat rack in 2008 as coach, and make a good run. We certainly had no shortage of talent on that team. Canada could also disguise a coat rack as coach and win the last two Gold Medals with that roster.

I want him to sit out until he no longer has concussion symptoms. Then be back on the on the ice just after 50% through the season, and get back into gameshape just in time to go crazy in the playoffs. Boom, perfect plan.