GoWings1905

That's some major embellishment. Julien must be proud.

Good lord Franzen, hit the net you idiot.

Franzen just floats loopers into the zone and peels off a change. Z looks great, though. Much better energy and start tonight.

Of course, get Hank back and lose Jimmy. Because why have a game this season with most of our best players healthy. I don't trust Monster at all. Better find a way to start scoring goals tonight.

You always have a chance of coming back with MAF in net. What a terribly soft goal in OT. Not that I'm upset with it.

Damn it Pav, have a son!

Agreed, Rask is that good. Plus the Red Wings have made it easy on him (especially in Game 3) which is a really poor combination.

The complexion of this series changes entirely if Henrik Zetterberg plays tomorrow. I'm not getting my hopes up, but man what a huge boost that could be.

Franzen -- nothing worse than watching a player who could do more lazily skate around and say scoring goals isn't his priority. He doesn't even deserve the playoff performer fallback excuse anymore either. Hasn't done s*** in the playoffs for four years now. So sick of watching this bum have fun for a handful of games and then disappear the rest of a season.

If professional athletes need to be pushed to wake up in a home playoff game, there are far bigger issues than the crowd. Boston got what they wanted because the Red Wings stunk in the first period.

The crowd was great early. Not a whole hell of a lot to be excited about when your team comes out lacking energy in their first home playoff game. It was still pretty consistently noisy even when the Wings fell behind, but there was hardly much to cheer about. Not a huge fan of booing either and I personally didn't, but those boos after the first period tonight were entirely justified.

Forgot to add it, though it should be mentioned Brendan Smith was terrific in the game. His confidence is on another level when paired with Kronwall. Such a smooth skater and has done a nice job leading the rush in this series. Now if only there was a solution for the AHL calibre play of Kindl and Lashoff...

Always fun to attend a playoff game, but that was a dismal performance by the Wings. Most teams feed off the crowd's energy early and instead the Red Wings handed the Bruins the game by not showing up the entire first period. Stupid too many men penalty and a pathetic line change just can't happen against a team as good as Boston. Bottom line is the Wings can't score goals or really sustain any pressure against the Bruins. The power play moved the puck better tonight, but again special teams are swinging this series in Boston's favor. Unfotunately, the kids carried the Red Wings to the playoffs and they now appear overmatched. Maybe a good learning experience no less, but clearly their impact hasn't been felt yet in this series at all. I can deal with the kids being exposed by the stage, but what's the excuse for the veterans? I'm done with Johan Franzen. I'm sure everything has already been said about him through the course of this thread, but he's a bum. No way do his random scoring streaks outweigh the stretches of not even appearing to care about hockey. He has been completely useless for over 20 games now. That's a 1/4 of a season where one of your "best" players hasn't even shown up. I also don't see much reason to keep David Legwand for the future. It was probably a necessary overpayment at the time because of injuries, but he hasn't shown anything worthwhile of keeping beyond this season. Took far too long for Babs to switch up the lines, but I'm not sure any combination is going to make a difference at this point. Eventually the players just have to go out there and score goals. Pav, Helm and Abby were the only forwards I noticed that brought it almost every shift tonight. Miller and Glendening work hard, but neither has much skill. Season on the line Thursday. It shouldn't be a question in a home playoff game, but I would hope the Wings decide to start on time.

So stoked to be going tonight. The atmosphere for playoff games at the Joe is just on an entirely different level from the regular season. You can feel the buzz of the crowd even before all of the pre-game festivities begin. I have noticed too the past couple years how much louder the Joe has been for playoff games. It was bonkers for both Game 6's against the Ducks and Blackhawks last season. Absolutely love this time of year.

Eddie says it was just deception.

Wow, NHL officiating is continuously a disaster across the board. That disallowed goal against the Lightning was really bad.

Helm has been really good the first two games. Him and Datsyuk are the best forwards easily. Need way more from the kids and no-show veterans (Franzen and Alfie) starting in Game 3.

Why not? The Wings dictated play in Game 1. There's no reason they can't do that again on home ice. Sure, it will be tough but it's an even series. The Ducks and Blackhawks were both far superior on paper too. The Bruins were going to play their best hockey today -- there's a reason they were the top team in the league.

No, but the Wings don't have to play the Bruins style to compete. Game 1 was a perfect example. The Wings can win this series, but it isn't going to come trying to match the Bruins physicality. There are very few teams in the league (if any) that are going to beat the Bruins at their own game.

It's like Anaheim a few years back. They just excessively pushed the limits throughout a game. The refs can't and won't call everything, so the Bruins just continue to take liberties. Of course, it does help if your PP is competent enough to score to take advantage. The Bruins will still take penalties, but it hardly matters if the Wings can't even figure out zone entry.

Lashoff is a plug. Amazing what a couple PP goals can do in a game. Got a split in Boston. That's a win heading home. The Red Wings need to play their game on Tuesday and find some answers on the PP.

Quincey does the dumbest things. So many bad penalties this season.

Isn't that mostly why Tom Renney got the job? I'm not saying that to sound rude, but I thought one of the big reasons he was in brought in as an assistant was because of his PP success in Edmonton. Clearly, not working here.

Quincey and Smith channeling all of 2013 there. They spend one shift together now and it goes in the net.

Alfie has to be hurt. All he does is cough up the puck.