Vladifan

Thanks, Supafly. And may your guys shut the Avalanche the hell up. Or whatever I meant there...

He sounded a little like one of the nervous nellies he talks about early on. I finally told him to cool it. And yes, he calmed down.

He's wrong about this game so far. Thank heavens. They look pretty iffy. Just not often enough.

I noticed in our newspaper this morning that goalie Thomas McCollum and D Logan Pyett have been recalled from Grand Rapids. Seems a bit unusual at this point. Anybody know what's going on? Does this mean they also have to send anybody back down? Thanks!

Yeeeahhh... And I might as well tell you now, "They" called. I'll be in for Rafalski tonight. PMS-type backaches or something... I'd fill you all in more, but I gotta go get my skates sharpened.

No prediction on who wins but if the Wings win, they will win the series. That this game is pivotal is an understatement.

Somebody here said it earlier. If you have Center Ice, it's available. Let me put it this way. It damn well better be because it's listed here in Texas. If you guys don't get it, that is utter and complete insanity. It's also typical of the arrogance of cable, satellite and tv networks. I HATE 'em. And they've given me no reason over the years not to. OK, except for Directv finally picking Versus back up again.

Thanks, Aussie! I think I'm relieved. You too, Stevkrause.

Gotta be mean. Gotta be nasty. Gotta be aggressive as hell. Gotta want it more than the other guys for sixty minutes. Sustain. Pound. Screen. Crash. Hit everything in sight while not getting out of position. That is all.

I am crackin' up with the Doana Lisa one! Whoopzee! Didn't realize I was stealing your great line. Well, great minds and all that...

We agree on most of your last paragraph also. I did not want to play Phoenix at all, but did they call and ask? Neeuuooo. Tuesday's game is indeed huge. I will add that I cannot envision Lidstrom and Kronwall especially, having bad back-to-back games.

Yeupp. And so do the coaches.

Thing is, the Yotes have been pounding on him. Both sets of announcers I've listened to have commented on it. Doesn't matter why; and at this point it's academic that he is somewhat of a turnover machine anyway. God knows I've griped about it enough. What matters is that all those hits surely could not have helped his back. If you've ever had back problems, high or low, you know how it can affect everything you try to do. And seriously. If you take him out, who do you replace him with? If any of you have a creative answer to that I'm sure Babcock would be more than willing to listen.

Ericsson has had some great shots on goal - at least in the last two games. One of the few whose aim looked scarily good.

Hell, I'd donate to the cause.

Damn. He'll probably be able to get back to his ol' clutching and grabbing self. If the refs just called maybe one out of three of those it'd be a minor miracle. If he did separate his shoulder he couldn't come back right away, could he? I know sometimes with some shoulder injuries they can pop it back in the socket. Oh well. We can only hope.

^THIS^ says it all for me.

Hilllllarious! THANKS for the guffaws!!

Speaking for myself, I never once said our guys shouldn't have played harder. Nor did I ever say Howard sucked. All I said was that he should have stopped the fourth goal. All I'm saying right now is that all members of the Wings' team did their part in losing that game. And that probably includes Babcock too.

We can only hope it helps that more Canadians hate Bettman now, too.

First off, I thought the fans were definitely into the game. I heard 'em all the way from Texas. Meanwhile, it seems like the Wings' record on NBC weekend games is not good at all. But I have nothing to base that on. Mebee they should just tell NBC to take their peacock and...

The timing was absolutely s***ty on that goal. It had to be a mental downer for the Wings.

I don't know about the "rusted pass the point of no return", but otherwise this is a helluva post. Thanks for saying it for me too.

I'm not excusing anyone. Except maybe Rafalski, since they said he was injured?

And Babcock created that problem all by himself by not playing Ozzie more. Of course I still want us to win the series but somehow I'd also like this to come back and bite Babcock in the butt for not having more perspective. Lotsa luck on having it both ways, eh? I'm thinking Rafalski might be. Even though he came back in.