RedWings

In tennis grand slams, we see Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal all the time, year after year and everybody loves it... Before it was Sampras and Agassi... Do you remember any finals with M. Nobody ? I think people would enjoy more to see Detroit / Pitt 5 years in a row than a crappy final like in 2004.. That journalist must be a Coyote or a Panthers fan

Hossa is exactly a sniper in a power forward body. Nothing to compare with Franzen. When he gets the puck, he never shoots. He immediatly skates to the net and try to make something happen. When Mule feels like it, he just crash the net, rips off the defensemen and always find a way to score ! He's like a bulldozer The guy is not a hitter... he's a ripper +1 Playoff MVP But Osgood is still in the race, best playoffs in his career so far IMHO

That would make me blame Detroit's docs... Not enough treatment post-game ? that's sucks

Top left of the net ?? no ?

I would not get too optimistic about Hossa The guy got freezing COLD pretty badly quickly after the good game 5 against the Ducks

I think Chicago's third goal was incredible luck... Come on, a deflection just after the shot... It was obviously not intentional. Game 4 is now getting really important however.

Not a really good game from Zetterberg and Franzen. Great Rafalski, Stuart and Ericsson Right now I am concerned about our offense. They seem out of gas. I am not concerned we will win this series (Chicago is too bad defensively), but I'm afraid it will go in 6 or 7. We must get some good rest before the SCF.

I think Hossa's game is not suited for the playoffs As soon as he gets the puck he shoots... You need to crash the net in the playoffs to score goals. Really disappointed about Zetterberg performance either. A big step back from game 1 and 2. At this point I am wondering if Pitt offense in the finals won't be too big. Without our big guys, we won't get 10 goals from Cleary and Samuelsson to match Crosby & Malkin

We could have said the same with Helm not so long ago. I rather see Leino than Malts, which is invisible and is not exactly the future of our franchise. He's going to cheliosize next year

The Ducks D was really strong in front of Hiller, and on some games the wings played bad and made poor shots. But that OT victory proved that Hiller was really solid in moneytime. He has an incredible glove and can block shots through screening. Very promising goaltender. Taking Giguere's spot means something too. And the last goal is 100% Pronger's fault, not Hiller

Chicago will not go through Detroit. It is too far in the playoffs. The Red Wings can be upset in the Quarterfinals by an underdog, but not in the WCF.

Actually, I found Zetterberg pretty lazy in the Columbus series. The fighting spirit was missing, he was just floating around, scoring but with no impact on the game. He really stepped up in the Anaheim series. He could be our MVP against Chicago. I expect him coming very strong and focused now.

Probably not. But Franzen is a much more valuable playoff performer than Hossa. Hossa has little chemistry with Dats and Zett, and we need to build around these two guys, not just bring superstars. I want to see him go (with a cup).

I think Helm, if he turns out to be the next Draper, will be much more valuable than Hossa. We can always pick an expensive highly paid superstar at a trade deadline. But a great checking line playoff performer, with a great speed, extremely strong works ethics, and a salary which will be kept at low levels... That is precious in a salary cap league. He seems to be restless in putting pressure on opponents D-men, we should put him on the PK next year. Our PK is our key weakness right now, since Draps is out of his prime. Also I think he has much better hands than Draper but the same huge problem to score on breakaways. Game 7 was the exception

DET/CHI 4-2 PIT/CAR 4-2

I don't believe in a Duck magical strategy. They are just an awesome defensive team that is able to make its playoff opponent play badly. It also worked fantastic against SJ. The only difference was maybe a special traitment for Pavel Datsyuk. He was often taken by 2 Ducks who were all over him as soon as he was getting the puck.

MVPs : Franzen & Osgood

Good season but need to confirm. He's only 25 and with obviously a lot of playoff experience. You cannot get that easily on the market. I would give him a small term deal, at 2.5 millions

Chicago is down in 5, whether they play the Wings or not... Ducks and Wings are top playoff teams, they're running for the cups... Chicago won 2 series in 10 years.

Actually the analyis is pretty good... The Ducks were really dangerous on the powerplay during all the series. Also who could really know before the playoffs that Osgood would play STELLAR comparing to his reg season With Osgood regular season performance, we would definitely be golfing by now.

Love the topic... : ) I think Datsyuk has the edge because he is not as injury proned as Zetterberg. Dats is another Lidstrom... he never misses a game. During some streaks Zetterberg can outplay Datsyuk. Also, i believe Datsyuk gets less penalty minutes... I never see the guy in the penalty box I would be really negative about Z concerning his beginning of playoff, but since the 2 last games, we are back to the good old Z. I just love when he starts skating and crashing the net holding his stick with one hand and protecting the puck... Something he was not doing during the whole season !

Sammy has a good shot And he shoots a lot, and sometimes has good scoring streaks... He seems to be a good playoff performer too. I like the guy, much more valuable than a Maltby for instance

Strong loss for the Pens When they lost Gonchar during the regular season, Pens defense sucked big time + he is one major strengh on the PP That could give edge to the Caps in the end of the series

I think Draper is a improvement over Maltby, but it does not have much of an impact... 3 years ago Draps was still a key in our system, this is not any more the case since he is skating really slow right now I want Rafalski in... The Kronwall / Stuart line sucks under high pressure

The main problem with the Holms-Hossa-Datsyuk line is that it is so easy for a goaltender to predict what will happen. Datsyuk carry the puck, he passes to Hossa, Hossa shoots immediatly at the center of the net. With no traffic, a good goaltender like Hiller can get 100% saves because this line is too easy to predict. With Zetterberg, they could make Hiller crazy, not knowing what to expect. This leads to the main flaw of Hossa for me : Underaverage passing skills (for Wings standards) He LOSES a lot of pucks with terrible passes, and against Getzlaf that can hurt very badly.