UKWING

easily the wings most consistent player so far. aside from the 2nd period of game 4 against the jackets (where he was hurt) he has been rock solid.

not only that - it is the 1st wings series that has ended (win or loss) at the joe since the 2002 clincher. every series since then had been 4 or 6 games.

so the ducks have a weak 4th line - big deal!! defence wins championships and no-one has a better defence than the ducks. they also have the most dominant forward (getzlaf) and top line in hockey. there is no doubt in my mind that they are the best team the wings will face in the playoffs. i am not saying that the wings cannot lose - far from it. but they won't meet a better team than the ducks IMO.

he was easily the best player in the series - it was no coincidence that when he was ill in games 4 and 5 the ducks were thrashed. take him away from the ducks and the wings would probably have swept them. unbelievable player

thank f*ck for that!! got a wedding on saturday and would have missed game 1 had the series started then

fair play guys the main reason that i hate the ducks as much as i do is that they are just so damn good and absolutely horrible to play against!!

QFT!! he is probably the most dominant forward in the NHL - near impossible to stop. the only thing i hate about him is that he does not play for the wings.

yep - bob said pretty much everything i had been thinking. good man!!

me too!!! by the same token i would have been absolutely devastated had we lost that. it seemed like everything was going against us there - full credit to the wings to keep going through the obstacles like that.

can't believe this game is tied 3-3!?! i hope i am wrong but it just feels like it is going to be one of those nights

just rewound and watched that again - hudler was cross-checked in the back. unbelievable call!!

cleary has been far better than datsyuk throughout this series.

agree with most of your points but the hawks have far more offensive depth than the ducks do - they roll 4 lines and also spread the ice time out well amongst all 6 defencemen with all of them logging over 15 minutes per game. and sharp, kane and toews have actually logged fewer minutes than pahlsson, havlat, bolland, byfuglien and versteeg!! they are an incredibly deep and balanced team with just about the only negative point being their lack of experience. they also play a pretty wide open game which should suit the wings but if the wings do get through then it will be a very tough series IMO, especially if their PK does not get a lot better.

but the wings were lucky to win game 1 and (the disallowed goal aside) they deserved to lose game 3. 2-2 is a fair reflection of the 4 games IMO.

rafalski won't make a difference but draper is still a good PKer and a great face-off man so having him back will help at least a little. but the thing that would help the wings most on the PK would be getting lilja back - but sadly that ain't happening

clever play by helm to kick the stick back to stuart there - he picks it up and prevents a scoring chance immediately. and the game is done!!

i guess he figured that himself for beauchemin was a good trade-off - especially with wisnieski out.

what a f*cking shot!!

great period and easily the best game of the playoffs from the wings thus far. they just need to keep it up for another 20 minutes now. getting hossa going was absolutely crucial

clear interference there - huge pp here

that goal is on lidstrom - not often you see him hit the 1st blocker with the shot

just because they took 33 minor penalties it does not mean they were shorthanded 33 times. there was a lot of after the whistle stuff in that series and so a lot of those 33 penalties did not result in shorthanded situations - ie because they threw a guy from each team into the box. and so the ducks were only shorthanded 4 times per game whilst the wings were shorthanded 3.5 times per game - not really that much difference especially when you consider that the wings were rarely put under extended periods of pressure like the ducks were. in the 1st round the ducks impressed me with their discipline - they were still aggressive but they were not running around taking dumb, needless penalties like in years past. however, you make a very valid point about the frustration factor and that is why it will be key for the wings to try and get ahead early. it will also be interesting to see how they cope with guys like franzen, cleary and homer crashing the net at every opportunity without taking penalties.

they didn't take a boatload of penalties against san jose - they were only shorthanded 24 times in 6 games; the sharks were shorthanded 22 times. one of the things that impressed me most about the ducks in round 1 was their more disciplined play. they were still physical but they did not take a ton of dumb penalties like they did against the stars last year. IMO there is no way they will beat this wings team if they cannot continue to control their aggression.

DET/ANA 4:2 VAN/CHI 4:3 BOS/CAR 4:2 WSH/PIT 4:2

thanks for doing this again mac SJS/ANA 4-2 DET/CLB 4-1 VAN/STL 4-2 CHI/CAL 4-3 BOS/MTL 4-2 WSH/NYR 4-1 NJD/CAR 4-3 PHI/PIT 4-3 WC Champion: San Jose Sharks EC Champion: Boston Bruins SC Champion: Boston Bruins