Grypho

How are you all liking my signature now? Great game, both teams played their hearts out. What a fantastic game. Detroit reclaims home ice, and it is a BEST OF THREE NOW.

Coast clear? Can I say yet that this is a FANTASTIC GAME?

Oh, this is deja vu all over again! You're looking at the series, but the Wings are playing and focused on one game right now. It's all in the way you look at it. Whichever team wins, game or series, was winning it right from the beginning. It's just the way I look at it - but that's because I want to enjoy the entire thing, right down to the wire - not just the parts where my team was doing better.

The Wings aren't winning, and neither are they losing. Same as the Sharks. The Wings are down one goal EARLY IN THE GAME. Nothing more.

Listen to Kirk Maltby, member of the checking line that's going up against Thornton - he had it nailed down. Work a little harder to win face-offs, pinch down low, and there's still forty minutes of hockey to play. He didn't look the slightest bit fazed by the first period outcome. Neither team is, and both are still very much in this game.

Both teams are playing EXTREMELY WELL. Both with extreme heart and skill. ONE PLAY ended up in a goal, that's all. But both of these teams are played a great first period. And don't forget, the Sharks scored first in Game 2. TWICE. We didn't win that game. Kick back and enjoy the game, it's a one goal game with FORTY minutes to go.

Three things I'm noticing right off the bat (and I think both teams look pretty hungry and strong right now). 1) Wings definitely have to get the discipline under control, or it will be a deciding factor. 2) Wings are finishing their checks, and Chelios is doing a lot to smother Cheechoo. 3) Sharks seem to trying to compete in open ice. Not sure that's a good idea for them in the long run, but if they can't force the game to the boards and into a grinder, they're going to have to try. Good game so far.

Sopcast is having technical difficulties. Google "TVU Player", download and install it. The channel is called: 34332 Testing - Perfect stream.

This is going to sound sad, but if I had neither radio nor live video feeds (arg! thanks, mateys!), I would be reduced to clicking on web score changes, imagining the game, and the drinking up every account of the game afterward. No, I would pay the unbelievably high price, have one of my siblings on the phone the entire time with the game turned up in the background LOUD! No, even when I was listening to Rusanowski on Sharks radio feeds, I felt like I was right there. Think about it - that's how it used to be for everyone before television, and the quality was even less. Yes, "Hello, My Name Is Grypho, and I am a hockeyholic." "Hi, Grypho."

VERY smoothly. Pregame and everything, thanks for the redirect. Sopcast had me panicked!

What? I like Hasek! If we didn't have two good net minders already, I think he'd look great in teal!

Good for both teams. Both teams have extremely disciplined net minders with even tempers, I think.

One goal game, Devils just made it 3-2!

Yes, strong forechecking and backchecking are vital, and watch where the puck play tends to concentrate most. Quick passes, steals, dekes, etc., in the center of the ice, away from the boards and away from behind the net, belongs to the Wings. That, and close quarter man-on-man play, where their superior quickness is a deciding factor. If the puck play is mostly there, out in the open, look for the Wings to dominate. Along the boards and behind the net is more where the Sharks' game becomes more of a dominant factor. Don't give the Sharks a running head start on a player against a board with a puck, because those hard hits do take a toll. Also, discipline may be a key (even though both teams have proven to be pretty disciplined in this series), as it has been in several series. Any team taking more penalties than normal can expect to pay a price - if not in goals allowed, in the overall drop in stamina. Mainly though, watch where the puck is played most. That's a huge part of the strategy war between these two amazing teams, who have decidedly different styles, strengths and weaknesses.

Two members of my own family are openly ***, and I asked one of them about this in passing during a phone call just now. "I can't say what should or shouldn't offend others, but it's not offensive to me in the least. In all fairness, to see if it's really a slight against gays, you'd have to change the context of the joke to center around a heterosexual relationship, not the gender of the person making the remark. In other words: "I’ve watched her since college and dreamt about having her for 15 years,†-- in which case it would leave the door open for the exact same joke to walk into, which could still be made, and could still be funny for the same reasons. It's not orientation specific unless you choose to see it that way." As for Holmstrom, I hope his eye doesn't give him any problems, and he's able to factor into the game tonight the way he and others are hoping. I'm not into advantages over injured players. To whomever the victory goes, I don't want it to ring hollow to anyone. Fans of both teams should have a reason to feel respect toward both teams and to the robustness of the game itself, regardless of the outcome.

Didn't see a GDT, hope nobody minds if I start one. Just saw the National Anthems sung by both teams. The Canadian Anthem was nothing short of amazing, as the singer (don't know his name), held the mic out for the the crowd to sing the entire second verse, which they sang loud and clear. I know most fans from both our teams were rooting for the Nucks over the Stars, and that most fans are also hoping that the Ducks and Nucks take a LOT out of each other in a hard grinding exhausting series that leaves the victor tired and beat up going into Round 3, but is there anyone here rooting for Anaheim in this series? Personally, I'm hoping for the Nucks to even it up, and for a number of reasons, one of which was stated above. GAME ON! EDIT: Sorry about the "Duck" not "Ducks" title, can't edit that unfortunately.

That summed it up good! Man, did the coach bashing get ugly during our series, or what? Sharks fans were absolutely brutal against Trotz -- which made me pity him, actually, because Preds fans, for as much as they hated Wilson with a purple passion, weren't much kinder to Trotz either!

You're in for a treat, then, as my sister told me the Wings fans are represented nicely in the Tank - more than just a few.

You all have made it official for me: I am a diehard Sharks fan, for sure, but I'm also a "Wings Fans" fan now. This really is my favorite place to read and post. You've all made my stay here more than enjoyable, I really look forward to coming here a lot, and if the Wings do advance (and I'm not saying that I hope they do , but if they do), I'll be on the Wings bandwagon for sure.

I don't think we're in disagreement here, not in principle anyway. But in this particular case, if you look at a replay, you can see that the three Wings who reached Cheechoo all did so from behind, and just a moment before he scored. Now if you're arguing that he should never been positioned there in the first place, and that he should have been covered by at least one Wing long before that moment, so that he could be knocked on his ass right when he touched the puck, then I have to concede that point (good point, in fact).

Do I detect a fan of another team (Sharks? Flames?) in Wings' clothing, mayhaps? Can't picture a Wings fan predicting such a defeat for a single game. One might think it, or worry that it might happen, but I can't picture them posting it on the GDT. It is. And the most exciting to date.

Ooooooh, mahalo mahalo, I caught you on something! You said, with playful tongue-in-cheek sarcasm, ""you don't wanna play the Sharks out there in San Jose come playoff time. San Jose is a killer hockey town...", Hockey town? I can see the irony in that statement, especially when compared with Detroit. But why not hockey team? Wouldn't have worked! Now where'd I put my dancing jiggy emoticon?

That's true, unlike the Wings, whom history favors in that regard. Even so, the Nucks did stave off a Game 7 comeback against the Stars, and the Nucks and the Wings have both proven to be extremely gifted teams under pressure. Nobody can take that away from either team.

No, there is intense pressure on them for sure, but nearly as much as the Wings have. If the Sharks lose Game 4, they lose home ice back to the Wings, and it's correct, they do want as little of the Joe as possible. But there's a huge difference between having a best of three series forced, and facing a 10% chance of staging a three game comeback. But it really doesn't matter. Until that last second ticks off from the last deciding game of the series (or the last OT goal is scored), it's far from over for either team. What you DON'T want is for your team to dwell on probabilities, positive or negative. They have to play like they're going to WIN right until the very end, so I, as a fan, want to be in that same mode with them. If my team dies, it dies once. That's all I want as a fan, is to be there with them, both empathy and sympathy-wise, which means it's NEVER over until it's really over. Think I'm counting out the Nucks now that they're down 3-1 in the series (as I type, no less)? I'm not. The Nucks, like the Wings, already HAVE a history of 3-1 comebacks. If the Nucks bring that same game to the rest of the series, they could pull it off still, because they played fantastically. The odds aren't good for them, but f*** the odds - they can't afford to look at the odds, as this is hockey playoffs, and there are still games left to be played. The Ducks still have to win one more. If they can't, they're out. Meanwhile, all this talk is about speculation that anticipates the importance of the next game between our teams. Of course it's important for the Wings to win! They really do need to play desperately, and to even up the series. But to call it the decisive or killing blow isn't how I would see it at all. I'll believe the outcome when I see one of these teams actually take their FOURTH game of this series, NOT GAME FOUR of the series. That's all the difference in the world to me.

No doubt. If the Ducks win, this will be one of those games where I can say that they Nucks deserved it by being the better playing team, and also deserved to lose it by being the least disciplined. What a two-edged sword that is. But in this game, the Nucks have definitely been the better "playing" team overall. Commentators are poo-pooing the "deservedness" of the 2-0 lead in terms of superior play by the Nucks, but I don't agree at all. The Nucks were playing their very best game (sans discipline problems) - the Ducks were not. They were losing even when the puck was on the outside, which, like the Sharks, is where they tend to dominate.