Grypho

I can't bring this up when it's about the Sharks without coming off like a whiner, so I'll bring it up now that the same thing just happened to the Wings. Go to nhl.com's main page, and item 1, what do you know: Wings can't survive the Shark Tank Now to the best of my knowledge, and correct me if I'm wrong, but there are TWO games to be played at the Shark Tank, are there not? And of those two, only ONE has been played so far, and only ONE needs to be won there for the Wings to reclaim home ice advantage. Second point. Nothing is on the line here in terms of "survival". By losing a single game on Sharks' home ice, they haven't "not survived". OK, I'm not going to ramble more about this. I hate it when they do this to the Sharks, but it's better when I can post an example that I have no stake in, because a headline like that looks to me like someone's either got a stake in this, or else they're just playing a disingenuous games with people's minds and perceptions. Whatever the case, it pisses me off to no end. It's one thing to blow a line here and there in an article, but headlines take a considerable amount of forethought. This one sounds like it was written by a homer on a message board, and a troll, no less. [/rant]

I agree, and would add to that: The tempo of Game 4 will be dictated based on where the puck is played most. If it's away from the boards, and especially toward the center of the ice, the tempo will be quicker, and the Wings will dominate. If it's along the boards and in the corners, the tempo will be slower, the game will be far more physical, and the Sharks will dominate.

Most simply put, the only thing you need to win the Stanley Cup is sixteen victories in the playoffs, regardless of percentages of goal saves or power play successes. To see that PP success is not a factor, look no further than the Sharks' last round with the Predators. Both teams, but especially the Sharks, were abysmal on the PP, and yet the Sharks were able to win that series. It's possible for any team to win four series identical to that one and win the Cup. As for goalie save percentages, even that one doesn't hold up, because if two goalies from both teams had horrible games in a series, with a save percentage of 0%, then the series would be decided based on shots on net (given that a 0% save rating meant that every shot on net went in). And hello from Up-over! I'm just north of you in China - lots of mates here from the land of OZ, and like you with the NHL, I'm just starting to learn the AMAZING sport of Australian rules footie. I've adopted the West Coast Eagles as my team, and don't really understand the rules yet, but it's starting to look like it will rank right up there with hockey for me, because it's INTENSE!!! Non-stop 60 minutes of play, with unbelievable strength, speed, agility and stamina required to play the game. Cool that you're learning about hockey. I hope you love it. It's the same non-stop nature of hockey that put American football on the back burner for me, and it's also the same thing that is now drawing me into wanting to understand more about this crazy thing you all have out there called Aussie Rules Footie.

The Wings are a strong puck possession team, and. like the Preds, they are much quicker (not faster), than the Sharks, especially in close quarters, on open ice, where no real speed or momentum can be established for larger or faster skaters. Anytime the puck stayed more toward the center of the ice, and out of the neutral zone into either end, the Wings have dominated. That's where their superior deking and stealing abilities have been showcased. But once the puck action strayed from the center to the outsides, the Sharks were able to get away from the Wings' game and play the game they play best. It's along the boards and especially in the corners deep in the Sharks zone, trapped in a grinding game, that the Wings opened themselves up to the hard forechecking Sharks. That's what I saw as the key momentum shift of this game, as the key for the Wings, I believe, as well as Thornton, is to stay out in the open, in close proximity to the opposition, and off the boards as much as possible.

The SJ boards has a Thornton hater (I think he's a Bruins fan, but I'm not sure) whose only goal in life, it seems, is to attack Thornton and downplay his value and contributions to hockey. He comes off looking like the village idiot, of course, so he's allowed to remain, but if you can't set aside your own colors long enough to at least acknowledge reality, there's no chance of seeing all that's going on. Joe Thornton was, indeed, the best thing that ever happened to the Sharks, and regardless how he was seen in previous games, he definitely showed up for this one. Class thread. Nothing but class. Props to you all.

It was a great post to wake up to. Reminded me of a reverse of Beverly Hills Cop (wasn't Axel Foley from Detroit?), only this time, it's a Beverly Hills cop that comes to Detroit. Oh, and btw, DaKine, you're from Maui. My great grandfather worked on a sugar plantation in Maui, and my grandmother was born there, so it's not like I don't know the rules. Shouldn't you be offering me a lei or something?

..:: ...after the almond cookie cookie and green tea are accepted by a puzzled DaKine, Grypho skates back to help the aging Chelios onto the ice, offering him encouragement, before outfitting the Wings net with Hasek's favorite walker... ::.. (I'll the get the hang of it, just give me time)

I have to admit that I was surprised to see how many favored the Sharks over the Wings, and by such a large margin. "...handing this series to San Jose" is key, because that's what it looked like everyone was doing to me before a playoff puck was ever dropped between these two teams. I can't count the number of over-bloated words I've heard and read about how the big, young fast sharks were going to stomp the smaller, more geriatric Wings into the ice, and as a Sharks fan all that kind of talk made me EXTREMELY uncomfortable. Those kinds of extreme comparisons display an intense disrespect for LOGIC, even more than the Wings! I feel confident in the Sharks' Cup-contending abilities this year, but I am far from over-confident, and I don't for one second underestimate the Wings. Even during the first part of Game 2, when many were certain that it was going to be a Sharks blowout, I thought, "You guys don't have a clue. The Sharks have blown THREE GOAL LEADS before, and in my family we joke that we're not comfortable with a Sharks lead that isn't 4 goals or more, with just a few minutes remaining in the game. There's no question in my mind that the momentum going into Game 3 will be as high for the Wings as home ice will be a fortifying relief for the Sharks. There is one thing for which I am fairly certain now, and that's that neither team is underestimating (or overestimating) the other now. It really is now down to who wants it more, and it's entirely possible for the Wings to take at least one from San Jose. As for all the over-confident talk about sweeps and skunks and slam-dunks, my only wish is that this kind of talk originated from Detroit only, and not from San Jose or the sports media! I wish Wilson and all the pundits and commentators would keep their mouths shut about the big, bad fast Sharks and how they can destroy everything in their path. That has the opposite effect on me as a fan, and I think it actually helps the opposing team, so I don't like it at all. Very excited about Game 3 though, I can say that much. This is the stuff of hockey life!

I wondered if that would draw a response. Good answer! Now let's swamp TheWestWing with a big group hug, and sway back and forth while humming Kumbaya.

Jake, I know you're well-intending, but it's that general kind of thinking that I do not miss about home. I have two vices - hockey and smoking. Neither are up for debate. Huntington's Disease will kill me in a cruel way long before smoking ever could. What kind of a world do we live in where people are infected with the habitual desire to school others on how best to live their lives. You're going to die just as surely as I am, so live free and die on your own terms, as will I. As for 4 on 4, I could live with it because I happen to love 4 on 4 anyway when it happens in the regular season. In fact, I get excited when a player from each team is sitting in the box, and the ice opens up. If the NHL had 4 on 4 play from its inception, I personally think it would have made for a much more exciting, far more high scoring game, IMO. Not that I don't love it as-is, mind, but I'm not a stickler for tradition. The Halifax rules of yesteryear had two thirty minute periods, with a ten minute break in between. Half time? In Hockey? And refs were called goal umpires! So many things have changed about the game over the years anyway, so I don't have a problem with more change. It's the thought of a shootout that I can't stomach. That's like saying, "Fine, you couldn't end it with regular play, so we'll decide it with a series of penalty shots." If you're going to do that, at least make it one-on-one play, with goalies in net on both sides. And if one-on-one, four-on-four would do just as splendidly.

*POOOF!* Just warped back in from that other universe. Your other self said basically the same thing. He also told me to tell you that the missing sock is either behind the dryer or in the vent hose.

Is it possible, though, that you might be defending shootouts, or 4 on 4 2nd OT play, if those were the original rules, and there was talk of changing them to unlimited 5 on 5 OT's now?

Famous last words! Here was my quote from yesteryear: "The day cigarettes reach a dollar a pack is the day I quit smoking." OK, in China they're still less than a dollar a pack, so I guess I bought myself some time. I hate the thought that the NHL might ever go to a shootout, but I have to admit that 4 on 4 after the first OT makes perfect sense. I was thinking that very same thing after the Vancouver-Dallas game that went on forever. They were both so stingy in their five on five play that the game was the ultimate sleeper. But no matter what rule they come up with, I'd no more give up hockey than than I'd give up * cough cough * anything else I valued.

I was listening to all of them from live internet radio feeds, but as of about the middle of the last round, I figured out how to use Sopcast and the VLC player (no guilt here, I paid premiums at home in the States, and would gladly pay the NHL if they'd offer video streams from their site, but they don't, so screw them!), so now I'm seeing them as well. Yeah baby, I get my hockey fix no matter what! Can't do without my hockey fix.

Griff's fine. Star Wars, eh? To the fans in Game 2, after the first period: "I find your lack of faith disturbing." To those who feel jaded but return anyway: "You should not have come back." - Griff Vader ...and Let It Ride was great, btw.

I'm hard to stalk anyway. You have to go through Shanghai to get to me! Very kind, thank you. Yes, I turned 47 here in China on the 20th. I was here for my 45th birthday also, and that year my Chinese friends here went way overboard with a HUGE Chinese birthday celebration (you don't what a birthday party is like until you've had one in China!). But this year I told nobody, and shrugged off all attempts to throw me a party. That day started off with our final Game 5 victory over the Preds in the last round (I get games here early in the morning), afterwhich I spent the entire day wandering the shores of Lake Taihu, taking in sights, writing, sculpting, and generally enjoying some solitude. One of the best birthdays I've ever had, actually! Again, thanks for the well wishes.

That was good! How about these: "You remind me of Lola. She was a showgirl. Still in the dress she used to wear, faded feathers in her hair..." "Don't mind her, someone dropped a house on her sister." "No, you've got it wrong. I'm even tougher without the badge and gun."

Actually, my dark side would have said: Hey, cool animal avatar! Is that an extinct species? EDIT: The problem with that, of course, is that it could be taken as a slight by really cool Preds fans like Legionnaire11. So I hope the joke is taken as a good-natured rib and not an attack.

Sorry, I just don't get your logic. As you stated, and I note from your sig line, you weren't banned; like me on another board you were given a temporary suspension, and have since had all your priveleges (they aren't rights, btw) reinstated. I was given a two day suspension from my own fan forum for fighting with someone who instigated with me when I became a new member (another Sharks fan). The suspension didn't bother me at all, and I accepted it fully for two reasons: 1) The rules there were clear. Don't engage. Report and let the mods do their job. So dropping the gloves landed me in the box along with the instigator and a third person in, and 2) Forums are like gardens, and can easily get overtaken by some nasty weeds; so I like a well weeded garden. If I worked as hard as Matt and others did to create a place as nice as this, I'd be vigilant as well. But obviously you have your suspension still stuck in your craw, or you wouldn't have a sig-line still pleading your case, as if it still mattered, and you wouldn't be creating posts attacking your hosts here. Just whose house do you think this is, anyway? This is a privately run forum -- a benevolent dictatorship, if you will. Unlike some other forums, LGW actually lays out a welcome mat for visiting fans from other teams, who are given immediate posting priveleges on all the boards. I will never lose sight of the fact that this is forum was established primarily for Wings Fans. That makes it their house, and you and I are guests in that house, regardless of our "membership" status. If long-time members here aren't allowed to attack us (that much is clearly stated in the rules!) why should visiting guests enjoy some kind of immunity in that regard? In real life, we don't go into someone else's house trying to dictate how their rules ought to be set up or enforced. That would be extremely rude. If a guest in my house came to a party I was throwing and started mistreating anyone, guests or members of my house, they'd be out on their asses really fast, and I'm not so sure I'd be as benevolent about allowing them to return either. On the other hand, if I went to a party and truly felt mistreated by the hosts, out of self-respect I couldn't see myself returning. Why? Such a waste of time and energy - for me, at least.

I don't think that's true. Statistically, historically, certainly not. It's not a superstition. There are certain advantages to playing on home ice. Here's the thing: The Sharks have the best road game of any team in the NHL, having won more road games (by a fair margin) in the regular season than on their own ice. The downside to that: They also win less on their own home ice. So with the Sharks, home ice advantage for either team does end up being, more or less, a draw - or as you said, irrelevant - but in this case only. Now, having watched the Wings' sheer rebound intensity in Game 2, the momentum of which I believe will carry into Game 3, I now personally believe there's a distinct possibility that the Wings could win at least one in the tank. I didn't think it a likelihood before, but I do now. These teams now officially know each other, and what each is capable of playoff-wise, and I believe that the remainder of this series is going to be nothing short of dazzling.

From one Sharks fan's perspective: That pretty much summed it up. No cheap shot. Not even an attempt at anything but a clean hit on a player he thought had the puck. AND he took a penalty for it. Nothing to see here. Hull was looking for something that wasn't there.

Both 20 minute practice games were interesting, but I especially enjoyed the 20 minute playoff game afterward even more. It was great when both teams showed up at the same time. Quite a game, lots of morals and lesson, which makes it one for the books. CONGRATS ON A WELL DESERVED WIN.

Feel better now? Sharks owned the first period. Wings owned the second period. Playoff Hockey owned the third, and the Wings prevailed. GREAT GREAT GREAT GAME. THAT WAS PLAYOFF HOCKEY!!!

No yawner here. This games a heart attack in the making!

Damn, the Joe is LOUD! And I don't hear anyone guilting them into making some noise either!