Grypho

I only meant that both shots appeared to be a) deliberate, and b) head shots. Whether a puck in play makes a difference to the NHL, I don't know. I think head shots, like high sticks, are illegal under any circumstances. As for trolling, everyone who knows me here knows that I'm hardly a troll (trolls don't have long term memberships and pay to become boosters). The Wings are my second-favorite team in the NHL, and always have been. Also, I am seriously ANTI-TROLL - vicious, actually, to the few Sharks fans who do come trolling.

For comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU7aF2UczaA&feature=player_embedded (look at 0:30 far right of the screen)The difference in both cases (from the Bert shot) is that they obviously (or at least arguably) deliberate head shots.

There is no question in my mind that Abby will get something. It's almost identical to the elbow-to-face shot that Dany Heatley recently gave to Steve Ott in our (Sharks) game against Dallas. It was a sweet shot to watch against a notorious rat/agitator, but for that Heatley received a two game suspension and $80,645.16 fine. Watch here and see if you can see much of a difference: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=556324

Yep. All seeds are set except Dallas or Chicago in the 8th. Chicago has a much better chance of eliminating the Nucks, too, but that also means they live on to eliminate someone else.

THANK YOU WINGS, FOR OUTPLAYING THE NHL, SHORT-HANDED FOR AN ENTIRE 60 MINUTES! THANK YOU WINGS, FOR PAVING THE WAY FOR THE STARS TO NAIL THE HAWKS' COFFIN SHUT! THANK YOU WINGS, FOR SERVING LA UP ON A PLATTER TO SAN JOSE! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! NOW GO KILL THE YOTES! LONG LIVE THE WINGS!! EDIT: Almost forgot (and I can't believe I am typing this): GO DALLAS!

Did you hear what the ******* announcer said? "We have to get one, and we know we're going to get a power play..." Couldn't believe my ears!

He speaks English better than a lot of Americans speak English! I'm with you, I'll be seriously shocked if the Wings don't take this one in one of the most convincing regulation wins of the season. Chicago scored the first goal, but they also drew first blood. Literally. It's on, baby!

Cut to Franzen's face and non-call = more incentive to dig a deeper grave for the Hawks.

How can you call it high sticking if Mule is still able to skate? Think, people. That was an embarrassing non-call for the refs to miss that double-M. I predict some kind of makeup calls/non-calls in the third.

Wings are on fire - so much for everyone who predicted they would have no incentive to show up! (and lol @ Skeletor looking mother f*****)

Hawks will play desperation hockey, for sure, especially in front of their home crowd. But the Wings have more than enough incentive to whomp the Hawks into the dirt. 1) They lost 4-2 in their last matchup, and will definitely want to reverse that, just like the Sharks did with Phoenix tonight. 2) Play spoiler to a nasty rival that they don't want to meet later on, which also happens to be the defending SCC. 3) Avoid the Preds (IMO, Phoenix is a much better matchup for the Wings) 4) Get the team mojo going - like anyone else (think Vancouver today, which did not need its win), the Wings will want/need fighting momentum going into the playoffs. 5) 85% polled (so far) wanted the Yotes over the Preds. I think there is something to that. Prediction: The Wings will be anything but relaxed. They will feed off the Hawks' desperation, step up their own game, and leave the home crowd in Chicago to their stunned silence, worried about their own playoff future. GO WINGS!!!

What a relief! Everything going according my evil master plan! Also, is it just me, or did it seem like the Sharks and Wings were both in a race for 3rd these past few games? Anyway, it's not often that I get to root for my two favorite teams, going into the playoffs, in a way that coincides with what is best for both, but this was the night, and this is that time. As a Sharks fan, I obviously want see them face the beat-up Kings for the first round - not Nashville or Phoenix, even though we won our season series against all three. As a Wings fan (second only to Sharks, of course), I don't want to see them go against the Preds! I didn't want to see EITHER team go against the Ducks (OR Chicago), but now that the Ducks are safely bumped to 4th, the Preds are the only team left that I really worried about for the Wings. Not Chicago so much, for some reason. Chicago is brutal, but I think the Wings are much better. That's perfect, because the Wings have lots of incentive to beat Chicago in regulation tomorrow, which will likely place them against Phoenix, and the Wings are more than a match for Phoenix, I think. I just hope they beat them in regulation - otherwise, the Sharks will face Chicago...again. The only consolation for that - we have their "defending Stanley Cup goaltender" in net this time, and he's as hot as ever. GO WINGS!!!

Oof, just realized I'm a half hour off. Bummer, I thought it started at 7pm (PST). I'm not in China at the moment, I flew back to San Jose for my niece's wedding, so it's a 7:30PM game here. Ah well, only 15 more minutes.

Hello again Wings fans, it's good to be back on LGW. I absolutely don't get the stomp predictions. That last game was CLOSE, nearly tied toward the end, and could easily have gone either way. Boyle, Huskins and Nichols are out for San Jose, and we desperately need good D against Detroit, so no prediction here. Also, JMac knows he has something to prove, and I think he will do fine. Plus, the last regular season game between us, and the visiting team has won each so far. Both teams are looking very strong as everyone vies for berths going into the home stretch. The Sharks are 5 points behind the Wings as of now, so tonight's game is big both ways, and that makes for some great hockey! A regulation win for the Wings would stretch their lead to 7, making it that much harder for us to catch up. I actually don't care that much one way or the other. As long as nobody catches the Sharks from behind, and we're one of the top three, I'm more than happy. I have to say that I do love the Sharks/Wings rivalry (HATE the Sharks/Stars rivalry), but the idea that we wouldn't have to face the Wings in the first round pleases me to no end! Sharks are on a str**k (not allowed to say the word while we're on one), but all str**ks come to an end. I hope it's not tonight, but dem's da breaks if it does. GAME ON IN A HALF HOUR, GO SHARKS!

The Sharks BARELY made it to the #1 seed. That was decided in the last games by both teams. The Sharks HAD to win, and the Hawks HAD to lose for that to happen. So you're right, it very well could have been a Sharks/Wings WCF, not much of a stretch at all, given the Wings very much have the Hawks' number, and the Sharks have always played extremely well against the Nucks. And yes, our series was WAY closer than the win tallies tell. High scoring, all games decided by a single goal, lots of good shots from both sides not netted -- the entire series could have easily gone either way.

Remember what I wrote about having no respect for grave dancers? The bottom one, though, to be funny, could have been captioned: "Good game, good game, good game, f*** you, good game, good game, f*** you, good game, good game, good game..."

You beat me to it, so +1 to you, I was going to say exactly that. The backhanded compliments, they be flying!

I think the "blending in" with a better team component is valid, although I view it more along the lines of 'trust chemistry', which is really hard to fake. When the Avs had Roy, he wasn't just great -- their belief in him made them greater, as their offense was constantly emboldened to take a lot more risks. Their defense rose to the game as well, as the defense wasn't guided so much by fear of what their 'bad' netminder might let in; rather it was more like "offensive defense", scrambling for puck control only to get the game quickly back into offensive mode. Because of Luongo's LTC, and what I believe to be the Luongo Myth, I see a little bit of that at work, but it's mostly artificial - manufactured by mantra. Even then, all it takes is a couple of really good games or stellar saves for Vancouver to give Luongo the benefit of any lagging doubts, and they'll rally back behind him as if he was a Roy of sorts. But he's not. I agree that he's definitely one of the most overrated players in the NHL.

What a great game that was to watch, holy moly. Hawks fans have to be very, very nervous at this point, especially with game 6 going back to Vancouver, where the Nucks are at their best. Deep down, I want the Sharks to face (and beat, of course) the Hawks, even though we're technically much better suited to take on the Nucks. But that doesn't mean I'm rooting for the Hawks. I would just love to see this go to a seven game series. Just strategic wishful thinking for the Hawks to have less gas in their tank for the WCF (assuming we aren't witnessing the second 3-1 comeback of the post season).

I'd give any player the benefit of the doubt on that one. It was a pretty quick, hard smack to the face, one that did send his head involuntarily to the left more than six inches. He might have been embellishing afterward with the bow forward and head grab, but that very well could have hurt. Either way, I'm all for calling a smack to the head. Iffy call/non-call, but if I was ref and had seen it, I probably would have called it.

More than kind of. I think we modeled ourselves, at the very least in the past few years, directly after the Wings. Why mess with a proven formula? And yes, a lot of that me-me-me that has killed the Sharks in the past is gone. I actually think it's why Marleau has struggled, trying to reconcile hotshot with team player. #11 Owen Nolan was a great player, but also a selfish alpha dog, a hotshot player who passed a lot of judgment on his team mates. It's great to have hero on the ice, but not if it goes to his head, and it's at the expense of the rest of the team. That was Nolan all the way, and for as much as I liked (and knew) him personally, I was glad to see him go to another team.

That's the compilation that should have been shown, then. Lots of cross checks, raping and molesting of Wings players at the Sharks net, followed by the one cross check that Datsyuk got called for. Oh, and I absolutely agree that Nabokov is a master diver, as I have seen him sprawl-flopping like a stuntman to the ice or into his own net as if he'd just been hit by an imaginary freight train. I just didn't see that particular one as an outright dive. In that case the actual motion was applied, and he just didn't bother to make any effort to stop himself as he went backwards into the net.

I don't mind taking them on, what the hell. 1) Embellishment by Nabokov, but a dive? I don't think so. I don't like diving or embellishment, but I am also of the opinion that no player on any team has an obligation to make any effort whatsoever to recover in a way that says, 'don't worry about it, no harm, no foul'. 2) From that angle it looks like a definite dive by Nichols. No argument there. 3) The Vlasic fall was neither a dive nor an embellishment. Vlasic just lost his edge, and it was a bad call, a stupid call, and nothing more. 4) Give that one a big giant motherf***ing break. A stick all the way up through the legs, followed by a sharp pulling HOOKING motion directly to the wrists, followed by another sharp HOOK to the left leg? You have to be one myopic, or even blind, homer not to see that that one was a solid, SOLID call, a penalty that deserved a call, and wasn't even SLIGHTLY questionable. I can't believe that was even included in this compilation. 5) Likewise, the trip by Filppula at 1:52 was a stick straight to the edge of the skates. No embellishment (nor was any necessary), and certainly no dive. Total penalty, absolutely solid call. 6) Datsyuk cross checked Setoguchi into the goal post. Total penalty, one I would have called, and not too iffy in my mind. For embellishment, I'd be looking for a delayed response of some kind, or a reaction that was obviously overly dramatic. That's what many Wings fans saw, but I didn't. It wasn't like the Nichols dive, where he arched his back and collided with the post, but you couldn't even see a cross checking motion from the player behind. In this one you can CLEARLY see Datsyuk ramming the back of his stick into Setoguchi from behind, and with looked, to me at least, like considerable speed (read = f=ma = force). If that's one of the "well, your players need to learn to skate such that they can't be knocked down so easily and make us look bad", I would disagree. Total cross check, legitimate call. If, as was argued, the Sharks were getting away with the same thing, then THAT should be included in the compilation for contrast, and then you'd have a valid, albeit different, point of contention.

Damn you, Matt. I'm spoiled, there's NOTHING out there. There are no other forums, LGW is the forum. I feel more at home here even than in LGS. Almost makes me want to start a site/forum and pattern it after my unwitting mentor here at LGW, a place where good, knowledgeable hockey fans can feel welcomed, and have a home away from home, the same way I feel here. f***! Just the fact that I can say f*** here is part of what separates the men from the boys in that regard, but a very small part. There's more to it than that. The absolute unbridled and irrational hatred that so many Hawks fans have for the Wings looks like nothing more than pure Cup envy to me; like simply having an Original Six team makes them entitled to as many past victories. I don't have a lot of respect for grave dancers, but that's how a lot of them appear to me this year, and I'm not seeing much in the way of logic behind it. At the Pavilion we see a LOT of Wings sweaters; other teams as well, but Wings more than any other. Lots of die-hard Detroit fan transplants in San Jose, so they're a very familiar sight at the tank, and always friendly from what I've seen and experienced first hand. They don't huddle together and keep their distance like a frumpy bunch of introverted and socially retarded homers. They MIX IT UP with the San Jose fans, they're mostly knowledgeable about the other teams, and love to talk hockey -- just like here. Anyway, for what it's worth, I'm still lurking, still posting here and there. I don't really feel like talking to anyone else at this point. I am one of those who will solidly root, in principle, for the team that beats mine, wanting to say that the path to the Cup went through my team, and that we were beaten only by the best. My only exception is if the Wings are still in it, even if they aren't the ones who eliminated us. Then it's a no-brainer for me, because the Wings are, and always have been, my other team, my China, my home away from home. All that said, I am hoping for a Bruins-Sharks matchup. I think the Hawks are going to easily beat the Nucks. You never know until it's over, but I don't see the Nucks having the ability to stage a 3-1 comeback. The Hawks have a good, motivated, talented team this year, but I don't see them I did as the Wings. The Hawks are good, not easy to beat, but I think we already took on the very best that was out there in the last round, bar none. Even so, the Hawks did best us in the regular season, but not by much. There was one embarrassing 7-2 blowout back in late November. That was Hossa's debut game, and Chicago scored three short-handed goals in what was a very ugly joke of a game for the Sharks, more embarrassing even than the Wings blowout of the Sharks in Game 4 of our last series. The remaining three of our reg. season games against the Hawks were decided by a single goal, in OT. In contrast, we dominated the Nucks all year, so I very much like the idea of going up against the Hawks in the WCF. That race needs to be faced if we're going to not just shed the choke moniker entirely, but also, should eventually win the Cup, win it in a way that can't easily be called a hollow victory. I want the Sharks to face the Bruins in the finals, should we make it there, of course, and to only get there through the Hawks, for another reason: because then, to get the Cup, the Sharks will have had to have gone through HALF of the Original Six teams. And I personally think that's quite something! Avs-Nordiques -- then Wings, Hawks, Bruins...Cup? Wow. To me that's a big wow, no easy road, and as it really should be -- for me at least. GO SHARKS!

Not much else to say except thank you all for your hospitality and class, as always. Matt, fellow LGW'ers, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I absolutely love LETSGOWINGS.COM