stormboy

i would say, in general, datsyuk is the better player. (more points with lower ATOI + selke winner/repeat candidate.) in this years' playoffs, though, getzlaf has been, IMO, far and away the best -- and undeniably the most valuable to his team -- player out there. i hate him. i hate his face. i hate that he cycled the puck in our zone at will the entire game yesterday. if the wings cannot find a way to shut down getzlaf, we will not win the series. and for that, he is far more valuable to his time right now than any of our players are, hands down.

yeah, i don't know wtf was up with our complete inability to clear the zone against yesterday, specifically against the getzlaf line. i actually don't think it ended up costing us too badly on any direct chances, but that had to wear us down and give them momentum. frustrating.

when i read your post, i was about to be disappointed in one of my fellow wings fans. then i realized it was you. keep it classy.

i agree it's a dick move, but i watched players on both teams do it multiple times this game...and for some reason he's mum about it every time a duck does it but goes off about it when a wing does it. i think that's why people are annoyed. that being said, i think people are reading in to his comments. they hear "that could have been unsportsmanlike conduct, therefore the wings are a bunch of cheating cheaters and the only way they'll win this series is by cheating," when he was probably more just saying, "that could have been unsportsmanlike conduct; it happens a lot, but that's an example of it." and, yeah, pang >x1million pierre, that's for damn sure.

i don't know...to me it looks like he just skates over and decks him on purpose.

it's nice that he at least mentions that you could call our faceoff wins cheating. i mean, he "doesn't," but it's really great that every aspect of the game we beat them at now becomes subject to scrutiny. hmm...what ways are we either cheating or being aided by the refs? faceoffs? check. physical play? check. crease presence? check check check. powerplays? check. i'm sure there are a few more that i'm forgetting.

i think what people are saying is that there's a difference between valid and invalid criticism. when ozzie was really struggling during the regular season, that fell into the former category. this falls into the latter. every night we need enough of our team to step up to win. so far that's happened every game. last night it was lids. sunday, who knows? we're a deep enough team that it doesn't have to be one guy all the time. i mean, datsyuk has been more or less invisible as well. but if we're winning without those two playing great, imagine how we'll do when they find their game. he will step up when he needs to. other than game four vs. cls, we haven't needed him. if hossa had scored that goal last night, would you be saying, "without hossa's heroics, we would have lost. where's lidstrom? he needs to step it up." we need one member of our team to be the hero. hossa will have his day.

edit: i found a bigger/better one but apparently you can't post "dynamic images" on LGW...

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU---- that sucks. mainly, our PP takes a huge hit with raffi out. DAMN it. i was really hoping to go into this series with our D firing on all cylinders. mother effer. oh well, here's hoping for the best from cheli *uneasy smile and weak thumbs up*

i know, i love that babs is basically like, "merh, we've got it covered. fuhgeddaboudit." since i've never played hockey, and am not in shape, i obviously don't really understand the way that the physical toll of a playoff series exacts itself on your body...but i imagine that with playing 25 minutes a night in six games against the sharks, if this series goes to seven and getz's line is still playing 25 minutes a night while dats, z and hoss are all playing around, what, 17-18? i can't imagine that slav will have as much in his tank as our boys at the end. but what do i know?

NBA = i was surprised, though, to see on ESPN's "top play of the month" voting competition that the three plays were that dude stealing home plate (admitadly very impressive) some dude's last-second game winning shot in an NBA playoff game, and ovechkin's amazing goal against the rags. i'm sure that ovie's goal will get panned in the voting, but either way i was surprised to even see it mentioned on ESPN.

no, i agree with you. it shouldn't piss me off. but for some reason, i can't just be content knowing that. i want everyone else to admit it, too. *shrug* i mean, at the end of the day it doesn't really matter. just the way i feel.

secret - n. 1. Something kept hidden from others or known only to oneself or to a few. 2. Crosscheck-crosscheck-hold-slash-crosscheck-piledrive-slash-crosscheck-crosscheck-crosscheck

exactly. this is going to be a REAL wake-up call for the NHL. i think that homer is probably in the top five or ten guys in the league who get calls based on reputation. maybe top three. additionally, he's the guy who players are allowed to foul the most withOUT getting a call. that crosschecking/holding/tripping/slashing s*** would get called in most other situations, but i swear to god the refs are like, "well, homer IS making it really tough on the other team; we should give them a break." again, very true. and i think you're analogy is actually quite accurate; it's pretty common to human nature to point out in others what you yourself are doing wrong. e.g. the person who steals from work is going to be very on the lookout for others who steal because if they can shift the focus on to someone else, they're more likely to get away with it themselves. if the refs are watching the back of homer's skates and starring at his ass, they're going to miss all the abuse he takes from pronger et. al. you're absolutely right. if homer doesn't get called for goalie interference, you can be pretty damn sure that he wasn't interfering because if it was even f***in' close they would have called it. even still, i expect to see a LOT of bitching from hiller and the ducks' bench every time a goal is scored with someone parked in front of the net. and, like with that too-many-men call against the BJ's, the only reason it pisses me off is because it creates controversy where there should be none, somehow giving people a reason to doubt the fact that the wings actually are better. i have to be honest, i was excited when i saw this thread only because i knew this would be the one place where we probably would all agree.

again, it might not be from *age* specifically, but the defense has certainly had it's problems this year. you can argue the cause, but that's a simple one to latch on to. even if he's wrong about the cause, he's right about the effect.

i'm not sure how that's "unreal." the comments on lids and raffi are a bit suspect, but honestly, if you've only caught a bit of nick's playing this year it wouldn't be that hard to claim that it's gone down hill a bit, probably because of age. hell, i think that even with his stellar second half, you can still see him aging a bit. rafalski's problems don't stem from his age, but he certainly has them. and osgood will certainly have to be stellar. if he starts letting in soft goals from their third and fourth line, we're cooked. seems like a pretty reasonable analysis to me, especially since he picked the wings to win it on home ice.

don't have much else to say. it reads like an eight year old going, "HAHAHAHAHAHA IT'S FUNNY 'CAUSE WE'RE RICH AND YOU'RE POOR HAHAHAHAHAHAHA." because obviously all of detroit's problems stem from michigan being populated with stupid, inept people and california is weathy because everyone there is smart and beautiful. f*** off. see you on the ice, *******.

haha...that should totally be shooped into the image. hilarious.

yeah, part of me wonders if after about halfway through game two of the BJ series, a lot of the wings were thinking about saving something for the next series, perhaps knowing they might draw the ducks. no point in risking injury when the series is more of less out of hand. methinks we'll see some epic kronwall in this series.

haha...i do seem to recall drapes getting rung up for a few of those this year. like others have said, though, i do think draper would be good to have in just for his faceoff ability. my only fear is that when drapes comes back, they'll sit helm just because he is the least experienced (allegedly) and he and draper are more similar type players. that being said, it's a tough call for me between kopy and malts of who to sit...but i think that a helm-draper-kopy/maltby line is the best option we have for the fourth line right now. kopy-draper-maltby to me is a bit scarier than helm-draper-kopy in terms of us having no energy or skill whatsoever on the fourth line. to me, helm-drapes-kopy makes the most sense because IF (and that's a big if) kopy can ramp up his physical play, that would be a big plus. for me, malts has little to no upside right now, and i think we have plenty of experience and penalty killing ability to make up for what little he has there.

i haven't heard anyone use that phrase in quite a long time. well played!

i'm starting to think that you're actually a wings fan (probably a long-time member of this board) who is posting these stereotypical comments to be funny. it's working.

i'm not sure whether to or at this post. hilarious! it's almost worth the trolls being here for this comedic genius. the way i here you (or anyone) making that statement to this character, in my head at least, made me borderline laugh out loud just now. and i'm alone. it's sad to me that duck guy is basically the only ducks fan who's posted here who actually observes the game and discusses it. these characters...man...too effing funny.

i work 4rd-i-mean-3rd shift a 'couple of nights a week...unfortunately those nights are often tuesday and definitely thursday...which mean's i'll miss all of games three four and all of a potential game seven. hopefully game six starts at seven as it's a weeknight game at the joe...that way i could at least see all of it. that was nice about all the 7pm starts vs. the BJ's. oh, well. get to watch the first two home games at least. go wings!

yeah, i mean, hopefully next year when we play buffalo, that will be true. not sure how it's relevant here, though. i jest, i jest. but i'm not too worried about it. on the one hand, the refs are obviously going to be watching homer's skates very, very closely. on the other, the ducks aren't exactly good at staying out of the box. expect them to get called for a few roughing/cross checking penalties as the series goes on. cleary seems to have found new life in this series, and franzen shows no real signs of slowing down. holmstrom...well, that goes without saying. i think maintaining a strong net presence was a bit of an issue for us in the regular season, but these guys are willing to pay the price when it matters. we'll be in hiller's s*** all series. hopefully we don't get too many goals waved off, legitimately or otherwise.