stormboy

yeah, it's tough to say. different animals, IMO. it's a bit scary because getzlaf tore us up during the regular season. then again, so did rick nash.

GOOOOOOOD FOR YOOOOU

i honestly haven't watched the ducks enough to have a solid grip on their defense...but it's hard for me to think that if--and the emphasis being on the "if" here--every wings defenseman plays at or near his potential the ducks blueliners top ours. that is, if rafalski, kronner and stuart keep the turnovers under control (which we've seen that they can do, but obviously don't always) if kronwall and stuart (and to a degree ericcson) play a strong physical game if lidstrom is his typical near-perfect-on-coverage self and maybe a few others...if all of these things happen i still think we've got one of the best if not the best defensive corps in the league. obviously that's a lot of if's, though.

yeah, if he's in any kind of pain, i'm glad he's got a few extra days off. we don't want them to get rusty, but i guess in this situation it would be better if chi-cgy went to seven, eh? also, i'm honestly not too sure we want draper back. who sits? malts/kopecky? because it sure has hell better not be helm. i realize the kid is one of our two minus-rated players on the team right now, but i honestly cannot see draper being any better. helm is zipping around out there throwing big hits. i'm honestly really happy with him in the game right now.

haha...yes, that's exactly what he's doing. and i'm sure he'll keep complaining the entire time he's on the golf course. ?? i was pretty sure homer swept a sliding puck at ice level. i haven't seen the replay but i don't remember any high stick or any other mention of high stick...hmm...

so true. i've stated before that i think that a penalty should be a penalty whether it's midway through a 5-0 game or in the last minute of a tied game. that being said, i understand the psychology of a ref not wanting to make a marginal call with the game on the line (e.g. a minor hooking penalty that he may have called earlier in the game). however, this was not a marginal call. you can argue that a little hook or a little hold is part of the game and shouldn't be called. however, you cannot argue that playing with six men on the ice is part of the game. they were cheating, and they got caught. had the call not been made, modin or whoever would have likely had an odd-man rush situation. why? because what'shisf*** came on the ice too early and played the puck when he shouldn't have. his cheating could have directly affected the outcome of the game in a way that a little hook or little hold is not likely to. it's a black and white call. they were cheating and got caught. i can understand the BJ's being frustrated with the call, but they should be mad at themselves. this would be like homer standing in the crease and interfering with the goalie and, after a goal was waived off, saying, "you shouldn't call goalie interference at the end of a tight game." what? of course you should. that would be cheating (if indeed he was interfering) and shouldn't be allowed just because it's the end of the game. god. it's so annoying to me. you cheated and got caught. STFU.

/"controversy." i honestly could not believe how hard the BJ's were protesting the call (some of their players, at least). it's just...i don't. of course that's a backbreaker to get a call at that stage in the game, especially when they'd climbed back from two separate two-goal deficits. but jesus. that is textbook, no-question, black-and-white too many men. for me, that's 99% as clear as a clearing-the-puck-over-the-glass call (the 1% being that the refs theoretically could let it go because there's not a stoppage in play to force their hand). all the time, you see players, from all teams, realizing that if they touch the puck they'll get too many men and avoid touching it until their guy is off. the BJ's were understandably eager to get an odd-man rush and the dude just wasn't thinking or paying attention. and as far as i'm concerned, any perceived "controversy" in no way taints this series for the wings. first, we outscored them 12-2 in the first three games--even if they'd have won this one, there's no possible way they would have won three straight against us. second, a non-call in no way assured their victory. without the call, it would have likely gone into OT, though there's no way of saying. and, if the game had continued at even strength, there's a better than 50% chance that we would have scored next considering that we have obviously been the superior team throughout the series and, one bad period from ozzie notwithstanding, were completely and utterly dominant, having scored, to that point, 70% of the goals in the series. obviously, if you're a BJ fan, you should be super pissed about the call. but be pissed at the ****** on your team who broke the rules, not the officials or the red wings. anyway, that's my four or five cents. it just makes me a little mad that now people can conceivably take something away from the wings and this sweep, even unjustifiably. hilarious! thank you, sir.

i agree with almost all of your posts, and because of the bolded part of the post below, there's obviously some validity in what you're saying. still, i'm a little bothered by the snobby attitude. there were points in the season where it looked like osgood was absolutely not ready to lead a team in the playoffs. i think it's unfair to call people bandwagon fans because they were frustrated and upset by ozzie not playing up to his potential. sure, if someone was calling for him to be traded or cut and is now sucking him off, they can be called a bandwagon fan. it just feels a little unfair to me to criticize everyone who is posting positive comments on this thread as bandwagon fans. sorry.

two canuck misconduct penalties at the end of the period? i'm not watching the game, but vaguely following it online between bouts of homework.

ovie with 13 shots?? jeeezus.

gomez with three points already...

x 3 for as much as i've been pissed at ozzie this season nothing in the world would make me happier than seeing him just play out of his mind this spring. go ozzie!!

i like it dude. not too much to say in response. god, i'm so giddy this time of year. they'll be ready.

i might get burned alive for saying this, but i'm actually not sure if i'd rather see sammy or cleary with franzen and zetterberg. interestingly, they had the same amount of points and were both even in +/- this season, although cleary did it with less games and (i would guess) less time and worse line mates. but i've got to be honest...i'm not sure how much i've been liking of what i've seen from cleary as late. i mean, sammy is quite the f***up a lot of the time, but...i dunno. i guess hank and franzen can score...and since all sammy does it shoot, he's not really filling a gap in that line. probably better to have somebody with a little more grit and speed for those two. *looks around* so i'm glad i just talked myself back into wanting cleary over sammy on the second line. *cough* anyway, either way, good to have him back. i'd rather see leino play, but at this point i think that cleary's experience outweigh's leino's upside in scoring. (i'm not sure if the same can be said for maltby, and almost certainly not for kopecky, unless he suddenly turns into a check-throwing beast over night.)

yeah, i actually liked markov quite a bit as well. i think i remember him wanting WAY too much money, so it was probably best not to re-sign him. i agree that lilja's absence means we're taking a hit on blocked shots...hopefully we'll be possessing the puck enough that we won't need to block too many...we definitely need a few clutch shot blocks in the playoffs that haven't been there during the regular season (e.g. opposing powerplay late in a close game). when the season's over i expect a full workup like this for the playoffs as well.

i'm honestly really surprised by this. i'd expect: "wings are a really good team, but their defense and goaltending will get them in trouble in the playoff grind." and i wouldn't be able to disagree on rational grounds. it feels weird actually being favored to win...i honestly would have expected all these guys to pick the sharks. just seems like the safest bet at this point.

OMG MELROSE IS SUCH AN IDIOT HE HAS A TERRIBLE ANTI-WINGS BIAS HE HATES US CUZ WE'RE GOOD OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!111!!1!!!ONE!1

actually that one would be pretty easy. one line report: no weaknesses. cannot be stopped--attempts can merely be made to contain. overall, interesting project. makes sense considering the team's lack of playoff experience, etc. hopefully it doesn't pay off too well for them, though.

great work dude. i've already posted it on five sites claiming authorship. anyway, i've bolded/underlines a few things that i find interesting. the three-goal games/75% win stat i found surprising. i guess because our few blowouts against have been SO bad they stick out. (like, we haven't had a lot of 5-1 or 6-2 losses, but those 8-0/2 ones stick out.) interesting that, all said, we blowout teams more than we are blown out, by a wide margin. secondly, we obviously have unstable third periods. we give up tons of leads, but we also take a lot more come-from-behind games than other teams do. i think this illustrates our 08-09 wings perfectly. when they feel like turning it on (trailing to start the third) they are more capable of that than any other team. however, when they're not trying, they give up tons of leads to hungry teams. let's hope they flip the switch. thirdly, yeah, our PK has sucked, but their PP has been god-awful. they say your goalie is your best PKer, so let's hope that ozzie's improved form of late carries through here. if we can boost our PK a bit with their already-bad powerplay, i think we could realistically keep them to a handful of PPGs in a potential seven-game series. that could be KEY, depending on how things go. with our PK struggles, i'm glad to be playing a team with a bad PP. hopefully, if we win, it'll give us a little more confidence on the PK for when we meet better teams down the road. lastly, hits and blocked shots. i didn't expect much different in our hits category--hopefully kronner and stuart step it up a bit like they did last playoffs. i feel like filppula's been tossing his weight around a bit as of late, and i'm pretty sure that zetterberg and especially dats have been laying off big time of late, probably under orders from babs. hopefully dats brings some of that hitting back in the playoffs that has been absent the last few weeks. as far as blocked shots, that's a really disappointing stat for me. one way to frustrate the hell out of another team is to block shot after shot--i know this because its happened to us (the first round loss against edm comes to mind immediately). to me, that stat shows a lack of commitment on the part of some players. especially with our goaltending struggles, just about everyone should be doing their damndest to get in the way of shots. how do teams like LA, colorado and NYI commit to blocking shots more than we do? this is especially worrisome with lilja (our best shot-blocker) out of the line up. anyway, great analysis, good stuff to think about. edit: spelling

is goals-for the second tie breaker after wins? i can't remember. honestly, cls and ana scare me/don't scare me equally, but i would rather sjs play ana in the first round. for whatever reason i just feel like they would walk all over the blues without much of a contest. the ducks might beat 'em up a little bit at least.

right...i think we actually agree. i *would* be impressed by his skill is the puck had gone in cleanly. i'm impressed by the *play* because it's so odd and random and fluky, but i'm not impressed by ribeiro himself. just like with that kid...i'm sure the NBA scouts aren't going crazy to sign this kid right now because he probably won't make another basket all season. the fact that THAT shot went in is pure luke...great play to watch, but says nothing about the talent of the shooter. i see what you're saying about the difference between the plays--the analogy isn't perfect. the kid's play is noteworthy because it was so fluky; ribeiro's play is just fluky. *shrug* whatev. i feel bad for budaj. kinda.

that middle-school kid's basketball shot made number one. now, while it's amazing that that ball ended up going in (one in a million chances) the fact remains that it's amazing because it's such an odd fluke. off the top of the backboard, off some random banner-like-think, in the hoop. the kid didn't plan it. it's impressive because it's so random and fluky. same exact thing goes for ribeiro's goal.

it has nothing to do with the standings. if they were in playoff contention, he probably would not have tried that move, yes. but he did, and the fact that it went it in the net was a complete fluke. that has nothing to do with anything other than luck. yeah, he skated backwards and i guess made a nice stick move, but a goalie with nothing on the line made the save and it took two really luck bounces (off the goalie, off the ice) to make it in. not a BAD move, per se, especially considering the relevance of the game, but the fact that it scored was pure luck. i'm not saying that a good deal of hockey isn't luck, but for this to be anywhere near any top ten of shootout/penalty shot rankings is silly. he didn't own the goalie. the goalie made the stop and got unlucky. if somehow you can convince me that mike meant the shot to glance of the goalie, take an odd knuckle-puck bounce off the ice and end up in the net...if he PLANNED the whole thing out, then i'll be astounded. but that didn't happen.

too many f'kin mc's in my opinion. we need to hire some "smiths." either that or mike should change his name to mcbabcock.

well, i'm sober now. i just got out of work, so i think i'm going to go to the bar. :chug: look, it's a forum, and you can post whatever the hell you want, but this stat/ideas approximating this stat have been talked about to death here. there was a very similar one about how no team has had a goalie with a regular season as bad as ozzie's and won the cup. and you know what? we probably won't win the cup. there are plenty of really good teams who really, really want it. no one can possibly want the cup more than san jose this year, after all their disappointments, and they have the talent to go along with it. but until our worst-ever goaltending and swiss-cheese defense lose us the cup, then i will have faith in them.