stormboy

why do i have such a bad feeling about this game right now?

dammit. tootoo?

ozzie singing lol.

i'm glad zidlicky can maul zetterberg. letting 'em play i guess.

nice idea there by flipper.

little late...go franzen. go wings.

nice article; the onion is brilliant. Bettman: "It's one of the oldest traditions of our sport that anything behind the goal line is his business." great stuff. nice post, hockeytown.

yeah, they're last years' playoff stats. i think they fixed vokoun being on there. p.s. i just realized stuart's played for 5 teams sine the beginning of the 05-06 season. crazy.

pens are the only home team to get a win. interesting...

great healthcare. no fsnd. take your pick.

if the wings lose, they'll beat themselves. against a team like the sharks, i wouldn't necessarily say that, if the sharks are playing their BEST hockey, it is only up to the wings to win or lose the series. but with nashville, the wings' best will beat the preds' best any day that ends with "y." so, yeah, it COULD happen, and it may. i've seen the wings beat themselves plenty of times in games they should win. maybe the title of the thread should have been "will the predators beat the red wings." of course anything "can" happen. but will they? no.

i feel pretty good about our depth. as long as we don't lose top guys...if our middle d or anyone on the bottom two lines goes out, we've got plenty of guys to step in. that's nice. obviously sparty won't replace datsyuk if he goes out, but we've got some (relatively) interchangeable parts on the energy/grind lines. also, does anyone think that hudler will get scratched at all? i don't think babs is super in love with him. if huddles is going to play on the fourth line anyway with guys who may or may not really be scorers, do you think he'll sit out in favor of a mac or a downey, or for malts or sammy when they come back? then, say if one of the more skilled players like flipper or even datsyuk gets injured, rex comes back in to play on the more "skill" lines? i know hudler got scratched a lot last year. he's played a bigger role this regular season but hasn't lived up to the expectations of many, myself included. (though he has lived down to the expectations of others.) otherwise, i agree with those that have said downey doesn't serve a huge purpose here. in the playoffs it's hard to justify an entire roster spot for someone who ONLY fights. not to rag on aaron or anything, but i haven't really seen him do much all year (with his 3:00 of icetime a game) to impress me OTHER than fight, which certainly has value in itself--but is it enough to sit sparty or helm or someone who at least has the possibility of chipping in on offense? also, i mostly don't expect everyone to make it out of the playoffs healthy. so i imagine you'll end up seeing a fair number of the helm-darth kader-hartigan types throughout the playoffs as some of our guys go down. i'm not trying to be pessimistic, and i'd love to see everyone stay healthy, but with how things have been going lately, and, though i hate to say it, with the age of some of our players, i could see it happening. the whole maltby-draper-mac-drake contingent i could see bearing much of the brunt of the physical play, and i could see any one of them going down for a significant amount of time. edit: added stuff.

i'm surprised chelios is on the ice that much. i'm not sure why...i mean, i knew he played PK a lot...just not that much. also surprised that hank and pavs aren't on the ice a bit more...it seems like they're always out there. also, i think this makes a good case for lilja. just some random observations. but, hey, minny's got a pretty good PK. maybe we SHOULD have made a huge deadline deal. ; )

*shrug* i don't know. i guess he sits. once everyone's healthy, we're real deep on defense. if stuart doesn't resign next year, he's in. same goes for lilja and chelios. i like what i've seen of him too but at this point i'm not too sure about sitting an nhl-playoff tested roster player (lilja) who has some measure of chemistry with the team and putting up an un-tested ahl player who hasn't played a ton with the team and who doesn't have much nhl experience. i agree with what you said: the only way to get tested is to play. i'd rather see him go for his first run after a whole regular season. granted, quincy did a fine job last year, but i think if you're mike babcock you're not going to put yourself in that position unless you have to. if i'm armchair coach, i see if we get up 2-0 or 3-1 over nashville, then maybe sit lilja for a game or two and see how ericcson does. or, if lilja blows it big time, i put him in. but i think at this point it's lilja's to lose, not ericcson's to lose. in my opinion. edit: clarity. i never get anything right the first time.

i think it's important to remember that lilja, of all people, scored our only goal in that game. and if the game hadn't gone to OT because of a freak play bouncing off the best d-man in the league's stick and fluttering right over our goalie's shoulder, that would have never had a chance to happen. and even let that freak play at the end of regulation happen...if datsyuk, zetterberg, or ANY of our top scorers would have scored ONE more goal, it would have been at least 2-1. so i don't think you can blame him entirely for us losing game five. and i don't think that it makes all his other good play null and void. how many goals might he have prevented in the series? of course there's no way to quantify this, but clearly good defensive play translates into less goals. do you really think that either of our goalies would have the GAA's that they do if we didn't have lidstrom? doubtful. so, take lilja out of last year's playoffs. we get shutout 1-0 in the notorious game five and let in probably at least two or three goals spread throughout the playoffs that may or may not have made a difference in some close games. up until now, i've been a proponent of lebda, always believing that his speed would turn into better puck movement and some scoring. i've seen flashes of brilliance, but it's never turned into anything. i think i'm getting to the point now where, at least with lilja, you know what you're getting. and, yeah, he's not a top four d-man. don't use him as one. he shouldn't be in there against the other team's top line (or top two lines, frequently) even strength, as he was much of the time when our team was in that huge skid. maybe it's too much to ask for a repeat of last year's playoffs from lilja. but, minus schnides, plus rafalski and stuart, i think lilja's exactly where we need him. edit: grammar, clarity.

heh. i'm pretty sure there's an appendix in the rule book.

two 'hawks standing IN the crease? just don't let half of homers ass in the crease. not that it matters, but jesus. no body even MENTIONS it when TWO people are in dom's crease. ugh.

nick-laaaaas.

please, please, please.

nice take flip.

when are they going to stop jerking off the sharks....

aaahahahah hasek. nice move on the offsides. love it. i think the non-game conversations to game conversation ratio is about four to one.

god, hasek. heha....i mean, it seems like a pretty easy save if he's in good position. but he'd much rather juggle the puck in the crease. lol.

okay, random side note: i'm just glad that you can't abbreviate our team as the "bj's." that just makes me happy.

yeah, i think a lot of people (myself included) felt like he was underperforming for a lot of the season...or at least that he had good potential. we wanted secondary scoring from him, and weren't getting it. now we're getting close to primary scoring.