VM1138

According to my mother there is a chance of internal hemmoraging if he plays immediately. He should be recovered by then but it depends on the person, I think.

That's a good point. We don't need Hossa, Datsyuk and Zetterberg producing as long as they continue to play lock down defense, which they do. Let Helm, Flip and Sammy make things happen and the other guys to finish them while our stars simply neutralize Crosby and Malkin. Our depth gives us this ability to let our stars focus on neutralizing and our depth continue to score. I'm gradually feeling more and more confident, so long as Lidstrom and Datsyuk return for games 1 or 2.

Seriously? Vladdy is running? That's amazing, great news! I've been out of the loop apparently. Yeah, this blogger is scum. It never ceases to amaze me how obsessive and hateful fans of other teams are. We don't even have a real rivalry with Pittsburgh and they're THIS upset about our team? Especially since the WIngs don't have any goons, I don't even know where this hate comes from other than us simply being better.

I agree with Babcock, Toews is the future of that franchise. Kane is nice and all, but I think he's the Federov to Toews' Yzerman.

Looking forward to a rematch next playoffs! Good effort Hawks, you've got a quality team there.

I'm not so much concerned about them being "tired." It's only a days difference from the Pens and they don't have to travel anywhere. They can rest up in time. I'm more concerned about injury recover time. Is the two days enough for Lidstrom and Datsyuk to recover?

Another thing to add: We didn't have the logn reaches of Ericcson and Hossa last year, so this year we may be even better at clogging their lanes.

Pittsburgh is better than last year. But the Wings have absolutely dominated all playoffs long. I worry about the Pens, I really do. But there's been this feeling this entire run that the Wings are sort of destined to do this. Pittsburgh will make a series of it, for sure, but the Wings have responded to every single threat and overcome, and they've faced a variety. Two young upstart teams (one of which is very good) that probably play similar to the Pens, plus a physical and dominating team in Anaheim. I think as long as we get Lidstrom and Datsyuk back (which I think we will) the Wings will win this series, but it will be very hard fought. So yeah, I'm more scared than I have been except for maybe Anaheim, but part of me feels reassured that the Wings just keep coming no matter what's thrown in their way. EDIT: More specifically, Ozzie will outperform Fleury again, and our defense will stifle much of their offense. Our offense will keep clicking. I think we may even beat them withotu Hossa or Datsyuk or Zetterberg scoring, but I'd like to have those fellas on board.

I have this feeling like Helm will be one of thsoe players who is mediocre in the regular season but burns it up in the playoffs. I'm okay with that, Helm is going to be a fan favorite on par with Darren McCarty before his career is done.

We've also won it without touching it, making touching it vs. not touching it (at least for the Wings) irrelevant.

Big flaw: Whyw ould all the games start at 8pm, stated way back in April? What if a team like Anaheim would have gone to the Finals? Seems like that'd be a grossly unfair travel schedule.

I wonder if Babcock was serious or joking about having Federov as a defenseman with the Wings. Cue the rumor mills!

Gotta throw in one zinger here, all in good natured jest (sort of): Illegal aliens DO in fact vote, and frequently. Illegal aliens have been found to vote (repeatedly) in favor of Democratic candidates. But yes, it's illegal for illegals to vote.

What the hell does politics, and ESPECIALLY braindead ignorance (on both sides) have to do with hockey?

We had this discussion last year. It meant nothign then and it means nothing now. Now....if someone from Pittsburgh touches the octopus we KNOW they'll lose the series. It's basically the only tradition that has upheld itself utterly completely the past what, three years?

I absolutely agree. Part of me feels that the Wings still will dominate, but the absence of Datsyuk and Hossa, combined with the stellar play of Crosby and Malkin scares me. Last year Malkin disappered. Now we have the disappearign Russian who carries our team. ROle reversal a bit which scares me. Also, Pittsburgh has the experience that everyone said they lacked last year. We can't really dismiss them for this like last year. It's a much more level playing field than last year and last year was closer than the 6 game series indicates. But then part of me thinks if we can beat Anaheim, we can grind out Pittsburgh. But thenp art of me thinks that Pittsburgh has two Getlafs and one was hard enough to contain. But yet again I think Anaheim had a much more stifling defense. Wow, I guess all I can say is that it's going to be a thrill ride and I don't think I can even begin to predict the winner of this series. Oh, and we have to defeat Chicago. They seem to be broken, let's hope it stays that way. First, because I can actually watch the game tomorrow, and second, because now that Pittsburgh is waiting we need to end this series fast.

This series will be great. It's gota ll the storylines. The "been there, done that" feeling won't happen until the third meeting in a row. I understand some fans don't like it. I know I would've hated to have the Oilers and Islanders win every year for a decade since I'm not a fan, but ratings wise it doesn't seem to hurt. Having two teams consistently go at it only allows casual fans and new fans to identify with these teams as a gateway. Like others have said, having a Chicago-Carolina matchup would have been disastrous. The Pittsburgh-Detroit final was huge ratings and money last year. This year, we have return viewers plus all the ones who heard great things about the last one. This will be hyped as a "rivalry in the making" and be plastered all over SI and ESPN (well, by "plastered" I mean it'll be mentioned more frequently than usual). So, in short, bad for some fans, good for the league.

THere was a 40-odd year period where the Wings struggled, but you are entirely ignoring the years before the birth of your team, by which time Detroit won 7 Stanley Cups and appeared in a ton of finals. And before you make some comment about their only being 6 teams, let's not forget that Boston and Chicago and the Rangers hardly ever won, either. So yeah, the WIngs have been one of the most consistently awesome teams throughout the NHL's history. Even during the drought years we still made playoffs frequently and even appeared in the finals once in a while. So if we were "nothing" before 15 years ago, what were your Pens before 2 years ago or so? Other than two brief stints with the Cup thanks to Lemieux.

Wow, that was cold!

Osgood is now officially a playoff monster. I don't care what people think about "Old Osgood" in the playoffs. He is officially dominant now.

So the Pens will be rested and the WIngs won't. Surprise. I really hate this. With the original schedule I'd be able to see a few of the games, but if they change it I miss the entire ******* finals. Man this has been a s***ty run for me.

If anyone has the game recorded and would be willing to send me a file of it, I would GREATLY appreciate it, because I missed the game and it sounds like it had just about everything in it. Also, we beat the Hawks 6-1 without Datsyuk OR Lidstrom? Unbelievable. I was worrying about the Pens a bit, but the Wings just keep showing me they have what it takes to dominate anyone in the league. Also glad Hossa and Zetterberg finallys cored. Hopefully it keeps up. I don't see the Wings beating the Pens in less than 7 without all our big guns firing.

Since when is the coach supposed to be all buddy buddy with the players? The game was falling apart, Babcock was trying to get it under control and instill the fear of God into his team. Is there a coach out there that DOESN'T yell at the players from time to time? They yell at each other it's only natural he yells at them to keep them in line.

0-93 when trailing by 3 or more goals in the playoffs. Unbelievable. How does that even happen?

Bettman: Establishing a standard of officiating as helped the league become its strongest in its history. Wow.