GMRwings1983

When will Babcock actually do some coaching and make some line adjustments? Is he waiting till we're down 3-1 in the series?

Devereaux played better for us in the 02 playoffs than Kopecky has ever done.

I want to sit next to that guy one day so that I can punch him in the nuts when he does that annoying gesture. Here's to hoping that we don't see him today on account of the swine flu.

I'll take that 4th line anyday. However, Sammy and Kopecky on the same line may just give me that heart attack that I've long been expecting.

This is Franzen's fault. That clown embarrassed our team with his behavior against Getzlaf on Saturday, pretending like he was hurt after a backhanded slap. Now these Disneyland reporters are printing stuff like this as a result. Nice going Johan.

Any chance this thread hits 30 pages, guys?

Sure they can win with only one line, as long as we continue to have injuries and our star players disappear. How many goals has our 1st line scored in this series so far? Also, I expect some more OT's in this series, and we have to find a way to win these types of games since it's hurt us in the past against them. Normally winning with only one line is difficult, but not if the other teams' players underachieve like the Wings have so far. I wouldn't count too much on their first line gassing out. Also, the OT goal wasn't scored by a 1st liner, so we really haven't shown that much more depth than them so far in this series.

His stats are slipping because of his age. Happens to pretty much every player. I guess unlike 99.9% of players, he didn't feel like staying past his prime and being half the player that he once was. Interesting move just because we don't see it very often.

Whatever. You're just jealous that he didn't feel like talking to you much.

What are our chances of winning this series without Rafalski? I say not very good, as in less than 50%. He's way too important to this team especially with Lilja also hurt. Draper is a different story.

I actually love long OT games (unless the Wings are playing). Some of the most entertaining games I've ever seen involved teams I didn't care about playing in 4 or 5 OT games. No reason to change anything.

How is it that you of all people got to meet Lilja? You're lucky he didn't find out about the posts you've made challenging his fight record, because if he did find out, it would NOT have been a very pleasant evening for you.

As of 2001, the Wings are 6-15 in OT playoff games, which means we're not even winning 1 out of every 3 games. It seems like in these games we keep getting scoring chances, but only wind up padding the other goalie's stats, and then wind up losing anyway. This is a recurring, annoying theme, especially against the Ducks, who we've lost our last 5 OT games to. So what the hell is the deal with such a record? Is there something we need to do differently in these games (other than score)? Do our players try to play too cute?

Why? I can sense that he's right on the verge of fighting Pronger and beating the living daylights out of him.

Sammy wasn't involved in those situations from what I remember. It's easy for the other team to just let him shoot, while clogging up the shooting lanes for Lidstrom. Bottom line is that we're in serious trouble in this series if Rafalski doesn't return (unless Pronger gets injured which will even the odds a little).

If he doesn't come back in this series, our chances of winning aren't very good. It means more Sammy on the PP and more of Meech on the ice. Andreas, where are you?

I can't believe Franzen hangs out with Lilja, and hasn't learned anything about sticking up for himself. As I said yesterday, that pathetic gesture of his did nothing but embarrass the team. He made the whole team look like a bunch of ******* by flopping around like that on the ice. Babcock needs to have a man to man talk with him about these Forsberg-like plays of his.

Did you watch Meech play this season? Chelios on the bench is more useful than Meech is on the ice.

Interesting theory and one I hadn't really thought about. However, many times in these OT's our players will get great chances to shoot at the net and will either pass if off or shoot it at the goalie's crest. Those particular situations aren't connected with the other team playing dirty. It just seems like the skill and great shooting we see in regulation doesn't translate into OT goals, and I'm thinking it has to be a confidence thing when a team loses more often than not in these games over the years. Great analysis and I appreciate your actually going out and gathering stats to post in this thread. Truth is that we don't have to be great in OT to win the Cup, since in 2002 we lost 4 OT games on our way to the Cup, which I believe is a record. However, against the Ducks, our OT losses have been the reasons we lost the series, since we couldn't get it done in the clutch the way they've been able to. The Ducks have had a tremendous OT record since the 2003 playoffs so maybe we've just been unfortunate to run into them.

Everyone keeps talking about how great Hank's line has been, but if he's not scoring goals, are we really getting the maximum potential out of him by playing him on that line? I don't think we are. I still say we need to put Pavel and Hank together and lets see how Anaheim handles it. This is where coaching takes over, since there's only a few games to fix things before a team is eliminated. We can't wait until we're down 3-1 in the series before we start making line changes.

I'd rather have Holmstrom lined up on defense than Meech.

The problem with your theory is that Hossa gets delegated to the 3rd line.

It's hard to break up the 1st line without breaking up Z's line. How else would you do it? Sacrifices need to be made.

To be honest with you, we had way better chances than what Marchant scored on, so they weren't all shots from the outside, but yeah for the most part the chances we had weren't as good as what the Wings are accustomed to. For some reason, this team doesn't have the confidence when the OT's begin, and I think several posters have already alluded to it. Even when they get good opportunities from in close, they don't capitalize on them.

He needs to play more and I think Babcock's lack of confidence in him is unfounded. Chelli feels like he has a lot to prove and I'd like to see Babcock give him more of a shot.