GMRwings1983

You call that a .500 record? Hmmm, it seems to me like they finished 8 games over .500. Eight games makes a big difference. For one thing, we'd be way ahead of them in the standings if they were .500 on the road. Killer post, dude.

Didn't the Penguins win the Cup last year? If Detroit had won the Cup instead, then they'd be the ones to have their entire series nicely televised on Versus. It's all fair if you ask me. Sykora's goal turned the entire series around in the Pens favor. The OP is making it sound like the league would falsify information just to plug the Penguins.

From reading this forum the last couple of days, I assumed that we already had. Are you telling me that Columbus is actually willing to play some more?

These playoffs are further proof that picking your poison is GOOD. There's a reason many here were afraid to play Anaheim and would rather play Columbus or St. Louis in the first round. I guess we now know why. The Ducks are a scary team when the play up to their potential. That first line looked amazing for them last night. They put on a clinic of cycling around the Sharks' net.

I don't know about that. A few great dives and he might give the Blues a few etra powerplays that they wouldn't have had otherwise. If healthy he's still their best player out there. Kind of amazing that they made the playoffs with their best forward and best defenseman injured for the entire season. How many team can you say that about?

Vermette is lucky Lilja isn't playing. Just ask Jared Boll as to why.

This is from wikipedia (which means it must be right ) "The most recognizable implementation of the trap sees the defense stationing four of their players in the neutral zone and one forechecker in the offensive zone. As the offensive team starts to move up the ice, the forechecker (generally the centre) will cut off passing lanes to other offensive players by staying in the middle of the ice, forcing the puck carrier to either sideboard. The defensive wingers—typically placed on or near the red line—will be positioned by the boards to challenge the puck carrier, prevent passing, or even keep opponents from moving through. The two defencemen who are positioned on or near the blue lines are the last defence, and must stall the opposition long enough for the wingers to reset themselves and continue the trap."

The last four times the Wings went up 2-0 in the first round, the series eventually became tied at 2-2. No matter how easy it looks right now, this series is long from over. I hope this team remembers the past well. Like I said earlier tonight, Columbus has to play the trap if they have any chance of beating us.

Look for Columbus to goon it up in the 3rd if they can't score early on. This is textbook play right now. At this point, the Jackets should go into a full trap come game 3. Their skill is nonexistent when matched against ours. They need to borrow a page out of Edmonton's playbook in 2006.

Sammy is playing very hard and I commend him, but God the guy sucks at shooting the puck. He needs to start aiming at the Columbus players instead. Maybe the puck will just bounce off of them and into the net.

It seems like the pressure of playing at home as the 2 seed is getting to the young Capitals. They don't seem to be playing with the confidence and swagger that they've shown in the regular season. Looks like they used up all their celebrations for the regular season, also. I never really felt like they were going to tie the game, even though they were only down by one goal. They can still win this series, but they're in serious trouble and I don't see them getting out of it. This would be a huge blow to their franchise if they can't get out of the first round with this much talent on their team.

I can't believe you called out the poster you responded to for making a bad analogy, and then you compared Kopecky to Franzen, Hudler to Datsyuk and Flip to Hank. Where's the comparison? Franzen in his 2nd full season was a much better player than Kopecky has been this year. I don't think anyone envisioned Franzen becoming as good as he is now, but he did at least show gradual improvement. Kopecky hasn't shown me much of anything, other than being a better fighter than Franzen.

He better be here to stay. He's looked very good ever since being called up. I'd love to see more hitting from him, though, considering his big frame. At this point Meech and Lebda are nothing more than seat fillers. Also, Chelios will probably not be back next season.

Can you imagine walking into a bar in Alabama, and asking them if they carry the NHL network?

Great effort tonight. Everyone came out flying and hitting, which is completely different than what we saw in the regular season. Maltby looked like an animal out there. Likewise, Ozzie played differently than what we've seen the rest of the season. He saved the team from the horrendous officiating early on with some key saves. The key of course is conistency, since it's only 1 game. We can't get too ahead of ourselves. My only concern is with Cleary playing on the 2nd line. He plays hard, but I still don't think of him as a top 6 forward. Also, what happened with Lebda? I didn't see him out there for most of the game?

The sad thing is that it used to be the best stream out there. I guess when they brought it back after the league clamped down on it, the quality went with it.

Exactly. It happened because they had toughness on the roster just about all season throughout the regular season. It did make this team tougher as a whole. That's the thing most people don't realize when they bring up these pointless arguments about how little icetime Downey or McCarty played last season. 4th liners never play lots of minutes, but that doesn't mean that their presence doesn't affect the rest of the team. It's called leading by example.

There is more to toughness than fighting, but this team hasn't shown much of that this year. The 4th line has been as tough as biting into a marshmallow. And we don't always have the puck, so you inflated that argument. Hitting doesn't just have to occur when you're forechecking in the offensive zone, it can occur anywhere on the ice. When the other team is cycling around in our zone, I'd love to see one of our guys lay someone on their ass. We haven't seen too much of that this season, either. I hope we see the whole team come out with a physically malicious intent, much like we did against Calgary several years ago. However, if it does happen, it won't be because of anything we've seen this season, because the team has been soft all season.

This is Bettman's way of saying that he wants the Pens to win the Cup this year.

I didn't say he was a moron. I just said that his particular comment on that point didn't make much sense. Just because he's a great GM doesn't mean he's some God who says and does everything right. Excuse me for disagreeing with Holland on a particular point. My trivia question was mostly a joke used to prove a point, namely that this would be the softest team ever to win the Cup. And I do think that having some semblance of toughness does correlate to winning the Stanley Cup. This year's team hasn't shown much semblance of toughness. I think that's what separated last year's Wings from previous years where they failed in the playoffs. It all goes back to having a balanced team. An enforcer is a pretty good player to have to make your team more physical overall and more balanced. A player like Drake would also help in that regard, but he's not necessarily an enforcer. So to use legal terminology, but for Aaron Downey and Darren McCarty setting a tempo for the rest of the team with their physicality, we wouldn't have won the Stanley Cup last year. Proximate cause is a little harder to apply in this analogy, so I won't even go there.

Did this happen after he destroyed Sharp? Or did it happen after he destroyed Phaneuf, Begin, Neil, Boll and Souray? I don't quite remember. I don't know. If Laraque backs down from you, you must be somewhat an enforcer.

I forgot you were the history buff around here. I guess I can't disagree with you, but if you have to look that far back to answer my question, the point is still proven just as well. Boulerice played more than 10 games for them. Close, but no cigar. Once again, it doesn't matter how many times the guy fought. Laraque has hardly ever fought more than 17 times in a season, and several enforcers are in that boat. I know one thing. No Wings team in recent memory (post original 6) won the Cup without having an enforcer play at least 50 games combined during the regular season and playoffs. If this team wins it, it will be the softest team ever to win the Stanley Cup. Carolina would be the next closest, but Boulerice played at least 25 games for them. I wish Downey played that many games for us this season. Maybe it would rub off on the rest of the 4th liners.

There is no unanimous definition, but I call a guy like Downey a heavyweight. I also think McCarty was a heavy up until he went to Calgary, where he started to lose to lesser fighters. A heavyweight is a guy that regularly fights with heavies and can hold his own. For instance, Stortini fights a lot with heavies, but the guy is a punching bag. Cote is probably the same way, although he's better than Stortini. A guy like Boll or Clarkson in New Jersey are guys who are not heavies. Also, a heavy doesn't necessarily have to be a big guy. For instance, Tie Domi and Rob Ray were heavyweights. They could beat anybody on a given night. So it's not some traditional boxing definition of a heavyweight, but that's what I think it is. BTW, the answer to my trivia question is no team I can think of. But go ahead and search.

Just a guy who's job is to be physical and to stand up for teammates when need be. He also has to be a heavy or a guy that fights regularly with heavies. For instance, McCarty wasn't a top heavy, but still a heavy nonetheless.

McCarty was an enforcer, although he tallied off towards the end of his career. Enforcer doesn't mean he has to be one of the 10 best fighters in the league, it just means he has to be a guy who can go with heavies and that's what McCarty did quite a few times in his career. To define it differently, would mean there's only a handful of enforcers in the league. That's not how I see it.