Z and D for the C

Please. Read my posts in the Fil thread. I may be a Flip slappy, but I recognize he wasn't nearly as good as he should have, could have, or needed to be this season. Just because I defend him when people say stupid things like he was absolute s*** or we lost nothing without him, doesn't mean I think he is god's gift to hockey, like Eva thinks of Hudler.

^ I could see him getting a short deal for a modest raise to see if this season or last season was the fluke. To all the doofuses who think that we didn't lose anything with Flip getting injured, he was the difference in game 7 against Anahiem and he could have easily been the difference in this game. If it wasn't for that jackass Shaw, we could be celebrating right now. Flip was far from consistent and far from great, but he made some key contributions, and that can't be denied.

With a couple of his goals in the first round, they should invent secondary goals just for Cleary.

Except for Howard, what veterans didn't?

Game 7 records this season: With Filppula: 1-0 W/o Filppula: 0-1

Better team won. We were lucky to take it to game 7, and even to OT.

Come on, it was a horrible call. If that was us we'd be killing each other. The only thing that makes it okay is that the refs have f***ed us plenty. At worst, this evens the reffing.

Good news? Wings have been great in OTs this post season.

Do we even make it into the second round without Filppula? I'll wait here for your answer.

I'd rather have a player like Filppula, who can makes plays, versus Cleary, who mostly just benefits from them.

Come on, dude. That assist was about as amazing as his EN goal. Just another point of his that comes, as they usually come, from being on the ice with talented players.

He may not have been scoring much, but at least he's great at skating through the neutral zone, entering the zone (without just dumping in the puck) and setting up some offense and battling on the boards. We have ZERO of that going on, so having Flip would be a huge help in that regard. At least we'd be getting some offensive possession. Saying we're not missing anything without Flip is just stupid.

No different than he has ever been.

To what end? A harmless shot at Crawford's chest?

I don't remember the last time Datsyuk was on. This run for him probably won't help him stay in Detroit.

I don't think its the Wing who did show up for games 2, 3 and 4; its the hawks who didn't show up for those games.

Run with me here, guys. Maybe there should be people on the ice, who, like, aren't players (if that makes any sense?), but "referee" (not sure if I'm using the word correctly here) the players to make sure this s*** doesn't happen between the players? Maybe some sort of consequence can be given to players who act in, I don't know, an unsportsman-like manner? They should do that.

You mean get money for no work? I'd be surprised to see him skate of someone told him that.

Also the fact that they've dominated the entire game. When was the last time we had possession of the puck in their zone for more than 3 seconds?

What a ******* c***.

They've all been extremely underwhelming. Cleary generally acts like an idiot with the puck except for a few plays in which the best compliment you can say about him is that he didn't f*** it up. Of his four goals, one is an empty net and two, the puck glazed off of him from another persons shot. He's got a few assists that were good plays but nothing extraordinary. He still does a lot of stupid s*** offensively with the puck (read: his 2-1 today in which Fil was wide open and he shots a shot that gets blocked) Franzen has done nothing except score some really nice goals when Pav or Z do most of the work to set him up. Cleary has been better than him. Fil has extraordinary puck control and battling ability that results in sustained scoring pressure and scoring chances. Shift by shift, there is no way you can say Cleary has outperformed Filppula.

Oh I agree completely. He's playing way to much on the perimeter, he needs to take the puck to the net way more often. That's when he is most successful and why he scored 66 points last year. He is timid and needs to play more aggressive. Its hard to say why he isn't and what changed between last year and this one. I'm just saying he hasn't been as bad as people like the OP are making it out to be.

Or s***, a few weeks ago when the Ducks beat us 4-0. And speaking of that, I love how for once we're the team to win the series after being blown out. Remember in 2007 too when the Ducks (the stupid assholes) beat us after we beat them 5-0 in game 4 (I think it was game 4)? Feels good to be on the other side.

So basically he was like Fil has been all playoffs. Fil has struggled and its frustrating because you know has is capable of much more, but he's still a valuable asset and has been an ace at faceoffs and he is invaluable when it comes to skating the puck through the neutral zone and getting it set up. To whoever said that he ruins all offense, that's just stupid. Straight up. He's been our best forward not named Datsyuk or Zetterberg (Brunner has been sick, but he doesn't play against the other teams best players), although that isn't saying a whole lot since Cleary and Franzen aren't playing well either. Filppula needs to be much more aggressive with the puck, but he has works his ass off the entire game and we don't make it to the second round if he isn't on our team. Those are facts.

Okay, Cleary can occasionally do nice things.