Firehawk

What was with the delay of calling that high stick? LOL did he need a call from Bettman in his earpiece to call that/

Does anyone seriously want to defend the refs so far? LOL Glad the crowd is chanting bulls***

Bertuzzi needs to put the body on Doan.

Hmm, i guess the game is just too fast for the refs and it's excusable to miss that elbow. LMAO

Not worthy of a 5 on 3 LOL are you f***in kiddin. Here we go again, bettman wanting us out.

Wings deserved the penalty. We are getting outplayed again. Big surprise.

I dn't buy it. He's not as good as everyone thinks. The wings rang his bell good last year. But we'll see So far he's doing ok.

Now the wings are looking a bit more desperate.

DUDE...YES IT HAS! I have butterflies.

I cannot believe the playoffs are already here, and starting in less than 1 1/2 hours. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm staying up for the vancouver/chicago games as well. That one should be just as entertaining.

Not too worried about the Coyotes but Shane Doan scares me. They would have been more of a threat if Doan hadn't injured himself throwing his weight around last year and put himself out for a couple of games. Look for him to do that some more this year. I think we will have some problems with that, but otherwise this team doesn't scare me. Wings in 5.

I am so Psyched. I wasn't earlier this week but now I'm excited to go to bed and get out of work so I can watch the wings playoff game. I will be up watching Chi/Vancouver as well, as I think other than watching the wings, that will be the most entertaining series. And it'll be on CBC.

If you get tripped and whale your arms around but you were still tripped, that's one thing. Someone touching you on the back and you fall down like you got shot is another thing. I would still rather they just call a dive. If refs start calling that, they'll get it out of the game. But according to some referee sympathists, the game is too fast for them to make the call. So, I digress.

Bertuzzi looks like he's getting that mean streak back a little bit. If Doan comes out hitting, I think a Bertuzzi slam into the boards would do something. We need a big body to take on Doan.

VAN/CHI: 3-4 SJS/LAK: 4-2 DET/PHX: 4-1 ANA/NSH: 4-2 WAS/NYR: 4-1 PHI/BUF: 4-2 BOS/MTL: 4-0 PIT/TBL: 2-4 WC Champion:SJ EC Champion:WSH SCF Champion:SJ

A lift of a stick, fine, the CHI player's stick was also up in the air, right along with Franzen, right by his face. That's more than lifting a stick. But ok. I can live with this non-call actually. To me it was obvious to call a penalty here because as you say, "things happen so fast", that it should have been a call. How can it happen that fast and a ref could see that it was Franzen's stick? Both franzen's and the chi player's stick were both next to each other at Franzen's face. If the ref was not staring at it fine, but if he was and didn't make that call, I don't know how he could have judged that one. Goalies are supposedly untouchable. Howard gets injured on a clear contact play and they ALLOW the goal and no call there. Gonna have to explain that one to me. And I won't buy that the ref didn't see that. The play is going on at the net, the ref behind the goal line is going to be looking right at that play. It's just laughable. And one other point. This is the NHL. The game is very fast. Again, these are no excuse for the refs to miss blatent calls. If the referees are NHL REFEREES then they should also be accustomed to the speed of play, just like NHL players become accustomed to the speed. And one further thing I'd like to see changed: When refs call 2 players, one for a trip, and one for a dive, this seems like an oxymoron to me. How can you call a penalty on a player committing a tripping penalty when the other guy dove? So, stop calling the tripper and call the diver only. The only way you get players to stop trying to embarass themselves, the league, and the refs is to call the dive and embarass the player. I agree with a poster above, that said the standard should be 100% correct. This is unachievable just like they'll never make your furnace 100% efficient. But I don't think 80-85% right isn't achievable. Right now it seems like 50% of the time. And I do agree that refs seem to let a lot go in games and then decide they're going to call some ridiculous hook that had no bearing on a play. Players in the NHL are strong. When you lay your stick on them horizontally that is not going to slow a player down. You can tell a hook from a tap of a stick.

I can understand the debate amongst whether there IS or is NOT a conspiracy. Where it really breaks down for me is when you can clearly see a ref staring right at a blatent penalty and it isn't called. The league goes out of their way to say "the refs are doing the best they can" and "they are trying to call it objectively and fair". Well, how can you look at a blatent trip and let it go? How can you look right at a blatent hook and let it go? These are signs the refs are manipulating the game, whether they are doing it to a specific team or to try to 'even up' the penalties is irrelevant. They aren't calling a penalty that they are witnessing, therefore they are manipulating the game. It's really as simple as that. On another point, I have never seen so many bad calls go against the wings. In the 20 years I've been following the wings I can remember many times complaining about the refs but never like it's been lately, starting with last year's regular season and in the playoffs (5 on 3s galore for SJ in every game). There is corruption in every other major company in the world, in the stock markets, in city councils, in political venues, etc. Why would the NHL be any different?

Any word yet? Anyone?

Anyone hear if he got a suspension yet? When will it be announced?

Last year we struggled to get a decent standing, and we started on the road. I think this year we will take it to Phoenix more than we did last year, hence my prediction Wings in 5. I really hope we start out well at home. We need to protect home ice.

I do not think the defending stanley cup champion will be eliminated on home ice. I think it'll be 7 game series but I think Vancouver will win. That team is unbelievable, at least they were in the regular season. But Chicago's team has a ton of offense and a solid defense so that will be interesting to see how Vancouver can handle Chicago.

YEah, over on HF boards canucks forum they are all sounding pretty confident. I guess they have the right, they did win the presidents trophy handily. That's usually the kiss of death though. I would not want to play Chicago in round 1. That's an arch rival series, Chicago is every bit good enough to be a top 3 seed, they just got injured and started off poorly, much like we did last year but we got it together in time. Chicago didn't. They slide in the back door, and these are the teams that are very dangerous. Out of the bottom 5 teams I think Chicago is by far and away the most dangerous team and this is why I was so afraid to end up playing them. I think Vancouver is going to have its hands full, and i think it will be a 7 game series there.

YEah, over on HF boards canucks forum they are all sounding pretty confident. I guess they have the right, they did win the presidents trophy handily. That's usually the kiss of death though. I would not want to play Chicago in round 1. That's an arch rival series, Chicago is every bit good enough to be a top 3 seed, they just got injured and started off poorly, much like we did last year but we got it together in time. Chicago didn't. They slide in the back door, and these are the teams that are very dangerous. Out of the bottom 5 teams I think Chicago is by far and away the most dangerous team and this is why I was so afraid to end up playing them. I think Vancouver is going to have its hands full, and i think it will be a 7 game series there.

Even more reason he should be fired .

How can Dallas, playing for their playoff lives, s*** the bed against a crap minnesota team with half their roster out? LOL My God. The coach should be fired immediately.