Firehawk

Please Mic and Dan, stop making excuses for this crap wings team. I cannot remember the last time I saw the wings not play defense WHATSOEVER. This entire season they've sucked, not just recently. Their defense is atrocious, more of last year, but even worse. We better shore up the defense or we will be bounced in round one. This team is pathetic right now. I cannot imagine babcock told his team to try skating the puck out of their own zone constantly. They don't chip it out, they pass right into the middle of their own zone, it's ridiculous. My point is proven by the absolute joke of a 2 minute 5 on 3 power play that I'm stunned they were even credited a shot for.

Uh, she's not hot dude. There are far hotter women available to showcase the NHL all star game. It's not even that she's skinny, she's TOO skinny, and her face is not attractive. The other girl up there is better looking, but there are far hotter women available.

Can someone explain to me why out of all the gorgeous women out there they pick this nasty looking bulemic in red? Please explain it.

I think Kindl needs a bunch more games before you can make any accurate prediction. Any player can come in and play very well for short spans of time.

I'm so tired of the wings playing this way. And no I'm not letting the injuries be an excuse. They were playing average defense even with a full roster. It's really getting on my nerves. And I'm also sick of seeing Howard allow 3-4 goals every game. This team does not cause enough forechecking pressure on a regular basis, and I don't know what the deal is but they take FOREVER getting the puck out of their own zone. It drives me nuts. I'd rather watch our 3rd and 4th lines play most of the night anymore. I'm really getting tired of it. I think we will win more when we get our starters back, but again, defense has not been top notch ALL SEASON, and I'm sick of it. This is how they played quite a bit last year as well (yes I know we were injured all year). But, scoring 4 goals a game required to win is not going to get it done in the playoffs. I'm just irritated.

Congratulations to the Chicago fans. Just remember, you didn't have to go through Detroit to get it! Haha. Just kidding. I'm very happy for Chicago. They're a great city and have great passionate fans like Detroit does. I'm happy to see them win.

I also thought the Hawks would win in 5. I cannot believe Philly has been hanging around. I still think CHiacgo wins tonight because they are clearly the better team and I just cannot imagine that the Hawks will lose. If they do lose, they are seriously in big trouble. Normally I would be pickin the experienced team to win here but both of them are not experienced in this kind of situation, not like last year with Detroit. But boy does this SCF have an eary feeling like last year's.

I seem to remember people hating Clement and Thorne when they used to do wings games because they used to favor colorado. I don't know why in hindsight people miss them. I for one hated Thorne. I don't like many of the broadcasters. I especially hate that weasel Macquire.

I was saying this as soon as I heard about the schedule. It's not right at all. We still won both games and really have no excuse to losing the series since we had a 2-0 lead, but we were definitely banged up and who knows if 3-4 more days would have helped our injuries out. It is definitely frustrating, although I do understand that TV schedules drive it.

I think we would have fared better against Chicago than SJ simply because of the Rivalry, and I swear they are a mirror image of the Wings (at least when we were a bit younger). But I think Chicago would have won. THey clearly have the hunger, desire, and the more they win, the more it looks like destiny. I'm glad they didn't have to play us to get through the playoffs, because it does leave doubt in their minds on whether they can really beat us or not.

How ironic that over on HF boards the SJ fans are complainin about the refs. They are the LAST team that can complain about the referees. They have double the PPs in the playoffs and they've had the calls go their way 90% of the time. COME ON CHICAGO!

I think in more cases than not, it is completely justified that people blame the refs too much. In the case of what happened in the 2nd round this year, I don't think it's justified to blow off the referees. Even though we were outshot and outhustled at times, and losing faceoffs, we still were hangin in there. The clear difference was the 5 on 3s that the Sharks got. They had 3 or 4 in the series. All of the 5 on 3s came at crucial times in the game. We were winning by a goal and they give the sharks a 5 on 3 in the 3rd period. WE were tied and they give the sharks a 5 on 3 in the 3rd period. It's ridiculous. I'm sorry. If you want to argue whether the calls that put the WIngs down were legit, we can. I will even agree that by the book, many of them were. But you also have to look at how the league calls penalties. And in that series, the league was clearly one sided and went away from letting things go while on 5 on 4 and decided to call rather chincy stuff to put the wings down several times 5 on 3, in crucial times. I honestly do think that was the difference in the series. That won san jose 2 games out of the 5. I still think had Detroit managed to come through SJ, we were probably not beating Chicago because they're way more hungry than Detroit was this year. You can't win it every year, and eventually you'll lose the high level of desire required. It's not whining to point these things out. It's amazing how few penalties SJ has taken. It's hard to believe, actually. San Jose is gettin completely exposed by Chicago. I view CHicago as the Wings of old, they have all the pieces. I swear, they're modeled completely like Detroit used to be, fast, talented, has the screen player in Buffoggaly googaly...a goalie that they're getting a lot out of for very cheap, solid defense...it's like looking in a mirror.

I don't see how Montreal of Philly could beat either of the two teams left in the West. The west plays at a higher level than the east does overall. The two top teams in the west are left, against the two bottom teams in the east, which adds more fuel to my argument. Montreal is a cute team, doin some unbelievable things, but the caps were not a complete team by any stretch of the imagination. Pitt may have been suffering some hangover from the past 2 year's playoffs like the WIngs, and now Philly is hungry and disposing of Montreal. Philly will be rough and tough, but it won't be enough against Chicago. Chicago has all the pieces. I don't think Phi or Montreal will be ready for a western powerhouse like they're goin to face. I just don't see it. Remember, (without lookin back), I want to say that teams 5 through 8 would not have even made the playoffs if they were in the west. The talent and speed in the west supersedes that of the east.

I'm cheeerin for the Hawks. They are the Wings reincarnated. Look down their lineup. They look to me like a wings team from 15 years ago. ALl the pieces and the way they play (puck possession). Honestly, it has Bowman's stamp all over it, too. Seems they took it the next level after Bowman joined their team. I swear, Bowman is like the god of Hockey. Whereever he goes the team wins cups. Chicago is goin to end their drought. At least we can still hold it over them that they didn't have to go through us to do it, otherwise they wouldn't be getting their cup

If that's what parity will do in the NHL then I am against it. I was against it anyways, but maybe that was because we had such a great collection of talent here and I hated to have it all go away. But nothing is more entertaining and exciting than watching a collection of superstars play together on the ice. Instead now we will get watered down teams, players we've never heard of, teams like Montreal making it to the finals ( I dont' dislike montreal, but the TEAM they have is not a stanley cup team, where's their talent? They are winning because they are playing very opportunistically to make up for the lack of talent they have, who wants to watch that crap). I'd much rather watch the west teams. Most of the western teams are very entertaining. SJ, Vancouver, Detroit, Chicago, all excellent teams with a lot of fire power. In hockey, to me it loses a lot of its luster after you get away from the talent laden teams and drop to the average ones. It doesn't seem to work in the NHL like it works in Football or even in the NBA for that matter.

My comments on the sharks are this (and some may not like it, but these are my opinions): The sharks are totally getting exposed for what they are. They have a lot of offensive talent. The end. Their defense is not great and Nabokov is way overrated. The Hawks look to me like the Wings of old, when the WIngs were hungry and younger. The Hawks are playing like a complete team. Their dominant defense is making up for any of Niemi's rookie mistakes, if any, that occur here and there. I think if the Wings had played with more heart, they'd have beaten SJ. Even when we were down 2-9 to SJ i was not worried whatsoever. I thought we'd come back. But we didnt' play with passion and desire to win. Probably more a victim of too much success recently than anything else. Not to mention, I still blame the penalty calls (mainly 5 on 3s) at absolutely crucial times in the games. Were the calls actually penalties by the book? Some were, yes. But the league usually does not call those at that point in games and to put teams down 5 on 3. It's absolutely a joke. But anyways, The refs tried to do it again last night in the hawks game and once again it almost cost the Hawks the game. It's a joke. The Hawks look scary good right now. I think they will go on to win the cup, thought that after they started to handle Vancouver with ease. The East is a full notch below the level of the West in my opinion.

I would like to see the Hawks. It's a nice story. And plus, we can still hold it over their heads that they didn't have to go through us to win the cup...so it doesn't count! Hahah

Wow. That's incredible. Can't believe it. Nice job Philly.

Hate to admit it but the Hawks are modeled identically to the Wings and remind me of a 'great' wings team. THis edition of the wings looked slow and lethargic quite a bit. The hawks don't look that way. I think the Hawks are goin to win the cup now. They look better than SJ did to me. SJ won most of the games in Round 2 due to bad calls or bad non-calls. Don't really want to start that converstaion up again but that's my opinion in a summary form . Chicago just looks scary. I thought after game 1 Chicago was goin to get steam rolled by Vancouver, but they really annhilated Vancouver in all 4 of their wins. They went to Vancouver and won both games 3 and 4. THat's very difficult to do. Either way I'm happy Pitt can't win it!

I agree with all of this.

Until refs call diving penalties, AND CALL THEM WITHOUT SENDING THE OTHER GUY TO THE BOX TOO, it will be in the game. The players are trying to embarrass the refs when they do that, so embarrass them back, refs!

The bad calls and bad non-calls all seemed to go SJ's way. Sure they got some bad calls against them as well, but they did not set up 5 on 3's for detroit when it mattered. At worst, it canceled out their PP. The bad refing coupled with the Wings not winning the faceoffs in their zone killed them. The chance of scoring on a 5 on 3 is 75%, which is almost like GIVING a team a goal. How can you do that in tied games or 1 goal games in the playoffs? Shy of a mugging, it should not happen. I'm sorry. At the same time, we did not win the key faceoffs and it killed us. Last night the first goal was right after a faceoff win for SJ in our zone. The second goal was the result of a non-call on Murray, which I don't haev a clue how that was missed. I wonder if the league will review that hit and suspend Murray for the first game of the 3rd round.

Yeah, and the story all playoff for this is we get a penalty called on us, and we can't win the faceoff in our zone. If Datsyuk wins that faceoff, or even just falls down and uses his hand to get the puck, that goal doesn't happen. I almost bought game 4 tickets, but was only going to buy them if we had won game 3. Wish I woulda anyway. I was going to buy game 6 tickets if we had won tonight...

Nabokov and Luongo are WAYYYYYY overpaid, neither are any more than average in my opinion. Both SJ and Vancouver have had success to this point despite their goalies. And now look at Vancouver. They can't stay in a game because of Luongo. Nabokov gave up just as many goals as Howard did in this series, unfortunately we couldn't get that one more per game. But as long as SJ has Nab, they won't win the cup. He's not a cup winning goalie. At some point they're going to need him for more than a period or two at a time. And i hvae a feeling, in round 3 against Chicago, we'll see what I'm talking about.

Yeah I guess my argument is that I feel they didn't play with desperation or heart but it STILL took many lucky breaks like 5 on 3s and good bounces for SJ to win. Taking away the win or lose factor, the Wings weren't jumping like in the past. A microcosm of this is the slow pace that the Wings had even with 5 minutes or less to go in this game. They were not skating hard or fast. When they had the 6 on 4, they were slow moving the puck. Nobody crashed the net. Maybe this was just SJ making the Wings look slow, I don't know. That's possible I guess. Even though SJ got most of the breaks, they capitalized. So they get the credit. YOu can't win it every year, but you just hate to see your team go out like this. Don't worry, Chicago looks like they're on a mission. I think they will have an easy time with SJ. Chicago looks extremely determined in that Vancouver series. They're FLYING.