Firehawk

It's a love and hate relationship with Bert. People around here change on a whim about him. The last 2 games he was a beast. Today he was the most noticeable player out there. I only noticed Franzen when he was in the penalty box or when he was laying on the ice from a dirty hit with no call made on it. I didn't even hear Zetterberg's name mentioned, and only heard Datsyuk's name mentioned when he was making a takeaway. Nobody else did a thing tonight.

Yeah, i'm sure some people around here are aching to see someone start a Howard Bashing thread, and wonder why Ozzie wasn't in for game 5.

Perhaps, except when the calls are so bad that it doesn't really make a difference what you do. 4 5 on 3's in the series is absurd, no matter what penalties are committed. But I do know what you mean. Moer times than not the Wings lacked effort and passion in this series, and really in the last series which is why it took 7 games in round 1.

Read between the lines, Babs is blaming the refs for the loss in the series. Can't really blame him.

You know what? I can't argue with you on any of that. However, one could make a case that despite being outplayed or outhusseled, despite losing faceoffs (other than on PK's), despite playing with a lack of heart, it took bad calls or bad non calls to put the dagger in in all 4 of SJ's wins. You could make a pretty solid case there. I even want to go so far as to say it's the Wings own fault for having to chase the puck more than being on possession of the puck, but some crucial calls weren't even because of that. I don't know, it's just hard to swallow. SJ deserves to win, and they get the credit, but boy they sure had a lot of help.

I defintiely agree with you guys, but the problem I have is that the penalty calls called in favor of SJ all game long were at absolutely crucial times and were mostly called inappropriately. But where we really lost the series was on faceoffs. We couldn't win faceoffs when we were on the PK and it kileld us, just like that first goal tonight. The 2md goal we won the faceoff but didn't get the puck out and we got scored on.

You know what I'm sick of? The wings staying along the boards. Anyone else notice that all ******* game? Perimeter shots. Wow, they put up 30 perimeter shots, including the one that scored. How many chances did they have in the center of the ice? 1 or 2? Almost nothing. Even when the game was on the line late in the 3rd everyone was staying along the boards. I Give SJ some credit for that but the Wings were slow today and they weren't crashing the net at all. Where were the shots at the net in traffic? NONE. UGh. I hate that we lost this way. I really do.

I cannot recall seeing such a horrible referee'd series, the ENTIRE series. I mean, when SJ got in penalty trouble (on the box score) in game 4, the game was way out of hand, so it didn't affect the series. When we kept getting ******* penalty after penalty called on us, it was at crucial times in the game. I'm disgusted. I didn't think we'd win, but I hoped they'd put veteran refs in for this game, and they did put one but still terribly refereed. Well, it's still a loss, so whatever. But what a joke. Chicago will wipe the floor with SJ. f*** them and the refs. Chicago will win the cup this year. Good story for them.

I saw absolutely no desperation whatsoever after we got scored on, or any other time in this f***in game. Nobody skating hard, NOBODY. That 6 on 4 was the worst and slowest ******* power play I've ever seen out of this team. PATHETIC

I'm picking Franzen to be the difference maker in this 3rd and/or OT.

I'd like to know the stat in this series, the even strength SJ goals vs their PP goals? Because it seems like the ONLY reason SJ is even winning a game is because of the PP chances they get.

I have to say, I was impressed we got out of the 1st with a tie, and still impressed we are tied, because we have been outchanced. We started coming on a bit. The 3rd will separate the men from the boys. I think the wings are going to have to steal one here. So far Howard has been outstanding. HE's kept us in. The game might be out of hand by now.

I totally am not getting my hopes up for game 5, but if somehow the wings can pull that one out, I'm buying tickets to game 6 and will begin to really have faith we can do this. IF they manage to get it to game 6, this series definitely goes 7.

McClellan is probably saying "see what happens when we let up? ThEY R THE WINGS!" I'm sure this is just an abberation. But if we end up winning game 5, I will start getting very excited.

The fact of the matter is nobody wants to admit that this edition of the Wings is inferior to the Wings of years past. Sometimes in the faceoff circle it looks like the center on our team is conceding the draw and just trying to immediately get in the road of the puck, since we've lost so many darn draws. That's pathetic. When was the last time we had such problems clearing the zone? It's the little things this team isn't doing, and I don't care who you have in net, you aren't going to win. Fans ran Joseph with a 93% save percentage out of town becasue he was losing 2-1 games. Give me a break. People blaming Howard for goals in game 1 where they were point blank with world class forwards having the puck on their stick between the circles scoring on him. YOU are not going to stop a shot by these guys unless you're just lucky, or they shoot it right at you. Sorry. That 2 on 1 in OT was absolutely horrendous. Howard had to play the shooter. Rafalski didn't even try to stop the pass. He was all turned aorund and didn't even bother to go down to block the pass. There's no way Thornton is thinking 'shoot' in that situation. Howard came out to play the shooter. The defesne didn't take the pass away. Howard has given up some very bad goals, 2 of them in game 3, but I'm sorry, we have to give him a pass for this year. He's learning and he's a rookie. It's either we try to raise our own goalie, or we go spend a fortune for one, and hope to God they get hot. Meanwhile we're wondering why we have no money for defense or another forward. We are so used to having veterans in this town that people forgot what it's like to raise your own players. I wish Howard came out like Roy and just shut other teams down, but he didn't. Give him a break THIS YEAR. If he continues this through next year, then we can criticize at that point. I love Osgood, but there was not much opportunity to get him in to games. Like others have said, we were trying to get the highest seed possible. For a moment, we had a shot to catch Chicago. They were playing poor and we were on fire. We got within 6 pts at one time, after being down 20. Howard got us here, and I think unless he was going to give up 6 absolutely brutal goals or show his confidence was totally gone, there was no way Babs was pulling him. You have to let him learn on the job. If that means losing, so be it. This year the whole team doesn't look that hungry anyway, and the breaks are definitely not going our way. I agree with you. Saying we had a playoff spot locked up and that should be good enough is absurd. You always want to try to rank yourslef as high as possible. The first round could EASILY have gone the way of the Avs, Kings, and Preds. They were all very close to upseting all 3 top seeded teams. We could have ended up with home ice after round 1. It didn't work that way but you never just flirt with fire like that. So you would have rather played Chicago or Vancouver to start the playoffs? No way. We'd probably be out by now anyways if that happened. The wings didn't play well in round 1, so had they played off and on against a great team, we'd have been long gone by now.

Yeah, seems it would even up the series which is exactly what should be anyway.

I am concerned but I am not panicked. The games are very close, and I honestly believe if we wouldn't have been called for such ridiculous stuff in the 2nd game the series would at least be tied right now. The 5 on 3's are ridiculous, and honestly, if they had called similar bad calls both ways to make the power plays like 9 to 10 or something, I would be able to live much easier than it being 10 to 4 with a lot of bad calls. That's the difference. On top of that, even as we have not won faceoffs and such, we still have been in games. I like the more open kind of hockey this series is giving us. I think we can still come back from this. All we have to do is hold serve at home. If it's 2 to 1 after game 3 then we are all suddenly more optimistic. I have no doubt it will be 2-1 after game 3, but gmae 4 is the place where I'm worried about having a letdown.

Despite the absolutely ridiculous penalties, we really have to go back to Faceoffs 101, and defense 101. It looks like the wings try to maintain possession of the puck in their own zone when getting forechecked. You can't do that. Their first priority should be to clear it out along the boards, PERIOD. This is what they did when they were winning cups. I don't know guys, besides all of that, I think maybe San Jose is just a better team than us. Do I think they are more complete when both teams are at their best? No. But they are more consistent thus far. Their goalie isn't better but he doesn't have to be. They are more overpowering on offense than we are, and it has been such a long time since we can actually say that. I don't know. If we lose this series, I think SJ will have to get a TON of credit. With that being said, we still have as good a chance as any of coming back in this series. One game at a time...

I hope these refs don't get to ref another game. THAT WAS NOT GOALIE INTERFERENCE LOL. We OBVIOUSLY pushed him into Howard. What a joke man. Honestly, what a joke.

I cannot believe we have not gotten a call this period. What an absolute joke. Are you honestly going to tell me we have really commmitted 21/2 times the penalties? LOL I seroiusly don't know how anyone can say this wasn't a ref victory if we lose.

Did they just say the powerplays are 8 to 3? what a joke.

You know what I don't care. THe NHL should be absolutely embarrassed at this crap. Wings, just fall down everytime you are touched. EVERY TIME.

This is why the NHL will never be more than some bulls*** sport anymore. What horrendous calls. How can one team have 2 5 on 3's now in 2 games for over a minute per game? WHTF IS THAT? IS THIS ******* HOCKEY OR A ******* BINGO GAME?

I can't beil;eve the refs are that blind. All but one f***in call has been a dive.

At least we are tied after all of that. Sharks really have it going. Wings really gotta match it. This is a very exciting game. I wish the refs would call diving. Homer gets cross checked way worse than that all of the time and rarely ever gets called. It's so ridiculous. Aren't the power plays 3 to 1 now?