Manoir

Two different games, I believe it was games 3 and 6 where Babcock had to call a timeout to calm his supposedly veteran team down. Ericsson was playing because Lilja was hurt, had that injury not happened Lilja would have been in the lineup in the playoffs. Helm was playing in the playoffs, you'd think with the playoffs he had in '08 that he would have been in the lineup during the reg. season as well but there was no room for him since Draper and Maltby were regulars.

It is true that Chelios didn't play, of course keeping him around cost the Wings a perfectly good defenceman in Kyle Quincey.

Another thing the Wings have totally overdone, the whole experience factor. Babcock admitted the Wings were nervous in Anaheim for game 6 with a chance to clinch, Babcock took a timeout twice in Pittsburgh to calm his team down when the crowd was getting to them, good thing all that experience came in handy. The Penguins had young guys like Talbot out there with a minute left in game 7 of the Finals, the Wings think if you don't have 17 years of NHL experience you can't handle pressure situations. The Penguins had only 2 guys I think who can be classified as veterans, Guerin and Gonchar. Didn't seem to hurt them.

I believe the Wings required a deposit on next seasons tickets for some people wanting to purchase Stanley Cup Finals tickets, if only they showed as much loyalty to the fans as they do to their players. As for this whole well the loyalty the Wings show to their players translates into players accepting less to play in Detroit, it is not as widespread as it may seem. Zetterberg and Franzen did sign for less than their market worth, but they both signed for 12 years which does negate the positives somewhat. Basically the cap hit when they are in their late 30's early 40's won't look quite as good as it does now. I'm not sure about Zetterberg, but I think Franzen's contract is front-loaded so that makes the discount he took even smaller. Datsyuk's contract was very expensive at the time of signing as the cap was smaller. Rafalski also signed for 6 million when the cap was smaller, not exactly a discount. Hossa left for 1 million more than he was getting offered in Detroit. I think the hometown discount has been blown way out of proportion.

This is the Wings greatest weakness-hanging onto players for too long. We've seen it many times over the past deacde or so. Remember when they were chasing Shanahan around in 2006, good thing he didn't sign because the Wings were willing to offer 4-5 mil per year. I'm not sure why they do this. Look at the Penguins as a contrast. Sykora wasn't playing well so he was benched the entire playoffs. The Wings would never do that to an established player and it hurts them. I mean evryone could see that Holmstrom was struggling mightly in the playoffs, not only was he not benched he was on when they pulled the goalie in game 7.

I am absolutely shocked that Andy Mcdonald is on the list and Marc Savard is not. They are both centres and Savard is better than Mcdonald in every aspect of the game. Savard has been a top 10 point producer and still gets no recognition. Surprising that a guy like Yzerman who was also overlooked earlier in his career would not put Savard on the roster.

Datsyuk struggled in the postseason early in his career. Hossa is an established player who should have been motivated out of his mind to play his former team and he delivered an iconic chokejob. It is not even about the points. When Datsyuk came back at least he was making things happen offensively, Hossa created no offensive pressure. I think that is what people are complaining about.

Yeah we are so naive, expecting a skilled player to put up points when it counts most. Everyone knows that real legends only produce in the regular season.

Big difference. Datsyuk was just starting out and it is common for younger players to struggle in the postseason. Hossa is an established player in the league whose sole motivation was to win the Cup and his performance was shockingly subpar. I may be wrong, but I think Hossa has had one good postseason thus far in his career and that was last year with the Pens. I had non-hockey fans over for some of the games in the finals and they all were asking why that one guy(Hossa) just goes to the boards whenever he has the puck and keeps turning the puck over. The performance he delivered in the finals is not one that you just forget about the next time he scores 2 goals in a regular season game in November.

Those were amazing!!! You're right, many of the colour schemes are pretty bad right now.

Wow, that is a great number for hockey.

Great news!!

You like the Wild team name/jersey? This is why I'm against freedom of speech.

What's strange is that the Wings coaching staff never really found a way to counter the pens D collapsing in front of their goalie.

It was the ultimate insult to have Talbot score 2 goals. He just has a face that you'd love to punch. I agree that the Wings need to get over this whole we don't fight back and we'll get them on the powerplay mentality. When the Pens were losing they showed some genuine emotion (Malkin's fight being a prime example). The Wings had this during the Bowman cup years.

My biggest complaint with the Wings is with their relucatance to put youngsters into the lineup. It was obvious to many that guys like Holmstrom/Maltby/etc were all but done but the team refused to bench them for guys like AbdelKader. Contrast that with Pittsburgh and how they threw guys like Talbot/Scuderi into pressure packed situations. Also, they benched Sykora for a good month or so, their philosophy seems to be that if you don't play well you won't be in the lineup reagrdless of how much experience you have. I think the Wings need to get over their obsession with experience.

That actually makes it worse, wasn't the Wings depth supposed to take over if they marginalized the Pens stars?

Pens had a very sound gameplan in place throughout the series. Congrats!

I only count Cups that I've actually witnessed, so for me it's Detroit 4 Pittsburgh 3. It almost feels as even that does not matter because the wings blew what i thought was a very winnable series.

Boy am I glad someone else noticed this. Drives me crazy.

Franzen- Zetterberg-Cleary Hossa-Datsyuk-Helm Leino-Filppula-Samuelsson Hudler- Abdelkader- Maltby

I don't know about the combos, but I'd take Draper and Holmstrom out and replce them with Abdelkader and Datsyuk. I think that the Wings have not taken advantage of the Pens biggest weakness-their extremely average defence. I would move Leino up the lineup and give him more minutes and let him utilize his offensive skills. Let Helm/Abdelkader pound their D with some hits. Let their D worry about the Wings fwds for a change- Wings should get a bit more proactive instead of reacting to everything the Pens are doing. Draper/Maltby/Homlstrom-that ship has sailed, it's obvious the Pens have no worry about over 35 role players.

I gotta agree with the Great 66. I mean, is there anyone here who wouldn't trade Zetterberg and Datsyuk for Crosby and Malkin? The fact that the Wings are more worried about the Pens stars than they are of the Wings stars just shows how quickly Crosby/Malkin have emerged as superstars. The scary part is that they are not even close to their prime yet. If the Pens don't win the Cup this year they will shortly and I think will go on a roll for 2-3 straight.

Just finished watching the analysis of Game 3 on one of TSN's shows here in Canada. The analysts were in complete agreement that the refs are letting Gill/Orpik get away with blatant interference. More startling, they mentioned that some Wings players said that one of the refs was telling one of the Pens players to get off the ice during the 20 second too many men situation.

Old Chinese proverb: If 6 Penguins are on the ice and no one calls it, do they exist?