Nev

I can't take credit for any of these, and apologies if they're posted elsewhere, but I haven't seen them, so....

I refuse to call Franzen "Mule" any more until he actually goes back to playing how he earned that nickname.

They usually save those for when they're 3-1 or 3-0 down in a series these days. Whatever, a 60 minute effort would be nice. Failing that, if we must have another 30 minute effort, please could it be the first 30 minutes this time, not the last 30.

Jeez poor Darren, he looks sick as a parrot in that interview

Yep, couldn't believe it, he was out there acting like a 4th line agitator, not a superstar forward. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised given his history, but I'm still thinking "wtf is he playing at?" Refs take a lot of the blame too for not handing out more misconducts, or at least getting guys off the ice quicker, which was why all those scrums lasted forever. Wouldn't be so bad if all this childish crap was working for the team, but it isn't. Stick to playing hockey Sid, its what you're good at.

Almost everyone has said it - start playing from the drop of the puck, and play for 60 minutes. We're too evenly matched with Nashville to get away with a 20 minute effort. And like Jonny Diamonds said above, a few more face-off wins wouldn't go amiss...

Did anyone else see the shot of the bench after we went 3-1 down? There was Lids and a few other players sat there, and I saw a look I've never seen on Lidstroms face before - despair. It totally shocked me, I've never ever seen his proffesional game face crack before. For the first time I began to wonder if this is his last season and he's already made his mind up

Typical Wings. Don't show up for the first 30 minutes, spot the opposition a 2 goal lead. Decide to turn it up, miss 3 open nets and come up a goal short. Forget the refs and the timekeepers, they're not the reason we lost.

In a bizarre kind of way, I'm glad that goal didn't count. We tie it up, and we're liable to go back to sleepwalking through the 4rd. Now that we're still behind the Detroit Red Wings will actaully turn up for their usual 20 minute effort.

Babcock on the key to the game

Same as Game 2, Wings will win 14-3. Datsyuk with a goal and 13 assists.

Interesting insight into why people hate the Canucks - this is from another (non-hockey) board. The poster is a cop in Edmonton.

Wings need to win. Not because they're doing it for Helmer. Not because they're getting revenge on Webber. But to get a toe-hold in the series and go back to Detroit 1-1, avoiding what scientists have come to call "the San Jose situation".

Its actually made the sports news in the UK now which is a pretty big deal . They were interviewing a Canadian journalist on the radio and he pointed out that in the NFL you get fined $5000 for wearing the wrong socks!!!! Which shows how ridiculous the whole situation is.

Massive blow for Helm, and for the team. Gutted for Helm, the kid was so desperate, and worked so hard to be back for the playoffs.... As for the team - massive, potentially crippling blow. There was a great comment on MLive "Helm is to our bottom 6 what Datsyuk is to our top 6". Now we are either left with a 3rd and 4th line with no balance or identity - or we move Flip to the 3rd line and blow up our best line.

Did you not read the part where he said For the record Im not blaming the refs for our loss,

Fixed that for you Not that he's not actually correct in this instance.

What does the playoffs have to do with anything? I thought the whole point of the Shanabans were to take the headshots out of the game to try and reduce the amount of concussions that are going on? So pre-season, or the Stanley Cup finals, if you're serious about protecting the players the penalty should be the same. You can get a career ending concussion just as easily from a headshot in the playoffs as the regular season.

WIth Helm back, I'm happy with the 3rd line of Abdelkader-Helm-Miller. They were terrific during the regular season, providing speed, energy, hitting and goals. That leaves you to make a 4th line out of Nyquist, Holmstrom, Cleary, Emmerton and Mursak, which however you look at it just seems like a bunch of random guys thrown together to fill out the line-up.

Wings win 14-3, Datsyuk with a goal and 13 assists.

And that's where you're going wrong Burkie - your Leafs suck, but they don't suck enough to grab all those lottery picks the Pens got themselves through fielding an AHL team for half a decade. 5 straight years they had a top-5 pick (Whitney, Fleury, Malkin, Staal, Crosby).

SIXTEEN

Wow, I couldn't do 1 verse, but 15??

GMR seems to be the only guy in this thread who gets it. As well as the personnel, the team as whole was so much more hungry and driven - both for the Stanley Cup and for the big payday when their contracts came up. Zetterberg, Sammy, Hudler, Franzen, Kronwall, Fipulla to name a few were all on less than they are now. They were coming off the defeat in the conference finals by Anaheim the year before and that still stung due to the way we lost (key injuries, freak bounces going their way). Our 1st line, the "big five" of Holmstrom-Zetterberg-Datsyuk Lidstrom-Rafalski was the best unit in the league, outplaying the opponents top line night after night. Our bottom 6, and especially the 4th line was wayyyyyyyyy better than our current 4th line From the off the '08 team was a monster - 1st in points, 1st in shots, 2nd in goals scored, 1st in shots against, 1st in goals against. This years team started strong - not as good as the team in 07-08, but certainly shades of it with the strong defence and goaltending, but since the injury bug hit, they just haven't got their mojo back.

Well said, too many have the Crymson attitude of "if you don't think the Wings will go 82-0 in the regular season and 16-0 in the playoffs then you're not a real fan." Wanting the Wings to win and thinking the Wings will win are not mutually exclusive. Me, up until we got the injuries, I liked our chances as much as any team. Dats was on fire, defence and goaltending were strong. Now, we've got too many players injured, or coming back from injury and playing themselves into fitness and form (Datsyuk, Franzen, Helm, Howard - not key players on our team or anything..... ). The only good thing out of the injuries was that it enabled Z to play himself back into form.