titanium2

I like how he gave a shot to Whiny face at the end of the game. Way to battle for your teammate Bert.

Finally watched the game in its entirety. I feel like that was one of Z's better games this season and he was a real fireball out there. At the same time, I feel like he can be better. And not in the sense of "he could play harder" but more like he hasn't reached his best form yet. In the sense that, wow, if he's this good now, he should be even gooder if he keeps going at this rate.

Yeah you should watch the game because... well, I don't know about anyone else but to me it looks like he was doing a Datsyukian impression out there the way he was handling the puck at times. He attempted a good amount of shots for his standards. Or at least, it seemed that way; I haven't looked at the stats. At times it looks really ugly when he's fighting along the boards for the puck. You can tell he's being aggressive but maybe needs to be a little smarter. Oh and I definitely was not a fan of that sequence of multiple shots from Maxi Pad and then a small shot from behind (surprise, surprise) from Whiny Face.

He's been good these past few games. I thought he played pretty well for his standards against PIT. He was skating well and he wasn't afraid to shoot. He also had decent pinches. Whenever he pinched the first thing that came to my mind was where was Lils? In a perfect spot is where he was. Seems like Ericsson knows that Lils has his back. Overall he was just aggressive and showed some glimpses of true confidence. Obviously he still has A TON to learn and that is precisely why I hope Lilja stays. Not only does Lils provide solid support positionally, he also communicates well out there and he's always talking. Better communication is probably also a reason why Ericsson has looked good these past few games.

"I don't know what he was doing there" said a certain someone about Jimmy coming in to defend Z. It's just funny because I was thinking the same thing about a certain someone's positioning on Z's first goal.

Wow. That's freeking huge. (I just set up a joke, who's going to be the first to knock out the punchline? Hint: The Office.)

Well, I mean, Ovechkin is also pretty lucky to have parents that were major athletes as well. He cites them as one of his biggest influences if not the biggest influence. The reason why I say that is because they say he plays so passionate on the ice for his deceased brother. I think both him and Datsyuk grew up in simple two bedroom maximum flats where they both had to run up the stairs because there simply was no such thing as an elevator.

Any way the Wings can steal Ryan Smyth?

Haha, well you got me there. I mean, no other Wings forum comes even close to the amount of people that post here. As annoying as LGW can be, it still has a monopoly over the Wings fans. You post an idea for discussion on HF or RWC and you get crickets. Plus a lot of the more intelligent people on RWC have left because they've been chased out of there by idiots. The way the forum was before the cup win was still better than it is now. At least, imo since I've been here. While the quality of discussion here isn't anywhere close to some sort of ideal, it's still better than the rest of forums available. Simply put, LGW has the biggest party and in this case the bigger the party the bigger the fun.

Sometimes when you watch Z play against Sid you kind of think to yourself, "Wow, if I was against Z and if he's playing like that then I would not like to play against him at all." It's just downright annoying when your opponent never lets you have any space/ice, never lets you have any time with the puck and seemingly wants it more than you during too many races.

Like this?

The look on Z's face in that WingsFights clip of the scrum is awesome. It's truly an exaggeration but it reminded me of Pulp Fiction and Sammy J's, "Say 'what' again. Say 'what' again, I dare you, I double dare you motherf***er, say what one more Goddamn time!"

I love you Jimmy but I wouldn't be surprised that if in the next Wings game that suddenly you have to play with a larger net and the Wings get penalized 10 times a period.

You know what else was great about tonight's game? It was a bonding experience for the team. The way Jimmy came to "rescue" (Z's words, not mine) him really showed some signs that the team is becoming more and more unified.

How many "Three Stars" selections has Jimmy gotten this year? Any way to look that up?

I mean really it doesn't matter all that much. That was just one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read on here. Statements like those, although rare, just shouldn't be said. If you go to other Red Wings forums you hear about how LGW has really gone downhill since the Wings won in '08. That right there was a perfect reminder.

Again, seriously? That's just wrong. It's just plain wrong. Worst of all, you made me agree with Carman for once. Goddamnit.

You know what? Good. I'm glad he said that because that only fuels Z's tank. It seems like ever since he's played hockey that he's been disregarded and unappreciated. Too small; slow; bla bla bla. Keep proving them (and sometimes me) wrong, Z.

Other than the ones on here? http://redwings.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp Yeah I'm sure there will be more drama in the Jimmy threads after they hear what Sid had to say about it. We just love drama don't we? Dude... What???

Well of course. You always hope for that. It's just that he was averaging 16 a game. Usually Pav and Z are the only forwards that have more than 20 minutes.

His goal tonight was interesting. At first when I saw it I thought it looked a tad lucky. It's probably more about him still getting used to shooting more and me not used to seeing him take those kind of shots and actually landing on net.

I really can't believe he got that much ice time. I thought, "Oh, maybe he played on the PK." Nope. Yeah right. Maybe it's just that the Wings had more power plays last night than we've seen them have.

Interesting that his interviews after the game on the Red Wings website Z said he "might've been doing the same thing if it went the other way" as in if the Wings were losing he would have been the one doing the slashing. I don't know about that. Z is pretty sneaky sometimes with a slash here or there but I don't think he would be instigating to the magnitude of last night's. Z also said the whole scrum happened because the puck was there. Hmm... Maybe he's better at being political and talking to the press than I thought. He was pretty nice about his descriptions.

I was definitely a little hesitant to see Fil and Z play together. We've seen both in Red Wings and Team Finland games how Fil plays better when he gets to skate through the middle of the ice. Also, I wouldn't say he's bad along the boards but it is a little troublesome to watch him battle there sometimes. Having him at the wing places him right into that kind of spot where he struggles from time to time. Overall though, he and his linemates are producing and we're enjoying the ride.