Sergeiwasmyfav

I think it's kind of unfair to assume that the OP made the thread simply because the play involved Crosby. This was the featured game on VS last night, and it ended in what could be considered a controversial manner. I was watching as well, and personally felt that it was too close to be called no goal. However, I could see why someone else would feel that it should not have been a goal. Since the NHL has had somewhat of a history of making controversial calls on plays like this in the last few seasons, it seems like a perfectly legitimate topic to create a thread about. I realize that the OP did take the opportunity to poke fun at Crosby and Bettman, but really, who cares? The thread itself was legitimate, IMO, for the reasons I stated above, regardless of whose stick the puck went off of, and the only reason it became a Crosby thread is because people had to make a fuss out of the OP's joking remark.

Ok, I'm going to admit, this went right over my head. Are you saying she is fat or something like that? Or are you saying she is hard to miss b/c she is attractive? B/c she certainly isn't fat, so I'm just confused as to what you meant.

Brilliant post. (No sarcasm, I mean it.)

I hope Lilja stays, but I think at this point it is too soon to tell what will be going on. We have a lot of great young defensemen who need to be worked into the NHL, but as the OP said, Lilja does bring some very important aspects of defense, and I would like to see him stick around if only for depth.

I don't really think he would be eating any crow if the Wings do win the Cup because he has been saying since at least the Dallas series that the Wings are going to win it, so it would be his prediction coming true.

I don't understand, I tried to get two tickets yesterday for my boyfriend and me for the game tonight and all that TM brought up was standing room only. (My b/f hurt his knee at work a few days ago, so this wasn't an option, otherwise I would have taken them in a second.) Now we have plans for the evening. I don't understand how tickets could be available today when they weren't yesterday! I'm really angry.

I'm pretty sure the Joe is sold out for at least Game 1, so it doesn't seem that the conflict has been a problem in that regard, at least right now.

If we were heading into Round 1 of the playoffs, I would probably agree with you: Give Chelios a chance out of respect for all he has done to play and take him out if he seems like he can't keep up. However, the team is now in the Finals, and Chelios has had a chance to play and honestly looked pretty bad against Dallas. The Pens' offense is better than the Stars' IMO, and I think there is a good chance Chelios could get burned out there more than once. If Lilja messes up, then put Chelios back in, but for now, I think this is the right move, given where the team is in the playoffs.

I completely agree SWF. Sammy is far from great, and I have posted in other threads why he does frustrate me to no end at times, but he is not as awful as some on here make him out to be. And speaking of people shooting pucks into opposing players skates while on the point, Rafalski does his fair share of that as well, although probably not as often as Sammy. I just never understood this whole season how everyone seems to see Sammy do this so much (which he does, not denying that) but then are oblivious to the number of times Rafalski also does it.

I don't think there is any conspiracy going on or anything like that, and I'm sure the refs will do the best job they can officiating. I am really surprised McCreary isn't there as well, but maybe these other guys will do alright. All through the playoffs the fans of every team that Pittsburgh has played have thought that the refs were out to get them, but I have watched almost every game these playoffs, and I don't think that was the case at all. What I saw was inferior teams getting burned by Pittsburgh's speed up front and then being forced to take penalties because they could not keep up any other way. I think that the Wings have a better defense and better defensive-forwards than any team Pittsburgh has played so far, so hopefully this will not be as much of an issue for us.

Someone suggested it could be his sinuses, and I think that could be a legitimate theory. My mom types medical reports for doctors and she typed a man a couple of weeks ago with sinus pain so bad he was in the hospital for almost two weeks on morphine, and there was nothing the doctors could do other than try to drain his sinuses, but even that didn't really help. I'm not saying that this is Franzen's issue at all, but it is possible that the change in altitude going to Denver could have really messed with his sinuses, and they did say the pain started in the Colorado series. Obviously there is no way to know, but I guess it could be possible.

Compared to some of the threads that were made after the Wings lost Game 5, I would say this one is rather intelligent.

Well, first of all, there is no reason to take Ozzie out since he has not been the reason for either of the two losses and has played very well. Secondly, even if there were a reason to take Ozzie out, I don't think it would make much of a difference putting Hasek in since he hasn't played in a month and we all know it takes him at least 10 games to play well. So, I would say there is no chance Ozzie comes out if we lose Game 6.

Perhaps making some changes to the line combinations or bringing in someone for McCarty or Chelios may help, but I think the biggest change that needs to be made for Game 6 is the Wings' level of intensity. As others have mentioned, they just didn't seem to be playing at the same level emotion-wise as Dallas was. They need to play Game 6 like they are the team on the brink of elimination, because if they don't, they will be that team along with Dallas the next game. That being said, Sammy really frustrated me today, even more than other games recently. He always seems to make one decent play, and then he just messes it up by doing something totally stupid a second later. He was absolutely not the only one who didn't play up to par today, but it was still frustrating to watch. I just hope the Wings come with a lot of intensity on Monday. If they do, they should be fine.

I tend to agree with you on this. Sometimes the VS broadcasters can be annoying, but there are other times when they are totally biased in favor of the Wings as well. For instance, I don't know if a lot of people stayed up and watched all of the OTs in the last game of the Sharks/Stars series, but between every OT period they talked about how great the Wings were, how amazing Franzen is, how the Wings can just totally dominate a game with their puck possession skills, and how whoever ended up winning the Sharks/Stars series was going to be in for some really tough competition. They aren't always against us. Also, the fact that the Dallas fans thinks VS favors us just shows that different groups of people perceive the exact same things differently depending on how they feel about a topic or team. Everyone thinks the refs that did the exact same game hated their team but not the other team, everyone thinks the broadcasters hate their team, etc. I think it is hard sometimes for even the most knowledgable of fans to be totally objective about these sorts of things.

This is not good news for the Wings, but they will just have to play through it. At this stage of the playoffs if one player (excluding the goalie) is the difference between winning and losing, then the team has bigger problems than the injury itself.

I agree. I just don't think he cares for the style of hockey Detroit plays that much, but I don't think he "hates" the Wings. He gave them some high praise in saying they are a great team and that they will probably win the Cup.

To be fair, he also said he thinks the Wings will win the Cup, and that the Wings are a great team.

I wasn't at the game, but I know people who were and they also said the Joe was electric last night, and that there were a ton of people. I'm sure, as you said, the timing of that pic had more to do with the empty seats than anything else.

I don't know what it is, but it seems like the Canadian media really dislikes the Wings. I know they obviously are going to prefer their Canadian teams to any American team, but they really have a problem with Detroit. I like watching HNIC on CBC, but there are so many times when they will totally ignore the Wings and not even talk about them, when it is just weird not to. For instance, this past Saturday they were going over the second round series, and they did not even mention Detroit's. This was after we had just swept the Avs two days before. Literally, they acted like our series did not even happen. Even my grandmother notices it, so you know it has to be pretty blatant. I have no idea why they have such a problem with the Wings up there, but there is no denying it.

Welcome to the boards! This is going to be a great series and I can't wait for it to start. Your team deserves a ton of credit for making it through both Anaheim and San Jose; that is no small accomplishment. I think the Wings have it in them to beat the Stars, but it will not be easy. I think this is the best I have seen Turco play, probably ever in his career, but the same could be said for Ozzie. We both have some amazing forwards and defensemen as well, and play a similar style of hockey. Should be great to watch.

Most of the analysts are picking the Wings it seems, and I don't like it one bit! I like it better when no one thinks the Wings have a chance, and then they can go out there and prove them wrong. I guess this time they will have to prove everyone right! GO WINGS!!

HAHAHAHA!!! Oh that is hilarious. Were they drunk when they wrote that?? I mean, I understand people having different opinions about who will ultimately win the series from both conferences, and I can see why people may think Dallas has a better chance than Detroit, even though I don't agree. However, to say the Flyers' offense is better than the Pens' is just ridiculous.

I don't question Crosby's talent or anything like that; he is definitely one of the top players in the game today, and I think he is too young to base his abilities on playoff success. He has only been in the playoffs twice, and I don't think it takes anything away from him if they don't make the Finals the two times they have been in the playoffs with him. I don't see how he could be a "disappointment" at this stage of his career as far as playoffs go. If five years from now they still haven't made a conference final or SCF, then maybe, but not now. I get annoyed with Crosby because of how everyone reacts to him, not because of anything he does. I think he gets way more attention than he should because there are other players in the NHL (not many, but there are) who are just as good if not better than him, and they do not get the same attention. That's my only beef with Crosby, and it's not anything he can even control.

I loved Shanny in his prime; I even have his jersey, and I still wear it to games occasionally. However, I agree that it was time for him to go, because he got really lazy near the end of his time here. There were so many times he would just float out there, and I don't even know that it was a matter of not being able to keep up anymore, I think it was more a matter of just not putting in the effort. I loved him while he was here though, and he definitely was a big part of why we were finally able to win some Cups. It just wasn't pretty at the end, IMO.