Chris L

GO Wings!!!!!

Update at 3:04, Ericsson says he's questionable. Draper says he's not probable for Saturday, and a maybe on Sunday. Pavel is a mystery (as usual). So of the 4, right now, only Lids is a lock for Saturday. http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/20...ricsson_qu.html

One can say a lot of things about the Wings this post season, many of them critical. They aren't perfect and there are cracks here or there. But one can't fault Ozzie for anything. Of the Wings this year, IMO, he's been the most solid and dependable.

This is interesting. Our PP is great, and theirs sucks, our PK is the pits and the Pens are very good. This will be interesting to see how special teams work it out.

If the Ducks had ripped up the West and you were facing them Saturday, you would. They destroyed the Sharks, took us to the limit and then some, and would have shattered the Hawks. You beat them in one game, whee... big whoop. They sucked all season long and turned it up at the end and into the first two rounds. Believe me, we did all of hockey a favor putting those monsters down.

There's a couple of threads on this already. Apparently Holland says he expects Lids and Dats "this weekend" other's have quoted him saying Lids was going to play and the others are "game day" decisions. Another quote I saw, claimed that Holland said Dats can skate but wants to get his "explosiveness" back.

Dude you forgot the Ducks. Who were, by far, the toughest team in these playoffs. If your Pens were facing Pronger and company you'd all be wetting your pants right now. Plus Hiller was really good for the whole series. Oh and I'd like to point out that the Pens, too, faced some chumps, the 'Canes who were beaten by Boston, but got a lucky bounce in Game 7.

Its cool and all, but do you have a linky for that goodness?

There's a video form an ESPN, where are they now thing, floating around youtube.com. You can see him at PT and you can see him tooling around with his walker. He's fast as hell on that thing. Vladdy's come a long way, still damaged for life, but the progress he's made is jaw dropping.

Fine by me, its a tradition really. In the SCF we get dumped on for one reason or another and prove all these Hockey know-it-alls wrong. I'm cool, with this bulls***... its now really the Finals.

To tell you the truth, I was expecting a slam-bam-thank-you-mam series with Boston. I thought they were going to tear the East up, boy was I shocked. After that, I wanted to face the 'Canes. Only because the media hype over Malkin and Crosby is going to be a barf fest. But then, as Wings fans, we're used to being the unchosen ones. Every year we've won, we've been counted out going into the Finals for one reason or another. Its annoying, but its what it is, year in, year out.

If Crosby is the best player in the league why isn't he up for the Hart? Or the Selke? Hell, not even the Lady Byng? Oh wait... only one guy is up for all three... Datsyuk!

That's not totally true. The Flyers were the favorites in 1997. Don't you remember all the Lindros blowing going on? Crosby is just another Eric Lindros.

Wow, that blogger is a tool. Vladdy stands up fine, and I bet if Pensblog got knocked around in the back of a limo during a head-on crash, he'd never walk again. The fact that Vladdy is walking (and running) today just goes to show everybody that Vladdy is a warrior. Picking on someone who nearly died, then couldn't even do his home work to find out that Vladdy can stand up (and probably did when he found out that the Wings won). Tool.

f***.

Hossa has been dropping hints for a long time now that he wants to stay a Wing and will take less money.

No, they need to master the killing stroke if they are to face and defeat the Pens.

That was true in 2001, when the Wings couldn't win unless Homer got on the board. They learned that bitter lesson, though.

I will readily agree that Homer is slow of hoof. He's not getting to the puck like he used to, he's not going in the corners and winning the battles like he used to. I believe it stems, not because he "sucks," but because he's still getting over his injury and, for reasons I can't explain, he takes forever to heal up. Speed was never his thing, remember when he came into this league he could barely skate, and couldn't stop to save his life, but he was tenacious going after the puck in the corners and getting it out. Thanks to his lack of stopping ability, he usually slammed into the other player like a freight train, knocking the wind out of them so puck retrieval was easy at that point. There is something up with him, he's not going to the front of the net like he used to, nor is he staying there for very long. He's also not going in the corners to get the pucks for his line mates either. Something has changed, but he isn't skating blue to blue, I can say that for sure. But to say he sucks? Come on... Helm on the first line? For grit, goalie screening and puck retrieval? nah... I think Cleary is better suited there. When Babs put out Z-D-C against the Ducks (the game were Filp-Hossa-Mule ruled everybody) they had some great chemistry. That's a line I'd love to see over and over and over. Helm does have great wheels, but I like him where he is now, he's such a handful for the other team's 3rd and 4th lines, they don't know what to do against him. Its beautiful. Honestly, I can see the logic behind putting Dats and Hossa together but they have no chemistry on the ice. Dats+Hossa=goal drought. Notice how, whenever Hossa is not on the ice with Dats, he gets production... Hossa and Franzen are a great combo, and Dats with anybody but Hossa is a great combo. Why Babs keeps them together when they've done nothing together is beyond me. Besides if we get to the SCF, wouldn't it be nice to have Z and D together again? At least for the series? (On Edit: I hope people notice around here that it's possible to have a discussion with Jake Ryan w/out getting all hot 'n bothered. Its not that hard folks, be reasonable and polite and a discussion can flow. If not, don't bother posting, letting a thread sink, or making the OP masturbate to keep it on the first page says more about the lack of merit of a thread than getting into a flame war. Really.)

OK, that's your opinion, and I disagree with it. Homer brings a lot more to the table than screening on the PP. Pronger's endless bitching last series about Home said a lot about what Homer brings on the ice. He does provide a lot more than just goals, assists and screens on the PP. He drives the other team's defense bats*** insane and gets in their heads. He's as much of a psychological warrior as he is a physical one. Go back and listen to Pronger complain endlessly before games, after games and between periods from the last series. There's your evidence. Also watch tonight and see if he gets down low infront of Huet when not on the PP. I'd love to know if he does or not, I won't be able to watch the game tonight so I'll have to look for it later in highlights and what not.

All of this tells me that a Pens-Wings series is really the Wings to lose. That their opponent doesn't matter. I bet the same thing could be said if the Wings were to face the 'Canes, Caps, or Boston.

Homer really peed in your Cheerios huh? The way you tell it, the Wings are utterly failing in these playoffs and it all is because Homer's actively working against his team. That OT loss had nothing to do with Homer blowing any assignment. Homer was no where near Lids when his stick broke and mere seconds later the winning goal was scored because Lids couldn't do his job. I don't think it warrants this one man witch-hunt you've got going. Also, he's not skating blue line to blue line, I've seen him down low, 5-on-5 loads of times in this series and others. He was in Pronger's face so much that Pronger spent most of his media time bitching about Homer, even though Homer was a non-entity last series on the score sheet. You can't be hanging about in the neutral zone and making life miserable for Chris Pronger, in his own end, at the same time.

Nope, just setting up the expectation that I can be, and often are, wrong.

Don't worry, you won't wait long.

The Wings do have problems. The defense, by the Wings standard, was shaky this year. Still got the team to be the #3 seed overall, though. But, the boys have tightened it up a lot in these playoffs. Ozzie too, he looked average all year long but he woke up when it counted in the Spring. Our Scoring has been great all year, and though Z, Dats and Hossa haven't lit the lamp as we expected them too in this post-season, the Wings depth has been there, like it was all season, to help them out. But putting in a full 60 has been a problem for us all post-season. I like to think that we're better at it now, going into game 5 against the Hawks than we were going into the Ducks for Game 6. Boy did the Wings look dead out there... *shudder* If those Wings show up against the Pens, we're toast. If not, our defense will blunt Crosby and Malkin enough to get by so our forwards can do their thing against Fleury. But I will say the Pens are much improved, Crosby and Malkin (especially Malkin -- he's a beast) are much better for their loss last year right now. They made some affordable, but quality, upgrades after loosing Hossa, and Fleury is turning out to be more than a flash-in-the-pan goalie, good for the Pens. A lot depends on the Wings health and will. If we have both, we'll get out of this on top.