Chris L

I voted Vancouver. Not because the Sharks beat us, but I'd like to see the Cup go to Canada for a change. Hell that city is almost as hockey crazy as Montreal. The people of Vancouver are desperate for the Cup. I say, let them have it. And though I don't like Bobby Lou that much, I like Marleau and Heatley even less. I'm neutral on the Sedins but do tend to like Swedes (hey I'm a Wings fan, right?) So I'm leaning Canucks looking at the roster.

Howie is the man! I'm very comfortable with him in the pipes now.

Nah, Z should get the C. Dats has enough to do as it is. Adding the duties of being the captain would be too much IMO.

I voted for Modano, Hudler, Bert, and Ericsson. Ozzie too, because I had to select someone on that list in order to vote. I was undecided on Draper and Salei. Mo should go because its time for him to retire, I would have loved to see what he had in the tank if he could have played a whole season with the Wings, but that horrible injury... Hudler just ain't the same since his KHL stint. He doesn't seem to fit anywhere for the whole season and playoffs. I'd rather see the Wings let him go and try someone else. Bert doesn't seem to fit. I know he loves playing here and I know he's well liked in the locker room but on the ice, he's playing a different game from the Wings. He's got that Iggy 'I-can-do-it-all' puck hogging thing and in this last series with the Sharks he kept shooting or hogging the puck and seemed to ignore or not be aware of his line mates very much. The Wings are a puck possession team, which means lots of passing and movement. Not hanging on to the puck all day and trying to cram it in. He's no Dats and even Dats doesn't hang on to the puck all day like Bert. My point is, Bert doesn't seem to fit quite right. He's had time to adjust his game to the Babcock's style and hasn't. So I'd rather see the Wings get someone else to fill that slot. Ericsson just hasn't panned out the way Babcock wants him to. They've tinkered with him long enough. Let the guy move on elsewhere and maybe he'll find his stride. Ozzie, I love ya and wish you could play every game for the next 1,000 years but its time to retire with dignity. Howard has proved this playoffs that he's more than ready for the prime time. If you want to stay on as goalie coach, I'm OK with that. Draper... see Ozzie above. But before you go, give Fil all your face-off tricks please. Salei... has left me with a feeling of "meh" I'm not a hater but I'm not impressed either. I'd like to see the guy step up, but if he left I wouldn't be upset either. Homer, whom I also consider in the retirement zone needs to either go or find something new and useful to do. Like Draper did with face offs to extend his career. Homer's the screening prototype and the best at that gig but now 29 other teams screen the goalie just like him making his contributions predictable and routine. And, as we know in hockey, predictable and routine are easy to beat. So if there's no last variation for Homer to make, its time to retire with Ozzie and Drapes... with dignity. He's taken fantastic abuse and has the heart of a warrior but his body is telling everybody its time to hang up the skates. As for Nik... He can stay as long as he wants.

The Pens because of Crosby. The hype around him is revolting. I can, and do respect the rest of the team (except for Orpik) but my nausea for Crosby and the hype puts the Pens over the top.

I fully expect game 5 to be a very tight affair. The Sharks will be cautious yet eager to not only prove themselves after a blowout but also prove they can close against one of the best teams in the league. And the Wings, naturally, obviously, will be motivated to not die right there on Saturday. As for the skate business, that's how goals are scored in the NHL these days. Every team, with out exception, has scored at least 25% of their goals off fluky stuff, so getting goals like that is just how it is. As for bounces, sooner or later? The Sharks had all the bounces in games 1 and 2. The bounces have already gone their way, its not like the Sharks have been lacking in luck in this series. In the end, all that matters with bounces, is whom the Hockey Gods are smiling upon on any given night. If they shine on the Sharks in game 5 then we loose, shake hands and go golfing. No more no less.

Being serious for a moment. You can like Crosby as a player. I'm cool with that. I don't for a couple of reasons. 1) he's been babied by Mario and Bettman and it shows. 2) He's a manufactured star. By that I mean, Bettman decided to pick him up because at the time Crosby was the #1 CANADIAN prospect and he wanted a CANADAIAN to be "the face of the 'new' NHL" Not some naturally occuring star like Ovie. Ovie is 100 times more the player than Crosby is. Ovie plays hard, scores pretty goals, scores goals when he's needed, and throws the body around. He plays fearless multi-level hockey. Plus he's charismatic as hell, people love him, the camera loves him, and he loves that. Smiles all around. Crosby has none of that. In my opinion, if there is a face of the "new" NHL, it should belong to Ovie. Crosby is a great hockey player, and deserves his superstar status, but much of his stardom has to do with Bettman and Mario whoring him out at every opportunity. Its puke worthy. So my beef with Crosby isn't because of Crosby personally (though the hand shake thing was lame, but I chalk it up to him being a dumbass kid), by beef with Crosby is with his manufactured image. To compare him with Jordan is silly, Jordan and Ovie have more in common than Jordan and Crosby.

Hawks for several reasons. 1) Short plane rides, good start times for games. If we get the sharks, travel will be a killer. 2) Huet is the weak link. Probably the biggest weak link of all top 4 teams in the standings overall. 3) If we beat the Hawks in the first round, we'll have beat the 3rd best team (in points) an probably the most exciting team in the NHL right now. That's a big confidence booster for our boys. 4) If we lose in the first round, I'd rather lose to the Hawks than put up with "Sharks finally climb out of the first round on Detroit's back" nonsense that will play endlessly. We already have to put up with giving Crosby the cup, I don't want to put up with the Sharks either. Let Calgary be the Sharks patsy.

I dunno about Jokinen, but Paul Kariya getting passes from or feeding Dats and Z sounds pretty sweet to me.

If the 09-10 Wings get back to playing decent defense as a team then I'd say, yes this is a better team than the 08-09 Wings. But we won't know that until the middle of this coming season.

Honestly, I think the job of pounding "Crosby with his ass" goes to Pronger, since they're gonna see each other frequently. I think I'm going to be cheering for the Flyers, when they play the Pens, that'll be fun.

+1 for BeeRYCE. He says it all right there. It happened, it was cowardly, its over, and its now a new season. Lets move on and deal with Bert this season instead of Bert from 6 years ago.

I take the SCF loss like this: It took two of the best players in the game today, backed by several other great players (Gurein for example) 7 games to beat a Detroit Red Wings squad that had all but one of their stars and many more players injured. Were we healthy, they wouldn't have stood a chance. Had Dats, Hossa, Lids, Homer, Cleary, Malts (to name just a few) been healthy like the Pens were... we woulda beat them in 5 games, easy. So the Crybaby Sid has his cup, he had to beat up on a bunch of broken old men to do it, whoopie f'ing doo.

I bet they won't try for much at all. We'll see a lot of Helm, Abby and Leino next year. If anything happens, I bet Kenny Holland will trade for somebody mid-season.

Lets! Go! RED WINGS!

GO WINGS!!!

LOL good point. Bolts hate over Wings hate.

WTF? the Pats?!?!? No way. How long have they been in Football's playoff compared to the Wings? I smell bulls*** there.

Barry's still pissed about coaching the Adirondack Red Wings and then being passed up for the head coach job by Scotty Bowman. He's always had a dislike for the Wings since then.

Crosby won't win the Con Smythe. The fact that for 4 out of 5 games now, the Wings have neutered him puts him out of the running. If they are going to pull a Ron Hextall and give it to someone on the opposing side, it would have to be Malkin. He's the only cat on the Pens that's shown up to play the Wings 100% every night. In fact he's managed at least a point in games 1 through 4. And in games 3 and 4 he had 3 points and 2 points respectively. Crosby for the whole series has 3 points total, one goal and two assists. That's the facts jack, Crosby is out of Con Smythe contention.

Not if the Wings play like they did in games 2 and 3. If the wings bring a 100% effort for the remainder of these Finals, we've got it in the bag. If the wings play 99% or less, we've allowed the Pens to take the cup home. The cup is for the Wings to lose. Its up to the boys to figure out how to dig deeper and find better shifts.

I think the boys are tired mentally and physically. W/out Dats the Wings are playing with one arm tied down to the waist. After a while it wears on you. I thought the Wings had no hustle last night and were just flat out worked by the Pens. They looked like they had no gas left in the tank. They had no hockey sense at all and were failing to predect where other players were on the ice and where the puck was going. More than once a Wing tossed a puck up for an outlet pass that was too far forward or too far back for the intended player. When they had the puck they had trouble moving with it (and that's not counting all the times the Pens just poked their sticks to get them off the puck). Which leads me to my next point, the Wings weren't protecting the puck at all. Like I said, no hustle. They looked physically and mentally tired.

Malkin, hands down. Crosby is nothing compared to that guy. He's big, strong, skates well, hits, has great hands. Malkin is the total package on the Pens squad. If there's a fault to him, it is that he's not as defensively minded as Datsyuk. Were he that... he'd be more of a terror than he is now. I respect Guren, Fluery, Satan, and Gonchar, but Malkin is the best thing the Pens have. Crosby, not so much.

BewareThePenguin: Your flamebait is epic fail.

The single greatest mistake the Wings made last night was playing a regular season hockey game in the Stanley Cup Finals. You can't do that and expect to wing, the look like they were coasting out there for half of the game -- no hustle, no urgency.