Cern

If I were you I'd be a little more worried about Crosby and Malkin being complete non-entities at the Joe. f***, even in the series overall an AHL 4th-liner is STILL outgoaling Sid.

Surely with a two-day gap we can do better than 1955 posts...

...because you were expecting there to be a blowout at any point this series in the first place? As I've told you before, arrogance goes both ways.

To be fair, Washington played the first two games until a rookie goalie and essentially nonexistant defense prompty died for the rest of the series. Comparing the Capitals to the Wings is apples to oranges, especially on the back end.

I can't speak for anyone else but I'm fairly calm mainly because I didn't emotionally invest myself in anticipating a game 6 win. If the whole season and these playoffs have proven one thing about the Wings, it's that they always play their best in must-win situations, and this is as must-win as it gets. Add in the facts that Detroit's been virtually unbeatable at home, momentum has counted for nothing all series, Detroit has been very effective against Pittsburgh when they're in control of the matchups, and even on their home ice against a team that largely mailed in the game Pittsburgh barely eked a must-win game. Yeah it's a Game 7 but the Wings fought all season for home ice advantage precisely for this kind of insurance situation and their record has shown they're making good use of it. If Babcock keeps playing his lines right I think there's a pretty good chance Detroit's going to grind out the win.

I'm disappointed in the loss but I'm not surprised. As I've mentioned a few times elsewhere, I'm really thinking that being in control of matchups is a huge key to this series, that Ericsson-Lebda pairing has been brutal this series when it's been mismatched, I think a big chunk of Pittsburgh's goals at the Igloo have come from them not being set up with the right guys. Obviously that's something Detroit dosen't need to worry about (at least not nearly as much) on home ice. Considering that all year long the Wings have always been counted on to capitalize on must-win situations, I really like the chances of them being able to close this out on their terms.

If you seriously think that Detroit is the same team as Washington, you don't watch nearly enough hockey. Capitals threw in a rookie goalie who had two phenomenal games before promptly dying for the rest of the series and no defense whatsoever. Even with last change the Caps didn't have the tools to square up properly against Pittsburgh, the last three Detroit home games have proven the Wings do.

Win or lose, I think that was easily the most exciting game I've watched these playoffs, my heart was on the brink of ripping out of my ribcage. Living proof that LOL WE NEED HUGE NETS SO TEAMS CAN SCORE A DOZEN TIMES A GAME THAT'LL MAKE GAMES EXCITING is bulls***. Fact of the matter is, Detroit has been playing great against Pittsburgh when they have the advantage of last change even when Datsyuk and Draper weren't on the roster; we saw what happened when they were.

Don't even need ten reasons. Fact of the matter is, Detroit has been much better against the Penguins when they have the ability to control the lineup matches. I said in Game 5 that even if Pittsburgh grinds one out at home they'll be hard pressed to get a win back at the Joe, the only difference now is that the 'even if' isn't an 'if' anymore.

The Wings could use a few collective swift kicks up the asses, honestly. SOMEone needs to get on these guys cases for these only-showing-up-for-a-period performances. I'd be disappointed no matter how they lose, but all I ask is they bother playing hard from start to finish.

Aw Hossa, you gotta skate faster there.

I actually thought it was a pretty terrible cover, but okay

The real question is, why didn't the crowd at the Joe chant this at the end of game 5 instead of AC/DC?

It's a 4chan thing...

I'm more worried about him not being resigned and going to another team more than being sent back to GR (which I don't see happening anyway), but yeah.

I also noticed he's only an RFA, which I would think increases the chances he'll be getting some kind of extension...

Thinking about it, I'm a touch reluctant about Helm since he only has like one year left on his contract. Is there a pretty good chance he'll be resigned?

I have a quick tutorial for setting up proxies here. There ultimately is no one 'good' proxy, it's largely dependent on where you are in relation to the proxy itself, though on average a transparent proxy will be better than a secure anonymous one for stuff that eats up bandwith. Generally you'll need to plug in a couple to find one that works the way you want, you just need to be a little patient with it.

For video streaming, I think ADTHE.net has been putting up streams of pretty much all playoff games thus far. If they aren't for whatever reason you can set up a proxy and watch through cbcsports.ca. If you don't know how to set up a proxy I've explained the process here.

Those outside of CBC's broadcasting range who are pissed off at NBC can look here if you want to swap to HNIC.

NBC is *NOT* your only option for the postseason no matter where you are. If you don't have CBC, cbcsports.ca streams HNIC live. Though AFAIK you can't get the stream in HD, unlike TV ratings which are dependant on having a Nielsen box site hits can be counted by everyone who logs on, hence you will be boosting CBC's ratings at the expense of NBCs. If you aren't Canadian you need to set up a proxy in order to view it, but this is a very simple process (I use Firefox, if you use a different browser this might be slightly different for you): -search around for a proxy list. http://www.samair.ru/proxy/ is the one I generally use when I need one -browse for a Canadian IP. Usually you can search for them by country. You'll get a series of five numbers divided by periods and colons. This is just to watch a stream so a transparent proxy will do just fine, you can use a more secure one if you want though. For example I picked up 67.69.254.253:80 -go to tools -> options -> advanced. Under 'Connections', click 'Advanced' -select 'manual proxy settings' and under 'HTTP Proxy' drop in your numbers. Under 'port', put in the numbers after the colon. In this example, you'll have [67.69.254.253] as your proxy and [80] for your port. -click OK and you should be good to go! Sometimes online performance can be a bit fussy, you might need to plug in a few different IPs to find one that works the way you want. Whatever the case, since chances are there's a fair distance between you and the IPs location online performance is always going to be a bit slow, but as far as the internet is concerned you'll be in Canada. When you're done watching, go back to your Connection settings and select 'autodetect proxy settings' and you'll be back on your old connection. Easy peasy.

Wow, that looks nice! Shame they aren't a bit more readily avaliable.

Where do you get the old-school jerseys from? If you can find one that actually looks authentic (with the smaller-winged logo) I'd say either Sawchuck/Howe, otherwise it won't look right. Funny you mention Helm, I'm thinking of getting one over the summer since he's all but guaranteed to be on the roster for good and I'm loving him more ever game he plays. I hate the cheap feel of the EDGE jerseys, but eh.

Blech, never been big on Warsteiner. I'm more of a fan of wheat beers, hefeweizen and the like. All playoffs I've been drinking Rickard's White, which is far from the best hef out there but it's the easiest stuff for me to find around here.

Understandable, but they were making exactly the same kind of comments after games 3 and 4. Whether the Penguins win or lose ultimately dosen't influence their class (or lack thereof)