ManLuv4Clears

Awesome story. Just another reason why the NHL is the classiest league on the planet.

Sean had his glove on, so more likely a split lip. Still worthy of a suspension none less. This

This, Avery did his job, and is still effectively doing it with some of the responses on this thread. This "punch" was nothing. It barely moved the goalie's mask, and this action is suspend-able and ban-able?

This guy is disconnected from reality. How people take him serious is beyond me.

HM FTW. /thread

Exactly, how pussified is this sport and it's fans becoming? A skating away face wash to a goalie with is mask on constitutes a "punch" now. I was expecting much more when I clicked on the video. Now I just wasted a minute of my life. People are just throwing a fit because it's Avery and he has a target on his back.

Best. Post. Ever.

Tortorella cursing while being interviewed by a reporter? Wouldn't have believed it until I read it, stay classy John.... Very funny of AO by the way.

Couldn't agree with this more. The shootout is nothing but a side show to me. I hate the fact that it lessons the importance of coaching and defense and teams get rewarded for it.

Playoff hockey at its best in Philly.

This post for some reason had me going UK, thanks dude!

Good stuff. You had me at "alienate its most loyal fans." I think Bettman has done this with his strides to gain new fans, while forgetting the people that got the league where it is in the first place.

Back with the "buzz" or lack there of, I've been listening to Karsch and Anderson here at work since there show started about 3 hours ago, and I think they've mentioned the Wings 3 times for a total of 10 minutes. They've been spending Detroit sports talk radio time discussing running from the cops, Tigers' trade rumors, whether Dante Culpepper is in shape or not, and times you've forgot something important on a trip. We're blessed with a great hockey team and I have to listen to this talk all day. Thanks for contributing guys ...

You might really want to use the term "finesse team" loosely when you are talking about this era.

I think I was used to Drake running around trying to take everyone's head off last year.

This. There are true hockey fans in the area, but its the whole "crowd goes where there is a crowd" mentality. Look at opening day, everyone and their brother tries to go downtown to party because that's the "thing" to do. I'd bet 50% of the people that take the day off to go with the crowd don't go downtown for baseball again this year. As for bandwagon fans, they are huge in Detroit too. If the Wings make it to the finals everyone and their brother will be wearing Wings' swag and acting like they've supported the team since day 1. When the Tigers made the World Series all of a sudden everyone was a Tiger fan and their Facebook and Myspace pages were all decked out that way because it was the popular thing to do. This goes for the parade crowd as well. It is what it is.

FM, you should check out what some of these idiots on ebay are trying to sell tickets for. I saw some dude, with three seperate pairs of tickets, all higher upper bowl, trying to sell them for $1K a pair. Give me a f'n break, these moron brokers are so disconnected from reality it's laughable. They'd be lucky to get $20 over face value, let alone $450.

I do say, I was pleasantly suprised with how the team as a whole stepped up the physical play tonight. Dats was a stud, and Kronner and Stewart were both looking for the big hit. I'll eat a small bowl of crow. I really questioned whether they would be able to do 180 and turn up the intesity and they did. I was happy with the crowd too, they were very into it, and players can feed off it as well.

You do realize stub hub is just a third party broker site and you can go onto ticketmaster.com and see the number of tickets available.

We as hard core fans that spend time talking about this team online need to look at the situation with our blinders off too. Red Wings hockey in Detroit and the surrounding area isn't as popular as you all make it out to be. Anyone that listens to sports radio in the area can attest to this. The Lions, Tigers, and Pistons all get more press and coverage than the Wings. 97.1 spends most of it's day talking about whether or not the Lions are going to take Stafford with the first overall pick in the draft. Last year at BW3's in Warren I had to convince a waitress to put a Wings playoff game on a TV because they had everything showing the NFL draft, the Tigers game, and a Pistons playoff game. Granted, there will be some people at the bar watching the games and enjoying it, but it's not as hardcore as we all make it out to be. It's simple supply and demand, there's an over supply of high priced tickets, and no demand for them at regular season price let alone playoff pricing. No offense peeps, but not everyone out there loves this team and the game as the people posting on lgw.com.

I guess that tell us how much of an impact Drake had, the team was about 10X tougher to play against physically last year versus this year. I didn't realize how spoiled I was

Couldn't have said it better myself. I hope this post isn't interpreted that you want 12 Milan Lucic's, because that's what some will conclude.

That's how this issue is always reverts to black and white. Most people on these boards like you, myself, Esteef, GMR, ect, would just want one guy on the 4th line and a bruising defenseman that are able to drop the gloves and stick up for themselves and their teammates. This contributes to overall team toughness and allows the team to not be one dimensional. UK said it best above how it allows for team balance. Somehow us believing this type of lineup would make the team more successful makes us all pro-goon and wanting a team full of bruisers with no skill besides fisticuffs. It boggles my mind.

Don't let Martha Reeves hear you say that In all seriousness I tell people when I'm out of town that I'm from the Detroit area as well even though I live about 5 miles from the city limits. On topic thank god the games will be broadcast on FSN HD since I get Versus in the s***ty SD feed (seed WOW thread). Hopefully the away games are in HD as well, the regular season ones in Columbus were.