Graybeard

And wasn't that also him wiffing on what would have been the first go ahead goal of the series?

What game were you watching? Of course he played. Didn't you see him planting his own face in the boards?

I'll go back to liking Dallas after the series is over As long as you promise to throw Ott under the bus.

Z taking the puck from no less than FOUR Dallas players and passing it to D so he can cap off his hat trick. Un freakin believable. Hands down the best line in hockey.

Agree. I said at the beginning of this series that it wouldn't be even as hard as the Nashville series. Everyone knows it. Just superstitious and afraid to jinx the team. D-bags on versus again "Dallas has noone to blame but themselves" Yeah, except it might have had something to do with Z and D owning their sorry asses.

What a bitchslap they just gave him. He probably pisses his pants just at the mention of Datsyuk. How many highlight reels of Datsyuk making him his ***** are there now?

Oh there it is. The bulls*** interference call we've all been waiting for. He sticks his leg between Homers and dives and they call Homer. The officials this year a freakin disgrace

Damn, they need to take off their skates and put on their galoshes.

Yeah, it's lucky for them that we keep blowing a tire on the crappy ice when we get a break.

I don't care if we do go to the box for it. If we get a big enough lead to make it safe, someone needs to feed Ott his teeth. They'll have to do it quick though, I hear he's got a pretty good turtle.

You nailed it.

I said DEFENSIVE liability I'm with you that he will probably someday be a top 3, but he won't get there until a coach takes him in hand and teaches him defense. Bowman or Babcock could make him the best player in the league, but his current coach is not getting it done. I wouldn't trade Z or Dats either one for him. If you don't believe that cup winning teams start with defensive responsibility then Red Wings hockey may not be for you. Do you think Yzerman was a better asset to the Wings when he came into the league a one dimensional offensive machine or after his game was turned around and we became the most dominant in the league? I don't care about the age of who when. Sid has the potential to be as good or better than Z or D by the time he is their age but he's going to have to change his game to do it. Obviously his offensive skills don't outweigh his defensive ineptitude by all that much. They weren't any worse off all the time he was out.

Who cares what the little turd says to the press. He's just hurting inside because he was probably starting to believe his own press until he showed up in Detroit and met a team for the first time in the playoffs that had an offense where he was shown how over rated he really is. It sucks to have the rug pulled out from under you like that.

This is the first game since they started the playoffs that Dallas has really had their back to the wall. Tonight we see what kind of grit they really have. Ozzie better have forgotten about all the bulls*** that happened and be on his game.

Dude, he was only protecting his crease. It's his right. Homer once put his pinky toe in the blue paint so Turco gets a free pass the rest of the series. Look it up in the rule book and you will see: In such case as an opposing player puts a pinky toe, be it left or right pinky toe, in a Dallas Stars goaltender's crease, said Dallas Goaltender is from that point on allowed, but not limited to: Slash Trip Punch Hook the nutsack of or yell yo mamma jokes at Any opposing player who comes within his reach for the remainder of the series. Pay no attention that the rule is scribbled in crayon in Betman's hand writing. It's still official.

What's even more ironic is how much we hated him. I remember hating playing the dirty S.O.B. but now that he's playing dirty for us, we love him.

I'm with ya. Dats and Z don't get the same credit because being the good hockey players they are they give up a little offense so that they are good two way players. In spite of the fact that makes them better players than the poster child in Pittsburgh they will have to beat them to get any glory. Even then excuses will probably be made. No one will mention that Crosby is actually a liability in his own end, and even at center ice.

Agree. The officials make a hundred calls/non-calls a night that do not actually hold the letter of the law of the rule book. Someone in the booth should have used a little common sense and done the right thing. Bad call by the ref on the ice. Probably not his fault because he didn't have the angle to see it. But when you know someone on your crew screws up and you have the opportunity to fix their mistake, just do it. This coming from someone who really doesn't like the Pens much and won't shed a tear over it.

Good post. I think that at least part of the problem with the announcers is that they don't talk about what Detroit does for the same reason that our fans don't cheer every little play they make. The Wings have been so good for so long that it's pretty much all been said before at one time or another. The excuse making for Dallas is however getting a little old. As far as Mickey being biased I don't see it so much. Yes it's obvious that he loves the Wings but he also loves the game and will call bulls*** when he sees it. I can't count how many times I've heard him say that a weak hooking or some other lame penalty called on the team playing against the Wings is bulls***. You don't hear that nearly as much from announcers of other teams, or even ones in the playoffs that are supposed to be neutral.

Spot on. There is no other explanation for Anaheim. Obviously they knew the crap Pronger was pulling because they came after him for it this season. Why then was it ok for him to play like that all through the playoffs last year? One game suspension for worse infractions than what other guys were getting huge suspensions for? Only because he was the league's darling and could do no wrong at the time. Anybody who thinks Betman would stop at anything when he thinks it will help league revenues needs to stop drinking the kool-aid. I do believe there is some of that going on in the Pens favor this year as well. Ovechkin and his boys may have actually been the victim of it as well. Couldn't have them playing the darlings, they might have beat them. Other than some bias towards whatever team they pick in a particular year the quality of the officiating has gone down. You would think that adding the second ref would have made it better but is hasn't really. There are three main gripes I have with the officiating. One is like was stated above, they seem to think that keeping the penalties relatively even between the two competing teams "makes it fair". Bulls***. If one team is playing clean and the other team is gooning it up, then the goons should have more time in the box. No reason to call some weak ass hook on the other team later in the game to "even it up". Anybody who hasn't seen this happen hasn't been watching hockey in this decade. It's so common now that the commentators will mention that there's soon to be a weak penalty called on the other team without even blinking an eye or thinking about how wrong that really is. Inconsistency in the calls I think is something we can all agree on. There are a lot of calls made that yes, by the letter of the law they are penalties, but if you're going to call it, call it all the time. Dallas could have been screwed hard in their last game against SJ if their PK wasn't up to the task of killing off that last bulls*** call on them. The one on SJ that resulted in the game winning goal was deserved, but that weak ass call against Dallas before that was pathetic. But the thing that chaps my ass the most is the non-calls. How do you call Zetterberg for a trip when he's being held up against the boards but not call the holding? Obviously they saw it the guy was still holding after he made the trip? He was left no choice so if you're going to call one, call them both. The trip on Fip wasn't a penalty just because he got somewhere near the blue paint and was within Turco's reach? Come on, these non-calls were so blatantly bad that even the anti-Wings versus crew was pointing them out. But there had been so much whining because Detroit scored on their PP in the first game and Dallas didn't that they were letting crap go. I guess to "keep it even". How about Malkin skating up behind a Rangers player and flipping him over backwards and no call? Either the ref on that end was bias or completely freakin blind. Why did Chelios get only a two minute minor for butt ending a Stars player? I'm pretty sure that warrants a stiffer penalty, and then he runs his mouth at the ref all the way to the box like he hasn't gotten off light already? I'm sure I'll get ripped for this opinion because it seems a lot here think it's all just hunky dorey but I just don't see things are being called anywhere near as well as they should be. Yes I understand that it's a fast game and things will happen but these guys are supposed to be the best at what they do.

Hey, don't be so hard on fox and their genius. As soon as they took away the glowing puck, all the boneheads had to go back to watching baseball or some other slow ass game they could keep up with.

Spot on. Unfortunately, no matter how many times it's explained some people have a hard time understanding just what exactly a butt-end is. I hate to say it, but if you want to see a small example of a butt-end, look at Cheli's penalty. Not much of one for sure but you'll notice the difference in what he did and what Ozzie die.

Incredible? Good for their team maybe but I think incredible may be putting it a little strongly. Can't wait to play them. If the officiating is not too over the top in their favor should be a great series.

Hmm, it looks like there's some history of after the whistle nastiness with these guys. Evidence that they are not only dirty, but ******* as well.

Yeah that was a close thing. Good thing his feet didn't come off the ice until there was contact or he could have gotten a call.