deker

Classic! I love it, especially the comment about not getting past the Hawks, which fails to realize that the Hawks weren't good enough to get into the playoffs in the first place.

Absolutely. If Shanny stays another year or more, we probably wouldn't see Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen and Filppula as developed as they are now. Who knows...maybe Franzen or Filppula would have been the dreaded prospect that gets traded for help at the deadline, and we'd never get to see how great they are. You have to give him props for realizing that it was time to go rather than hanging on and possibly hurting the Wings. I still totally love Shanny, although he tested my affection when he started pulling the Avery type screen against Brodeur this year!

Sweet! You are awesome! I've never found any torrents for any of the SCF games. Are they out there and I'm just a nimrod? Has anyone seen torrents for the whole series?

All I will say is that when the NHL announced the list of officials for the Stanley Cup Finals and Bill McCreary wasn't on it, I couldn't help but suspect something strange was happening.

I'll never forget the look on Kocur's face when he had the breakaway on Hextall and roofed it with a backhand. It's was pretty much the same look everyone else had on their face when they saw Joe Kocur deke a goalie!

They also raised the price from $140 to $200...

Great work on all these throughout the playoffs! I have had them proudly displayed on my work computer. Of course the next one will be much better.

Yeah-don't forget that the Bus was born and raised here!

This seems like a good place to do a rant on Mikael Samuelsson!

Well, in Detroit sure. But we're talking about markets not named Detroit or Pittsburgh. These are the markets whose throats Gary Bettman has been trying to shove hockey down ever since he oversaw expansion into the sunbelt states. Those markets tend to watch basketball more readily than hockey. Now, there is an X-Factor here and that is that Games 3-7 are on a major network while the NBA conference finals are on cable. It's possible that a casual viewer changing stations might just be able to find the Cup Finals easier. I don't know if that's likely, but it's possible.

OK, does anyone else here get annoyed when they see Sammy on the ice? Someone tell me what I've been missing and why I shouldn't be annoyed when I see him out there.

I think what this says is that the Wings and Pens knew how to put away teams in disarray, as they should. But after that, not much else!

Yeah, but that's beside the point. It's a great commercial because it totally crushes Leaf Nation. Those are the fans that, should the Wings win the Cup, will go all summer saying that since the Leafs beat the Wings in their only meeting this year, they deserve a share of the Cup. I don't know what they would say if Pittsburgh wins, but I'm sure there would be something. It's nice to see something out there puttiing Leaf Nation in their place!

At face value, absolutely. I agree wholeheartedly. But many of these arguments are just saying "mine's better than yours." In our system, in the context of how the Detroit Red Wings are built, I would take Stuart over Gonchar because we've already got a number of defenseman that can move the puck and provide offense. If Gonchar were somehow available in this year's trade deadline, I would still take Stuart because he provides something we didn't have much of on the blueline. But yeah, if I were staffing an expansion team, I'd pick Gonchar over Stuart and maybe...just maybe, Rafalski.

I agree. Don't get me wrong. I'm very, very glad we still have the Pittsburgh Penguins. But Pitt to Kansas City was the "mechanism" at the time to get us East, so I personally would have taken it and chalked it up as "the price that had to be paid." Personally, I'd say moving Carolina or Florida to Winnipeg would be a much better option.

I was stunned. Now, granted history shows that as a Wings fan, I was paid back for that in the form of Detroit-Colorado becoming one of the greatest rivalries in sports. But at the time Colorado was simply a relocated franchise and a market that lucked into a success built on the backs of Quebec fans, and Florida was just another expansion team. In 1996, what hockey purist wanted to see that garbage? Everyone wanted Yzerman vs. Lemieux!

Pens fans, I'm sure you understand that the preceeding OP does not reflect the opinions of the rational posters on this board. You can see many of our own calling out the ridiculousness of this post. As we don't want the Pen trolls, so too should you not have to suffer ours.

Pens are one of my favorites as well, and I was truly mixed on it. I didn't want to see some franchise in Kansas City lay claim to Mario Lemieux's accomplishments (the way Carolina talks about Ron Francis' acheivements in Hartford). But when it became a possibility for the Wings to move into the East if Pittsburgh moved West, I was all for it! Still, that said, I'm very happy Pittsburgh is still Pittsburgh. As far as I'm concerned, this Stanley Cup Final should have occurred in 1996, when the league could have pushed Yzerman vs. Lemieux. Sadly, we got Colorado-Florida instead.

No, but you might fear missing the first 10 minutes of the period! For $300+, I want the rest room to come to me so I don't miss any of the action!

You didn't. I was trying to express that he still has more value in our lineup than out of it even without scoring. Maybe it's a dangerous thing to say, but as long as the goals are coming from somewhere, I don't have an issue with it as he brings more to the table. If we have to depend on Dan Cleary to score goals, then we are in a lot of trouble. Edited to clarify.

Hopefully we get those Olympia Entertainment Online deals this round...but I'm not holding my breath.

OK, you guys clearly have the good juju! Go get that swag now!!!!

Aw, man...seriously? Yeah, it would be nice if Cleary got his touch back, but would you really rather have a defensive liability playing instead of Cleary?

Just want to vouch for 33 as well. He/she has been a good guest! Edit: Oh right...those posts about our economy did belong to 33. I think we can give the benefit of the doubt, but 33, you really should be aware that considering how things are here. That's really not a subject to be used against us. People losing their livelihood is seldom a good "in your face" item, especially since many of them are also posters here. I don't know how comparable it is to the steel industry issues back sometime ago, but it's probably as good a comparison as I can give you.

I think they're all decent. The "super cheap" seats put you in a corner where there is a low drywall ceiling over your head and you can't see the scoreboard. But they *are* cheap (relatively speaking). Unfortunatley, my knuckles scream in agony whenever I sit there, because when the Wings score, you forget about how low that ceiling is.