xtrememachine1

New uniforms too? lol Well I kind of agree with you in some regards. It is a the dawn of a new era for the Wings and it would be nice to get some new things injected into this franchise. However, this is a classic franchise with traditions that help give the Wings their identity. Nashville's identity might seem fun and awesome, but its also all new. New to us, new to them. I'm fine with some change, but things like Sweet Caroline and Don't Stop Believin are things that Wings fans expect. Its kind of like when you go see your favorite band and they play new stuff, which is fine, but you want the classics and would be put off, if they didn't play them.

I'm thinking that play, the diving one armed pass by Fisher to Arvidsson for the breakaway goal, might end up being the defining moment of the series. The captain giving everything he got, Arvidsson getting a much deserved goal after all his hardwork in this series. I don't know if Nashville is just that much faster or if the Pens are tired, but if it isn't for Rinne playing like garbage, this series could be over. I'm still pessimistic about the Preds chance though. The Pens looked down and out against the Caps and almost lost to Ottawa too.

Its funny you say that because this is the same argument made years ago with Lemieux, Gretzky and Yzerman. People were reluctant to put Yzerman in the same category as those two, but its his two way ability that prevented him from putting up higher numbers. Mario and Wayne didn't play defense at all, meanwhile Yzerman is getting serious consideration for the Selke trophy. Simply put, you're not going to be a two way player and put up the same kind of numbers as the elite forwards that do not. Toews is young, has won 3 Cups, plays a solid two way game and plays like a monster in the playoffs. He's on the same level as Ovechkin and Crosby, but in a different, less flashy way.

Yup and its funny, even though he did a lot of amazing things with the Blues and helped Dallas win a Cup, whenever I hear Brett Hull and I think of him on the Wings. Probably because I'm biased, but it just goes to show, if you're a Red Wing once, you're a Red Wing for life.

I've said this so many times to so many different people and yet I still keep hearing stuff like "Crosby's better than Ovechkin because he has 2 Stanley Cups and Ovechkin has none". I'm like "You do understand that the Stanley Cup is a TEAM award. No one player is better than another based on how many team awards they have." That's complete non-sense. Like you said by that metric, Kris Draper is a better player than Lemieux or Jagr or Sakic because he has more Cups.

Didn't see any of the game last night, but based on the final score, I didn't miss anything. Rinne played like garbage again, Murray stood on his head and the Preds need to win 4 of the next 5 or the Pens are repeat champs. I read people being mad about that and how we were the last team to do it and they're taking away our record. Seriously though, who cares? Its not like the NHL is shutting down and they'll be the last team to ever do it, not that that even matters either. Think of how nice it'll be for the Wings, once they rebuild, to smash all the records that are being set. In the meantime, check out Grand Rapids playing for the Calder Cup again.

Well Nashville was definitely the better team last night. That goal being disallowed really reversed the game and gave the Pens momentum that led to 3 of their goals. *I* don't think it should have been overturned. Unless there's some video angle that I haven't seen yet, I didn't see any conclusive evidence that showed his foot off the ice. We can speculate that he probably DID have his foot off the ice based on the next couple seconds after that, however, speculation isn't enough to overturn anything, it has to be 100% conclusive aka you can clearly see his foot on or off the ice. His skate blade, on the reviews I saw, was not visible, therefore it should have remained a goal. Nashville isn't in trouble until they lose a game at home and if they can split on the road and continue to play like they did last night, they'll be in good shape. Rinne had an awful game, but I don't think the Pens will win many more games if they only get 11 shots on him. This could end up being a better series than I anticipated.

Unfortunately, it'll be the Pens in 4. I know no one gave them a chance against Chicago and they swept them, but the Pens are different. The goals against Murray by Ottawa were perfect shots, I don't see Nashville being able to replicate that and Rinne gave up some soft goals to Anaheim that will destroy him if he plays like that against the Pens offense.

Actually I think it says a lot about the level of competition they're facing.

I've been saying this for awhile now. Not that its any fault of the Pens, but they're not having to go through anyone good to win these championships. Last year they played the Rangers (they own Lundqvist), the Caps (a franchise the Pens have been beating in the playoffs for literally decades), a severely banged up Lightning team and the cinderella Sharks. This year, they get the Blue Jackets (who turned back into the Jackets we all know and love late in the season), the Caps again, the Sens (who shouldn't even be this deep in the playoffs) and now they'll face the Preds (the lowest seeded team in the entire playoffs). Do you remember back in the 90s when the Wings would have to go through the Stars and Avs just to get to the Finals? The Pens have like a 70-90% chance of winning each series they're in. Partly due to their talent, of course, but the lack of competition is REALLY helping them out. Even in 09 they didn't have to face anyone difficult until they got to us and we nearly beat them despite all of our injuries. Boston and NJ, both teams the Pens struggled against a lot in the regular season, lost to Carolina, who were then swept by the Penguins.

It should be Murray, but it'l likely be Fleury for all the reasons you listed. Even though Fleury has a history of melting down in the playoffs, Murray won the Stanley Cup in his rookie season (an extremely rare feat) and Murray was way better statistically in the regular season and better statistically against Ottawa. "Logic be damned, we like Fleury!"

After the way he acted at the end of Game 2 with Turris, I'm glad. Maybe I'm just not paying close enough attention, but Crosby seems a lot more mature now than he was 5 years ago. Malkin... he's still the same jerk that attacked Z at the end of Game 2 in the 09 Finals.

I like this idea, but even more, I like the idea of getting more dependable puck handling defensemen on our blueline. Watching the Sens play and seeing their forwards pass it back to Karlsson, Wideman, Phaneuf with confidence and blast it back into the zone or on goal made me wish we still played like that. This is one of the reasons why the Wings were so successful in the 07, 08, 09 stretch. Lidstrom, Rafalski, Schneider were great at keeping the puck in the zone and forwards had confidence in them to handle the puck. Shattenkirk and Trouba would be good pieces to pick up to play that way again, but honestly, for me, it doesn't have to be those guys, just those types.

How did they cheat to win? I only saw the third period, but it seemed pretty even, nothing wrong with the goal either.

Don't even get me started on that. I'm doing my best to block out that year. So many bad things not only with that series, but the entire playoff season. I don't want to get on a rant, so I'll stop now.

The Preds have a pretty good defensive group, but... yeah, I can't see them winning 4 out of 7 games against the Pens. Its a shame the East isn't stronger. Beating two mediocre teams and a team that chokes against you all the time and the Pens are in the Finals again. Watch when the Wings get good again, the entire conference will be stacked. lol Remember back in the day when we'd have to beat Dallas and Colorado just to get to the Finals?

He seems to be like Bill Belichick of the NHL. No matter what happens, no matter who gets injured, no matter who they acquire or call up from the minors, everybody plays like a star. Jake Guentzel looks like the next Brett Hull with the way he's playing right now.

I can't understand how this is happening to the Caps. 55 win season again, nobody could be hungrier, they should want revenge for last year, the Pens are injured, they have home ice... how many things do they need to go in their favor before they can beat the Pens? Its amazing to me that they lost both home games and they barely won a must win Game 3 and lost this one. If they lose this series, which is a huge possibility even if Crosby's out for the remainder, they need to blow this up. I know that sounds crazy considering all the success they've had in the regular season, but they can't keep blowing it in the postseason like this. Winning the President's trophy isn't what this is all about.

Considering what we got in the Smith trade, everyone expected more with Vanek considering he's actually been pretty good for us. If you had told me two days ago, that we'd get a 2nd and 3rd for Smith and a 3rd and an AHL d-man for Vanek, I wouldn't have believed it. Considering we gave up a first to get Kyle Quincey a few years ago, you'd think Vanek would be at least a 2nd round pick. Apparently, below average d-men are worth more than snipers in the league right now. This is probably the best deal Holland could get for Vanek. Having said that, if d-men are valued more on the trade market, he absolutely should have traded Green and maybe Ericsson too.

I expect Vanek to be gone today. He's too talented and could help a lot of teams looking for offense or a playoff push. That's the only one I realistically see being moved though. Howard is injured. Ericsson has too many years left on his contract. Sheahan won't help anyone this time of year. I could see him being moved to another team in the offseason. Maybe another team figures they could make him into a better player, but they wouldn't want him for the stretch run or playoffs. I kind of figured Green would get more attention, but he's probably a next trade deadline player like Vanek is this year.

I don't know why, but reading this comment and seeing that Datsyuk winking picture made me literally laugh out loud.

Glad we're getting a couple nice picks for Smith. I didn't expect that at all. Disappointing to look back at when Lidstrom retired and Smith came up to the big club. We had huge expectations for him then (he was a first rounder) and now we're trading him away for picks. No one expected him to be the next Lids, but he couldn't even crack our top 6 and our defensemen are terrible. I hope the front office is better at evaluating young d-men talent now than they were then.

I don't know if he's the worst. However, the problems we're having (inconsistency, not up for every game, blowing leads in the 3rd period) are all signs of poor coaching. Larkin and DK seem to have regressed too, however that could be the individual players going through a rough spot and not necessarily coaching. We also have to remember he's really young and very inexperienced compared to other coaches around the league.

There just isn't much to get excited about right now, unfortunately. It has been a very bad year for the Wings and Wings fans though. Datsyuk retiring, Gordie, Mr I, the Joe, our playoff streak probably coming to an end. That's a lot of bad in a short amount of time. This franchise and its fan base are kind of in a state of mourning. It doesn't surprise me to see the lack of activity on this board, even a gameday thread.

If we can't get good defensemen, the next best thing would be to get someone that knows how to teach his players how to play good defense. Unfortunately, I don't see the Wings giving up on Blashill this quickly, regardless of whether we miss the playoffs or not and Hitchcock will get a head coaching job somewhere soon.