LeonardSankar

Right now I'd take their back up goalie Ray Emery over our back up Ty Conklin anyday as Ty sucks!

Record is now 1-4 against the elite of the West and that just plain sucks as it's not good enough!

Stuart just did something Bertuzzi would do! Dumbas!

Yes and the Wings can't break away from the Hawks e.g they get 2 leads to work with and they give it right back. Where is the scoring gone? They are far too inconsistent in the goal scoring department and they thus can't put teams away as 1 goal leads are never safe with this team anymore.

This game is starting to illustrate why the Wings won't get past the Hawks, Sharks or Canucks in a 7 game series. I guess they are where they are in the standings e.g. 4th place and behind the Hawks, Canucks & Sharks. I am sick of coming up short every year since 2008.

Must win game tonight guys as they need to beat these guys on the road as they failed their last road test against a Western power against Vancouver and they need to win this one as they only have 1 win against a Western power and that was way back in October against Vancouver and they have since lost to the Sharks twice and the Canucks once so they need this win badly.

Well if you look at the standings the Wings sit 4th primarily b/c of sub .500 road play as they would be 1st in the conference if not for this poor play on the road. I think the big picture is if the play on the road continues to be sub-standard it means no higher than a 4th seed and I think that is too low of a seed for the Wings to get out of the West as in order to beat teams like the Hawks, Sharks or Canucks they need home ice advantage. Heck I don't even know if home ice will get them through a playoff series against San Jose. If you look at the last 2 Cup winning teams in 02 & 08 they had home ice for all their rounds and in order to win the Cup again I think that's the route they need to take or at least have home ice for the Western playoffs.

Just curious to know with Jimmy starting on pace for like 70 games will he be overworked for the playoffs? I know it would help if Ty Conklin didn't suck when they played him but it would be nice if they had a reliable backup goalie as it seems they are not confident when Ty starts as they have only won 1 game when he has been between the pipes. When your goalie starts so many regular season games and then you expect a run to the cup from him it can get quite taxing as I think Grant Fuhr & Martin Brodeur are the only ones that I can remember who started so many games and still won a Cup to go along with it.

This is a perfect example of why I would not expect the Wings to win a 7 game series against the Canucks, Sharks or Hawks especially with no home ice advantage. I am just hoping they won't be too tired for Calgary as they can ill afford a 2 game losing streak with the Hawks winning tonight.

The only thing with that theory is that I don't think by March the Wings will have wrapped up the top spot in the conference as the Hawks, Canucks and possibly Sharks will all be in the running and they may not have the luxury of resting Jimmy b/c the difference b/t being seeded #1 or #4 my be the difference in coming out of the West or getting eliminated in the second round. Back in 2002 & 2008 the Wings had all but wrapped up the Presidents trophy by March and thus could afford to rest alot of their veterans and it payed off come spring.

Do you think they might go to Joey MacDonald or try to find a reliable backup via trade. I don't think Bab's likes Ty very much at this point and you really do need more than 1 decent goalie these days.

I wish they were playing Calgary and then Vancouver as opposed to the other way around as now they have to fly from Edmonton to Vancouver and then fly back to Calgary. As for tonight's game well I don't like the Canucks and I would just love a split in these next 2 games but if Ty Conklin starts against Calgary it becomes more difficult to win that game as well.

I don't think Blues fans are familiar with things such as playoff success as they hadn't witnessed any. The Blues fans beat the Wins 2 times and they think they just won the Cup lol! I can't remember the last time the Blues were relevant at this point in the season?

Lets just hope the Wild suck next season when they play in the same conference as the Wings. Let them overachieve this season and get bounced in the playoffs and then let them fall out of the playoffs next year.

You also forgot to mention that since that time the Wings have eliminated the Blues out of the playoffs on 4 separate occasions! LOL!

I didn't see that game as live in Canada and don't have Center Ice as I just saw the ticker once said 3-1 Wings and then all of a sudden I saw 4-3 final and was too pissed to even look at the highlights to see how that happened.

While you mentioned Nashville it just reminds me of last weeks collapse as I don't think that would have happened at the Joe or I would hope not. Hopefully they go no worse than 2-2 on this trip as Vancouver is the toughest opponent and they need revenge in Nashville badly but they should be smart and take the gimme 2 points against the Oilers & Flames b/c those are needed with the Hawks playing so well.

Maybe the Blues fans should concentrate actually winning a playoff series for the first time in ages and thats assuming they hang on to the playoff spot.

Well back in 07/08 when the playoffs started the only team I feared that could take down the Wings in the West was San Jose and fortunately they got knocked off by Dallas and then in the East the only real threat was Pittsburgh but thankfully the Wings were more experienced & balanced and thus the Penguins weren't ready to take down the Wings just yet. But now we move ahead to this year all you have to do is look at the standings in the West and see all the teams bunched together to go along with having to look up at Minnesota & Chicago in the standings and you have to wonder whether or not the Wings can handle all this fierce competition that they didn't have in their last Cup win. To make matters worse not only are the teams around the Wings getting better but the Wings have regressed in all phases since 07/08 as the only real area that has gotten better maybe is Jimmy Howard has provided some game stealing goaltending but thats not necessarily a good thing as back in 07/08 the goalies didn't have to steal games as they kept the shots very low. But now this teams scoring has regressed and the defensive game is not what it used to be as the PK stinks and they continue to give up way too many shots/chances on goal and thus instead of running away with the Presidents trophy like they did in 07/08 they are clinging to 4th place in the conference and not too far from 9th. This teams regression can be illustrated in the fact that the last 2 playoff years they have had to start series on the road which is something that hadn't been done since 2000.

So which team is most likely to keep the Wings from winning the Cup if they meet up in the playoffs? I would say in the West it's San Jose as the most dangerous b/c of how they seemed to have own the Wings the last 3 seasons and then after that I say the Hawks and then the Canucks even though they are not playing well they still can come to life when they want to. In the East the only team I fear is Pittsburgh b/c Gary Buttman will want to put the Cup in Cindy Crybaby's hands just like 2009 as any other team e.g. Bruins, Flyers the Wings can handle from the East. With that being said it's a good idea for the Wings to get home ice all the way through this year b/c if they draw San Jose they need the extra home game this time around to have a better shot at beating them. Also need to finish atop the division as finishing seeded #4 won't cut it in the Western playoffs.

Well what would help the Wings greatly is if Zetterberg would return to the Hank of old e.g. the one who produced points. Also what would help is if the people whom they brought through the organization would develop alot faster as only now is Valteri Fillupla is only now starting to produce with consistency and Jiri Hudler has been useless since he returned from the KHL. It would be nice if Brendan Smith could step in and play right away and be dominant as they are having more difficult times bringing in and developing consistent point producers.

I think all the league wants is someone like Cindy Crybaby to hoist another Cup as they value him over any team/player in the game. I guess the Wings main weaknesses right now are PK and inconsistent scoring as some nights they are great and others they are lucky to get anything. But if the Wings were to regain their 07/08 form then I think they cannot be beaten as they were that dominant but our team is a far cry from that great squad.

I still would rather have Boston over Pittsburgh in the East as I know the Wings relied too much on Jimmy Howard to beat the Bruins last week but I would rather face a Tim Thomas than have to face Pittsburgh b/c they would get screwed in some shape or form against those cry babies. I am still pissed about game 7 2009 as I was at the Joe and watching those crybaby Penguins and their fans invade the Joe and hoist the cup is still a bitter pill to swallow. Getting back to the West I might put the Wild in that category as well but they could be just overachieving. Then you have LA and Nashville who are just pests to deal with but they should handle them if they play the way they are supposed to. But another factor is the play of Zetterberg as in order to win the Cup they need him to have a playoff like 2008 e.g. the Zet of old.

I've been busy and not been to this forum as much and thus haven't posted anything until today. I'll definitely try to post something after game 7 win or lose. But like I said before I am not expecting any miracles from this team as this series has basically been a perfect example of how the Wings season has gone e.g. up & down & up again & down again.

Well I don't know how much gas the Wings have left in the tank as even if they win game 7 they may be too banged up to get by Vancouver. I also think that what cost the wings heavily was blowing leads in games 1 & 3 as if not for those 2 games they would be through already. Also playing in San Jose will be a huge disadvantage for the Wings as that place is a house of horror with the exception of the 3rd period of game 5.