TigerDan

I say, let the Blackhawks fans whine. Based on attendence, most of them have only been watching hockey for about 5 years and have nothing but biased, homer calls and announcers as the basis of their judgement. I said it in the GDT, Homer in the crease and that goal is waved off every time. If it was the Wings in the crease and their goal stood, Hawks fans would be screaming bloody murder. So, you can't have it both ways. If anything, at least it's been consistently called that way for the last 20 years.

People saying the Hawks goal should count: don't kid yourselves. How short are your memories anyways? Holmstrom has only been retired for a year. Rewind to the 2009 series and if that were the other way around and it was Homer in the crease, Hawks fans would cry bloody murder if that goal had stood and when it was disallowed, we as Wings fans would have said "ah, that sucks, but we're used to that call. Time to forget about it and move on." Which is what the Wings normally did. If anything, waving that call off shows refreshing consistency in one area playoff reffing over the past 20 years. God knows there are a lot of other areas that have been called nowhere near as consistently. Qwhineville whining about that call is laughable - I remeber his watching red a$$ed monkey face dozens of times when Homer was in the crease.

Some people here have an incredible lack of hockey knowledge. Smith is a rookie and is playing as our #3 d-man. There is a reason for that - he is already the best option we have for that spot. Yes, Smith had a terrible game 1, but so did most of the Wings. IMO, Smith's play in game 1 can be equally attributed to his partner. Anyone see Quincey available for the standard throw back to your partner when Smith had no other outs? Me either. Also credit the Hawks scouting for some of Smith's game 1 mistakes. They obviously picked up something with that pair where Smith was not hooking up with Quincey when the outlet was not available. They took advantage by pressuring Smith with 2 or 3 guys in his outlet lanes. Smith then didn't have Q to throw it back to (I'v watched the plays - Q was nowhere to be found on the other side of the ice, for whatever reason). End result? Smith turns the puck over and suddenly he - and he alone - is the one to blame for all of our troubles? He deserves some blame, because there were options on some of the plays, but he is not solely responsible. Hockey is a team game. Now, in today's game, did anyone notice Smith playing with Coliachavo at times (not exclusively) after the Sharp goal? Smith had a much better game and part of it may be from the adjustments the team was making. Above all else, remember: he is a rookie and learning on the fly. In about 2 years I expect our D to look something like this: Kronner - E, Kindl - DeKeyser, Lashoff - Smith, with Sproul/Oullett developing. Should shape up to be a pretty solid group, IMO. I actually wish Lashoff and Tatar were up and playing with the Wings during this run - more experience to be gained without a huge dropoff.

So, sorry to drag this topic out of the garbage, but I felt I needed to. I watched today's Detroit-Chicago game ans saw Roenick actually agreeing that the Wings got screwed on the shootout goal in Dallas. Later, I had to catch a flight to Ontario, CA through Phoenix (I fly every week for work). Low and behold, who's sitting in front of me? JR. I was going to leave him alone, but funny thing happens, JRs sitting next to a wanna-be cougar chatty kathy. At one point he turns around and says something about the food to me and the guy sitting next to me. I took the opportunity to tell him he called it right on the air today and the NHL was wrong. He then says to me "The Wings keep getting screwed over in Dallas, they had that May goal wiped out a while back and that was a horrible deal too." I told him it seems to me like the feeling around the league is "the Wings have had their run and it's time for US to move on without them", or something along those lines. He then says, "you're right, but they shouldn't be put at a disadvantage because of it". I say it's just not right and he agrees. I ended up talking to the guy quite a bit and did a shot with him for his 40th birthday......not a bad flight. To me, he just seems like a guy that talks alot and whatever's on his mind comes out. So, obviously the controversial stuff is easy to find with him. JMHO.

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I think Croxley Ales is the ticket! I just arrived and we decided not to go to Coney Island today....I'm too jacked up to do anything worthwhile there. I checked out a place called Kelly's Sports Pub that was right across Houston from where I parked. It looked like a nice place, but small. Checking Croxley Ales out on line, it looks like I can walk there in about 10 minutes. I'll be seing you guys there. I'll have a Tigers hat on (sorry, don't have any Wings gear....the Stevie Y jersey is being washed from wearing it the last two weekends at game 1 and Tigers game/Hockeytown Cafe for game 5). I'll look for the Wings fans. LET'S GO RED WINGS!!!!

.......where I can watch game 7 on Friday night? My wife and I scheduled this trip weeks ago (before SCF schedule). I'll be staying at Houston and 2nd Ave. I've already found a couple of sports bars nearby, but I was wondering if anyone knew of one where there would be plenty of Wings fans. As of right now, I know Bounce at 2nd Ave and 6th St. and Kelly's at Avenue A and 1st street will probably both show the game, but I don't want to be in a place with a bunch of people who don't care and have some frat boys get the bartender to change the game over to tiddlywinks on me.

Thanks for the input. I'll have to check one of those places out. I don't think I'll be headed to the ESPN zone, though. All the ESPN Zones I've been at before seem too crowded and Times Square isn't quite our scene. Who knows, maybe we'll have a change of heart and head that way for the game, but those suggestions in the EV and LES seem more our speed. We were planning on going to Coney Island during the day on Friday. I think I'll be so amped up for the game I won't enjoy it. I'll want to be getting back on the subway at like 5:00 because I'll be so on edge and ready to go. I'll probably go to the freak show and someone will end up paying me to scream at them about the Wings (or club me because I scream at them randomly).

Bump. Please help. Anyone?

I'll probably get bounced from the bar when I start screaming at the TV. I wish I were going to be back home for the weekend, where this type of activity will be going on in every bar around the state. I'll just have to settle for being viewed as just another crazy person in NYC......oh well. LET'S GO RED WINGS!!!!

Let's Go Red Wings!!!! One game for all the marbles. Win the Cup on Friday night and I'll be partying in Manhattan, letting all those big market people know how pumped we are about our Red Wings!

Going to Game 1. Leaving P-town in about an hour. This is my first SCF game!!!! My last playoff game was WCF game 5 last year I was also at Game 3 vs. the Ducks in the WCF in '07 (in Anaheim) - both losses I haven't had a great late season playoff track record, but I've got a hunch I'm due. (I have seen several early round victories, though). FYI my first ever playoff game was Ozzy's first ever playoff shutout - 2-0 over the Sharks in '94.

RIGGED!!!

Definition of irony? A Bandwagon fan from a Bandwagon town calling all fans of the best team in the sport over the last 15 years Bandwagon jumpers. Icing on the cake? She's obviously a Bandwagon lesbian too.

Correct on the first part, wrong on the second part. The 2% is indeed the % of households that watched the game - whether they watched anything on TV or not. The 5% is the % of the households that watched the game out of the total number of households that were watching something. To make this simple, you could say that if there were 100 Million households, 2 Million watched the game - that equals 2%. But, out of those 100 Million, only 40 Million had their TVs on - so, out of those 40 Million, 2 million (or 5%) watched the game. So 7.7% of all TV households in Chicago watched the game and only 19% of the people watching TV tuned in. While in Detroit 16.9% of all TV households watched the game with 38% of the people watching TV tuned in. In other words, our hockey market is twice as popular as the hockey market in Chicago.

I always screw with him. When he is in my section (section 15), I always mess with him. I wait for him to have his back to me, then I smack him in the back of the head and get back to my seat and act non-chalant before he turns around......hilarious. Usually some kid will sell me out or something. lol

Great to see another Icehawks fan here! I have no problem with this, but you should've done it with that *** new mascot they've got - Mohawk. That's the goofy lookin one.

WOW what a game! That truly was a great series.....even if the league was in the tank for the Sucks. Now on to the classic: Detroit vs. Chicago for the right to play for the Cup!

I bought mine at the Tigers store at Comerica park. There was the typical $5 markup, but I figured 'what the heck'. So, I paid $35 instead of the $30 you'd pay if you could actually find it at a retail store.

I'd love to see Larionov get in based on his entire career, both before his departure from Russia and his days in the NHL. Based on NHL history alone, I don't think he gets in. However, if the voters take into account everything he did for the game, from his days as a premier player in the world with USSR and his role in leading Russian players to defect and come to the NHL, then the voters should not overlook him. Other than that, I think Housley most likely gets in (1200+ points from Dman) and Oates, Gilmour and Ciccarelli (600+ goals) all have great chances.

I think the one thing that's been missed here is the benefit of cost of living here in Detroit. I konow it doesn't affect millionaires as much, but when you consider the AVERAGE home in SJ costs 700K+ then I like to think he'd realize he can live in a lot nicer place in metro D. Even $4M per year won't buy him the nicest neighborhoods in Cali. It certainly will in Detroit.

Draper and Rafalski had it at Saturday's (6/7) Tigers game. They threw out the first pitch with the cup setting in the infield. Low and behold, the Tigers won and they won again on Sunday (a little good luck rubbing off?). They got the biggest ovation of the day until the 8th inning - and less than half the crowd had filled in yet. After that, they took it into the stands in the sections directly behind home plate -- very cool.

Not that it's really news, but I guess technically it's a "sighting": Draper and Rafalski had it at the Tigers game and threw out the first pitch at Saturday's game. It was the biggest ovation in the game until the 8th inning - and hardly anyone was in their seats yet to see it. I normally don't get seated until just before game time, but I was glad I made it to my seat in time to see that - definately cool. They set the cup in the infield while they were throwing out their pitches and low and behold, the Tigers won. I think they need to set it in the bullpen for a little while --- maybe the batters box too. lol Actually, I thought they should put it in the dugout and let the players stare at it to see if they got the message.

Yeah, I thought Hossa was by far the Pens best player all series long too. It seemed he had a chance to create offense every time he had the puck. If the NBC announcers would have backed away from Crosby's genital area long enough to watch the game, they would've had far more to say about Hossa. I really think the Wings should make an attempt to get him. You never know, it could be possible.