Chunkylover

While it's great that the national media is out there promoting hockey, is it really worth it to have trend-hopping media band-wagoneers touting the merits of the game while pointing out specious reasons for hockey's struggle for prominence? Also, it's no surprise that some guy who watched Cherry coach would be attracted to his canard that Europeans have destroyed the game. Fedorov was one of the most popular players in the nineties and got many across the States interested in the game, and no one would call Ulf Samuelsson or Vladdy weak or soft. The real problem is that too many Americans would rather follow the bandwagon sports baseball and football (gotta have something to talk about during the lunch break), and this guy is another one of them.

No, it's either "C-O-L-O-R" or "W-R-O-N-G".

Round 3 Predictions: DET/CHI 4-3 PIT/CAR 4-3

Well, in my experience I cheer louder in my sobriety than most of the fans assembled there with beer in hand. If a person loves the team and wants to cheer them on to victory they shouldn't need a crutch. Alcohol =/= good either. It's an amoral substance which can be used for good (cleaning, disinfecting) or ill based on the intentions of the user. In the interest of not looking like a thread-jacker, the hit was interference, but it was a beauty. I maintain that the Wings hung with the Ducks in '07 despite the Ducks being the "tougher" team. Hudler's goal (and his "goalie interference" penalty) and Datsyuk's assist, along with Stuart's hit(s), showed that the Wings were in fact the tougher team. They drive the net in spite of a size disadvantage, they take the hit to make the play. By definition hockey ceases to be played between whistles, but when the game is on there is no tougher team than Detroit. Anyone who opposes their style as "weak, and European" is watching with their anti-homer glasses on.

It might better to have Hudler with Helm and Cleary. Huds has never failed to contribute no matter how low he falls on the depth chart. Plus, Leino is at least a little bit bigger than Hudler and has a similar compete level, and should have some chemistry with Fil. I see you'd also let Kopy and Sammy walk. I'm thinking it might be good to hold on to Samuelsson.

I don't know, it bugs me that Detroit fans can't cheer their team on without being drunk.

Hossa would have to take a real hometown discount to stay here and not push the Wings too close to the cap; something like $20M for 5 years: yeah, it would have to be that crazy. He's done crazy before, so here's hoping. Looking at our depth chart however, if we re-sign Leino, we have him, Helm, Howard, and Ericsson up full time next season to replace Chelios, Conklin, Samuelsson, and Kopecky. Beyond that it's a choice between Hossa and Hudler. If Ken elects to retain Hudler, he will still have a fair amount of money to sign a replacement for Hossa. If he chooses Hossa over Hudler, he's real close to the cap and might not have the same amount of depth, although we'd still be very deep. I want Hossa to stay, but on my selfish terms not his.

ESPN has the ability to cover hockey, but aside from their website they rarely choose to do so.

Except it was the owners' paychecks he was actually going after. They tell him what to do. Put yourself in his position: do you really think you could look your thirty powerful bosses in the face and tell them they should choose the low-ballers at ESPN over the higher bid from a network seeking prominence and more likely to put actual effort behind promoting the game? If you say yes you are lying.

You need to thank whoever is the statistician for FS-Detroit for pointing out the Wings record of winning game six road situations. Every time the Wings approach a milestone or have a record of success it comes to an end as soon as Keating or Daniels talk about it. Some examples: 2008 the Wings win nine games in a row tying a franchise record and drop the tenth to LA which sets off the February slide which sees them also fail to set the regular season win mark they were on pace for; Marty Turco goes into game five of the '08 WCF winless at the Joe, until FSD points this out and he gets a shutout. If FSD comes out tomorrow and point to a dubious success rate in game sevens then they may just have a chance... that is if you believe in superstitions.

This is the difference between fans and players. This is their job, their life, and they want to be happy doing it. For us fans, it's a diversion so we can afford to get excessively emotional about certain situations or players. I guarantee Homer will have that trademark grin on his face when he shakes Pronger's hand and Pronger will congratulate him on a tough series (and hopefully wish him well against Chicago). These are professionals, not teenagers.

This is a stupid article. You know why nobody knows what VS is? Because hack media "professionals" don't care about doing their job until the end of the second round of the playoffs in the fourth year of the contract. This chump didn't follow game one of the post-lockout NHL because it was easier to write columns after watching Sportscenter, which is probably where he found out there was a game seven between Crosby and OV while he was looking for news on Manny Ramirez or European Soccer. Bettman and Versus appreciate the sport of hockey, which is more than anyone can say about ESPN.

I think you missed the point that he hasn't made a decision so wrong that it hurt the league. In fact the players' union has done more to hurt the game than Bettman. Revenues are up despite the struggles of poorly managed teams. When judging the performance of struggling franchises one must consider that any failure of a franchise affects the entire league. There are a few owners out there who don't have the first clue about what it takes to win. We are fortunate to not have a recent memory of that fact. A team should not be relocated because they have terrible management. Phoenix has a lot of assets and when they can put together a few winning seasons they'll have fans. If the Coyotes move to Winnipeg, and suck, no one will support that team either. Bettman is doing the right thing by committing to that region's fans. It's the owner and the general manager who need to right that ship.

The owners have the power to fire him, and given that every metric used to judge the health of the league is positive I don't think he's going anywhere. Most people who "HATE" him are blaming him for things he's not really responsible for: i.e. the instigator rule (general managers), the post-lockout rules changes (competition committee: guys like Brodeur and Shanahan), games on VS (because it was VS or no national television deal, ESPN did not want hockey). He's seen the league through a lot of turbulence and it's doing quite well.

Hm. Impossible to tell. It looks like he could have tipped it but that HD angle isn't 100% clear and it's the best of the replays.. If he thinks he got it he might get someone from management to petition a change. I don't think it'll happen 'cause he probably doesn't care. What I love is that Franzen isn't even looking at the net when he snipes the corner. How many guys can stand over a toilet, look straight at it and still miss (you wives can probably answer this best), and this guy snipes the corner from fifty feet without looking.

Anaheim's Francois Beauchemin said Kopecky asked for it. "We were battling in front of the net and he asked me to go," Beauchemin said. "I'd never seen him fight before so I was quite surprised. But, we were down and I tried to change the momentum a little bit." Very crafty.

Apparently the Wings no longer have such players in their lineup now that Kopecky is injured. I just meant that Kopecky has been a good fourth liner. Not the absolute best, but good. Most of the Ducks goals are coming against our top lines which means: A, the Ducks don't have much talented depth and; B, the Wings depth is better than the Ducks. One challenge depth players tend to face is making an impact without taking a penalty. Kopy, Helm, and Malts have avoided the box quite well. I hope Abs can contribute without getting sloppy.

Kopy has been physical and responsible. I mean it's not his line getting scored against, it's guys like Pavel and Nick. Plus Kopy knows how to negate Anaheim's defensive depth.

Yes, they are for energy, but to say they aren't for getting a goal? They are out there to make the best of their opportunities while also focusing on stymying the opposition. A team gets a lot of energy from a fourth line goal, hit, successful cycle. In the playoffs your third and fourth lines are expected to contribute to the goal scoring. Not necessarily at the same pace as the first line. I think I know what you meant, and that you're not making an absolute blanket statement, but I felt like responding anyway. Datsyuk needs to score.

When it comes to the Wings you can always write a nice playoff story. "Big Brother Detroit welcomes neophyte Columbus team to the post-season." "Detroit and Anaheim seek head-to-head dominance in '07 rematch." The Canucks still have a few key players from the '02 comeback, or, Chicago and Detroit are Original Six teams and the Wings beat the Hawks back in '95. As you mentioned the Wings will either face a higher seeded Original Six opponent should they make the Final, or it'll be a rematch of one of the past victories. Of course all this depends on the Wings actually playing to potential and earning their berth in the next rounds. Yeah, in hindsight it's funny, but one can only judge from observable data and both the Sharks and Bruins played well in the regular season. There is no tangible reason to assume they couldn't keep that up. A prediction of playoff defeat based on intangibles is nothing more than a prediction and one shouldn't be too proud of getting lucky. With that said I predicted at the start of the playoff Carolina would beat NJ in seven and beat Boston. You may prostrate yourself before me if you like. Ray Whitney. Erik Cole and Rod Brind'Amour are pretty good, but they aren't built the same way as Pittsburgh. Carolina right now is a lot like Boston during the regular season and in round one: a bunch of depth guys playing above their average. Guys like Jokinen and LaRose are some of their key contributors.

I hope Abdelkader keeps his wits about him: no penalties! Our fourth line has been pretty good at playing physical but not taking any penalties for being lazy or out of position. Here's hoping the substitution doesn't affect that. Like the top six. Third line has all sorts of potential.

The Filppula hit problem hurt him a little, but I think Carlyle was intending to play him for the entire final three minutes once he pulled the goalie and was allowing him to catch his breath. Unfortunately for him Z scored.

I'm not exactly sure what the impetus behind this thread was, but it did serve to remind me how thankful I am that this team doesn't get #1 draft picks. They're either prima donna's, media darlings, or both. Instead we have guys like Bowman, Yzerman, Shanahan, Lidstrom, then Babcock, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Hossa who by the virtue of their unheralded entry into professional North American hockey, are more about hard work than working the media.

At first I agreed with the VS announcer who thought the timing would favor the Ducks, but then the color-guy pointed out that imbalance. Could Kopy really have taken that into consideration? If so, he deserves major kudos.

Bitter defeats breed rivalries. If Detroit beats Anaheim in '07 no rivalry is born, the '03 loss is buried. But the Ducks won and earned our hatred. As far as the Ducks and their fans are concerned there is no reason not to hate the Wings. The Wings are everyone's rivals because they win more than they lose against the rest of the league, but only those teams which knock the Wings out of the playoffs earn the privilege of being Detroit's rivals. The Avs weren't our rivals because of the hit (though it's occurrence in the playoffs is important) or the regular season fights, but because any given year, one of them was going to knock the other off in the playoffs. Until last season the Penguins had no specific reason to hate the Wings. Then Detroit beat them and a rivalry was born. The playoffs make rivalries.