ComradeWasabi

I seriously am pissed about this game. I am in Calgary right now, and I'm flying back home tomorrow night an hour before faceoff. Talk about terrible planning on my part.

Really? I can think of maybe three, one of those being the Winter Classic, and the other one being the Wings vs. Pens game from February. And if I'm not mistaken either Detroit vs. Minnesota or Detroit vs. Columbus will be on NBC some upcoming Sunday. That's all I've got.

He'll probably be in Chicago as the sixth or seventh defenseman next year. Not too far-fetched I don't think.

Ryan O'Byrne put it into his own empty net earlier this year, Montreal vs. NYI. That was the game before Franzen turned him inside out for that goal.

Anaheim - Bobby Ryan Atlanta - Ron Hainsey Boston - Marc Savard Buffalo - Thomas Vanek Calgary - Jarome Iginla Carolina - Eric Staal Chicago - Jonathan Toews Colorado - Paul Stastny Dallas - Brendan Morrow Detroit - Pavel Datsyuk Edmonton - Ales Hemsky Florida - Jay Bouwmeester Los Angeles - Drew Doughty, just because Kopitar is too ugly to choose Minnesota - Mikko Koivu Montreal - Alex Kovalev when he doesn't suck Nashville - Steve Sullivan New Jersey - Zach Parise New York I - Mark Streit New York R - Nikolai Zherdev Ottawa - Daniel Alfredsson Philadelphia - Mike Richards Phoenix - Shane Doan Pittsburgh - Sergei Gonchar San Jose - Patrick Marleau St. Louis - David Backes Tampa Bay - um, literally nobody Toronto - Tomas Kaberle Vancouver - Roberto Luongo Washington - Nicklas Backstrom

Please do NOT give up a goal. Just don't give up a goal. I don't care what else happens. Keep Ozzie's streak alive.

f*** yeah Pav!!

I think the Canadian teams would be popular, depending on the nationality of the casual idiots you're talking about. Any Canadian team in the SCF and the entirety of Canada will be behind them, with the possible exclusion of Toronto fans supporting Montreal or Calgary supporting Edmonton and vice versa. If by some stroke of misfortune, Vancouver made it to the SCF, you can bet that most of the Canadian hockey fans would be behind them to win it. Whether that would translate into money and TV ratings for Bettman's NHL is debatable, but don't count us out.

It's beyond me how people can call Burke the best GM in the game. Look at the state of Vancouver and Anaheim after Burke was done with them. Embarrassing.

That is highly open to debate. The fluid status of other team's lines puts some fourth-liners on one of the other lines. Kopecky hasn't shown anything which puts him significantly above most of the other fourth-liners out there. The highest compliment I can give him about his play throughout this entire season, not just the last 10 games, is that he's been defensively responsible all year. His +/- is much, much better than Draper and Maltby's (at a whopping 0) at least, while getting comparable minutes and situational play. He's even been out on the PK and been reliable. I think his absence from the Cup run last year could give him a bit of hunger that it's obvious is lacking in some of his compadres.

SHUTOUTSHUTOUTSHUTOUTSHUTOUTSHUTOUTSHUTOUTSHUTOUTSHUTOUTSHUTOUTSHUTOUT Excellent game.

And the killing blow. Great pass, and a totally typical Mule goal.

*rubs eyes* wait, Sammy just did WHAT?

LOL they wanted a penalty on Ericsson for that? Is using position considered a penalty now?

Okay, f*** you Columbus commentators. Zetterberg neither interfered with Commodore nor did he embellish the cross-check to the neck. f*** you.

Great penalty kill there.

I could see it.

Calgary has had defense problems all year long (sound familiar???). They weren't playing well defensively before Jokinen arrived, and with Iginla in that room I find it incredibly hard to believe that Jokinen has much sway in there.

I can't think of anything to complain about with Shick, so that must be a good thing. Hope he enjoys his retirement.

Sucks for Flipper. Hope he makes a speedy recovery, he's been superb lately.

Better than the first period in the second previous game against St. Louis.... 3 shots between the teams in the first. I agree though. I hope the Wings can keep me awake in the second.

Well, at least we know that Detroit fans aren't the only homers out there.

It was a long night last night.

Okay, Backes had Rafalski tied up like like Raffi was in his basement waiting to get eaten. Come on.

Wellwood gave them his Jenny Craig meal plan.