Ms_Hockey

You definitely have to be there during a Wings game. I'd say it's the second best thing to being AT the actual game.

LMFAO. That was WAY beyond priceless.

I'm tearing up. What an amazing video.

Again, for the second time, REGULAR SEASON HOCKEY IS NOT PLAYOFF HOCKEY. You can be the last seed in the league in a conference and be a playoff monster. It's a whole different ball game and frankly, I'm surprised nobody here has called you out on this already. Regular season records MEAN NOTHING.

Playoff hockey =/= Regular season hockey. You can't honestly be using the regular season record to make a playoff series prediction.

Definitely not. That team had, what, five HOF-ers on it? This year's team has two? A possible three? They're not even comparable.

I haven't been down there this year, but I went a couple times last year for the Wings/Pens games. My dad and I usually got there about three hours before puck drop just to be safe.

Shhh. It's all part of a larger plan of hockey domination.

You can try.. but you won't find one. I've never individually trash talked a player on this team. The only thing I've said that could be remotely considered trash-talking a player was back at the beginning of the regular season when I said Hossa doesn't seem to have found his niche yet. I've always been of the mentality that you win as a team and lose as a team. You will never find a single post on this site where I'm bashing an individual player. Go ahead and look.. it doesn't exist.

Hahahaha, Arms-Crossed-Guy. That reminded me of those "Real men of Genius" radio commercials. "Today we salute YOU, Arms-Crossed-Guy."

If you're nice, I'll add you in there too.

I don't have any kind of medical insight or anything like that, but I will say that the thought of the Wings just resting him up for the finals crossed my mind. He may have been ready to go for game 5.. but considering how well the team did without him in game 4, they chose not to risk it.

Isn't this the same guy who made fun of Steve Yzerman in a blog last matchup? I think it is. He does stuff like this. Not much else to say.

Welcome! Rule #1: You cannot raise a glass with alcohol in it without giving Ms_Hockey some first. Sorry, board rules.

I know a lot of people are complaining about Helm's goal because he got a lucky bounce from the boards.. but isn't that part of hockey? And more than that - isn't knowing how your boards will bounce the puck part of home ice advantage? Hockey is a mixture of skill and luck. People get pissy when the luck factor wasn't on their side, but it's not like the Red Wings can influence the bounces the puck takes. They just capitalize on what's in front of them and play their game. Complaining won't change the fact that we won.. so it's useless.

I'm okay with facing the Pens. I think the previous matchup will make for quite an emotional rollercoaster.. and what's better than that? (Other than lifting the Cup, of course!) I was semi-hoping for a Detroit/Boston matchup.. but I'm happy with the one we've got.

It's easy to sit behind a computer and say a whole bunch of s*** you'd never think of saying in real life. Classless? Absolutely. Surprising? Not in the slightest.

It's good to have you back, Chicago.

I love that Z didn't touch the trophy. I love that Ozzie seems to personalize every "good job" message per Blackhawk. I love that Hossa is beginning to show that fire inside of him. I love that our scouting/farming system can produce somebody like Darren Helm et al. Basically... I freaking love this team.

I hear you. Believe me, I do. But everybody likes to criticize the Wings for this. It's not really the Wings that are making it this way - it's the league. And the Wings are following the new rules that are being instituted and getting ridiculed for it. THAT confuses me.

Except we obviously DON'T agree.. so it's not us who needs to move on. You brought it up, you deal with what's thrown at you afterwards. Homer is in a slump. He's not dead. Might I remind you that we have other players on the team who are also in slumps? Should we bench them, too? Everyone on this team has been responsible for opposition's goals at least once. Other coaches have fully stated that they'd love to have a player like Holmstrom in front of the net for them. The chemistry between Lidstrom and Holmstrom (usually) is amazing. You don't give up on a player because he's in an 11 game slump. That's absolutely ridiculous. If that's how this team worked, Osgood wouldn't even be here anymore - let alone starting in the playoffs. You don't like Homer. We get it. But those of us who DON'T throw our players under the bus when they're struggling know what an important part of our recent Stanley Cup wins he was. If you're ready to give up on him - fine. Do it. But don't get pissed off when we don't follow suit. You're the only one that needs to "move on" here.

Pushing, facewashing, and every other little thing that the Wings do post-whistle 99% of the time won't land us in the penalty box. Dropping the gloves and fighting WILL. Honestly, post-whistle scrums aren't just a Detroit thing. Every team does it. If the code of conduct was to fight every time someone facewashed you, hockey would be non-stop fighting - which I'm sure some of you would love. The Wings do what they need to do to get under the opposition's skin while trying their best to stay out of the box. How anybody can honestly criticize them for that is downright hilarious.

Yeah, but I'm not about to get into the "was Cleary's goal a fluke or not" debate with him/her. Even taking out that goal, we've had others that could be considered flukey.

Honestly, I'm so used to the poor officiating that I rarely get angry about it anymore.. UNLESS it's like that no goal call in game 3 against Anaheim. Then I'm furious about it. As far as I'm concerned, bad officiating is just part of the sport. We, as the fans, have a better view of what's going on down on the ice because we're kind of looking through a birds eye view. The refs don't always see everything they do and as such.. they make mistakes. I'm not a fan of it but I understand it.

I didn't say anything about Talbot's goal. That was a quality goal. But you can't tell me that the goal that put the Pens at 2-1 wasn't a fluke. It was just as flukey as the goal that put the Canes at 1-0. If you consider those "quality" goals, I don't know what to tell you. There's fluke goals in every game. The Wings have had plenty of them, as have every other team in the league. It's part of hockey. However, I'm judging the Pens on their skill - not their flukes.. so I took away one of the four goals. That seems pretty fair to me. Of the remaining three, two were assisted by Crosby. That leaves one quality goal that didn't involve Malkin or Crosby in any way. Carolina's game left a lot to be desired. Their turnovers and poor passing were enough to tell me they had no chance in this series. They did nothing to shut down anybody on the Penguins. Nothing. And the Pens took full advantage of that. The only thing they were good at was holding the puck in the Pens zone for extended periods of time. But they had nobody in front of Fleury. They made risky passes through the lanes. They just weren't ready for the Pens. I'm not saying this out of "wishful thinking". I'm saying this because it's true. You have two star players and a whole lot of fill-ins. Without Crosby and Malkin producing the way they are, the Penguins are hurt. Compare Pittsburgh's secondary scoring to Detroit's. Detroit's depth outranks and outmatches Pittsburgh's by a mile and a half. And yes, you can go on about Jordan Staal all you want. He's an excellent player, but he needs to up his game another level when he gets to Detroit.