NGKEIB

I'm not sure if he's injured - I don't think he is personally, I'd be more inclined to say he's in a slump. He's skating fine - just look at him on the PK and when he's racing for pucks: he often gets there first. He's been great on the kill with Datsyuk. The powerplay that Chicago scored on was when Filppula and Franzén got a bit out of position, but Datsyuk and Hossa had spent their time on the kill in Chicago's zone.

I'm glad that there is some Sammy love going around. I do like the guy - I love the fact that he yaps and tries to stir s*** up (not too effectively...), even though he can't fight. Then again, maybe it's not fair to use his tilt with Oystrick as a reflection of his pugilistic skills (or lack thereof) since I maintain that he was trying to draw a roughing penalty and get Oystrick a fighting major. I think that he's played well this post-season, whatever line he's on (though I do like him with Filppula and Hudler at the moment). He's no Datsyuk or Franzén, but he's stepped up and what more can you ask. With regard to PP, there are times I wouldn't mind seeing Stuart out there in his place, but I do love it when he does his special and scores (by which I mean drift down to the goalie's right post/left circle from an offensive point of view and bang in a one-timer at a crazy angle). I agree with the comparison to Robert 'Pylon' Lang in that as much as you hate him, you can't deny the fact that he scores timely goals. Though I think we're getting ahead of ourselves to say that Sammy is more clutch than Hossa, as Hossa's only goals have come at good times (4th game vs. Columbus and our hardest one against them, and then the game against Anaheim), but I would concur with the statement that Sammy has saved his best play for the most important part of the year.

I believe that the rights to all of the Whalers stuff is owned by the city of Hartford, and not by the NHL.

Wings win 7-0, chase Khabibulin. Bowman realises that he misses Detroit, so crosses over to our bench, after picking up some ice off of the rink to chew. Probert and Kocur both get Gordie Howe hat tricks. I think that the Mule will get an early goal, and since we have the line change advantage, we can get Datsyuk and co. away from PÃ¥hlsson, which gets him going. Byfuglien is completely negated since Blackhawks are never able to maintain enough possession in our zone - this doesn't stop him from going to the crease, but it does mean that he's always the last man back the other way. Odd man rushes ensue. And I think that Kane will get some more 'flu'. It will be a Bacillus kronwalliensis that will put him out for a few days.

It would be nice to have him back, though I'd be very surprised if he's back by this series. I like the idea of having him move Byfuglien more than Rafalski or Lebda doing it.

No, it's just something some of my friends say. It could be an English thing.

Stuart has been a workhorse, but I fear that he may have been guilty of one too many giveaways (a couple against Columbus spring to mind, where Ozzy bailed him out), and you could argue that Selänne wouldn't have scored in game 7 if Brad had been in position. On the whole, I think he's played great, but there are a few mistakes (he is human after all) which don't bother me(I think that he has more than made up for them with big hits, diving plays, blocked shots etc.) but which could tarnish him as a candidate, especially when being held next to 'mistake-free' players like Lidström who have also put up good numbers offensively.

Assuming we win the next two rounds (not guaranteed obviously), and Ozzy plays like he is now, it would be great for Ozzy to win the CS - it would be a big 'CUNextTuesday' to those who call him a bad goalie behind a good team, and it would be hard to keep him out of the HoF if he had a Conn Smythe on his resumé. But the Conn Smythe can be pretty weird... In my books Påhlsson would have gotten it in 07 (but that's possibly because I'm Swedish and biased). I don't dispute Zäta winning it last year, and in 02 I'm happy for Lidström to have won it, but to see Yzerman playing with those knee problems made one in a way want to award it to him... Sort of rambling here, so forgive me. Hopefully the people with the power to decide who wins the Conn Smythe are able to evaluate all of the candidates in a disinterested manner, and not say that e.g. Ozzy can't win it since he's not a good goalie, Pavel can't win it since he didn't play well against Anaheim etc.

Thanks for pointing this out to me! I agree completely - Homer is such a puss! He never gets in traffic and doesn't know how to take abuse, he just ponces about by the blue line hoping not to break a nail. Depends what you mean by Helm. Checking line player? I think that Abdelkader certainly has the potential to play on a checking line. He's not as fast as Helm though, and is and will be bigger. I can't really comment on this since I haven't seen any GR games, but I get the impression that he might have some more offensive upside than Helm, but don't listen to me. I'll leave out the Hossa bit since we've all been there and talked about that. Leino, yes. Not 100% about the other two though. There might be cap issues/issues with having too many people staying on (esp. if Hossa walks, and Koko, Huds etc. get resigned). Of the two, Helm is the most likely to stay up, and I think that he'll be a Wing next year. Not sure about Abdelkader. Holland has a tendency to let players mature almost to the point of being overripe/stagnating (a good policy - see Ericsson, he's 25 and a rookie. I know that he's an exception in that he was first a forward, and a European etc., but he sure wasn't brought up until he was ready, only then due to injury. It also had a lot to do with a deep defense, but still...). I don't think that it will be in the best interests for Abdelkader and his development to play 6 minutes a night on a fourth line in Detroit, when he could certainly grow from a season of top line minutes in GR.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that he was single-handedly responsible for carrying us through to the next round. We relied on secondary scoring in game 7 (though the Mule did set up Hudler's goal, a reverse carbon copy of an earlier one he got), but in e.g. game 6, and in some of the first games as well, it seemed that he was the only one who could break through and actually manage to put one past Hiller. I think that Stuart and Cleary have been huge and, like Osgood, they've left those who doubted them in the regular season eating their words. Helm has been a little ball of hate, with a great set of wheels. It's almost as if he has wings on his feet instead of one on his chest. Zäta has been great on both ends of the ice, Pasha has been huge defensively, blah blah blah. I could talk about the whole team, but the OP was about Lidas.

I love the Ferris and Cameron one! "When Red Wings were in Chicago land... Let my Red Wings win..."

I think Nicklas may not get as attention as some of the others, because nobody is surprised at how stellar his play is. Osgood, on the other hand, had a sub-par season, and regardless of whether you 'believed in him' or not, he has raised his game to a whole new level. Franzén also seems to live for the playoffs, so their post-season play, when cast against the backdrop of their regular seasons (even though Franzén had a good season) really makes them stand out. Also, Franzén seemed to be the only one at times who could score against Hiller. Lidström, in a way, has a very low-key style of play. You don't always see him making huge defensive plays, because he doesn't often let the situation get out of hand. Any time the Wings have one a Cup, he has played a huge part in it. If people don't mention his name, it''s because it's a given that he's one of the candidates.

All of the NHL games I watch I either stream or download, so I've been exposed to lots of different commentary tandems, and I have to say that I like Mickey and Ken the most. While I think that Ken sometimes uses the word 'Datsyukian' (last night he even said Datsyukian-like, which is sort of a tautology) a bit too much, but is on the whole a great commentator, and a perfect foil to Redmond. While Redmond is biased, it's not in a pro-Detroit anti-everyone else way, it's in a pro-'old time hockey' and anti-composite sticks/new NHL/etc. way, which is really fun to hear. And the fact that he uses phrases like 'Bingo-Bango', 'Holy mackerel', 'Johnny-on-the-spot' and a 'donnybrook' endears him to me to no end.

It wasn't much to miss, though Redmond was staying thinks like "Brian has the last laugh now" etc.

I preferred the Rafalski-Perry handshake. Rafalski, with both black eyes and scabs on his face, was having some trouble keeping his face straight. Perry just seemed to want to get it over with.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-ducks...0,6941035.story "Mike Babcock, the Red Wings' coach, said that after coaching Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer on Team Canada at the 2004 World Championships, he came home with a new term: Niedermotion. The problem was, nobody could duplicate the quick, nimble skating of Niedermayer, whom Babcock called "the ghost" because of the defenseman's ability to pop up anywhere unexpectedly." I can think of some other reasons why the nickname is suitable. -White stubble gives ghostly look -Ability to disappear for large parts of the season, only to return halfway in -Excellent skater who is still able to 'vanish' when Darren Helm gets the puck by our blue line -Can throw elbows that no one can see coming -Was last seen at Joe Louis arena, then disappeared, and will pop up (albeit not unexpectedly) at a Southern Californian golf course Can anyone think of some more?

Subscribe to stanawart on youtube, you'll get lots of Detroit clips and big hits from all of the other series.

I agree that it would have been nice to see him bury a few of his chances, but he's made some great plays (the set-up for that Franzén goal springs to mind), has a regular kill shift with Maltby (though with Draper maybe coming back that could change) and has been getting the puck into Anaheim's zone very well. I'm not bothered that he's not scoring if he's on a line with 2 of our best finishers and has set up some of their goals. And at least the fact that he's getting good scoring chances says something about his play.

I don't really play video games that much, but when I do, I often find it fun to pick a really awful team, just so that it's more of a challenge. And the fact that you won't have heard of half of their line-up (especially if its an older version) makes it lots of fun since nothing is familiar. And I agree, these stories are pretty cool. We're pretty varied demographically/geographically etc. Swell.

I'd rephrase that if I were you... The 'ppl' who go to Detroit's road games also include Ducks fans. Why would we want them cheering?

I only support winning teams. I hated the Wings before 1997, but then I jumped on the bandwagon and it sure has paid off! Just kidding... I'm Swedish and was born there, but when I was three I moved to Brussels. No hockey in Belgium, so what little exposure I got was through going to Sweden for holidays and stuff (and watching international stuff on EuroSport). Initially I got hooked on famous Swedish players as opposed to NHL teams (Lidström, Forsberg etc.), and was a huge supporter of the Swedish national team. However, as I got older I eventually picked an NHL team to support, and chose Detroit mainly on the basis of Lidström and the other big stars like Yzerman and Fedorov that got coverage in Europe (and that I could play as on the NHL games). There were also a few American kids at my school who were Wings fans, so they also influenced me I guess. However, while I supported them in spirit, I never really had the chance to watch that many of their games on TV (or in real life - I have family in the States, but they're all in New England/North East or Chicago - and the only NHL game I've been to is a Philadelphia one, long after I started supporting the Wings), and had to resort to highlights and taped stuff borrowed from friends - until the glorious advent of streaming/downloading/etc. Sorry for the long answer, I've never really thought about it. It just seemed a natural choice, based on the big names on the team and the fact that I had friends who were Wings fans.

What do you guys think of how these guys have played? Abdelkader hasn't had that much ice time, but he seems to get at least one hit per shift, and has even assisted on a goal, without making any mistakes. So while it's a shame that Koko is injured, I'm perfectly happy with his replacement. One concern was his tendency to take dumb penalties, but he sure hasn't done any of that tonight. I'm not sure what his faceoff stats have been... Helm had a good game, he's responded well to more ice time. He got on the scoreboard at a crucial time, in a manner reminiscent of the Grind Line's clutch goals in 97 and 98. It wasn't pretty, and Cleary was in the crease, but I'll still take it. Ericsson has been good as usual.

It's another of those rules where the wording is left very vague deliberately so that it's up to the linesman. I think that if you go in first but 'have control', it should be onside, and that would even apply if you were skating backwards, as long as you could show that you were handling the puck not looking for it at your feet. But most of the time it seems to get called offsides anyways...

Yeah, I'm surprised by the fact he could win the Norris (I know he won't, but still...). He obviously has great offensive upside, but isn't the best defensive defenseman out there (especially when you take into account he's often in front of his own forwards) at all. It's like nominating [insert one-dimensional goal-scoring forward here] for the Selke. And his play in the playoffs has been piss-poor. Not only is he being sloppy in his own end, but he's not putting up points on the other end (correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't watched all of the Caps games this post-season).

Lebda is good in that he uses his speed to break out of our defensive zone and can lead or join in a rush in the opposite direction. However, Babs doesn't trust him that much, and in game 3 (I believe it was) Lebda didn't play well at all. If Lilja were to be suddenly healthy and fit, he'd be in. We need to get away from the view of Lilja that many had before this season. He surprised most people with his play this year, which was very good. He would be a fixture on the PK, can block shots without seeming to hurt anything, and would have an easier time handling big and rough Ducks forwards. He would also get more ice time (though I wouldn't want him on the ice on at the same time as Selänne...) since he is much more solid defensively. However it is all speculation, I seriously doubt Lilja or Rafalski will be back for games 6 or 7.