NGKEIB

The one advantage Kopecky does have over anyone else on that line is his size. Granted, he shouldn't use it as he should, but still... I'd love to see Kopecky try and stir things up more and get into a fight with Pronger or someone. Not that I think he would win, but that it would be good to have Pronger in the box for a while (same goes for Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan). And he did spray Hiller with ice, which pissed off the Ducks. All the same, Maltby has been playing quite well really, and is starting to annoy some Ducks. As for Helm, there were times in the last game when he looked like the best player on the ice (after Osgood), and it would be ridiculous to make him sit. So, basically what Steve said. Helm-Draper-Maltby. Faceoffs should be won.

Cleary has been working hard every shift. Just look at Franzén's goal - Cleary took a hit to get the puck to Zetterberg. While I want to see ZDHolm like everyone else, I'll need to bring out this age old hackneyed mantra: if it ain't broke don't fix it. FZC has been a very good line for us, so I don't see why it should change. And while I would love to see Helm get more ice time, it certainly shouldn't be at the expense of Cleary. And keep in mind that the more ice time Helm gets, the less sprinting you might see... I'm assuming Draper and Rafalski will be back. FZC (yes this is our first line) have played very well so I wouldn't change it. The only thing is that with the Ducks having home ice advantage, we'll need to be sure that each line will be good defensively. FZC is, and HelmDM is okay. The current 2nd and 3rd lines are okay defensively, but for the sake of offense should maybe be switched up. However, I can't really get anything to look that good without breaking up lines 1 and 4 (which have both been very good). Hudler-Datsyuk-Holmström - not very good defensively, and I think that it would be good to have a goal-scorer with Datsyuk and Holmström, hopefully Hudler would be able to step it up. However, he's not the player who is going to get his nose dirty. Hossa-Filppula-Samuelsson - better defensively overall than the above line, and puts Flip (who has been playing well) with a proven-goal scorer and a so-so two-way player. I don't know...

Good point - I have one more point though (bear with me I'm a bit drunk). While I can understand that ZDHolm don't play together regular strength, why doesn't Babs at elast mix it up for PPs? ZDHolm-LidSammy FranzFilHoss-KronStewie or something like that.

Because he wants to split up our two best defensive forwards. ZDHolm would be great, but then we'd need to doubleshift them or something.

I don't think the problem is with Maltby - he's playing better than he did in the regular season, and his line is playing great. Chelios - I don't know if it's age or just being incredibly rusty. I'd say the 1st and 2nd lines are the main problem.

I think that Babcock is wary of line changes since he wants to keep Datsyuk and Zetterberg separate for defensive purposes... So I can maybe see him switching Hossa and Franzén, but I don' tknow...

I hope you're joking...

It sounds odd, but just now was our best pressure in the game, including from the top line. I think that Holmström has been the best player on 1st line, and that's saying somethign since all he's meant to do is check and screen - but htat's what he's done.

Hits can be misleading. Imagine if Kronwall and Stuart had each had 4 savagely huge hits in the first period, and the Ducks had 15 soft ones. Esp the way the NHL counts hits, I don't put much store into it. Though from watching, we are playing the body. And I'm loving D-Helm.

I don't think that he's hurt - his defensive play has been fine, and he's been throwing a few checks, so I'm sure its not an injury. I just think that he's being driven out to the side. He's tried to dangle once or twice today, but he's getting through people and ending up near the boards, and passes to Hossa and he just throws a shot off. I think he's not playing the best hockey of his life, but is still playing fine - though he is being shut down offensively (prove me wrong!). And according to Mike Milbury we now have a player called Holmgren!

Of course not. European's can't fight, so any altercation involving Jonathan Ericsson can be known a priori to have not been a fight, which means they don't even need to look at a highlight.

Can't argue with the goaltending, though Laraque playing for an international team would be pointless. Lappy would be better.

Denmark will get nothing at an Olympic level. They can do okay at the worlds because they get their best players, and other teams with NHL players don't. There won't be any upsets on that scale in Vancouver. I'm glad that they're using a North American rink.

Apologies for the misunderstanding. I'm with you there, I'd rather have them seeing Franzén and Cleary.

I would love this to happen, but there is no way he is leaving Washington. He is currently the centre and set-up man for the best goal-scorer in the league, and he'd have to be insane to walk away from that.

We didn't play well enough yesterday - stupid penalties were taken (Franzén and Holmström cost us a powerplay, and then they scored on the ensuing 4-3 - though I agree that Pronger went for a magic carpet ride rather easily), our PP wasn't really clicking with Sammy on the 1st unit (I expect to see Stuart and Ericsson out there more tonight) and at points skating looked a bit rusty and passes weren't always crisp. However, we played a good 3rd period, and our 4th line performed above my expectations. Heads down, play hard, blah blah blah. And don't go running after Brown, I'd much rather see Kronwall lay out Niedermeyer (unlikely) or Ryan or someone than waste a hit on a no-hoper like Brown. "Let's just winna freakin' [series]!" "We are winnin' the freakin' [series]!"

Partly to do with development, btu partly to do with the fact that he's in the Wings' system and our defence corps is very deep. That's a very crazy idea... Firstly, why would he take out Rafalski instead of Lebda? Rafalski is key to our PP. Secondly, while Perry would probably have beaten Rafalski in a fight doesn't mean that Rafalski would have fought Perry and lost. I like how Babcock gave him a shortlist of opponents, would it be worth adding Pronger to that list? Don't get me wrong, unlike some people here I don't think he's going to be 'the next Probert' or anything, and I don't like seeing him fight all that much - our d-corps is in trouble as it is, he shouldn't be in the box all the time, and he had a hand/wrist injury not too long ago. But I think that Ericsson in the box with Pronger for 5 minutes (sorry that sounds kind of sexual in a wrong way) would be a good trade. But nowhere near as good as Kopecky vs. Pronger/Getzlaf/Perry/Ryan would be...

Maybe Draper isn't healthy, but Babs and him are conspiring, in order to: a. make the opponents worry that the Wings' top faceoff man is on the verge of returning, and b. light a fire under the asses of Maltby (if so, it's been very effective) and Kopecky (limited effectiveness).

I don't think our 4th line saw or will see much time against the Ducks' 1st line at all - that's not a desirable match-up. Don't get me wrong, I think they're more or less sound defensively, but not at the same level as our top 2 (and maybe even top 3) lines. I'm pretty sure they were used against the Ducks' 3rd and 4th lines mostly. He sure has stepped up his game - but is anyone really that surprised? It's the playoffs; it's what he lives for. Also, if Draper is on the verge of coming back, Maltby sure as hell won't want to spend this time of the year sitting in the press box, and his play will reflect that.

If he wants to learn how to live a rock star or playboy lifestyle, I would turn to Mr. Probert or Mr. Lundqvist for advice.

He's such a hypocrite... Look at the number of times Osgood had people hacking at him when he had the puck, or pushing him into the crease. It looked like a scrum at one point, all that was missing was the egg. It's nice to have a coach who tries to stay above this sort of stuff. Michelle's crap last year was pretty annoying too.

I think that Samuelsson does have a role to play on the 2nd unit, when he can drift down and hit one timers. I'm sure that a decent chunk of his PP goals (and maybe even goals in general) come when he goes down the left wing and one-times shots. On the other hand, he's less useful when stationary at the point, and I don't think he should get the most PP time of the entire team (over Lidström!) - I'd like to see Stuart , or maybe even Ericsson (he got 0:14 of PP time...).

I agree, I think that Malts & co. got around 7:00 minutes of ice time last night, and they banged bodies and Helm even had a decent chance on net. Helm was also used with Datsyuk and Hossa when we had a faceoff in our own zone. My one concern, however, is defensive depth. Chelios only played 6:00 minutes last night...

I say again, if you watch the game you will notice that we only got 2 powerplay goals...

"Our PP was brutal but we scored 2 PP goals last night. Am I missing something here? Excuse me, 3 PP goals What really needs work is our five on five play, and not letting Ducks players work from behind the net to the front. " Hmm, we only scored two powerplay goals - one of them that was on a 5 minute major, and yet the only decent chance (which was Franzén's goal) came off of a great individual effort. Samuelsson had over 7 minutes of PP ice time to lead the Wings, yet only managed one shot (I'm not even sure if it came on the PP), and didn't look very comfortable out there on the 1st unit.