Carman

Will they catch Washington's 1 for 33 in the playoffs last year?

This is entertaining. First look I think I saw a Lightning player push a Pittsburgh defenseman into Fleury. Interested to see what happened here, Lightning's big guys were in this scrum.

Awesome goal by Staal. Wow what a nice series of saves by Rolo. Good game here. And Downie with a goal I'm sad again

I hate these calls so much. I miss actually cheering for hits like that.

Pittsburgh really controlling the play here. Tampa needs to calm down.

I'd like to take a stab at Weber, if that can't happen then Joni Pitkanen maybe? I'm really hoping for Lidstrom comes back for one more year and go after a UFA in Brent Burns next year. Other than that I'd guess we could try for a Brooks Laich or Andrew Brunette. More depth has never hurt anybody.

He's doing just fine for his role. He's right up there with any other team's bottom pairing defensemen. He's not really progressing as a top flight D man that we'd hope, but he's doing a decent enough job with the role he's in.

Man Darren Helm just continues to impress at every turn. The sky is the limit for him.

Doing my best

And people think I'm a Pittsburgh troll. On topic, I've never been much of a fan of local TV ratings, not real sure how this information really covers what it's supposed to mean.

Oh yeah I agree of course, the hits in the Wings-Phoenix game were in a different stratsophere, I was just conveying that I'm not some soft no hit slappy that's all

Kunitz definitely deserves at least a couple games. That was an intentional blindside elbow to the head that I've ever seen. Also, Downie should get something as well, it was pretty clear he left his feet before contact. Man, I usually hate giving out suspensions for hits(I liked both the Doan hit and Helm hit for example), especially in the playoffs but these hits just deserve it in my eyes. Here is the hit.

He won games. He can protect leads.

I'm cheering for him. Mainly because he has a great nick name, but also he has a very high offensive ceiling and good size. Should be interesting to see how this plays out. Good to see him maturing at least.

Goaltending was a big difference tonight. Tampa took too many calls too.

Really glad to see our big guns stepping up. Franzen getting off to a good start is going to be key for us.

That's an completely asinine statement, I hope you don't judge everyone you've never met personally the same way you judge Crosby. It'd be a shame to have your internet jealously persist through your real world interactions. Seriously, you think that after getting clipped in the head that his concussion was caused by him "diving". Come on now.

Our forwards need to get better at covering the points. This is getting bad.

Bertuzzi is using his body. I knew he could and was just trying to stay healthy for the regular season.

Why can our forwards not cover the pinching d? It has nothing to do with our goaltending or defensemen.

It has nothing to do with the defensemen. Franzen refuses to put any effort and didn't stay with his defensemen. And flippula turns the puck over in the defensive zone. It's the forwards, not the defense.

I'd say Hossa would disagree... Franzen needs to be better, this play in unacceptable for his salary and talent.

Franzen is just awful. Man I wish we went with Hossa instead of this piece of crap.

Really from what I saw is a player trying to do too much. His team overall was not playing well, the passing wasn't crisp and they had no puck control. That said he doesn't seem like a dynamic player that you would hope, but he's still young and had several good chances. The talent is there, he just needs some guidance. He was very good away from the puck, you can definitely see him display the effort and skill to be a very good defensive player, but with the puck he wasn't making the best decisions, he did have some nice shots, but had very few good passes. Not sure if that's more of a team problem or not, because it looked like ND was beaten to every loose puck and couldn't pass it 10 feet to each without it going into someone's skates for a turnover. While he wasn't eye opening and electrifying you could definitely see why he was drafted by the Red Wings, he played into the team's system, put in effort, and was extremely good away from the puck. I think he's the type of player that once he gains some confidence and has a good coach and role he could explode. He will be the type of player that if he can excel in the AHL, his game should translate very well to the NHL.

Wow what a goal. Hopefully Sheahan can will his team to victory down the stretch. Let's see how he does.