Theophany

I think Bylsma was just giving Staal's 3rd line more time on the ice; that line has been on fire in the last 3 games. Edit: By last 3, I actually mean "excluding game 5, when the Wings rolled over the Pens".

I'm upping my estimate from 98% to 100%. Babcock is the ultimate motivator: "This is (how) you spend your whole life when you're a kid, at least in Canada," Babcock said. "You're dreaming of scoring the game-winning goal of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. "Now, you've got it. Play and have some fun." Taken from this article. Bylsma, on the other hand, has told the Pens they "must play to win". Pens are going to be so high-strung it's gonna be ridiculous, while the Wings are just gonna be ridiculously pumped to play. Add that to the home ice and the crowd at the Joe, and this is in the bag.

You don't know anything about psychology if you think that the statistics don't matter going into game 7. That we're 11-1 in these playoffs at home, outscoring teams that face us in the Joe 43-18 all are relevant stats; they're about this team playing in the venue that we'll be in friday night. Do you think that when the Ducks played against us in that game 7 that they didn't have the desire to win? Remember, they did something that this Pens team hasn't done: take us to OT in our own building (3 of them, in fact, to give us our only home loss). It still didn't allow them to win game 7, even with everything being on the line. This Wings team finds ways to win when it matters; that's all you need to know. It's great to read the media buying into the Pens hype, BTW. That's what happened after game 4 going back to the Joe. People doubting the Wings right now aren't looking at this series from a logical perspective, even taking emotions into account.

98%. 1) We're 12-1 at home. 2) We only lost in TRIPLE OT. 3) We outscored other teams 43-18 this postseason at home. 4) The Wings know it's do or die. Consider the effort in the Anaheim game 7 times 1000 because they're playing for the Cup. 5) The Joe. Wings fans will be going nuts. 6) Fleury is terrible at the Joe. 7) Datsyuk has been playing insanely well.

The point is that she asks absolutely inane questions that we all can answer by thinking for half a second. Pierre Effing McGuire asks better questions. "How do you feel, not celebrating tonight?" "Duh, I feel like crap." How about something more interesting, like, "what was the locker room like during the game, and how will it be after the game? Will you guys stay for an extended chalk-talk, or will you get right on the bus?" Sports writers don't need to put out Pulitzer-quality material, but in general, I wish they'd get an effing brain.

Good, they know they let Ozzie down when he was standing on his head. They'll be determined to win on friday and come out guns blazing.

Yup.

If your stat involved this Wings team, it might give more weight to it, but the past doesn't have much to do with this coming game. That said, I'm still confident.

Yeah, remember after game 4? OH MY GOD WE'RE GONNA LOSE THE SERIES OMFG THE WINGS ARE LAZY AND THEY SUCK. Then we dominate game 5 and oh hey, suddenly everyone thinks we'll take the Cup in Pittsburgh. I'm not worried. If that was the best the Pens could do at home with our guys slacking off for 40 minutes, it's in the bag. The crowd at the Joe would have been enough to push this game in our favor. Adding in last change and a will to win makes it pretty easily our game to lose, not theirs to win. If we lose on friday, it's all on the guys, it won't have anything to do with how the Pens play.

I don't know if you guys just have selective vision when it comes to Hossa, but he's played very well in the defensive end. Pittsburgh seems to be dogging him very closely (much closer than Dats or Zata, even) in the offensive zone, making it hard for him to keep control of the puck. Yeah, he's not been a Conn Smythe contender like Zata, but he's made solid plays. I could say much worse things about Sammy, Hudler, Homer, etc. Why everyone continues to rag on Hossa is beyond me.

I really think Nick was more amused by Cabbie's antics than anything. He kinda had a half-smile on his face like he was trying not to laugh while Cabbie was doing his thing. Hilarious clip though.

That plus the kind of player he'll be after playing for a few years with the guys instead of most of a season on GR and the playoffs... It don't think he's gonna be some kind of scoring machine, but I foresee him being an extremely versatile two-way forward with an asston of speed.

My next two are going to be a Lidström Swedish National Team sweater and then when Helm signs a long-term deal, I'll get an authentic Helm 43. Stevie Y pretty much brought Helm into the organization, for the people wondering if he'll get a long-term deal; with how he's been playing, he'll probably be on 3rd or 4th line next year (I can easily see him centering 3rd line next year with Draper centering 4th).

The point of retaliation against that kind of hit is to deter more physicality brought against your goalie. If the other team gets away with a light check without repercussions from your team, you're inviting heavier hits to your goalie. It's not that a goalie is going to get hurt from a little love bump on the boards, it's that if the bumping intensifies, your goalie will get hurt from a big hit on the boards, or a stick to the gut, or a stick check to the glove hand when he's icing the puck. If you don't like guys protecting their goalie, I don't know what to tell you. I have no problems with anyone protecting their goalie, regardless of team. Witness the love that all the Wings have for Ozzie for how much a team loves their 'tender.

My thought is that we're not going to get ideal match-ups against Crosby and Malkin anyway. Bylsma is gonna play it so that Crosby and Malkin get matched up versus our 3rd and 4th lines. Personally, I'd stick with the top two lines we had in game 5. They were excellent at both ends of the ice. Hudler somewhere in the bottom two lines makes me kinda wary, but I think the rest of the guys will play with enough confidence to really shine in our defensive zone. BTW, anyone else notice that Helm kinda disappeared when we were kicking the s*** out of the Pens yesterday? I mean, I noticed him there and playing as he always does, but he was a lot less noticeable because we weren't back on our heels.

I'm more objective than most Wings fans; I thought it was pretty classless of Hossa to do that. Then again, goalies have been saving my ass for the last 20 years, so I'm inclined to protect them at pretty much all costs.

Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I've played defense for 20 years. I don't really go for guys like Homer that are just irritating and sitting on the crease and get to jawing after the play is over, but guys that put a stick to my keeper get knocked on their asses.

You can't make statements like that. One person (i.e. me) not wanting to run Hossa out of town completely invalidates your point. Maybe as a fan-base a majority of the fans wanted to run him out of town, but then again, there's some portion of every team's fan-base that should wear a hockey helmet in every day life.

To be fair, Zetterberg has had a total of one fight in his NHL career (the one with Malkin). He'd hardly be considered a "fighter" or "roughneck". Franzen also is pretty girly. He dives and sells penalties pretty well (as a majority of players do). I'm with you on your point, though. People aren't objective when it comes to sports. What we as Wings fans call grit from our guys could be seen as classlessness by other teams. I'm sure that when Downey beat the tar out of Laperriere, a lot of Avs fans were calling us classless, etc. Of course every Wings fan loved it because Downey was showing grit and sticking up for his teammate.

You just missed the point. We really need a facepalm icon. If you don't think Hossa has been big for our team, you don't know much about hockey. He's been pretty big on our defensive end and in the neutral zone, regardless of his scoring. You know, it's the whole reason of why we're winning: defense wins championships.

Definitely could be considered unsportsmanlike. In fact, I'm really surprised that he didn't get a penalty for it, though I don't know that the refs caught him.

Yup, you sure get what he's talking about. I get it, I just think that people don't like it when people point at you and say, "lol hypocrite". He actually worded his OP pretty innocuously. Your posts have true grit, don't worry about it.

Kronwall took a puck from behind the goal line and scored through three Pens defenders! He's the best forward ever! Why is he playing defense?! That's how stupid that one argument looks to 99% of the posters here. One example of good two-way play does not a Selke-winner make. BTW, Toews is right behind Crosby for being one of the youngest captains ever (at 21), and he's much, much more mature than Crosby. He's also a pretty good two-way forward.

Dude, seriously? This entire thread just went WAY over your head. For the uneducated, this thread is criticizing the hypocrisy that goes on within the confines of most fan-bases. We praise Franzen for ripping the mouthguard out of Kane's mouth (I distinctly recall making a comment to my brother last night that Mule should start a mouthguard collection in his locker), and then whine about Crosby taking a cheap shot at Zata, Talbot taking a cheap shot at Dats, etc. He's not saying that one side is right or wrong, only that people are so polarized in their views that it's pretty much impossible to criticize anyone else for their view, because odds are, you're being just as much of a homer as they are.

Toews IMO. The kid is like Lidstrom 2.0. Well, not really like Lids at all except that he's like a robot (canadian forward...not really swedish defender). But a great kid, great talent, nice guy, never says anything bad about his opponents, never cheap shots, etc. Original six captain at a really young age, too, with a lot of talent around him.