Theophany

Ken Holland has said that he doesn't talk about contracts during the playoffs. Forgive me if I'm skeptical until it's official (or at least until the playoffs are over).

And I didn't find it funny.

In actuality, I read the line you changed as well as the first. I just thought it was a horrible use of the poem. Hence my post.

I was right to have faith in your ability to overreact. I correct glaring spelling errors; it's a little too much work to bother correcting sentence and paragraph structure in every post I come across. I don't think it was a hard decision at all for Hossa, nor do I think that he thought the Pens could beat the Wings this year regardless of him being on the Pens. He saw more cap space disappearing and saw enough cap space to get him to fit into our system and thus the choice was easy and straightforward. Pure guesswork, but after losing pretty convincingly last year, I don't think he thought the difference between the two was that slight at all.

You can overreact a little more, I have great faith in you.

That's cool. I'm an English major though, so stuff like that irritates me.

My mother always told me never to take a bet you were sure to lose.

You realize that the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost isn't applicable at all here, right? The whole point of the poem is that regardless of choice, both paths are essentially the same, regardless of how the speaker phrases it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(poem) Then again, you probably thought it was called "The Road Less Travelled".

Just for reference, he picked Chelios in 06-07, and Mats Sundin in 07-08. Don't know why he wouldn't pick Lidstrom (obviously one of the best captains ever, since he learned from the best), though I'm not sure about Lidstrom having a large part in charity (which is a caveat to getting the award).

Hahahaha! Yes!

Absolutely. I just got done texting a buddy of mine in Chicago who sent me an initial text message of, "hey, looks like you guys got this locked up. congrats in advance." I replied with, "yeah, winning against [the Blackhawks] and the Ducks was a hell of a lot harder. Says something about the East, huh?"

If Dats comes back, I'd like the lines to look like this (and this is assuming Draper is back): Franzen-Zata-Cleary Dats-Filppula-Hossa Hudler-Helm-Sammy Maltby-Draper-Abdelkader Yes, I'd sit Homer over Abdelkader. Hell, I might even sit Maltby or Sammy for Leino. Both have been stellar in the playoffs.

You're wrong. Crosby has disappeared. Malkin isn't very far behind him. We may lose game 3, but we're a team full of winners. We don't do anything but win when it counts. We'll come back and win game 4, just like we did versus the Ducks, and just like we did versus the Hawks, after we lost game 3 against both of them. This series is over. Barring something happening to Ozzie, Zata, and Lids, the Pens are done. If we get Dats back, the series is even MORE over. Our depth is destroying the Pens. It's ridiculous. The Pens 3rd and 4th lines are so over-matched that it's retarded.

There's a problem with that thought, though. Anyone who's been a shooter in a series against a team where you KNOW the other team's goalie is hotter than Hell, there's something I call "post syndrome"--where because you're trying so hard to get around that goalie, you end up hitting post more often than you would hit the back of the net. The Wings had problems with this against Anaheim; until the Pens get over it and find a way to free up Crosby (and pray that Datsyuk doesn't come back to play against Malkin), they've got no chance, because Ozzie is that hot right now. The big problem is that the Pens HAVE to win at least one of their remaining away games in order to get the Cup. The Wings just need to get one away game and it's pretty much over. The way the psychology of the Wings has gone, I'm guessing we drop game 3 and rally to take game 4, and then carry it to game 5 in Detroit. Sadly for the Pens, Wings in 5 seems very, very feasible right now.

Washington - Hart trophy candidate = doesn't make playoffs. Pretty easy decision IMO.

I'm confident. Worst comes to worst, we win game 5 and game 7 at home. I just don't know if my heart can take that. You also have to figure that Dats will be ready by game 7, which is pretty huge.

Anaheim was a harder series. At least they could clear their crease and control rebounds.

Players call him Abby.

Hudler is a better passer in my mind when comparing to Cleary, though. You want to facilitate puck movement on the second line for Hossa. Either way, I think Franzen works really well with Zata, and I'd want to keep them together; same deal with Filp and Hossa.

It's not hubris when you're talking about "what if..." questions. There's some arrogance (i.e. hubris) going around in this thread, but when your team is THE team to beat more often than not, you're allowed to have that sort of attitude. I'm not suggesting we be egotistical ****** bags to teams when we win, but there's a certain factor involved when discussing the Red Wings and winning that has nothing to do with arrogance. Like Ozzie says, winning is what we do.

Switch Mule and Cleary, IMO. Maybe even drop Cleary to the 3rd line and put Hudler on the 2nd with Hossa and Filppula. I would run: Franzen-Zata-Dats Hossa-Filppula-Hudler Cleary-Helm-Sammy Maltby-Draper-Abdelkader/Leino I just think that Abdelkader and Leino add much more to a line of primarily grinder/energy players, where Homer is slow and doesn't really do that much defensively.

Never! That's one of the few songs that I like that they play at the Joe.

Err, 2nd round fodder being a team that went down 3-1 in games and came back and only lost in OT of game 7? They're probably the deepest team in the East (and yes, that's sad). They were a #1 seed for a reason.

I kinda wish the Wings had one song for goals, much like Chicago does. If it can get people up and kinda singing along, that makes much more noise. The repetition is awesome when you get back to back goals, too. The other team probably thinks, "oh, you're ******* kidding me. We have to listen to this AGAIN?" I don't really like that it's different for every player.

Err, have you watched a Boston game? Lucic is a monster on the boards and in their defensive end. BTW, he's tied for points in the playoffs with Rafalski, Byfuglien, Hudler, and Sammy, and he didn't play last round. I don't know if he's on the same level as Nash, Getzlaf, Iginla, or Staal, but he's pretty close. Regardless, we're getting off my point. Getzlaf is by no means the best power forward in the NHL. He's good, but he's not "the best".