Theophany

Yeah, but how about giving us a stoppage in play on an OBVIOUS and BLATANT trip on Kronwall that leads to a 1-on-0 break? We were lucky that Ozzie stands on his head as a matter of course during the playoffs. I was also frankly shocked that Zata didn't get a tripping penalty when Crosby tripped over his stick behind the net.

Get Firefox. It kinda has this thing called a "spell checker". That's not Kronwall putting a hit on spelling, either. It puts a little red line under words you spell wrong, and lets you right-click the word to find the spelling you were looking for.

I've been saying this for a while as well. The Pens, Hawks, etc try to model themselves after us, and they don't have our depth, and thus when they play us, they fail.

My grammar Nazi senses have been on fire today. I thought it was allergies until I logged on to LGW.

You realize that the only reason that it was news that we didn't sell out a game last season is because it hadn't happened in like 3 years, right? Making yourself look like more of an idiot as you go...

Not really. It's pretty hard to stay on your feet when you get hip-checked if you're trying to play the puck on the boards. You should probably look at Stuart's hit on Umberger and Kronwall's hit on Havlat if you want to see big clean hits.

Just about as ridiculous as your spelling.

I thought I'd put your spelling in perspective for you.

Are you saying that because he hits like a girl? Really not seeing anything special about those checks.

Our PK isn't nearly as horrible as your spelling.

Yeah, Jim Rome has his moments of intelligence. They're few and far between, but he's one of the only people in the media that gives the Wings their proper respect. Actually, come to think of it, the only times I agree with Rome are when he's talking about hockey.

There's one thing that people still haven't learned about Ozzie. He's ALWAYS ready for tough games. He's probably one of the most mentally tough goalies in the NHL.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4216237 Ozzie Alone with Rome clip from yesterday for those interested. Interesting to hear that Ozzie doesn't think that he really has a 'switch' that he flips in the playoffs to become the Wizard.

To be quite frank, we got it done versus a better team in the last round without Dats. We got it done without his scoring prowess against two teams that were better than the Pens are. As long as we have Lidstrom and Ericsson on the blue line, we'll be alright.

I'm calm because Helm has the rocket skates on, we have Mr Lidström on the blue line, and Ozzie in the net. Oh, and Hossa can smell the Cup. He is now the Terminator. He can't be bargained with. He can't be reasoned with. He doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And he absolutely will not stop, ever, until he has the Cup.

It's kind of hard to argue against The Perfect Human being the best player in hockey (at the very least positionally) when he's got 6 of the last 7 Norris Trophies sitting at home. Potentially 7 of the last 8. Anyone who doesn't give Nick credit at this point just looks stupid to anyone who knows anything about hockey. But yeah, I agree. Crosby was giving Zata a lot of credit when he said that.

Our team is a lot more experienced as well. Guys like Mule, Sammy, Hudler, etc have the experience of winning a cup now, and the difference in Helm is night and day. Helm has been a big difference this year in the playoffs. The 4th line is pretty much "Helm's line" now, much like when Dats is on a line. It's incredibly obvious when Helm steps on to the ice, and he's having a huge impact on the other team. His speed, hitting, and forechecking has been huge, especially in the games vs Chicago. At best, experience is a wash this year. We've pretty much culled the older parts of the system that were slowing down from last year and replaced them with younger guys that are less prone to injury and bring a new energy and youth to the team, and can keep pressure on the puck while our first and second lines can rest.

Leino played in the last 2 games against Chicago.

A playing cast is essentially a thin cast so you can still fit a glove on, but it acts as a brace for your wrist/arm, without much flexibility. Pretty common to see in contact sports, really.

You'd have to make that drinking game a sip of beer; there's no way you could pour shots fast enough to do it otherwise (and you'd never make it past halfway through the first period). It would be funny to see someone with shots lined up on top of their coffee table though in preparation for the massive deep-throating that the announcers are going to perform on Crosby.

I was gonna go with being horrible (or overpaid), but I guess we were both wrong. After running his mouth though, I'm predicting Hossa knocks a puck loose at our blue line and we take it down and score in a 2- or 3-on-1.

Actually, I found a link to some better stats. Ozzie's overall playoff stats: 7234 mins played 254 GA 2999 SA 2.11 GAA .915 Sv% His lowest ever Sv% in the playoffs is .890, and that was with the Blues. His average Sv% in the last 2 playoff seasons is .9275. Definitely a weak playoff goalie.

No, it doesn't feel different than the rest of our series this year to me. Well, definitely not the Hawks or the BJs. Anaheim was worrying to me because of their defensive depth and how hot Hiller was. The CBJs and Hawks didn't have the defensive depth to stop us, and we won those series easily. The Pens have even less defensive depth (nothing on D really other than Gonchar, as opposed to Seabrook, Campbell, Kieth on the Hawks) than Chicago; the only way they can possibly make up for it is by scoring 4-6 goals a game and having MAF stand on his head, which simply won't happen when they've got a pathetic 1.06 GDIF and we have a 1.56 GDIF. They may get lucky calls and lucky goals to take a game or two, but I can't see it going past 6 games without some serious injuries.

A laughable stat; we've been getting 38+ shots per game against teams that are far stronger defensively than the Pens. If we beat the Hawks, who have a stronger defense (IMO) than the Pens, I have no worries about the Pens. With Lids and Big Rig back in game 1 or 2, we'll be fine.

LOL at them posting .878 as Ozzie's expected Sv%. The guy is clutch in the playoffs. 2.11 GAA total in all the playoff games he's been in? It's amusing to think that Ozzie has played more than FOUR TIMES the number of playoff minutes that MAF has. (6245 mins for Ozzie vs 1537 for MAF, just to keep the record straight. Numbers taken from Wikipedia, not including the current season.)