Theophany

Something tells me you don't understand how percentages work.

Six months ago we had seen one full season of his play at an NHL level. Keep in mind he's ~2 years younger than Kesler; at that age, Kesler was already scoring 59 points and was a finalist for the Selke. I think at the rate that Helm seems to be working, it's entirely possible that he may become a middle ground between Filppula and Kesler, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Great third line center, average second line center at his best, IMO.

It doesn't matter the exposure that hockey gets; basketball survives because of star players and the rate of play/scoring. Americans in general like a sport that they can get up and get a beer or get up and use the restroom and not miss much. If you do that at any time other than commercials and intermission in a hockey game, you will likely miss some good plays. It's also harder to get into as a game because it's not as accessible to play. Anyone can go play a pickup game of basketball, but to play a pickup game of hockey, you have to find a rink, find skates, gloves, etc. Just skates alone are a fairly sizable investment to a sport that you're likely not going to play very often. Since the rules are more obscure (try going to a game in SoCal and listening to people around you), it's harder for people to understand. Just getting the game back on ESPN would not substantially help the NHL viewership. It's a niche sport, destined to perpetually be #4 unless USA Hockey makes a huge push in getting the game to the youth of America. Hell, lacrosse is growing faster than hockey at this point.

Wild aren't in the playoffs, and it's more of a college hockey state anyway.

The Production Line has "Free the Octopi" t-shirt available for purchase already. Pretty awesome.

No, tossing hats onto the ice is specifically allowed in the NHL rules when someone scores a hat trick.

Perfectly content to eat my crow. I'll continue to doubt and eat my crow as it comes, because one game doesn't get us to the SCF.

Er, you guys do realize that the Wings have played like absolute garbage other than one or two games over the past two months, right? The Wings haven't shown the Coyotes that they're a team to be feared. I sincerely hope that changes tonight, but to be frank, I don't see it happening.

Absolutely fantastic.

Pronger physics IMO. No suspension. Either way I wouldn't be too torn up. Oh no, we have to use (at worst) Tatar or Mursak to take Abby's place? Oh noooooo!

Mmm, my crow is delicious. (It tastes like win.)

I would probably poop and pee a little if that happened to me.

I'm with Doc, Wings are gonna lose.

Ya think?

He's been solid, but mostly because Howard has been so inconsistent this year. I'll freely admit I'm a fan of Jmac, but in nothing more than a backup role, and nothing more than starting the second night of back-to-back games.

Er, did you even watch the intermissions tonight? He sounded like some of the homers we have around here. As for repeating stuff, how about Mickey? The stuff Mickey says doesn't even make sense 98% of the time, and he keeps repeating it. At least Edzo's stuff makes sense. That said, if Edzo was never on the air again, I'd be pretty happy.

Please don't say that. Anything is possible with this group of defensemen.

Yeah, Dmitry Chesnokov is a Russian reporter who contributes to PD; he does a lot of interviews with Malkin, Ovi, and Datsyuk (as well as other Russians in the NHL) in Russian and translates them to English. Pavel is always a great interview, whether it's in English or Russian.

See, I don't understand why everyone thinks that if the Wings win the Cup this year he'll retire. Let's think about it this way: 1) You just won the Cup. AGAIN. 2) You still feel like you can compete in the NHL at the very least as a #2 defenseman, and the organization still has a tremendous amount of faith in you. 3) You've said in interviews that as you keep winning Cups, the desire to get there again is even greater than it was in the past. 4) Your team isn't going to be another Chicago; literally every guy on the team is either easy to replace with guys in GR, or is signed long-term. It's just one of those things that I think too many people assume because it would be a "nice end to the story". Most athletes don't care about that kind of stuff. Most athletes care about making money and playing the game they love while still being competitive. Lidstrom has never said that he'd end his career if the Wings won another Cup, and everything that he's said leads me to believe that if the Wings did win another Cup, he'd be even more likely to come back.

It depends on what team shows up, in my mind. If we play like we did against LA on monday in the playoffs, the Cup is ours to lose. If we play like we did in Anaheim last night, we won't make it out of the second round. I feel like I have moderately high expectations, because I expect that this team is professional enough to flip a switch when the playoffs roll around and stop dicking around like they have been at times this season. Howard is a question mark, but I feel like Osgood can stand on his head if Howard has a meltdown.

ATH discussed it as well, and Bob Ryan said it best: MIKE MILBURY says he's a goon and that he should be banned from the NHL. When Milbury says that he's a goon, you know the guy shouldn't have been in the NHL, ever.

Ozzie comes back the 9th, plays decently well, Babcock decides to go with him in the playoffs, we win the Cup, Ozzie gets the Conn Smythe. Millions of Ozzie haters everywhere cry as Ozzie becomes a lock for the HHOF. That's how this is going in my head.

If Nick plays til he's relegated a to a 5/6 defenseman, there's a really good chance he'll be playing if/when his sons get into the NHL. If he keeps to that statement, he'll be playing at 60.

I just typed fir and Cris on my iPad and autocorrect didn't change it. I've also typed fir instead of for like 12,000 times on my iPhone. Pretty easy to do that kind of thing if you're typing in a hurry and miss a letter.

And what's your point? That I like Babcock's lines that we were using during our most successful section of the season?