Opie

That sucks! I don't like the guy as a hockey player, but you don't ever wish this kind of thing on anyone!

I think he retired during the first period only to un-retire during the intermission.

This first unit is playing wonderfully, even at full strength they look like they are on a pp out there. Take the Dats goal that was set up when Floppa pinched in on Homer, and with out a moment of hesitation or worry or nervousness he hands the puck back to Ralf (where Floppa just came from), then Ralf puts the puck on Dats' tape in front of the net (I agree with Jaffey, that was a pass not a shot) and Dats, a wide open Dats mere inches from Theodore I should mention, undresses Theodore in a phone booth. The thing is on that play the only player that was not an option for Ralf was Homer, Lids was open across the blue line, Z was open down low, but Dats was open in front of the net. Ralf knew that, in a fraction of a second he was able to survey the ice and find the best option. The puck possession this unit displays as a whole, the D jumping into the play and a forward rotating back in support, How often do you see Ralf or Lids pinch in on the weak side for the backdoor play, now how many times do they do it and it hurt the wings? Not very often. And the way they ended that last game, for 4 of the last 5 minutes Lids, Ralf, Z, and Dats were out there! It got to the point that Homer was swapping with Sammy and Cleary to play the wing for Z and D, Ralf and Lids seem to play about a 3 minute shift and then Kronwall and Stuart came in and played more impecable d at the end for a 45 second shift and then back came Ralf and Lids. This first unit is a polished, well oiled, beautiful hockey machine to watch!!!! Offensively, Defensively, Special teams, these 5 do it all!!! At the start of the year I was one of the people posting that Babs needed to separate ZDH to support the secondary scoring, that is why he is coaching in the playoffs and I am posting on a discussion board!!

EDIT: I read the game summary that is linked off of the initial link and found these pieces of gold from OZZIE!! Have to agree with Ozzie here, I can think of 2-3 goals this series that I would blame on Theodore, the rest I blame on Alvin and Simon, uh I mean the wings ability to find the open man.

Dude, seriously though, how sad is that, not only is he worrying about the opponents being in his crease bumping into him, knocking him off of his angle, NOW he has to worry about his teammates getting in his way, to me he is the Roy Halladay* of the NHL. I believe he is a Vezina caliber goaltender, but unfortunately he could have a 1.1 GAA and .987 SV% in 65 starts but if his team only wins 40 games he won't win the Vezina. *Last night Roy threw his 4th complete game third in a row, and has lost 3 OF THE 4!!!!!!!!!

Guys like Cleary, Drake, Helm, Draper, Mule, Homer are Babcock type guys. Now that is not to say that Z, Lids, and Dats aren't players he loves/respects/likes but I think he judges his teams or creates them based on the grinding type player. Hell he has every forward line on this team playing a defensive role. Yet at the same time he has embraced the Det culture, the puck possession style, Very very rarely is there a dump and chase. The way that this team leaves the zone is straight magic. I can't count the amount of times the D are leaving the zone and a forward is the last one out of the zone. It almost looks like a viable option to beat the trap. But I agree Babcock has stamped this team his own, while at the same time behind the scenes he is picking the brains of guys like Yzerman and Bowman. 3 years 50+, back to back WCFs, that is all that is needed to say, well except it would be nice to add a certain piece of silver hardware to his resume!!!

The only reason I say Pit over Dal, is that SJS has been streaky all year, they appear to have hit another one of those stretches where they can't find the back of the net and they are giving up horribly timed goals. Granted an OT goal has no good time to be given up, but it seems as though they can't stock pile goals or momentum. But again I don't think Dallas has owned SJS like Det has owned COL or like Pit has Owned the rangers. The only way for the Rangers to win is to try and go toe to toe with the Pens. And they don't have the offensive power to do that. When they tried to play a grind it out D they lost by one, when it has been wide open hockey they lose badly. To me it is the fact that Pit seems to be causing NYR poor play, where as to me SJS is the root of it's own demise from the coach coming unglued, to what appears to be internal fighting. BTW, Carey Price mentally is done for this playoff run. Boston exposed a weak glove hand and Philly has taken notice!!!!

I would like to see it go 5 games just because I think the team will have less rust on them for the next round. Plus the more games Cleary can play the better he will get, he is trying to rebuild his body and his touch all while playing. A long layoff could cost the Wings some of the Flow that is making them so dangerous. However if both Det and Dal sweep I think it is a moot point!

Calfan, To your barking at the D comment: Brian Campbell has cost himself big $$$$ on the free agent market with his spotty play this post season. His defensive abilities or lack thereof has been discovered in a big, big way. Right now the Sharks D is bad and the O is almost non existent! And I agree with you Nabby should be more than barking at his D, he should be whacking them with his goalie stick!

Yeah but dude, you are forgetting this team is old, has no secondary scoring, can't win without old red wing player x, is a bunch of soft euro's, has no goaltending, was done after 2-2 series against Nas, etc. etc. etc. Just another poster with no faith in the winged wheel, whether they be a wings fan or not it seems like no one thinks the Wings can do it. Sure they have had more early post season failures than any other ORG. But when you are in the playoffs every year for 15 years you are bound to have a let down or 2. Where as if you are only in the post season for 1-2 years every 7-10 years you don't have the comparisons. The only team that comes remotely close to the success the Wings have had is NJ, other than that every other team is just hoping to be what the Wings are, and their fan base is Jealous because at the start of every April Hockey season is over for their team. Even Dallas, SJS, ANA, OTT, any other recently successful team all you have to do is go back a couple of years to see them not in the post season.

I wouldn't mind seeing a PHI DET rematch in the '97 finals, with the same results of course!!

I think Z didn't do enough to get the high sticking call against Foote. With So many players embellishing, if you don't you won't get the call. Refs are looking for a guy to go flying, or their head to snap back, stick to go flying, diving to the ice kicking their legs. Instead Z gets a stick to the face, and continues the play, then checks his face for blood, if he flings himself to the ground writhing in pain like a European soccer player, he probably gets a 2 minute minor, same with Cleary in game 2 I think. It has come to the point where if you don't embellish it, if you continue to play when hooked, high sticked, slashed, speared, car jacked, you simply won't get the call. All of this I blame on poor officiating and the fact that when a dive is called, they call both penalties. Which to me is an oxymoron, if a guy is diving to get a penalty, and he is caught, how on earth is the hook or whatever still a penalty?

Got to tell you, last night was the game they were going to win, their game wreaked of desperation. They were playing every shift like it was their last, which soon one will be. I have a hard time seeing them do much in this series with the injuries depleting them day by day, they got Floppa back and lost 2 other guys in the process. They threw everything they had at the wings, and to tell you the truth the game could have easily been 6-3 (Huds, Flip meet the iron!). Detroit owns Col (at least this season!) and I really don't see how much is going to change. Ozzie played great, the goals weren't really his fault, IMO, and like Engblom said after the game, when ZDH want to play keep away for the last 5 minutes, they can. Did anyone else notice in the last 5 minute Hank and Dats were out there double shifting, Cleary would be on their wing, then Homer, they would go off the ice, come back a shift later with Homer and then he would leave for Sammy. Those two played close to 4 of the last 5 minutes of the game. Defensively this team (when it doesn't sit back) is better than any team in the league. I hate Keith Jones btw, mainly for the fact that after Engblom was talking about the clinic DET put on COL, he instantly started talking about how brave Floppa is. And that he should have had a PS and that would have changed the game. BULL s***, Kronwall (I think ) got either stick or puck before his stick went into Floppa skate/shin pad. NO TRIP and the Ref was calling it instantly and he was about 12 feet from the play!! GRRRRR I hate TV analysts!!

DET needs to change nothing!!! ZDH can shutdown any line, so even if Quenville thinks he has Det's number by throwing Forsberg out their against ZDH, Draper Cleary Drake can be sent out to nuetralize Sakic's line, which to me would be a great way to slow them down. ZDH may be a great line a stopping the other team from doing what they want but DCD will hurt them as well as slow them down. Same can be said vice versa, hell I am not really worried about any of the wings lines against Colorado lines. This team is solid enough defensively when they want to be! COL- Change netminder and hope that creates new energy. But this team has been owned by Det the entire season.

Every time I see Malone play he goes higher and higher up my "Would like to see in the winged wheel" list!!!!

Well, what do you think this place would look like if the Wings started a series 0-2 instead of 2-0, I mean this place fell apart when they went up 2-0 on Nashville and then it became 2-2. People here were debating whether Ozzie could "Save" the wings, people were using historical stats to say why he could or couldn't do it. If you are a fan of your team you will always find a silver lining, otherwise you would just throw your hands up in disgust and walk away as a fairweather fan. Just look at these boards starting at the trade deadline. You people would be pointing out that the AVs fans were bailing on their team if one of them said "Well Det has owned us so far I don't see how we can beat them." Or if one of them said, we can do it, I know we can. You would be calling them dilusional, so what post could they have put up that you would have been OK with! Why some of you care so much what posters of other TEAMS' boards are posting is beyond me.

Why not he has been working hard all playoffs and he is a hitting machine. OH Wait, nvm. How does the saying go, a series doesn't start until one team loses at home, well what happens when one team loses both at home and hasn't even seen the other team's barn yet?

To quote Jay-Z You can't get attached to a player, no matter what he has done for you in the recent or distant past. Regardless of his health, life, focus, whatever else if you want to be successful you will have to bench him. When Yzerman's career was coming to an end he knew he was better served on the 3rd or 4th line, he played there and didn't complain about minutes. If Theodore is about winning a cup he would be able to accept a lesser role, or be able to say, he I played bad and it is Budaj ship to run with now, sort of like one Det netminder did this playoffs. Quenville needs to be able to step up and say, we appreciate what Theodore did, but at this point it is best for the team if Budaj starts! But far be it for me to complain that he is putting a notoriously streaky goaltender in a vital and pivotal game 3 in his own barn, who is currently mired in a 4 goal and sit on the bench streak! I mean hey if he wants to hand the series over to Det why not let him. 2 things can happen from this 1. Theodore makes a miracle come back and steals game 3, giving the crowd and the team enough energy to be in game 4. 2. Theodore gives up 4 goals in less than 2 periods again, the crowd is completely zapped of all energy, thus making a comeback in game 3 damn near impossible and all but handing game 4 to the wings. Now obviously he could give up less than 4 goals, however unless he gets the win, the crowd and the team will be zapped. Now inversely if Budaj starts and loses, there is still hope, the team and the crowd will still believe that the goaltender could steal the game, especially if they lose by one or two goals. If they can be close for more than the first 10 minutes, hope is still alive. I think game 3 is vital for COL to win, if Quenville doesn't make the change I believe he is, indirectly, conceding the win to Det not just for the game but the series.

There were a lot of people giving him crap for that right after that game, then the coach came down on him hard about, then yesterday the VS clown's were saying it wasn't that bad, it wasn't the best way to go about it, blah blah when two days before they were chastising the guy for his double flamingo!

I am liking the idea of having a Kris Draper Jr. on the 4th with Draper on the 3rd, the reason that Det's 3rd line has been an energy line for so long is that Draper has brought that enegy, Cleary is feeding off of it. Draper has been around and a key cog (a lot of that due to his leadership abilities as well) for this machine for a while. I am not saying Helm could be the leader or PK player Draper is, but he has the energy to his game that Draper brings!!

This one?

Joe T should be the C for the sharks. Strip Marleau of the C, don't even give him the A, if he wants to cry about it, show him his recent playoff highlight reel, the double flamingo, lack of points, what looks like a lack of heart, and then say to him, show me you deserve a letter besides L on your jersey and we will see what we can do for you.

Not to hijack/derail/ steamroll the thread but do you guys think that minus the chin guard Cleary gets that High sticking call? Which btw would have been 4 minute variety in the middle of the parade to the box COL was already having.

Part of me wonders if this is why Babs played Sammy so much and praised him so much. Remember I am a guy that has defended Sammy all year, and now I think next year he is extra weight. I think Sammy's play has come around these last two games, but that doesn't change a thing in my mind. Sammy was a role player who filled out the top 6 in a time when Det, was short at least one top 6 forward. Now when healthy this team has a legit 7 guys (excluding Sammy) that have proven they can play top 6, Cleary though has shown he and Draper are a damn good pairing together. Mule has taken over the top 6 forward spot from Sammy. I wonder if all along Babs has been waiting patiently for Mule to take over like this, was that his master plan all along or did it fall into his lap??

Something about the way he said "Steve Yzerman gave it to me" when he was talking about his nickname gave me a sense of relief with the issue of him leaving. When he finished that statement his face, and his pause before explaining it sort of said, nuff said! But I think he realized that his adoring fans needed more, or the ignorant guy interviewing him need more of an explanation. He seems to understand the history that goes along with being a Red Wing. I am not saying he should stay or will stay if offered more money or a 1st line gig, I am just saying when a guy answers a question, and his face is kind of like, DUH! Stevie gave it to me, that is all it takes!!! How funny is it by the way to hear all of the young guys call him Steve Yzerman, just a couple of years ago the whole team was calling him Stevie or Yzerman or some other form of his name, now all of the guys (I should say youngsters) refer to him as Steve Yzerman, it seems so much more formal!