Opie

DuckSoup! Lids Kronwall Dats played unreal from the first drop of the puck, he made his presence known all over the ice, he was a backchecking/ forechecking/hitting machine. Lids was well, Lids. Kronwall was 3x's the player I expected him to be, those open ice hits are great!!

See I had to abandon the beard as well, but not for any reason other than IT LOOKED LIKE ABSOLUTE CRAP!!!!!! But I kept the Goatee!!! But nothing beats shaving a bear!!!! Hopefully it was that massive one from the Lowes comercial!!

I have a question about the bolded part, are you saying if they don't make those changes they will lose in the WCF's again or they will lose the series. Because I will settle for a WCF loss, That means they will have one 2 series and had a chance to go to the SCF, especially if they lose 4-2, I can deal with that!

Forgive my ignorance but I am not sure how that differs from me chanting Arod Sucks, Arod Sucks, Jeter Blows. (the key to this chant is to chant the AROD part nice and slow and the Jeter part really fast!!! I mean nothing unites a fan base like a good chant. Here is a great example: I am at a Patriots game with a group of friends, the Pats are playing the Redskins, we are at the gate and in front of us are a bunch of Redskins fans. The guy next to me starts chanting Redskins suck, now I am not saying Pats fans are the picture of class, but they usually don't chant crap like that until after the Pats are well ahead, I attribute that to suffering through the Tony Eason years. But the guy who started the chant is wearing a Yankees hat, I politely point out that he is wearing a Yankees cap to a Pats game, he tells me to F**k off. My Retort: YANKEES SUCK!!! the whole group of us waiting outside to get into the stadium including some of the Redskins fans start chanting YANKEES SUCK!! Now granted Yankees suck or Jeter Blows is different than dropping the F bomb in front of a bunch of kids, but by how much really?

I haven't seen this guy play, tell me a little about him!! PLEASE!!

Barrie, Are you trying to be rational! This is not the time for rational thinking. Sarcasm aside, I will not freak out if the Wings lose this series, I will however not be really happy about it. Some of the guys are still very young, this team is moving in the right direction, and that is what is important to me. I want them to and hope they win a Championship every year, but I am also aware that is an impossible feat. But having said that I would rather them lose in the first round being a one seed, and the team as a whole (GM, VP, coaches) working towards keeping this team great, than win 1 championship and not make the playoffs for years to come. I don't want this team to turn into the lightning, sign a couple of high priced players and then not have enough money or not want to spend money to do what it takes to be a competitive team year in and year out. I would rather root for a team that is a top 3 seed every year and ousted in the playoffs than a team that never makes it to the post season. Granted when I started rooting for the Wings, they weren't good, but..... This team has become the picture of success in the NHL, even when the salary cap was supposed to cripple them, or when last year was a rebuilding year that took them to the WCF.

Yeah they have lost Dom, sure because he doesn't have the insight to know that he is struggling he never has, oh wait nevermind this is the same guy who gave the wings back half of his salary a couple of years ago because HE thought he was doing very badly and retired. I love the misconception that Dom is a prima dona and needs to be the starter or he is a locker room cancer.

Kira, I agree 100% most of this board was screaming for his head when he had like 30 assists in 20+ games (whatever the number was) because he only had 5 goals (again whatever the numbers were). Z and Dats are as important to this team as Stevie and Shanny were. Stevie was the captain and it was his team, but Shanny was a HUGE part of the leadership of those teams (same with Drapes I might add) as well. What I find funny, and most of this is due to the internet boom being after they started winning championships, no one ever got upset if you said something good about Shanny, and didn't credit Stevie in some way. But heaven forbid if on this board you post something about dats and not mention Z or vise versa. To me they are as valuable as the other one, they are great together, but you can put them on separate lines. Sort of like Chips and Salsa, yeah Tortilla chips are good on their own, and Salsa can be eaten on other foods, but it is never quite as good as when they are together!!! I, like you, have always been impressed with Dats, I think he is top 5 forward in the league and one of the most complete if not the most complete player in the league, and Z is right there behind him.

The thing that I think made this decision hard for Babs and Co, as well as a guy like Ozzie (who is a good teammate type of guy) is that everyone understands that this is probably Dom's last Rodeo. They wanted to make it as graceful an exit as possible. And if this was the regular season, Dom would still get ice, as we all know this is the post season, and it is all about win baby! I think Babs had 100% confidence in Dom going in, and I am not saying he started him because he felt bad or because it was his last dance, but I think he, as well as us, saw a Dom that just isn't sharp enough for the post season right now. I don't blame that on Dom, and I am not saying Dom sucks, but...... His groin is not what it was, and the fact that he had the flu and all the other ailments at the end of the season are impeding him. I would have loved to see Dom hoist the cup (as the starter), but if it happens with Ozzie I will be just as happy.

Yeah those 27 wins weren't worth a penny, wait lets do some math and figure out what he got paid per win 4,000,000 / 27 = 148,148.14 Now that is not a bad price, considering 5,300,000 / 30 = 176,666.66 for Vokoun and Florida didn't make the post season!

Next time save your fingers the effort, read my sig and realize he handed in his "Red Wings" card as he called it. He is a die easy fair weather fan who bailed on his team BECAUSE THEY DIDN"T SIGN FEDOROV!!! Now he is just trolling! Calling himself a Die Hard Wings fan when in actuality he posts things like, I can't wait until the wings get beat in the first or I hope they make it to the WCF so Feds can s*** on them. So I would just save yourself the frustration and ignore him!

Hold on a second cowboy!!!! When you make a generalized statement like the bolded one you should really make sure it is true. GS&T, in a weird way (j/k GS&T), was supporting Dats earlier when he said he would be better served on the wing, many people including myself and the 57.5 people that have Dats in their username (I included posters like lidsykberg that is where the fraction comes from) have been in support of Dats the whole season. I agree there are a lot of haters, for everyone on this team, but to say we were all calling for his head is a stretch!!

GS&T, You and I may not see eye to eye on a lot but that my friend was a spot on post!!!! I wish I had OsGod's smiley eating chips drinking a beer to show you what I looked like reading that!

Here is my question and don't get me wrong I am glad Ozzie is in just not happy with the reason why he is in. I would have rather seen Dom be successful than get pulled for blowing miniature ponies. 1. If Ozzie wins the series, is he now the man, until he screws up? NVM HockeyCrazy answered that one! 2. If Ozzie lets in 3 in a half game, can Dom get his head right and come in to the rescue?

No one's feelings are hurt but your own, or at least that is how it appears. You stated your opinion, however others disagreed and they disagreed with your choice or words, now it is other people who are at fault. I love the INTERNET!!!!!

Viperar, I was being sarcastic, hence the sarcasm tags. But: So if I or someone I care about is retarded, or lets say for arguments sake I am a Special Education teacher (not anymore) does that mean I still can't be upset that you chose to use a derogatory term. My constant illogical posts, you obviously don't read a lot of my posts. His purpose on this team is to score goals, AND PLAY DEFENSE!!!!!!!!! He is not a cherry picker, he is not Jagr, he is a two way center man, you know like Yzerman, Modano, you know guys who have multiple skills on the ice. His job is to play a very active role on both ends of the ice. And even you said he was scoring. Did you think Dats was slumping in the game that Z had two goals. Did you notice that Z had a crucial play on one of Dats goals, he may not have gotten an assist, but if it weren't for the fact that he drove the net, Homer's pass never makes it across the goal mouth to Dats, instead there are 2 defenders trying to stop the pass. But it just so happened that 2 defenders were trying to take Z out of the slot, allowing Homer's pass to go right through to Dats. Even though it looked like the pass was intended for Z from the start. Oh but you are right unless he scores he is doing nothing. From now on none of the forwards should even bother playing D, because that is not their job. Yeah, I am the one with the illogical posts. When did I say he couldn't step it up a notch, IF THEY WANT TO WIN THEY WILL ALL HAVE TO STEP IT UP!! However you called him retarded, which means he has an IQ of less than 70. OK well lets pretend you called him hockey IQ retarded, that would mean his hockey IQ is less than 70. Either way it is false and you look bad for doing it, now you are trying to make others out to be the bad guy because you offended some one, or because we are to PC or whatever other reason makes you feel better. Stop painting with such a broad stroke and maybe people won't "Misremember" misinterpret your thread titles! Mr. Clemens is that you?

So this is my biggest issue with the loss last night. Now the wings have to go back to Nashville and I have to listen to those stupid f-in whistles. I had a neighbor come over and ask if I could stop making that noise every so often, two of their dogs killed themselves over the headaches they were getting from the whistles! I kid, but that has to be the most annoying thing ever at a sporting event, I would rather sit next to a guy for a quadruple overtime game with a rotting octopus carcass in his pants than listen to that whistle for another 5 seconds!!!!

Because this thread wasn't enough: http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=49557 I understand that with the OP calling him retarded it might not have seemed like it was about Z, but that is why you can read the thread.

I too always believe they will win, and if they lose it hurts, but it is not like I am going to lose arms and legs or vital organs over it (right, Tony? I promise I will pay) so I eventually move on. But to me this team is about to take off, get back home, get some momentum, get some confidence going and then it could turn into 02 again. Lose two in a row, regain a sense of urgency (like they showed in the 3rd) and things could go very very well. Sometimes guys need a punch in the mouth to get going, here is a good analogy for you MMA fans> Think Forrest Griffin, I love the guy, but until some one pops him in the mouth and makes him taste his own blood he just isn't the same fighter. Then he gets a cut and blood is pouring out everywhere and he is a beast. Too bad Rampage is going to thump him! IMO!

AHH so true, OsGod!!! But neither of those compare to losing 4 straight to the kings in ...... NVM!!!

You guys seriously don't know where the panic comes from!?!?!? The Internet isn't exactly known for rational thought and logical reasoning.

That was awesome, the announcers said you may go down dream street if you try to go through there but it could end up being a nightmare. Then they flashed to the preds d-man and the announcer said he may have gotten the worst of that one, and the guy looked a little out of sorts! Homer was hitting people too, I also saw Z take a two hander at a guys shin pads. What happened to the soft Euros on this team?

Did you guys see, well obviously you saw it not sure if it registered with you guys like me, but when time was winding down and he was in the corners how he just stuck his ass out between him and the defenders to keep them off of the puck and was able to make plays and passes without the defender getting to the puck or is stick!!! It was towards the end of the third and he was in the far side corner from the TV camera!

Have you seen the Michael Jackson one yet!!! PRICELESS!!!

[sarcasm] Z sucked ass last night especially on that play where the preds had a player W I D E O P E N in the slot and he was backchecking and deflected the puck and the player's stick so they couldn't get a shot off. [/sarcasm]