Opie

To borrow a line from Everlast and House of Pain:

Wow! even I agree wholeheartedly with you guys, that means one of two things, the world is ending, or YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, WITHOUT A QUESTION OF A DOUBT 100% correct!

Sorry for your pain and anguish, however as a wise man once said to me:

Which part the part where Stuart's hit was the about as close to interference as his "High Sticking" in game two, which if I am not mistaken led to a Ana PP goal. Or the fact that Osgood got slashed across the Arm while the first shot was on its way to the net, I am ok with Neids going into Ozzie, that is like Mule hitting Hiller, what I am not cool with is the Slash on Ozzie before/during the shot! This game has been poorly officiated, I will not blame the officials though, imo the Wings are running around trying to hard to hit everything moving. That Brown hit on Hudler may have cost the Wings the series, now it seems like everyone is hell bent on hurting a Duck. Helm may look good flying around like, but he is out of position after almost every check errr um time he goes flying into the boards. This team needs to wake up and play some hockey for at least 40 minutes, they have barely played 60 minutes in the entire series. I said it before the series and I will say it again, the only way this Ducks team beats this Wings team is to out heart them, and that is exactly what is being done right now!

As much as it helps the Wings to have Wish out of the line up, I would like to beat the Ducks full staff! The only positive in this is that the Ducks D will be exhausted now, Carlyle will only have 4 D he trusts, Pronger and Neidermeyer will log a lot of minutes!

Saw some good stuff from J-Ho on that clip!

Reading this thread and a couple of others has given me man luv for manluv4clears

Close, the goal scorer is allowed to follow through with momentum. If Franzen were called for interference on that then they should have called all of the duck pile ons after Ozzie made a save. Unless like in the boston game in which it is the non shooter who ran the goalie over.

Hilarious, seriously what is your real opinion of the hit, that cannot be it. I thought it was a clean hit until I saw the reverse angle, he hits fist/stick to the head, if you hit with your shoulder, how do you follow through with the hands and stick at the same time?

Kept his elbow tight stick down and driven right the f#$% through Huds and I would have gladly call it playoff hockey and blame Hudler. Edit: And then screamed at the top of his lungs "YARD SALE!"

I couldn't count the amount of passes that were about a foot to far ahead of the guy, and how many pucks went from side to side of the Ana zone within 10 feet of the net with no one to punch it home. The boys were a touch off, good thing Mule and Lids were on, that and very good team D.

Perfect metallity for this locker room. Championship and nothing else will satisfy him. Do you know what makes someone fit in the wings locker room, play the game the right way on the ice, and focus on winning not your own stats. Hossa fits perfectly and I would have never guessed. This guy is filthy nasty and if he can be a wing for long term that would be absolutely astounding, however I am not holding my breath nor will I hold it against him if he bolts. He has done more than fulfill his obligation to this team, now it is time for this team to pull together and complete their mission!

Especially if Babs shows up looking like your avatar! If so Game over, Series over, no one beats Babs in that hat!!!!

DarrenHelmitus Priceless but I think when he is healthy Maltby or Kopecky will come down with DraperishealthyDarrenHelmitus, it is a secondary strain of the original disease and has no real indications or signs of sickness or injury and that is what makes it harder to diagnose as well as cure!

I agree with Egroen, if taken literally a goalie who gets a weak team to the postseason would win every year. Because if you take out a starting netminder in the NHL the drop off is usually huge to the backup and thus, the starting goaltender on every team would be most valuable on the team. Plus there is only one player per that position at a time, every other position 6-12 people play.

This is just based off of what Duck Guy said but I wager the losses of Pahlsson, MacDonald, and Moen will far outweigh the addition of Whitney and Hiller (because Hiller is not much of an upgrade of the 07 Jiggy, that is not saying Hiller is not playing out of his gourd right now, But 07 Jiggy was NUTZ!) BTW I think adding Whitney at the deadline was quite possibly the best move they could have made, he will be a very very solid NHL blueliner for a long long time!

I get your point but much like Cheli's Norris years have nothing to do with this years Masterson, what Zednik does after the season ended is moot.

One should not forget what Cheli has done for the Players Association, he has been the public face for many a nasty situation, willingly. Putting his name and his face on stances like the former head of the union. Cheli is no longer about stats, he is about love for the game and I can not knock him for that, I would love to be doing what he is doing at age 47, hell right now at age 32. However, with what happened to Zednik last year I have a hard time not giving it to him, that was enough to make some one else quit, let alone himself. That was Marlachuk part 2, I still cannot believe that man skated from the goal line to his bench (long change if I remember correctly too). Only to collapse at the bench, there were reports that skating to the bench (and the training putting pressure on the wound) saved his life. Much like Jiri Fischer quick thinking and top notch people and equipment on hand saved his life.

Sure was, oh but look hey I just answered your question which you cleverly avoided mine, by doing something never before seen on a discussion board turning it back on me. OOH you are so clever. BTW are you going to cry if the Wings win the cup, and I don't mean tears of joy. For the past, however many months, you have done nothing but trash the team you are supposedly a fan of. Back on topic, I could give two craps who the refs are, I just want consistent calls. If in game one it is an elbow, I want it to be an elbow in game 7, if it is a cross check in the first period with 18 minutes to play I want it to be a cross check with 25 seconds left in the game, I don't give a crap who it helps or hinders, I just want consistency. BTW I do not blame the Refs for the 07 loss, I blame injury and to a much, much greater extent a horrible PP including missing multiple 5 on 3's, that is right I blame the Wings for losing in 07 to the Ducks.

WOW! The second thing the league should do about this is contract the org. First thing would be move it! If it still can't exist contract it, and if that means another team has to go, I am sorry to the fan base of that team, really I am. But the few of you that were fans of the yotes should have done a better job getting your friends to the games.

No, the rookies pay for dinner, it is a tradition all around many leagues that once a year all of the rookies pay for dinner as well as usually wear some stupid get up or hat or something. Sort of a hazing, except for the year we are talking about, in which Feds paid. Even his own country men were pissed at him for his attitude, his own teammates were less than happy with what he did, how do you think the org which values loyalty over stats thinks about that?

Go back and look at the 2007 to 2009 rosters, look at the D corps. Kyle Quincey, Brett Lebda, Chris Chelios, Andreas Lilja, Nick Lidstrom, and Danny Markov were the starting D-men. This year it looks like this: Brett Lebda, Jonathon Ericsson, Brad Stuart, Niklas Kronwall, Brian Rafalski, Niklas Lidstrom PP 1 07 ZDH Lids Markov pp2 Lang, Bertuzzi, ??? (I can't remember) ??? Who cares they sure as hell weren't Kronwall and Sammy. 2009 pp1 ZDH Lids Ralf 2009 pp2 Hossa, Mule, Hudler Kronwall Sammy 2007 2nd line that was horrible Bertuzzi, Lang, Cleary 2009 line that has been extraordinary this year and more than likely will face Ducks line 1. Zetterberg Mule Cleary Top offensive players 07 Dats, Z, Lang, Bertuzzi, Cleary, Holmer Top offensive players 09 Dats, Z, Hossa, Mule, Cleary, Holmer, Flip, Hudler Ducks offensive players 07 Selanne, Penner, MacDonald, Kunitz, Getzlaf, Perry, Pahlsson Ducks offensive players 09 Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan, Selanne Detroit top Defensive players 07 Lids, Markov Detroits Top Defensive players 09 Lids, Rafalski, Stuart, Kronwall Biggest subtractions from 07 Red Wings Lang, Bertuzzi, Schneider Ducks Penner, Pahlsson, Moen, MacDonald, Kunitz Key additions to 09 Red Wings Rafalski, Stuart, Hossa, Mule Ducks Whitney, Ryan, Hiller ( which I would argue he still has not done what Jiggy did in the playoffs in 07) In 07 the wings had exactly 0 forwards in the top 50 in the league, now they have 3 that are easily in the top 25 in Hossa, Dats, and Z.

Bolded -- Me too!! BTW: this reminds me of the threads previous to the last cup, when I came on here and debates where just that now it is flames and arguments. Who remembers DRW02 (was that the posters name, he was liek the only troll on the board, 1 troll wow!) I am not going to argue it with you but your opinion is that Feds was one of the greatest wings ever, I have him a lot further down that list than you do. If Fed was injured in 2003, his number imo is still not retired, I told you I would stay out of the numbers game when I started posting and I will. He was a great playoff guy, one of the best post season players in History, however up until recently while his play was in decline he was no where near the post season. Maybe his post season numbers follow his season's numbers, maybe he keeps his post season numbers up. Neither of us know. Warning, I got into numbers even though I didn't intend it!!!!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- But imo Feds is much like Cam Neely, neither belong in the HHOF or retired #'s, I know Cam Neely is a legend in the parts (Boston area) however, while he was a great player for a short period of time, it was just that a short period of time, however I would argue longer than Feds', I mean in Cam's 3rd to last season he scored 50 in 49 games, but I would say based on numbers Feds deserves the HHOF before Cam, but I find Cam in the HHOF as a hockey travesty, it was done to honor the guy because of Ulf, rather injury!!

You don't see how posting this is different from saying I hope they swallow their whistles?

Egroen, I think the Jack Adams era players get a benefit of the doubt because Jack Adams and the Norris family screwed a lot of those players over. Reading what it means to be a Red Wing shines a lot of light on the players and their actions from that Era. I agree with you on Kelly and Aurie, just not Feds! The Players at that point in time had no loyalty from the owners and had no course of action, very very different. I don't hold as much against that era of players because of that era of owners. Feds on the other hand played for a Franchise that rewards loyalty, and had he been loyal I have no doubt that even with the decline in stats ( I also wager his stat decline would have been far less severe had he stayed) he would have been in the rafters. He may not have made as much money and may not have been able to lead a team but his number would be in the rafters. This discussion is very very different from the HHOF argument, this one to me is cut and dry due to the decisions that have already been made. Had they pulled a crapalanche and retired Hullie's number then without a doubt Feds number belongs in the rafters, so then wouldn't about 60 others if not more. EDIT: IMO if Ulf had been a lifelong Wing he doesn't get his number retired, his hits would not only have shined badly on him but the org as well. Times have changed and the things Howe and Lindsay did are looked upon a lot more stringently, butt ending some one in the 50's wasn't viewed the same as it was in the 80's which was not viewed the same as in the 2000's. A lot of that stems from increased knowledge of what happens to the body and brain when hits are received in a certain fashion, as well as soccer moms not wanting Timmy to see some one get bloodied up, hence why soccer players dive so much. There was an outcry about slide tackles from behind, the refs attempted to stop it by calling any thing that looked remotely close to a tackle from behind. Thus leading to players flailing all over the place, trying to buy a call.