Jake Ryan

That guy's stick and the puck were like magnets. OPPOSITE magnets, that is. I don't know how that guy kept an NHL job, much less got on a line with Datsyuk and Hull.

ok! Crosby getting teary eyed after a stanley cup finals defeat is one of the best things in life. He's not even the best player on his team, but whines with the best of 'em. And his lips are purple like a girl's.

The thing I dislike about Anaheim is that the referees will NOT call penalties on that team. The last 6 forwards and last 4 defensemen for that team HOOK the crap out of the Red Wings because they are clearly outclassed, but the officiating in the playoffs always sucks for Detroit. The Red Wings should have 10-15 power plays per game against Anaheim, yet Detroit is the team that has to fend off the 5 on 3. I'm still waiting for that one game when the officiating crew calls the game fairly and Detroit smokes the Ducks by 6 goals. It sucks that we all have to start pointing fingers at Datsyuk and Hossa after a loss, when in reality, the Wings got screwed by bad officiating.

You must not have been around for the Boyd Devereaux days. No matter how bad a Red Wings forward plays, I always use Boyd as my reference point. !!!

I'm going to have to agree with Ducks Fan on this one. The Wings do their fair share of diving. And outside of the shot by Brown which wasn't really intended to injure Hudler in my opinion, the Ducks haven't really played dirty. The biggest problem the Red Wings have is inconsistent officiating. If the Refs call the game by the official rule book (hooking, interference, and roughing are actually called EVERY time they occur), then the Red Wings absolutely ANIHILATE the Ducks. If the Refs call the game by the un-official old school playoff rule book (where they call 2 to 3 penalties early on in the game and put the whistle away after the third period opening face-off), then the series is going to be ultra-tight. Last year, the officials stoked the Red Wings train with plenty of calls until the finals, and by that time, it was too late for poor officiating to derail Detroit. But this year, the Ducks are poised to send the Wings to the golf course if the power play time isn't there. We'll see what happens tonight.

Crosby needs to man up and WIN the CUP before he says another word. All his yapping is going to make him look stupid unless he gets a few shots of himself hoisting lord stanley. Gretzky pissed and moaned all over the ice for his whole career, but he had some rings on his fingers to back up the yapping.

This goes beyond fan and into PSYCHO. I'm all for asking for autographs and pictures while the players are in PUBLIC, but invading their privacy is another issue. Enough fans do sh!t like this, and pretty soon the players stop being so nice. Let them have their PRIVACY.

So this leaves us with: Owner: Al Sobotka Coach: Karen Newman Franzen-Filppula-Hudler Samuelsson-Helm-Kopecky Meech-Leino-Abdelkader McCarty-Draper-Downey Lidstrom-Rafalski Stuart-Kronwall Ericsson-Lebda Conklin Howard Call me crazy, but I still like our chances!! Let's go Red Wings (Cleary too)!!!

I always get nostalgic when I think about the brief stint Steve Yzerman had with the Wings before finally hanging them up. Wish we had that guy longer.

The only thing I don't like about OT is the lack of skating. I wish the NHL would put in a half-time during the OT periods where they resurfaced the ice. The play in the last 10 minutes of each overtime is really poor, in general.

You can't take things to the bank anymore, brah. Wings in 5.

I say: Helm-Datsyuk-Franzen Filppula-Zetterberg-Hudler Hossa-Draper-Samuelsson Holmstrom-Cleary-Kopecky Lidstrom-Ericksson Stuart-Kronwall Rafalski-Lebda Osgood Start off with some different line combos, and then go back to the usual lines after the first.

Just to point out the obvious, the Wings spent game 2 on the perimeter again. Last year, it looked like the team overcame that hurdle of learning how to pay the price and play BETWEEN the face-off circles. This year, it looks like Hossa is leading the "40 footer into Hiller's chest" shot brigade (Did Hossa ever play for Lewis?!!!). The COACH is the one that has to notice this and make the adjustment. I hope we see it in Game 3, or Babcock is just going to make Hiller's save percentage sky rocket and give the Ducks more confidence.

This is a good point. The Wings 5 on 5 has GOT to be more aggressive IN FRONT OF THE NET. They were having defenseman jump in the play all night which is great, but if noone is there to bang in rebounds, the puck isn't going to go in.

Hossa works fine with Datsyuk. They don't need to be split up. They had a bad two games. They need to be whipped, but not broken up. You don't get Manny Ramirez and then bat him 8th in the line-up. What you're saying just isn't smart, brah.

That's because we have Osgood. Most goalies come up with that save. Osgood is 4-8 in OT. Enough said.

"I don't want to see our best winger paired with either of our top two centers." Yah, that makes sense! It's not WHO Hossa plays wtih. It's WHERE he plays. He hasn't been inside the face-off circles or anywhere near the net in 3 games. That's the problem. Not his centerman. The boy is big. He shouldn't be afraid to go mix it up with Elbows and Captain Graybeard.

AKA - Lebda is on the ice

I predict we win in 5.

I haven't been here in a while, but I have been around LGW for 8 years or so now. A lot of posters seem to get overexcited and exagerate, but I don't think that they wildly overreact as some make it out. Hossa plays a few bad games in a row, the fans get on his ass. That's not overreacting. That's just pointing out what's going on.

I agree. I don't like it when Osgood is being pushed outside of the crease and Hiller only gets a little bit of snow after the whistle. That's lame.

I don't see how pointing out mistakes the team and the coaches make is considered overreacting. Noone on here says things like "It's over. I'm not watching anymore." They just get pissed when the team doesn't play like it should. That's not overreacting, imo. It's just being a fan.

It's a simple thing. CRASH THE NET vs. shoot from the perimeter. Want to know why the Ducks goalies look like they're wearing matresses for goalie pads and have blankets for jerseys? Because the Wings haven't completely abandoned the Dave Lewis philosophy yet. When they stay 40 feet away from the net at all times and NEVER bump the other teams goalie, it's no wonder to me why they don't score. Look at how many times Osgood's net and Osgood himself were smashed into today. Then look at Hiller. In the playoffs, the refs put away their whistles and allow players to push other players into the goalies and create crappy goals. The only player on the team who gets this concept is Franzen.

Look at his hit on Selanne again. It seems that Kronwall puts himself more at risk these days with his flying hits. He needs to channel that force and apply it in a direction parallel to the ice instead of at an upward angle. Teemu just ducked out of that hit and Kronwall went flying. No reason to do that.

I agree with this poster. I feel the situation is a little more severe than a lot of fans are showing. Wings are back to their Dave Lewis style play where they shoot 50 shots a game, but only 1 or 2 of them come from inside of 20 feet. That's not good, considering the Ducks have the goalies with the biggest equipment on the planet and the referees on their side. The Wings better get a little pep-talk about crashing the net, or they might as well stay in So Cal for the nice golf course conditions.