PDX Wingman

OK, let's play it your way. Who of our stars do you want to blame? Zetterberg, who shut down some of the best forwards in the league AND scored plenty of points? Franzen, who scored like monster he is? Datsyuk, who missed a handful of games with an injury, but came back to spark the game to a decisive victory in a critical game five? Hossa stands alone as the one offensive "star" who completely sucked in this postseason - especially in the final round. He couldn't have played worse if he had money riding on Pittsburgh.

What are you, delusional? We've had no problems getting into the playoffs in the past 20 years or so, all but one without that Hossa loser. He joins the team and the Wings finish just about as well as they did in the previous handful of seasons (a little worse, actually). That worthless piece of trash had nothing to do with Detroit's success this year, and everything to do with the team's failure. He ought to donate the salary he made this year to the people of the city he abused.

Osgood ought to be more pissed at Hossa The Loser than anyone else because that worthless punk not only cost him a fourth Cup (which was most definitely deserved), but probably a spot in the Hall of Fame. Hell, Ozzie should have been hoisting the Conn Smythe a couple hours ago, but that worthless loser Hossa couldn't score just one goal for the 7.5 mil he "earned". Hell, Lids played twice as well as he did and he's got a catastrophic testicular injury.... So I guess Hossa just doesn't have the balls to make it in this league. Go to Russia, Maryanne. You're no longer welcome here. Ottawa hates you. Pittsburgh hates you. Detroit destests you. Atlanta doesn't know who you are.... Just piss off already.

Injury my arse! Hossa's got no excuse, besides the fact that he's an overpaid professional loser! The rest of the Wings played admirably and deserved to win the Cup. Considering how it's damn near impossible to repeat these days, they really deserve commendation. But Hossa the Loser deserves to be banned from going 100 miles within the city of Detroit. Hell, he's such a frickin' loser that he ought to be banned from playing in the NHL, period. Let that scumbag waste away in the Kontinental League where his ilk belongs! Out of the four loses we sustained in this Final, three were essentially by one goal (one of the two-goal losses featured an empty-netter). Hossa is a one-dimensional piece of trash who's only good for one thing, supposedly - scoring goals. If he just managed to score ONCE in seven games, the Wings would have won the series, as they should have. Hell, if the loser were benched after game two and Abdelkader was kept in, this thing would have been over on Tuesday at the latest. Hossa lost. The Wings did not.

Too bad most of the Wings grew up on a different continent!

Rather than becoming more confident because of numbers like this, I just get more pessimistic about the Wings' chances. It's not like there's an unconquerable home ice advantage built into this situation. Any team that's won 15 games in the Stanley Cup playoffs is clearly capable of winning one more, no matter where it's played. So if it hasn't happened in nearly 40 years, all that means is the road team is due.

I'd say they've got maybe a 30 or 40 per cent chance at winning on Friday. The Wings are the better team, and they're going to have the home crowd behind them, but the Penguins have the league behind them and in a tight game, that makes all the difference. Also, Detroit is clearly really banged up. If they don't put Pittsburgh away early, I don't think they have much of a shot. And, unfortunately because Pittsburgh will get all the calls and because they do have firepower, even if the Wings go up big early they'll need to play really hard to maintain the lead. It just seems like the Penguins are hungrier, too. So I'm not exactly confident.

It's going to rank up there as one of our worst losses, but at least it didn't occur in the first round like when San Jose beat us in '94 or when Anaheim swept us. If Detroit is going to be favored on Friday, I'd suggest getting all your savings together and betting on Pittsburgh to win. There's no way the NHL will let the Penguins lose if this one's close, and clearly the Wings don't have the heart to blow those punk kids out.

It's also why you sign good Canadian boys. What does Hossa care about the Stanley Cup? Maybe if they were playing for a gold medal he'd show up and score a point or two, right?

No. 7 - Maybe if this was a video game.

That's a stretch. When was the last time the Wings finished less than a four seed, let alone anything less than a division champ. Hossa sucks. He's only had one good playoff.

He ought to give his salary to Helm, or Abdelkader, or SOMEONE who's actually played with effort in this series. Hossa's been useless for most of the postseason and I'll be glad if the Wings don't even offer him a contract. That money can be spent on someone who'll do what it takes to win a Cup, rather than try to get one riding a proven team's coattails. Pittsburgh's probably going to win this damn thing, and Hossa definitely deserves some of the blame.

I expected to see quite a bit more pep out there tonight! We're REEEALLY lucky it's only 1-0.

I don't know about in person, but they're on the NHL's web shop: http://shop.nhl.com/product/index.jsp?prod...dy_bestsell_img

Considering the fact that more than 20 guys play for each team during the playoffs and none of them ever play even half of the minutes in a game, I have no problem with the Conn Smythe going to a player from a team that didn't win the Cup if his stats are remarkable enough. If the Wings win this season, for example, Malkin would be a really good candidate for the trophy. Not just because of his outstanding production but also because no one player has really stood out for Detroit (you could make a strong argument for at least four Wings, in my opinion).

I rarely listen to the idiots doing the commentary, so thankfully I've missed out on a bunch of these. I usually turn the volume on the TV down and just listen to some music or something. Versus and NBC both suck.

Just wait until the Rangers, Oilers or Brian Burke offer him four and a half million a year. Anybody good enough for the Wings to love is also good enough for a stupider team to overpay for. And if that doesn't do it, it could cost a young guy with a lot of potential to score a much-needed trade deadline acquisition. Obviously, I hope I'm wrong, but you've got to consider the possibilities.

You're probably going to have trouble obtaining an octopus in Pennsylvania, so you need to buy that before you leave. Take it to Pittsbugh in a cooler.

They haven't actually been sweaters for quite some time now. And the current incarnation of the NHL jersey is probably about as far from a sweater as it could get without being a tank top.

C'mon Wings, prove Joe right!

Bah, he couldn't play goal!

We need this guy to score Tuesday:

If I had to rank 'em, I'd say Datsyuk's the third best player on the team, behind Z and Lidstrom.

Living out West, I have to deal with this to an extent. When the games start at 7 or 7:30 EST, I can only get home in time to see the third period live. Tivo is your friend.