unsaddleddonald

I hear he's gonna be great. Unless Toronto doesn't draft him. In which case Bill Nylander will have a better career than him.

For me, that ridiculously stupid Niedermeyer shot that deflected up off of Nick's stick in the final seconds hurts a lot worse. I mean....that puck just FLEW up on Hasek.

I wonder what would've happened if Stevie didn't hit the crossbar after he'd already made it 1-0. But Ranford...WOOF. It's tough to believe a stand-up goalie was still playing in '99.

I think if you extend that to 14 seasons between '95 and '09, it really is amazing how this team was head and shoulders the best team in hockey. -4 Cups -6 Finals appearances -8 Conference Final appearances -6 Presidents Trophies (never finished worse than 6th overall) -Finished 2nd overall in NHL 3 times -3rd 3 times -4th 1 time -6th 1 time -11 Division Titles (out of 14) -Never finished lower than 3rd in the Conference (aside from 99-00 when they seeded 4th because St. Louis won the Division; finished 2nd overall in points) I know that it's all about Cups, but if the regular season didn't matter, they wouldn't play it. Dallas, New Jersey, Colorado, Toronto, Ottawa, Philadelphia, St. Louis all came and went. The Wings maintained. Truly amazing.

I'm one of those people like GMR that views this with a catch: if we win in '95 or '96, do we ever trade for Shanahan? If we don't light Roy up to kingdom come in '96, does he end up in Colorado? Butterfly effect type stuff

I didn't count '09 because I didn't see that as a failure. I still maintain that the better team lost that game.

I was thinking about those playoff fumbles today and maybe for the first time truly appreciating how big of missed opportunities they were. '03: with Colorado out, I would've liked our chances vs. Dallas/Minny/Vancouver Giguere - 1.62 GAA .945 S% in playoffs '04: I like us against "new to the party" San Jose Kiprusoff - 1.85, .928 '06: IMO the Wings were the only power team in the West Roloson - 2.33, 9.27 Was it really just 3 goalies having career moments coupled with Pav and Hank not being *playoff* Pav and Hank soon enough? It just feels like such a waste now when you consider the state of the team now and reflect on the glory.

Teams, and goalies more specifically, MOST DEFINITELY watch shootout videos of guys they are going to face. ESPECIALLY IF YOUR NAME IS PAVEL DATSYUK!!!! Which makes it even more confusing that he has used the same "two-move" combo for the last 3 years. Goalies are sitting on that move the whole way. Watch Holtby on that attempt. He literally barely moves... Pav, Hank, Kronner, and Green combo made no sense to me. Who is supposed to be the shooter of that group? And how do you expect to score on Holtby when none of those guys will be in front?

Lol, what a needless retort.

He also played an injured Johnny Oduya for 25 minutes... We just disagree here. I don't have it in me to banter about Joel Quenneville and the Blackhawks.

You're putting words into my mouth and then saying I'm wrong about it: YOU are bringing the top pair argument into the fold, I referenced the top 4. I get that coaches play their top 2 guys a lot more, but you don't often see the bottom PAIR scraping the barrel for minutes and as a team being able to get away with it. Maybe the 6th guy gets 5 minutes, but not the 5th AND 6th. Anyway, in my opinion (which isn't wrong because it's...an opinion) that mismatch in minutes is a big roll of the dice. Admittedly I have a predisposition that Quenneville is in the right place at the right time; I think he's just an ok coach (my opinion).

LOL why do you always attack people who have an opinion different than yours? Scotty Bowman wasn't playing Duchesne, Fischer, or Dandenault 5 minutes a night. Babcock didn't play Ericsson, Lebda, or Chelios 5 minutes a night.

I hate that playing his top 4 defensemen to death hasn't bit Quenneville in the ass yet... A good coach finds ways to put his 5th and 6th defensemen in positions to succeed instead of simply not playing them.

Not sure it would matter. The Stanley Cup Finals were pushed to NBCSN in favor of American Ninja Warrior on Monday. Pretty sure tonight's game is also on NBCSN. Shows how NBC feels about hockey...

I agree regarding the big body. Abby did a good job, but he'll never be Homer no matter how much babs wanted him to be.