McAwesome

Murph has a face made for radio, but he is entertaining. I cringe a little when he takes Mickey's place in the booth for road trips, not because Murph is bad but because Mickey is so good. He is as knowledgeable as any former player turned broadcaster, he has a good sense of humor, doesn't take himself too seriously, and for the most part calls it like it is without a lot of blatant homerism, which is more than can be said for other team's broadcasters and the so-called national announcers. Larry Murphy, you have my appreciation.

Good thing there are no shootouts in the playoffs. Another reason why we don't need Williams in the playoffs.

Either Babcock abandons the idea, which I think he should, or he could put Eaves in that role, he's a righty and IMO has a better shot than Williams anyway. Stuart or Ericsson could do just fine playing the other point on the 2nd PP unit, they showed it while Kronwall and Williams were both out.

Abdelkader is better suited to the 4th line grinder role than Williams, and Williams has not played well enough to justify moving onto one of the top 2 lines, so he becomes expendable when the cap is no longer a concern. Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Franzen Filppula/Zetterberg/Bertuzzi Cleary/Helm/Eaves Miller/Draper/Abdelkader Looks good to me.

Hard to say, good numbers but no individual or team accomplishments. Look at Adam Oates, 400+ more career points and more awards, the highest scoring player who is HHOF-eligible but not enshrined. By comparison, I'd say the Hall will likely not be in the card for Keith. Answer: Yes, in 2001 with St. Louis, they lost 4-1 to Colorado, the year Bourque went cup-chasing.

Playoff beards are a new tradition for me personally, up until last year I could not grow a full beard for employment reasons, but at my current job there is no dress code or grooming standard so I indulged (plus, my job is NHL-related so I didn't have to explain what I was doing). I grew a pretty mean beard last year, but I made the mistake of trimming it the day before the SCF, so this year no trimming. I started this year's playoff beard at the end of the Olympic break, since we were basically playing for our playoff lives, 5 weeks of no shaving has scared my son and made me sweat profusely (it's hot in Florida this time of year) but I'm sticking with it this year. Also, I only wear my hat on non-game days and wear my jersey for home games. Road games I wear a plain red t-shirt. Been doing that since '98 Don't know if this really counts as a superstition, but last season I had the playoff bracket wallpaper from this board as my wallpaper on my work computer, and I still have not changed it, sort of a reminder to me of what could have been. I'll be changing it once this year's bracket wallpaper comes out.

Manluv4clears I know that's someone else's handle, but that's how I feel right now!!!! And, a bench penalty for being crybabies, but unfortunately no PP from it.

About dang time. That was nice, great hold-in at the line by Kronwall, then head-fakes the forward off to get open. Edit: Rut-ro, Raggy! That should not be called back, but we've been getting these calls our way lately, looks like it counts, plus 2 for arguing by Umberger, great!!

Flag on the play, Tripping on #12, defense. Penalty is declined, replay the down.

Unbelievable! This game better not come back to haunt us, we could be up 5-2 right now if we could just hit the frickin net!! Not impressed at all Edit: LOL, I didn't read any of the posts ahead of me before I finished typing, kinda funny we both came up with 5

WOW, their power play looks even worse than ours, is that possible? Adreas "The Cat" Lilja, what a great recovery

Well, that was a miserable first period, but it could have been a LOT worse. Turnovers killed us, uncharacteristic bad pass by Nick during a change and a good decision by Umberger to drive at him before he recovered, and a lazy clearing attempt ends up in the slot for the forechecker. Good news is, we start the 2nd with a PP, bad news is we start the 2nd with OUR PP.

PP upcoming, Boarding on the big hit on Stuart. Might as well let it carry over to the 2nd, PP cant possibly look worse than they do right now.

PP looked absolutely impotent there. I like the playoff slogan, no fears no excuses no mercy.

Not much of a fight there, I don't understand why they went after him there, the hit was clean and he was already going down which made it look worse than it was. LOL, Helm mixing it up even though he has a broken nose, and the guy fighting with Eaves apparently has a broken wrist.

Agreed, he may not have been able to get a good wrap-around on that play, but with the defender on your back you can't try that cutback move.

Wow, Jimmy Howard is my hero, great stops. How does Mike Commodore get left that wide open in the slot?

Mason got Kronwall'd :siren:

No Rick Nashty for the BJ's tonight. That changes things a lot, should be a much easier night for Nick & Raffi

If this could happen, we would go 98-0 every year

I found myself hating them less and less over the last couple of seasons, especially this year since they were really fun to watch in a purely hockey sense, all rivalries aside. Now that they dealt Wolski, I can go back to hating them outright, he was the only Avs player I can say I actually liked and would want on the Red Wings. I don't know if the rivalry will ever return to it's prime form, nor whether any hockey rivalry will be as intense with the parity that exists in today's NHL, but it was a great run and was great for the game.

Red Wings 3rd Jersey Has the mandatory gold piping that every other 3rd jersey has, has black for intimidation, the the camo pattern is for the troops.

Wow, Mason's head has taken a beating, first Franzen's shot, then Bertuzzi's baseball swing.

PP upcoming, Nash with the Slash, hey that rhymes

Datsyuk :siren: :siren: Great patience, waiting for the shot-blocker to slide by