MulesWillFly93

I love Jimmah in this. "I'm Jimmy Howard, and why not us?" Was totally expecting a certain word that starts with a B to follow "Howard."

Shake & bake, boys! ...Ditto on the puking thing.

Well, true, it still could've been his head, just not from being Kronwalled. In that case, I'll keep holding out for a shoulder injury or something. I am dang tired of all these concussions...I wouldn't have even wished one on You-Know-Who.

Flu my butt. Hope "upper body" doesn't mean "head." EDIT: Ah, and there's my answer. Ok, now I can just sit back and be happy he's not playing.

No need to apologize...it's totally weird, I know. I just couldn't help but notice that the one guy I don't despise on the Sharks wasn't doing squat, so I figured it was worth a try to jinx the rest of them. Only me...

Happy birthday, Captain! I hope 46 is a good year for ya. Every now and then, people will ask me who Steve Yzerman is. I'm sorry to say that I haven't yet come up with a good answer...there's knowing, and then there's knowing, which is something only Red Wings fans can do. Thanks, Stevie, for leaving me speechless after all these years.

I've been wearing my Howard t-shirt every game (I do wash it, though...I refuse to believe in superstitions that conflict with good hygiene), except for Round 2 Game 1 when I wore my Yzerman jersey...what a mistake. I've also been wearing my playoffs necklace every day. Nothing too unique...I don't get out of bed, turn around 3 times and throw salt over my left shoulder on game day or anything. Haha, okay, wait, actually I do have something totally off the wall that I do. Right, this is kind of embarrassing, but I secretly think Patrick Marleau, in all his awkwardness, is kind of cute, but he's been doing really badly. After game 3, I figured maybe if I started saying, "Setoguchi is the man!" or "Thornton is my favorite player!" that it would confuse the hockey gods so they would make those players do badly, too. It actually kinda worked, especially in game 5, and especially with Thornton. But just for the record, I refuse to say anything like, "Dan Boyle is a sexy beast," after having seen That One Picture of him. I am way too scarred for life to go that far.

Oh, I thought you meant favoritism toward entire teams. No, in that case I agree, if he's just going to say stuff like, "I like this guy" or "I don't like this guy," that adds absolutely nothing to the conversation. Like I said, I don't mind him calling Marleau's play gutless because that's keeping on task - talking about the game and his play and all that. Saying he's not a fan, though, is not part of his job - there's no analysis in that statement.

PLEASE let Mikey play, Babs. The last time I said this I felt kind of bad because we weren't sure how injured Mule was, but now I just say it out of mercy. Give the guy a break! I know he doesn't really want one, but it's pretty obvious now that he needs one.

I don't consider this favoritism. It's biased, yes, but everybody has a bias. The way I see it, if he was showing favoritism, he would root for Marleau just because he's a Shark, but he's not, he's giving his opinion on Marleau separate from his opinion on the Sharks. I mean, I still think the guy's a complete ass, and he could have worded his comments on Marleau differently. I don't mind him calling Marleau "gutless" because I think that's a fair assessment of his play, but I do have a problem with him saying he's not a Marleau fan. That's a little too personal, if you ask me; it's no longer analyzing his level of play. Also, while I think that commentators should be as fair-minded as possible, we all know that JR is there to be the color guy who gets to shoot his mouth off about whatever he wants after the more level-headed analysts have their say. Does anybody really expect him to have grounded, balanced views? Didn't think so. Still, I think they could find somebody with a big personality who can express himself a little more professionally, so I'm not defending him, either.

That's what I like to hear! Datsyuk eats jinxes for breakfast! If he can play with one arm and Mule can play with one leg, it's gonna take more than a jinx to stop us. I mean, it's a nice commercial, except history hasn't had time to be made yet. Try again in another couple of games.

I'm damn proud of the guy. I know I was a little unhappy with him at times earlier in the season (but for the record I was mostly on the "Blame the Defense" train), but he's been Dudley Do-Right (I don't know where that came from) for the entire playoffs. I love his spirit, too - he doesn't even have to say anything in interviews; you can just tell by his face that he's determined to keep this thing going and eff everyone else. Didn't someone here say they had a dog named Mike ******* Vernon? I think I know what I'm going to name my next dog...

Before I hit the panic button and start freaking out about the game, I just want to say how glad I am that this thread exists for me to post in. I like this sentiment. Jimmy's been on it for most of the playoffs, and I gotta say, he's kept me believing with his off-ice comments after the heartbreak of games 1-3. "Why not us?" indeed. You tell 'em, Jimmah. And of course let's do it for Mom. None of us would watching or playing hockey without our moms, so heck yeah, make them proud, boys!

HELL YEAH THEY CAN!!! What the hey, might as well have a little team spirit before the season ends.

I think some different chants would spice things up a little..."Let's go Red Wings" is always good, but every now and then we could use a little extra oomph. I think the name chants are a keeper for sure (©Homer). I personally like these college ones, too, but I'm a cheesy kind of person, so maybe I'm not the best judge of those. A little more energy from the crowd in general would be a good thing, though. I mean, come on, you have the privilege of watching the best team in hockey (even if the past couple of seasons haven't been the best indicators of that) live and in color, and not everybody gets a chance to do that...get happy!

...And it was also on Center Ice in San Diego on Cox Cable.

I don't just believe, I KNOW we will do better tomorrow and put a whoopin' on those filets of fish! I just want them to win one for the Chief from A2Y...dude deserves one big-ass week of glory.

If we lose the next game, we are on the verge of complete suckitude. If we lose the game after that, THEN we are not going to win the series.

Uh-huh. I've defended Hudler in the past, but frankly, I pretty much forgot he existed in these last two games.

All righty, I am officially in favor of bringing in Modano. I was hoping Franzen would pick it up today, but I really think he's got to be struggling with his injury. After that one pass he fanned on, he absolutely knew he did it and went back and took three shots at Niemi, so he did try to turn it around and not float, but something's just not right. Modano doesn't score as much, and I hate to take out a guy who has the ability to do it, but it's better to have a guy who can pass than a guy who can't pass or score right now. I'll let you guys figure out Abs...I don't know what to do there. Edit: no, okay, take him out, too. At least Draper doesn't usually take high sticking penalties left and right.

Ahahahaha, me too. Come to think of it, I've always wanted to try crocheting, with those weird little hooks... God dang it, it played out exactly how I thought it would. No effort until the last 10 minutes. If we'd just had no effort period, I'd be less pissed, but now I KNOW they can put on the pressure when they want to, but they just DON'T. FUUUUUU...!!!!!

First I feel frustration. Then I feel bad about that because we're only 1 shot away from a tie. Then I go back to feeling frustrated because we haven't even been able to do THAT. Now as I'm starting to calm down because we have a whole period left, I'm realizing that's probably what the Wings are thinking too, so they're probably not going to bother showing up again for the first 10 minutes and will wait until they're almost completely screwed to get going, and now I'm back on the uphill slope toward frustration. This needs to just hurry up and get over with either way because I need a nap.

TAMPA!!! Yep, no-brainer. If I had to pick a WC team, then the Canucks, I guess. Anybody but the Sharks is what I'm really trying to say.

Need more shots on goal. Period. I could stop there, but for some reason I'm feeling unusually positive tonight, so I will say that if we had to lose the first game, it's a hell of a lot better than losing 4-3 like last year. Jimmy was great - even though the Sharks supposedly have such superior firepower compared to the Coyotes, we kept them down to 2 GA, just like the Coyotes (plus he found some time to show Pavelski a little glove to boot). I think that's pretty good news - if we can keep that part consistent, I KNOW we can improve our SOG, so that's kinda heartening. I'd feel a lot less confident if it were the other way around...it's too hard to play the "first team to 7 goals" game with San Jose.

Yeah, agreed. If the team continues to play like that, it doesn't matter what line-up we roll...we will lose. On the other hand, I'd like to see what Modano can do for us, just for a game, maybe. I don't know what to do with Franzen...he's so damn unpredictable. One night he's doing every little thing right and lighting it up, and the next he's missing passes and floating around like a lost dog. He could be back to his old self on Sunday, or he might continue to play like tonight...you just can't tell.