SouthernWingsFan

A sweet, more up-tempo version of one of my favorite jazz songs, Southwick orginially written by Maceo Parker in the 70s. Awesome work on the saxophone and electric guitar on this version, definitely worth listening to.

He does see the "Real World of Hockey". He said he predicted Anaheim and Calgary would go out early b/c of their "physical" style of play.

No. As much as I like Chelios, unless you have injuries/somebody coming back from injury that's better than others, you don't mess with a winning lineup. Other than Lilja's blown tire (which you shouldn't expect to be frequent BUT can happen to anyone so it's not just an OMG HE PULLED A LILJA!!!!!) he's stayed out of the penalty box and has played well within reason/expectations I think of a 3rd-line d-man.

I understand Therrien is frustrated, but if I were him I'd be ashamed of what I said post-game. As I said earlier I personally don't put much stock when coaches or players discuss officiating as calls in any/every game go for/against both teams and various stages in a contest, but to (1) make excuses that the Red Wings are "cheating" and "obstructing" and (2) taking little/no accountibility for yourself or your players that everybody on that team needs to step up is just wrong. I'm not trying to sound like a Red Wings homer, if somebody can show me this I'll gladly step aside. Maybe it's because I don't play the game, I don't know, but I'd like to see any blatant obstruction by the Red Wings. And while pretty much any team acts/embelishes to a certain occassion, to accuse the Wings of blatant diving as well is pretty silly. This isn't soccer/futbol. I'm no expert coach, but I'd like to offer some advice to Therrien regardless: Referees don't ultimately win/lose you the game (even though they do have effects in a game), the other team "acting" or "cheating" doesn't win/lose you a game. Detroit (and I say this as best I can without sounding like a cocky homer) has just been better overall these last 2 games, and you and your team needs to step up better. Your team producing and stepping up better than the other team wins you hockey games, not any of the other stuff. Am I off base here? Maybe Pens fans can help me out, perhaps give me another vantage point to the situation?

Again, take what Cherry says with a grain of salt. He's passionate and outspoken. He likes seeing the game played a certain way. Sometimes that passion causes him to make statements out of left field. I like him b/c he has pizzazz, he's entertaining, he's passionate about the game, and yes might even say stuff to bring a little friendly controversy. Again, the bruhaha people have with him in here I will never fully understand. Why the disliking of him?

They still have to promote the game being professional broadcasters broadcasting a professional championship series regardless of the outcome. It'd be stupid for them to say, "Don't tune into the remaining games on NBC, just wait to tune into VS next year."

Mats Sundin.

I think Crosby is well within his rights to comment on officiating. Let's face it though, you can pretty much in any game imaginable call out the referees for missed calls of making things favorable for the other team. Detroit's had their fair share of both good breaks from the refs (i.e. Zetterberg 1st goal against Nashville in the playoffs, Holmstrom's PP goal against Dallas in game 1) as well as ridiculous pipe jobs (phantom interference no-goals). Comment on the officiating all you want for all I care, but in the grand scheme of things your team has to capitalize on if the referees give you breaks or extra power plays, or deal with and try to overcome adversity, whether you have fewer power plays or whatever else. Officiating is defiintely a factor in pretty much any game you play, but it should never, NEVER be the ultimate deterimining factor/excuse to winning or losing a game (and it rarely ever is I think, I stand by this comment even after the phantom intereference call on Holmstrom in Detroit's game 4 loss to Dallas).

I've had about 251 good days in a row. To tell you the truth, I'm ready for a crappy day. In the meantime, the first person that can say "breakfast biscuit" really fast 10 times in a row, you win a prize. *shrugs*

James Brown - Please, Please, Please http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCapO2g0Fvk

No doubt about it the end stuff was intentionally. Just trying to show it happens both ways and 2 teams on the ice often do things intentionally like that. While some of that isn't necessarily "right", it's a part of the game.

Yep. As captain of your team, you gotta put as positive spin on everything you can as possible in order to keep your team up. While I disagree with him that Detroit hasn't had that many more offensive chances these first two games, take into account that the guy is only 20 years old. Maybe giving Crosby the captains responsibilities so early was a bad decision for something like this, I'll leave that up for everybody in here to make their judgement on. He's still extremely young though and through time he'll become a better captain and will know even more how to handle himself in commentary/post-game interviews et al.

While I was pretty confident that goal was going to be legit, a small part of me was thinking, "They are going to find some bogus excuse to the extent that his stick was in the crease, and the air from the stick caused enough persperation to prevent Fleury from moving over to make the stop." Obviously I'm greatly exaggerating but you get what I mean.

Therrien is certainly well within his rights to express his opinions about calls/no-calls I think, Detroit has certainly had their fair share of both good calls for them such as Zetterberg's 1st goal against Nashville in the 1st round, Holmstrom's PP goal game 1 against Dalls, as well as piss-poor breaks with phantom interferences. You can pretty much throw any scenarios out there where the referees handicapped your team or perhaps helped your team with extra PPs. Bottom line is, I don't care who your team is, your team has to capitalize if the referees give you chances or if there is adversity against you. Pittsburgh hasn't done that these first 2 games.

Therrien is certainly well within his rights to express his opinions about calls/no-calls I think, Detroit has certainly had their fair share of both good calls for them such as Zetterberg's 1st goal against Nashville in the 1st round, Holmstrom's PP goal game 1 against Dalls, as well as piss-poor breaks with phantom interferences. You can pretty much throw any scenarios out there where the referees handicapped your team or perhaps helped your team with extra PPs. Bottom line is, I don't care who your team is, your team has to capitalize if the referees give you chances or if there is adversity against you. Pittsburgh hasn't done that these first 2 games.

Take Cherry with a grain of salt. He's very passionate and likes the game to be played a certain way. He likes physical hockey. Sometimes that yields him making comments out of left field. It's not the first time it happened, it won't be the last. I like his passion and his entertainment, plus he's a pretty snappy dresser. I honestly do not get how/why he is hated by so many people in here.

They can deny it all they want in post game interviews et al, but much like both Riberio AND Osgood knew what they were doing in the game 2 DET-DAL incident, Roberts knew what he was doing against Franzen hitting him in the head. Sykora knew what he was doing to Osgood making contact with him late in the game. Osgood knew what he was doing to a degree trying to draw a penalty and getting himself into a position where Sykora could have a better chance of making more contact with him.

I want to make this absolutely clear before I go further. I do not buy into the b.s. in here sometimes that officials/other sources are completely against the Red Wings or that there is some officiating conspiracy out there, especially since more often than not opposing fans can easily say officials were against them or blew calls that helped in the other team's favor as well. As well I'll state again, I understand officials have to make judgement calls in the heat of the moment with little/no time to react. For that I cannot fault officials for trying to do their jobs the best they can. Hell, I was an organized sports official, in much less talented environments grant you, but I was introduced in how hard it is to officiate a game when the tempo is still fairly fast at those lower levels. Mistakes will be made, I certainly made my fair share of questionable or bad calls. I'm more annoyed that the call last night and the one against Holmstrom in the Dallas series isn't reviewable to get the calls as accurate or as close to 100% right as you can. With all that being said, do you think that O'Hallaran's (or whomever called the phantom interference call last night, I thought it was him based on him discussing the call with Holmstrom/Babcock after on the bench) "default" judgement call on such instances, whether the player is Tomas Holmstrom or not, is automatically going to be some kind of interference infraction? Or is it just Holmstrom and his "reputation around the net"? Again I'm not even going to come close to suggesting an officiating conspiracy or going against the Wings 24-7-365 but for O'Hallaran, this is 2 calls like this when both of them in all likelihood should've probably counted for goals.

Well, Marc-Andre Fluery did take a leap per se off the bench.

Fair enough BigShooter and Dabura.

I understand fully. If you don't like me commenting on such things and on how I think it is ridiculous to call somebody an idiot or 17 other different explicitives because he doesn't pick the Red Wings or actually tries to give the other team playing the Wings some kudos, well then that's your tough luck, sorry. I'm sure you didn't like when people flamed you for not liking what Ken Holland did over the trading deadline, but that certainly didn't hold you back did it? I guess we should've lightened up then? And farting is quite fun sometimes too.

Can probably anticipate what it is going to be, but some good reading material from SI.com. http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/197235 It's kinda sad to say this, but part of me wants Holmstrom to change his game so he and the Red Wings won't have to deal with any more phantom interference b.s.

McCarty. As much as I am glad he is back and has made solid contributions, you gotta deal with Pittsburgh's speed, and with Georges Laraque out of the lineup, McCarty doesn't have anybody to really "enforce" or "stand up" against, correct me if I'm wrong.

Yep.

And I re-iterated a few posts later that I don't expect him to change his game and in the grand scheme of things, he shouldn't change his game...