SouthernWingsFan

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic.../704250356/1128 Towards the bottom...

This is nothing new to the Red Wings since they've been in the Western Conference for a while now since the conferences were re-formatted. The same thing with Columbus when they joined the league. They have just as much travel as the Wings being in the Western Conference. Minnesota has lengthy travel as well, playing in the same division as Colorado, Calgary, Vancouver, and Edmonton. It's a pain sometimes, but no point in crying over spilled mik, it's been this way for a while and we can't do anything about it.

Thankfully one Shark fan (meaning you ) seems to understand at the very least that we're not the soft shy away from hits team. Some other Shark fans who have joined this forum share the "we will destroy them view" as well. Don't get me wrong, we're still not going to run people out of the arena, but as you stated, the Calgary series showed that the Wings will probably not cower under physical pressure, and can even dish it out with some consistency. I think we even outhit Calgary that series. Beware of stubborness or cockiness from fans of either team. If this series doesn't go at least 6 games, I will be very surprised. I couldn't accurately or confidently tell you who's going to win this series. Both teams just seem so evenly matched for the most part.

I'm going to play devil's advocate to an extent here. Shark fans, understand this first. Watching most of the Wings games this year, I think I can get a lot of people agree with me that Hasek is definitely not the same goalie he was back in the Buffalo days. He's over the hill, yes. But he's managed to stay healthy all year at 40+ years old and when he has missed a few games due to injury, it hasn't been his famous groin problem. I highly doubt the groin is going to be an issue again (knock on wood). With all that being said, he's still doing pretty damn good at 42 years old, and as long as he doesn't go too nuts with his crease wandering, I'd take him against Nabokov in a goalie duel. Wings fans, understand where I am coming from here. I won't deny that the team has had success against Nabokov. Most of y'all in here know the stats like the back of your hand better than I ever will (both the stats and your hands ). Let's come back down to earth though, some of us are sounding like we're going to pepper Toskala for 15 goals a game. He's a starting goaltender in the NHL for a reason. Be careful what we wish for and don't take him lightly.

Good fricken grief my I.Q. plummeted to the teens I think reading some of this thread. Talk about a thread getting off track. Guys and gals, we've all got our opinions, all right? If an opposing team's fan(s) (and they are certainly welcome of course) are truly ingrained in their viewpoints, are going to be pretty stubborn about posting about them towards other members, don't waste your damn time trying to debate with them after one or two tries with different stats or scenarios or crap like that. Don't feed them any unnecessary material. Hell, don't respond to them at all. Opposing team fan(s) that are new, I didn't see much in the way of personal attacks or anything from either side, but at the very least have the awareness to know if you are going to be stubborn and post like you or your team is a big badass and cannot be beaten, realize that you're going to get some heated responses. These are two very solid teams that are fairly evenly matched, and it's impossbile to figure out who will win the series with any confidence because of this. It could go either way. Now please, let's all throw the damn regular season stats and scenarios out the window. These teams haven't met since well before the trade deadline. These are two different teams after the trade deadline. Quit the retarded bickering and retarded statistical debates. It's not going to change a fricken thing before the game starts, so let's all just sit down, put a sock in it, and wait for the game tomorrow night.

Can the Wings roll 4 lines consistently. Detroit's lines so far... 1st - Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Holmstrom - 5 goals 2nd - Lang/Franzen/Bertuzzi - 4 goals 3rd - Draper/Cleary/Maltby - 3 goals 4th - Filpulla/Samuelsson/Hudler/Calder - 2 goals (4 goals if you recall that Franzen played with Flipper the first two games against Calgary) Plus our defensemen had 4 goals (Lidstrom 2, Schneider 1, Chelios 1) I'd say yes. Thank you for playing.

If Lang's line wasn't finally going, I wouldn't be concerned about Holmstrom's injury so much. Do you put Bertuzzi to the top line at the expense of breaking up some recent solid chemistry between Lang/Franzen/Bertuzzi? Do you put Franzen back on the fourth line with Flipper when they had success early those first two games? Do you just roll the dice and put Hudler on the top line, and keep all other lines intact? Call me crazy, but I think that's worth a shot. The current Grind Line should not even be breathed on, Lang's current line is good, and Flipper can do his thing on the 4th line with Calder and Samuelsson.

Well fellow fans, this series is on the West Coast, and the next one as well if the Red Wings are able to get past a solid Sharks team. Which means, for many of us, the inconvenience of late night road games. Even for people like me who live in the central time zone. It's pretty hard to keep the batteries running trying to watch an entire late game despite starting "early" at 9:00pm when I wake up so early in the morning. That being said, do whatever it takes to stay awake to watch everything...coffee, goofy exercise, walking around the house, going out to watch the game if bars/restaurants are still open, whatever else. Don't do what I did after the first OT in the game 6 clincher...I got too comfortable on my sofa, temporarily fell asleep right before 2 OT started, and woke up right after Franzen scored and the celebrating began. Go Wings! :beerbuddy:

Yeah, well Chelios captained that team. I love Chelios but our beloved Red Wings aren't always perfect little angels either. And seriously, who cares that much? Let them think what they want. It's just words/pre-game talk.

QUOTED FOR TRUTH Don't forget if they aren't gulping the Red Wings kool-aid, they don't know anything about hockey. Foo foo! Luc doesn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame now and Vernon should have his jersey un-retired from Calgary for their madness not picking the Red Wings! /sarcasm

SI.com picked the Sharks too! Even the home-based paper the Detroit News picked the Sharks to win. Oh what a travesty! I guess they don't know jack squat about hockey either! Dimwit ignoramous a'holes! Who the hell cares this badly about these opinions people? I certainly hope not the majority of members in here. They are just PREDICITIONS, and they'll probably change in one direction or the other to an extent if the Wings or Sharks just totally come out firing on all cylinders these first two games.

What about the people in Limbo and in Purgatory awaiting to get in Heaven or Hell? Who are they picking?

I didn’t even have to open the thread to know what probably a fair amount of the responses were….ZOIKIES OH MY GOD ESPN REEKS OF SEWAGE SCUM, THEY DON’T KNOW HOCKEY FROM TIDDLEWINKS! And of course, I am correct on some of those posts. Heaven forbid somebody doesn’t pick the Wings to a series that could go either way with the matchup being fairly even. They are only sports analysts after all. I mean geez, what a bunch of uneducated fartknockers. Seriously, for the millionth time, we get it. ESPN isn’t the greatest with hockey, but they aren’t as bad as some of you in here dramatize. At least they still give it some time and day, even if it isn’t as much as it used to be before the lockout, as opposed to a lot of media outlets which won’t give any time to the league or even take it halfway seriously.

I can certainly relate to an good extent. I live in the last place a hockey franchise would re-locate and I know of only one bar (a very good one at that) around here that will show hockey games, but I'm sure there are a few others. Take it for what it's worth...for game 4 my cable company for some reason was having problems showing VS, so I had to go to this sports bar to watch the game where they have Direct TV. I haven't been there for months at the time, and when I got there about 10 minutes before the puck dropped, VS was on the plasma TV you stare straight at while entering, and on a fair amount of other televisions as well. I was a bit surprised I didn't have to ask for the game to be put on. So, it's tough yes, but there's probably more attention given to the sport than we might give credit for, even if it's a small amount.

LOL no DVR for me (yet). And I have a run-of-the mill office job where I stare at this laptop for about 9 hours of the day. Hell, at least it's better than the dude who always says "YES" to the Nextel guy over the phone after he asks the famous question...."Can you here me now?" And after work 99.9% of the time I go straight to exercising. So sleep during the day/early evening is out of the question.

NHL playoff games being broadcasted on weekend afternoons have been routine for quite some time now, even back when Fox and ESPN/ABC would broadcast them. I can recall at least three off the top of my head being broadcasted in the afternoon from the 2002 playoffs back when it was ABC. Game 6 vs Vancouver, and Games 2 and either 4 or 5 vs Colorado. And I can guarantee you this probably goes back to close to when I started watching hockey religiously, since 1995-96 season. So NBC is just like Fox and ESPN/ABC was back in the day, trying to find proper time slots. This is nothing unusual. Just use a VCR recorder or DVR. And don’t take for granted living up in Michigan that you are able to see just about ever game on Fox Sports Detroit. While afternoon games might be slightly inconvenient, there are far worse tragedies. Some people here who lie outside the Detroit/Michigan area don't have NHL Center Ice, so NBC/Versus broadcasts are all that they had, which meant probably only roughly 10 games of Wings coverage on TV until the playoffs started. NBC and Versus is it for these people. So, be thankful for what you have.

Per Detroit News Online (read grayish colum on the right of the page)... http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic.../704240385/1128 Still seems day-to-day in my opinion.

We shouldn't dread this series because of the so-called assumption that the Wings are "soft". We're never going to run people out of the building, but the Calgary series showed that we can match the physical play, and even dish it out as well with some consistency. There's no reason, at least not yet, to be dreading or losing sleep over this series when it hasn't even started yet. Sharks are a good road team, yes. They have a really good balance of physical play and skill, this I am not denying. Yes, both times the Wings played in the Shark Tank they got schooled. I highly doubt these things, at least my 3rd statement, is continuously looming in the minds of the Wings players. Sure, I would have rather played Dallas, but in the end you have to throw out the regular season, because playoffs are a different element and the teams you see now are probably not the same ones you saw in the regular season. Sharks and Wings never faced each other after the trade deadline, etc. Like any other series, no matter who the opponent is, it's all going to be about playing with controlled aggression as much as possible, keeping your brainfart turnovers in your own zone to an absolute minimum, capitalizing on your power play if the referees start blowing the whistles, and your goalie making big saves when needed. All that being said, I have no accurate prediction. The homer in me could say Wings in 5, but I'd be lying. Same if I went against the grain and predicted a Sharks victory. The series and matchups before the games start is just way too close to call before I see these guys out on the ice for a game or two.

No, Nabakov is not Kipprusoff, but that's no reason to take him lightly. Remeber how we were supposed to easily beat Roloson last year? Remember the "hot goalie" label that has been oh so popular on here the past few seasons in the postseason? Let's not have it happen again and take this 'tender lightly.

That was my point sunshine.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

Being worried or being critical of the team is one thing. I can even roll along and keep quiet with continuous bashing threads of guys like Lang or Samuelsson, even though it gets extremely old and annoying after a while. Some of the posts I saw after game 4 were a wee bit ridiculous though. I'm talking about posts that were waving white flags declaring mercy and saying the team is done for, when they haven't even trailed in the series yet for crying out loud. And don't tell me that I'm making this stuff up, I definitely saw a few responses like that here/there and even a thread dedicated to it saying the Wings were done. I'm not going to be idiotic and say, "Yeah, the series just tied up after a big lead, there's no concern though", but have a little faith, the series wasn't even close to being over yet at the time.

Instead of keeping the bodies coming, the Wings could let the bodies hit the floor multiple times, like the song Bodies from Drowing Pool. 6x hitting the floor? Geez, that's a lot in a quick span!

I was pretty shocked. I'm not doubting Quincey will probably eventually be a regular in the NHL in a few seasons either with the Wings or somewhere else, he has to be solid to be playing at the top minor league level and some NHL experience currently, but consider the circumstances... He's still very young with extremely limited NHL experience, he played the night before in a playoff atmosphere as well. Being young probably makes it a bit easier to recharge the body batteries a bit, but he played on the road in an extremely racuous crowd in Calgary immediately after. And he didn't miss a beat. I was seriously impressed given the circumstances and I'm content in knowing that the Wings should have a reliable 7th d-man more often than not when Qunicey will be needed.

Cheers White Out. :beerbuddy: While I'm still very disappointed in the actions of many Flames when game 5 was all but decided, I still like the way they normally try to play...a good combination of skill, ebbing more towards the side of physical play, and eventually wearing and grinding you down. Keep your head up, Wings fans know what it's like at the very top recently, but also near the very bottom with early recent playoff exits, so we can relate.