joesuffP

Everyone's just going to ignore the fact that Z looked way more effective as a center than everyone besides Datsyuk. He's also been more productive and the series changed as soon as he was moved from Dats wing to centre

Abby is no Abby? I just meant he can't use his grinder style into offensive production like Abby. Hard work and good physicality translated Abby's game into a bonafide top 6 player. Helm's game has not.

Tatar was infuriating me all series. I made a game of taking notice how the puck would go to the other team every time he touched the puck, especially on the power play. Helm had a few good plays but overall was disappointing, he's no Abby that's for sure. I thought Sheahan was great after the first two games and Jurco impressed me as well. He played smart and hard all series. Dats was being covered hard all series and his line mates couldn't take advantage of the open space. Still not the same Pavel we're used to.

I actually like Kindl. He has the ability to be a better offensive, puck mover than everyone aside from Kronwall. He's just so inconsistent

If you stare at the stats then everyone jumps on Nyqvist but he was a hell of a lot better than Tatar. He's always in on the puck and getting zone time. Tatar has no forecheck to his game and kills all offence if he's actually handling the puck and he also saved his worst game for game 7. He still dourest know how to play playoff hockey. Gus was good, sometimes it doesn't translate on the stat sheet, much like most of our forwards

Tatar was a complete mess and if Nyqvist had those chances we would have won 3-1. Great time for him to play his worst game of an already terrible series he had

Exactly. Who can blame him. This is his worst nightmare, suspended for game 7. What a joke

The fact he wasn't penalized and has never received a warning.... plus the regular NHL politics of keeping star players in big games, all signs pointed to a fine. There's no way this decision was made without looking at all his hits that went unpunished in the past

Could have something to do with all those Kronwallings that went unpunished. The NHL has always found loopholes to keep important players playing in important games so of course they would make an exception for the Red Wings. Kronner must be devastated. Reminds me of 07 when Pronger got a game suspension in a pivotal game against us in the WCF and the Ducks rallied without him and won. Well, I hope anyways

Smith-E Deke-Q Kindl-Zids Smith may get that elusive PP time finally

I don't feel too optimistic sadly. Wings played there best hockey of the year since Game 3 and laid a stinker in a pivotal Game 6 at home. This team has been up and down all year, one bad game has usually lead to more. Proud of the team regardless. I don't think much of Tampa's style of play and their desire to win so I don't see them going to the SCF. They were pretty much only able to score on us whenever we made dumb mistakes. They don't work hard defensively and turnover the puck more than us shockingly. Going forward, this team has a lot of depth scorers but I don't think Dats and Z are able to carry us effectively anymore. We really need a consistent 30-40 goal scoring winger and a good top 4. Our young guys are good NHLers officially, but we need high end talent. Or we could keep coasting until Mantha, Larkin and Sproul are ready, which I think is Holland's plan unless some can't miss opportunity falls on his lap

This series has been good but the Wings losing game 7 wouldn't even bother me all that much (maybe). They have huge holes on offence and defense and Tampa just has way more skill and fire power than us, even if they play some uninspired hockey. I don't think Tampa has the guts to go to the finals. After game 2 Tampa has pretty much only been able to score after we make dumb mistakes, which is bound to happen with this roster. Need a great dman and great winger plus some growth from our younger players

And there's the back breaker. Mrazek needs to have that. 6 goals for Johnson, hardly shutting him down.

Looks like the Wings expected Tampa to just lay down and die. They need a big play quickly. Going to Tampa for game 7 won't be easy

Glendening is the biggest factor for us right now. It's unbelievable how much of an impact this man has

It felt a bit too good to be true. Like how I would imagine in my wildest dreams how this series would unfold pretty much. As long as this loss doesn't devastate morale, we should be fine. We completely dominated them defensively for pretty much two straight games, where they had an unlimited amount of power play time.

idk what you're insinuating... after the game my posts were basically saying its a devastating loss but I can't blame any particular players. They actually played one of the best games I've seen this year aside from the breakdowns that ended up in the net. It's not like Tampa woke up and just poured it on and we weren't able to play with them. Three heartbreaking mistakes

I know. I can't stop thinking how unbelievably awesome I would feel all day today if we just held off for 6 more minutes. Back to back shutouts, 3-1 series lead and Tampa can't score at the Joe in 3 straight games. My god

This loss makes me sick. I just can't stop thinking how close we were. The good news is we have the ability to dominate this team defensively. I just hope this loss doesn't change the series. We won't be able to match lines and Tampa now has a lot of life. This team has been night and day since Z and D split up and Abby came back into the lineup. Hopefully it's not just a home ice thing

You can't pin this all on one guy like if he wasn't in the lineup we win the game. E mostly played a great game, like all our defensemen. Our defense played one of their most solid games I've ever seen. It was 3 breakdowns that went in the back of the net in quickly. Tough to stomach for sure but there's no reason to change the lineup

It's alright when you think about it like we stole game 1 and they stole game 4. It just makes me sick to think how close we were. Aside from Ericsson letting his man walk straight to the net, our defense played great and we got good goaltending, aside from the first goal. We just seem lacking offensively. Could have run up the score, especially on the PP's that were wasted.

Mrarzek should have had that first goal. He saves that bad angle short side shot then we win 2-0.... no chance on the other goals. It's infuriating that our "top pairing" is the most easily rattled players we have on the team. DD and Q are pretty much better at every facet of defense. What do we do with E and Kronner? Locked up long term and pretty much keep our defense stagnant at mediocrity unless we upgrade so much they're on the 3rd pairing

Kronwall blew so many plays offenisvely. DD and Quincey, and even Ericsson have really raised their game but Kronwall doesn't look anywhere near an impact player.

Yeah that's probably the turning point. Mraz should have had that first goal and then we probably win the game 2-0. Ericsson and Kronwall are the worst pairing to put on the ice after a goal for or against they're both so easily rattled. Ericsson lets his man walk right down the middle

Why not us?