Rice

I'll say the same thing I said to the people who were calling a first round exit on the trade deadline: See you later. No one cares.

Holy s***... that would be incredible.

If only CBC were broadcast in HD...

Zetterberg will be the next captain, but Pavel is a great leader in his own right. The Wings couldn't go wrong with either, IMO.

Does anyone have a picture of Andersson? I've always wondered what he looks like but I've never seen a picture.

Good thing the league doesn't control who gets the trophy.

The nice thing about saving that cap room is it can be applied to this year's bonuses so they won't carry over to next year.

I'll be there. Section 123.

Yep. McCarty, no question. It seems like every time he's on the ice it's the only time the other team can sustain a cycle in our zone. Then someone takes a penalty or ices the puck.

The Wings are up 1-0 in the Finals. 29 other teams aren't. Who cares?

He was horrible tonight -- could be injury, could be fatigue. Who knows?

Just got back from the game. The guy called me when we were on the way to the game and told me to call him when we got there. We called him when were at the bottom of the stairs and he came out to ask us some more questions. At the time I had the octopus in a plastic bag in the back of my pants. So my friends and I talked to him for a while and he told us to meet him by our section at around 7:50. We all went in, waited for 7:50 to come around and he gave us another octopus to throw. So my two friends each threw one. We met with him a couple times during intermission and he asked us some more questions then we left. Hopefully we end up in SI!

Turn NHL network on if you're interested. It's a pre-series presser with Babcock and Holland. Here's a link to watch the press conferences online.

Ah, I didn't realize that. I thought it started at 3.

Babcock and Holland just left but the "media day" will continue. I'm assuming they'll interview the players soon.

Make goaltender-interference calls reviewable.

The Central teams are tailored to beat the Wings. Regardless, it's funny how you say the Wings got all their points from beating up on the Central and now that you've been proven wrong it's simply that the wings "struggle against weak teams." It shouldn't matter at this point anyway, unless you believe the Penguins are a weak team.

The Wings' record against the Central was pretty weak this year. So no, the Wings weren't beating up on the Central. They were only beating up on the rest of the league. The Predators have a much better defense than any team Pittsburgh has faced so far. If you really want to argue that Pittsburgh's competition in the playoffs has been so much tougher than the Wings, I'd love to hear your reasoning. Ottawa was without Fisher and Alfredsson was playing with a third degree MCL tear. That team was on free-fall for most of the season anyway. The Rangers are decent but had problems scoring all season and most of their defensemen are 4/5/6 guys in the West. If the Stars were tired and beat up, what do you have to say about Philadelphia? The Flyers were missing Coburn and Timonen. Hatcher (already one of the slowest guys in the league) was playing on one leg and Jason Smith had two separated shoulders. Seriously, the #1 defensemen (Phillips, Tyutin/Rosival, Hatcher) on the teams the Penguins beat wouldn't crack the Wings' top four. Chew on that for a while.

Dallas was missing Zubov and Boucher for the majority of the season.

The best defensemen Pittsburgh has faced are Chris Phillips, (an injured) Derian Hatcher, Marc Staal, and Michal Rosival. End of story.

John Niyo: Great news for the Wings today with Franzen being cleared to practice and Cleary ridding himself of that chin guard. Hopefully this helps him break the slump.

Against pop-gun offenses. It's similar to when Foote shut Gaborik down in the first round and many people were predicting the same thing against Datsyuk or Zetterberg. Then Foote became a pylon.

You're going to jinx it. What if the Wings lose Game 7? Then all this talk about the Pens series is moot.

Update from Detroit News: Franzen's skating. This rumor is bulls***.

Sure, raw-talent there's no comparison. Crosby, Malkin, and Ovechkin are the cream of the crop in that department. Unfortunately for them, elite defensemen are more important than elite forwards. A defenseman's job encompasses more responsibilities. Nick is elite in each department. I believe that makes him the best player in the world.