Vladinator

No, it's not the case. Comcast owns VS, so I'm sure that they charge a premium for other cable providers to have VS in their line-up. I hate Comcast, so I have WOW instead. Sorry if I came off kinda harsh on you about it, but it really has my blood boiling that a playoff game isn't available on basic cable. Only if you have digital cable, they don't have it with their basic package.

WTF is that supposed to mean? The quality of the fan is NOT determined by their ability to shell out money to see games. My cable provider (WOW) doesn't include VS in their basic cable package. I can't afford the extra bread to go with digital cable, so does that mean I'm not a true fan in Detroit??? Give me a break.

Nothing more needs to be said in this thread. MIght as well lock it up...

That was not intentional. No player in his right mind would do that, especially at such a critical point in such a critical game.

I might not mind VS covering the hockey playoffs if Wide Open West would put VS into their basic cable package... If the games aren't on CBC, I can't watch them...

Or even the scoring totals from only minor league play...

It was a simple question...no reason to get insulting now...

You can't go into a playoff game with one of your best players not playing if he is capable of playing. If they lose game 2, they still lose home ice advantage...why not put the best possible team on the ice rather than risk losing that advantage without our best line-up? Not to mention the fact that Calgary will definately be stepping up the physical play in game 2. Bert is the best person on our roster to respond to that.

The most impressive win of the 1st games of each series was (IMO) Ottawa's win. They completely dominated play (from the parts of the game that I watched). We were a very close 2nd though. The worst loss had to be Dallas' loss in the 4 OT game. Losing games like that can completely drain a team & hurt much worse than a simple blowout. Calgary & Pittsburgh can both just put the blowout behind them and move on. Dallas had to bounce back from not only a dissapointing loss, but also extreme fatigue... Which brings me to the MOST impressive win thus far in the playoffs....Dallas' win last night over Vancouver. Bouncing back from the 4 OT loss with a Shut-out was extremely impressive.

I understand completely. For the most part though, if you post in a fairly respectable manner, you won't get ripped too much...especially by any of the "old-timers" from the forums... For what it's worth, the Flames have been my 2nd favorite team for many years. I always hated the Edmonton Oilers and the Flames used to be the only team in the league that wasn't afraid of the Oilers. Some of those series back in the late 80's were something to watch!

Schneider is one player that I will gladly eat some crow on... Throughout his career, consistency has been severely lacking...until he came here. I thought we gave up too much for him, but he has proven me wrong.

Man I would sure hate to be a new poster these days... Guy comes in here and makes a thread with a question, which wasn't really that unreasonable (Bertuzzi's best years were with Naslund, it wouldn't be completely off the wall to think that they might want to play together again) and gets his head bit off. :nonono:

If you could go back and look at some of the posts made about Bertuzzi back when this incident first happened, this wouldn't seem that bad. Almost everyone on this forum was screaming for his head, and I would wager that most of those doing the screaming would have agreed with this guy at that point.... Of course, now that he is a Wing, all is forgiven and forgotten.... I (along with a very select few others) was in Bertuzzi's corner from the start, and I caught all sorts of Hell in some of the threads on the subject... It cracks me up to see how many people have now put that whole incident behind them and even go so far as to defend him now...before though, you couldn't find hardly anyone in his corner...

I'll take a tie over a gimmick win any day. The NHL should simply go to 1 20-minute sudden-death overtime. 5 on 5 play for the OT. Winner gets the 2 points, loser gets nothing. After 20 minutes of OT, if it is still tied, so be it...each team then gets 1 point. The NBA is able to do endless OT if needed, there is no reason when the NHL can't do 20 minutes. I don't think that there would be many ties anymore if they did this...

And at this stage in both of their careers, Bertuzzi gives us WAY more than Feds can. It might be different if we didn't have Dats & Hank...

I've watched tons of games with Brodeur in net. It isn't the spectacular saves that make a great goalie, it is consistency. No goalie has been more consistent than Brodeur since he came into the league.

It's not going to happen. 1. They probably won't trade him within the division. 2. He makes FAR more than he is worth. 3. We are deep at center, even if Lang isn't signed. 4. He whined about being in Yzerman's shadow, how will he feel playing in the shadow of Datsyuk & Zetterberg (and possible Bertuzzi as well if we re-sign him). We really do not have a need for what Feds can bring to the table at this point. His best days are FAR behind him and we have plenty of other players that already give us everything that he is capable of, for far less money.

I think that it is finally time that everyone give up on the whole "Brodeur is overrated" battle-cry. The guy has more than proven his worth through the years. He has played for multiple coaches, with players coming and going. Through it all there has been one consistent factor, and that is Brodeur. Lots of teams have used the trap. Lots of teams have developed strict defensive styles. Other than maybe the Wings, no other team has been able to do it with the level of success that NJ & Brodeur have. Why is that? The other players have changed, the defense core has changed, the coaches have changed repeatedly, Stevens is even gone now, yet Brodeur continues to shine. Give it up already. He has more than proven how good of a goalie he is, many times over. The crap lines that anyone could shine in his position are a joke. If that were truly the case, then his success would be dimmed because EVERY OTHER TEAM IN THE LEAGUE WOULD MIRROR THEIR SYSTEM BY NOW. I'm not claiming that he hasn't benefited from a solid defensive team structure, but when it comes down to it he is the last line of defense and has stood out among the league's best since his rookie season (which was before they even employed the trap and he came within 1 overtime period of taking his team to the finals that season). The cry has gotten old. Give the man his due already.

I'll jump on board as well...I already lost a ton of weight, but could stand to lose a couple more pounds... I'm not sure what my current weight is, I'll pull the scale out when I get home from work tonight. I know that I'm down quite a bit....I was at around 200 not long ago, but I am going to guess that I'm back to around 210 or so...I'm 6'4" though, 210 isn't really all that bad...

Owen Nolan is a possible candidate. He missed all of last season. If he plays in all 3 remaining games this year, he will have played in 76 games this season. He has only played more than that twice in his career (98-99 & 99-00).

Maltby hasn't lost his game, the league changed the game which made players such as him far less effective. That being said, guys like Maltby earn their paycheck in the playoffs, anything that they do in the regular season is a bonus...

I have a friend that collects autographs. From what he has told me, Gordie is very willing to do extra for the fans (such as pictures and such), but his agent is very eager to see that he only does what he is getting paid to do...

Datsyuk is not even close to Crosby, nor is he nearly as important to his team. Take Datsyuk off of the WIngs and we still have a good team. Some other players get more prime ice time and we wouldn't see much of a drop-off in scoring, if any. Take Crosby off of the Pens and they are back to being one of the worst teams in the league. This is taking nothing away from Datsyuk, he is a great player of course. Comparing him to Crosby is blatant homerism though.

The response to these 2 questions reinforces what so many of us have said repeatedly. Fighting is, and will remain an important part of the game...

Get rid of the stupid instigator rule. Fighting is part of the game. When fighting was more common, you didn't see the cheap shots that you are seeing today on a regular basis. Let the enforcers do their job.