fixxxer

Its basically up to the wings whether they want to win or not and given the last 3 games they've proven to me they don't have the drive/energy to impose there will. They easily lose 1:1 battles and have no sort of consistency. They turn on the playoff switch 5mins at a time with 15mins off. They're not hungry enough is the bottom line.

Do my ears decieve me? Or do I hear Ken Daniels on VRS Phi vrs Was game right now.

Ya it is I thought I was going crazy.

"What are you doing to do the next time Trevor Gillies(notes) comes down and runs a guy into the thing? You can't give him anything. And you tell the guys [Chara] has no history, so the next time he does it he still has no history because he didn't get suspended. I don't see the reasoning behind it. Give him at least something to show that's not acceptable." ... "I'll tell you this: if you say that you don't know where things are around the ice, I think you're not telling the truth," Sedin said. "You play the game for 20 years, you know it's there. It's gotten to the point, you have to suspend guys if you hit the head. You have to do it even if guys say they didn't mean to do it or it's an accident. You have to start somewhere. "I don't think players know where the limit is. That's the bottom line." From yahoo This is what Sedin had to say about the incedent and I think he's 100% right. Players know where they are on the ice I have to believe that. They are not running around unaware of their surroundings after years of playing hockey. IMO I don't care of the intent of the play its the actions of the play and Chara put a player in a position to get hurt. You have to know not to ride someone into the boards in that area. How can you not know? Yes the game moves fast and these types of plays are few and far between, but that is because players know better. They know not to hit someone in these types of plays around that area of the ice because they have to be aware of the situaions if they where not people would be getting hit all the time. Like Sedin is saying letting things like this goes just makes it unsafe for players and not drawing any lines. There is no message being sent to the players what so ever for plays like these. There is no room for biases, history or no history, there is only the action and suspension. The NHL has proven to me that they are unable to make correct decisions regarding these type of situations because they allow their "judgment" to get in the way. Their judgment means squat who are they to decide whether there was intent/accident these are unknown variables that shouldn't be held in the way of decisions. If they wanna stop these concussions/injuries from happening they need to make a hard stance on these wishy washy calls and make players responsible for their actions. Its about responsibility and if players cannot be responsible for themself then it needs to be reflected in suspensions and fines. They let this stuff go and it just enables players to take on their own actions, and fustrations from the league in the next game. And for those standing up screaming this will make the sport soft this is rediculous accusation. There is physical play and being competative and then there is just stupid plays that get people hurt. Players need to stop with the stupid plays and start using their head before wrecking someones career. How in the hell do these sorts of things be allowed to happen inside sports w/no consequences is beyond me.

So... Maltby what was the point of signing a contract if you was just going to retire?

well worth the penalty mins way to go Burt!

Whatever anyone's oppinion is the bottom line is they're both phenominal players.

Given that kov is such an impact player and playing on a defensive team as NJ he didn't make much of an impact with NJ in the playoffs. I think Heatly is a pretty good player but I didn't see him do much for the Sharks. With Hossa at least he's defensively responsible and plays both sides of the ice. Although from some of the Hawks games I've been watching lately he's been taking a lot of dumb penalties. Just from what I've seen with Hossa here in the past I'd have to lean more towards Hossa.

Wait... and the wings defense this year was good? Howard was left out to dry on more than one night since he started.

ya I've posted in a couple places about McCrimmon needing to leave it don't matter who we get as long as he's replaced. What I don't get is that why hasn't Babcock done anything with McCrimmon. Does he just let him delegate the defense aspect and then walk away with no say? It just doesn't make any sense. Seems like both Babcock and Maclean would look over to him and just have a WTF face and then slap him in the mouth.

Yes but how did they learn to be soft.... probably because they didn't have a defensive coach riding their asses to start busting their ass. Coaches aren't their to hold the players hands. Kindergarden is over years ago. Players are said to "buy into a system" of a coach. If the Wings defense bought into a system that they where told to do well then.... ya enough said. edited to cut the quote down

In part I think the Wings kinda beat them selfs. Not to take away from how Sharks played which they played hard and won the little battles which in the end wins the games. The Wings were flat and uninspired to really take the games over. Their inability to hold leads which plagued our entire season continued to bite us in the ass in the playoffs. Here's a few things that have bothered me this post season. In no particular order. 1. Consistancy- We had none. Soon as we lost 3 games in this series there was no way we was going to win 4 straight because stringing together 4 consistant hard working games was next to imposible. Had we split the way games and ended up 2-2 it would have left us a larger margin of error with our inconsistancies. We could have put up 2 solid games together to pull off a game 6 and 7 wins but definatly not 4 straight. When our game is on there is few teams that can keep up with the Wings, but that means nothing if you can't do that night in night out. 2. Adapting- Sharks beat us at our own style of hockey. If anyone knows how to counter puck possession hockey it should be our coaching staff as they see other teams do it against us on some nights, and Phoenix almost done it had they had better offense. We flat out didn't forcheck for 60mins or even 20mins. If your going to play Wings hockey make it a nightmare to get it out of your own end. FORECHECK FORECHECK FORECHECK its what the US did to beat Canada. Hound the sh*t out of the puck and make it hard to make clean smart passes. Force turn overs. What I saw was a relaxed defense waiting for Sharks come across the red/blue line. All they had to do is dump the puck and skate faster to the puck and fight against the boards which is what Sharks did when they needed to dump the puck. They also at times had an easy time crossing the blue line and setting up their offense. Wings were slow to puck and lost battles in offensive and defensive ends. Yes we lost tons of faceoffs but at least don't lose them cleanly and make it hard for them to set up right off the face off. If we played how Phoenix played against us, against the Sharks this series would have been much different. However, we continued to drill the nail into a block of steel which seems like we've always done since Dave Lewis days. 3. Defense- You cannot blow 2 goal leads. While I don't nessessaraly blame our players as much as I blame Brad McCrimmon. This has been an issue all season long and this has a lot to do with how McCrimmon has set us up for failure. Although there comes to a point where I see a defensemen stand and watch an opposing player take a shot (as harmless as a shot as it was) uncontested which lead to a goal. Yes it may have been soft but would the shot have made it on net had someone put a stick in the way. Its this lazy effort/coverage that McCrimmon had not addressed all season long that he let go for far to long. I don't know exacally how the interactions between head coaches and assistant coaches go but someone should have been held accountable and changes should have been made to stomp that crap out. I still like Babcock as a coach but maybe there are underlying things where he's getting screwed or Babcock isn't the coach I thought he was and its difficult to tell which is the problem because I am not the one in the know. 4. Offense- Little to no crashing the net or "garbage goals". This is something we've always had issues and our players inability to even attempt getting goals like this. We've never had a hard nose player that will go in and do the dirty work. Yes Homer does it but he's more of a screen the goalie and get deflections. Homer is the best at what he does and has the talent to do it, however crashing the net isn't a talent anyone on the team can crash the net and pound a goal in but no one does. If we continue to shoot from the outside and at points we don't have anyone skating in with the shot from rebounds or deflections off skates. Our other problem is we have way to many "role players" They are very useful but you only need so many. You gotta mix them in with different players. 2 lines of "role players"... whats the point. Don't get me wrong I'm very optimistic about our next season we just need to tweek a few things add some players that will fill in some roles that we need. Its just fustrating to see that we are always stubborn about the way we play and only play one way.

I think we can all agree that Brad McCrimmon has got to go.

this discussion is full of fail

The way I understand it is that the NHL rules are ment to be bent and manipulated by the discression of the NHL however and whenever they see fit. I say this in general to all teams.

Its kinda funny for me because the first day of Wings playoffs is when I actually do shave! I start of fresh every playoffs on Wings 1st playoff game then let it go until Wings are done. I do have to admit that I have to trim my upper lip cuz I can't stand facial hair curling over my upper lip and getting in the way of eating/drinking.

What bothers me the most about what Milbury said was the fact he said it during an Olympic event. IMO there should be a litte more respect when people are representing their country to compete. Regardless of how anyone feels how Russia played they don't deserve to be disrespected by calling them "Eurotrash". I expect that out of discussions in forums and with friends but not broadcasted during the Olympics. I always thought Milbury was a tool now this only confirms how much of an idiot this guy is.

IMO I think Russia has a better chance with Bryzgalov in net than Nabokov. I think Nabokov cracks too much under pressure and isn't a goalie you want in a game like this. Unless I skimmed the posts too quick I'm suprized starting goalies have been brought up. I think to if Ovi brings his A game there's no stopping him and Russia played like USA constantly hounding the puck carriers lots of forechecking they'll have a good chance advancing. It should be an entertaining game regardless.

I'm wondering where people get this idea that when our injured players come back (most from a lengthy absence from the game) we'll suddenly become this power house team we used to be. Usually players coming back from injuries takes a while to get back their legs and scoring touch, and with how close players are getting back to the end of the season I'd be worried that even getting those players we need its going to take them awhile to get back to how they used to play. Of coarse they could be super human and come back and immediately make an impact and shoot up the standing in the last month or so of the season and do what the Blues did last year. One thing I'm glad for is the young talent we have coming up they have been impressive given the circumstances.

I agree though he has the potential to be a power forward. A friend and I where just talking about this. If he gets that hard nose and drives to the net (which the wings are missing that type of player) more often then I think he can get that power forward lable. He's lately been doing that more often goin to the net and hopefully he realizes with the size he has he can score more goals that way. In any event keep up the good work Franzen!

Oh please I might catch some crap for this but come on ppl. How many of you buy enough tickets in a year for you to really be affected by this??? and if you do then paying tax on some tickets isn't really putting a hole in your wallet. From what I herd it was 6% tax on tickets. If you can't afford 6 bucks on a $100 ticket then you shouldn't be out wasting the money in your gas tank to drive to the place. Seriously you people are over reacting.

whats up with the Tigers... I think hell is going to freeze over this year

I dunno I don't like this trade at all. I doubt it will happen anyways, but I'd trade someone other than Lang for Zednik. He's about as streaky as Samulsson if not worse. Yeah... I'd pass on this one

Isn't an attempt on a rookie QB already a bad idea for the Lions. Thats like Buffalo throwing in Ryan Miller way too early. Lions would have just ruined any QB's career.

I'm thinking the Seahawks are going to win. Who knows thought I like both teams but hoping more that Seahawks win.