therock48880

I completely agree. It cracks me up when I read comments like the wings were a bad call from winning the Cup. (not referring to you NN). That call didn't take place in game 7 of the Cup finals. There was a LOT of hockey left to be played. Could the wings have beaten Ottawa? Absolutely. Could they have suffered an emotional letdown after getting through the Western Conference and ended up losing to Ottawa, not to mention the physical beating that they took in the playoffs? Absolutely. The fact is, the Wings weren't quite good enough to win last year. They were very close, but not quite there. It's that simple. IT"S BEEN 7 GAMES PEOPLE! Dom isn't the only goalie in the nhl that's gotten off to a rocky start. Are the Vancouver fans calling for Luongo to retire and be replaced by someone else? I doubt it. For anyone to suggest, which someone did in this thread, that Hasek should retire and Howard should back up Osgood is amazing considering it's been SEVEN GAMES. Forgetting Osgood and Hasek, the effect that would have on Howard would be extremely negative. The kid needs to play in GR. So, everyone take a Xanax and relax a little.

Hasek's always been a slow starter, even in the SIX years that he won the Vezina. I think everyone needs to relax a little bit. I don't hear people saying Lidstrom should be benched and he's playing terrible. Actually, the whole defense, Hasek included, is playing terrible, in my opinion. Hasek makes you more nervous than Osgood? That's hillarious.

Hasek and Lidstrom have always gotten stronger as the year progressed, especially Hasek. I hope that trend continues this year.

He's playing center and they have him listed as left winger. For the most part, he has centered the line with Dats and Homer and started the year as a center on the "2nd line". (I put quotes around 2nd line because his line was playing more minutes than datyuk's)

I don't know if the players come here but I do know that some of their siblings do.

So, then tell my why Giguere was never run last year in the playoffs and Hasek was hit repeatedly? Was that just a coincidence, in your opinion? Iginla even came out in the papers saying they were doing it on purpose to Dom. No, Dom, you're wrong. The Wings won three cups because Grimson wasn't on the team!

I was bored so I watched the game again last night, paying particular attention to the traffic in front of the net. I stand by my original statement. There was hardly any traffic in front of the net on most of the Wing's shots.

I kinda thought so too. But....... 1. Perry kinda sucker punched him when he was unhooking his helmet 2. There was a point when Drake had the upper hand and it looked like he wanted to throw his right and held off because he had just punched that *****'s helmet.

I look at it the other way. They had 42 shots, but how many of them came with a guy in front of the net or someone charging the net? Not many at all. A shot from the blueline with no screen isn't hard for a goalie to stop. The top line didn't concern me as much as the lack of people going to the net did. Even idiot Bertuzzi when his back was acting up went to the net and tried to deflect shots. Calder would do it too. There wasn't much of that last night (except homer, of course). Good point. I'd put the over/under at one month before that happens and I'm taking the under.

Their physical play is much more interesting to watch, in my opinion. Also, I wouldn't make a big deal about the shot advantage for Detroit last night. Actually one of the things that alarmed me was the lack of traffic in front of the goal. Homer was there, as usual, but that's about it. Those shots from the blue line with no screen aren't difficult for an NHL goalie to stop. It kinda reminded me of the series a few years back against the ducks. Tons of shots with no screen and no chance for a rebound. Once again, that's just my opinion.

Did you think the Joe was quiet last night? On TV it seemed quiet but I think there may have been something wrong with Versus audio for the announcers. I had to turn it up really loud to hear those idiots but when a commercials came on it was really loud.

Unless he's recently started doing it, Iginla doesn't take his off. It was off the boards a little bit but when he blasted him Filpula flew into the boards. There was no one around them and it was quite obvious. My only thought was maybe the refs thought they weren't close enough to the boards. But Flip hit the boards hard and struggled to get up. There was one series on a power play that he cross checked Holmstrom at least five times, boarded Flip, etc... The usual cheap crap from the idiot.

Ok, maybe "slow" wasn't the right word. I should have used "not fast". I can make quite a list from both teams of big guys who aren't fast skaters. But you are right, none of them are Luc Robataile slow. Anaheim has a slower team than San Jose, in my opinion. That's what's scary about the Sharks. If they could somehow develop the mental toughness that they lacked against the Wings, they'd be virtually unstoppable.

The Ducks are loaded with big, tough, slow guys. So are the sharks, for that matter. Good point. People forget the Kocur and Probert were not liabilities on the ice when they weren't fighting.

Here's where having a Downey at the end of the bench could be helpful. There was a power play (I don't remember which one) where I watched Pronger cross-check Holmstrom at LEAST 5 times in front of the net. Over and over he kept nailing him. And then there was the questionable "no call" when he boarded Fillpula. Wouldn't be nice to send someone on the ice who's whole goal was to have a chat with Pronger? Maybe not even fight him, but at least let him know that the cheapshots need to stop. I don't know. I just get tired of watching teams take runs at the goalie, beat on Holmstrom mercilessly, board people, slash people, etc. with no fear of retaliation. Would that have made it easier for the Wings to win the game? Who knows. But it would have been nice for someone to talk to the idiot and threaten him and have the threat carry some meaning. In my opinion, of course.

There's tons of empty seats. There was an article at mlive.com today about the lack of passion toward the wings this year. Seems it may have been true. The loudest the Joe got so far was when Kopecky hit pronger after he high sticked Maltby.

Hockey players don't have to score to be useful. Ellis worked his butt off in camp and earned this. He won't score 30 goals but he'll hustle.

This is what I was just thinking. I think he sometimes talks faster than his mind can think and maybe that's the explanation for the Schneider/Rafalski comments (they were completely backward, which makes me think he may have misspoken). Other than that, he was pretty much right on. It may be hard for people to believe, but the Wings aren't among the powerhouses in the Western Conference right now. However, they still have tons of money to spend at the trade deadline and that could change everything. But as things stand right now, they probably ARE a second tier team in the West. Notice he said 5 teams the MIGHT be better. Relax people. It's not even October yet and people are flipping out about preseason predictions. As the Wolverines prove, preseason predictions mean nothing.

Bucci mentions that the wings are boring. Last year I was at the March 14th game. It was the second night of a home and home with Nashville as the two teams were battling for the division. In years past, the Joe would have been rocking, but not this night. The loudest it got was when Bootland tried to go after Tootoo in retaliation for his cheap shots the night before. Other than that, the place was very quiet. Maybe they ARE a boring team.

True, but I don't think they had many PIM's. That's what the "anti-toughness crowd" at LGW is referring to.

How can you argue anything he said? It's a fact that the wings have had the smallest roster the past few years. Yup, they lost in the WCF last year. Some are happy with that and some are not. Personally, I'm not. You have stated in the past that you ARE happy with that and I think that's where a lot of the disagreements come from. Those who are content to lose in the WCF see no need for change. Those who aren't, want change. To be honest, I hope you're right and this team is good enough to win the Cup. However, history has shown repeatedly that teams like the Wings don't win Cups. That's what Bucci was talking about in his analaysis of the Wings. Teams used to dread playing them, now they don't. They aren't a difficult team to play against physically. Babcock has said repeatedly that he wants to make them harder to play against. Yet many of you don't agree. Maybe Babcock's wrong. I think he's right, though. I haven't gone back and watched the games but I seriously can't remember one time when anyone run Giggy in the playoffs last year. Yet Hasek was run repeatedly. Iginla was even quoted in the paper saying they were purposely running at him to throw him off his game. Can you imagine someone saying that about Giggy? It would NEVER happen. In terms of team toughness, you know what play set the tone for the entire Calgary series? It wasn't a dazzling goal by Zetterberg or anyone else, it was a tremendous hit delivered by Schneider along the boards early in game one. That fired the crowd and the players up. Great post!!!

You list ONE team that won a cup without anyone who would be considered tough. Way to prove a point. How about ALL THE OTHER TEAMS THAT WON IT? It's funny how many people hang their hat on the fact that one team in the past 20-30 years has been able to win a cup without toughness. How about the other 19-29 years? By the way, the original post had nothing to with an eforcer, it was about team toughness. You don't need to have a goon to be a tough team. Technically, Mccarty wasn't a goon. He wasn't even a "heavyweight". He was probably a "light heavyweight". Yet those teams were tough.

I wasn't referring to you.

A couple years ago I chatted with Norrisnick and suggested that this site needed to have an age limit to be allowed in. At the time I was half-joking, but after reading a couple of the immature posts in this thread, I may have been onto something. GROW UP! (obviously I'm only referring to a couple people that have posted in this thread).

I will absolutely say that Homer wasn't the same player after that hit as he was before it. He was much more tentative along the boards and not as determined in the front of the net. Whether anyone likes it or not, Pronger's hit took Homer out of that series and changed the balance of it. Homer was unstoppable up until that hit. I don't see how anyone can argue differently.