BlueMonk

Penalty shot? Come on; that wasn't even a penalty. That's okay. I'll take it. Terrific pass by Z on that one.

It's at the point where I don't even expect a good effort anymore. The only people more anxious than me for the regular season to end are the players on this team.

I guess I hadn't put much thought into it, but yeah, I can't think of anyone more deserving than Sullivan.

I gotta be honest, I felt like the Preds were more of a rival the first year they reached the playoffs. I think it was 2003-4, right? I'm pretty sure it was that season, just going off the top of my head, when they started beating Detroit in the season series. There was the brawl-filled night in Nashville early that season, I think in October; the one where all the fights broke out and Fischer extracted his revenge on Hartnell with the big KD. Then, in the playoffs, the Preds tied the series at 2-2 (similar to last year, actually) and Vokoun gave the quote about how he hated the Red Wings, etc. Now, if the Preds eliminate the Wings in the playoffs, which would not be a complete shock to me, then it will definitely feel like a rivalry.

(sigh)

Good lord, Cheli, not the time or place for that.

Mickey just beat me to it, but the Preds are doing a fantastic job defending Datsyuk.

Yes. It's a hatred that burns like a thousand suns.

There's no reason for Chris Osgood to ever leave the net to play a puck. What good ever comes out of it? He never makes a play to one of his own defensemen that leads to anything resembling possession of the puck. At best, it leads to a battle along the boards; at worst, it's a brutal turnover. I just don't see the benefit.

If the season ended today, the 1 seed is facing a playoff road that I'd much rather see the Red Wings face than the one the 2 seed would get. Especially if the Flames hang on to the 3 spot. The Flames are a tough team that not only could make a tough 2nd round opponent for the Wings, but could also pose the most problems to the Sharks of any other team. So by getting the 2 seed, the Wings are potentially not only setting themselves up for a tough round 2 matchup (if they're fortunate enough to get there), but also eliminating the team that (IMO) stands the best chance of knocking off their biggest threat (the Sharks). All this could change, of course; there's lots of time left for playoff seeding to change from top to bottom. But the early odds are that finishing first overall is a big deal. Not so much because of home ice in a potential Detroit-San Jose matchup, but because of the playoff matchups. Last season, the playoff matchups were a big reason why Detroit made it to the SCF. It was also the reason why the Wings didn't get there in 2007, when the Ducks coasted against inferior teams while the Wings faced a brutal first two rounds. The Islanders loss felt like a turning point to me, and not a good one. First time the Wings were in control of their playoff seeding destiny and they showed up for only 20 minutes of the game. I hope time proves me wrong.

Very interesting stuff, gooseman. The Wings getting the benefit of the doubt at home to that extent is pretty remarkable. Also kind of cool for me is the validation your study gives to my longtime perception that road games in Western Canada are tilted heavily against the visiting team. One of those instances where anecdotal evidence and the data seem to align.

The Wings mailed it in for 40 minutes. The thing is, you can outplay a team for 60 minutes and still lose if the breaks don't go your way; tonight, they played hard for 20 minutes and didn't get the breaks, so of course they lost. If they win the Cup this summer, nobody will remember this game. But YoungGuns hit on something that I was thinking about during the 2nd period: If you paid to see this game live, you should be pissed. 20,000 paying customers in the worst economy in the United States dished out hard earned money to watch this pile of sh**, and I feel for every one of them. I have to be honest, I've attended fewer games this season because of the inconsistency. I took my daughter to a bunch of games last year because I knew that win or lose, we'd see a solid effort by a team that busted its ass almost every single night. But it was clear early on this season that there were going to be plenty of nights off, even at home. Once we experienced the Pittsburgh loss first hand, I was pretty sour on the lack of effort and I've only been to one game since. Again, this may all be part of letting a team deal with the aftermath of winning the Stanley Cup on its own terms. Babcock learned a lesson when he cracked the whip on his Ducks squad the season after they lost game 7 of the SCF and they wound up missing the playoffs entirely. I think he's picked up enough from experience and all those conversations with Scotty Bowman that he has a big picture strategy about dealing with the off nights without attaching too much significance to them. It seems he picks his spots when it comes to berating the team for playing crappy. Hopefully, the somewhat laid back approach Babs seems to be taking with the team is going to pay off this Spring. I guess we'll see. If they lay an egg in the first round, we may see a different Babcock next season. But damn, to pay hard earned money to watch this game would leave me infuriated.

Well, at least the boys are giving it a top notch effort tonight.

I think this is the first time all season the Sharks have trailed the Wings in the standings and can't pass them by winning games in hand.

Pretty cool. Check it out. http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/em...de-3-23-09.aspx

Quenneville is to NHL coaching what Rick Carlisle is to the NBA. He can take a solid team and make them really good, but I can't imagine him being the head coach of a Stanley Cup winner because of his system. Before the Hawks just scored that 5th goal, they had a clean 3 on 2 and... dumped the puck in the corner.

Good for Cujo! What a performance coming in cold like that.

No lead is safe against the Sharks. I've watched games where they've gone down 3 goals at least 3 or 4 times this season and I don't think they've failed to at least come back and tie the game in any of them.

Nice job by Cherry. Made his point about what he doesn't like about what Ovie did while at the same time praising him as a hockey player (called him the best player in the league), defending his intentions (not trying to taunt, just having fun) and called him a classy guy, to boot. Grapes FTW!

I still haven't seen the link to the part where they do the "hating."

Credit where credit is due; I like what Sid did here.

Tootoo is a way better fighter, especially for his size, than most people here would care to admit. You just don't see the guy lose. Except in this fight. He ate a lot of lefts and took a serious beating.

Ozzie played a very good game. He looks to be in 2007-8 form to me at this point. That's great news heading into the playoffs. The team is as good as they want to be. Their penalty kill and defense in general have been spotty all season, and they still lead the league in points. That should be scary to the rest of the NHL, because if they play 60 minutes, it will be hard to beat them. Of course, if they show the same looseness with the lead in a playoff game, they could get bounced. Which should scare us Wings fans. The subplot here is Babcock has mostly been tolerant of the letdowns, at least publicly. I get the sense that this is a strategy he's learned from experience and maybe some tips he's picked up from Bowman. You gotta let the guys deal with the hangover and as long as they show up in April, May and June, this stuff is trivial. Now, if they bow out early, the second guessing can begin, but I think it's a sound strategy and the team is looking better now than at any other point in the season. The Samuelsson "fight" was embarrassing. As someone else said, this is exactly the kind of thing that gives the Red Wings the (mostly undeserved) reputation they have. Pushing the envelope with a guy like that with your gloves sewn on... just pathetic. If you're a wuss, then don't pretend you aren't. Ridiculous.

WTF is Sammy doing?

CLEAR THE PUCK OUT OF THE ZONE. It's been done. It can be done. LEARN TO DO IT, boys.