BlueMonk

The fans at the Joe answered the bell tonight! The place was packed and loud. As the CBC crew pointed out, it was standing room only. Well done, fans!

That's the second worst thing they can do. The worst thing they can do is just "let it go." I'm not talking about taking themselves out of their game, I'm talking about someone getting in his face and letting him know he can't do that and just expect to get away with it.

I don't care what the league does to Ribeiro, all I care about is seeing the team respond in game 3. I want to see every check finished on him and general animosity focused in his direction all game long.

Al Strachan sounds exactly like the Milton Waddams character - the guy with the glasses from Office Space who keeps getting screwed over by the company. Listen and close your eyes.

Cheli has had a propensity for taking incredibly stupid penalties this season.

The officiating in this game is embarrassing. This is ice hockey, not figure skating.

Weak penalties on both sides. Let 'em play, refs.

I do, too. They were doing it when I was at game one of the Avs series.

Grapes is singing the praises of the Wings. He just said Holmstrom is the best at what he does, and said he's better than Ryan Smyth.

I do, too. He's one of the best. All the CBC guys are, for my money.

All I can say is, if the Wings lose, I want the media talk only about the "lucky break" the Stars got instead of spending any time on what the Stars did right. You know, just to be fair.

Hearing Jim Hughson overpronounce names is great. Of the Wings, Filppula's name gets a particularly good treatment from Hughson

There are other factors, and I think some of the fans have lost some interest. The loss of the stars who fans associated with the Cup teams is a big one. But hey, at the end of the day, the playoff games are back to sellouts. I think things are on the uptick, personally.

Helm! I love this kid!

It really is a huge difference. I've noticed this before when HNIC covers the Wings games at the Joe.

OOTF, I think it's worse than you think. The highest unemployment in the country, the worst housing market in the country. People are fleeing by the thousands and the population is dropping quickly. I understand what your saying; sure, there are a few thousand people who have the financial security to buy hockey tickets. But the fan base of this team is, and has pretty much always been, a blue collar one. These are the folks hit the hardest and the ones who are either out of work, fearing for their jobs, or simply have left the state to find work elsewhere.

Hahaha. Maybe so. CBC speculating that maybe Hartigan will take his place, as he was skating in warm-ups. Are you kidding me? D-Mac or even Downey, please.

Yeah, that was the beginning of this ridiculous goal scoring streak he's been on. WTF?!

Here's a link to mlive. And they're saying he's been experiencing headaches since *early* in the Colorado series and will miss at least 2 games.

That's an impressive reach, but not what I'm saying at all. You can speculate all you want about anything you want. But your comments suggest that you don't really get the impact an uncertain job market has on a community. Even those who haven't lost their jobs or left the state are going to be more cautious about spending money on things like sporting events. You don't know when you might lose your job and people save for a rainy day. A Wings game is just not that important in the context of real world concerns like that. See above.

This discussion is all fine until people who aren't even here to experience the Michigan economy start proselytizing about how metro-Detroiters should spend their income.

He said the Wings are hard to hate. He said Babcock has them play a style where they don't retaliate. He showed a clip of Homer getting punched twice in a scrum. He said the Wings are a great team and he thinks they'll win the Cup. That Detroit is his favorite city in the U.S. He talked about the empty seats and said that the fans remember the days of Probert, Kocur, etc. and they miss that kind of hockey, which is why the people aren't getting excited. He said he loves Mr. Ilitch but he pleaded with him that the fans want to see that kind of hockey. I disagree with Grapes about some of the things he said, but he was anything but "hating" the team.

Excellent news!

We'll start with one I just saw in the Nashville-St. Louis game. Hordichuk-King. Looked like a pretty good tilt from the one replay I saw. I'd give the win to King, who landed the best punch of the fight.

Besides TV, Clement can be heard hosting the XM radio show that Bettman fields questions from callers on. I like Clement a lot. He's a good representative for the NHL; well spoken, very professional, very passionate about the game.