BlueMonk

What a freakin' game. Wow!

Amongst Canucks fans?

You must have missed Vancouver's last win over Detroit.

Tough break for Predators fans. But hey, anything can happen in a playoff series.

San Jose's top line is just flat out terrifying. I'd love to see the stats on their success rate pulling the goalie for an extra skater down a goal. It seems like they almost always score the tying goal. If you're leading the Sharks by a goal and it's inside a minute in the third period, just poke it into your own net and save yourself the trouble.

I hope the Wings dress a tough guy next year in the first game against the s***birds. I'd like to see Barker face down in a pool of his own blood. More likely, he'll get a nasty facewash from Samuelsson as retribution. Well, no major injuries and a pretty easy win. Nothing to do now but wait!

They were talking about this on XM 204 today. Any of the Predators fans know what exactly he did? None of the callers today had any idea.

Wings need to call a timeout so Osgood can find his jockstrap after that. Wow, what a move by Vrbata.

It took 82 games to happen, but the Wings are finally a) shooting at a goalie who completely sucks, b) facing a team that isn't all "fired up" to be playing the Detroit Red Wings, c) getting favorable whistles and d) getting all the lucky bounces. Add it all up and you have a 5 goal lead!

What surprised me was the discussion on XM 204. They were saying that Trotz said after the game that if Hartnell does it again, he's gone. I took "gone" to mean, no longer with the team. I was a little surprised the coach would make a statement like that.

Probie and Parker. Funniest part is that Parker doesn't want to let go when the refs come in. Watch the official literally trying to karate chop Parker's hand from Probert's jersey to separate them.

Yeah, because it was pretty obvious that his post wasn't like the 4,000 other ones just like it that somebody makes up on a daily basis just for fun. Good call, champ.

Radio where?

7 years is a long time, but this looks to me like a statement contract from the Red Wings. They're committed to keeping a core of players, and Datsyuk is one of them, around for the long term. Lots of us have commented that Datsyuk appears to have turned a corner this year. He looks stronger, more determined and better defensively than he ever has. He has carried the team on his back for stretches this year. I would be surprised if the playoffs were a major problem for him the rest of the way. I tend to agree with Yzerman that his playoff troubles are a bit of an anomaly. We'll find out this year, especially if the Red Wings go deep in the playoffs. Lots of players looked like playoff flops until they got a chance to go several rounds in the playoffs. But a bigger part of the commitment is the leadership role the Wings seem to be trusting to Datsyuk. The team has changed since Yzerman and Shanahan left. Remember how clueless they looked on that early west coast road trip last fall? Then there was a players only meeting, and I think the seed of leadership from the young stars like Datsyuk and Zetterberg was finally planted. Now, they seem to be leaders on this team. The coaching staff's system has been fully adopted and the team plays a different style. The way Yzerman sacrificed stats to become a two-way player and really lead the team in the playoffs resembles this situation with Datsyuk, if you ask me. Maybe they felt this was an essential commitment they needed to make to ensure Datsyuk is one of the conerstones of this team. You do need continuity and leadership to maintain the winning year in and out. It is a lot of money (based on the estimates we're hearing), and it's a gamble. Time will tell if it was a smart move or not. And I'm not talking "this summer" time. I'm talking "years from now" time.

13Dats, well done! I moved your thread per policy, but I had an inkling that you might be for real. Just a hunch. That's why I didn't suspend you. I'll know better from now on! You're the man!

13Dats, nice work!

We need a source or this is being deleted and you're going to get a vacation from here.

Just so we're clear,I'm on record picking a first round exit for Detroit, especially if they played Calgary. But what worries me isn't a lack of effort. Over the grind of 82 games, I don't expect balls to the wall effort every night. I'm more worried about other things. But yeah, as you say, we'll find out soon enough.

Calgary hasn't been working their asses off. They're a different team than they were under Sutter. Calgary has scored more goals than Detroit and has become considerably softer. And I totally disagree with your assessment of the talent of the respective teams. The Wings are where they are because of discipline and coaching. The talent level in a salary cap landscape NHL is not as disparate as it used to be.

It's rare for all those other teams to play 60 minutes, too. Have you watched Calgary this year? They've won like 2 road games all year. Seriously, if you were a fan of one of those other teams, you'd probably feel the same way that you do about the Wings. The Red Wings brought their A game and played 60 minutes for key games against Nashville all season long and against Anaheim last week. They slack off against bad teams. And if all the other teams weren't doing the same thing, then the Wings wouldn't be ahead of all of them in the standings.

If it's based on a couple of games during the dog days of the season when the players are chomping at the bit to get the playoffs started and they're resting half their star players on a nightly basis? Then yes, it's silly!

That's pretty silly.

Yes. Yes, it is.

I knew when it got to OT it was going to be a loss, but the point is huge. Finishing in 2nd place in the conference is no big thing (the jinx aside), but losing the division would have sucked.

What on earth has gotten into Robert Lang? He's unrecognizable out there!