BlueMonk

Dressing a tough guy for an anticipated night of rough stuff in a game against a division rival. Something I can only dream about, I guess.

Brutal home cooking from the refs in the period. But down one goal isn't bad. If they weather this storm of nonsense, they might get some makeup calls in the 2nd period.

that's great! thanks! you can sort of the see the effect of it radiating from Michigan outwards. Definitely something you see all over the mid-west. I forgot about calling all soft drinks "coke" in the south.

My CBC feed is Toronto-Philadelphia, so I'm watching on Center Ice.

I'm really surprised Murray put those guys on the ice at that point. He should know better than that. Buffalo did have last line change in this game, but he really put his star players in a tough situation.

This is one of the best events of the season if this rivalry blossoms the way it appears to be. These teams are fresh off a playoff series last year and play in the same division, ensuring lots of games against each other. Also, they're two big hockey markets and the fan bases will really get into it.

I should ban you for posting an Eklund rumor.

It's almost like if you go to the net instead of just passing the puck around and shooting bad angle perimeter shots, you have a good chance of scoring a goal. Weird.

Someone keep a running tab of all the good things Jason Williams does on the ice tonight. I'm not just making fun of him, I'm serious. I'd feel better if he notched a few good things.

At least we have something entertaining to talk about! Keep 'em comin', Lindy! Good times.

I should probably warn everyone to get back on topic. Instead, I'd just like to say that Faygo rules! I'm a fan of several flavors, but Redpop is my #1 choice. I also like Rock & Rye a lot. When I was a little kid, my grandma used to drink Frosh. That's the green one, available only in diet. Faygo was actually started in Detroit by a family owned bakery. They made the flavors to match the different kinds of icing they made for their cakes. Faygo is responsible for coining the expression "pop" that those of us from Michigan use to describe soda.

Whether the hit on Drury was legal or not doesn't make any difference. If a tough guy lays out your captain like that, or any of your skill players for that mattter, a hockey team with balls is going to take exception to it. We can argue about who should have hit or fought who in retaliation, but don't tell me that teams should just suck it up because the hit was legal. Hockey is physical and intimidation is a part of it. Not taking any crap from the other team, whether the rules state it's ok or not, is part of gaining an advantage. All these years of watching this creampuff team has confused a lot of Red Wings fans into thinking that accepting pummeling and abuse from the other team is just acceptable. Believe me, the other 29 teams don't operate this way.

Hahahahahahahahahaha. Oh, man. That was funny.

Don't underestimate the Wings' ability to retaliate, harold. I think it's pretty safe to say that they would have some VERY choice words to say about something like that in the postgame presser.

Just the one they advertise. I'm surprised people don't know about this. I had Comcast until just recently and used it all the time. You can watch games on Yahoo also. Just one or two games a night, too. I'm so mad I missed this. Can't wait to see the highlights.

Williams had a good season last year, but he's mostly been a disappointment since his career began 7 years ago. Maybe he needs a change of scenery, I don't know. But he's terrible right now. He may not be the worst forward in the NHL, but he's in the discussion. The guy couldn't shoot a puck into the ocean standing on a pier. He has zero confidence, makes terrible decisions and finds a new way to turn the puck over almost every time he touches it. We hoped last season was finally his breakout, but it's starting to look like it was an outlier, and now he's regressing to the norm. For anything slightly north of a ham sandwich, the Wings should pull the trigger on a deal.

Aucoin channeling Jason Williams tonight.

Buccigross is good. His analysis is usually spot on. I think it is in this case, obviously, since I say the same thing all the time. Speaking of Zetterberg and Datsyuk, one of my pet peeves is when people lump Zetterberg into the "has to prove he can score in the playoffs" pile with Datsyuk. Zetterberg doesn't have to prove any such thing. He potted 6 goals in 6 playoff games last season. For some reason, people aren't doing their research and Hank gets stuck with a label he doesn't deserve.

Great middleweight bout in the Flyers-Bruins game between Richards and Mara. One of the best fights of the season. Pretty exciting game, too.

I'm not exactly in love with Hudler, but I'm not sure about this trade. The problems with Bertuzzi are, a) his health is in question, b) he's not necessarily the physical force he used to be since the Moore incident and c) Bertuzzi has had problems scoring in the playoffs. On the other hand, Bertuzzi's physicality alone won them a playoff series against St. Louis a few years ago. He single handedly destroyed at least three players, putting Jackman and MacInnis out and nailing Bryce Salvador so hard I'm not sure he's gotten up yet. Even though he wasn't scoring in that series, he was a major factor in the Canucks winning it. I just don't know if he still has that in him at this point. Remember the old "Chelios called me fat" thing from a few years ago? When those two were talking trash, Chelios said Bertuzzi told him, "I'll be around long after you're gone," to which Cheli replied, "Don't count on it." I laughed at it back then. But is it such a crazy notion now?

I think that actually has everything to do with it. Teams in the East don't have to go through the kind of opposition that's in the West. What goalie in the East scares you this season? Marty Brodeur for sure. After that, who? Now, in the West, you'll have to go through a group like Kiprusoff, Vokoun, Hasek, Luongo, Nabokov/Toskala, etc. The team that comes out of the West has been through a war to get to the Finals.

I didn't start believing in this team until recently, but count me in. I think they could do major damage this year. For one thing, the East sucks. They'll have a much easier path in that conference.

Even if the other teams all stand pat, I can't agree with this.

I was worried the Wings would break the bank trying get Forsberg, so it's good to see him off the market. This works out well for Detroit IF Holland can land the right player(s) now. A scoring winger is at the top of my list, and hopefully not a smallish, soft one.

I'm pretty indifferent on the subject also. But here's why I brought it up: The presence of Derian Hatcher on the roster, and a hobbled version of him at that, did not prevent the Wings from advancing to the second round of the playoffs. We can argue about causal relationships, and that's fine. But when people here bring up the notion that you can't afford to have players who aren't super skilled on the roster, points like this are sometimes overlooked.