betterREDthandead

Part defense or lack thereof, part the fact that he has more PPP than anyone in the league right now.

HOWEVA. Crosby and Malkin are the two most dynamic scorers in the matchup. Pittsburgh may not have the depth of talent, but sometimes the best of the best is what determines the series. This has all the makings of a seven-gamer.

It's not a photoshop per se, but I think it needed to be brought back from last year for special occasions like this.....

Honestly, the Penguins have always been my second-favorite team....it's like, a very long, distant second, but Mario was always a great player and a classy, stand-up guy. Plus I like Pittsburgh teams in general. I like how they all have the same colors, and any town that shares a burning hatred for Ohio is a plus in my book. That said, let's kick their ass this week.

Any game reffed by McCreary is a fair one. Devorski's not bad either. Joannette and Larue, I'm a little less on board with, but IIRC McCreary was left out of last year's Finals, which is a mistake, because he's the only ref that I'm ever actively happy to see working a game.

Yeah, last time I went (admittedly, was 7 years ago) we just walked up to the ticket office and the place wasn't full. No sweat getting a ticket. As for what time to be there, well, the game's at 8, use your judgment. Should be plenty of seats though.

Wings in 7. This'll be much harder than last year, I think. Last year we had the Pens in a 2-0 hole because they didn't know the Cup Finals from a hole in the ground and weren't ready. They're ready this year. Now we can't say they haven't been around the block. They have a coach they actually like playing for. It's not as simple as "they lost Hossa, we got Hossa" (although that's a huge factor in our favor.) I think home ice will help us pull this out, but man. Going to be a dogfight the whole way.

And if the Versus/NBC combo offers the NHL enough money to stay solvent and ESPN does not? Because that's pretty much exactly what happened.

Why would they all of a sudden wear out now? They've been double-shifted for a long time now - if they couldn't handle it, they wouldn't be doing it. Plus it works both ways. Maybe Crosby and Malkin are a little bit more tired - and I stress a little bit because I think it's more like a 1.5 shifting where they take turns on the fourth line - but the seventh defenseman means their blue line is that much fresher. Especially as compared to ours, when we're rolling four defensemen all game on Wednesday. This is no advantage at all for us, really.

As long as it ends the same way the WCSF did, I'd dig it

Perhaps by "lower-body" they mean "below the eyes."

Makes a lot more sense than this conspiracy crap. You really think a nine-day wait in between games is a good idea for the league? Why would the NHL want to compete with the NBA Finals - and a possible Kobe-LeBron matchup - for attention?

I don't know about a designated Wings fans meet up or anything, but man, if you go into a bar and they won't hook you up with just one of the many TVs in the place for the hockey game, that is a worthless establishment.

Please. Give the friggin conspiracy bulls*** a rest. Whine whine whine whine whine. I suppose if they'd kept it back, it'd be a conspiracy to give the Wings as little time as possible over the summer to get ready for the next season.

Weekend.

McCreary's usually a fair ref.

:rotflmao: Good joke, man! If Holmstrom sucks as bad as you say he does, why would the Canucks do that?

You could say that about probably three-quarters of the players in the league. I say pass. We're deep enough defensively.

Somebody has to touch it. Otherwise how do you get it from the table to the locker room? The NHL officials aren't gonna do that for you.

This is where Dumars earns his money. The 2010 free agent crop is supposed to be the really good one. So do you sort of call '09-'10 a throwaway year, sit on your cap space, and wait for that crop? Then you run the risk of those teams locking up their guys during the season. Maybe you can swing a sign-and-trade at the deadline, maybe not. Or maybe you take your run now. And what about the draft? Big decisions.

Another bat at the deadline would be a great thing. Santiago is probably not going to keep hitting like this all year. When it comes down to it, we can't really count on half these guys for a clutch hit. Need to have that bat off the bench.

Too bad to lose the win streak the other day, but hey, it's the Rockies. No harm done. A sweep of KC would be money. Gotta get past Greinke tomorrow though. Hey, who's with me on getting the Porcello for ROY bandwagon rolling? I don't see a lot of competition to be honest. Maybe the Jays' Scott Richmond.

Franzen is Ozzie's only real competition for the Smythe, on the Wings at least.

Gold. I'm stealing it.

Rough translation of the article below. So....sheesh....it's basically not even a rumor. Just a dude talking.....and not even about Babcock, half of it.