betterREDthandead

The third period has been the property of the Detroit Red Wings ever since the playoffs began. We are in good shape.

I can't be the only one who enjoys watching the same fans that were earlier chanting their little Detroit Sucks chant hanging their heads now, right?

Yep. Only one skate ever left the ice. The other lifted after the impact. Unless by "launch himself into" you mean "rock the f*** out of."

Too bad we played our best hockey while spending seven minutes a man down. Oh, and there should have been a penalty on Sharp for tripping Zetterberg on the breakaway.

I'm gonna hafta suggest that anyone who's on the top-ten list all-time in goals has a guaranteed spot somewhere in the top ten at his position.

Sure, because Roenick has absolutely no history of mouthing off and pulling s*** out of his ass.

Or, a Patrick Roy hat trick is simply two hat tricks in Game 7.

We could do these all day. A Patrick Roy hat trick is when your son scores a Gordie Howe hat trick and gets suspended for part three.

Agreed.....once you watch enough Extra Innings broadcasts of other teams, you start realizing Rod's not so bad with the homerism. I do more than my share of bitching about Hawk Harrelson, who might be the worst announcer in the history of baseball. The Seattle Mariners' guys are pretty normal when not much is going on but when the Mariners start scoring, they start shouting and don't stop til the end of the inning.

The Datsyuk hat trick (I can dream:) 1. Hart 2. Selke 3. Pearson The Yzerman hat trick: 1. 2. 3.

Last night I went to my Tivo and watched the GWG again about four times. Because it's fun

Penguins: More rested, less talented. I'll take the trade off.

This, actually.

The point is, the Blackhawks played about as good a game as they can expect to play. Their goalie was very good, they peppered Osgood with shots, they generally looked like the fresher team. And they lost. It proves the Wings don't even need their 'A' game. B+ game will do fine. If they can't create enough chances to win on their own, they can wait for the Blackhawks to make mistakes. Obviously there's still more than enough hockey to be played, but if you were a Blackhawks fan, wouldn't this be getting into your head right about now?

The best part about Ozzie has always been his loyalty to the Winged Wheel. Can't doubt his devotion to this team and organization. A win in his 100th game is a fine reward, but I think a pair of trophies after six more wins would be an even better one. Three trophies, actually.

Even though these have been kind of close games, especially Game 2, I still don't really feel threatened by the Blackhawks. Ozzie's been shutting them down and I don't get that nasty feeling (like I did sometimes against the Ducks) that we can't score on them. I think we can score whenever we need a goal.

Dayum. I hope we see a lot more of that Dontrelle all season. The rotation is shaping up to be nasty, if Dontrelle can turn in a few more like that and get back to the Dontrelle we traded for. Just nasty. Like it was in '06, only better.

I at least want the Datsyuk-Hossa-Homer deal to stay together. They've gotten some chances but that's not the point - I just like the idea of Babcock telling those three to go work out their issues all at once.

Not really. Sammy made a lousy play, right after making a very good one. The bounce was fluky, but the play that led to it shouldn't have happened. Puck should have been down the ice.

Holy s*** am I glad I didn't see any Wings fans embarrassing themselves in that Fanarchy commercial. The executive who thought of that show needs to be kicked out on his ass and sent to work for QVC until he's 95. I can't think of a worse idea for a TV show that I've ever seen.

Sports Guy: I love this game I would like this column better if Simmons didn't walk smack dab into the (mostly true) stereotype of Boston fans - namely, they're a bunch of bandwagoneers who act like their teams are God's gift to sports and soak up their teams' positions in the center of the sports world (in their eyes) as long as that team is, in fact, winning. The Bruins finally turn into a good team, just in time for Simmons to be all over that action.

In the interest of full disclosure, my opinion on Boston fans was formed before I got here; moving here simply confirmed it. I didn't see a single piece of Bruins merchandise around here until the playoffs began this year. I sure saw a lot of "Yankees suck" t-shirts, though. I can't blame Boston fans entirely. The media enables it. ESPN made this big deal of all three Boston teams winning on the same day a little while ago and went so far as to make a poll question of it: which Boston team was most likely to win their championship this year? I sure don't remember any such poll question whenever Detroit pulled that feat.

You can find out by reading the article. (Hint: for the most part, no.)

You're missing the point. Sometime back, Simmons wrote an "I'm done with hockey" column. I don't remember exactly when, but it detailed his slide into hockey non-fandom, which as he mentioned again here, happened not too long after he left college. If I remember Simmons right, he graduated college in the early-mid 90s. He doesn't like Jeremy Jacobs as an owner, which is funny because he was fine with Jacobs when the Bruins went to the Finals twice in three years ('88 and '90.) I somehow doubt that it's coincidence that his distaste for hockey occurred while the Bruins sucked. Meantime, he missed the Wings-Avs rivalry and a lot of good hockey that just wasn't being played in Boston. And now, we still have the instigator penalty and the league is stepping in and suspending people for "message-sending", and "soft Euros" abound in hockey, like "Looch" who he loves so much, but the Bruins are good again. And so Bill Simmons is a hockey fan again. I like a lot of stuff that he writes, but he's also your typical bandwagon-hopping, universe-revolves-around-us Boston fan when it comes to the Bruins.

The third period of Game 1. I don't think the first and second periods were especially great. For certain stretches only, really.