betterREDthandead

I've never been so happy in my life about a draft pick. I was deathly afraid the Lions would screw up the obvious choice - literally sitting in my chair just as nervous as if it was triple OT, Game 7. Suh is a franchise-changer.

I agree it's really not a story, but if it were something story-worthy, the "pregame ritual" thing wouldn't apply, so it shouldn't here, either. If snowing a kid is a jerk thing to do, then it's not excusable via pregame ritual; and if it isn't, then it doesn't matter.

Um, I'm not making any judgments on whether Ovechkin is a jackass here or not, but the "pregame routine" thing is the stupidest excuse ever. If it was his pregame routine to shoot a whole bunch of pucks as hard as he can at the wall at that spot, is that an excuse if he hits the kid? Whether or not Ovechkin is a dick for this, I'll leave up to the kid, but just because you "always do something" doesn't mean you get to go ahead and automatically have the right to do it whether or not someone else is in the way. That's just stupid.

Fine, if you think this is important enough to crusade about, Howie it is. Have fun frothing at the mouth over the 3,212th most important issue of the playoffs.

"Howie" just sounds like noise when 20,000 people say it. I like Jimmy.

Knew he had it in him. The no-mask save would have been a great one even with headgear on.

I was apart of the vote. I had nothing to do with it.

There's nothing there other than "he's about ready for a job but Holland's not ready to retire." The first sentence is "Steve Yzerman may not leave the Detroit Red Wings this offseason, but it may be soon." You don't need Insider to have figured that out ages ago.

What if you're facing a goalie you don't have much shootout tape on, and the goalie flashes a glove hand that you know is going to beat that third-best shooter you have who loves going glove side, because you blindly ordered them 1-2-3 without thinking about it? Maybe you'd like to change your mind and put your 4th best guy there because he goes five-hole and this goalie looks like he's got a five-hole the size of Montana. I can think of lots of reasons.

Proof once again that the Red Wings' backup goalie has no rival in popularity, except for the Lions' backup quarterback. Ozzie's the best guy we got, until he plays, then he's the worst, until he sits.

Howard was supposed to be the serviceable backup. Unfortunately Ozzie ran out of youth.

The second one you mention, he was in position to make the stop had the defense done its job and forced the puck outside. The defense should NEVER have let the puck carrier skate right into the middle like that.

I love Ozzie to death but I think this was the season that marked the end of his career as a dependable starter. I mean, he's 37. I think Howard's really only let in one softie the whole series - this isn't comparable to 2006 and Legace.

I'm strangely OK with it if we don't. High-scoring favors the Wings.

It seems to me that it's not really a good sign for the long-term existence of a team in that city if they have to keep signing agreements to stay there.

Lifted his stick, that's all. A Datsyukian goal.

HUGE. If we could have just killed a simple penalty in Game 1 we'd be taking a commanding lead back to the Joe right now. I think the Doan talk is hilarious considering how badly this site was all over his nuts back in the day

I found the secret to winning playoff games. Score 7 goals. I can't remember the last time the Wings lost a high-scoring series, so keeping this kind of thing up can only be a plus.

Eh, I'd have liked to see him stop the Lombardi goal. That's half on him. Seriously, though, the one that came before that....Kronwall WTF.

I thought that was Miller. I suppose I could have mistaken the 8 for a 0.

So this time they're warning us in advance that they intend to wave off Holmstrom's goals? Awesome.

Hehe poor St. Louis. I always hate it when the Blues don't make the playoffs because I like ending their dreams.

Don't know why people think the snake signifies a one. It has zero legs. Anyway, harold's right. Imitation, flattery, etc: you know we have the original, what more do you need? Even if the Yotes stay in Phoenix, this'll just be forgotten about, and the octopus will live on.

Uh, exactly.

Unfortunately, rookie goalies just don't win Cups. You can count on one hand the number of goalies in the modern era that pop their playoff cherry and win the Cup in the same year, and they're Hall of Famers. (Which, if Jimmy turns out to be, great, but unlikely.)