betterREDthandead

What??? Buy the DVD. My TiVo's going too....it's been recording every single game these conference finals.

Yeah, but Ozzie made a couple big saves early. Gotta give him full marks for the period.

GREAT PERIOD. Now do it again.

OK, gonna head this off at the pass, otherwise Steve Ott will be crying all summer: Puck in net BEFORE Draper in crease. That is a fact. Carry on celebrating.

Our first round picks for the last 15 years: 2007: Brendan Smith 2005: Jakub Kindl 2000: Niklas Kronwall 1998: Jiri Fischer 1996: Jesse Wallin 1995: Max Kuznetsov 1994: Yan Golubovsky 1993: Anders Eriksson That's it. I think it's pretty clear the Wings built this dynasty for the most part despite their first-rounders, not because of them. But it's not really true that the Wings remain elite without high draft picks. Holland is just really smart about trading them away, and doing so has brought us a lot of talent.

The worst part is I'm not even surprised. The Lions already showed they take their fans for granted by not making even the slightest attempt to improve the team.....ever. And the worse worst part is, I'll be back in September, watching the team and rooting for them. I know it's abuse and I can't turn away. Though for the first time ever last year, I could actually envision a set of circumstances that would cause me to switch allegiances. That's never happened before.

Nah. Trevor Daley's not that good a goalie.

I don't know how many times in Game 5 I heard Emrick say "just missed the net!" I don't know how good ol' Doc's judgment is but he seems to be pretty sharp-eyed. I think C-Dub has it right - the Wings are aiming wide on purpose hoping for a corner because Turco will otherwise make the save.

shut up u not rly w1ngs fan

That's exactly why a new arena would be such a boost. Plop one down and it would take care of a lot of the blight that currently exists there. It'd be a sort of bridge between the MGM and Foxtown. And given the money Ilitch must make by charging $15 at the Joe parking garage, I bet a new garage would be part of the deal.

Basically Babcock just moved Hudler up to 2 from 4 and rotated Maltby and Sammy down a notch each. Between Meech-Cheli and Lebda-Lilja, I bet we see Meech out there tonight for Lebda.

There's more pressure on the Stars now than there was in Game 4, and there's more pressure on the Stars than the Wings. That should work in our favor. People think that we need to step up the scoring effort, but I really think that all we need is some breaks. What needs to happen is a renewed focus on defense. We got here by snuffing the other team's chances. Let's go for a shutout tonight.

Thanks for chiming in and reminding me that despite the fact that I'm surrounded by people whose national hockey team is better than mine....it could be worse

Not so fast, yo. We knocked off the 'Cuse in the regular season. Close overtime game. It's been a tough ride for us so far this tournament, but I'll just turn on the excuse machine and say the sloppy field hurt us against UMBC and Maryland gave us fits all season anyway. This field is like a basketball Final Four of UNC, Duke, Kentucky, and UCLA, so it's gonna be a hard road for whoever wins.

In my case he grows up to be a rocket scientist, but still couldn't take me in basketball in a hundred years. Anyway, I'm not as worried over a two-game losing streak as some are. I don't see how this would be very much different if we'd taken a more conventional route to 3-2.

So he gives credit to the winning team. Isn't that EXACTLY what we bitched and bitched and bitched about NOT happening for the last month and a half??

You and everyone else, as indicated by the myriad of panic-esque topics out there already.

For those interested... Current international rankings following the WHC (top 30 only, do we really care where Mongolia sits?): 1. Canada 2. Russia 3. Sweden 4. Finland 5. Czech Republic 6. United States 7. Switzerland 8. Slovakia 9. Belarus (these 9 qualify for the 2010 Olympics automatically.) 10. Germany 11. Latvia 12. Norway 13. Denmark 14. Italy 15. Slovenia 16. Austria 17. Ukraine 18. France (these 9 qualify automatically for the Olympic qual tourney, to be joined by 3 winners in the pre-qual tourney from the 12 below.) 19. Kazakhstan 20. Hungary 21. Poland 22. Japan 23. Lithuania 24. Netherlands 25. Estonia 26. Croatia 27. Romania 28. China 29. Great Britain 30. Serbia The rest are SOL for the Olympics. Not that Israel would have had a shot anyway. The groupings for next year's WHC: Group A: Canada, Slovakia, Belarus, Hungary Group B: Russia, Switzerland, Germany, France Group C: Sweden, USA, Latvia, Austria Group D: Finland, Czech Rep., Norway, Denmark And the groupings for the 2010 Olympics: Group A: Canada, USA, Switzerland, 3rd qualifier Group B: Russia, Czech Rep., Slovakia, 2nd qualifier Group C: Sweden, Finland, Belarus, 1st qualifier

I don't think so. They wouldn't tell him "go ahead and exercise" if that were true. They'd string us along without that kind of update otherwise. If this were Game 7 of the Cup Finals, he'd play. If this were January, they'd say "out two weeks" and leave it at that.

Sammy's already signed for next year. He's a UFA in 2009. Unless he gets cut - unlikely - he'll be around.

Now do we see why Stuart doesn't play the point on the power play?

Even more likely....most guys would refuse the help. I would scoot around the bases on my butt with my bad knee up in the air before I let the other team pick me up. They'd probably detour to right field and dump me on the warning track anyway.

Yeah, then it could be just like the Palace....nothing to do after the game but spend 10 minutes walking across the sea of asphalt and then another 15 trying to navigate out of the parking lot. Suburban arenas are the worst.

I'd love to get a UVA-Duke rematch in the championship (and win, of course.) We lost the ACC title game but the national championship would make up for it. Gotta get through Maryland and then probably Syracuse though. That's tough.

Unless Cleveland blows it (unlikely - the game is a defensive slopfest) looks like there will be a Game 7 between the Celtics and Cavaliers. So who would us Piston fans prefer to play? Before the playoffs I'd have said I was pulling for Cleveland 110%, but they are exposing some serious flaws in Boston's game. If we get Boston, the Pistons have the chance to knock off the anointed darlings in the East, plus, going through the Celtics, then the Lakers for the championship is some straight-up Bad Boys stuff. But Cleveland really is the lesser talented team, we'd get home-court advantage which in the second round has meant everything, and a shot at revenge. I'm torn.