betterREDthandead

Hmmmm. I'll have to take a look. Didn't notice that - you'd think it would have occurred to me to wonder why there's no backchecker at all. Which there obviously wasn't, because now that you mention it, I remember Doc Emrick saying something after the goal that most of the time in a situation like that, the player with the puck will get antsy and shoot too soon.....he gave Z credit for having the patience to finish his move. The way Z skated from circle to circle like that, there ought to have been time for a backchecker to get there. So both goals in the third reflect a pretty egregious lack of focus by Dallas. Even worse than I thought....and I thought it was pretty bad.

Maybe we could stand to be a little less high-flying. But humble pie is not in order. What's needed is for the Stars to find themselves a huge steaming mug of give-a-s***. Not bashing you, or Stars fans....but if it sounds like I'm bashing the Stars themselves, I am. The Wings 5th goal yesterday was inexcusable - Turco is lounging on the net watching three or four of his teammates allow Zetterberg to skate in directly from the bench, singlehandedly take possession of the puck (he didn't even have to hit anyone!) and set up the goal. Complete lack of focus on the part of the Stars. And totally, totally inexcuseable given the situation in the game and the series. It's that goal that makes me believe the sweep is inevitable. The Stars have not led this series - they haven't even so much as managed to tie it at a score higher than 1 except for one unfortunate bounce off our defenseman's leg. And Datsyuk's third goal exposed a total lack of focus. The Stars just aren't in the right frame of mind to compete with a team as talented and as hot as the Wings. Makes you wonder if they're just happy to have escaped 4OT's. Unless they found some motivation yesterday or today, this series will be over in about eight hours.

If anything he got even MORE expensive. As Nineteen said: the numbers won't change, just the distribution. Erat was scheduled to make about what he should be worth next season. Now his value next season will be inflated.

Probably true. But predicting success for a team that has had success all season is much saner than predicting failure the moment something goes wrong for a team that's had success all season. And keeping the faith is a hell of a lot more satisfying than bailing at the first sign of trouble.

At this point it will surprise me if they both didn't end up a sweep.

Quarterfinals are about to kick off. My predictions: CZE over SWE CAN over NOR RUS over SUI USA over FIN CAN over CZE RUS over USA CAN over RUS CZE over USA

Ah relax. About 12 hours from now the Wings will be the Western Conference Champions and all this will be forgotten. Especially by Mike Greenberg.

Oh, he's still perfectly active. Posted yesterday. Here is a personal favorite of mine. I saved some of these for just such an occasion: http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.ph...t&p=1264764 LOLlerskates.

Totally disagree with those who call the Wings/Pens offensive matchup even. Not without Franzen it isn't. Crosby and Malkin are otherworldly.....then there's Hossa. If we get back the Mule, then we can call it even, otherwise a pretty solid edge goes to the Penguins. The series will have to be won on defense, defense, defense.

The bolded statement: utterly impossible. Vladdy hit everything that moved. Absolutely no way he would have played til he was 40. I suspect he likely would have retired at the lockout, if not sooner due to being banged up. And Lidstrom started really hitting his stride 'round about 2000, when he was 30 and Vladdy was 33. Again: given Vladdy's runaway freight train style, he'd have been significantly banged up by the time he was 35 and we were enjoying the '02 Cup. Very likely to have suffered an injury in the five years between '97 and '02. Both you and I are speculating, but I'm confident in saying your speculation is easily more farfetched than mine, by claiming that Vladdy would have remained in the elite ranks of defensemen up to age 40.

It's just as I said yesterday in the GDT. Dallas gave the f*** up. Just quit. No way a guy should be able to come directly from the bench on a line change, all the way to the corner, get the puck from four guys, and have it in the net 2 seconds later. You're down 2 games to zero, gotta somehow get two goals in three minutes, and you let something like that happen? Ordinarily I'm against cockiness and thinking things are won before they actually are. But that was a totally inexcusable goal. Dallas is just laying on the tracks, waiting for the train.

It's so hard to compare players from such different generations, but I hardly think it's such a guarantee that Shore and Harvey automatically rate better than Lidstrom. (I'll give you Orr and Bourque.) But especially Shore. Sure, he dominated the league in his time. But so is Lidstrom - and Lidstrom is playing longer, and has a much MUCH larger league to dominate. Much harder to stand above the crowd in a league of 30 teams, 25 players each, than it is in a league of 10 teams, maybe 16 players each. Lidstrom has more Cups too - again, despite the much larger league.

You're completely missing the point of parity. Of course there will be bad teams and good teams every year. The point is that for the most part, they're greatly different teams from year to year. Look at the East. Out of 15 teams, only 3 of them failed to make the playoffs both this year and last. Last year's conference finalists didn't win a single playoff game this year. Last year's bottom three made the playoffs this year; last year's worst team is this year's conference finalist. That's parity. It's ensuring that if you don't have a quality organization, you might have success in any given year but you won't maintain it. And it ensures that if you stunk this year, there's plenty of hope for next year. Whether you think that's a good thing or bad is entirely a matter of opinion, but you can't claim the league doesn't have parity.

How selfish would we be, to begrudge McLellan the chance to reach the pinnacle of hockey coaching? Chances to coach an NHL team don't come around every day. We're not talking about a lifelong Wing who's spent 12 years fighting these guys. Assistants come and assistants go. If McLellan gets his shot with the Avs, congrats to him. I'd love it if he were to stay forever, he's doing a great job, but being the assistant coach in one place does not close off a certain job elsewhere.

Agree with this. Vladdy's 41, Lidstrom's 38, and I strongly doubt given Vladdy's style of play that he'd have played much beyond 35 or 36. 8 or 9 consecutive Norrises? No. Maybe a couple. Maybe.

Didn't you hear? We just knocked out the Avs in 7. It was a tough, grueling series, and Colorado knocked our guys around quite a bit, but in the end our skill was too much for them. Now we're headed for San Jose, who really looks like the Cup favorites this year! Sharks in 5 - they're too physical for the Wings.

I'm not sure this problem is of the same magnitude for the Stars as it is for the Wings.

I always kinda liked the glow puck. It was kinda awkward looking when the puck was by the near boards. But the comet trail was cool. I don't understand how it wasn't "traditional". Neither is watching hockey on HD television with stats for your perusal at every stoppage, but nobody minds that too much.

Tied it. Sawchuk had 47. Next win will give Ozzie the record.

You bumped the thread just so you could call someone an idiot? Classy And not exactly within forum guidelines either. Knock off the personal attacks, please.

Welcome! The Pens have definitely been my second-favorite team in the league, ever since the Mario Lemieux days. The first go-round. A distant second, but still. Now, if and when it comes to a Wings-Pens series, then they will, for the duration of the series, be nothing but a bunch of whiny punk crybaby kids in diapers but regardless, if by some misfortune we actually lose the Cup Finals, I'd much rather it be to Pittsburgh than an actual punk team like the Flyers. Pittsburgh is the scariest team in the whole East. Actually if I had to pick one team NOT to face.....Pitt. Easily the most talent of any team in the conference. Unlike these other teams like Colorado and Dallas, the Wings won't be able to focus on shutting down the top line. Crosby is a once-in-a-generation talent. Howe, Gretzky, Crosby, it goes like that. Fleury is playing excellent goal, but that, I'm not as worried about. Theodore and Turco were playing great too, and that was supposed to be the difference in the series. Seven games later, here we are. Now, the Wings haven't played anyone nearly as talented as the Pens....but it works the other way too. Bye, Philly. Bye Dallas. The Wings and Pens are rolling into the Finals like juggernauts. It'll be a matchup for the ages.

"Just" in? No, I think we knew that from the toe drag

I would guess elbow. I took a similar fall one time and couldn't move my elbow out of a sling-type position for three days. Nasty angle on his elbow too. He'll probably be out there for Game 4, but now both he and Modano are banged up. Bad combo. And we haven't played a team anywhere NEAR as offensive-minded as Pittsburgh. The Pens will be the first honest-to-God even matchup of this playoff run.

Don't be so cocky....not the way Pittsburgh is playing.

I'd say the first two periods. Then Dallas came out flat for the third and the Wings took the opportunity to slam the door.