norrisnick

There's a lot more hugging and hootin' and hollerin' when they score goals. They should give that a try in game 7. I think winning the Cup together might form a bit of a bond as well. That thing is won between the whistles. Not after.

Misdirecting? The Wings don't have to beat up the Ducks to win the Cup. They have to score more goals. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. It wasn't the fights of the March 26th game that were important. It was the goals. If we don't win that game we get swept in the season series. We touched Roy for 6 and won. Mac's OT winner was infinitely more imporant than his pummeling of Claude. But it all gets clouded up in sentimentality.

I know you didn't. A solid checking line player's season has ended because he's not a coward. At least he has his priorities in order.

This isn't a streetfight. The parallels don't exist. A fight on the street could literally be a matter of life and death. Hockey is a sport. Lidstrom joining the fray does nothing but put the guy that needs protecting the most at risk. He's 39 and the most important man on our team. As Babock has stated a couple times when talking about the trend of fights after big hits. He thinks it's silly. Unless you take a run at Nick. Then all bets are off. The days of Nick pairing off with Tinordi are long gone. I'm not making an argument for a goon. I'm making an argument to not fight when it isn't smart to do so. Piling up enough goons to make us the toughest team in the league would do nothing but make us a weaker team. It's a pointless venture.

Exactly. And now he won't play until October. At least he's a man tho...

Ah, the tried and true manliness that is the 3rd man in... These guys are professional athletes. They'll survive a bit of a manhandling. You open yourself up for a far worse pummeling if you try and fight back. Which is just mindnumbingly stupid if you aren't a fighter. Tie up the arms and duck your head, but for Gord's sake don't throw punches. That gives the other guy the green light to really go to town on you. Self preservation should trump holding a ruler up to your thingy.

They mean something. A lot of people have this misconception that the Wing/Av rivalry was nonstop linebrawls. It was hard hitting intense hockey by the two most skilled teams in the league. During the '97 WCF a lopsided game had a couple fights in the 3rd period. Beyond that, nothing until Mac and one of the Codys fought last spring. Letting them get away with it? I don't think more Wing players getting beat up is going to do anything to change that. You'd have to fundamentally alter the make up of the Red Wings to ever get to the point where they could man to man take on any team. That's just not going to happen. A fighter on the 4th line isn't going to do anything to change that. Lets magically make Chris Neil a Red Wing for last nights game. What changes? It would still be the exact same people out on the ice at the end. If Neil hops off the bench that's 10 games. You think Getzlaf, Perry, or Niedermayer would fight Neil in game 7 to make up for it? You think that scenario would even cross their minds to make them hesitant to punch up the Wings' skill guys? Absolutely not. Wishing that the skill guys would do more to "stand up for themselves" is just dumb. It's pretty much wishing for injuries.

Good think Kopecky isn't a coward, eh?

So rather than stand around, should Lidstrom have challenged Pronger (who was also just standing around) to prove his worth as a man?

Do you know how many periods of Red Wing/Avalanche playoff hockey featured fights? 2. That's in 6 full series of bitter rivalry (well 5, as the 6th series was the rout last spring, which if discounted eliminates one of the periods that featured a fight). The Wings need to play world class hockey. Nothing else matters. Toughness isn't dropping the gloves and fighting. Toughness is not allowing the opposition to dictate the way you play the game. Go to the hard areas. Win puck battles. Score. Defend. Win. Fighting in the playoffs is about as important as beard growing ability.

See the dick measuring bit above. Getting tooled by a better fighter doesn't make you a man. It makes you stupid.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The big shiny silver thing awarded in June isn't won with a dick measuring contest. 90-95% of the league could win fights with the Wings. That's fine. It's completely worthless. I realize some fans need high PIM counts from the Wings to affirm their own manhood, but it really doesn't do anything for me. Some fans may feel shame and embarassment, but that's on them, not the Wings. The game of hockey and subsequently the Stanley Cup is won between the whistles.

No one else on the ice is more important than Lidstrom. If you think Nick needs to toss himself into the fray to protect guys 10-15+ years younger than him, you really need to kick your meth habit as it's affecting your judgement. And the rest of the team should have done exactly what Nick did. Don't get involved after the whistles. It isn't worth the energy or the risk of injury (or making injury worse). If the opposition wants to jump you, cover up and let them get suspended but don't get suckered into a fight because that's exactly what the Ducks want.

Re-sign Hudler. Everyone else w/o a contract can gtfo. See if there are any takers for Draper, Maltby, Homer and then scour the 2nd wave of free agency for bargain deals and/or reclamation projects like Cleary that have maybe some more punch to their game. Skating fore/back-check ability is key.

Last one was the '02 Finals.

Yep. The '93 and '94 versions had that writhing head grabbing bleeder.

NHL 94, but rather than Sega on the computer. Whenever you start a game or anything the default options were always Montreal and LA as the previous season's finalists. They just weren't compelling at all. A couple clicks on the random button and I ended up with the Red Wings. Fedorov was amazing in that game (and at the time one of the few players you'd hear of, I live in Iowa). Playing seasons in that game was pretty tough. The Penguins and Nordiques were killer. Same with the Blackhawks. Cross the blueline, pass off to Dino for the one-timer at the top of the circles, goal. I think I scored more SH goals than PP goals. Loved the breakaway.

Even funnier when it comes from the man on the left...

Did you miss the series ending goal from round 1? Have you missed every single thing said about him by teammates and even Babcock (this season)? Hudler is fearless. He'll go anywhere against anyone to make a play.

If it were up to me those X post threads wouldn't exist. I love the delicious irony that the bolded section could very easily be applied to Fedorov.

Positives The man below has no balls. Negatives I'm sure I'll think of some at some point.

This debate with "Ryan Getzlaf" has been going on since the moment Z and Pavel joined the Wings. He's probably gone through close to 30 usernames by now. It may seem all nicely reasoned, but the heart of the matter is a grudge because most Wing fans loved Yzerman more than Fedorov (ironically I prefer Fedorov myself). He's drawing the parallels because it seems fans are drawn more to Z than Pavel. He trots out all the tired stereotypes rather than accept that it can be a matter of preference. And that it isn't definitively proven that Datsyuk is the better player. IMO he shouldn't have won the Selke last season. And he shouldn't this year. He's not the best defensive forward on the Wings. The voters don't always get it right (see Green being nominated for the Norris, let alone winning it as he more than likely will). Stats don't tell the whole story. They never do. But if you're hung up on stats, look at the ones from April on. The ones when the games really matter.

Sergei Kolosov (drafted as Siarhei Kolasau). He's from Belarus. Big, mean (or at least used to be), decently skating, defensive defenseman. Sort of fell off the radar as he wasn't quite good enough to be signed for Grand Rapids a few years ago so he went back to Europe. GR's coach, Fraser, happened to coach the Belarussian World Championship team and Kolosov impressed there so he recommended him to Nill and Holland when he was signed to coach the Griffins, that Sergei was worth another look. They brought him over and he's been sort of a Lilly in training. Nothing to be exceedingly excited about, but every team needs a Lilly for the bottom half of the defensive group.

Because that's all that has ever mattered for you.

Unless Hossa signs at $4M you're gonna have to ship out another contract.