Sgt. Angry

If you knew the Jests were going to bring it, and I knew they were going to bring it, don't you think the Red Wings should have known they were going to bring it, and mentally prepare accordingly. They treated this game like an unwelcome interruption on their flight home.

OK, yeah, you can't be "up" all of the time, although considering the kind of money these guys make, they should be expected to. What gets me is that you'd think that this team would be smart enough to realize when their opponent is in dire straits, and will be coming out to prove a point. This happens regularly with Wings opponents, and it always seems to catch Detroit completely by surprise

As is usually the case, this team puts together a few wins to get you kind of excited about watching the next game, and then they waste your whole evening with absolute crap like this. They should be able to fine players for lack of effort such as tonight.

Howard was great this game - many highlight reel saves. But I still get the feeling that if it was a Red Wing breaking in and taking that same shot, with 12 seconds left, the goalie would have made the save 99 times out of 100!

Notice that Mickey said that late enough in the game that there wasn't any crowd left to boo. Most of the crowd at the Joe any more seems to be face-painted 8 year olds, who don't know what the score is anyway!

As much as I hated the old Black Hawks of Chelios, Roenick, Belfore, and Dirk Graham, I still cheered for them when the Wings were out of it. But with the current bunch of crybabies, I can only hope that lightning strikes the cup while Teows is carrying it in standing water!

Trying like heck to stifle my emotions. After all, the guys that just choked away a 3-1 game lead will wake up tomorrow, continue to receive their million dollar checks throughout the summer, and drive their luxury suv's to the finest golf courses money can buy, while the rest of us will have to get up tomorrow, go to our s*** jobs, and have to remain civil throughout the day, knowing that if we screw up something even a fraction of a degree as bad as some of the Wings did, we'll get our asses fired. Get pissed? You bet! Get sad and weepy? Hell no! And thanks, John Keating, for not asking Mike Babcock about injuries during the series. What a dork!

And though all of this, the Tigers are suddenly going in the tank, behind 5 to 3. Looks like this may end up being another one of those "city of losers" nights.

Definitely don't want to start a flaming war here, but I always wonder why, in both the playoffs and regular season, the other teams' rookies never seem to hand us the kind of gold-plated gifts that our rookies regularly hand to our opponents. I can't remember the last time a Wings player was camped out all alone in front of the net, due to an opponents rookie mistake.

I look for a 7 - 0 Wings victory in game 7, with goals by Holmstrom, Fedorov, Robitaille, Holmstrom, Hull, Olafson, and Datsyuk. Oh wait, that's the game 7 tape that I keep re-watching at times like this. Sorry, but I don't have a good feeling about game 7, and I'm guessing that you guys who do have a good feeling, also had good feelings about games 5 and 6 also. I agree that they have over-achieved in this playoffs, but I also think that this may be their high water mark for a while, because, talent wise, they just aren't that good.

For once it's nice to know that this years WIngs are not an entirely veteran team who might run out of gas as the playoffs progress. All of those young rookies on our team make bonehead plays at times, but their energy level may be what drives us deeper into the playoffs.

OK, after a long absence, let me chime in here: 1. I miss the Russian 5. When Scotty first sprung them on the NHL, it was like they were playing against a neighborhood bantam team. I would like to get a time machine, and replace Kozlov with Datsyuk, and see what happens. 2. I miss the feeling of excitement for the future that I felt after the losses to San Jose and Toronto in the playoffs. You just knew better times were coming. Sadly, that feeling is absent with this group. 3. I miss the feeling of indignation I felt when Scotty traded away Ray Sheppard and Paul Ysebaert (sp?). But he ended up being right. 4. I miss games from the Montral Forum, listening to Danny Gallivan. 5. I miss Sergei Federov and Duane Rao doing the Metro-25 tire ads (Who is this bozo?) 6. I miss the younger and slimmer Leila Sbitani, in jeans and black pullover, in the early Belle Tire ads. 7. I hate to admit it, but I miss Ray Lane. He wasn't great, but I've never cared for John Keating. 8. I miss Gerard Gallant - what a perfect hockey name. 9. I miss Lefty Wilson. If you remember him, you're old!!!!

can somebody give a quick synopsys of which players on the Red Wings between 1995 and 2002 came to us by trade or free agency vs. draft pick / farm system? I'm sure some of you more dedicated fans have a lot of this info on the tips of your tongues.

I am definitely not trying to be a smart-ass here, but I really want to know - when was the last time a Red Wings "top prospect" ended up amounting to anything. Detroit seems to sign who are supposed to be good prospects, but all I see are 3rd and 4th line drones coming out of GR.

Pavel Datsyuk is the only quality player on this team. There are a few others who would be quality if they tried. The only way this team is going to get ahead is through trades and free agent signings, because the Red Wings farm system seems to be filled with just more of what the team already has - journeyman quality 3rd and 4th line players, who may shine for a game or two after being called up, but then they just blend into the woodwork with all of the other mediocrity. I think it's time to put this team to bed, and dig out my old tape of the 2002 WSC game 7 against Colorado.

The Wings always seem to be caught off guard when they get a two goal lead, and the other team steps it up a notch. Now we'll probably progress to the "opponents sub goalie plays his ass off" part of the game.

Sure looked to me like Calgary was skating around at twice the speed of the lame-ass Red Wings. Glad I didn't pay money to see this game. If I had, it would have been a tough decision as to whether to leave early, or stay to the end just to boo them off the ice. That may be unfair of me, Maybe that's as good as these scrubs can play, and it's just not good enough.

Why does the NHL allow teams to keep trading Georges Vezina to whichever team we're facing on any given night?

Just out of curiosity, I wonder what the percentage of Red Wings who have been playing in Europe is compared to other NHL teams. I mean, here we are as fans, all fired up for the start of league play, and we have in our heads visions of the players chomping at the bit, eagerly waiting to get back into action. But the fact is that several of our guys have already been playing half a season, and now they have to switch gears, move half way around the world, and get right back into it. I'm usually not one to excuse millionaires for not putting out effort, but if some of these guys seem to be tired right now, it's quite possible that they really are!

I don't know if anybody has noticed, but my favorite part of the new Red Wings season is the return of Leila Sbitani to the Belle Tire commercials. Even if she can't fit into her old jeans and black top, she still looks pretty good!

I didn't really expect the question, so I'm not surprised nobody asked it, but I just wish somebody would ask Babcock, "This really isn't all that good of a team right now, is it?" Now on to watching my tape of the 2002 WCF game 7 against the Aves - back when the Wings were good.

I'm trying to find some kind of hope in the midst of all of this crap. Those of you who have better memories - I seem to remember that, in one of the years the Wings won the cup, that we fell behind in a series against the Blues. One of those losses was due to a shot by Al McGuiness (sp?) who scored on a shot from center ice. God, was I pissed. I was sure that was the end of the Wings as we knew them. But they came back! I'm hoping that they might pull this one out yet, but we certainly don't have the players we did in those days. Also, I can't help but think that if Howard had been playing as good as Rinne, somebody on the Preds would have flattened him by now. I don't want the Wings to run at Rinne, but I just think it would have happened.

I wish that I could be confident that this debacle would force Holland to put together a team with some heart. But, instead, I fully expect to hear all of the Wing's shills start talking the same old s*** about how we have all of this great talent in Grand Rapids, and how we shouldn't have to look "outside" to get the cup back. I hope that the first person who hears Holland start touting the Wings farm system will drive his head into the plexiglass.

I'm glad I saw this game. Now, when the Wings are playing bad, and I start wishing we had some tough guys to "make them pay for beating the Wings," I can remember this game and know that I really don't want the Detroit Red Wings to be like that.

I missed today's game, but the Wings organization in the past year has started to remind me of the Wings back when I started following them. Back then, every year they would trot out Howe, Delvecchio, Marcel Pronovost, and a team full of Larry Jeffery's and Billy MacNeil's - average, journeymen players. And they competed in the playoffs, but were never good enough to go very far. That's what we have now - Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Lidstrom, and a bunch of nobodies, or once-were's. We may progress, but it won't be because of skill, it will be because of luck, or playing harder than the opponent - and I haven't seen that for a loooonnngg time.