C-TownWing

Pretty much. I didn't see it, but I'm not exactly shocked that Cherry likes the kid. Kind of the opposite of shocked, actually.

Assuming no Lids or Draper, I'll vote for Cleary. Not a Wings lifer, but a definite character guy who knows the price you have to pay because he's been on both sides of it. Don't rule out Hossa if we re-sign him, he's completely bought into the Red Wings Way, IMO. I freaking love Helm and he could be a candidate if we're not making this call for a couple years, but it's a tad premature now.

This. Beat me to it.

PC quotes to the English media, then what you really feel to the French media? One word: Gutless.

Whatever happened to having to win something before being compared to a dynasty? Yes, I realize the comparison is to Edmonton's first Cup team before THEY won anything, but we know in hindsight that they did win, and then won four more after that. It's a little ridiculous.

I never feel confident about any series. I'm completely serious when I say that the last time I went into a playoff series thinking "yeah, we got this" was Edmonton in 2006. That worked out well.

Pretty useless overall, but I like how he pointed out that Lidstrom and Datsyuk are the same two who "blew off" the ASG. That just occurred to me yesterday.

It's definitely a tough break for us (nothing more), but I don't know that I like Kenny complaining about it. Leave that to the fans and opposition.

I know you guys all know this already, but Hossa was their best player in the finals last year. Then they essentially tried to replace him and Ryan Malone (who I like) with Fedotenko and Satan. Fail. They then add Guerin and Kunitz, which is an improvement to be sure, but at the same time, they're only as good as Crosby makes them look. They're not picking up the slack if we shut down their center. Excellent point on the 2nd part. I think the attraction to Islanders-Oilers is that it fits what most people (media, casual fans--I'm NOT a conspiracy theorist) want to see--the Pens becoming the new dynasty, replacing us, with Crosby and Malkin playing Gretzky and Messier.

Someone made an outstanding post in another thread showing how there's not really much difference in the average age of the teams. Reputations are hard to shake. People still think Calgary is a good playoff team because of 2004. We were old at one time, but now, Lidstrom, Ozzie and Rafalski are the only old guys we have playing vital roles (all due respect to Drapes, Malts, Homer, Cheli, etc.). Everyone else is either in their prime or younger. But thanks for saying it, because it's exactly why we're special and unique among dynasties. Most dynasties are successful because of an outstanding group of core players, and once those guys retire or move on, the team fades. We, on the other hand, successfully turned over almost the entire core of our team without missing a beat. Yzerman, Shanahan and Fedorov begat Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Franzen. Lidstrom's the only guy I would consider a core player that's been around since 1997. Ozzie gets an asterisk since he left and came back, although we've won with other goalies.

Pretty gutless effort from Campbell.

Cheli was a trade and Conklin wasn't really "high price." Not that it hurts your point. You forgot Rafalski though. It's not just the guys through the system, either. It's guys like Cleary, Draper a while back, Samuelsson, even Lilja, who were written off as NHL-quality players by at least one team, but we found them and they played crucial roles on at least one Cup team. Four in Draper's case. We're not buying crap. We're just that much smarter than everyone else.

Thanks for sharing... Malkin was awesome for my fantasy team obviously, although I lost the championship game. I also like Mark Scally, who played two preseason games with the Pens in 2000, including the first game in Blue Jackets history. I actually considered them my second favorite team for a while, back when they sucked, were drawing four digits per game and were about to move to KC if they didn't get a new arena. Now that they're good and popular, they've sort of lost their appeal and the Oilers have probably overtaken them. Since I'm a Wings fan, I'm into charity cases for my 2nd favorite team I guess.

I'll admit to buying a Central Division champs shirt back in 2007. At the time, we had one series win since the 2002 Cup and I had low expectations. But generally speaking, it's pretty much Cup or bust with that stuff...I won't be buying conference champs gear, win or lose in the finals.

We took their lunch money pretty good this year, eh? Ruined their once-in-a-lifetime event by winning the game, then eliminating their Cinderella team from the playoffs. I almost feel bad. Almost.

That's sort of what I was thinking by not mentioning Huet in my first post. He looks like your goalie next year, and I think he's a capable one. Mix in a cheap backup (Crawford or other) and the money committed to goaltending isn't really THAT much of a reach. Havlat should walk. You got a full season out of him, amazingly. Take the money and run. You're tempting fate to count on that again--let him become someone else's injury problem, and make sure you can keep both Kane and Toews.* * I'll be in the minority and say I actually prefer Kane, although Toews brings a lot of "unteachables" to the table. He wears the C like a guy with 10 years in, and showed up in this series way more than Kane, so he's obviously clutch. Really, you can't go wrong either way, might as well keep both.

Here's hoping...you absolutely cannot quantify what he brings. Just watched the highlight of that PK for the 78th time. I'm hoping that his limited offensive upside (although that's looking less and less the case all the time) keeps his price tag down when the time comes. Lifetime contract. Make it happen Kenny. Then I can buy a jersey too.

At least Gonchar's well enough to play in games right now. There's absolutely no question that we've been dealt a s***ty hand here, and that this a huge advantage for the Pens. No conspiracy, just a "sucks to be us." That said, champions don't make excuses--it is what it is, and if we're to bring it home, we'll have to overcome it. Still, epic fail by the league and NBC on this one, screwing the competitive balance of the series (unwittingly or otherwise) to avoid that epic Dwight Howard-Carmello Anthony NBA final. Hey, don't laugh, it's more likely than Kobe-LeBron at the moment, thanks to the Cavs' developing choke job (which I'm loving BTW, despite my location).

Just about. His cap hit is $7.14 million to Lids' $7.45 million. What a craptacular signing that was for them. And the sad part (depending on your POV) is that this isn't hindsight talking, everyone besides the Hawks' FO called it at the time. I'm not entirely familiar with their cap situation, but just browsing nhlnumbers.com, it looks like Havlat ($6.0 M) and Khabibulin ($6.75 M) are UFA. They can both be replaced for cheaper, that'll help. They also have a few of their mid-range players as RFAs, most notably Versteeg. He'll get a raise obviously. But the big chalupas are after next season when Kane and Toews come off their entry-level deals and into RFA status. Thing is, other than Campbell, I don't see a ton of dead weight, salary-wise. A lot depends on what the cap does, but I think they can manage it.

Yep...since Lidstrom and Datsyuk apparently both have the same injury as Rafalski, where "day-to-day" means "miss most of a series," this quick turnaround and a back-to-back could bury us in a hurry. Until I hear that those two are 100% a go for game 1, I consider us the underdog in this series. You heard me.

That call on Hossa was BS too...but I can definitely live with that. No calls in the 3rd and OT, but it wasn't like they swallowed the whistles...just good, clean, hard hockey both ways. Great job by that crew.

Yeah, pretty moronic. They showed a few seconds of Q live, then...nothing. Constant re-airs of Osgood and Zetterberg on-ice interviews. Oooh, just as I type that, here's Babs. I remember Vs. last year would carry a lot of the PCs, especially when it got later in the playoffs instead of cutting away to cagefighting or rodeo or whatever else they have on there. WTF happened to that.

Someone getting ready to write a Cheli story with that random question at the end.

Oz just pwn3d that water bottle.

As he should. Haters gonna hate, but other than the one TO, he was solid. Created I think 3 scoring chances including the almost-winner in OT and got a + for the Cleary goal...