C-TownWing

Energizer Bunny? What's it been, like 10 years since that's been heard from?

Winner: inexperience.

Late to the party watching the postgame stuff, but I'll 5th or 8th or whatever what everyone else is saying--you're a credit to your great franchise and to this board. And your team's day will come soon, no doubt about it...I wouldn't be at all surprised if "soon" is next year. It's probably not much consolation, but you played a damn good series and with 4 extremely tight games, could've easily gone either way. PS. Totally unrelated, but anyone who doubts what Ozzie does for this team can suck it. Again.

Also agree. While I always want the W above all else, we can get in a hole against the Pens pretty damn quick with the back-to-back games and no turnaround time at all with arguably our two best players possibly out. It would be a solid silver lining if we lose. Only thing is, if we lose game 5, the Hawks are going home with a chance to tie. I'll worry about losing the SCF after I'm done worrying about losing the WCF. We're up 3-1, but other than game 4, we haven't dominated this series. A crack of daylight and some momentum could be trouble.

Darren. *******. Helm.

My big fear at this point is winning tonight, then having SCF 1 and 2 on back-to-back days this weekend without them. We could be behind the 8-ball losing one or even both at home before we even know what hits us, because we won't beat the Pens without our two best players (playoff performance to date notwithstanding). I never EVER want to lose, but getting the SCF pushed back is a very obvious silver lining if we do.

Right up front, I do think the West is the better conference by a decent amount. Better teams at the top end and more depth. Just a few points though. * I find it hard to hold playing the Canes in the ECF against the Pens when last year we got to play a worn-out Stars team that did a lot of the dirty work for us, taking out the Ducks and Sharks. Even this year, we've played the 7, 8 and 4 seeds. Playoff choker label aside, the Sharks would've been a damn tough series for us. * I think we as a collective tend to overrate the Ducks just because they've given us our two stiffest playoff challenges since the Edmonton debacle. I think it's a bad matchup for us more than the Ducks being some kind of juggernaut. Where was all that Cup/playoff experience last year when they were losing in the first round? Where was that airtight defense this year when they were backing into the last playoff spot? They're a solid team that gives us matchup problems, but they also have zero depth and mediocre goaltending. And the Canes also won a recent Stanley Cup. Just sayin' * I don't think the Flyers are any worse than the Blackhawks. Philly's top 6 are right there with anyone's, the goaltending isn't worse than Khabibulin/Huet, etc.

Exactly. When you consider the need to develop Ericsson, Lilja's maybe the only one in that whole group that I'd bench for Ohlund. And I'm not paying his asking price for a 3rd pairing guy. The biggest acquisition we can make this off-season is cap flexibility without gutting the team. That's preferable to even Hossa for me right now (as painful as that is to type), let alone Ohlund.

Not at all. Tight series after they got the number of the truck that hit them in games 1 and 2 last year + revenge factor (for the series loss and Hossa) + Malkin playing much, much better than he was last year at this time + injuries to key players on our side + them having experience this time around = you get the idea... This is going to be a much tougher series than last year--we're going to need everyone healthy and pulling on the rope (you too, Pav) to win again.* * IF we beat Chicago. Still 1 win to go, in case anyone forgot.

Point well taken. Here's hoping

I like the kid too, looking forward to rooting for him in the Olympics next year, since I'm not likely to have the privilege very often.

It is pretty crazy how few Russians are left already--and three of them are up for the Hart. Who would've thought we'd be down to about 30 Russians (don't remember the exact number) in the NHL 10 years ago? It's probably accurate to say that the NHL has all the best, but that the marginal guys can make more and be superstars in the homeland. I'm okay with that balance as long as it stops there. But at the same time, I wish nothing but bad things for the KHL. I have a feeling that league will implode in the next couple years anyway.

I caught it and thought "wave," but you make a good point. Either way, it's hilarious.

Nice av. I can watch that all day.

"HIT THE POST!!!" -- Gary Thorne Sorry, don't really have any cool pics, especially not at work!

I buy it. We need to get healthy way, way more than Pittsburgh does and don't mind a long layoff at all. We can't beat the Pens without Lids and Dats' shutdown abilities on the ice.

I have an UNO hockey t-shirt. Very underrated state for supporting hockey, if not producing the players obviously. UNO, USHL, etc. Anyway, back to the point...not the first one to mention it, but don't be surprised to see a Penguin win it, even if we win the Cup. Franzen, Zetterberg and Osgood are the only real candidates we have at this point (obviously that can still change). Ozzie won't get it, I feel pretty safe saying that. He just doesn't get the credit. And as great as F and Z have been, Crosby and Malkin are averaging a sick 1.63 and 1.75 points per to this point. Franzen's at 1.27 and Zetterberg's at 1.2. It's going to be awfully hard to ignore the Pens if they stay at that pace, even in defeat.

Good post...weight classes aside, we have two regulars (ok, semi-regular, especially in Kopy's case) hurt at the moment because of fighting. So maybe Versteeg can't hurt Kronwall, but even in the best-case, you're trading 5s between a guy that has been rock-solid (and absolutely vital as long as Nick Sr. is out) and a punk ***** that likes to cross-check people in the back after the whistle literally 2 seconds after getting out of the box for doing the same exact thing. "Triply humiliating" to me is destroying the Hawks 6-1 while they were busy trying to Tootoo everyone to retailiate for a good, clean hockey hit. That's freaking entertaining, watching a team melt down because you're owning them. See also Calgary 2007.

I hate playoff injuries.

Montreal. Beginning and end of discussion on that point. Flyers >>> BJs Caps < Ducks Canes << Hawks Something like that.

I don't hate the Hawks either, but I don't want this to get to game 5 if we win tonight...because there's no guarantee we'd win said game 5. I became a total mess after game 5 of last year's WCF, I'd rather just get this over with and not have a repeat of my bi-polar Hulk rage.

I don't mind the late date, but on the condition that the other series is the reason for it. Like I've said before, other than the Cup, there's nothing better than basking in your awesomeness for a while, waiting to see who else will join you in the next round. My enjoyment of that last round was limited to the 3rd period and OT of Bruins-Canes Game 7, I'd like a little more this time.

A Wings fan called into NHL Live! a few days ago to ask semi-rhetorically the last time we lost a playoff game by more than 1. The answer is game 4 against Dallas last year, we lost 3-1. This inspired me to look up the last time we lost by 3: April 13, 2004, 3-0 at Nashville (game 4). Yeah, good luck with that Hawks.

Yep, that's correct. And get ready to hear about the parallel ad nauseum. "Old passing the torch to the new" blah, blah, blah. That said, we're less than halfway through this round (I don't see either team sweeping), it'd be nice if we could at least wait until after game 5 to get ahead of ourselves, like we did last round.

REALLY tough one. Lids and Hasek are both the best I've ever seen at their positions, although to be fair, I'm only going back about 20 years or so. Jagr isn't, so he's automatically 3rd in that one. I'll be a homer and say Lids, but really you could flip a coin IMO.