C-TownWing

Well, we're playing with house money for a game, which is a nice feeling but one that goes away in a hurry if we lose. They'll be desperate to not fall into the 3-0 abyss from which only two teams have returned. And charged up by that crowd. Luckily for us, the team's more pro than us fans, and I'm sure they don't see it as "playing with house money." Wearing my white Datsyuk with the 2008 Cup patch for casual Friday, hoping that means he can go (and play well). Only prediction: high scoring. Someone will need 4-5 to win it.

Still the gold standard of hockey video games, and of course, the birthplace of the legend of JR. Also, fun fact: it's really, really easy to make Larry Murphy's head bleed in that game. So the "guys who have played for Babcock and (allegedly) hated it" list is up to Commodore, Chelios and Shanahan (Right? I remember hearing something about that at some point.)

Fixed that one Pens last year vs. this year...sure the record's not as good, but they had much easier matchups last year--Sens team that was falling apart, same Flyers team they played this year and a Rangers team that's pretty well out of their league anywhere past the first round. The Caps are head-and-shoulders above any of that. Thanks to the guy that reminded me about the Richards hit on Malkin. I knew Malkin was off before they played us, I just couldn't place it. Hurt or not isn't even really the point there, they didn't have the benefit of his production either way, and they do right now. In all seriousness though, thanks to those of you arguing with me, the confidence is contagious. And I was absolutely convinced we were going to blow the 3-0 lead against Dallas last year, I'm not exactly hard to throw into a panic.

Oh come on, they beat Norris finalist Mike Green, an absolute stud defensively

Fair enough...we'll need Datsyuk, Hossa and a PK to beat these guys though. If we play them. Trying really hard not to jinx anything. Malkin was busy disappearing at this time last year too, and that's obviously not the case at the moment. That was entertaining. Gleason lands about 10 punches to Letang's 0...but Letang fell on top of him, therefore he wins the fight per the fans. I love how that works.

I hope nobody's taking these guys lightly, should we meet up (mathematically/historically, there's about an 80% chance of it now). They look better than they did last year right now, we look worse. And that series was airtight after those first two games, as much as most don't see it. Not to mention that rematches almost always favor the guy that lost the first time.

Looked a lot like what happened to us in game 2 on the 2nd goal. Getting stuck in your zone like that is lethal.

Didn't he wear 6 in Grand Rapids? He should test the level of hate the Ilitches have for Larry Aurie.

QFT. Every stat's a team stat to some extent. The best we can do is recognize that, but also give credit where credit's due. I don't care how good the D is, a sieve doesn't put up a 2.04 or whatever it is. If we're talking Conn Smythe (in the event we win the Cup), Osgood and Franzen are really the only two candidates at the moment, although that can still change obviously. For "actual" MVP, Lidstrom's in the mix too. Unfortunately, "on the ice against the opponent's top scorers and shutting them down" doesn't get trophy attention by itself (and don't throw Z's play on Crosby at me--he was also the leading scorer in the playoffs). That always loses out to the goalie or the guy with the pile of goals. I'll vote for Ozzie, although admittedly part of it is because I felt like he deserved it last year.

Wings fans NEVER complain about officiating! There were bad calls both ways last night--the penalties on Pahlsson and Bolland were gifts, and with the latter one being late in the 3rd, it could've handed us the game had we scored on that PP. I think the Hawks fan is off base with the Sharp-Abdelkader thing though...it looked to me like Sharp did more of the tackling than Abs. Both did at least a little bit of it though, so letting it all go maybe wasn't the worst thing to do there. Also, the thing with Ozzie and Byfuglien...sorry guys, but it did look to me like Ozzie held him down in order to sell the interference call. None of it matters though. Why complain about the officiating when you win?

I realize it's bad form to self-quote, but I couldn't resist.

Sammy FTW.

Nice call by that guy. The Hawks D has been absolute garbage with the puck. Good for us, not so much for them. Surprisingly, Cam Barker, the guy who got blowtorched on about 5 bad pinches in the Vancouver series, has been the one guy we haven't killed yet, unless I'm forgetting it.

When I was a kid, I put a hole in the wall playing floor hockey--I was trying to bat a puck in out of mid-air and hit the wall with my stick blade. Put a poster over it...went about 2 days before my mom found out lol.

Exactly...with a 2-0 lead, we're playing with house money for a game. 3-0 would own all though...but I broke something in my throat screaming on that goal, so I need a couple days here

Anyone who ever said that Ozzie never wins games for us can officially F off. AAAAAHHHHHH = the first word out of Sammy's mouth in response to every question lol.

Maybe Ozzie can score the GWG. He's done everything else in this game. Just flip in down the ice with some English and who knows?

Good point...we've now scored two goals in this series on Keith-Seabrook being pressured and coughing it up (Cleary tonight, although that started in our end, Franzen on Sunday). We need to rachet it up in their end.

Disagree...he ALMOST did, then let him go just in time. But valid call on Lids, IMO. I'm a big fan of intermissions breaking up our PKs, I think that outweighs the fresh ice factor. 2-1 Spits, 4:30 left, BTW.

I give that show a month before they run out of submissions and start staging it or something.

From "not too bad of a period" to "we'd be down 4-1 if not for Ozzie, we need to step it up?" All in one post! Spits are losing 1-0 late 2nd for those of you across the river. Edit: 1-1 now...

s*** period, we really don't deserve to be tied... ...but we are, so let's take advantage of them not taking advantage of our one bad period per game.

Shut down Cleary, force Datsyuk and Hossa to beat you. Kind of funny that this is where we are at the moment.

I realize it's a crappy picture, but I'm too lazy to dig out my camera and take a picture of myself. Seriously. Luckily my company's intranet newsletter just ran a story about my beard, so our PR guy did all the hard work for me. Picture was taken last Friday, day after game 7. Casual Friday, hence the Yzerman at work.

I actually don't think that's entirely invalid. It's beyond dispute that football and baseball have more fans (true or otherwise) in the US than hockey. But it's also true that because these sports are the most popular, tons of people who barely follow sports (or sometimes don't even follow sports at all) casually pay attention to it more or less just so they can keep up with the water cooler conversation. I've actually been excluded from conversations recently because I don't even pretend to give a crap about what the Cavaliers are doing (not baseball or football, but the same principle). People with thinner skin might be averse to that and pay attention even if they don't REALLY care. That may or may not have been what he was getting at, but there's my take FWIW.