C-TownWing

******* cocksucker. What a POS team.

Sounds like a plan. Let's do this thing.

Waved off goal in the last minute to stop us from tying it at 2? I just said it to make sure it doesn't happen.

+1. Thanks for saying it. Good riddance to anyone who isn't fan enough to stick with this team for another period.

As someone who had to watch FS-Ohio for the first round, I feel your pain, being force-fed the local broadcast of the opponent because you happen to live there. But at least that series was over after 4 games!

Agree. Officiating was fine. I'll be honest, I feel like we've taken their best punch. They're facing elimination at home, I knew the first would be tough, but getting out 0-0 is a win for us. Now just gotta kill this penalty and start to take over from there.

Lidstrom (53rd) and Fedorov (74th) weren't even high picks, that's the crazy part. Even back then we could pick em. Fedorov would've been higher, except we were still at a point in history where you had to sneak guys out of the Soviet Union or Eastern Europe. I believe Marty Lapointe (in 1991) was our last top 10 pick. Freaking insane.

Go Whalers! I actually started out as a fan of the Whale, hence my strange obsession with Pat Verbeek. I had family in CT at the time I was getting into hockey in the early 90s and they gave me a Whalers hat for Christmas. I actually noticed on some old hockey cards not too long ago that it was the hat worn by the draft picks in 1990 or 1991. I have no idea where that hat is today, I lost it around the same time the team moved. Anyway, fast forward to 1993-94. The NHL played some neutral site games, including in Cleveland (Richfield Coliseum). The Whalers actually played in two of these--there were some rumors about the team moving here at the time, and my parents bought me tickets. One was against the Wings. Long story short, Wings won 3-0 and I was floored by the support for the team. There were about 12,000 people there, and 11,996 were Wings fans. Three-hour drive for a meaningless regular season game against a crappy team. I was also impressed with the team itself, and pretty much had two favorite teams from that point. Once the Whalers moved, the Wings were promoted to solo #1. 1996-97 was the last season of the Whalers, and of course, the first Cup for the Wings in this recent run. I'll be honest, it took me until after the lockout to not feel a little guilty for becoming a fan right as we started winning the Cup, but I'm all the way in for life. Nice to see Cleveland representing for the Wings, although it's a little strange--you guys picked the Wings over the Pens because you couldn't root for Pittsburgh, but rooting for Michigan is okay? Not that I care, I hate OSU. I didn't mind the Pens though, since they were the Cleveland Lumberjacks' parent club for most of their run.

NN=not in the Q-Stache fan club The biggest thing for me is that you absolutely CANNOT sit on a lead against them, they don't quit. 6 of their 8 wins are come-from-behind, and two of those were two-goal deficits. They've also come back from THREE down to tie twice, although they eventually lost both games, but not before making their opponents crap their pants. The Wings' "throw it in deep, then back up and wait for the next rush" style of lead protection won't work against these guys. IF we get past Anaheim, we should be the better team though.

I actually respect Melrose for being honest about it...he's on record as saying that he hopes the Lightning loses every game they play, none of the PC "I wish them well" stuff. That's how I'd feel if I were fired. I can't believe how clean Tocchet emerged from the gambling thing. We should all be so lucky.

Agree with this one...I really don't see anyone rotting, and the guys that we're churning out of GR just keep coming through for us. I have to think we're handling it beautifully. You can't really compare with Varlamov...don't forget that the Caps thought they'd be going in with Theodore and Brent Johnson. I suppose if Conklin got hurt and we needed to bench Ozzie in the playoffs, we would've seen Howard (who may be the one exception to the "nobody's rotting" argument, although I'm not that impressed with him anyway). Kane and Toews were both top 3 draft picks, you can't compare their development curve to our top 200s (or so), or even our late 1st rounders.

IDK, they came from behind in 6 of their 8 wins. Two of those were multi-goal deficits. Even in two of their losses, they came back from 3 down to tie it, only to lose later. 2-0 in OT, which isn't that big of a deal, except when you compare it to our OT record. That's serious to me. You can't EVER count them out of a game, even if you're up 3 in the 3rd. I just hope we can close it out tomorrow to make the rest about equal. Hey, if you want to be the champs, you have to be able to beat everyone else, even the hot teams.

Yes, lots. This team has some serious mojo and I don't really want any part of them. Doesn't look like we're getting a choice though.

Are you complaining? I'm not. IMO, the reason is that we beat the market, plain and simple. I think the perception of people outside of those of us who watch him every day was that he was an okay player who happened to get hot in the playoffs last year. Even yesterday, someone on TSN (I think) compared him to John Druce, before quickly being corrected with a "yeah, but Franzen's been doing it for two years now." Point being, most people saw him as a fluke, we saw differently, threw more money at him than anyone else would (at the time), and now that he's proving to everyone that he wasn't a fluke, it's too late, he's ours for the next decade-plus. We locked up a 30-goal guy who defines "clutch playoff performer" for under market value. Yet another feather in the cap of our FO.

I was going to mention these two incidents...I'm guessing Getzlaf's not a huge fan of diving either. But hey, if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. If diving leads to a GWG on the PP, I'm not really going to complain about it. I'll admit it's pretty embarrassing (especially the Franzen one above) though.

Agreed...dude's done absolutely EVERYTHING for us, most of which doesn't show up in the game recap, he deserved to get on the scoresheet like crazy.

Bad juju making this post now. But I don't really disagree. Hiller's gotten entirely too much credit, and the Ducks have zero up front that scares me outside of Getzlaf/Perry/Selanne. And Getzlaf's clearly something less than 100% at the moment.

Agree with just about all of this. If you're good enough to be a #7/8 for the Wings, you're good enough for the top 6 somewhere else, IMO. The only part I disagree with: I think LA's the clubhouse leader (assuming they want him). In the new NHL, there are very few true "losers," and LA looks like an up-and-coming team with a good, young D corps that would listen to him. And of course, he lives in SoCal. Easily one of my top 5 all-time favorite players. Blasphemy I know, but I even liked him as a Blackhawk (I'm not old enough to remember him as a Hab)...the selfish part of me wants him to stay with the Wings in some capacity, but the guy's going to play if someone wants him to play, that's just what he's about.

The winky face was supposed to indicate that it was sort of tongue-in-cheek... I didn't realize that the Wings' pwnage of Q was as thorough as that regular season record, TBH. Maybe there is something to it. I have a feeling we're going to find out.

I have a tough time buying into the idea that this matters, but I hope you're right. Besides, he has a two-game winning streak on us at the moment.

If the Hawks are down 5-0 in the 3rd period, I don't stop watching, because they've had the mojo in the playoffs. Sick amounts of comebacks, OT wins, etc. Going up against that worries me. Vancouver, OTOH, looks like crap to me at the moment.

Hope you're right...we've been sandbagged with Rafalski all series, it's not like the Ducks are above it either.

Not that it matters, but I think this is off a little. The 4/27 Hockey News says teams up 3-1 are 214-20 (.915) since 1918-19 in best-of-7s. Just from memory, I think it's 2-1 this year (Ducks and Pens were up 3-1 and won, Rangers were up 3-1 and lost), so that would make it 216-21 (.911).

It'll be interesting to see what Gonchar's status ends up being, since his return from the shoulder injury was maybe the single biggest factor in the Pens no longer sucking. If he's going to be out, then it's go Pens all the way.

Yeah, I paid my dues and then some having to watch opponent homers last round. I was pleasantly surprised when NHLN picked up FSD for the one game then, it was a nice break for me. HD availability and home team seem to be determining factors, so hopefully that means FSD.