C-TownWing

Well, hopefully the series goes a lot like this game did.

Wow, Barker gets burned again...and cue Crowd Chant.

Best thing I've gotten out of this game so far...

I voted for Crosby too. Same reasons. As far as the Ovechkin argument "someone has to take the shots," aren't we the team that leads the league in shots and shot differential basically every year? I'm not saying that there aren't valid reasons for Ovie, there definitely are, but that one strikes me as odd.

Babs has the perfect demeanor for that to not happen to him. I mean, I suppose any coach can get tuned out some point, but it's usually the whiners and yellers that go first. I have maybe less respect for Carlyle than any other coach in the NHL (Thierrien's not in the NHL at the moment), so this is just par for the course.

Booch isn't the worst offender, and I'm not necessarily calling him out here, but I'm sick of so much being made of the Wings' age. Our average age at the beginning of this season was 30.4, oldest in the league. Anaheim was 2nd, at 30.31. The average age for the whole league is about 28. The Blackhawks are the youngest team, 25.65. Yet to hear people talk about it, they'll say things like "the Wings are the oldest team in the league, they're lucky they got the rest after the first round." Just stuff like that and other comments that make us sound like we're lucky our guys haven't all broken their hips and/or come down with Alzheimer's. Is there really that much difference between a 30-year-old and a 25-year-old? I don't think so.

I believe the league ran the California Seals/Cleveland Barons franchise on a couple different occasions...worked out well for them, didn't it?

Yeah, that one didn't work out so well for Vlad, did it? I probably didn't articulate that well--I just mean that I hope that they get away from the "who came back from the worst disease/injury" logic. If they give it to Cheli as a last chance sort of thing, I won't complain, although I don't agree with that logic in general, only when it favors a guy I like!

With advancements in training and sports medicine, I think you will. The thing is, even if you're playing at 47, there's no way you're playing at your highest level. Most first-ballot HOF guys hang 'em up when they can't be a star anymore, but Cheli is dedicated to the game to the point where he doesn't mind being a healthy scratch most of the time, as long as he still gets to play sometimes. He has the Cups, Norrises, HOF assurred, there's nothing left to be accomplished. He has enough money, he has Cheli's, he could EASILY just retire and be an MSU hockey dad, so post-career's not an issue like it is with a lot of guys. Yet he perseveres, because he loves the game. That should be what the Masterson's about, not who came back from the worst injury.

Yeah, tough pull. Not to mention last year when he was up against colitis guy and cancer guy. Hopefully, they make it a career achievement/last chance kind of thing.

It's been a while now and I might be remembering this wrong, but I don't think there were HATERS on the Lang-Samuelsson (and formerly Lilja) plateau. But people were starting to question whether he'd live up to his potential. Great to see Lilja's skating at least! I don't expect him back this run, but back at some point would be ideal obviously.

No prob...I don't entirely disagree. That's how it started, but it sort of just evolved (devolved?) into a general, somewhat topical rant. I guess my point with the jersey thing was something along the lines of: If you're a jersey buyer who likes a team (Caps) because of one player (Ovechkin), you probably have to buy the jersey of that specific player. You obviously weren't a fan before Ovechkin was around, so you don't have a Mike Ridley, and even if you did, you wouldn't be happy with it. If you like a team (Wings) because you like the team, your perfectly nice Probert jersey from 1992 works just fine. And hey, it's the exact same style we're still wearing, double bonus. Sorry about your Eddie George. Anyone who gives me an O$U player jersey is off the Christmas card list...

1. Crosby and Ovechkin are no more exciting to watch than Datsyuk. If indeed the "average sports fan" is more drawn to Crosby/Ovechkin, it's only because they're being told that's who they're supposed to be drawn to. They could make Shane O'Brien the most popular player in the league if they wanted to, so why Crosby/Ovechkin and not the champs? Besides, the generally pathetic national ratings tell me the average sports fan isn't watching anyway, and the guy a little bit ago did a nice comparison showing that Wings' national ratings are often better despite the hype machine. I'm not sure if my point's completely clear there, but essentially, I'm saying that the hype machine can point people in whatever direction they want, so I don't think pointing them at Pens/Caps reflects TRUE popularity. Starting tomorrow, they could cut them off and tell everyone that the Panthers are THE team, and "average sports fan" would bail and go watch them. If they were watching in the first place. 2. The Wings' popularity transcends individual players, the Pens' and Caps' doesn't. Once Crosby is retired or playing somewhere else, the Pens are back to being irrelevant. Proof? Pens post-Lemieux (before his last comeback) drew 8,000 per and almost moved to KC. Wings post-Yzerman were basically unaffected. 3. Player jersey sales don't count for much, because of #2. I'm guessing the Wings sell a good number of jerseys of more different players. Also, Washington and Pittsburgh have both undergone major jersey redesigns this decade, which always bumps sales. The Wings last did so in the 1930s. Finally, in my observation, Wings fans tend to hang on to dated jerseys more than most fans out there. Lots of Yzerman, Fedorov, Probert, etc. still out there. Even saw a Shawn Burr last time at the Joe, which was kinda weird. Basically, lots of reasons why you can't equate jersey sales with number of fans or TV ratings. Granted, I don't watch the Pens and Caps as much as the Wings, but I don't think they're taking over arenas in the Pacific time zone like we do.

And I don't mind Crosby, so... Flame on!

No doubt. Still rooting for a black hole to swallow both franchises and their fans, but the Caps would be my 2nd choice I guess. Remember the Islanders-Oilers "one dynasty passing the torch to the other" comparisons last year? Get ready for those x1000 if the Wings and Pens meet again. I'm rooting against it.

I was just about to come in here and mock everyone's premature outrage, but you guys beat me and nailed it. Nice work

Good list, and with the added cred of coming from a Sharks fan. I agree with just about all of it, although I have to say that I'm surprised it took this long for Wilson to get a couple fingers pointed his way. Maybe they were and I was just unaware of it, but it seems like he's been above criticism for the most part. The most interesting part of this to me is seeing what the market is for Thornton. He's signed through 2010-11 and I still regard him as a top 10 player. The problem is that his playoff rep is pretty well in stone at this point, and his cap number (I think around $7 million) isn't something that's easy for anyone to take on. The rich teams don't have the cap space, especially with it projected to stay about the same next year and maybe go down the year after. And the poor teams don't want to spend the money. It probably won't be an instant reload-type deal because of those things, but hopefully you still get more in return than Boston did*! * All due respect to Stewie, who I like.

I caught a little of game 6 on the radio...Dave Maloney was absolutely beside himself when no call was made on the Brashear-Betts hit, and then a soft hold was called on the Rangers right after that. Kind of a valid beef in that case. Agree with the poster on Sather though. That guy's singlehanded kept that franchise mediocre and has been living on rep for about 20 years. He does not deserve to be employed by an NHL team.

Agree...there is absolutely zero doubt that the Wings are #1 in the US and #3 overall after Toronto and Montreal. It's just that they're trying to change that by constantly fluffing the Pens and Caps. I'm not going to worry about it too much until the schedule comes out. They could deliberately schedule us and them on different days. And keep in mind that we'll be on the west coast 2-3 games, so they'd be able to show both us and Caps-Pens on those days.

I'll be rooting for the black hole.

Sorry, I gotta go with the Canes. Of the teams left in the East, I'd want to face them 1. Canes, 2. Caps, 3. Bruins, 4. Pens with a pretty big gap between 1 and 2.

Even though the race probably ended with our Cup last year, for a while we were sort of in a dogfight with the Devils to be the dominant NHL franchise since 1995. I still feel that a little, so it's nice to see them go down. Plus, it leads to the good news that one of the Pens or Caps is about to go down. That's great. I'll try not to think of the fact that one has to win too.

With any luck, our series will be staggered, at least during the games in Detroit. But don't forget that when we're in Anaheim, we can both be on. And to the one a couple above: Bettman's actual wish is to move the Pens to the West so that can be your Cup final.

That was pretty much like the goal that ended the Nucks-Blues series, except from a slightly better angle.

What a snipe! Staal puts the Devils down! YEEEEEAH!!!