C-TownWing

Huge. I don't care how many points the Avs don't have, for whatever reason, they had our number this year. Beat that monkey and the back-to-back monkey at the same time = nice. That was a gritty, big-time win.

Conklin quietly playing a great game to keep our two-goal lead intact...

Ericsson reminds me of a Whalers-era Chris Pronger. You can see he has the tools, he's just a little awkward at times. Once he figures out how to really use his size...holy crap. In a good way

Tons of Wings fans there--I was just watching replays of our goals and you can see just as many arms go up in the crowd as not in most places.

Faceoffs 26-10 Wings through 2. Nice--I honestly hadn't noticed we were dominating that much.

+1...it's amazing what a difference it makes in contrast to Ozzie (and Hasek through last year too). Great goalies, but moving the puck was/is not a strength.

GREAT f-ing period boys! 20 more and bring it home...

Getting a nice extended look-in from On The Fly on NHL Network using the Wings feed. Sweet.

"Franzen IIIINNNNNN.... Franzen makes it 2-1." You guys are right, he can't say "score" or equivalent.

Yeah, I don't know what I'm going to do when Sabres-Habs is over and I feel obligated to turn up my computer volume for our game. Barf.

In former Wing news, Schneids totally got burned for a shorty just now. Couldn't keep in it at the line, then lost the race with Gaustad. Don't mind being rid of that guy.

Just to clean something up, I watched the video...here's what was said: Lilja: "It's kind of different...they don't just sit down and eat burgers and drink beers, you know, they actually...most of them stand up and scream, sing, you know, sing stuff during the games...it's fun." Franzen: "They're maybe more into the games than fans are here. They can get more excited when there's a goal or a fight. You never see anyone leave their seats in the middle of a period or anything like that...they're really watching the games." Lidstrom: "The fans are, especially with the club teams, the fans are singing a lot, there are a lot of the songs going on up in the stands. I don't know if that's going to go on when we're over there, but the fans really get into the games." I fail to see where this is critical of Wings fans, as opposed to North American fans in general. If anyone's ever seen the crowds for European hockey, they'd know that the players are pretty much speaking the truth on this one.

Kind of funny this came up...just the other day, my gf was going off on how it's dumb that it's called the Original Six when the US members weren't around when the league was founded, and therefore not "original." Anyway, I think Nashville has great fans. Whenever we go in there, I know we're in for a world of hostility, and that's the way it should be. They're 28th in the league in attendance, so hopefully a few more start showing up for the non-Wings games, but they certainly have my respect.

Well, whatever happens, it'll probably be entertaining. Just when Marty Brodeur thought it was safe to come back.

Great post...as someone who's in the same situation, that's exactly how I feel. That said, I don't get the constant need to complain about it. Yeah, our JLA crowds leave a lot to be desired, but who freaking cares? I'm a fan of the team, not a fan of the fans. Why does it matter if our fans are "the best," or even "good" for that matter? As long as the franchise is sustainable and able to produce a successful product on the ice, I could give a damn about empty seats or people leaving early or a lack of noise. I think it's pretty much complacency, not the economy or anything else. The "best" fans are the ones experiencing a first taste of success after years of futility. See Pittsburgh, Montreal (in a relative sense, it's all relative), Washington, San Jose (especially when they first got good)--or Detroit back in the mid-90s. Until we're in that boat again, we're not going to have great fans. But if the choice is to always be one of the best teams in the league or to suck for a few years just so we can have louder crowds, that's pretty much a no-brainer for me.

Duly noted, Ovechkin played well in his one career playoff series. It's intellectually dishonest to include 2001-02 in Dats' playoff statistics--he was a rookie on a stacked team playing 4th line minutes. Take that out, and it jumps to 0.78 points per game for his career. Iginla doesn't have that issue, the Flames were buried in sucktitude until 2003-04, by which time he was well established as their marquee player. Over the last two years, it's 0.98 (hey, you rounded up for Iginla's career number) for Datsyuk. Or, spelled out, 39 points in 40 games (one Cup, one conference finals loss). Iginla's raw numbers in that time are 13 points in 13 games (two first-round exits). Sustaining a point-per-game pace over two long playoff runs impresses me more than a ridiculously marginal difference in the ratios. As far as Datsyuk vs. Zetterberg, I go with Datsyuk, barely. It's a nice problem to have though--I love that we win a best-on-best match with anyone else's forwards, because of the defense.

Me too, they'll be up, and they see us as a huge rival. Mason seems like he's coming back to Earth a little (despite the SO last night), so that's encouraging. Like I said in another thread, he's been the 2nd best goalie named Mason in the Central Division over the last month or so, and the stats aren't really that close. Other than that, Vancouver scares me, Minnesota and Calgary don't. I'll also throw a mention out for Nashville, they've been playing great hockey of late, they finally found an answer in net, and they're always a tough out for us.

IDK, I think a lot of people started to think Malkin was better than Crosby last year, when Crosby was out with the ankle for a while and the Pens didn't miss a beat thanks to Geno. So people started to question his true value since the team wasn't really hurt by his absence. Compare/contrast with what happens to us when Lids is out. To me, that's the point where Crosby exited the Big Three and dropped to the 2nd half of the top 10 somewhere. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

One more to add for me that I was just reminded of tonight: fans at the Joe on the side by the camera that turn around and wave. Irritates the crap out of me for no good reason. I also hate fans that leave before the end of periods/game, they block the play a lot of the time (that one's rational). I think we have pretty much the only arena where you can see the near-side fans on the main center ice camera. Kinda weird.

I had to look up that 10/30 game because I don't remember a thing about it. "In the game" is a little generous, because it was 4-1 (the score of tonight's game) before we scored with 30 seconds left. But 10-1 says that they need home ice more than we do--we stand a much better chance of stealing one at HP than they do at the Joe. Kind of a weird season series in that you have the definitive two best teams in the west (and the league, IMO), but only that last game in SJ was really a nail-biter. Oh well, no doubt in my mind we'll be playing them again in a couple months. Then again, I said that last year too.

You think? Once you remove people with valid reasons (of varying validity) like Lemieux, Pronger, Fedorov (if you still hate him, I used to and now don't), Tootoo, Ott, how much is really left? I actually had a fair amount of trouble coming up with mine. I guess you could assume Kopecky/Samuelsson for 95% of the board. Given what we pay them and the roles they play on the team, hating them is pretty irrational. You could also assume Ovechkin and Lucic for a few people more or less because they get tired of LGW collectively gooing itself over both of them.

Easy hero, I was just going for reaction points. Guess it worked! If you don't think what DMac did was total sweetness, find another team I say.

Sort of like guys who have to jump people from behind to get their shots in, even when they have the revenge factor on their side? Sorry, couldn't resist with the avatar and the hate of "wannabe tough guys."

That was actually my first thought IRRATIONALLY (meaning guys you have a legit reason to hate are off the table--meant for everyone saying C. Lemieux, Pronger, etc), here's my list: Columbus Blue Jackets. It's the reverse-homer thing, if you like someone other than the local team, you hate them extra, even if they've never been any sort of threat to you, never any real incidents between the teams. Pretty much no real reason to hate them, unless you buy into the stupidity that it's a "rivalry" (the honks in C-Bus say so because the Wings are in the same state as UM). Scott Gomez. Total waste on my fantasy team. Hating players because of what they do to your fantasy team is irrational, IMO. Scott Niedermayer. I just don't like his face. Michael Rozsival. Yes, really. Trevor Daley. This may have been based in rationality at some point, I don't remember. Paul Kariya. Even going back to Anaheim. Carey Price. I'm enjoying his recent struggles and have no idea why.

I'm voting for Rory Fitzpatrick 10,000 times. Eat it.