C-TownWing

Somewhere else...maybe Philly, but I can't remember for sure, they have glass displays in the concourse with all of the hats thrown in. I thought that was kind of cool, I'd rather have my hat back, but I guess the next best thing is going to visit it with your grandkids and saying "sonny, that's the hat I threw when Lupul lit up the Pens in 2007-08."

Agreed...I'm just hoping for a long, physical, high body count series that leaves the winner totally spent. Even at 2-0 Stars (and earned in SJ), I still think it could happen. The Sharks were dominant for good stretches again last night, as they were in game 1. Turco's just been unbelievably good. My gut says the Sharks are done though--the team "leaders" are no-shows yet again, the coach is going off on the media, Nabokov hasn't been a Vezina finalist-caliber G as of late...all signs are there for the Stars to cruise in 5, 6 at the most.

The most hilarious part about it was the Vs. broadcasters when it happened. Right after it happened, when they showed it slo-mo from that backside angle where you can clearly see the double-flamingo, they actually said "he's not trying to avoid the shot, he's just trying to make himself big." I remember thinking "Big? There shouldn't ever really be a need to 'make yourself big' on a shot block by jumping. I'm pretty sure if the puck was going to go over his head, it wouldn't be going in the 4' high net anyway." I had to wait until our game on NBC (of all places) the next day before I could listen to broadcasters ripping Patty a new one.

Agree...it's a little discouraging to me that they were able to take any kind of moral victory away from the game. They'll be feeling good about themselves (as good as possible coming off a loss) on Saturday, and all it takes is one win for them, and all of a sudden we're talking about must-wins (we'd HAVE to win one in Denver at that point). Point being, as well as we played in the first, we were still VERY lucky to escape that one. And a series can turn on a dime.

I'll 3rd that...he's been Philly's best forward pretty much every time I've watched them this year, not Briere, Richards, etc.

It got me too...then I saw a mention of Markov re-signing, and kind of scratched my head. Then I saw something about how the Ducks have McDonald up front and was finally like "heeeey wait a minute..."

Valid point, although I have a hard time blaming Ozzie for the number of shots faced (or not faced). It's almost like blaming Hudler for doing all his scoring on the man advantage. Oh wait... To me, goals are goals and shutouts are shutouts, whether you face 20 shots or 40. And while it wasn't an entire game, I'll give him credit for the 1st period of game 6--he bailed us out when the game was obviously very much in doubt.

For real...can't quite figure out A- for him. Even beyond the stats, think about the timing of them--he was inserted when things looked their worst for us and responded brilliantly. All in all, I'm happy with how the series ended up. Coming in, I wanted no part of the Central in the playoffs, they gave us fits all year and I thought it could be trouble if one of those teams snuck into that 8 slot. Sure enough it happened, and while we struggled at times, we responded like champs and we now get to show why we went 37-9-4 outside of our division. I'll be lazy and say I pretty much agree with Eva's grades, with the notable exception that I would've downgraded Rafalski to the B-/C+ neighborhood. Brutal in game 1, and while it got somewhat better from there, still way too many TOs for my taste.

The hockey gods are not pleased by our hoping we get the Avs and Stars to get out of the West, I'll put it that way.

Every once in a while, Doc will solicit an opinion from Olczyk, Milbury and McGuire by saying something like "you guys were all head coaches in the NHL..." McGuire coached the Hartford Whalers. For one season. How does that even count as head coaching experience?

:rotflmao:

Sort of a different type of problem in Cleveland: our NBC affiliate does Indians games pretty much every Sunday. As of right now it's slotted so we'll get the last hour of the Wings game, but they had a similar setup last Sunday and the Indians didn't end until after the Flyers-Caps game. So I'm exploring online and driving out-of-market options at the moment. And cursing people who are lame and demand Indians games on free TV.

One sort of underrated drawback to the whole thing--when it does fail, it hard to quickly adjust. Look at how much trouble we had getting any kind of offensive rhythm back after the tying/winning goals, even just enough to keep the puck in the zone long enough to get Dom out. You can't just turn it back on after 15 minutes of chipping it in and backing up. But yeah, I hate it in any sport. Keep doing what go you the lead in the first place.

Disagree with this point in particular--the NFL, the anti-minor league, does something very similar, painting logos on the field for different occasions. There's an NFL Kickoff logo for the first weekend of the season, and of course the playoffs and Super Bowl. I'm a purist as well, but we've already popped the cherry on ice and board advertising, there's no going back to a plain white sheet of ice. Or gray, for those of you who are REAL purists. To me the quantity almost doesn't matter, it's a zero-sum game. Which is why I'm vehemently against any jersey ads, even seemingly benign ones like in the AHL.

So I got really pissed, sent a pissed off e-mail to all my friends about it, then figured I'd jump into the thread to listen to other pissed off people. Whoops. Having to write the retraction e-mail was embarrassing as hell but still felt kinda good knowing it wasn't true after all.

It's a great day to die. And by die I mean lose. It's a great day to lose. That freaking cracks me up every time someone references it. To the question at hand, do the Sharks worry me? I guess enough that I'm hoping the NW winner takes a dive in the 1st round, meaning we'd play #6 in the 2nd round and we don't have to see both the Sharks and Ducks. At the same time though, while on paper they're both great teams, the Ducks still worry me more. They have that undefinable "it" factor come playoff time that the Sharks don't.

Bettman likes to say that he likes Versus because the NHL is their centerpiece, where on ESPN, they'd be lost on the shuffle. Ever flip on Versus, other than during their 10-13 hrs./week of hockey programming? Seems to me that guys who like shooting stuff is their centerpiece. As a Red Wings fan, I have a little trouble complaining about teams getting a lot of national telecasts with a straight face. Although I am pretty sick of the Rangers/Penguins/Flyers/Sabres thing as well.

Assuming everyone's played their last game, these guys would get my vote. I didn't look up any stats or awards or anything, so hopefully it's not too out there. F Sergei Fedorov Peter Forsberg Jarome Iginla Jaromir Jagr Paul Kariya Alex Kovalev Mike Modano Markus Naslund Jeremy Roenick Joe Sakic Teemu Selanne Brendan Shanahan Mats Sundin Joe Thornton D Rob Blake Chris Chelios Nick Lidstrom Scott Niedermayer Chris Pronger Sergei Zubov G Martin Brodeur Dominik Hasek Curtis Joseph Chris Osgood

Just a thought: if everything plays to form (it never does, but still...), as 2nd seed, we'd get the #3 (Northwest winner) in the 2nd round, while SJ gets the winner of Stars-Ducks. With no upsets (again, never happens), I'd almost rather be #2.

SOME of them?

Not quite...I did this quick, but it can't be far off, if at all: Chicago: 664 GP Detroit: 521 GP Montreal: 402 GP If not for the lockout, we'd be passing the Blackhawks sometime next season...

So if we had traded Yzerman in his last year, we wouldn't have retired his jersey? Ok then...

My gf saw Murph on TV, and without knowing who he was said "he looks like a pedophile!" I think the hair was a big reason why. I'm with Hank and others on Mac...if we were bringing back '97 Mac, that's one thing, who could say no to that? But this is '08 Mac. Anyone remember how terrible he was his last year with the Wings? I mean when he wasn't busy missing half the year. His sandpaper-ish quality was pretty much gone, and it's not like he could lean on scoring a la Shanny when the same thing happened to him. And that was now four years ago. His track record with Calgary (or lack thereof) speaks for itself. It's unfortunate, but his days as an NHL-caliber player are over. I hope for his sake that he catches a broadcasting gig, I think he'd be good at that.

I vote for Stevie, and although I'm not really objective, I think I have valid reasons for going that route--stats (especially in his prime), Cups, significance to the franchise, probably better defensively, etc. No way I can dump on Sakic though. Fantastic player, pure class, the one guy really worth liking on those 1996-2002 Avs teams. I've been a fan of his going back to Quebec, and you definitely can't go wrong with either guy. Anyway, the real question is where's that idiot Blackhawks fan always around here to tell us that Jonathan Toews is already better than Yzerman and Sakic put together?

Cool thread! My prize is my authentic red Yzerman, complete with 1998 Stanley Cup and VK/SM patches. Blew all my HS graduation money on that one. Wings: Authentic white Shanahan 90's Starter replica white Fedorov Authentic RBK Edge red Chelios* * just ordered this one, should be arriving next week Other NHL: Authentic white Chelios Canadiens Replica white Chelios Blackhawks Replica white Gilles Meloche Cleveland Barons Authentic blank blue Hartford Whalers Replica blank blue Hartford Whalers (long story) Replica blank blue Rangers Replica blank purple Ducks (the original sweater, no idea where the hell that one is) Non-NHL: Replica purple Gerry Cheevers Cleveland Crusaders (WHA) Replica blank black Cleveland Lumberjacks (IHL) Game-worn black Bill Downey Wheeling Nailers (ECHL) Numerous game-worn Penn State (ACHA) Wish list: * I would LOVE to name my authentic Whalers jersey, preferably with Pat Verbeek--I have no idea who would be able to do CORRECT numbers/letters for a team that hasn't existed in 10+ years though. * White RBK Edge Wings jersey, tough to decide who between Dats, Z, Homer, Lids though... * Non-USA Nike Swift jersey with a Wing on it. Not that I hate my country, just want to do something a little different. * Pens jersey, I guess Crosby, they're my 2nd favorite team.