C-TownWing

Yeah, I'm not dreading ours, with our basic design, the difference probably won't be very great. You guys though, with that underarm striping (which I happen to think is pretty badass looking) and the rest of the complex scheme...SJ has one of the better jerseys in the league, it'd be a shame if they changed much.

Exactly. It was a pleasure to hear from the other side this series--class all the way, even in defeat. Just wish we could enjoy our series win with the same class. Like not starting "eat it" threads, that would be one way to go. I said it to my girlfriend as the 3rd was winding down: the Sharks will win the Cup in the next five years. Just wasn't quite their time yet this year, but they'll be a stronger playoff team in the future because of this series.

While I think this will be a GREAT series, I also said that about Sens-Pens and Sharks-Preds in round 1. Meanwhile, an anticipated snoozer like Nucks-Stars ended up being the only series that went the full 7, and it was pretty exciting if you like defense. So you never know. FWIW, I'm calling Sens in 6. Like another poster mentioned, they have scoring coming from all lines right now and Emery's been very good. I'll be rooting for Buffalo though. Just glad we'd only have to play one of them to win the Cup! Not looking ahead, I promise.

FWIW, I rank him behind Hasek and Roy at 3rd best of this generation. Probably in the top 25 ever, but closer to #25 than to #1. There is a middle ground between "greatest ever" and "overrated and sucks," believe it or not.

Agreed...I don't think you can really argue with the fact that TB's been maybe the 2nd most successful Sun Belt market (behind Dallas) in terms of both marketing and on-ice product. I don't care what tickets cost, 19,876 per this season is damn impressive. If having a lame knock-off like Hockey Bay, USA is what it takes to have a strong franchise in a non-traditional market (for a change), I say go nuts.

To be fair, Columbus actually came in two seasons later and is working on their third coach. I'm kind of scratching my head over that one a little. They had put off extending him earlier, presumably to see how he finished the season. So he blows the division by getting owned by us head to head, then proceeds to manage a single playoff win. And they bring him back anyway. Trotz did a good job going from expansion to respectability to upper echelon team, but sometimes it takes a coaching change to make that last step in the progression, and I'm starting to think Nashville might be one of those cases.

I don't know, I think Malts has been fine. That line's been great for us all playoffs, just because Maltby's the one without the pts. doesn't mean he's not a part of that. Case in point, after Franzen and Cleary, he's tied as our #3 forward in +/-. Draper, Huds, Lang are also +2. I'll vote for Zetterberg. We need to get our big guns blazing ASAP. If this was game 6, I might say Datsyuk since that's a road game.

Yeah, count me in if that happens! I'd laugh my ass off at that pseudo-sport that pretty much exists solely for gambling degenerates. I'll live with it if I end up watching the end of the game on CNBC. But if I have to fire up Sopcast and watch a grainy picture a couple inches wide because I don't get Versus, I'm breaking some furniture.

Just another reason to hate my #1 "why does everyone give a crap" event of the year. And the NHL's TV contracts, that goes without saying.

Exactly...I don't know which part of a series vs. us/SJ, then BUF/OTT constitutes "coasting." They'll have two pretty good tests, if they pass both, they win the Cup. They've just had the good fortune to play the two worst teams in the playoffs (yes, I know Vancouver beat Dallas). Can't really hold that against them. In a weird way, I'm kind of happy Anaheim won, should we win. 1. We match up well with them, good games this season, should be a good series. 2. Luongo. The best goalie in the league. Against our offense.

So why are we only considering one side of the equation? We're swapping right? Not just moving SJ into the Central. Toss in Detroit's record vs. Anaheim and Dallas with the one vs. LA/Phoenix, extrapolate to 8 games each, and we have 50 division points compared to the 48 we got in the Central. Cut our Central points in half (that's no longer our division), and you get 74 points. Obviously, you don't have to touch SJ, the Northwest or the Eastern Conference, still playing them the same number of times. So 74 points vs. "affected teams" vs. the 73 we actually got. Seems to me we'd actually be a point better in the Pacific. Do the same for San Jose vs. Nashville toss in their CLB/CHI/STL record, and we have 44, compared to the 37 they got in the Pacific. Cut their actual Pacific points in half and you get a projected 62.5 points against "affected teams" vs. the 59 they actualy got. So they're up 3.5 points for a net gain of 2.5 on us. Problem is, we were 6 points ahead of them. So we're still ahead. The thing I don't get--when we argue about strong division/weak division, why do we pretend like teams play against some control group opponent in a vacuum and treat head-to-head like the end-all? Matchups matter. Rivalry matters. Tendencies matter. Fact: Detroit owned Nashville (6-1-1 or 1.625 PPG), didn't own the rest of the division quite as strongly (1.46 PPG). Faulty conclusion: Nashville is the worst team in the division. Fact: Detroit owned Dallas and broke even with Anaheim, the two best teams San Jose has to play in their division. San Jose struggled with both. Faulty conclusion: Detroit is better than San Jose. Well, ok, we are, just not for that reason. Anyway, you get my point.

I'm sitting here waiting for a 10p game to start after sleeping for about 90 minutes last night (damn sciatic), working 7-6, then moving some of my stuff to my soon-to-be new home. If we were in the east, the game would be ending about now and I could go to bed. Tough choice there

Thanks for making my point Why not add Georges Vezina and Frank Brimsek to your list?

Wow, Johnny "Bauer" is #19. That does wonders for their credibility with me. CuJo's #11, BTW. I'm not big on the accumulation of stats. Most wins ever, most shutouts, most...anything. Generally the byproduct of being around for a long time on a good team (see Roy, who has the records, Brodeur, who will have the records, and even Sawchuk, who still has the shutout one). Me, I prefer the spectacular, and that's what Hasek was in his prime, a flat-out one man team. Much more so than with Roy or Brodeur, when you played the Sabres, the #1 question was "can you get enough by Hasek to win?" He got a late start and played on worse teams (hurting his stats accumulation, although obviously not the awards). But he's still strong at 42 (he's actually a few months older than Roy, who retired in 2003), so who knows where it goes from here. I'll call Hasek the best I've seen, I won't call him the best of all time though. He may very well be, but I think it's ridiculous when a 27-year-old can say with a straight face "Glenn Hall wasn't as good as Johnny Bower" or "Domenik Hasek was better than both Hall and Bower." How the hell do you even know? Stats? Awards? It sure ain't from seeing them play!

What makes that pretty retarded is that Ferraro was a decent player. Unfortunately, HockeyDB's down, but here's Wikipedia. Ray Ferraro

Completely agree...Dom is absolutely HORRIBLE with the puck, and it cost us a goal today. Fortunately, it turned out not to affect the outcome of the game. If it had, he certainly would've been bashed, rightfully so. But calling one of the all-time greats an "ass clown?" Yeah, ok chief, thanks for the great insight and frightening visual.

Oh well. a) Devils win. b) That was unfortunately short.

In the parallel universe where the Red Wings are the Reg Wings, "ass clown" must mean "greatest goalie I've ever seen."

Anytime. Thought of a third reason, although it won't help any of you--annoying co-worker from Jersey who doesn't care but gives me a "go Devils" when I wear my Wings stuff.

I'm sure why--Lamoriello's a ******, go Sens! Secondarily, we're tied with the Devils as the most successful franchise in recent memory, 3 Cups each. I'd rather we take the lead this year, but if we can't, I don't want them to.

LET'S GO REG WINGS! LET'S GO REG WINGS! LET'S GO REG WINGS! It was actually pretty hard to type it incorrectly if you know what I mean, I'm so used to typing "Red Wings," you know, being a fan of the team an all. Amazing that this ass clown (to borrow his word) was able to get it wrong one of the few times it really counts.

Isn't Joe Thornton hurt? Oh wait, forgot it's just the playoffs.

Line of the day! Close runner-up: the McCarty/Roenick zing.

Well said, he had already moved into being maybe one of my top 5 favorite players, this certainly won't hurt!

That's the thing that I think really works in our favor...with a big lead in the 3rd, we were able to drop lines 3 and 4 like they were 1 and 2. That's how it looked to me anyway. This whole "old team" thing really gets lame. I think it was after game 2, Pierre McGuire asked Draper if we wanted to make it a short series since we're old, Draper kind of gave him a "you're on crack" look before delivering the appropriate PC answer. We're not really much older (if at all) than anyone else outside of Hasek (the goalie, doesn't have to move up and down the ice) and Chelios (in ridiculous condition).