C-TownWing

I actually don't wear Wings stuff while I'm watching the games, because I'm generally at home after work (except on the weekends) and wearing pajama pants and a t-shirt. My Wings t-shirts are generally too nice to be in the pajama drawer. Since game 4 of the Anaheim series, I've made a point of wearing a Penn State hockey t-shirt. We haven't been losing in a series since, so I'll stick with it until the bitter end. Also rocking the beard and follow the thing where you have to trim (very slightly) after losses to change the luck. Not really superstitions, but I have a favorite couch cushion, and I get up and pace during TV timeouts. I also have a bottle of water handy at all times, and I tend to go Babs on the thing if something bad happens. I don't look at the GDTs on here, except during intermissions when we're losing. The idea there is that I'm looking for someone to say something to improve my outlook for the rest of the game. Sure there's a lot of negativity, but if I'm already feeling crappy, it doesn't really hurt.

Best. Sig. Ever. I'm sort of a jersey geek, but I have one basic rule: either a guy has to be signed for a LONG time or his legacy to the team has to already be secure. I always avoid playing the futures game--there's no such thing as buying low, they're all damn expensive. Get someone who you KNOW is going to be relevant in a few years. Which isn't Darren Helm, as much as I love the guy. The three jerseys in my sig are ones I own...I also have white Shanahan and Fedorov and a red Yzerman with the 1998 Cup and VK/SM patches. Spent all my HS graduation money on that one back in the day. The Datsyuk one I got after the finals last year, and it has the 2008 finals patch on it. I REALLY wanted a Zetterberg because he won the Conn Smythe but went with Datsyuk because Z obviously hadn't signed his deal at that point. Seriously. If we win this year, I'll get a red Z with the 2009 patch (wouldn't be able to stand the sight of the patch if we lose), and it'll be sweet to have the Eurotwins with consecutive Cup patches. After that, I'll probably look at a Franzen with whatever patch they come up with for the games in Sweden. Osgood's on the radar, but only if I can find a goalie cut, because it would bother me if it wasn't. Hossa would join the club if we signed, but obviously not right now. Agree with everyone else on the classic jerseys--only go that route if you get a decent degree of realism. That means the correct logo, sweater-ish material, no name, etc. Finally, to answer the question that's been asked a few times: according to NHLUniforms.com, we began putting names on the whites in 1973-74 and on the reds in 1977-78. These were just basic looking straight across names. The familiar arch style for lettering began in 1982-83, although we had a really different numbering style that year. Starting in 1983-84, our names and numbers were more or less of the current style.

He doesn't need us to "show him," he's doing a great job all on his own. I almost feel bad for you guys, since you pretty much have to hitch your wagon to that POS, given that he captains your team. Maybe in 2013, someone else can take the $8.7 million cap hit for a guy who doesn't lead, play defense, kill penalties or grow a decent playoff beard and you can see the light. ...and I'm a guy that used to stick up for him here.

If that were to happen, it'd be my wallpaper until the end of days, regardless of what happens with Hossa or anything.

I actually think that's a point in his favor. Yes, the Islanders are a contender for the worst-run team in sports (all due respect to you Lions fans), but it's still New York. Sort of. Big market, does more for the NHL if they're successful than Pittsburgh does IMO. And the Isles aren't really any worse off than the Pens pre-Crosby. He's Canadian, seems like he has a decent head (although I said the same of Crosby at this stage, so who knows) and has been hyped ad nauseum. Maybe not to Crosby levels, but not far behind that. To me the deciding factor is this: does he win? He's going to need to make the Isles competitive one way or another--if they end up battling the Pens and Caps for Eastern Conference supremacy with Tavares leading the way, then it could definitely happen. But poster boys generally don't play for non-playoff teams. Even with all that, it would still take a few years. It's not like they're just going to snap their fingers and say "no, you have to like this guy now."

My thoughts exactly...17 epic fail points on that one.

So...anyone want to take a stab at finding irony in games played in an arena named after a defunct bank?

...and there's every point I was going to make. Even the thing about the Avalanche series last year. That and facing a tired Dallas team (who had taken out Anaheim and SJ) in the WCF were two gigantic factors in winning last year. We just haven't had things like that conspire in our favor this year...if we overcome it this year, I'll consider this run to be much more impressive. The "Wings are old" thing pisses me off to no end. But you don't have to be old to be tired.

I was ready to jump off a bridge after game 5 of the Stars series last year. In fact, as soon as that game was over, I ran into the bathroom and ditched my beard. We (fans) just have to take a deep breath and get it back together. We've been kind of spoiled in our recent Cups, last year was the only final that went more than 5 games, and we were more or less in control throughout. We're in a competitive series, the way it's supposed to be in the finals. Anyone who thought we'd win in 5 was delusional (sorry, I know that's probably 75% of you), because Pittsburgh's a very good team. So are we though. The way some of you are talking, I hate to see what happens when we're not one of the top 5 teams in the league or maybe even miss the playoffs one year. We're 2-2 in the Cup finals, for f's sake. You'd think we were debating Tavares vs. Hedman as bad as some of you think we are. Yeah, I was pissed off last night, but now I'm ready for game 5. Best of 3 for the Cup, we have home ice.

Chelios FTW... name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>&"> name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350" /> Anyway, crucial game tonight. Buccigross said that the winner of game 4 wins the series, and honestly, I'm having a hard time disagreeing.

First, a pic AND a DuckTales reference. Yeah, you win.

I'm guessing Crosby still gets the royalty check even if you white out his name on the stick. I read your post and was so inspired that I removed all Crosby merchandise from my home. Amazingly enough, I was able to do so from work 45 minutes away 25 minutes later. Oh right, it's because I don't own any

Making fun of Eklund = always hilarious. Hopefully Pav's ready to tear this thing apart, because we need him in a big way right now.

I'll cop to generally wishing the Avs well now that they have their AHL team in my hometown. Go Monsters. It's cool seeing guys you saw play before they were big make it big. Rivalry's long dead...in fact, the one guy left from those days is the one we never hated in the first place, Sakic. Wings fans have always had a healthier outlook on that than Avs fans. Of course, continued success makes it pretty easy to be fair.

I trust my penalty kill to Pavel. You should too.

Exactly. You can't hold Stevie out as the ultimate warrior on one hand, then criticize anyone who falls short of that on the other. If everyone was an Yzerman, then Yzerman the original wouldn't be anything special. None of that was meant to be a comment on Pav, just pointing out the idiocy of using Yzerman as the minimum expectation for heart.

Great points throughout this post...Hudler and Sammy aren't exactly selling themselves at the moment, are they?

I hope it's true, because they're absolutely owning us in the traveling fans category. How is it that we can get several thousand in LA for a game in December but about 12 in Pittsburgh for the SCF? There HAS to be something else going on. Whatever they're doing, I wish we'd do the same though--the amount of noise when they score at the Joe is flat-out embarrassing. I did see more than one Wings fan last night...but the ones I saw seemed like they were mostly wearing white jerseys. Gotta know where you're going and rock the red as they say in DC.

Exactly. We're not idiots, and we've seen the dangers of committing too much of the cap to too few players through other teams. IF this is true (and I doubt it is), it means something's up, like a mass-retirement of the four-Cup crew. Whatever happens, we'll know soon enough--7/1 is less than a month away.

Very classy of them to cut Granato loose before continuing to semi-publicly offer his job to other people. And people wonder why we're a sought-after destination. Must be because we're cheating somehow.

Agreed on all counts. I'm more pissed at Ericsson than at the officials--it was a lazy play/rookie mistake, more so than the ones that are let go on both sides. He had enough room to go back and play the puck. It wasn't one of those where the forward chips it around the D and has a shot at beating him, so it's worth risking the interference call to slow it down. The too many men was a brutal no-call though (like I needed to say that), and judging by Babs' reaction to it, there's enough outrage there to get us to hold to the pattern of response to this stuff. We'll see I guess.

Pittsburgh guy calling Detroit a s***hole = irony.

Orpik's a garbage player and a liability more often than not. I'll leave it at that for now.

Sort of where I'm at too. There was part of me thinking we'd take a serious *****-slapping tonight, and we didn't. In a weird way, I'm more confident than I was going into this game. Game 4's the difference between us definitely winning and a coin flip IMO, so let's use the day off wisely and freaking dominate Thursday.

He likes you guys for some reason...next time he calls a game with Steckel, Umberger, etc., pay attention, he'll always drop a gratuitous OSU mention. He's from Indiana and has degrees from two different Ohio colleges (Miami and BG), so that might be something. Who knows?