C-TownWing

Win this, and the Cup is ours. We're not chokers like that 1942 team.

I've always felt like the odd-numbered games are more important than the even-numbered ones. G1 sets the tone, you covered G3, G5 is either a 3-1 closeout game or 2-2 and forcing the loser to win two straight and G7 is obvious. I feel physically ill right now about this game. I've been feeling that way since last night. Which is weird, because in the WCF, my G3 attitude was "hey, we're playing with house money, 3-0 would be awesome, but we're still good at 2-1." I have no idea what to make of it. PS. Bob Errey is a toolbox. I wish Murph was more of a homer to match him (on the NHL Network pre and post-game shows).

Agreed. He WILL get that team a Stanley Cup. Just hopefully not this year. Tremendous coach, tremendous guy. And he doesn't deserve any of the crap he's been getting about using the TO (or not) after the icings either.

Nice to see some Doc love in here, I thought the consensus was anti-him. He's great at what he does and is a class guy too. Check the episode of Voices on NHL Network about him, it'll give you an appreciation. I even find myself using some of his expressions--"spikes it away," "they cancel," etc.

Excellent point. Zetterberg on Crosby, they negate each other = win for us because our supporting players are better Zetterberg away from Crosby, both productive offensively = win for us because our supporting players are better Depth is a wonderful thing, ain't it?

I agree, hitting the post is overrated. Close call, yes, but hey, you missed the net. I hate when someone clanks one and the announcer says "he beat the goalie." He didn't beat the goalie any more than he would've if he'd missed the net altogether and hit the glass. You beat the goalie when it crosses the goalline. Is one closer than the other? Sure. But they count the same on the scoreboard. Besides, we hit a post early on. And one that a lot of people are calling a post on their end was actually a glove save. Make all the posts goals and we still win by 1 if I'm not mistaken.

Thanks for helping my point Guerin just doesn't scare me at all, unless he's getting a sick setup from Crosby. You're right about the turnovers, but I think (hope, anyway) that it was a product of our legs (temporarily) being gone...our D just couldn't get any separation from the forecheck.

So the Pens have all the momentum because they win 2 straight (hypothetically) but we don't have any momentum at all from winning two straight? Got it. One thing you should probably have picked up by now is that the Wings are less susceptible to emotional and momentum changes than just about anyone. The Pens? Yes, they've learned since last year, but I still see some panic with them. They almost sound like they're trying to convince themselves they're still in it. You might read it as confidence and that's cool, but I don't. A couple other points: 1. I said this in another thread, but have we already forgotton how heavily the deck was stacked against us? You know, the thing we were bitching about all last week? We had no right to win both of those games, yet we played the Eastern Conference champs (and one of the hottest teams as well) evenly (yes, evenly) and gutted out 2 Ws. We were far from our best and will only get stronger as the series goes on. Let's not forget that the Pens are playing in these games too and we have more depth. 2. I'm not overly concerned about last change. Z's done a fantastic job and rightly gets a lot of credit for it, but really, it's been a full team and coaching effort on Crosby. We've rightly figured out that guys like Guerin and Kunitz are quality players, but at the same time, only as good as Crosby makes them look. So we're smothering him every single time in, sometimes with 3 guys. Our 2nd D pair is as good as most teams' 1sts, and we don't have a single forward on the team that doesn't put out on the backcheck. Where's the matchup they're going to exploit at will? I don't see it. 3. Osgood. Can you see him letting 3-4 per game (what they'll need to win) past him after how well he's played all playoffs? I can't.

Quite the scheme there, but a great point too. How can you hold the home team solely responsible for the actions of the crowd, when obviously fans of the other team show up too? Can we get two Wings fans going to game 3 to bite the bullet for us (one for the warning, one fot the penalty) and get us a cheap PP? You can't throw an octopus, because then it would be obvious that it wasn't Pens fans. Maybe a hubcap would work

Maybe my memory's off, but I remember two thrown (at least that were shown on NBC), one pre-game, one during. The warning would've had to have been after that second one. Was one thrown after that? If not, then there's not even an argument to be made, sorry. I know it's been said in lots of threads by lots of people, but WTF is with crying about officiating/alleging conspiracies every time your team loses (goes for us too)? It gets freaking tiresome.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26355 I can't ever remember having to refer to the rulebook this much during a playoff run. Sounds like we're entitled to a warning first.

Fair enough, although you can argue discretion/they let 'em play with that one at least. Not that I give a crap what Pens fans think, but the "slash" was probably drawing more of their wrath due to the broken stick and the call that almost always comes from that.

+1 Anyway, people don't hate crappy teams, so it makes me feel good when people go off on us. We must be up 2-0 in the SCF if people are trotting out "Dead Wings (or Things)" and it's not the 70s/early 80s.

Long overdue. Matt and mods, you guys own.

Not really surprising...rematches are generally ratings murder anyway, even when they involve popular and marketable teams. Been there, done that for the casual viewer.

I disagree...I think we've had two very even games. They've been dominant for stretches, but so have we, and we cashed in more of our chances than they did. And don't forget that we sat back for the 3rd of both games. While Ozzie's been awesome, I don't exactly feel like the 1999 Buffalo Sabres right now, where they had nothing but goaltending. I think people are forgetting what we spent a lot of last week complaining about--the schedule. We just had two days off between series (yeah, they only had three, but one day makes a big difference at this point IMO), numerous injuries, and then got screwed with back-to-backs. People (not me, I think it's crap) also liked to talk about how old we are and maybe not able to handle the schedule. We then proceeded to gut out two Ws, beyond my expectations going in, under the circumstances. Now we have a day off to get our legs and maybe Datsyuk (although I'm pessimistic) back and we're back to a more normal schedule. The pressure is ALL on the Penguins right now. The series is effectively over if they don't win the next game, and for all the talk about them being better than last year (and they are), they'd be doing worse, results-wise.

Because the hockey networks have no interest whatsoever in retaining viewership by playing up the team that's down in the series. None at all... Agree with the previous post about the SOG...we spent basically the whole 3rd period of both games chipping it in deep and backing up to protect the lead.

You make your own breaks. And that was no penalty on Hossa...that was distinctly different from a situation where you bring a stick down and chop it in half. They were battling, Dupuis' POS stick broke. Anyway, relax, at least you held onto the state title this year! (yes, NHL.com actually sold these last year)

I'll back you up on that one...regular season success can be a tiebreaker on that one too. We were 5th overall in 1997 and 3rd in 1998. We didn't win our division either year. We were 1st last year, 3rd this year with two division championships. Four Cups in six years is damn hard to do though. The only reason the old era is 13 years is because it's being stretched to include a 5th. I'll say the 40s-50s if we lose, current era if we win.

...so THAT is what you're going to take issue with?

I call him Helmer AND think about Bryan Helmer when I do it. It's weird, I know. I just don't do long nicknames, because if it's easier to say the guy's actual name, I'm going to say the guy's actual name. Mule is a perfect nickname. It's short, it fits, and it breaks the hockey cliche of taking the first syllable of the name and adding -y/-ie, -s or -er to it.

Yeah, just "Flower" though. Fleur = Flower in French. Get it?

Nice turnaround with the GDTs. Hope the team feels the same way--first game's history, time to fire it up again. Getting 2 up would be freaking huge, so we can follow the model of only needing a split in Pittsburgh to keep a death grip on the series. Now I need to take my own advice and come off this high so I can be the best fan I can be!

I don't think it IS true. Proof's in the pudding--how often did you see Phoenix and Atlanta on Versus this year compared with us, Pittsburgh, etc.? You can't really bring the Canadian teams into it, since we're talking about broadcasting in the US. All teams are not being broadcast equally on Versus. FWIW, I think Versus does a good enough job with the games. I think Paul Kelly hit it on the head though. So many people in my demographic (18-35 year-old males) just turn on ESPN when there's nothing else to watch. You might not like EVERYTHING they have on, but if you're at all into sports generally, you'll find their programming remotely interesting. So you turn on ESPN and get ads for what's on ESPN jammed down your throat, which isn't hockey. Hell, I have it on right now for background noise while I read LGW. Versus on the other hand...there is absolutely ZERO reason for people who might be interested in hockey to watch that channel when there's not a game on, which severely limits the ability of the hype to get to the people who might be swayed by it.

Yeah, I can't believe that...dude, you're not in Rimouski anymore. You make $9 million per. You don't need a freaking billet.