gcom007

True story.

Damn...don't know what to say...great play that fooled two great defensemen pretty good... And Osgood does a good job of hanging tough right there and not letting them get another on the momentum...sad that we're excited they're not scoring goals 9 seconds apart... We need another goal right quick.

Chelios has looked pretty rough thus far... Wobble or not, that 2nd goal was soft. Gotta tighten that up for future reference whether we're up big in a game or not...

Even if his music didn't suck, he's about two years too late to even have a prayer at breaking in with that sound.

When I return to this thread tonight to rant and rave, my semester will be over.

I have absolutely nothing to say about this. My thought process has just been completely stifled.

I'm a huge Maltby fan. I have a huge Maltby bias. I just like the guy a lot since the first game we got him way back when. But I'm not worried. You have to think about every angle of this. Knowing that Maltby's going to miss a couple more games, Babcock's still gotta ice young guys. You make comments like he did and it instills confidence in the young guys and hopefully gets them playing hard and trying to keep a spot. It's the playoffs. The bottom line is winning and that may be the best thing he can say right now to set them up. Even if he rode the same roster for awhile, I don't doubt that Maltby will come into play at some point because you're right, he is a great guy to have around and we'll need his thing eventually no doubt. But I think you've gotta be slow to react to comments like that and think about all the angles and what's best for the team right now and even moving forward if it does turn out to be true.

I think this is the right thing on so many levels. 1) It's an effing kid, he's gotta be there. 2) It'll give him some time to rest and heal up for the grind as I think it's obvious that he's still been hampered by injury. 3) He'll probably have a lot more mental clarity after the fact which combined with rest and healing hopefully will bring his game back to the way it was before injury. All the best to him and hopefully he's back soon, and hopefully he brings the wife with him once it's over! That wouldn't hurt either it seems...

Yes, every free agent wants to come here and Ken Holland wants to sign them, just for the record. No need for new posts because it's now official. And next year is Osgood/Howard. I'd rather have Osgood/Hasek again then blow a lot of money on a goalie when we've got a guy like Osgood at the price we do. I mean, seriously, find a better goalie at even close to his price tag and get back to me. That should be more than enough of a reason even for the haters to be cool with it. We've got such a solid D as is that doesn't give up a lot of shots or chances and I think Osgood/Howard (and even Hasek cheap though it won't happen) is a better option. Put more money in the offense and another solid D-man and be content with the fact that you've got the league leader in GAA this year still around and one of the top guys in Sv.% as well.

Nice. Tie game. As much as I'd love to play Colorado, I think I'd rather play Calgary because that would mean Ron Wilson was out of the playoffs. I won't mind if the Sharks advance though so long as they fire Wilson. He really incites rage in me like only a supreme prick could...

I don't know what to say about the sax here...I'm not really digging it...and I'm a music major. Stuff like that should do it for me, but this just isn't really.

And there it is...bah...well, yeah, what can you say? Bummer for the Caps. Philly/NY should be a fun series. Time for Flames/Sharks!

1) for some reason I've grown a bit of an attachment to these Caps, but at the same time, I kinda hope they lose so hopefully a) Feds is less likely to stay and b) Feds won't think he's worth anymore money or something...I guess the less success the better because I kinda want him back and it seems like Holland and co. wouldn't mind the idea either... 2) is it just me or did Roenick not just sound even more stupid than usual? Not that the advice was bad so much as just the way he spoke...something about that guy. Brett Hull's a big mouth but he doesn't bug me. JR does... 3) I'm thinking this could be a relatively quick one and I wouldn't be surprised if Philly does it. I think the Caps will come out hard to start and could get a chance, but I'm thinking Philly capitalizes off a mistake in the process...

Hell, I'm done Thursday at 1:30. Bring on Round 2 to kick off the celebration and the summer!

http://redwings.nhl.com/team/app/?service=...ge&id=20761 According to the official site Game 1 is Thursday and Game 2 is Saturday.

I actually think it's a good move. I mean, I guess they're right in a lot of ways that he broke some rules, and even if it was all legit, you don't want people to get to thinking that this is a good idea. I might be overreaction, but I can think of a lot stupider moves that Bettman's made. My only question is why now and not 3-4 months ago?

I don't think Holland would've signed Osgood for 3 years at this point in time if he didn't plan on keeping him around 3 years. Time will tell what his role will look like in that span of time, but I highly doubt they'd box him out no matter how things go.

I would love this to be the last few minutes of the 07/08 Ducks season. It's not even that I'm scared of them and it's not bitterness over last year. I just really, really don't like much of anything about their team when I'm as objective as I can be.

And Hank hasn't even really gotten going yet. I didn't think this would be the problem people made it out to be, but at the same time, we've gotta keep improving as we face tougher opponents if we're going to keep going.

I think the guy is a lot better than what we've seen in round 1 and I think he'll improve as the playoffs go on. I don't want to make too many excuses for him, but I think he's definitely just a better player than we've seen and I'm willing to bet it has more to do with injury than we realize. If it's affected his confidence it could explain some of the dumber plays. I think he's worth holding out hope for as the playoffs progress and if we can get him signed to a reasonable deal and he can bring his wife here and not have that distance/pregnancy issue clouding up his mind as well, he'd likely be a solid addition.

I wouldn't be surprised if he's got a little something bothering him, but maybe not too. Something's definitely up and being realistic, he's going to have to fix it if we're going to be successful. Osgood can keep playing absolutely great moving forward, but we can't win every game close. Every team moving forward is going to have a lot more firepower than the Preds had. While we'll still have to sweat out some close, low-scoring games, we're going to have to have more than 1/2 of our big 2 putting up consistent numbers to win them let alone the games where a great offense makes great plays and scores 3-4 goals no matter how well Ozzie and the D play. It's going to happen soon enough barring a miracle, especially if we get Colorado. So simply put, Zetterberg needs to work some things out between now and Game 1 of Round 2. I think he will, which is better than the "hope he will" I gave Samuellson in another thread. Injured or not, people talk about this guy and mention Steve Yzerman in the same sentence. No way in hell Zetts is dealing with probably half as much as Yzerman was going through in 2002 and Yzerman was what, probably 10 years older than Zetts? But Yzerman still found a way to come up huge for his team. So simply put, if Zetts wants to be that guy moving forward and if he wants to justify the fact that he's going to get Datsyuk/Lidstrom/Franchise money, he needs to do whatever it takes no matter what's going on to start seriously producing. If he doesn't, the rest of the team could do everything else right and I still don't think we'd be able to go all the way. So let's hope so, eh?

Note: this analysis/theory has more to do with the season in general than the 1st round You know, I can't say for sure, but I might venture to say that Dom may've still had a run in him with a different team. I don't think anyone would argue that when he's on he can still play some pretty good hockey, but Detroit is kinda not the most logical choice for him to land. He's always been a guy who wants a lot of shots. I think with a team as tight as Detroit, they force teams to make really great plays to get shots which just doesn't work in Dom's favor. He's not as sharp because he's not getting the number of shots he's used to and then they're a tougher bunch on top of that. I think he was more ripe to handle it in '02 when he was still 37. Maybe at 43 it's just too much to ask him to work outside his comfort zone. Heaven knows. I think it's been relatively obvious as the season has gone on and certainly in the playoffs that the team plays better in front of Osgood, but again, I don't know if it has as much to do with Dom "sucking" so much as Osgood's steady and consistent style (not to mention his great puck handling skills which helps the puck-possession game) simply suiting the overall team's style more so at this point. Hockey is such a team sport and the goalie plays into the wholistic outcome of it more than what appears obvious. You force a team to make a great play to get a shot and it just doesn't suit Dom's "flop" style. Teams with more room aren't going to have to focus so much on pinpoint setups and will throw more at the net and scramble more. Play a little sloppier in front of him because he'll likely stifle the scramblers and he's tough one on one with the shooter if you make a bad play in the offensive zone. Dom has handled those situations really well in the past, but that's not the game he gets in Detroit. It's never really been his game. I think a case can be made for either side you want to look at it, and at 43 no one will argue that he's not the goalie he was 10 years ago, but I don't know if it's really as much about Dom losing his game as it may appear so much as more of a wrong guy, wrong place sort of thing. And again, I'm not saying he didn't drop the ball in round 1, but I wonder if he wouldn't have had a better season altogether with a more loose team in terms of style and all. We'll never know, but hey, I'm just saying. It's a discussion board, might as well discuss it. I don't want him starting for the Wings anymore, but I don't want to senselessly rip on one of the greatest goalies ever at this point either. Might as well try to spin a bright side for him.

No. I don't want to give Sammy too much credit because he hasn't earned it yet, but I think he slowly is improving. Or you can at least say that over the course of the series he improved. He made quite a few great half-plays the last couple games and I guess you have to think/hope (depends on your perspective, I can't lie, I'm more on the hope end...) that he'll start finishing some of those plays and generating and setting up some goals. Besides, they play vastly different roles, like it or not. But hey, I'm just going to hope they work some of this stuff out in the next few days. Babcock and the guys know what they need to work on and they will. I expect to see a better team start the next round. They finally started to show some signs of swagger in Game 6. It'll continue. And I'd be more worried about Zetterberg.

I think you're throwing punches underwater.

From NBC's post-game interview with Babcock: Do you stay with Osgood in the 2nd round? "Oh, for sure...you know, it's up to Ozzie now. It's just like, their job is to keep the other guy on the bench. That has nothing to do with me. They're both really good goalies. They've won us a lot of games this year. They've both got a Stanley Cup. They've got good experience. So now if Ozzie continues to roll, it's his. On the other side, Dom's worked really hard and he's dying to get back in there."