gcom007

Good stop but he's lucky he didn't go high.

It's never too early to admit you have a problem...

Yeah, good ol' 4rd period. Love it.

Oh, believe me, I could care less. No worries. I just wanted to respond with something else in line especially considering all the commercials about it we suffer through. It doesn't really make sense in context though...

ED?

Now all we have to do is wait and see how we find a way to give the lead away again and we'll be on our way to consistency.

I just don't know what to say. Again, these mistakes we're making aren't 'coasting' mistakes or 'injured' mistakes. This is pee-wee hockey s***. Don't screen the goalie. Cover your man. This is simple stuff. This is just embarrassing.

Ditto. I think both extremes are a little absurd. The reality is that there's plenty to discuss heading in as there's plenty of things the team can improve on. They're way too talented to be playing such sloppy hockey lately. Just terrible defensive coverage that there's really no excuse for. There's a big difference between recognizing it and posing it for discussion and panic threads. The way I see it, they've just made it quite clear that we'd be wise to keep an open mind about their chances. They could very well pull it together, but they very well might not either as there are a lot of holes to patch up right now.

Because it seems like every other game we don't play very well and either eek by or lose. If we weren't talented, they wouldn't get attention but we are yet we're still consistently making a lot of stupid mistakes. And like I said, Hasek's been pulled in the first after a flurry of goals 2 times in his last 5 starts. That's pretty, well, awful.

I wish we were actually playing a good team tonight to really get tested. I feel like tonight could be worthless as Columbus is kinda a trainwreck easily taken advantage of. We haven't risen up to meet a legitimate challenge in awhile. We beat s***ty teams and barely get by or lose to better teams. That said, if tonight even gets ugly, then, well, I will not be getting my hopes up for a long run. Just too many things not clicking right now on a fundamental level.

Team has been abyssmal. Goaltending hasn't been much better from either. Dom's been yanked twice in his last five starts in the first period no less. Defense doesn't know what coverage is anymore. Like I said last night, it's nice in theory to think that they'll all just turn it on come playoff time, but practically, I don't think any coach likes to see their team play this bad this close to the start. It's just silly to suggest otherwise. Even coasting with injuries, the team has enough talent to win more of these games and they haven't put forth a remotely respectable effort on any sort of consistent basis. I'm not freaking out or just being negative, I'm just trying to be realistic. They very well could come out and play strong in a week, but let's just say if we do go out early, I'm not going to be shocked. At the very least, they've given us more than a few reasons to be open minded about the idea.

Ok, Osgood's redeemimng himself. Like November style. Nice, nice and nice. Wow. That's a nice way to end the period. Mick just said it, don't forget those saves. He's played well since that 2nd goal so hopefully he keeps it up and we can build off it. Now if he could do this consistently like in November...

While I thoroughly believe the regular season and the playoffs are two different seasons where lots of things change, at the same time, I think we drag that idea to the extreme to apologize for bulls*** play like tonight and so many games in this second half. I mean, call me crazy, but it'd be nice to go into the playoffs with our team understanding the fundamentals of defensive coverage on some small level at least. This is embarrassing.

Damn, terrible coverage again...pathetic. I like how our goalies at the very least decide that it's ok if they suck as much as the rest of the team on the same night. Lovely.

Nice...go Maltby! Keep pushing! I don't really care about winning this one in a lot of ways, but given how ugly things have been at times lately, it'd be nice for confidence to come back and take care of this.

Yikes defense. You can slack a little right now until the playoffs, but you're making mistakes that simply aren't remotely necessary even in slack mode! Goodness...embarrassing...don't know what to say. Coverage seems to be a real issue for these guys...

I honestly just turned it on as Dom was skating off the ice and don't know what happened, but when this happened to Osgood this year, wasn't it when we had the Griffins on defense? Did it even happen this early then? Again, I don't know who's fault it might've been here yet and I don't doubt Dom had much help given the teams play the last couple. I'm not judging yet, just saying, I don't recall this happening to Osgood quite like this. And also, sometimes a team like Chicago at this point has to win and you're just not going to stop them when you're playing for nothing more or less. As I've stated numerous times, the fact that it seems this sort of multi-goal flurry thing has happened to Dom multiple times this year concerns me heading into the playoffs. And as I've said about both goalies quite equally, even if they didn't get much help, you can't eliminate their fault. At that point they're just playing as mediocre as the rest of the team and yes, this second half, I believe both goalies have been fairly guilty of this equally and on a fairly regular basis in the second half.

I'm more scared of Nashville than before with Ellis. I hate hot goalies. Franzen wins again. He's my hero. Good game from Hasek. Didn't have to work too hard and looked shaky in the beginning but did what he needed to to keep us in it. If he can play like that consistently in the playoffs I'm cool. Did I mention Franzen's my hero?

Here's some thoughts I had on this matter from yesterdays GDT that probably are more appropriate here. The first couple paragraphs aren't entirely relevant but I left them for context. "Finally getting around to watching the game now as I was performing in a concert last night and missed it. Definitely not happy with the Wings general play in this game at all. I'm not going to freak out because you can't expect them to go all out at this point with the playoffs so close and the luxury we have being at the top of the standings. But they sure as hell better play a lot better starting in Game 1 if they want to have a prayer. Johan Franzen is the man though. I love beyond measure how a hard worker like him is getting the goals and recognition he deserves. Here's hoping this isn't a fluke, but with hard workers like him, it rarely is. He's like Draper with more talent crossed with Holmstrom. If he keeps his confidence, he's going to have a great career most likely in this city. I said earlier as a matter of principle that if a goalie gives up 3-4 goals in a game and the team in general played sloppy, he's as big of a part of the loss as anyone. Earlier in the season the team played sloppy and Osgood stood on his head and won games the team didn't deserve to win. He didn't do that last night. Can you really say he played bad? No. First goal was just a great play. Second goal was a weird deflection. Third goal looked like a deflection but I think no matter the fact on that one he should've had it. He wasn't as prepared just like everyone else in red at the quick turnaround there and it backfired on us. The overtime goal again was just a team playing sloppy including Osgood. You can't say Osgood played terrible because people saying he got little help are right, but he didn't play great and he didn't win. Goaltending like that won't work down the stretch. But here's the bottom line I keep screaming from the heavens: if a team wants to go far in the playoffs, they need their goalies to come up with huge games. These excuses suggesting "you can't fault the goalie" are for the birds if you expect to go far. I mean, sure, in a lot of ways it's true, you can't fault the goalie on a lot of goals scored on us, but that's not enough. We need to be able to say "the goalie saved our ass." That's the difference down the stretch. Have either of our goalies done that consistently in the second half? No. Osgood had it in the first half but has been more average in the second half. Hasek went from terrible to an average similar to Osgood's second half. I'm sorry, but you can't expect that to be enough in the playoffs. I really think people are living in a pipe dream if they think Hasek's going to magically turn it on again because realistically he suffered from the same problems last year in the playoffs and if he wasn't, we wouldn't have lost Game 6 against Anaheim. He played as lousy as the rest of the team the whole game including the 3rd when the team finally showed up. You can say it's nitpicking to focus on one game, but it wasn't one game and when you're dealing with 7 game series and elimination games in the playoffs, you have to be picky and the whole point of having him here is because he's supposed to be the guy to come out huge in those games and he flat out didn't. He's not the goalie he was 10 years ago and this year has been rough on him. I mean no disrespect, but I don't see us going any further than last year with him starting. That said, I feel the same way about Osgood unless he can find a way to play like he did in the first half. I think he's certainly capable and his body is more up for it than Hasek's at this point, but I don't know what it's going to take and I think it's unlikely to happen at this point. He hasn't done it consistently in 2008. Both goalies have played pretty well and at times excellent, but they've also fallen pretty flat at times too. Last night, you can point to Franzen and say he did his part to keep us in and give us a chance. He rose above. You can't say that about Osgood. We need to be able to say that about our goaltending to win. I'm not trying to be pessimistic or even say it's a bad thing because the reality is, not every team can win every year and not every team can have amazing goaltending every year. Goalies heat up for one year of playoffs and then their careers tank after that. The game is strange like that. Barring a miracle, I'd say with certainty that it's not going to happen with Hasek at this stage in his career and this year and I think it's unlikely to happen with Osgood at this point. So unlike many, unless our team really shows up and plays great hockey all the way through and totally avoids injury, I see us going down in the Western Conference Finals. It'll be disappointing, but goaltending is a big piece of the puzzle and I don't think we've had the ability to put a clear #1 guy forward. Hasek's supposed to be the guy but he's been plagued by injuries when he should be doing final preparations and Osgood's supposed to be the backup and that is going to inhibit things for him no matter what anyone would like to think in "la la land." One last thing to be clear. This isn't me saying we suck or we're horrible. This is me trying to be realistic about the fact that one team wins and while we're great and we certainly have a chance, everything is going to have to go our way for that to happen. We don't have near the margin of error that it seems some believe we have."

Finally getting around to watching the game now as I was performing in a concert last night and missed it. Definitely not happy with the Wings general play in this game at all. I'm not going to freak out because you can't expect them to go all out at this point with the playoffs so close and the luxury we have being at the top of the standings. But they sure as hell better play a lot better starting in Game 1 if they want to have a prayer. Johan Franzen is the man though. I love beyond measure how a hard worker like him is getting the goals and recognition he deserves. Here's hoping this isn't a fluke, but with hard workers like him, it rarely is. He's like Draper with more talent crossed with Holmstrom. If he keeps his confidence, he's going to have a great career most likely in this city. I said earlier as a matter of principle that if a goalie gives up 3-4 goals in a game and the team in general played sloppy, he's as big of a part of the loss as anyone. Earlier in the season the team played sloppy and Osgood stood on his head and won games the team didn't deserve to win. He didn't do that last night. Can you really say he played bad? No. First goal was just a great play. Second goal was a weird deflection. Third goal looked like a deflection but I think no matter the fact on that one he should've had it. He wasn't as prepared just like everyone else in red at the quick turnaround there and it backfired on us. The overtime goal again was just a team playing sloppy including Osgood. You can't say Osgood played terrible because people saying he got little help are right, but he didn't play great and he didn't win. Goaltending like that won't work down the stretch. But here's the bottom line I keep screaming from the heavens: if a team wants to go far in the playoffs, they need their goalies to come up with huge games. These excuses suggesting "you can't fault the goalie" are for the birds if you expect to go far. I mean, sure, in a lot of ways it's true, you can't fault the goalie on a lot of goals scored on us, but that's not enough. We need to be able to say "the goalie saved our ass." That's the difference down the stretch. Have either of our goalies done that consistently in the second half? No. Osgood had it in the first half but has been more average in the second half. Hasek went from terrible to an average similar to Osgood's second half. I'm sorry, but you can't expect that to be enough in the playoffs. I really think people are living in a pipe dream if they think Hasek's going to magically turn it on again because realistically he suffered from the same problems last year in the playoffs and if he wasn't, we wouldn't have lost Game 6 against Anaheim. He played as lousy as the rest of the team the whole game including the 3rd when the team finally showed up. You can say it's nitpicking to focus on one game, but it wasn't one game and when you're dealing with 7 game series and elimination games in the playoffs, you have to be picky and the whole point of having him here is because he's supposed to be the guy to come out huge in those games and he flat out didn't. He's not the goalie he was 10 years ago and this year has been rough on him. I mean no disrespect, but I don't see us going any further than last year with him starting. That said, I feel the same way about Osgood unless he can find a way to play like he did in the first half. I think he's certainly capable and his body is more up for it than Hasek's at this point, but I don't know what it's going to take and I think it's unlikely to happen at this point. He hasn't done it consistently in 2008. Both goalies have played pretty well and at times excellent, but they've also fallen pretty flat at times too. Last night, you can point to Franzen and say he did his part to keep us in and give us a chance. He rose above. You can't say that about Osgood. We need to be able to say that about our goaltending to win. I'm not trying to be pessimistic or even say it's a bad thing because the reality is, not every team can win every year and not every team can have amazing goaltending every year. Goalies heat up for one year of playoffs and then their careers tank after that. The game is strange like that. Barring a miracle, I'd say with certainty that it's not going to happen with Hasek at this stage in his career and this year and I think it's unlikely to happen with Osgood at this point. So unlike many, unless our team really shows up and plays great hockey all the way through and totally avoids injury, I see us going down in the Western Conference Finals. It'll be disappointing, but goaltending is a big piece of the puzzle and I don't think we've had the ability to put a clear #1 guy forward. Hasek's supposed to be the guy but he's been plagued by injuries when he should be doing final preparations and Osgood's supposed to be the backup and that is going to inhibit things for him no matter what anyone would like to think in "la la land." One last thing to be clear. This isn't me saying we suck or we're horrible. This is me trying to be realistic about the fact that one team wins and while we're great and we certainly have a chance, everything is going to have to go our way for that to happen. We don't have near the margin of error that it seems some believe we have.

And I called this happening at the deadline when everyone was flipping out about secondary scoring. I said wait for Franzen to find his groove and step up. I thought it'd happen in the playoffs but injuries have gotten him an early start and I'm loving it. Great guy.

I don't care if you don't get help. If you let in 3-4 goals a game, you're part of the reason. Maybe you can't say that they sucked, but you can't say that they were any better than the team if you ask me. You let in 2 goals and the team sucks that's another thing. 3-4 goals (barring wholly unresasonable meltdown) and you've gotta hang the goalie up with everyone else.

Two reasons why I don't want to play the Canucks... A) Robert Luongo. I don't want to be stuck playing tight games against him and though I'm a bit more comfortable with the idea of Osgood playing well than I was a week ago, none the less, he hasn't been entirely consistent and it's still more likely that Hasek will start and I'm not quite comfortable with the idea of that at this moment in time. I honestly didn't care awhile ago but hey, bottom line, Luongo is not a guy I want to be playing one goal games against and I'm not convinced Cleary will be 100% let alone Homer. Yuck...I just don't like this idea at all... B) West Coast! And this goes for all the West Coast teams! If it happens even in the second round it won't bother me as much, but please not in the first round against Luongo no less! Even though we'd likely get through, sans a sweep, I'd rather not have the wear and tear of long travel, time changes and rough playoff games. So like others have said, bring on Nashville. I think we can get that done in 4 without Homer or Stuart. No time change, easy travel, weak goaltending...it'd be a good confidence booster and provide good rest to get ready for round 2. I don't like the idea of playing anyone left in the West much past Nashville so let's just hope for that in Round 1 so we can be amply ready for a much tougher round 2.

How about "This is what the ever-unique 'Will we win the Cup?' thread looks like on Thursday, March 27, 2008."

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...5/80327006/1053 Kevin Allen thinks Wings will use 2 goalies in the playoffs and Mac is insurance should Downey get hurt.