gcom007

Anyone who didn't think Gus was great tonight is nuts. Anyone who doesn't think Gus didn't also get incredibly lucky a few times is also nuts. Anyone who thinks he should replace Howard needs to forget about anything that happens when he's playing and just refer to his injury history. Like the guy or not, that is the number one reason why he'll continue to be a backup even if he's able to clean up his sloppiness and focus in his game. Be happy he did so well for us tonight, because many goalies would've floundered in the same circumstance and he stood tall and truly played a great game. He battled hard and did everything you could ask of him. Again, two goals against off of crazy deflections and the second goal wouldn't have happened if Nyquist covered his man through the play. You couldn't ask for much better from a backup, especially on such short notice. Clearly, Tampa Bay, Detroit is not, at least in the backup goaltending department.

All would be nice, sure, but more than anything, we absolutely should be better on defense. We should've been better on defense for a long time. Holland's utter and complete failure to improve the defense since losing Rafalski, Stuart and Lidstrom just boggles my mind on my daily basis.

Brutal. We just did not have enough gas in the 3rd and OT. Couple that with two deflections and a bonehead defensive play by Datsyuk and it just wasn't enough for a team as good as Boston. Gus did a great job all things considered and didn't give up any bad goals; he helped us get started and made a huge save in the second that lead to our second goal. And to think, he likely had no idea he was playing when he woke up this morning. Zetterberg looked better than I think anyone expected, so that's another positive. But we're down 3-1 now. That bulls*** call on Bert in the 2nd stings a lot more now though. I'm not going to blame the refs for the loss because we clearly got outplayed as the game went on, but it really goes to show you how one bad call can change the face of a game because we were still in pretty good shape up until that point. Call me crazy, but I still don't think we're out of this series. We're not as far behind this team as it may seem. Again, two goals were crazy deflections and the other goal was just a totally botched defensive play by Nyquist. Otherwise it's a 2-2 series. We have to come out and be even better in the next game, and I think we will be. One game at a time.

Feels like we're just waiting for Boston to score. Horrible feeling. We need to up the intensity and/or get lucky fast or we're going to lose this game.

Good job Franzen. Fail at everything but being a cheap hack. He should be thankful he didn't get a penalty given. And bulls*** indeed on that slash. And my heart just skipped several beats on that last play of the period. We're lucky to be in OT the way we were playing in that period. Hopefully Z and Babs get them fired up and they come out fast and furious.

I just saw Kindl make a good defensive play. Wonders never cease.

Did you ever see Lidstrom dive and flop around whenever he got touched? Too bad Lidstrom's character clearly hasn't rubbed off on him.

Terrible Nyquist. Just terrible. Rookie or not, terrible. Time to break the slump and get that one back.

Wow. These refs are beyond terrible. The stuff that they're letting go is absurd.

Cue the Chara dive...

Wonderful. We lose our power play because Chara embellishes (looked clearly like trying to make something from nothing on the DVR) and they score. Good job, refs.

Wow Marchand, wow. Could I hate you anymore than I do after you just went way out of your way to go after Zetterberg like that? I don't think so. Big power play here. I'd love another, but at 3-0, we'll have to really be careful about Boston dropping the goon act and going full out thug on us.

The Monster is doing exactly what you want a backup goalie to do in a situation like this and more. Huge save on his end and we turn it around and out in another goal. Outstanding boys, outstanding.

And does anyone still think it's not important to get the jump on Boston as opposed to giving away the momentum easy? I don't care who's in net or who's taking penalty, bottom line is you've got to get the jump against a team like Boston. You can't give anything away early.

No boos tonight, y'all! Great start. 40 more minutes. Looking real, real good though again tonight. And that check on Z was terrifying at the end of of the period there...

Big save for Gus there. s***. Thought that was in for sure. It's not always pretty, but when he gets his game going, he can be surprising.

THAT'S IT!!! 4 seconds!!! Huge. Look at Bertuzzi banging around in front of the net, too. Good job old man! I'm rooting for him.

Would be huge to get a power play goal here. Not to be negative about Gus because I don't think he's nearly as bad as some say, but I'll be surprised if they don't get at least a couple in against him tonight. We need to start early and get it in our heads that we can score. The earlier we get a jump, the better.

I like Gus fine as a backup, but goodnight, what a way to get your first playoff game. Nerves are racing but so far they all look much better tonight. Now to get a lead!

We need a Captain, that's for sure. Honestly, I like Datsyuk more as a fan; he's been one of my favorites since his rookie year. I think he's the most talented guy on our team without a doubt. But he's not the leader Zetterberg is. That doesn't minimize him as a player in my book, because everyone has a role. Datsyuk leads as much as he can given the nature of his personality, but Z is the guy who is the leader of this team now, and in the playoffs, you just need your Captain, there's few ways around it.

This is very, very true and something I thought of last night during the game. Yeah, it was brutal, and it doesn't look good. But we're not out, and if we pull this series out, we've got a really good shot of going the distance to the finals.

I rarely actively dislike any of our guys. It takes a lot to make me really not like someone. But of guys we have now that are actually playing, the guy who irritates me the most, who I think I'd love to see shipped out at this point, it's not surprisingly Mr. Franzen. I'd give him a lot more benefit of the doubt if he didn't say so many stupid things to top off his lazy, colossally inconsistent play. He could be so much better than he is, but he just doesn't seem to be able to consistently put forth the work ethic. That he is largely the reason Holland passed on Hossa does him no favors either...

We're not out of this thing. Even with the current team, all we need is a better start in those last two games and things could've been different, and it's still only 2-1. I'm not 100% convinced Zetterberg rushing back is for the best. Obviously I'm hopeful, and perhaps it'll help motivate guys at the very least, but I just have a hard time believing he's close to truly being ready to compete. But who knows, the guys got a ton of heart and that can overcome a lot of physical issues.

Seriously. We are making Rask look far better than he is the way we're shooting and managing the puck in their zone.

Could he be hurt? Seems hard to imagine why he wouldn't be getting more ice time at this point otherwise. Kindl on the 2nd pairing. That sentence hurts my eyes.