StevieBoy

Please...if the requirement was that they could defend Pavel then we'd have noone on the blue line except Pav himself.

Ya know, I'm a huge wings fan...have been for 25 years. So I don't say this as someone not dedictated to this team. I even go overboard as a fan at times...wear a Wings hat almost every day, especially in the spring...go back to Detroit or see as many games here in Denver as possible...even flew to Sweden for game 1 this season. But I hate...hate...hate this attitude that so many wings fans have about how the Wings are treated unfairly. Yes, there have been bad calls against us. Some of them make you wonder how it could have possibly been called that way. But the fact is there are bad calls against every team and, oh my, even some in our favor! The officials are not trying to make the Wings win, or any other team lose. They make poor calls sometimes but they are just a couple guys on the ice seeing whatever they see from the one perspective they had at the time with things running full speed! So many fans (and not just of Detroit, but others also) watch the replay over and over from various angles at super slow speed and then proclaim how terrible the officials are because they made a poor call. The rules don't allow them to video review what happened and reverse a call based on that review. They are left at the glimpse they have of the situation as it happened. I sincerely doubt there are any humans that could perform the same job without any less controversey.
Yes, it sucks when this happens at a bad time. But it happens.
And I think worse than fans that complain and won't let go of a call that occurred in the past is the notion behind this thread. That before the teams even take the ice, the statement is made that our poor mistreated wings are going to be treated so unfairly that we'll lose the series. This sort of thing gives Wings' fans a bad name. When you read nearly any national site there are at least a couple articles a year about the whiny red wing fans. I cringe every time I see them but I can't argue them because there is certainly some truth to it.
The only group that handed the cup to the Pens last year was the Wings. They ran out of gas and a couple injuries put it over the top. No conspiracies...the wings didn't keep up tbe intensity and they lost.