evil204

It's kinda hard to say that was a bulls*** call, considering Versus couldn't find a half-decent replay of it......

They sure are turning the puck over a lot.

Hopefully they don't, so we can have an exciting, meaningful game tomorrow...

Well, watching hockey is getting more and more aggravating with every game because of the officiating. I seriously can't stand it anymore. This isn't hockey, and I wouldn't be watching it if I wasn't a Red Wings fan. All the bulls*** interference and hooking calls they make during the game (going both ways)... and they let that blatant interference against Franzen go at the end. It was awful last season too, but it's even worse now.

Meh.. Lidstrom did deserve the penalty. The call on Colorado though....lol.

I'm not saying it's the reason for the Wings' bad play, but the officiating sucks again. They're not letting them play hockey. Also, I wish Versus would actually show replays of these penalties...

Forget the conspiracy theories for a moment. Just look at last night's game. The goalie interference call on Hossa? The slashing penalty to Samuelsson? How about the punch to his face on the same play being called by the referee standing at center ice 100ft away from where it happened, not the one who was standing right there? I could go back and watch that game and find a hundred things that were A LOT worse than what the refs gave out penalties for. Someone said earlier that the new criteria for hooking is touching another player with your stick parallel to the ice... well, what kind of rule is that??? It happens every 5 seconds in a hockey game. Either call it every 5 seconds or don't call it at all. And the referees being human... that's not an excuse. Sure, they'll make mistakes, but this wasn't such a big problem before the lockout. I don't know who is to blame for this, but with the officiating the way it is, the game is a joke. As much as I like hockey, I know I wouldn't be watching it if I wasn't a Red Wings fan.

It really isn't Osgood's fault, although he can play better. He looked great last year because our defense did an amazing job limiting the opposition's scoring chances and, most importantly, the quality of those chances. That hasn't been the case this year. I couldn't believe all the people that thought Osgood should've been MVP last spring. I think our defense needs to get A LOT better before we can criticize Osgood.

Holy s***, the ref should be shot for that penalty to Vancouver. I like how nobody here has said anything about it because it's in the Wings' favor.

That's the type of defense the Wings always have trouble with, and it's really the only way to beat them. I still don't get why nobody besides Nashville used it against us in the playoffs. But the problem is that we never change our strategy...Babcock won't adapt. We keep trying to stickhandle through the trap and we just give the puck away. Sure, most nights, we'll score more than 1 goal on 30 shots, and our goalie will actually make some saves, but I still want to see them adjust their offensive strategy instead of trying the same thing over and over again. I thought that, against Montreal and Boston, our work ethic wasn't the problem. It was just that both of those teams played exactly the way you have to play to beat the Wings, and we just played the same style we always play, hoping that it would eventually work.

I keep wondering why Dallas, Colorado, and Pittsburgh didn't play the way Toronto did. That's pretty much the only way to beat the Wings.

I don't want Chelios.. but the Wings seem determined to sign him, so I was just trying to figure out if they can even afford him.

I really want someone to name Steve Yzerman, just to see what happens.

The $400,000 in cap space... is that with Downey on the roster? If it is, then we have more than enough to sign Chelios as long as Downey is in Grand Rapids, right?

You guys seem to think that just because we won the Cup this year without an enforcer, it means we don't need one at all. Did you forget that we lost for 4 years because of a lack of toughness and grit? We didn't have to play against the big, tough teams in this year's playoffs. We didn't face Anaheim or San Jose. If we did, I bet things would be different. I know I'd want Downey in there to take out Pronger after he elbows Datsyuk in the face. I'd want him in there to fight and give us some energy when we're down by 1 or 2 goals. Other than Nashville, our playoff opponents this year tried to play a skilled game against us, so we didn't need that tough guy in the line-up. But that doesn't mean we don't need one at all. So we should definitely sign Downey, or someone like him, and he may not play every game, but he'll be ready when we need him.

I heard Mickey on 101.1 WRIF shortly after the Cup win and he said his chemo would be ending in a couple of days. That's all I know.

Hull was awesome on NBC! He was the best.

That's nice and all, but why don't they deal with the Holmstrom-in-the-crease issue first...

Did anyone record the post-game celebration on NBC from Wednesday night? If so, could you upload it online or make a copy for me? I was going to just download the game on BitTorrent so I didn't bother taping it.. I didn't realize that NBC would only be showing the post-game locally. Thanks!

I'm kind of surprised everyone is ranking 2008 so high. Other than this year's Cup, I've only seen the 2002 one, and that was more exciting for me. Seeing the Wings win on the road last night, with the building so quiet, was just really weird, and at first it didn't feel like they just won the Stanley Cup. It didn't really sink in until this morning.

I agree. There were a couple of plays where I actually thought he was Datsyuk.

I'm wondering if Chelios will be in. Tough decision...he deserves it, but it's hard to bench Lilja or Lebda for a potential Cup-winning game.

Eh..can't you at least wait until after Monday? I hate it too, but at least it's not as bad as the NBA :-P

Ozzie has been great, but I don't get how any of you can say he's the MVP. The Wings have played amazing defense in front of him, so he hasn't really been challenged that much through the playoffs. He is NOT the reason we got this far. It's pretty hard to pick one player because everyone has contributed so much, but I would probably go with Zetterberg. He has done absolutely everything you could ask for. After him, probably Datsyuk and Lidstrom, and then maybe Osgood.

I think most people here would be complaining too if the Wings were on the other side of this.