haroldsnepsts

Jimmy playing big in his net. Good to see.

So Lidstrom stick checks him around the hands, and he somehow gets knocked off his feet?! what a friggin dive.

Yeah, Stu and Lids looked like they got crossed up on coverage, which should not be happening since they've played together almost all damn season.

Is it wrong I want someone to crosscheck Doan in the teeth? I've always hated him.

well that didn't take long. Mule with the lazy backcheck leaving his man open for the goal.

This. Clearly it was a wakeup call to have a 13-year veteran fighting for his spot with a rookie. Kindl shows promise, but we're talking playoffs here. I've not been crazy about Salei's play, but he brings experience, penalty killing, and hopefully he'll spontaneously remember how to play with an edge.

If you're going that route, Kari should totally be the person down on the ice interviewing people.

I know it's become popular to make posts like that, but how about backing it up with some statements as to why? I forget this from time to time, but Modano is 6'3" 212 lbs. He's 40 years old but still a decent skater with a heavy shot. It's hard to believe a guy that big can be so invisible most nights. He doesn't need to be out there crushing guys, but little Hudler has better puck pursuit and is more physical than Modano. It's like on paper he wanted to play in Detroit, then he found out how friggin hard it is to backcheck all the time.

Kermit the Frog and Flavor Flav

Agreed. Schneider put up 40 to 50 points a season with the Wings, was their #2 dman and a key component of the puck moving defense. If that's a flop there's a hell of a lot of players who've been flops on the Wings. The fact that Holland went out and got a very similar style defenseman in Rafalski only shows how valuable he thought Schneider was to the Wing's success. As for Hatcher, yeah he was a flop. I was looking forward to the Wings having someone big and nasty on the blueline, but it didn't work out. Hatch was never fast, but once he blew his ACL he went from slow to stationary. I wouldn't call Modano a huge success, but not as big of a flop as Hatcher. The thing is, Hatcher was at least a player we could've used. Modano hasn't offered anything the Wings didn't already have.

Holy crap! The playoffs inspiring two blasts from the past! One from waaaaay back. I thought someone had bumped an old GDT when I first saw Puckmark's post. Welcome back! please don't wait 5 more years until your next post, and go Wings!!!

Too funny. Seems like they should at least wait for him to get a job as starting goaltender before they name him to the Olympic team.

Like I said, it's just a lot of question marks with Ozzy, especially considering his age. Is he going to be healthy enough all season to even play or will the Wings need a third goaltender? IF he's healthy, will he be able to get his form back and be an effective backup? Is he going to need a lot of games to get on a roll and play well? I'm guessing you're being sarcastic about Bernier unless you know something I don't. He's Canadian so unless he does something incredible in the next few seasons, I don't see him on the Olympic team. But that doesn't mean he's not a solid young backup.

How can you base it on this season? He only started 10 games! To pick one name from the list, because I'm particularly familiar with that player, Ozzy isn't at least as good as Jonathan Bernier. Largely because of groin issues, Ozzy only started 10 games this season. Bernier started 22 and should probably start more, had a .913 sv%, is only 22 years old so he has potential and can compete for the starting job. He's demonstrated he can come in and play well even after sitting on the bench for a long stretch. Maybe Ozzy could completely rehab and come back healthy next season, but groin issues are especially tough for goalies. So you're talking about a 39 year old goalie next season who you hope will be healthy and can perform as a reliable backup, which he's never been exceptional in that role, and maybe compete for Howard's job, which honestly is the greatest upside if Ozzy gets a fair number of games. It's a lot of question marks. Not that this deal is available, but today I'd take Bernier over Osgood. Rather than getting a young backup though, Holland may well take a crack at bringing in a seasoned vet who is healthier than Ozzy and has more recently held the starting job, and let them compete with Howard.

If you're talking about what's on TSN's NHL page now, that's actually a different hit by Homer. I do like how they say the Wings beating the Hawks "sent the Blackhawks to their TVs as cheerleaders."

Kings will have a tough go of it with both Kopitar out and Williams questionable for the first round. This is a team that has trouble scoring goals as it is. Smyth is basically only useful in front of the net and the occasional cherrypick, but otherwise looks old and slow. And Penner hasn't helped the offense like they'd hoped with only 2 goals and 4 assists in 19 games. Basically being invisible for most of a game, then having the occasional inspired shift. Their power play is awful, and with Kopitar out the team gets even slower than they already are. The pluses are this team is strong defensively and has a great penalty kill. They're tough, and have good goaltending in Quick. But unless Williams makes a miraculous recovery and some other players step up to score, I think Kings losing in 6 might be optimistic. Unless of course the Sharks choke. EDIT: for anyone watching this game not familiar with the Kings. Guys I'd covet to have on the Wings (other than Doughty and Kopitar). Greene for hard nose stay at home defensive play. Simmonds for grinding, toughness, and some scoring. They're a fun young team to watch play, but the key injuries are a heartbreaker.

Yeah, some of the Nucks fans over there are ridiculous. They've pretty much declared Vancouver the best team in the history of hockey and talk as if they've won the Cup already, it's just a matter of a few details. It's annoying because I like a lot of the Canucks players and would be pulling for them to win it all if not the Wings or Kings. But with all the crap at hfboards, it's tempered that for me a bit. I can't help think how it would silence those cocky fans if the Canucks crapped the bed in the playoffs.

Props to Doc for having some fun here at the end of the season. +1

over the glass. golden opportunity for the Stars...

Wow. Dallas still not making this easy on themselves. It'd be cool if the whole pacific division made the playoffs, but by the look of the Stars, they'd get crushed by the Canucks in the first round anyway.

This would be a painful end for the Stars and their fans. They go into a tailspin in February and March, get it together enough in April to come up just short of making the playoffs.

Another funny thing if the Hawks don't make the playoffs, wasn't the idea of using regulation wins to decide the playoffs Holland's idea? Because that's exactly what will keep the Hawks out, in spite of having more total wins than Dallas, even if the Stars win today.

Ken and Mick are a local broadcast team for the Wings. Olczyk is on NBC for a nationally televised game which you'd hope would be an unbiased broadcast.