haroldsnepsts

You f-ing morons. Shoot the puck!

Hopefully he just got his bell rung. Laperriere had the glove and butt end up in Lid's face.

oh s***. Lids got hammered

Downey on a line with Zetterberg? or are the lines crossed up right now Nice save Ozzy. who the hell let him walk in like that for the shot?

Nice pick by Hudler.

Hopefully the Wings stop being so cute with the puck, fire shots on goal (except Sammy) with some bodies in front, and crash the net. No score prediction, but the Wings win ugly.

Z is one of my favorite players, but I'd trade anyone on the team not named Lidstrom to bring in Vinny.

I hated Floppa during the Avs rivalry, the whining, the diving, but I think the grief he's getting is hilarious. Basically he called it off because he didn't have enough confidence that he would remain healthy. Isn't that a more responsible, professional move than signing a big contract and not being able to play? damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. The guy is a great player. It's too bad his career has come to a sputtering end like this due to injury.

Agreed. He wasn't sitting back in the crease, and came out to challenge and cut angles pretty agressively.

Is this the goaltenders way of sucking up to owners, so they won't crack down on pad size or something? Because if the owners are selling ads on goaltender jerseys, they're going to want the most real estate possible for ad space. In all seriousness though, this is a horrible, horrible idea. I'm disappointed in all the NHLers who support this. It makes NHL hockey just seem more like a pathetic fringe sport than a legit north american one.

Basically, yes. I think it's better for the team and the starter to have the guy night in and night out at that point. This is all assuming the starter is playing well. It's totally different to switch goalies to spark the team, but I don't really consider that a tandem. Mainly I'm referring to if a goalie is playing well in the postseason, why would you want to sit him to play the other guy?

I think tandems can work well in the regular season, especially when you've got an old goaltender like Dom. It also worked pretty well with Legace, who tends to wear down once he cracks 40 games. But in terms of playoffs, no I don't think it works.

The emperor has no clothes.

oh, and Pierre McGuire continues to be a total douchebag. I don't know what problem this guy has with the Wings, but his bias is ridiculous. Stu Barnes takes a penalty on what was essentially a slew foot. I think they called it tripping. And good ol' Pierre goes on about how he can't believe they called it and he's seen much worse in the game. Then Zetterberg gets a really marginal call, where his stick hits a guys foot while it's in the air, the guy goes down, he gets called for tripping. So Pierre admits it was a soft call, but said it was a good call because the NHL has a zero tolerance policy these days... I can't stand the guy.

Because it was one game.

Jimmy Howard played a solid game (I'm sure many will want to anoint him starter after this one game). The defense was better. Not great, but better considering the lineup. No surprise, the problem is scoring. When's the last time this team has scored an even strenght goal? Plus I wanted to choke all of the forwards as the game wore on. Everyone making cute passes instead of firing the puck at the net and crashing it. Dats, Flip, Homer... all passed when they should've shot. Crash. The. Net. I thought it was the playoffs from two and three years ago. Lots of perimeter shots, none from high scoring areas. Few players around the net for ugly goals. I guess the good news is that it isn't the playoffs. There's still time to figure this out, and hopefully pick up a big forward who will help the problem.

Random thoughts on the first period: Overall the Wings look much better. Howard has been solid but hasn't really had to make any huge saves. The Lilja Meech pairing is brutal. Almost anytime the Stars have sustained time in the Wing's defensive zone, that pair is on the ice. The passing still isn't quite there, particularly Sammy and Hudler with some stinkers. The Dallas forecheck definitely rattles our puck possession game. Still, Turco made a huge save but is still being well... Turco. The first great scoring chance was off the post. I think the Wings can still get in his head. Hopefully they'll get one past him in the second and open the floodgates. Oh, one more thing, Dallas has almost connected on the long bomb several times in the first period. I'm afraid that sometime this game, they'll be successful.

As for the first part of #2, I dont' think a player can stop the opposition from running our stars, but it does feel a whole lot better when someone beats them down after the fact. Other than that, I think you're right on. Particularly about the lack of size on our blueline. We need someone to clear the crease when teams like Anaheim are running our goalies. Fischer left a huge hole in the Wing's defense that has yet to be filled.

I'm sooo happy Mac got a hat trick last night and appears to be on the road to playing good hockey. Still, I think the excitement is clouding some perspective here. He's been back working out and playing hockey now for what, 3 months? If you want to pretty much guarantee that his comeback will be derailed by an injury, put him in the NHL prematurely.

I honestly don't know enough about Anaheim's cap situation to know if they could. But with the loopholes Burke worked with Niedermayer and Selanne, I'm guessing there's a chance they have the room for Blake as a rental.

I'm definitely concerned about Kronwall's injury history. But if the Wings trade him before the deadline, who picks up his 20+ minutes a game in our already thin defensive corps? Everyone would get bumped up, meaning more ice time or Lilja, Chelios, Lebda, Meech... Increased ice time for any of those guys (with the possible exception of Chelios because he's a freak of nature) is only going to make them play worse and expose their liabilities. The only way the Wings trade him is if they've basically thrown in the towel on Kronwall and assume he's just never going to be healthy (which is becoming a more realistic assessment each season).

Has he? Hmm, I think that makes him going to the Ducks more plausible then actually. Burke could add to his already scary good defense, and he has some picks to give, without having to worry about fitting him under the cap next season.

I'm sure that was mildly annoying to the opposing team, but the big difference is that this was between periods. The players had warmed up, played 20 minutes of hockey, then had to wait around an extra 14 minutes to get back on the ice to resume the game.

Honestly if I were a player I'd be annoyed at having to wait an extra 14 minutes in between periods. It's enough time to cool down and sort of get out of game mode. Still, I think the NHL and the Flyers could've handled this better.

I thought this thread would be about a vicious two-hand slash that the Flyers were fined for.