haroldsnepsts

Oates? I seem to remember him wearing the A.

how is Draper not contributing? He's a key faceoff guy and is one of our best defensive forwards.

Dom played great for the Wings this year and was a large part of their success in the playoffs. Still, I always saw this season as sort of an "all in" move. It's a little nerve racking to think about rolling the dice on his health again. It's gonna be interesting to see what Holland does. It's either gamble with Dom's groin again, go with a very green netminder in Howard (unlikely), start Ozzy and bring in a backup (unlikely), or go out and acquire a goaltender.

I'd have a hard time finding someone who made a greater improvement than Lilja. He went from often being a joke out there, but stepped up when the Wings needed it most and became a solid d-man. He even started dropping the gloves and playing physical. Sure he's no Nick Lidstrom, but seriously think about Lilja in the first half of the season, then the Lilja we saw the last month of the season and in the playoffs. You wanna talk conspiracy theories, I'm not even sure that's the same guy.

The Wings took a major step forward this year in the postseason, why look back?

Wow, really getting the early jump on making the d*ckhead goalie bashing posts about Howard. I thought we had some rule that the goalie had to actually be on the Wings roster full time before we got to crucify him?

But they did win. The Wings may have "outplayed" the Ducks for the majority of some games, but they couldn't make the scoreboard reflect that means maybe they weren't the better team. Good teams can dominate, but they can also win ugly. The Wings did it several times in this playoffs, and now Anaheim found a way to do it to them.

In a lot of cases I will root for the team that beats the Wings to go on and win it all. This is not one of those cases. Petty as it may be, I'd prefer not to see "Ducks" or "Pronger" engraved anywhere on Lord Stanley's Cup.

Definite congratulations are in order. I know we're all disappointed, but at the start of the season, I think we all would've been surprised if someone said the Wings would once again compete for the President's Trophy, and more importantly, beat two very physical teams (and a very talented one in San Jose) to get to the Conference Finals, where they would take yet another talented physical team to 6 games. Even with the last minute pickup of Bert, the reality is the Wings are still undersized compared to teams like the Sharks and Ducks, but they showed a lot of heart and dare I say, a lot of grit in these series. Dats got the monkey off his back, and guys like Cleary, Franzen and Flip were nice surprises. This is definitely a new Red Wings team, and we've got a lot to look forward to.

In another thread an Anaheim fan said he did go congratulate the Ducks coaching staff. it's a little disappointing if indeed he skipped the line, but not the end of the world.

They say sports don't build character they reveal it. I like Cheli. He's passionate, hotheaded, gritty. still, unless he had a good reason, he should've been out there shaking hands. Selanne's comments were suprisingly whiny in victory. they had to beat the refs too?

Pay the price, or go home.

After reading through some of the threads here, it seems I am in the minority, but honestly I don't think the Wings dominated the last game. For the first time this playoffs, they looked more like the Wings of 2003-2006. They were a half a step slow getting to the puck in the corners and were losing battles, and more importanly almost no one was crashing the net. Yes they controlled the puck most of the game and had a lot of shots, but only a handful were quality scoring chances. They weren't going hard to the net like they had been. Giguere is a great positional goaltender and made easy saves on shots from poor angles. They were hitting a lot, but not paying the price. There were a few too many cute passes when they should've taken the higher percentage shot. If the Red Wings team that I've been watching most of this playoffs shows up tonight, then I feel good about their chances of winning. Because even looking a step slow, Anaheim still almost lost if not for a couple lucky bounces.

I'm with ya. I think the year I really started watching the Wings was the 84-85 season. I jumped off the Tigers bandwagon onto the Wings and haven't looked back.

Nick's obviously my favorite, but honestly I think if Pronger was healthy all season he'd be a solid choice to win the Norris too. I've never seen Niedermayer as at the same level as Pronger or Lids. Close, but definitely third.

Apparently he believes Burke's grassy knoll theory where if there wasn't a second hitter, his elbows would have magically missed the back of Holmstrom's head. Pronger's a very good defenseman, but not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. And he has zero media savvy, evidenced by his handling of leaving Edmonton last year. Way to let your wife take the fall Chris. Classy.

Maybe he's worried about messing up his hair, and that's throwing off his game.

those announcers are hilarious. it's like hearing a couple grandpa's commentating on the game. While we're reminiscing. You gotta wait until the end to see Probie's uppercut on Nylund.

I like how Kocur mellowed in his later years. When he KO'd a guy, he'd just skate away instead of taking one last shot at him. He could change the outcome of a fight with one swing of his right hand. Man, wtf was Eagles thinking dropping the gloves with Joey.

And Vladdy was a Norris caliber defenseman who threw Scott Steven's-like checks.

Melrose is basically just a big dumb guy with bad hair who loves hockey. He says some incredibly stupid thing, but I can't help liking the guy, or at least respecting his passion for the game.

Right. Hockey is a war this time of year. Except we're not the ones playing the game. We're the ones sitting on our asses yelling at the television and overanalyzing every single aspect of every game. Holmstrom can take a double elbow to the back of the head and still be fairly diplomatic in post game interviews, seems like we should be able to discuss the games with Ducks fans without flaming each other. I come here to talk hockey, not to trade insults like a jr. high student.

Matt, why must you bog the argument down with accurate information? http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition...lines-pe-sports

It was amazing watching Probie at the all star game. Not being able to hit or muck it up, he looked so lost out there. You do remember that Hatcher played here for a short while, don't you? as did Ulf Samuelsson.

A crack head thug? You obviously know nothing about Bob Probert or never saw him play. He was a key part of the Dead Wings transforming back into the Red Wings. Imagine someone like Darren McCarty, who would hit, chip in a few goals, and drop the gloves to stick up for his teammates. Only increase the fighting ability ten fold. Bob Probert is one of the greatest enforcers of all time. Like it or not that's a part of hockey and makes him a star in his own right. I can understand your point about not liking players to charge for autographs, but that doesn't make the guy a crackhead thug.