haroldsnepsts

How is hating the Blackhawks more petty than hating any other team in the league? Hatred isn't rational. It's part of being a fan and having rivalries. For me it's not only deeply ingrained from the longstanding Wings rivalry, but it's also that their current roster has several players who are pretty easy to hate compared to the Lightning. Then throw their fanbase on top of it and it comes pretty easily. If I'm picking a team I'd want to win the Cup that's not the Wings, between the Blackhawks and Tampa, it's a pretty easy choice. If only to make Eddie Olczyk shed tears that subtly interfere with his happiness.

Unlikely it'll be either. But if it's going to be one of those two it should be Fedorov. Osgood was a big part of the team but is not the caliber of player that the Wings retire jerseys for.

Can we please try to keep at least some of these threads not about Mike Babcock? Thanks.

And Abby's zone starts bolsters your argument about that comparison. Abdelkader had a great year, but I never would've guessed he led the team in offensive zone starts. Jurco, by comparison, had the 4th fewest offensive zone starts behind Miller, Glendening, and Andersson.

I don't disagree about Jurco but I think you're lumping too many different guys together who you're saying have poor possession. If I'm looking at the stats right, Pulkkinen actually has good numbers, but then you have to factor in he gets most of his starts in the offensive zone (2nd only to Abdelkader, which surprised me). Given the eyeball test, I agree. Pulkkinen has poor possession. And I'm guessing his corsi his also padded given he fires the puck towards the net any chance he gets. But Glendening is 2nd lowest on the team in offensive starts (to Miller). So it's not that surprising his corsi doesn't look great. But the reason he and Miller and Andersson got so many defensive zone starts is their ability to possess the puck and get it out of their end. It's why they got so much love from Babcock. I'm not saying they're Zetterberg or anything, just that they're not bad. Like I said, I agree about Jurco overall. It's too soon to cut bait. I guess my main nitpicking is about corsi and it's accuracy in representing a single player's puck possession ability.

I'd love him if he were on the Wings for sure. But I did lose respect for him after his tantrums with Zetterberg. And even though it's not his fault, even for a great player he is often overrated by people because of his "intangibles" which mostly means good Canadian kid. '

I never claimed they were breaking the rules or sucked on purpose. For decades they had a terrible owner in Dollar Bill Wirtz. It's not a coincidence the team turned around when he died. But the poster stated they did it the same way the Wings did, by signing franchise players like Toews and Kane after years of sucking. The Wings didn't build their team that way, mostly because a lot of their high picks didn't pan out. How do the Hawks play the game "the right way" in a way Tampa doesn't? I am probably what you would consider really old, so I've hated the Hawks a long time. But there's still reasons to hate them now. Kane is a d-bag, Keith is a dirty player. Bickell is too. Shaw is dirty and an idiot. Then there's Toews tantrums and slashing of Zetterberg a few seasons ago. As for their fans, they were chanting "Detroit sucks" while celebrating after the Blackhawks won the Cup in 2010. Chicago didn't even play Detroit in that year's playoffs.

If you watch the NHL rules video , by their own criteria and examples, this was a kicked puck. The puck was traveling in a direction away from the net and as a result of the force from Hossa bringing his skate forward, went into the net. It's pretty similar to goal #2 in the video, which was an example of a disallowed goal. http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=15589

You might want to check the Wings roster from their glory years (I'm assuming you're talking 1996ish to 2000). Yzerman is the highest draft pick. Then next I think is Marty Lapointe taken 10th overall. Fedorov was taken in the 4th round. Lidstrom in the 3rd. Shanahan the Wings traded for. Draper was acquired for a dollar. Not quite the same as getting Toews and Kane in back to back drafts.

Oh wel. I'm pulling for the Lightning but unfortunately they feel like the young Cinderella team that loses to the veteran Cup team in the Finals. And I agree. That goal was about as kicked as you can get. There is zero standard for this in the NHL.

Pierre LeBrun ‏@Real_ESPNLeBrun 2h 2 hours ago If Chicago wins tonight, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be the first team in NHL history to play 4 Original Six teams in one playoff year Kinda cool. But not enough for me to want the Hawks to win.

True. But I think that starts to happen to a degree with anyone who's become a scapegoat here. Ericsson, Cleary, even Howard the second half of the season. People were acting like Clearly's objective was to singlehandedly ruin the Red Wings and that he was a greedy, terrible person. Franzen has just been a scapegoat for a lot longer than most so the bashing has gone further afield, though honestly I don't remember a ton of criticism's that involved his personal life. Though there have been plenty of childish insults. Sometimes as a rabid hockey fan we forget these guys are real people.

There's a major distinction between criticizing someone as a player and not wanting them to end up braindead. There's guys on other teams that I hate with a passion but if they take a puck to the face, I'm not cheering. I'm hoping they're ok. (And I don't even hate Franzen but he's a frustrating player at times). I hope Franzen stays on LTIR. And it has nothing to do with his play on the ice.

I may have already said this in the this thread but when deleting posts I generally do try and send the person an explanation. I know it's annoying to have posts just disappear. That said, it doesn't always happen. Sometimes it's because a thread has gone completely off the rails and I'm just trying to get rid of problematic posts before someone replies to it. And honestly, sometimes it doesn't happen just because I don't have time. I may be checking in before I leave for work, or late at night. If there's a warning in the thread title and have been multiple warnings in the thread, I often won't take the extra time to send an explanation. When you see "mod warning" in a thread title that means there's been problems and the thread is on a short leash. If someone can't be bothered to read the specific warnings in the thread, I'm not inclined to take the extra time to repeat what's already been covered. In this case it was about political discussion, which is not allowed here (Actually I need to check the forum rules because I can't remember if they're officially listed there). And I think the confusion stemmed from me locking the thread to clean up a few posts, then honestly I just forgot to unlock it and went to bed Shocking I know, but mods aren't perfect). No one was specifically locked out of the thread. Pinning the rules is a good idea and we have done it in the past, usually at the beginning of a new season. It just clutters things up to have it up there when the site is very active so we eventually take it down.

A couple more reasons not to want the Blackhawks to win: 1) Because of the joy it would bring Eddie "subtle interference" Olczyk. I always picture him sitting in the booth wearing his Hawks jersey. 2) Not wanting to see Duncan "I'll carve you up" Keith lift the Cup again. One of the dirtier star players in the league. And don't get me wrong, I'd want the Ducks to lose in the finals.

For me it's basically a decades old hate for the Blackhawks. It's in my DNA at this point. And for a slightly more rational reason, the more Cups the Blackhawks win the more they move towards dynasty status and overshadow what the Wings had accomplished.

And you bothering to read the multiple warnings would've been quicker than posting what you have in this thread, and likely would've prevented your post from being deleted in the first place. I'm unlocking the thread now but as soon as it veers into territory that the mods have warned about, it's getting locked permanently.

Nice play by Belesky and Kesler to end it. That's something I feel like the Wings should do a lot more of. Rip a shot low to the far pad side so it kicks out a nice juicy rebound for your teammate headed to the net. You don't always have to rip it top corner (and often miss).

Given he's only 18 I have to think they're keeping him in Grand Rapids for the season regardless, barring a lot of injuries for the Wings and Larkin playing lights out.

Off to a good start. Larkin score two tonight. http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/770206

He also lost a season and a half to lockouts. Where he ends up scoring wise depends on if the trend of allowing interference continues of if the league heads back to where it was after the lockout. He's certainly one of the greatest goal scorers the game has ever seen though.

Go Ducks! (then please lose in the next round)

I'm not a huge fan of "advanced" stats because they're so often abused, but it doesn't sound like what this is about. And I've always thought a big part of Lidstrom's success was his ability to make the right play so consistently. He put up a lot of points but played pretty conservatively. Then if the Wings were down in key games is when you'd suddenly see Lids jumping into the play on offense. He was a coach's dream because he played the percentages, and usually correctly.

Agreed. I'd be surprised if he announced that already. Now that the Babcock circus is over, there's really no reason for him to announce a new coach this afternoon. Even if Blashill is the next likely coach, I'm guessing Holland will at least explore other options before deciding.

If Babcock really goes to the Leafs for 8 mill a year as coach/GM, his only victory may be the massive pay raise he gave himself and coaches around the league. Still, I'm not believing anything anyone is reporting at this point until it's triple confirmed.