Heroes of Hockeytown

The Red Wings are entitled to the ice they're standing on. Nobody's bumping or blocking or hitting anyone without the puck.

Excellent. Related reading.

He'd be lucky we're playing the Pens and they keep coughing up the puck. Just like on Stuart's goal in Game 1 and (in a roundabout sort of way) Ericsson's in Game 2.

Pierre irritates me with his hard-on for match ups. Spelling out every time line X is sent out to play against line Y with breathless excitement doesn't do it for me. Daryl Reaugh is a superior Olczyk in basically every way.

SOGs are misleading, at least for tonight's game. Wings went into shutdown mode (again) after Abdelkader scored (again) and let the Pens take shots from the outside and cleared the rebounds for the rest of the game, rather than press and try to take the play back up the ice.

Semantics. The intent of the rule is obvious in how it's been applied since its inception. Malkin not getting suspended isn't the least bit surprising, and it's got nothing to do with league conspiracies or Bettman loving the Pens. EDIT: Here you go, Third Man In took care of this: "The Director of Hockey Operations will review every such incident and may rescind the suspension based on a number of criteria. The criteria for the review shall include, but not limited to, the score, previous incidents, etc."

Hank has been the second best goalie in this series.

The goal was flukey and so out of nowhere I could barely celebrate when it went in, I was so flabbergasted by the whole spectacle. But, as the saying goes, a shot on goal is never a bad play. The kids have been great. The Wings just have depth for days and even when Hank, Hossa, and Mule are kept off the board somebody finds a way to put one in the net.

And three in the last three games. If he hadn't touched the puck on the Flip goal and Flip still scored, he should be lauded for his play on the rebound and for taking that crosscheck. That's the kind of thing that doesn't always show up on the scoreboard but is huge. Thankfully, he got a deserving point on that trip to the net.

The Malkin thing was fine, the rule is designed to prevent coach's from putting their goons out at the end of a game when it's out of hand to rough up the other team's players. Malkin is just frustrated that he's in the same old hole he was last year, that he can't make anything happen out there with the Wings blanketing him. This was a tight game, though. Pens hit two posts and there was all kinds of scrambly plays at the Detroit net. At the end of the day, the Wings buried their chances and Ozzie and Hank came up huge for the Wings. In close, defensive games, that's the difference.

While I can agree that his play 5 on 5 hasn't been very inspiring... Stat lines don't mean everything. He's been in front of the net for plenty of screen goals so far in the playoffs.

I agree with this completely, which is why I don't care that the penalty shot wasn't called. You guys are using the wording of the rule pretty strictly here, but the it's almost certainly there to distinguish plays made on airborne pucks with those at ice-level. If the puck was covered by Hank inside the crease area (which Eva seems to think is not the case, so score one for the good guys), even if it's on Ozzie's back, that's a penalty shot. That it wasn't called is either that the ref determined that the puck was not inside the crease or he just didn't see it through the chaos.

Second verse, same as the first...

If things don't go well to start Game 2 I think they're going to get that "Oh no, not again..." feeling. Not getting a split would be a death sentence.

Bob approves of Crosby's line after Game 1: 0G 0A 0P -1

No joke. If I was Mike I'd put Helm out every time he came over the boards. He has no chance against that kind of speed.

Offsides-sighting! Oz was a beeeeaaaast tonight. When things didn't bounce his way, Hank gave him a hug and everything was hunky-dory.

He is doing to Crosby what Niedermayer did to Pavel in the semis. Follow him around, take him away. He's did a great job last year and did a great job tonight. His soccer-style hold for the eventual GWG was a beaut too.

It seemed like he was out there and had the puck every other shift, but he did play a (probably) career-high 17 minutes tonight.

That was one tight game, I'll tell you that... No speed through the neutral zone, very tight checking. Hank did a masterful job shadowing Crosby. Ozzie obviously should have been more aware of the rebound on the Malkin shot, but the stop on the breakaway (and uncalled trip...) was utterly massive. Huge game from Ozzie today. Huge game from Helm. Huge game from the 4th line and from the backboards (again! ).

Huge game from these guys. They haven't been bad throughout the playoffs but they haven't really done much either (except when Helm was on that line) until tonight. Great time to step it up.

Well, he's picked up right where he left off. Massive game by Helm, this guy is a friggin' beast.

Bad news, for CBC fans like us, is Bob Cole is not calling the Finals this year. I get that he's old and he's a bit behind the play sometimes, misses things, and on and on. But that guy's voice was made for calling games. He gets it, the excitement in the building and in the game. He doesn't beat us over the head with what the match-ups are and what the mood is on the bench (/takingshotsatPierre), and he's not some over-the-top cartoon like his replacement, Jim Hughson.

And here... we... go...

I remember the goals, they were Sammy-esque, especially the GWG. Standing around like a dork in the high slot while Vinny Lecavalier deked everybody out of their pants and set him up perfectly. That's Sammy's career in a nutshell, but he's good at it.