Heroes of Hockeytown

The Wings can take advantage whether they are aggressive or passive. The Hawks were hyper-aggressive offensively and got burned again and again on turnovers. They forechecked with two guys and tried to be extremely aggressive there and the Wings were able to make that first pass out of zone and get odd man rushes. They have great players and that's troublesome, but whatever system they play isn't a concern of mine. The Hawks and Ducks were on opposite ends of the scale in their playing styles and the Wings were able to handle both.

Yeah, just about to put that up. Obviously there's more animosity there than they're letting on...

I scarcely believe this to be possible.

His deal is up in 2013. Chances are low that he is not signed to another extension before this one expires.

Hank is a much better shutdown defensive forward and better PKer. He plays the most minutes against the opposition's guys who play the most minutes, and is always over the boards first on the PK or cricial late game situations. Their ice time respective to one another is fine.

Orks is for fightin' and winnin'! But nobody likes Orks and everybody likes Bob, so the decision was an easy one. WAAAAAAGGGHH!

Well, if it helps, I'm pretty sure you're not wearing glasses in that pic, as Jake Ryan has asserted. We'll take those stereotypes down, one at a time!

Maybe something like that, actually. "Pav is real close, but the way the Chicago series was going, we were able to be conservative. Now we got two games in two nights, and it's important to get off to a good start.'' - Ken Holland

Ansar Khan and Rob Parker in a steel-cage no-submission grudge match, this Saturday at the Joe!

If only Hank had Sergei's wheels...

Tomorrow morning. Be up at a friend's cabin, TV and Internet so I can still ***** about the game.

Everyone's invited! Roooooad Triiiiiip!

I was, with the intent or breaking the bad news that I'll be upstate near Traverse City this week visiting a friend and not partying with you guys, but I sent a PM to Dan instead.

"Than they were last year," is likely what he meant.

Found it!

Like Mike said in a recent interview, he's obviously aware of the Pen's 4th line situation and he's not afraid to match up any of his D pairs against their top guys, no matter where they are playing. Or, in his own words, "We're not hiding anyone back there."

The schedule is certainly an abomination. Games are going to have to played during the week and potentially interfere with the Tonight Show anyways, so I don't see what the NHL gains by cramming it all into one weekend instead of spreading it out between two. I realize things don't work this way because of the wretched, imperfect universe we exist in, but it seems like if they were worried about overtime games running late into their programming they could just move the games to Versus after the third intermission.

This guy has been playing #1 D with Nick out, and while he's obviously not as good a PP QB, in his past he's been pretty decent at that too. With all the minutes he's gotten with Nick or Rafalski being out, he's been great. I'd bump him up to #2. Being that this is about Lebda, mad props to him, he played an oustanding game yesterday. The Kane goal was a great shot, but it was from a bad angle that Lebda forced him into, Oz really ought to have had it. No shame at all for Brett on this year's playoffs. I really didn't like the way he played in the season (a pattern with most Wings...) -- in truth thought he was pretty terrible -- and didn't have much confidence in him at any point, but he's cranked up his game by several orders of magnitude. Well done.

Ansar Khan. "Red Wings forward Marian Hossa, who said he was fine after a knee-on-knee collision in the third period, will be facing the team he helped get to the finals last year."

He had a knee on knee collision in the third, said he was alright, that of course means nothing; and he finished the game, which sometimes means something.

And if he didn't, it's just an example of how points aren't everything. Homer has been in front of the net causing havoc on quite a few goals, and none of that appears on the score sheet. Some folks have their myopic little views of hockey through the lens of pure scoring, but there's way, way more to it. EDIT: Since this is a Helm thread, let me go ahead and say yay Helm! Great game, great goal, well deserved. Dude is clutch.

Last year they had two players really dominating going into the Finals, Crosby and Hossa. Malkin was silent. Now, Hossa is gone and Malkin is on top. So that's still just two forwards that are playing great. Certainly reason for optimism, although Crosby and Malkin '09 are still probably an improvement over Crosby and Hossa '08. Things are very dependent on Nick and Datsyuk's health right now.

For being as shorthanded as they were, they were by far the better team, and, as occasionally happens, had monumental trouble finishing. But they found a way. 6-1, 2-1OT, they all equal one W. Helm is obviously the man and had a shift for the ages and I love him. Huet should definitely receive full marks for the game and the last minute Franzen stop, and even though the Kane goal was brutal, Ozzie kept the Wings in it time and time again. No PPGs either! Pretty proud of this team right now. If Nick and Pavel get healthy (in two f***in' days, awesome), I'm not worried about rest of anything like that for the Finals.

HOH Appreciation Thread? Fellas, you shouldn't have!

EDIT: Zoop.