Heroes of Hockeytown

He'll be back. Yzyman is unstoppable.

Both he and Homer totally swung and missed.

Was not feeling good about this one going into OT, but at the same time I wasn't worried at all if they did lose, so to actually pull out a win in OT is a pleasant surprise. I guess we'll just have to ride the Cleary-Sammy scoring wave all the way to the Cup Finals. Things seemed to be going well there in the third until, of course, Sammy gave that one up and it was a tie ballgame. He giveth and he taketh away. If every Wing not named Franzen/Cleary/Samuelsson wasn't having such a hard time finishing this game might have been a blowout, too, but I'll take the Ws any way I can get them. Go Wings!

Very clever, I approve.

Bury your chances and the wins will keep rollin' in. Let's do it, Wings!

The Wings-Avs rivalry existed in the precap era, when, for a while there, it was destined that either the Wings, Avs, or Stars were going to represent the West in the Stanley Cup Finals. The two teams twice met in back to back years, for a total of five series in seven years. Three times they met in the conference finals, acting as a de facto SCF. The cap and passage of time (ie Roy) have ended the Avalanche's time as a dominant franchise but it's pretty hard to replicate the run those two teams put together as top teams in the NHL. In contrast, the Wings and Ducks have met twice in three seasons two times, but only the most recent pairing has been competitive. Although the 2007 WCFs were likely a de facto SCF, the Ducks have not been nearly as dominant as the Avs were at their height. If somehow the Wings and Ducks manage to avoid being gutted by the cap and have the (mis)fortune of running into each other a couple more times in the playoffs, you might make the case, the bad blood aside, which for this era of Red Wings hockey is purely on their end. Wings-Ducks might be the best so-called rivalry we've got now, but it's nothing compared to Wings-Avs.

Interesting factoid there. Babcock is the the only coach from any of the teams in the conference finals that started the year as coach. Also: Daryl Reaugh is 10000x better color guy than Pierre McGuire or Eddie O.

Christ, one of these Canes has got to shoot it. Samsonov chief among them.

Between this now obvious attempt and his constant thread derailing with his Holmstrom grudge, I think it's safe to say Jake Ryan has run his course here.

The players work out who gets the numbers when there's a conflict. Management has nothing to do with it. In either case you mentioned, the more veteran player got the number, which is right and proper.

Spot on GMR impersonation.

Agreed. There were about six or seven odd man rushes for the Wings in total, and they didn't convert on any of them. The whole team had a hard time finishing, otherwise that game could have gotten out of hand in a hurry in the second.

Look at little Jiri do a Lambeau Leap in celebration of Sammy's goal. Got to love the enthusiasm on this guy.

Yeah, he got totally blindsided by Burrish, he has to be aware of where the opposition is when he goes for a trip outside the crease, but c'est la vie.

He has had some big games before, for sure. Game 6 against the Sharks and Game 1 against the Pens are obvious ones. He takes a lot of shots, into shin pads and into the goalies chest, but shooting, more often than not, is better than not shooting. He's still terrible on the PP, but what's a guy to do? Coach is putting him out there.

The only reason Dano was an afterthought offensively in last year's run was due to him recovering from a broken jaw. He's back now and better than ever, even better than his incredibly clutch '07 postseason when he was also healthy.

Ditto. I got a bit frustrated when Bulin was making some stops and the Wings were blowing some chances, though. Felt like deja vu from the Ducks series, especially with the Hawks getting a flukey opening tally and a gift power play try that they naturally converted (always on the garbage calls so I can get my rage on, I guess). But after 10 minutes it was no contest. Ozzie was a beast and the Wings didn't give the Hawk's big guns any life. I enjoyed watching more up and down hockey after the boring grindfest of the semis.

Yes, in this montage of nearly 20 years and 300 goals worth of highlights. Except when he doesn't. Nick scoring on an end to end rush? Probably because it practically only happened once! You act as though that was some sort of regular occurrence. It's not exactly the same thing, but maybe this will cheer you up.

I don't know that there was anything especially wrong with those other goalies at all, but saying the above would be erroneous because it ignores the teams those goalies play behind, and how they differ from the Red Wings. The Wings will be the best team the Hawks have faced yet; they'll have the puck longer than the Hawks previous opponents, making offense their best defense, but still having a better defense on top of that, both on the backend and more importantly as a five man unit. Whether they can rise to the challenge remains to be seen, but this isn't as simple as Osgood vs Luongo vs Kiprusoff. This is the difference between the Wings vs the Canucks vs the Flames.

He certainly can't change time, but he's putting a pretty good fight. This is a nonsense phrase, I bet you can't even tell me what that's supposed to mean. He gets the puck out, he doesn't put himself into position to get hit, so he doesn't need to "sacrifice" or whatever. Nick is an effortless skater and he's always in good position. He could probably afford to lose some speed, but I don't think he's lost much if any. Never, like when he notched the GWG in Game 1. But as long as we're on the subject, Nick has never been very adventurous in the attacking zone. I don't know if you're anticipating him to be running around in the slot or standing in the crease like Green or Gonchar or Niedermayer, but that's not Nick's game. Being PPG in the series, having the most points among any defenseman in the playoffs, and basically winning Game 1 single-handedly wasn't good enough for you? Nick's offense is as good as it ever was. He did make mistakes and occasionally had a hard time against the Getzlaf line -- failing to get his shot through that led to a Getzlaf-Perry rush in Game 4 that led to a goal, or letting Perry get behind him for the GWG in Game 6 come to mind -- but it's not the first time he's made a mistake and it won't be the last. He's been the best Dman in the playoffs, so I don't know what else you're expecting from him.

Lookin' sharp, Matt.

Should be a fun game. Let's do it, Wings!

In any one of the Wings' Cup runs of this era, Nick, Steve, or Sergei could have won it. There were other stand outs, of course, so they didn't, but Nick has been MVP worthy in basically every season and deep playoff run in his career. He's the best, and for good reason.

They have been laughably bad since their clutching and grabbing run to the Finals, there can be no doubt about that. The only guy on that team that isn't a bonafide choke artist is Captain Visor himself.

My god, how humiliating. I would be downright embarrassed for them if they did that.