Heroes of Hockeytown

There ya go. Crosby ties it.

Suddenly...

Bad move by Talbot. Well, nevermind.

That's a beauty right there.

Zoop. Game 7, here we come.

Mike Richards = pro.

Would he make the team better? Absolutely. That's good enough for me.

They either will or they won't, and the change won't be dramatic either way. Much less than the Wings losing, say, Hudler or Hossa, for example.

I'm concerned that Ozzie might be hurt, but the game itself wasn't a big deal. I've seen shootout playoff games before. The Wings were totally dominant and assertive for three games, and this was just kind of a wild one.

Well, no matter; that was then and this is now. What's important is that Nick's got more points and a better +/- than Mr. Faux Hawk, and Nick's team moves on while Mike's doesn't.

It was a "strong" or "weak" call. It was just a call. There were six players on the ice. If they had shot the puck over the glass or the goalie had played it outside the trapezoid would there be such a fuss?

Nick and Lilja have been very good for the large majority of the year, it was everybody else that was having a hard time around them. Rafalski was very often suspect and Nik and Stuart were just plain bad. Even when Nick went through a stretch where he struggled, he still was pretty good, he was just making the mistakes everyone not named Lidstrom usually makes. I don't know if Detroit's number hurt his Norris chances this year but if it did, it wouldn't be on Nick at all in my mind. He has continued to play a sound positional game while the rest of the team was dogging it for much of the year.

Is there a more disappointing team in the NHL? At least when the Wings lost in the first round they still had cred from the 02 run to fall back on. What have the Sharks ever done?

God, the Sharks suck. Thornton is probably the last guy you want on your team in the playoffs. Jesus.

Good look at Joe Thornton on CBC. He was out there coasting both times Ryan scored.

Last chance for the Sharks. Starting to look like Wings-Ducks... dundundun...

Ken and Mickey noticed it and showed some replays of Ozzie struggling to stand up after saves and he was wincing pretty bad in the second period. EDIT: I am too late. Noooooo.

^^ He seriously said that? Terrible. Automatic penalty is automatic.

Fun fact: the Columbus Blue Jackets have as many playoff wins today as they did in 2000.

Yes well, I'm certain we could all go back and cherry pick some of our finer moments in the wake of a devastating loss... Let it go. Celebrate our team, don't hate on theirs.

Haha, I jumped up and hugged my buddy next to me (he was not anticipating that ). Mad prpps goes to little Hudler though; there were a lot of awfully big men in that crease and he went there with no fear and made the play. Winning is winning, so it's all good on that front. The Wings gave me a helluva game and a W for mah B-day so I won't argue with that. I am obviously pretty concerned with Ozzie though. He was hurting and it showed in his performance, we need him to be good to go. Finally, ******* Brett Lebda. Let me ******* tell you how mad I was at him for making that goddamned idiotic play that led to the Russel goal. The instant I saw him pinching down I face palmed, because there was no way he could have possibly made it to the puck before not one, but two rushing Blue Jackets. Worse, it was a 4th line shift, it's not even a big deal, get those guys off the ice. Terrible decision by Lebda and I guarantee that surge led to the Modin goal.

To put it succinctly: Duh. Is it easier to play behind one of the bottom defenses in the league or the best? Everyone helps everyone when you play well; everyone hurts everyone when you play poorly. Ozzie has stepped up in goal, the skaters have stepped up on defense, this much is obvious through observation and comments from the players themselves.

I hope you guys are prepared to see some goals get waived off, because Dan O'Halloran is in tonight.

"First half" is an exaggeration. He struggled somewhat in November, but has been good as or better than any Dman in the league since. He's made a handful of obvious errors this year, like he does every year, but defensively no one is in the same ballpark. Green will likely win on the strength of his scoring, which is fine, since his numbers are pretty outrageous, but Nick has been as stalwart as ever for the most part.