Heroes of Hockeytown

You can't escape it! My pals and I got together to watch the Flames game on Thursday, we had a dozen people in the room shouting and laughing during a commercial break and as soon as that goddamn fish jingle started up... all eyes were on the TV and the room fell into silence. It's really quite a masterpiece, even a triumph, in this way.

Up by two > down by one. Not the first time Datsyuk's pulled off the "defensemen (or in this case forward back) as screen" trick.

Gotta agree in general with Rafalski and Lidstrom switching too slowly. They are also just too slow and deliberate with their passes to each other and to the guys down low. Hank also is guilty of this. Any time he gets the puck down low he takes it and holds it and by then the play has rotated down low and there's a stick in the passing lane for the cross crease pass. Quick passes open up that opportunity, and all the while the one-timer will still a threat.

That was thrown around a lot at the beginning of the season when everyone was dreading the Stanley Cup hangover, but I think the time off for last year vs the year prior was almost equal, so there's no sense in that. Safe to say they've been doing that since opening night with the Leafs.

I don't tend to write and talk that way, as it is not right and proper, but don't take any offense from it. We, the fans, live through our team; it's natural to associate "us" vs "them" in that way. Or, watch the show, and criticize the man when he says dumb things. There, now we've covered the only two options in the universe.

What makes you think that? A team that's lucky enough to have two quality goalies does well to hang onto both in case of injury, which is obviously what happened in Jersey, and doesn't preclude if from happening again.

Between both goalies, they had three pucks slide in five-hole. Like, you know, put your sticks down. The only thing I know about these guys right now, is that they are bored of the regular season and that makes me even more bored of the regular season. I'll be singing a different tune in a couple months when hockey is gone again, but right now the end of the season will be pretty merciful for the Wings and their faithful.

A porous defense will bring a goalie's SV% down just as it will his GAA.

I got called in, but it sounds to me like another night of coasting for our favorite underachievers, eh?

The Red Wings should win, and not lose.

Considering that the game occurred after the deadline it wouldn't have done him any good to try and send any message anyways. It was 4-1 at the start of the third, daunting, but not impossible, so at that point I think Oz had a clean slate to work with from the whistle, but then the next three goals came so quickly he had to go. It wouldn't have mattered who was in net anyways, but I don't think Mike was sending any messages or using any strategy with the goalies in particular.

Rick Nash is the ultimate enemy. What a dick.

I guess I was trying to get a meaningful statement out of you where there was none. Thanks for bringing this pointless correlation to my attention.

For one, not my ******* job. If you've got an argument, support it. For one: lol @ correlation = causation. But two: Did they? Was the '02 team tougher than the '03 team or the '04? Were Mac and Shanny and Fisch (and Booter ) tougher in some years more than others? I mean, they've been getting older every year, but you cite Mac as a big influence for the '08 team (which I don't necessarily disagree), so it stands to reason he should've been a bigger factor in those years they didn't win. Ain't saying toughness isn't important, but there are too many other variables in play for you to try and pin their successes or failures on that one factor. This team has had plenty of toughness the last two seasons that wasn't of the enforcer variety -- which matters a whole lot more when it comes to be playoff time.

In '06 when Legace dropped the ball, or in '07 when they beat the Flames and Sharks and gave the Cup-winning Ducks all they could handle before bowing out in an incredibly close series? Or in '04 when they had guys like Mac, Shanny, and Hatcher, and still lost to the clutching and grabbing Flames?

No problem with Mike giving Brian high praise, and I wouldn't expect him to say something else, but he's got a long way to go to catch Nick. As for the lines, that works for me. Hank and Pavel might be made for each other, but they haven't been getting results in the last 4-5 games, and if you aren't getting results things are going to change in a hurry.

And also his poorer defensive game and skating ability. He has worked hard at both and improved greatly in both areas, but he's still the worst skater and defensive player of the bunch you mentioned. The center has the most defensive responsibility and his impressive offensive skills will take a backseat to that. Yeah, I remember when Mike had him playing wing with Pavel and Shanny down the stretch in '06 and into the playoffs, which was pretty much a mess. As far as faceoffs are concerned, he could easy take draws and move to wing if need be, but he'll start at center anyways.

Nearly a season's worth of anger directed at those fourth line scrubs and Flipper is finally paying off. Now if we could get the top lines scoring again we'd really be in business.

Calgary deal was good, Pahlsson was a huge pickup for the Hawks, the Moen deal was also good for the Sharks. The Rangers moving everyone and their mom for Morris is definitely your Hilarious Deal of the Day.

Always hard to tell how many legit punches were landed, but I spotted a fair few. Excellent scrap, just what I wanted to see from Aaron.

If you weren't such a good guy I'd save this as ammo for their inevitable cinderella run this spring. Never say never, brah.

Considering I've never had anything but confidence in Kopecky's game, I'm not sure what I've got to own up to. I'll say this, he's come on something fierce in the last three games. If he can keep half of this kinda effort up he might just win me over.

'Ere we go A brief history of time: Downey had a huge shift where he hit everything that moved, the team chugged along and Nick scored a goal, but this was the game where the fair and unbiased judgment of Dan O'Halloran stole a tally from the Wings because Homer was also in the attacking zone. It was visibly deflating and they played a terrible third.

You'd probably make an exception for when that guy choke slams you moments before. Lilja's unchecked aggression wrote a check his fists couldn't cash.