Heroes of Hockeytown

What a scene! That's once in a lifetime!

They picked it up the bit at the end. Kronwall has looked pretty sharp tonight (though Hossa one-upping him by stripping Nash was crazy awesome). Could be worse, just one goal so far.

These neutral zone passes are killin' me.

The gang looks gassed. You know it's not goin' good when Hank and Pavel aren't having a hard time.

What? Power plays are as important in the playoffs as they are in any other hockey game. EDIT: Hudler's 50/50 with ES vs PP points, and while the average in the league's top scoring tends to be closer to two-thirds ES scoring, he still has plenty of company in the PP-performer range. What's more, while Hudler receives less PP time than most of the league's top scorers, a greater proportion of his time is spent on the PP than most, potentially inflating his PP vs ES points ratio.

Yes, YG was obviously comparing skating ability when he mentioned the diminutive St. Louis.

You wanna talk about good first rounds, the same way Steve scored big goals and played great against the Canucks, Sergei dominated the Coyotes in '98 when the Wings fell behind early. He had, what, six goals in that series?

It was. Drake got 2 games for jumping into the check.

Has he got a regular season hat trick? I feel like he must, but I can only remember one in the playoffs.

I'm somewhat in disbelief at how lousy Fedorov's rankings are. Especially skating, which is a laugh and a half. Did Gordie really make those?

Team Canada will be the team to beat per usual. Defending champs Team Sweden still has the advantage of the Wings-connection, though. I haven't given it a very good look at all, but my sense is that Team USA's roster is going to be pretty dismal by comparison. Though if coach doesn't cut me this year, I'm guaranteeing gold!

Dislike this train of thought. Picks don't guarantee anything, and even less so with regards to replacing a play making center of Hudler's quality. The two players should be kept or let go based on their own merits, not this reasoning.

I got called it, but judging from the score, shot count, and comments here, I'd say the Wings played a good game. Happy to see Oz have a strong outing and the defense limit the chances against -- two man advantage and Sammy's attempt at playing D, I can live with those goals.

The guy's a mess trying to run the point, but he scores and plays solid defense so he's alright by me.

Nah, brah, that's one fine dude, man. Look at that stare he's givin' you man.

Killer release. A little surprised the Sharks didn't pull it out, they're as close to a sure thing as you're gonna get this season. If they were done 2-0 with 5 to go in the 3rd, I'd expect them to get the W. Oh well, thanks for doing us a little favor tonight, Sid.

You guys think the Wings pass too much, the Pens are ridiculous. As if they're an entire team of Filppula's. They'd kill to have a goober like Sammy on their team to make every stupid shot from everywhere.

Was that outcome ever in doubt?

Hudler is a natural center.

Nah.

I'd take another look if there was a video around, otherwise I'll just have to say I disagree.

Well, there's no use in arguing that, being as up for interpretation as it was. But being argumentative sunnuvabitch that I am, let me say this: Kopecky was going way to fast to stop on a dime an inch in front of Rinne, whether or not he was given a love-tap from behind five feet in front of the cage. I don't think it was intentional or malicious or that Kopecky is a dirty player that runs goalies, but he mis-judged it or something and was destined to slam into him one way or the other.

The Wings should consider fielding a second team so they have room for all these guys. As it is they're stocked up on talent. Anybody else want a couple Greens or Fleischmanns? It's a Wings prospect blow-out, we're practically giving them away! Literally, in Quincey case. Anyways, I wouldn't trade any number of 4th forwards and middling 2nd-3rd liners for this:

This is a right massive tune. By the end it's utterly huge.

There's an appreciable difference between "driving to the net" and "taking a bad penalty."