Heroes of Hockeytown

I hope to god it's on the Illegal Internets (WHICH IT WASN'T LAST TIME) or I will be seriously mega-pissed. It could get ugly. Hand-wringing and fate cursing might ensue.

You know, you'd say that if the Wings were down 10-0 in the third period of an elimination game. E'er faithful, ol' Reemasaurus.

Right, but if you shoot from 40+ feet away with no traffic you're just turning the puck over most of the time. Right, well we've pretty much got one goal generated off his shoot-no-matter-what mentality, but it was actually a good shot from the face off dot, twenty feet and change. Can you honestly recall a time one of Sammy's Floating Wrister Specials from forty feet actually fooled a goalie or generated a scoring chance? I can't.

I wish that someone here lived near me so we could confirm together that that was just thunder and not a hydrogen bomb air bursting above my home about an hour ago.

I was half-joking, but the point I was trying to illustrate was that saying something a bunch of times doesn't make it true. More specifically, I was prodding for the answer to this question: why is shooting the puck on net never a bad idea? As I went on to say, there are times when it is a bad idea if a better play can be made. Just so we're clear, I'm not even hating on Sammy. I think he's played alright this playoffs and more recently this series. But to suggest that there's no flaw in his over-shooting isn't gonna cut it.

Unless you're making some clever allusion to late-night eye-aches (in which case I salute you), I feel I must inform you that the word you're looking for is "aye." On topic: Yep. Sucks.

Yeah, watched the replay a couple more times (as painful as that was to do) and Markov was right there. Instead of laying out Cheechoo he lunged for the puck, bad plan. Hank was also there, trying to poke-check, which is a little more excusable for him. Had Train not been covering the other side of the net, I like to think that Cheechoo would've ended up on his ass.

I think you will find that repetition does not create truthfulness. Case in point: I HAVE A MILLION DOLLARS I HAVE A MILLION DOLLARS I HAVE A MILLION DOLLARS I HAVE A MILLION DOLLARS I HAVE A MILLION DOLLARS It is my sad duty to inform you that I am still not a millionaire. Anyways: Samuelsson. He shoots from lousy places sometimes, and it's a bad play if he can instead dump the puck in and create some cycling that will hopefully generate a better scoring chance. Just giving it to the goalie from sixty feet away is nothing more than a turnover that doesn't show up on the stat sheet. That said, Sammy's been pretty OK these last few games.

Unless his name happens to be Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tig Junior Elvis Iginla (in which case we've all been secretly conversing with a celebrity), I don't see why he should. Unless he just happens to like golfing, which I guess is OK. If I were an NHL player and my team was eliminated, I think I could find more interesting things to do with my time then golf (bang Elisha Cuthbert? I don't know why Aves isn't potting own goals to get back to business). Anyways.

You got it: Joe Thornton is the true face of evil. His severed head will lie on a pike in front of the Joe before this series is over and done with. Goooo Wings! Kill dem Sharks! I mean it. I want their heads on pikes, man. How ******* crazy is that?!

DaKine, I'd like to take this moment to El-Oh-El at your sig. *moment* There we go.

I'll get the PS2 Brigade in here pronto.

Oh yeah, I remember that. Score one for the paralyzed snow angel of defeat.

Nope... the only other save of his on Cheechoo I remember is stopping him after he got off a one-timer in the slot, not sure what period. Although I don't doubt you... My short memory is of a different variety than the ones that some fans are cursed with when they cry about Hasek's style of goaltending...

COUNT DA RINGS BIATCH ()

I'd say there's an extremely weak correlation between Bert's return and the Wings losing Games 3 and 4. Especially Game 4, if you remember a certain someone who notched a goal and an assist that night. Perhaps some other reason... Games 3 and 4... on the road... against the Flames... hmmmm...

Is that really a concern for you? I'd much rather the Wings lose because they weren't good enough, as opposed to losing because one of their best players couldn't participate (amongst other reason...).

The Wings have negotiated a one-week deal with Bryan Marchment to handle the "Thornton Problem."

I wonder where they breed such tall horses? I get tired of reading about these mythical "true fans" that pop in every once in a while to berate the hordes of non-fans that apparently reside here for their unforgivable behavior. It's not always sunshine and rainbows, least ways on the heels of a tough loss. Should people be blaming certain players (say, Hasek)? No. But everybody deals with the loss in a certain way. At the end of the day, after all the disappointment and panic is gone, we still love that big red wheel. Here's an easy criteria I made - the True Fan Index (TFI). Do you watch most Wings games? Do you cheer for the team? Would you keep cheering the Wings failed to advance? Gratz, son, you pass. That's good enough for me. Everyone try it! How do you stack up to the TFI!

Ouch.

Flip drops mad science, y'all.

That is truly a fascinating website... looks like I've got some reading to do.

Very astute observation. I was talking about this with viper earlier, when it was time to rush the puck up ice and play a skating game, the Wings were in control. Up tempo, fast paced hockey is how they like to play. That was more like the first half. The moment the Sharks were able to lock it down, slow things up, and play a grinding, cycling game, the Wings had no answer. That's the second half. Whoever is able to control the tempo of Game 4 and beyond is going to win the series.

Flopping is Hasek's style, it's what he does, it's what makes him great. Do you think he'd be as good playing the straight-up butterfly? No. He is what he is. Tonight, he flopped and got burned for the second goal, but he could've made the play with the poke-check and it just didn't happen. Oh well. If that's one mistake, he covered up for a million others. He really had a great game.

I can't defend him. He was very bad.