Heroes of Hockeytown

I'm sure the lot of them have the charisma of soggy cardboard. I'd always prefer to watch a Crosby pass or Ovechkin wrist shot than listening to either of them or anyone else mumble their canned responses to a mob of reporters. It's okay, though, they don't have to be the most interesting men in the universe -- they just need to be good at hockey, I mute that crap anyways.

Of course he won't score 70. What do you take him for, some kind of 4th liner? It's 100 or bust for Happy Hudler, folks.

I agree. Obviously you'd like to have a great goalie instead of an okay goalie, but with the cap it's about getting the most bang for your buck. How can we prevent the most goals? With a great defense that can force people to the outside, take away the slot, get in front of point men, and block shots? Or a great goalie that can make a miraculous save now and again but will still get beat by the same old shots that have been beating goalies since the beginning of time? Of course some teams fall assbackwards into both like the Habs seem to have this season. Their defense has done a tremendous job against the best players in the world like Ovechkin and Crosby, and Halak has been incredible as well. But Halak is about to become a very rich man, and that will force them to shift their roster away from what made them so successful this playoffs, most likely.

Yeah, I mentioned to a buddy the other day that the era of the big name goalie appears to be dead. All you need is a good defense and you can plug in some kid with a funny name in there and go on a run. Maybe it's just more cost-effective to invest in defense; they can play both ends of the ice and if your defense corps is good enough they can get in lanes and take away enough scoring chances to make even a mediocre goalie look great. Conversely, even the best goalies in the world are going to get beat off screens and deflections just like bad ones, so it's kind of an equalizer. Plus, if your best Dman has a bad game the rest of the team can pick up the slack for him. If your goalie has a bad game, you lose, as Fleury demonstrated last night.

Not a very good game from Luongo, but the whole Canucks team s*** the bed. That game was one big shootout but only the Hawks got to take turns.

This article should help clarify some things on the Lidstrom front. His son's enrollment in a Swedish school doesn't actually have any bearing on his decision.

I joke because I love. Meanwhile, Crosby being Crosby after losing.

34 seconds left, it's Talbot time.

Divers are havin' a strong playoffs. Habs in 7!

I'm all aboard the Holland train but Willy was a terrible signing, I don't think anybody liked it from the get-go. All our expectations of him were sadly fulfilled during the season and playoffs.

Yeah, I'll definitely give him that.

I seem to recall a time when Leino was very impressive for a brief string of games before he fell off the face of the Earth. I'll hold on anointing Ville the Savior.

Lidstrom has sons, Datsyuk has a daughter... We have the template for genetic super hockey players right at our finger tips. Bring on Lidsyuk.

Whoa, no way, a defenseman made a mistake. If only they all were Lidstrom. Rafalski scored a billion goals and was an All-Tournament defenseman for a reason. If he could have scored for the Wings as consistently as he did for Team USA the Wings' would have never lost a game.

Game 2 against the Coyotes featured one of the wildest sequences of scoring and speed and action I've seen in a game this year. Plus, curly fries. A friend and I attended the game against the Lightning this year. It was the one where Drew Miller scored that great flying breakaway goal, but also saw Hank get his shoulder messed up.

Plekanec is only two years younger than Zetterberg, but doesn't approach his ability on offense or defense, especially in the playoffs. I don't know what about Price inspires such confidence in you. I can't say I've watched that much of him over the years but it looks like a pretty lateral move from Howard to me.

Most of the main cogs played well. Hank, Pavel, Nick were all great in the playoffs. Franzen started off a bit slow but somehow managed to lead the playoffs in scoring so okay. Rafalski was himself, I guess we can't expect anything above the brainfarts to go along with the points. The Wings didn't get anything from their bottom two lines on offense and Jimmy was shaky some of the time. To me that was a big difference, even in the games where they were getting f***ed in the ass by s*** calls and worse luck.

San Jose have drafted well (Pavelski, Clowe) made good trades (Thornton) and savvy free agent signings (Boyle) and pretty much built their team from the ground up. They've strived for success for many seasons, like the Wings, but obviously haven't attained it like Detroit has, but they didn't just fall assbackwards into riches via the draft like Chicago or Pittsburgh. So, in that way, I'd prefer for them to win it over anyone else at this stage. I wouldn't mind Boston or Montreal either but it seems unlikely either can beat the Pens.

It pains me to see Hudler on a line centered by Abdelkader or Helm. It would be better if they didn't re-sign one of Miller or Eaves and tried to get another more offensively oriented player to make a third scoring line. Or not re-sign Bertuzzi (I assume he'd be the odd man out over Homer) and go with two solid scoring lines and try to make the checking lines as tough to play against as possible.

I thought the Wings were generally outplayed in the first and third periods but still, the Sharks caught a break at the best (or worse from where you and I are sitting) possible time. The Murray no call was a joke and a minute late the game-winner ended up in the Wings' net. Just like the blown call on the Franzen high stick; just like Nick's stick exploding. It's like they inherited the Ducks' powers of unbelievable luck and good fortune and harnessed it to maximum effect in this series. Maybe they absorbed it through osmosis last year from the masters of lucky breaks themselves and were just waiting to unleash it.

He has his annoying tendencies, but he was a good contributor, especially for his salary. I wish he could hang onto the puck at all, and wouldn't take so many penalties, but he fills a scoring role very adequately. I don't really know what the UFA market is on scoring wingers right now though. Obviously if there are better options available, I could do without those annoying tendencies.

Tough series, losing by one goal in all these games. One bad call, bad break, stupid play (Rafalski...) cost the Wings big time. No need to go back to the drawing board, though. Unless Lidstrom retires, but I'd prefer not to think about that. The Wings will get Hudler back next season, hopefully tweak a thing here or there, and be right back at it next spring.

Whoa, this guy's got more goals in the playoffs than Hossa! Must be a real stud.

I don't think they did play that poorly in the Shark Tank, but it was just Murphy's Law out there. Blown calls and Nick's ******* traitor stick and all of the sudden the losses start mounting. It's very obnoxious to me because I feel like they should be in a much better spot than they are, but oh well, what's done is done.

Impressed by the victory and obviously Franzen. The thing that approaches Greek-tragedy levels is that one bounce here or there in the last few games and this series is tied instead of where it's at now. But no one can do anything about that now, you've just got to keep on rolling. If they win the next one we could very well have a series on our hands... Fingers crossed.