Dabura

Bill Daly: "I have no idea what you are talking about." [Forced smile, robot-wave.]

Wow - Mike, Kevin and E.J. all picking the Wings.

Ah, good old Darren Dreger. He loves the Wings.

Just saw Ken and Evil Face's take. What is this obsession with our (lack of?) secondary scoring?!

Is he ready to go? I'd thought he was still, uh, "injured."

Howard has been unreal for us of late.

Can't even fly.

LGI

God I hate the Penguins.

I think the Caps might do some real damage this postseason. Their PP is absolutely lethal.

I generally like these guys, but their reasoning about everything is so wack and slanted. Do the Wings have the depth to do any serious damage? Can Franzen, Brunner, Filppula, et al. deliver? Meanwhile, everyone on Chicago's third line is a bona fide threat. *sigh*

I know the regular season means nothing, but...the Sharks did sweep the season series, 3-0.

I think we all would. But then, all these guys were scorers in their younger days. At this level, on this stage, Abdelkader...is a fourth-liner. He knows it, Babs knows it, Holland knows it. Problem is, we're so desperate for a big mean scoring winger that he (of all the people on our roster and in our system) is The Serviceable Solution. Meanwhile, other teams are loaded with the sort of player we're trying to force Abdelkader to be. Basically, if we're gonna throw stones at someone for this, it should be Ken Holland. Almost our entire frickin' top-six pool is populated by soft, undersized, pass-first-playmaking-puck-wizards. And instead of finding a legitimate counterbalance, we lean on Cleary, Samuelsson, Bertuzzi...Abdelkader. This is called "dicking around."

1. What makes you say he hasn't worked his ass off? It's not like he floats all over the ice, or has questions swirling around him re: his work ethic. 2. What is this thing with the weight room? Babcock called Abdelkader a gym rat earlier this season. We're talking like there's a whole lot this guy can do to suddenly become a first-line scoring threat. It doesn't really work that way. Whereas, if a soft, undersized guy wants to get stronger on his skates? He can push the workout routine, or what have you. Abdelkader isn't failing to score at a fifty-goal pace because of some kind of lack of effort. He's a fourth-line grinder with a very limited offensive upside. That he's scored ten goals is actually pretty remarkable, even with the help and minutes he's had.

Have to emphasize: going into this season, Abdelkader was comfortably slotted in the bottom six. We're talking like this is his rightful place and he's been at it for three years and so Where's the progress? Where's the improvement? We're really not all that deep up front. I mean, sure, we have a good number of warm, capable bodies - but, for starters, we have zero players like the one Abdelkader's trying to be. Which is, of course, the whole reason he's in this position in the first place. Beyond Abdelkader, and maybe Franzen, and maybe Bertuzzi, we do not have a big, mean, physical forward who can put the puck in the net (many times, and consistently) and really wear down the opposition on the forecheck. So, now you have my positive and negative takes on Kader, I guess.[/bi-polar fan]

Abdelkader actually is a gym rat, I think. I dunno. I have a hard time giving him a hard time for not suddenly becoming a 30-goal scorer. (Actually, with ten in this shortened season, he's projecting pretty positively for an 82-game campaign.) Bottom line: he's a bottom-sixer, basically a fourth-liner, and he's being asked to be a first-line power-forward, because our GM has dropped the ball on the we-need-a-big-mean-scoring-winger-who-can-complement-Datsyuk's-playmaking-skillz front.

Rask freaks out a lot.

I know it was. I was alluding to the way every talking head and his mother is verbally fellating Anderson.

I don't get the sense that he wants to play. Actually, I get the sense that he doesn't want to play. Just wants his money. So eff his effing bee ess.

Not to be That Guy, but, srsly, How thoroughly would the Wings of the past four games trounce this Sens team in a playoff series? So pumped for the move to the EC.

2-0 When did Craig Anderson become the greatest goalie in history? Was that the night I slept in?

I love that we have a serviceable power-forward in Abdelkader. He's no Wayne Simmonds, but we're never getting a guy like that. Ever. Abdelkader. Franzen (sort of). Bertuzzi (maybe). Andersson (maybe). Our top-six pool may still be way too soft and samey and playmakerrific on the whole, but we've got some size and strength.

Amen. (thx wingz)

ESPN says Ducks in six. One of Burnside's lamer write-ups.

My question: When was the last time we ended the regular season on such a high note? Now, by "high note" I'm not, of course, referring to the standings. I'm talking about our play. We're on fire. Feels to me like, at least these last few seasons, we've backed into the postseason. We were just...there. Just...existing. Sleepwalking, maybe. Not in the driver's seat in any meaningful way. But now? This time? PP woes aside (and maybe that was just the ice in Dallas), we're playing so well. Howard might be the best goalie in hockey right now, the way he's been playing.