Hank

The problem is Franzen went on his tear after the deadline. So Holland's decision not to make a deal for a forward had nothing to do with that. Secondly, yes, I would have traded Filp and Huds for Hossa. Thirdly, who's to say that it had to be Hossa? All I know is Ryan Malone was available for nothing last spring. I was adamant about the Wings getting him then. I have a hard time believing a 27-year old, 6'3" forward who loves to hit, fight and has hands would have hurt this team. Especially now. I'm not a Holland hater or fan, but I certainly think he missed the boat when he failed to address this need for the past 2 seasons. I just hope that Franzen's okay for Game 7. And if we do manage to finally put Dallas away, only having two offensive players won't help against the Pens that have one of the most underrated defenses in the league.

That scoring winger Holland promised in July and again in March sure would come in handy now. And I don't think Chelios needs to be sat. He had a bad game but he's been solid all season long. Allowing 2 goals doesn't translate into a defense issue. Only scoring 2 goals in 2 games means there's something wrong with the offense. Many of the top offensive players on this team need to start producing. Sammy has 2 goals in 15 games and he's on the 2nd line because? In fact Sammy, Cleary and Homer have a combined 6 goals in 15 playoff games. That's absolutely pathetic for three forwards getting top line minutes. And we have to wonder why we lost our last two games.

I agree. I do like the idea of a 'coaches review' though. Give them one per game and that should cover any blown calls like last night.

I agree. It's one of the things I hate most about playoff hockey. Every coach and GM has to ***** and moan to win a battle of propoganda. The non-goal was a direct result of Tippet and Turco bitching to the refs before games. And as much as Babcock said it was a blown call I was proud of him for not tacking the loss solely on that incident. Babcock wants to move on and all of us should. Let the Wings do their talking on the ice. They didn't look good last night so I'm interested to see how they respond on Saturday.

Yup. And if you're overruled you lose your only timeout. But people need to stop bitching about that Homer non-goal. We got away with one earlier and this one didn't swing our way so it's even. I like the human aspect of games and that means mistakes are going to be made. As soon as you start reviewing every goal, the game slows down and you drain the game of any momentum or spontenaity. Pretty soon players will stop celebrating and simply skate to the bench to see if it's a goal or not. I know NHL officiating can be frustrating at times but these are the best refs in the world. Watch any IIHF World Championship games and you'll see what I mean. The officiating internationally is atrocious. Dallas outplayed us last night - plain and simple. They deserved the win and probably would have won with or without the Datsyuk goal counting.

Hahaha! Duck Guy only takes offense when you suggest Giggy's gear gives him an advantage. He truly believes he'd still be one of the best goalies in the league if everyone wore Ken Dryden sized equipment.

Good job by the Stars. They refused to lay down and from last nights effort they must believe they can still win this series. They outplayed the Wings and outside of a shaky goal by Turco, he stood tall. I believe if the Wings don't win on Saturday this thing is going 7 games.

Welcome to the site RussianMalkin! I like your breakdown. The only thing I'd argue is that I think we have the edge on Goaltending and special teams while you guys have an edge in Offense. Especially if Franzen is still hurting by the finals. Fluery is a heck of a talent, but I think he's still too prone to big rebounds and brain-farts from time-to-time. Regardless of who wins, this final should be highly entertaining. Gary Bettman must be thanking God every day for this matchup. The NHL's Golden Child vs a team from the Golden Era. And their both EST teams. Win-win!

I could swing that other way way. Predicting a playoff collapse by a team that has had a lot of them, despite regular season success, is also easy to do. And I don't think people were 'bailing'. Fans from all sports are pationate about their teams. That means they react unrealistically to every and all scenarios - win or lose. Forums like LGW are for people to express their opinions and emotions in any manor. That's why they come here. Can you imagine how boring this place would be if everyone wrote "The Wings are the best. We're awesome!" or after losing "Oh well, you can't win 'em all. I love you Wings!". Let people vent. Just like it's fun to watch people rejoice over insignificant victories. To each their own.

Yes they did. And the NHL helped them do it. According to the CBA, the Ducks had two options concerning Neidermayer not showing up for training camp: a) have his salary count against the cap b) fine him $500,000 and not have his salary count against the cap. They chose (b). But now the league, the PA and Burke all worked together and swept it under the rug. BUT, from now on, every team has to adhere to this rule. If I were a GM or owner from any of the other 29 teams I'd be raising hell.

If I were the Preds I'd tell the league to go F themselves. If Burke and the Ducks can get a mulligan in the Neidermayer fiasco, why can't every other team ignore the CBA?

This is a funny thread. Most of it true. But you know what, I'm sure a lot of people here could dig up quotes from people who were saying "The Wings will be fine!" when they were playing against the Kings in '01, the Ducks in '03, the Flames in '04 and the Oilers in '06. It goes both ways. This Wings team looks a lot better now than they did in games 1-4 in the Nashville series. As soon as they gave up a goal or lead in that first round, the team would collapse. That's not the case now.

You're right. Hasek was winning Vezina trophy after Vezina trophy on a 'stacked' Buffalo team. Giggy has great positioning. I'm not going to take that away from him. But my point is, if Giggy isn't in absolutely perfect position, or his defense lets him down where it won't matter, he'll never, ever make that desperation save that can turn a game around. He's too slow, unathletic and bogged down with too much equipment to do that. Essentially, if his equipment weren't so big, he'd take up less net and be even easier to beat. Remember Lilja's goal from last spring in Game 5? He wasn't screened and it was from 40 feet out. Chelios rang one off the post from the same position on an unscreened Giggy. ECHL goalies could make those saves. But Giggy is all pads and positioning. Nothing else. And it's an afront to the history of the game that a goalie with no athletic ability is able to succeed today based on gear alone. And yes, even if it's 'within the rules' it's still an insult. Steroids weren't illegal when Bonds hit 73 dingers and yet his drug use drags the history of baseball through the mud because he was allowed to do it. Giggy is a useless peice of crap and if the gear is reduced by even 20% he'll be the biggest waste of a giant contract since Bobby Holik. Anyone with half a brain could tell you that he'd be nothing without big gear. It's like saying Bonds would have still have hit 73 homeruns without steroids. Sure he would have. And OJ's innocent. And if you don't like my Giggy bashing, who f**king cares. Go back to the Ducks board so all you Ducks fans can pretend Giggy's not an artificial goalie. If you honestly believe Giggy would still be in the league if he and all the other goalies were forced to wear Ken Dryden sized gear, give me some of that koolaid. I'd love to go comotose and live in la-la land once in a while too. Besides, the coaching staff deserved the Conn Smyth in '03. Jason Krog had as many goals as Kariya that spring. Who else you going to give the award to?

Absolutely. And there's nothing wrong with that opinion. Some prefer different styles of hockey. I'd never watch a Wings team that played like the Canucks. But man are Grapes' suits getting worse! But I love them for their over-the-top ugliness!

Bowman's also remarked on several occassions that he felt the Wings would have won at least 2 more Cups if Vlad was still around. Of course, not even the 1976 Montreal defense could have won us another cup in '99 with the horrible disappearing act Bill Ranford made. We could have had Tim Chevaldae in net that year and won a Cup.

Huge surprise coming from a Ducks fan. You all know that if Giggy was forced to wear anything that didn't resemble a loveseat his GAA would be in the double digits. And I love how it degrates to the same old 'I don't want to see 8-7 games'. It will never, ever get back to that. For DECADES, the NHL had an average goals-per-game around 7.00. It's 5.5 now. That's a HUGE dip. What I, and so many other fans are tired of, is non-talented goalies who rely on artificial means to reduce scoring - SEE J.S. GIGUERE. What I really want to see is not the quantity but quality. There are so many classic goals that no longer exist in the NHL. We have to remember that the NHL is an entertainment business. And watching 3-5 goals per night scored the same way is not as entertaining as some of the tallies we saw in the 60's, 70's, 80's and early 90's. Besides, my whole thinking behind it is still that I want the return of athletic goalies. People always assume those who are pro-goalie shrinkage, hate the position. Quite the contrary. I grew up watching some incredibly entertaining netminders. Now, for the most part, they all move the same - make yourself big, cut down the angles. Boring! Basically, I want to see cheaters like Giguere out of the league. To me, he's no different than Barry Bonds. Steriods were legal in baseball when Barry hit 73 HR's, just like Giggy's laughable gear is 'legal' now. Just because it's legal in the leagues rulebook doesn't mean it's not bad for the game or cheating on some other levels. Goalies like him are a mockery to the history of the game and a complete slap in the face to sports entertainment. I won't hide the fact that I took great pleasure in watching him get lit up by the Stars. He was atrocious because his defense was bad. Giggy is only as good as his defense. Obviously all goalies rely on their D to get wins, but most top-flight tenders will make those big saves that they shouldn't be making. Giggy never does. He's either in position and the puck hits his pads, or it's in the net. There's no inbetween like you see with Brodeur, DiPietro or even Osgood.

That's what I'm hoping for too. They were always 11" because back then you could wrap the old leather pads around the legs. But with today's technology it's not necessary as the new pads are incredible protective on all 3 sides. There's no need for the pads to be over 9". I liked the width of those pads. I could live with a bit more height but I'm still not going to complain. And how are the goalies expected to stop pucks with those kinds of pads? Easy, with talent and athleticism. I'm tired of watching pads do more work than the goalie. People need to remember that these changes are being made so that the power of the 'tender' isn't as strong and to open the game up. Hockey's always been about good goaltending but the pendulum has swung so far in their favor it's borderline insanity. I've seen so many playoff series' where a team is completely dominated from start to finish and yet they win because a goalie stonewalls them. I don't think I'd have a problem with that if most of the saves were truly based off of agility and talent. But when you watch a playoff game with Giggy and the announcers go crazy from another belly-save, it makes me sick. Let the goalies do the work, not the pads. And if teams start getting lit up, because they allow teams in their zone to enforce the 'turtle defense', they'll be forced to fight fire with fire. A few long bombs from the boards or snap-shot goals from 15 feet out, will let teams know, you can't just sit back and hope to block everything or let their inflated goalie to act like a billboard in the net. For me, it's not about the quantity of goals, but rather the quality. I'm tired of seeing the same standard goal over and over again; deflection, rebound, screen. I want to see some sniper-type goals from more than 6 feet out. Having more net to shoot at will help. I'd much rather see a 2-1 game that featured 3 goals that resulted from offensive brilliance rather than 3 goals that all came within 4 feet of the crease.

Definitely.

No, you're right. He definitely has more ties. I'm just thinking, if Holland ever took another job he'd be dumb not to try and pursuade Hakan to work for him. But from the sounds of things, Hakan loves being apart of this organization so I don't think it'll ever happen. Hopefully he has a son and carries on the tradition.

That's why it would be pretty scary if Holland ever left and took Hakan Andersson with him.

I'm no genius but for whatever reason I think this kid is going to be a top-6 guy from the get-go. Finland has been called "Canada Jr" in Europe. He's used to physical hockey and he obviously has the skillset to succeed in that league. I wouldn't be surprised if he scores over 20 along with 50+ points his rookie year.

I'm not so sure it's a hoax. They do have an "Onion-ish" spin to a lot of their stories, but they do report on actual events but give their own flavour to the peice. I hope this isn't a hoax. I like how those pads look.

This is awesome news! I love how small those leg pads are. I've always felt that 11" pads were not needed. The shin guards today provide better protection than what goalies had in the 70's and 80's. There's no need for them to stay at that width. But the biggest thing is still the chest protection. It MUST be tapered down and I thought the goalie in that picture still had far too much gear uptop. But I'm looking foward to seeing what the prototype looks like. I can't wait to watch Giggy's GAA balloon like his pads did. There is NO WAY he retains numbers even close to what he had with gear reduced that much. Say hello to the ECHL for me Giggy!

Did anyone here see The Office episode where they went skating as part of an office outing. But he dressed up in full hockey gear and was hammering Toby around the ice?

I got the TSN feed and they went on and on about how tired the Stars looked and how they weren't moving their feet. Some thought it had more to do with mental exhaustion they accumulated during their series against the Sharks. I'm sure that's what happened to them. But you know what? If the Stars wanted an easier road to the Cup they should have played better from October to April. I'm don't have rose-coloured glasses on so I know the Wings have probably had the easiest road to the Cup out of all the 4 remaining teams. And it's why, for ONCE, the President's Trophy has paid off for this club.