Hank

And given the Wings track record the past 3 seasons, can anyone blame them? If you touch a stove and get burned 3 times in a row, would you put your hand back on it without wincing?

I hate that excuse. Kipersoff was way better in games 1 and 2 than in Calgary. The Wings have a penchant for making goalies look better than they are because we're so inclined to fire shots from the outside with nobody in front to screen or tip. Every goalie in the NHL (except Osgood) can stop shots from 30 feet out with nothing blocking their view. The Wings aren't working hard enough. Plain and simple.

Good teams win on the road and away. Look at the '96 Wings. We broke records with 62 wins. And how far did that get us? We got demolished by Colorado. The next year, we had 38 wins and despite not having home-ice advantage in the conference finals and the Stanley Cup finals we won it all. The regular season is worthy for some teams like the Islanders, Leafs and Flames. For the Wings it's a given. And if last year proves anything, home ice isn't a necessity as we went 1-2 at the Joe before losing to the Oilers. In this series it might mean something because Calgary is so horrible on the road. But if we do win, we'll more than likely face the Sharks who don't have the same jinx. They'll win on the road and home. I would actually like to see the Wings face some adversity for once. Maybe fight for a playoff spot so they are in full swing when the playoffs start. They get to coast for 3-4 months of the year. In our weak division, we can take nights off and still pick up points. You can't say the same thing about the other divisions. And an easy road isn't always the best road when you face adversity.

I agree that Lang played better for the Wings last night. But he sucked in the 2nd and 3rd periods and he was beyond abysmal from game 1 thru 3. And yet, Babcock kept going back to him. He's basically only had 1 good period out of 12. You're right, the PK and PP units are killing us, but Sammy and Lang have been useless. With Zetts struggling and Lang treating every game like it's a Sunday skate I'd like to see Zetts return to his natural position and given a shot to centre the 2nd line. Lang can centre the 4th line and take a few PP shifts here or there. As far as the PP I would definately put Cheli out there for a PP or two. He can't be any worse than Sammy and he seems to be able to hit the net more than 2% of the time. He also ran the PP 2000 years ago when he was with Montreal and Chicago so he has experience with it. Outside of that, give Lebda a chance. Again, anything is better than Sammy. Anything. Calder being sat hasn't been confirmed but the fact that he only got 4:56 minutes last game tells me he's the odd man out.

I can't believe someone is actually saying that the President's Trophy means something. hahaha! You must be Ken Holland. I would trade in 10000000000000 Presidents Trophy's for 1 Stanley Cup. Heck, I'd trade all of them in for 1 Conference Final appearence. And while we're talking about inflated regular season totals lets not forget that we get to play Columbus, St.Louis and Chicago a grand total of 24 times. Almost 33% of our games. You put Detroit in any other division in the West and WE might be the 8th seed. Again, President's Trophy's are for losers. It's like saying your mom thinks you're handsome. Nobody cares.

And all of the above is from bad coaching. We've been running the same style of PP since forever. Our strategy needs to change. Lang and Sammy have hurt this team, never helped it. Why are they still getting prime minutes? The PK has had it rough from 5-on-3's and some bad bounces, but they can be better. Thanks for completely missing the point dingus. The point was that those teams had players that would go through hell and back to win games. We haven't had that type of character for a long time.

No, all I need is to be this teams GM so I can get some guys in there that want to win. Did anyone read that story about Brent Gilchrist in the Detroit News before the playoffs started? They told a story about how his groin was in such bad shape he had to take pain-killing shots INTO HIS GROIN before each practice and game. The pain was so bad that they moved him down the hallway from the dressing room and bite on a towel to muffle his screams. And yet, Maltby said you could still hear him scream from far away. Eventually, once the conference finals against Dallas were complete, he could no longer play because the muscle on his groin had completely torn away from the bone. That's guts. That's determination. That's heart. Name one player on this team that would do that for an extra win in this playoffs. Outside of Chelios and maybe the grind line, I don't see any of the players on this team doing that. We have a team full of sweethearts. We need a team of men. P.S. Please tell me where I'm wrong with any of the things I've written about Babcock. I think I'm pretty accurate on all accounts.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree with your assessment of Babcock being a motivator who gets the best out of his players. If that were the case Robert Lang would have won this series singlehandedly. In fact, it seems that a lot of the Wings players get worse in the playoffs. Nick Lidstrom has looked human in the last two springs. Samualsson has been atrocious and Datsyuk and Zetterberg are still struggling on the road. Babcocks man-love for Lang and Sammy are causing the Wings this series.

Wrong. In the first two games they did play puck-possession hockey, but if they met a wall at the blueline they had no problems chipping the puck in and getting it back with one-on-one battles. I even witnessed them dumping the puck in from 120 feet out when they saw a winger flying into the zone. Also, we were shooting it a lot more and crashing the net giving their dmen fits. We also seemed to chase down loose pucks and engage in more physical confrontations. In Games 3 and 4, our team was hell bent on only playing puck possession. Sure, we did dump it in here or there, but we shot FAR less and were looking for the pretty play a LOT more. The Wings in games 1 and 2 looked like a team I hadn't seen since 1997. The team that played in Calgary looked exactly like the teams I've been used to seeing since '03. For you to say that we didn't win those first two games from being scrappier makes me wonder if we were watching the same game. That's exactly how we won those games. Everyone from Bob MacKenzie to Pierre McGuire, to Bill Clement to Mickey Redmond has said as much. We outworked, outhussled, outhit and out-willed Calgary in those first two. And you're right, the cliches do come flying out on these boards at this time of year. You have people who are doom-and gloom, you have realists that can actually see what the Wings are doing wrong, or right and then you have the Flower Childs who think all is right in the world and form opinions that make you wonder if they're at home rubbing themselves with Wings paraphanelia instead of actually watching the games. Even Lidstrom said today in the paper how they didn't play like they did at home and need to get back to that style of play. They need to be more aggressive.

Don't hold your breath about Babcock rallying the troops. He got outcoached in the Oilers series and he's getting out-coached here too. Here are some of the dumb things he's done so far: - refuses to give Lang a limited role despite how useless he's been. - breaks up the only line that's been consistant in this series (Cleary-Draper-Maltby) - sits Hudler instead of Sammy or Lang. Hudler was actually working very hard and producing. Sammy? 1 assist in 10 straight playoff games. And his one assist came from his falling on his ass and Zetts picking it up and going end-to-end for a goal. - continues to put Sammy on the PP despite the fact that he can't hit the net if was the size of Rosie O'Donnells ass. - Hasn't been able to figure out how to combat an aggressive PK. The Ducks, Flames, Oilers and now the Flames again have given us fits while on the PP. And yet we've never broken from our strategy of simply letting Lidstrom fire the puck and hope that Homer gets a stick on it or screens Kipersoff. Where are the other 2 forwards? On the side boards. Good job B'cock. - and now I hear that he's going to bench Calder for Hudler. While Hudler should have never been sat, benching Calder is a huge mistake. He plays big, has good hands, and will go through walls for you. Instead, we'll keep Sammy in there who never hits the net and really doesn't contribute at all out there. Here's my theory as to why we sucked in games 3 and 4. The Wings dominated in the first two games from playing hard-nosed, smashmouth hockey. We threw our bodies around with abandon and our forwards engaged in every puck battle they could. But after those 2 games, many of the players realised how hard it is to play like that. Not so much physically but mentally. After this, many of them subconsciously shut it down as they don't have the mental or testicular fortitude to play like that for 2 months straight. It's the same reason why that team that showed up at the Joe will never return. Not until Ken Holland and his team are fired and a guy is brought in who will draft, sign and pick up players that have no problems playing that style for that length of time. Guys like Lang and Sammy are two prime examples. Here's my predictions: Game 5 - Flames 4, Wings 2 (Flames score empty netter and score 2 more on PP. Wings go 0-7 on PP) Game 6 - Flames 2, Wings 1 (Flames score 1 PP goal and Wings go 0-6 on PP).

Yup this board is as bi-polar as the wings themselves. How one team can look so good in 2 games and then totally change strategies to look useless in the next 2 is beyond me. And how many threads did we see just like this pop up here and elsewhere in 03, 04 and 06? "Hey guys! Don't get so down! The series is only 2-1!" "Why are you so negative? We can still win the next 2?" "I don't understand why all the doom and gloom! We can come back!" But all the people that said those things obviously didn't actually watch the games. It's not that we lost, but how we lost. We've been losing games like last night and the game before for 4 F**KING YEARS NOW! ONE GOAL F**KING GAMES where we can't seem to score!!! And why??? Because scoring those tying goals demands hard work and smash mouth hockey more than pitsy-patsy hockey. We've been playing *** hockey for 2 games now. What happened to actually playing REAL hockey like at the Joe? Where we actually looked desperate. Where we looked like WE wanted to take control of the game and decide our own destiny instead of watching it unfold. You go ahead and think the last 2 games were the same as the first 2. Keep thinking that Calgary can't win on the road at the Joe. Afterall, the Wings were a dominant force at home last year too but managed only 1 win out of 3 at the Joe against the Oilers. The Flames have confidence and momentum now. And down the stretch, when they needed it most, they won 4 road games in a row. That's what winners do; sack up and get the job done. But the Wings wouldn't know anything about that because they're too busy playing grab-ass hockey in Calgary and totally forgetting what got them the 2-0 lead in the first place.

It's really not surprising. Will and Heart prevail in 1-goal games. Calgary seemed to beat us in both categories the last 2 games, hence the results. Game 5 is crucial. We lose, the series is over and the Wings will have squandered a 2 games to 0 lead for the 4th time since 1993. That's pretty bad considering only 37 out of 266 teams have ever done it in the history of the NHL. I can only imagine how empty the Joe will be next year. Fans already consider the regulars season useless. Just another year where we finished tops in the league in points but failed in the 1st round 3 out of the last 4 years. Way to shed yourselves of that choker label wings. Looks like you really care.

I hope that helps. But if Lang puts out the same effort tonight as he did Tuesday I think it's time to sit him or at the very least move Zetts to centre the 2nd line and put Lang on the 4th line. If Sammy doesn't do anything then we need to put Hudler back in the lineup.

To be honest, I thought the Flames would have come out harder than they did. I was shocked at how 'reserved' they appeared compared to their 2004 version. The Wings still outplayed the Flames for 50 minutes of that game. And like Babcock said, they got too cute and need to get back to what worked in games 1 and 2. I hope the boys listened to that. But it would have been really nice if the Wings could have scored on that 4 minute PP in the 1st. The Flames did an excellent job killing that off. If the Wings had scored there I think that would have totally deflated the fans and the Flames themselves.

I completely agree and it's what I noticed in Game 3 more than anything else. The Wings need to establish themselves as the dominant male in game 4 much like they did in the first two games. Dump and crash. Initiate the contact, don't wait for it. I think the Wings are going to be much different in game 4.

The Wings did not play their best at all. Was it from the atmosphere and an improved Calgary team. Very much so. But a lot of it was mental breakdowns and the fact that the Wings did not play with the same dump and chase, shoot, shoot, shoot mentality they had in games 1 and 2. Coincidentally, I'm not being a jackass when I say that I believe that was Calgarys best game. I think the Wings are so dominant through 3 zones that they can make teams look bad. Look at the Anaheim-Minnesota series. The Ducks are making the Wild look bad. It's not Minnesota's fault, it's just that Anaheim is a much better team. Getting Regher back will be huge for the Flames, no doubt. But he wasn't that much of a factor in Game 2 and with each game Bert will be better. He's suffering from serious rink-rust. Game 4 will be a very good game but if the Wings get back to the same blueprint as Games 1 and 2, we will win. The Wings are much more talented team and we've shown through almost 9 periods that we're the harder working team and the more physical team. If we can get our PK working a little better then this series is over. 4 of the 5 goals Calgary has scored has been on the PP. We are dominating you guys 5-on-5. Again, I'm not saying this to be a prick, I'm only being honest. Enjoy your trip to Detroit this weekend and have a few pops for me. Cheers!

It's not that ironic. I've seen Phaneuf get destroyed by quite a few people. Someone here has a great gif showing one of the Sedins leveling him when he was coming for the kill. And Ovechkin totally steamrolled him in the 05 World Juniors. Phaneuf is a big hitter, no doubt, but he's been caught with his head down several times. It's a good thing The Caveman has a shield down to his skirt or else his head would be even more deformed. And lets all get off the officiating band wagon. These games were won and lost by the teams on the ice. It wasn't the refs that made the Flames look like a Pee Wee team from Mexico in games 1 and 2. And it wasn't the refs that made the Wings look subpar last night. I'm still not worried. That is the absolute best hockey that the Flames are capable of playing. Think about it - they are on HOME ice (the only place they can win) and their down 2-0 and THAT'S the effort they gave? What a joke. The Wings were at 70% last night. They kick in another 1% and they win that game.

Good post. That was Calgary's A+ game, while I would give the Wings a B- (Lang gets a Z). But I want to see the Wings get back to how they played in games 1 and 2; a great hybrid of puck possession with hard forchecking, dump ins and shooting whenever we get the chance. Ticky-tacky and fancy-pants hockey got us knocked out early the last few years. Game 1 and 2 hockey will give us a shot at the Cup.

That blown call on Zetterberg was brutal. I'm always going to defend the refs as I think they have a really tough job. I'm hoping that call is made in Game 4.

The only good thing about that goal is that it should tick off Hasek. I expect him to be on top of his game for Game 4. Expect a 2-0 or 3-1 win.

I agree. If that's "getting beat" then I have no worries about that play. "Getting beat" is like what Spezza did to Souray last season. Iginla's shot couldn't have been more perfect. If that had been a 1/4 inch lower, higher, sideways, or any other direction you can think of, that game is still tied 2-2. Dom should have had it but at the same time Iginla has made a fool out of a lot of goalies with shots like that. In the end, we lost a tight game that we were leading in the 3rd. I don't think our forwards played the same way they did in game 1 and 2. We need to get back to basics by combining good puck possession with a strong forecheck and 'shoot first' attitude. If we do that, this series will be wrapped up this weekend.

The Islanders secured the 8th spot in the East over Toronto having collected 2 points in their SO win over the Devils in the last game of the season.

If anyone here knows me it's that I've always been a HUGE supporter of Pavel Datsyuk. I've stuck with him through thick and thin and I knew all those playoff games without a goal wasn't from his lack of heart or trying. I was very glad to see that my loyalty to him was proven correct last night. All of you Datsyuk doubters should be able to learn something from me. Good day.

For me, if he doesn't score another playoff goal this year but continues to play like he did last night, I'll still be happy with his play. He showed a lot of guts by going into areas he normally doesn't and he took and gave a few hits as well. Looks like that talk with Stevie really helped.

It could be because they don't want a flame (pardon the pun) war. But it seems that it turns into wars most of the time anyway.