stactum

The East got schooled by the West. Nothing really new. Nabby was pretty sharp in this game. If it comes to SJS vs. DET in the Western final it will all depend on goaltending, everything else sort of cancels itself out. I would give Wings a little advantage in their 3rd line, 4th lines crappy on both teams, slight advantage in DEF goes to Wings, but SJS is "bigger and stronger" even it is overused statement. Would be very interesting. And I have to agree, it'll be either New Jersey or Washington that makes is from the East.

Espoe bashed refs and he is on the phone with Don Maloney who I believe is an executive VP at Phoenix. With all my respect.. what a tool... Maloney actually said: "Was it a call - Yes. was it maybe marginal call - Yes". What about all "no goal" calls against Detroit...

Well, I don't know about smokin'... Very average to me; or maybe I'm just Russian.

I would have to agree that panic is not the right word, but maybe I am losing confidence in the team play. People who thinks that it all magically will disappear come April are fooling themselves. During regular season teams teams can inherit either good or bad habits. You know what it is in our case. Also, last year before SC Finals I was confident in Red Wings because I knew that Pittsburgh's 3-rd and 4-th lines are complete garbage so I wasn't really nervous during the series. Well, now it's the time to say that our 3-rd and 4-th lines are complete garbage in addition our defense generally playing bad and goaltending isn't capable of stealing a game. So realistically looking - it's an early exit if everything stays as it is.

I think it's not suspension worthy. The bad thing was that Versus didn't show it for a different angle, the only view I saw was from the first row so it's hard to tell.

I totally agree and I've been saying that before that without that kind of player Wings will be out of the Cup contention pretty soon. I do not believe that it's magically will all change during playoffs; team can inherit bad habits during season and carry it over to the playoffs and be out pretty soon. Now, since Dallas is progressing and Wings are playing the way they are we'll have a chance to meet them in the first round (it's still a long shot, but who knows) and that the last thing I want to see happen.

The Russian Five. Mainly because of what they brought to the Detroit and NHL in general. Red Wings sort of adopted that puck possession style of play because of that and stick to that style no matter what.

They both are AWESOME! It's just pointless discussion sorta like "Crosby vs. Ovechkin" I'm glad we had Fedorov in his prime and even more happier that we have Datsyuk now! I'll tell who was better after they both retire!

Well, it's hard to predict what will be the scenario this year, but the way our defense shows up and disappears kind of worries me. I think Detroit had easier schedule during playoffs in terms of travel and I am hoping that this is going to be the case this year. By the way, I think you should add Calgary in the mix of these teams that I don't necessarily would want to face because of travel, but all things considered, if we'll have to face at least one of these teams anyway. As far as situation in the East - I wouldn't say Boston will slide through playoffs, I honestly don't think they'll be in the Finals, but will see. Other teams to watch over there will be Washington, Montreal and maybe even NJ. I think Washington will be last year's Pittsburgh. And I think that Dallas run last time was primarily because of Brenden Morrow, that's the type of player that Detroit is lacking right now. Drake filled that role during last season and if we won't get a guy like that we may be in trouble.

I do think regular season is important and we have a little bit left to drop some bad habits and figure out how to play defense. I would love if Wings can get #1 seed on the West, just because the way things stand right now (and it may change), Cup Finals will go through San Jose (if they still around) and I am not sure if I want to play in Shark tank with their insane record over there.

The way I see it - the way Datsyuk plays I could have a very solid rookie season despite I never really played hockey, that how good Datsyuk is and how bad I am! I think Zetterberg's role is a bit different this season; the other reason he is not playing with Datsyuk, while still some people are saying that they both made everybody look good, the evidence is - Datsyuk numbers are still sky rocketing (I believe he is on better pace this season) playing with anybody, and even Z is effective, his is not up to expectations yet. Another thing, Babcock can't move Hossa to the third line that would probably affect his "star" level and he never ever try to sign with Detroit, but moving him there would open up some other line options.

Despite they having pretty good season I think they'll choke in the playoffs, also their record so far is good, but they didn't play whole lot of games agains western conference teams, they played only 7 games (5-1-1), while Washington played 14 (6-8-0) and still have more points. My playoff contention tiers look like that: Top Tier: SJS, DET, BOS Medium: WAS, CHI, ANA, PHI, CAL The Rest: other playoff teams

I don't think it's Rangers because they'll have their hands full with the attempt signing Zherdev long term. What I like about Ilya - he never said or even questioned anything about Atlanta, but I can only imagine what goes through his head when everybody was leaving. I know that he has to learn defense, but I think he is capable of doing that, it all depends on the squad he'll end up with, let's say if it's detroit - he may be brutal with the center like Datsyuk! But I kind of think he is not Detroit type of player.

Datsyuk is a Power forward! Love it!

I agree with most of it, but I maybe give Zetterberg a solid B instead of B+ and Draper C- because of his team leading -10 so far and Dan Cleary definitely deserves a better grade for his 21 point in 33 games.

Somebody mentioned he doesn't always have strongest hits, then you may want to look at that! We all should remember that one:

Just a few other things I heard about Filatov. Before the draft when he went 6th and Stamkos was first one of the scouts said that if Filatov's name was John Doe from CHL it would be a tough choice between him and Stamkos for the first spot. Also recently on XM radio I heard somebody compared Filatov's skills and basically said that he can skate as fast as Afinogenov, he things the game as Fedorov, and can score as Bure. So it does look like a nice package to me.

Well, I have to agree and disagree at the same time. While I agree that both languages are extremely different I don't think English is that hard to learn for Russians. I moved to US in 2001 which is pretty much when Dats had his rookie season. My English knowledge was zero to none at that time and while I am considering myself a slow learner I think I can give pretty decent speeches now even I tend to think that I am a bit shy and I had language barrier a bit longer than some of my friends that came at about same time. So the bottom line - Dats should've progressed more as far as his language skills go all things considered (only russian on the team, played for a long time, etc.)

I love World Juniors. Just don't like the fact that Russia year in and year out keep loosing to Canada in the Final.

Raffi Roenick looks like a ROBOCOP

Yeah, he is my favorite too!

Being a Wings fan the next thing I'll say may sound crazy, but: I want Wings to be hammered by San Jose with a score like 9-1 or something. I think it might be a wake-up call for them, because so far I didn't see a lot of positive things from wings.

Datsyuk did say in one of his interviews (maybe to a russian newspaper) that Dallas Drake taught him how to hit and add toughness to the game. I am pretty impressed.

I did read Semin's interview in russian and he didn't really say anything offensive agains Crosby. His whole point was that there are people (Kane) that are far more exciting to watch in the NHL, but everybody sort of stuck up with statistics. And I have to agree with him, I don't think Crosby isn't as exiting to watch as: 1. Ovie 2. Datsyuk 3. Zeta 4. Semin 5. Kovalev 6. Iginla 7. Kovalchuk 8. Lecavalier etc. Crosby's stats are impressive, no question about that, but not his game. Here is a quote from Semin's interview: Full interview [russian]

I don't think it was smart to say that about Crysby, but I have to agree with Semin.