Packer487

Good thing "the post bailed him out" huh?

Twas a great save there at the end. More of the first period next time, fellas. Theodore or Budaj next game?

Thank God.

How on earth is that not too many men. And they put one off the bar. Great no call stripes.

What a garbage call. I guess he does play for the Divealanche.

Not at all. The 2nd one was horrible though. We need to respond and get a quick one here in the third...don't give them a chance to THINK about completing this comeback.

Safe to say Lilja's return to the lineup will be a quick one?

God dammit Hasek....

Hey Zeus, Sammy.....solid turnover there

He's entitled to one. The team has to not let down. I hate giving the Avs momentum since they were basically down and out in this game, but if we keep playing the way we have been, it won't matter. A PPG would be huge right here.

Stupid defense....

Was it Melrose that picked the Avs because they have "the best goalie in the playoffs"? I'd say Melrose took care of THAT one!

Nice to see Jose Theodore is back.... (not that that was his fault...big goal Stein!)

:blink:

That is a 'stache right there!

I'm really excited about this weekend. I absolutely LOVE the draft. I watch it start to finish every year. I haven't really followed the prospects as much this year as I have in the past, but it's still quite possibly my favorite weekend of the year when you factor in the NHL and NBA playoffs as well.

So I guess this means I have to watch Game 6 on the DVR now. First two games I didn't see, we won. Saw game 3 and 4, we lost. Had a hockey game tonight, had to catch the game on the DVR. We won. Gotta take one for the team Sunday, I guess!

It was this part that I viewed as kind of a jinx: "which i think we all can agree they pretty much have this series". Umm...I'm not agreeing to that. We still haven't beat them on the road and if it gets to a Game 7 anything can happen. Our chances of winning the series are a lot better than they were this afternoon, but I don't think there's any way that I would say they "have this series" at this point.

The defense was incredible. I think there were only like 3 shots from the slot area and we didn't give up any odd-man rushes that I can think of, but Osgood made the saves he needed to make, which Dom didn't do the last couple of games, and it would've taken an AMAZING save to stop the goal. It's never easy to play when you don't get a ton of shots (or goals of support). It was just the type of game we needed to play all around. Well...we could've used a couple more goals. But that might have been their best defensive effort of the season.

Thank God. Great game out of the defense and Osgood made the saves he needed to make. Still can't believe that it took 50+ shots to put this game away. I still don't know what the hell Z is doing out there, but at least Flip and Franzen woke up again... Wow. Why don't you just post the "S" word in the next game day thread too and see how badly you can jinx it....

He's not admitting defeat. He's manning up and saying he played like ass. If he came out with some comment like "I think I"m playing fine" people would be destroying him and saying that he was putting the blame on his teammates. He said what pretty much everyone was thinking. It's not like he said "This is the worst I've ever played in my life. I don't know how I'll ever get my game back." He said he's going to have some good practices--and that he had one today--and basically that he'll be ready to go if he gets another chance. If he was admitting defeat, he wouldn't have said he's not happy about the decision. And I wouldn't want a player who WAS happy about being benched. I'll take what Dom said any day over the canned answers that pretty much every athlete gives. Some people don't like candid. That's cool. I do.

Good stuff. Babs hit it dead on, "Pucks just aren't hitting Dom right now." Some of them have been his fault (like the third goal last night), some have just found eyes through him (the tips, deflections like the one off Kronwall's butt, etc.), and some have just been plain unlucky like the one that hit the seam in the glass. But there's no time to play through it like there was in the regular season. Osgood was great for most of the season and it's time to shake things up. He earned himself a chance if we needed him and I have no doubt he'll run with it. And if we advance and we need Dom in the future, I'm sure he'll be ready. But for now, we need Osgood to be Osgreat and get us out of this series. The team played better once he came in (some of that was probably him making a couple good saves early) and they better keep it up or they're going to be golfing. The effort has been horrible. 13 and 96 were the only forwards to show up yesterday. Z, Flip, Franzen, Cleary need to get their heads out of their asses, same with most of the defensemen. Plus, now that Osgood is in, maybe the happy feelings from the majority of the fanbase will make their way over to the Joe. We're still winning this series. Hasek is a lot classier a player than people give him credit for generally. He's had issues in his past, but he's been nothing but a model citizen since he came to Detroit. And I love the fact that he's a stand-up guy. How many goalies out there really would say something like "This is the worst hockey I've played in my entire career"? He's not hiding from it. He knows more than everyone that he can play better. And he will if he gets back in there. And if he doesn't get back in, then I salute the greatest goalie in the history of the league on a great career, and hope that he can close it out by holding the Cup anyway.

The Bertuzzi move was far from "ballsy". He went for the cheapest guy available that might end up being decent. I actually liked the move because the prices people were asking at last years deadline were kind of nuts. Last year was probably Holland's best performance as a GM. If that team stays healthy, they win the Cup. They still almost pulled it off. I still don't get the flirting with Belfour thing--the season would've been a disaster if Belfour hadn't gotten greedy--but the team he iced was very good. My position is that you can't be afraid to make a move because the prospect you deal MIGHT end up being decent. And that's really the position we're in with Matthias right now. Yeah he had 2 goals right off the bat in Florida. Yippee. He still hasn't proven to be anything. Definitely not a good enough player to justify being scurred to make a move in the future. He has made some great moves along the way. As I said earlier, I think he's a pretty good-to-good GM. But I don't believe he's nearly as great as people make him out to be. He was set up very nicely when he took over and had a second Cup fall into his lap when Hasek asked out of Buffalo. If he's generally afraid to sign guys for money or term (Rafalski would be the exception) and he's scared to trade at the deadline, then he better keep finding bargain guys like Cleary and hit gold on a much higher percentage of his draft picks than he has. And I'm not talking about finding third liners that are a dime a dozen. You can't build a champion if you're completely afraid to make a mistake. That stuff at the deadline just baffled me. Matthias is not a good enough player to justify refusing to make a move. And for the record, this isn't me going Chicken Little. I've been saying this stuff for awhile. I hope like hell they pull out of this and win the series--and I think they will--but I still think that it was basically criminal to not get a forward at the deadline. Quick reply to another post in this thread: Flip needs to be re-signed. He's a good player and we'll probably get him for a pretty decent price. He's not great, he probably won't ever be great, but we could do a lot worse for the money he'll get. He doesn't really deserve the "untouchable" label he's gotten somehow, but he is a solid player. Even if he's been invisible for at least 2 or 3 months. I also don't know that I'd call Huet a franchise goalie. He was great down the stretch for Washington and he was great a couple years ago in Montreal, but he's also never really carried the load for a team. Definitely a good player, but you really can't fault Holland for not going to get him. (Though I will say, he never would've had the balls to deal a guy like Huet at the deadline and go with Price).

The BJers weren't going to make the playoffs and if Feds wanted to come here during the offseason, he could and the BJs would have no ability to stop it. I don't doubt that it would've been a little more expensive than the equivalent of a 4th round pick (Ruth), but I don't buy it for a second that they were asking for a 1st rounder and a prospect or whatever the rumor was. And if that's the case, then you go get Prospal. Or someone else. Would it have necessarily been a cure-all? No. But as I said at the deadline, when you're the top team in the league and your window to win a championship is open, you have to give your team the best chance possible to be successful. Holland didn't do that. It was basically GM Malpractice to not find a forward for this team and leave that much money on the table. Overall, he's a good GM. Don't get me wrong. This team has pretty much completely changed from the time he took over and they're still great. But I feel like to some extent he's lost his balls in the cap era, and that's not a good quality. I can appreciate looking toward the future, but not at the expense of the present when the window is open NOW. And that's kind of what he's done...

I don't agree with what you have to say all that often, but I'm with ya pretty much 100% on this one. He shouldn't be fired if we lose this series, but I'll absolutely snap if anyone ever tries to argue that he's the best in the business again. If this team bows out in the first round, it's pretty inexcusable to have left that much cap room on the table and to have not found a way to get a forward at the deadline. Fedorov or Prospal would look really good in our jersey right now, and neither one cost all that much.