Packer487

Exactly how many goals did we score today? Because Franzen scored a goal that invalidates the theory that we need a second line? And how do a shot deflecting in off the D, a one-timer from the point, and a guy skating with speed around 3 guys suggest that our defense needs to be more physical?

3 of the 6 play on a line together (so when one scores, they all score) and 2 of the 6 play in the same defense pairing. When the top line isn't going and the top power play unit is shut down, who do you have? Cleary. And he's hurt now. Zetterberg and Datsyuk didn't do a whole lot on the road in the playoffs last year. I wouldn't bet my life on our top line keeping things going all throughout the playoffs. And if they're off, or some team can shut them down, who's scoring the goals for this team? And God-forbid Zetterberg's back goes out again.... Scoring isn't a problem if Flip and Hudler get going again and Kronwall can find a way to not be made of glass. But they're well below their average as of late. We've averaged 3.333 goals per game over the season. Over Dom's last 10 starts we've been scoring 2.4 gpg, and over the last 10 starts for each goalie it's been like 2.9 gpg. 2.9 isn't so bad (2.4 per night is AWFUL)...it's right in the 6-10 range projected over the season, but it's almost a half goal a game below our average and like 2/3 of a goal per game below the first 37ish games. I'd prefer to land another scorer to take some pressure off the top line. But that's just me....

The Wings as a whole haven't been all that great lately. They're winning games but the real problem on this team is that we don't have any consistent scoring apart from 13, 40, 96, 11, 5, and 28. We need another scorer. Flip's been invisible for the last month (he has 5 points since Jan 1 and two of those were in the first two games of the new year). I like Hudler, but I still don't trust him in the playoffs--and he has 1 point in his last ten. You want the biggest problem on this team? We don't have a second line or a second PP unit. Thankfully our top line is good as hell, but I don't really want to go into the playoffs like that, especially considering the EuroTwins (Datsyuk mainly) didn't do anything on the road in the postseason last year. I didn't see the third period, but pretty much everyone is in agreement Hasek didn't play well so that's fine. Even if the goals weren't as bad as people seem to think, he obviously got outplayed by Toskala who was incredible most of the night. It'd be nice if they scored some goals once in awhile, though. The Wings have put in a whopping 24 in Dom's last 10 starts, and six of those were against SJ. It's not like they're helping him out. (And since I know I'd get asked, they've scored 34 in Osgood's last 10 starts...both goalies are 7-2-1). It's tough to take every team's best shot game in and game out. There are going to be some stinkers--we've seen a pair the last two games, plus they were pretty bad against Minnesota for most of the game. I assume the team will snap out of it, but I definitely think we need to find another guy to score some goals. I'm not worried over a poor performance by either goalie really. They've both been fine and again, you're not going to be at your best every night. Dom's been the best goalie in the league for the last two months. Disappointing to lose, especially if he could've done something on either of those two goals at the end, but what're ya gonna do. Regroup, and get the Ducks tomorrow.

Is he wrestling Borat there? That is a hairy, hairy man.

Yeah, we'll just roll with our other 2 **** RBs if McGuffie goes elsewhere. Hopefully he'll realize that Cal hasn't been to a New Year's Day bowl since the 91 season (January 1992) and come to his senses. Either way, it's an amazing recruiting class for Michigan, especially considering there's a coaching change involved.

Gotta say, I'd be inclined to go with Hasek or Osgood in net over Lebda

3 stars: 1) Lebda 2) Backstrom 3) Burns, who was even with an assist. Seriously, WTF?

I was thinking the same thing. I think people are forgetting at least a couple, but there's no question tonight that Hasek stole that game. That was one of the worst performances I've seen in a LONG time, but they got it together in the second half of the game and luckily got it done. Hasek played out of his mind though. This team is absolutely ridiculous. BTW, Lemaire is going to kill his team about their backside defense. That Lebda goal wasn't all that dissimilar from Franzen's (or the chance Franzen missed moments before). How do you have 4 guys back and no one covers Lebda. For a defensive team like Minnesota, that's inexcusable.

Hey, one of the guys did say during his recruitment that it's "more of a business down there". Pryor has gone from signing tomorrow to not signing to signing for sure to not signing back to signing and now he's 100% not signing because he wants to visit PSU officially. I assume this means he'll head out to Oregon as well and get some of that Cam Colvin/Malik Hairston money love. Unreal.

The blow up on this board would make Hiroshima look like a car fire. It'd be hilarious.

Ditto. We're going to have an amazing class, especially considering the coaching change in there, but I'd be beyond shocked if Pryor came to Michigan at this point. Hard to complain about the group we've got though. Tongue in Cheek Sour Grapes: Pryor will fit in nicely under OSU's salary cap.

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. I didn't deny any of that.

I was happy to see the G-men pull that one off. It doesn't really take the sting of of the NFC Championship (because I feel like there was an opportunity and GB could've knocked off NE too--though it would've been a much different game) but I'm glad someone took care of the Pats. I've got absolutely nothing against the Giants. They're a class organization and there's no one on the team that I actively dislike. Happy for Toomer especially. It was also nice to see what happens when Brady doesn't have 8 seconds to throw every pass. He's still a great QB, but the OL is the biggest reason that offense was as good as it was this year. I really can't wait to see what comes of these new taping allegations. Sounds like that ex-video guy has a story to tell if he gets subpoenaed. So congrats to the Giants. I never would've believed that Eli could win 3 playoff games on the road, and knock off the Cowboys, Packers, and Pats all in a row. Really impressive. That pass to that dude I've never heard of late in the game was unreal. Both the way he escaped a sure sack and the catch the WR made. Holy crap. Can't wait for the Draft and next season to get started!

Again, if it's luck, then he's the luckiest man on the planet because he's been having success playing that way for 15 years. The only thing that he's lucky about is that teams haven't realized that all you have to do is shoot it over top of him, since you'd score every time, as someone else said in this thread. It's truly amazing that he ever makes a save....

Then Dom is the luckiest fricken person on the planet. You don't win as many games as he's won and have the career he's had based largely on luck. Unconventional? Sure. But it's not a coincidence (or luck) that he has so many pucks hit him...

In all our Cup runs, we got the right mix of great play, good-to-great goaltending, contributions from unlikely sources, and luck. Sometimes it's just obvious when it's your year and when it's not. The Ducks, who are a damn fine hockey team even if they are a bunch of punk-ass chumps, got all of that, including the bounces, the calls, and the breaks last year. If one or two go the other way (even if JUST the goal where Dom gets pushed into the net had gotten waived off), we probably win the Cup (since I agree...we would've smoked the Sens). The puck wasn't bouncing our way, we had some key injuries, and on a few occasions, the guys we needed to step up didn't step up. But IMO it was just Anaheim's year. Hopefully this one is ours. And if Osgood gives us the better opportunity to win the Cup, so be it. But if Dom keeps playing the way he has been playing, you'd have a hard time convincing me that is the case.

He was really great against Calgary and SJ. Less so against Anaheim, but he still played well enough to win that series. The elimination game wasn't his shining moment by any means, but the team as a whole sleepwalked through that one for some reason. No one has said that--and there's like one person that has mentioned the center-ice bombs. Most of the "start Hasek" people, myself included, have said that if Osgood is clearly playing better, start him. But if it's close, you have to go with Hasek for a variety of reasons, not the biggest of which is that he's had some playoff success recently. Ozzie was outstanding last night, and I can totally see saying that he stole the game, but people around here need a big lesson in being consistent. Osgood's been better for the season as a whole. Dom has been better for the last half of the season that's been played. If we're going into the playoffs right now, I'm starting the guy that's been giving up a goal and a half a game since December started. But if he struggles, I'd have no problem playing Osgood. But like you said, there's still a lot of time left. I've said all along that this will probably get settled either through injury or one of the goalies cooling off. Well if that's all it takes, it's amazing that Dom has risen to be in the top 5 or 6 in the league in goals against. How does he stop any pucks at all.....

I don't think that's really fair. If you look at Manny's numbers that year, they were really strong throughout. He had one rough stretch where he gave up 3,5,3,5,3,4,3 goals, but he bounced back from that and was 8-0-1 with a 1.85 and a .932 in the month leading up to the playoffs. And contrary to popular belief around here, Osgood didn't really present a challenge to him down the stretch. In that same span, he was 3-1-2 with a 2.91 and a .904 save percentage. I don't think that Legace getting complacent had anything to do with the loss to the Oilers. I suppose it's possible that he would've benefited from a challenge, but I don't think it had much to do with us losing. And it was hard to fault Babcock for naming him the starter. Osgood really sucked in 05-06. Like, pretty much the entire season. He had a couple of decent stretches but there was nothing in there that suggested they should even think of starting him in the playoffs. As for this year, barring a downturn in his play (he's been GREAT for the last two months), it's going to be Dom in the playoffs. The sooner people accept it, the better.

I haven't been to a Nascar race in a few years, but my gf and I are probably 95% sure we're going down to Charlotte for the 600 this year. Her uncle's best friend works for Ryan Newman's team, so hopefully we'll get the hook up. Bristol is the track I really want to get to though. I've been to MIS, Indy (first 2 Brickyards) and Daytona (the boring ass 2000 Daytona 500--though the support races that weekend were amazing!)

I'm sure Toyota paid out the butt for Gibbs to come over. I agree with the poster that said Casey Mears will have a breakout year. He's got Kyle Busch's equipment now, and that car is an absolute hot-rod. I've always liked Casey--his uncle Rick was my first favorite driver when I got into racing. I'm also curious to see how the open-wheel guys end up doing. I'd like to see Dario do well (hopefully he doesn't have as big of a learning curve as JPM--and avoids wrecking Harvick six times in the process), and I'm hoping for a slew of DNQs for Mr. Hornish (though he has Kurt Busch's points from last year since Busch has a past-champions provisional, so he'll be in the first five races for sure). Wouldn't shock me a bit if Montoya made the Chase this year. Even with all his troubles, he still wasn't absurdly far out last year. And I think apart from Stewart he's probably the best pure-driver in the series. Here's a stab at the 12 Chase drivers (in no particular order): 1. Johnson 2. Gordon 3. Harvick 4. Burton 5. Bowyer 6. Mears 7. Kurt Busch 8. Ryan Newman 9. Earnhardt Jr. 10. Kenseth 11. Edwards 12. Montoya Though it's going to be a fun fight for the end...some good drivers I left out: Stewart, Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Biffle, McMurray, Truex Jr., Kahne if he can rebound from a horrible year. I can't wait for racing to start up again! I won't get into it here, but I'd start a thread if there's any interest--any of you guys watch the American Le Mans Series? That is GREAT racing right there....

I'm really curious to see how Stewart will do in the Toyota. The Gibbs team will probably win a few races this year, but I think it's probably too early to expect him to make a run at the Championship. As good as Stewart is, if the car isn't consistent, he's still going to have his struggles. The Toyotas were fast in some of the races (Vickers had some nice runs, as did Blaney) so I'm sure they'll win some. And you're right about Earnhardt...he's gotta win a few this year. Last year wasn't really his fault--he had chances to win 5 or 6 races and the engines let him down. Previous years it was more him screwing up, but I'm willing to give him a pass on last year. Hopefully he'll get back to being toward the front, though, as much as I like him, he's not one of the ten best drivers in the series.

I could sure go for a repeat of this: Go get 'em, Harvick! (But Gordon and Johnson are obviously the guys to beat again)

That was a frustrating hockey game. They Spartans clearly benefited from the experience of the deep run in the tournament last year. Michigan's freshmen seemed a little unsure/panicky tonight, especially Kevin Quick who probably couldn't have turned the puck over more times if he tried. MSU does an excellent job of clogging the middle, getting into the passing lanes, and not really giving up much (though, sour grapes, I hate that *****-ass brand of hockey they play once they get a lead...but, it works and it has for a long time). They're a very disciplined hockey team and Michigan didn't make the most of the opportunities that they did get. It seemed like most of the time, Michigan was just throwing it blindly into the slot and that obviously isn't going to work against a good defensive team. Nothin' Sauer could do on that goal, and that stop he had on the breakaway early in the game was just huge. Both goalies played well. Hopefully the Wolverines settle down a little bit and play their game tomorrow.

MSU has struggled with good teams this year. They're just 1-3-3 against ranked opponents and their win over Notre Dame is the only win they've got against anyone receiving votes in the USCHO poll (31 teams). I think it's far more likely that Michigan sweeps than the other way around, but it's hard not to think it'll be a split with the past history of these teams. They're something like 5-5-6 in the last 16 and 7-7-7 in the last 21. This is the best Michigan team in a long time though. Due to a quirk in the way the Pairwise Ranking is calculated, it looks like MSU is going to drop to the bubble regardless of what happens this weekend. I'm sure it's going to be a great weekend of hockey. I get both games on the Dish so I'm happy. Even though I'll probably have to catch em both on my DVR later in the night.

Datsyuk should probably get the Selke in addition to the Byng this year. Amazing what a great defensive player that guy has become.