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With Franzen in the lineup and performing at the level that he has performed at since March, it's not an issue. When you add a goal per game guy to the second line, there's no issue with secondary scoring. But with Franzen out of the lineup, ZDH combine for 23 of our 43 goals, or 53% (or 63% if you include Lidstrom and Rafalski and "primary scorers"). That's a lot of pressure to put on Zetterberg and Datsyuk. I think it's pretty clear that an impact guy on the second line (like Franzen has been) really provides a boost to the team. Luckily, Datsyuk and Zetterberg have stepped up in a big way--as has the team defense and Osgood--so it might not matter.

Can someone punch Brad Stuart in the friggin face and tell him to stop selling out to miss a check, leaving us in a 2 on 1? That's seriously like the 5th time he has done it in the playoffs. Back to back games it's cost us a penalty.

This discussion really doesn't need to be taking place. Osgood has earned the right to finish this thing out one way or the other. By and large, he's been really great and by and large the team has been really great in front of him. But about the quoted part....you've gotta be friggin' kidding me, right? For starters, why would Dom cause problems if they were to put him back in? The time for him to cause problems would have been after game 4 against Nashville when they made the switch. And there haven't been any, to Mike Milbury's disappointment, I'm sure. Then to suggest that Jim freaking Howard would (even possibly) be the better option. You're usually pretty level-headed, but that's an absolute joke. Hasek's numbers are for crap in the playoffs, but even you have to admit the team played like complete ass in Games 3 and 4 against Nashville. The Predators scored goals in quick succession a few times but how many of those goals were truly bad? The third one in each game. That's it. A pretty fair portion of the other goals were on things like pucks hitting Kronwall in the butt, strange deflections, strange bounces, odd man rushes and screens. I suppose you can say it's on the goalie when it keeps happening like that, but is it not also on the team for not responding the next shift after a goal? In Osgood's stretch of bad games in mid-February, he gave up goals less than 2 minutes apart 3 times as well as goals 15 seconds apart in another game. But most of that was written off to poor performance by the Griffins in front of him. It's not always the goalie. I mean, if a team just got done scoring on a nice tip-in and then they get a 2 on 1, the pass gets across and the guy one-times it into the net, it looks bad, but were either of those really the goalie's fault? Dom certainly wasn't at the top of his game--he admitted as much--and the change in goalies was completely warranted--I said as much at the time--but the team really didn't give him much help, defensively or in terms of goal support. There haven't been many mistakes, but the biggest one Osgood has made in these playoffs (the second goal in Game 1 against Colorado, which was worse than anything Dom gave up against Nashville) was covered up for by the fact that the team put in 4 goals. If they scored, say, two (like the Wings in Game 4 against Nashville) then suddenly that horrible goal gets magnified like Greg de Vries's. The de Vries goal (the one that came like 10 seconds after we made Game 4 2-1) was the real back-breaker. That was a save that had to be made. But most of the others ones were more bad luck/bad defense than anything else. This too is completely false: Maybe offensively, but certainly not on the defensive end. This I will agree with. And I'll be just as happy when Osgood holds that Cup above his head again as I would be if Hasek was the one back-stopping them to the title.

Did he basically just imply that the Stars let the Wings get a 3-0 lead just so they'd get overconfident? I'm sure that's what it is. That's about as likely as Milbury's suggestion that they just now got over the 4 OT game....

You really think Turco was unbelievable today? He made a couple good saves, but I don't remember ever really seeing one that made my jaw drop. We had a lot of shots on goal--as is par for the course--but by and large we didn't have great chances. Detroit just didn't bring it today. They didn't play with any intensity (apart from Drake I guess). Honestly, they played like a team that knows they only have to win 1 out of 3. But now it's 1 out of 2. Dallas has done a nice job on Z and D lately and our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lines haven't stepped up at all. When we won the previous Cups, we got goals from everywhere. Brown, Kocur, Lapointe, Draper, McCarty....there's hardly been any of that in this run. It's been all Z, D, Franzen, and occasionally Hudler if we're on the PP.

Nah, if they put Hasek back in then we'd have to start blaming the goalie again when Chelios makes a bad line change and the offensive player puts a laser into the top corner.

Maybe someone could bump the "SEE! WE DIDN'T NEED A FORWARD!" thread that was horribly premature. Remember, at the deadline Franzen hadn't scored in 2 weeks and had like 4 goals in his last 22 games. With Franzen out--and thus not producing--this is basically the team that we decided to go into the playoffs with. I'll say it again, just because a bad decision (not getting a forward) might work out, it doesn't make it a good decision. And Stuart was arguably the worst player on the ice today....Though Chelios could make himself a case too. We've had one even strength goal in the last 11 1/2 periods from someone not named Datsyuk or Zetterberg. Our second, third, and fourth lines have done absolutely nothing 5 on 5. Gotta get that fixed, because Dallas is going to be able to line match against ZDH next game. I still think we're going to win the series, but they sure aren't making it easy on themselves. Maybe the goal is to put off the SCF as long as possible to get Franzen some time to heal

Stuart is not Kronwall and he needs to realize that. I can't even tell you how many times in the playoffs he's sold-out to try and hit someone in open ice and missed. Caused Hudler to take a penalty there...luckily we killed it off.

There's a free site I discovered a few weeks ago...you can win real money, and it's legal because all the bets are advertiser supported so the user never puts any of his/her money up. They start you out with a dime and if you ever go "bust" you just get another dime and can start over. And until your balance is over $3.00 you get up to a 100% bonus on your winnings. It's a pretty addicting site. They have football, basketball, baseball, hockey, MMA, soccer, and arena football right now. I've been throwing down 10 cents on random 5 team baseball parlays just because it makes things a lot more interesting where there are no playoff games on. http://www.centsports.com/?opcode=109875 That's my affiliate link. If you'd prefer not to use it, try http://www.centsports.com (If you use the affiliate link, I'd get a 5% bonus based on the money you win...they don't take it from you, it's just a bonus for me). There are some people on there with balances over $400, which is kind of crazy. I'm going heavy (probably like $2, haha) on the Wings tomorrow. It's amazing how even just a small bet can make otherwise meaningless games a lot more fun. It'll definitely help me get through summer once hockey and basketball are over...Pretty fun way to gamble without any real risk.

I'm trying really hard not to care. Each time this year that I've rooted for the team I wanted to play, said team has won and then ended up beating my team in the next round (Notre Dame in hockey, the Giants in football). Home court would be nice, so that part of me wants to see the Cavs. But the Celtics clearly can't play on the road and I would trust the Pistons to steal one in Boston. Not to mention that the Celtics will have already played 14 games in the playoffs. Either way I think Detroit goes to the Finals if they keep playing the way they're playing, though both Boston and Cleveland are good teams. I'm just happy this series ended up going seven. More rest for Billups and McDyess (who apparently rolled his ankle in the last game).

That was Game 2 wasn't it? O'Halloran wasn't the ref for that game. It was Pollack and Schick. He also didn't do the game where the puck hit the netting against SJ as someone mentioned earlier. Still an idiot, but he doesn't get "credit" for those. It is nice that the league finally realized that you can't just push the goalie into the net with the puck and have it count....

I guess I don't understand why Holmstrom's goal was waived off for being in the crease but Eriksson having his entire body in the crease and sticking Osgood in the blocker was somehow ok. I have no problem with Eriksson's counting, but to allow that to stand after waiving off Holmstrom's is absolutely absurd. Especially considering Homer wasn't anywhere near the crease. There's absolutely no reason that they shouldn't be able to review every waived off goal. How is man in the crease any more of a judgment call than the puck being kicked in or the puck being tipped by a high stick? This league sometimes.....

Did you guys catch Ernie Johnson going Veronica Corningstone on Barkley? Absolutely classic! Nice that the Pistons learned their lesson and didn't mess around with a team in the second round this year. Now Billups can get healthy before we get either the Celtics or Cavs. Gotta say, I'm pretty confident either way if Detroit keeps this up. And Rodney Stuckey = baller.

It's a compliment to have other teams interested in your assistant coaches. Part of the cost of having a great coaching staff and a great team year in and year out. Teams are going to come after our assistants (in Lewis's case and Barry Smith's case, they passed up opportunities) and people in our front office. It would suck to lose him, but it's hard not to view it as a positive that our (former?) arch-rival is interested in one of our assistants. Says a lot for the coaching staff that Holland and Babcock have put together.

The Celtics look awful on the road. They're in a spot where one loss at home could send them home for the playoffs because they look terrible away from Boston. That Pistons game was kind of awesome. I had a wedding to go to on Saturday so we got the Slingbox working on my gf's cell phone and watched it on that. For the last few minutes of the game, people were standing 4 deep behind our table watching. It was pretty funny. BTW, Slingbox is amazing. I'd love to see them close out Orlando tonight. Don't even screw around with having to go back there and get Billups time to get completely healed before the conference finals.

I took a page out of Rasheed's book and yelled "THE PUCK DON'T LIE!" when Z put that one in. Absolutely horrible call. I'm with ya. Emerick definitely didn't make that one up...

It really is ridiculous how well this team is playing right now. If they keep it up, everyone better get ready to enjoy the last 5 games of hockey season because they can't be touched with the kind of effort they've been putting out. Here's hoping they finish this out ASAP and have Franzen back for the Finals. Datsyuk has proven to be worth every penny they paid him (I'll definitely eat crow on that one...he's good enough defensively that he makes an impact in every game, whether he's scoring or not) and Zetterberg had two of the prettiest plays of the playoffs tonight. They're a joy to watch when they "play the right way" (to use a Larry Brown term). "Boring" isn't quite the right term, but let's just say this hasn't been like the battles we had with Colorado back in the day. They're making these other teams look silly.

Is that what was making that pinging noise? It was driving me crazy and I could never figure out what was happening. I'd be typing a message or something and I'd hear "PING!" and look up thinking that someone just hit the bar. And BTW, I know a lot of people were upset with the call on Rex....what they showed on the replay was not the penalty. He hauled a guy down a couple seconds after what they showed. Looked like a legit call to me. C'mon boys!! Good thing the post bailed us out in the first period, hyuck, hyuck, hyuck.

Except not. But keep holding onto something, little brother. Go back, check out the list of what the guys from the 97 Michigan team are doing now, and then tell me if it sounds like those guys were woefully unprepared to work in the real world and that Michigan turned their back on them. Like Harbaugh knows what the hell goes into a General Studies degree or how it does or doesn't prepare you for the real world. He was talking out of his ass to support his own agenda, he had a platform to do so, and the people who are looking for any reason to bash Michigan ate it up. So be it. He can just keep on telling recruits that if they come to Stanford they'll be guaranteed $100k out of school even if the football thing doesn't work out.

They were pretty impressed with him at the rookie camp. It sounded like they had more of a 5th round grade on him. Englemon from Michigan had a pick in the rookie camp. I don't know if they were going to offer him a tryout for training camp, but it wouldn't shock me, especially if they up the roster limit. They didn't draft a safety, so they could probably use one in camp at least. I always liked that kid. He came into my work one time and I was wearing a Louisville Cardinals shirt, and I mentioned I was from there (he's from KY too) and so we were talking about Kentucky. Nice kid.

Maybe going after JT O'Sullivan wouldn't have been such a bad thing: http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/05/05/...aise-osullivan/ I'd like to take this opportunity to point out, once again, how happy I am that the 49ers passed on Aaron Rodgers to take Alex Smith.

Mar-ty! Mar-ty! Mar-ty! Mar-ty! Hopefully this is the last chance I have to root for him this season! These goalies have been amazing. Dallas has looked pitiful in the last 2 ots.

Honestly? Because Theodore went back to being Theodore. The Wild don't really attack a goalie the way Detroit can, and he broke. 21 goals in 4 games is impressive. A lot of them were outstanding plays by Detroit. But the Avs were standing around and watching for a good portion of that series. They really didn't put up much of a fight and Theodore was really awful. Championships. I know we've been spoiled in the last 10-15 years with the consistently great play of the team, but it's been six years since the last title and when you go into the playoffs as one of the favorites each season, it's been a long time. If they win the title, I don't care if we have anyone in the top 20 in scoring. Similarly, I don't care if we score more than 5 goals a game against Colorado if we go back to shooting 50 times and scoring twice against Dallas. Maybe I'm slightly paranoid, but the scoring slump in the second half of the regular season showed that they're aren't infallable and they had trouble putting pucks in the net in the first round. This past series was great, but we were playing a banged up hockey team that wasn't all that great defensively to start with. Regardless of who we play in the next round it's going to be our toughest series. All I'm saying is that it's probably too early to make a thread about how Holland was right for not making a move for a forward. Though it's unlikely, we could easily score 10-12 goals in the next six games and lose 4 games to 2. God knows it wouldn't be the first time. I would argue that just because something may work out, it doesn't mean that it was handled correctly. If Franzen had kept with the status quo (at the deadline), this team would still be a forward short--and Holland couldn't have known that Franzen was going to do what he's done. He rolled the dice with what we had and miraculously a 12 goal scorer turned into an absolute force. You can call it brilliant GMing. I think he was pretty fortunate that Franzen exploded and it looks like things might work out. I said all along it was possible that we had enough offense to win. I did--and still do--think that a Fedorov or Prospal would have been a great pickup, especially for what they went for. Conversely, I would also argue that just because things DIDN'T work out last year, it doesn't mean things were handled incorrectly. I liked the Bertuzzi trade and I still do. Just because we didn't win the title and lost him for nothing, they seem convinced that it was a dumb decision. I don't think it was. You can't become scared to make a trade simply because one prospect that you dealt MIGHT turn into a decent player. We were close to winning the Cup last year and had a couple bounces/calls go against us. Even though I don't think Holland is as amazing as most people around here do, I do think he's a pretty good GM and he's right more often than not (and probably more than I give him credit for). I don't think this was one of those times, even if it does end up working out with another parade down Woodward.

It was fine for the regular season as a whole. It was fine in the second round. But the 2.5 goals a game that we scored in the first round (not counting the two empty-netters) is nothing to write home about. It would put us smack in the middle of playoff teams and right around the bottom third in the regular season. Against Dallas or SJ, the number is probably going to be a lot closer to what it was in the first round than what it was in the second round. We've all got warm fuzzies about our offense right now because they dropped 21 goals on Colorado in 4 games, but it's worth remembering that Colorado and Theodore suck really badly. Our team played AMAZINGLY well--and it wasn't just that Theodore blows--but our opponent did have a role in the surge in offensive output. It's very possible that the offense will never be an issue in the playoffs and I hope it's not. But Dallas and SJ are both better than Nashville and we had issues at times against the Predators. I'm still very very confident in Detroit's chances to go all the way (particularly if they keep the effort where it's been the last 6 games) but I also wouldn't bet my life on the offensive "woes" being gone for good.

To be fair, we scored 17 goals on 242 shots in 6 games against Nashville (For a 7% shooting percentage and 2.8 goals per game) and then railed Colorado for 21 goals on 151 shots in 4 games (13.9 shooting percentage and 5.25 goals per game). To compare, in the regular season we averaged 3.07 goals per game and an 8.9 shooting percentage. While I hope we keep the offense going, we did have problems putting the puck in the net at times in the first round. It's possible those issues were taken care of, but it's also possible that Jose Theodore just really really really really really really sucks and the Avs don't play defense. I think we're probably going to be fine since Franzen has scored against pretty much everyone, but I also think it's a little early to say conclusively that we didn't need a forward after all. Turco has been playing lights out and, even if we have owned him historically, it's probably going to be a tough series. Hopefully the offense keeps it up.