calfan

Goalies get bumped all the time. It's about time Hasek woke up and realized that fact. Homer is one of the best in the business and he's constantly whacking Kipper with that big butt of his. Hasek was above the top of the crease and Iginla barely touched him and he reacted in an incredibly stupid manner. Because the goalies get bumped, the refs give them a certain amount of leeway with the whack of the stick across the legs, which is what Kipper did to Homer. But, you can't reach out above the net and swing your stick in the vicinity of a player's head with a ref right there watching and get away with it. For starters, on a play like that, according to the rules you don't need to make contact for it to be a penalty. And most importantly, you don't embarrass the ref like that. Hasek gave him no choice but to make the call. If he had given Iginla a whack in the shins as he went by and hadn't flopped like a beached whale, he wouldn't have gotten a penalty. Hasek's an idiot.

Should have remembered you were in SoCal - that's how you came up with your name. Enjoy the twins while you can. If I recall correctly, they should be about 3 now. 3 is a great age. You think they drive you nuts now, just wait till they're 15. I bet they just wrap Daddy around their little fingers.

The other difference in the series is the Flames no longer look like they're skating in sand. They've been much faster which has allowed them to get in and pressure the Wings befoe they can make their tape to tape passes. I really thought Iginla had a lot of jump today. And the Flames are also being harder on Datsuyk, lessening his effectiveness. The young F's on the Wings need more ice time IMO

I'm excellent - you? Pretty late for you if you're still on the east coast dude. I'm looking forward to Saturday and I've got tickets for Sunday. Life is good.

They got over 35 shots, a lot of them dangerous. I admit they struggled on the PK and the Flames didn't give them much on the PP. You have to realize that the Flames have an excellent team (at least at home ) and they have improved their game significantly since the Detroit games. Zberg was excellent, you couldn't ask more of Bert after his layoff. The young role players were dangerous. The only thing that didn't work is they didn't win. That was two very good teams out there and I was impressed with the Wings - something I rarely used to be.

You may not like the outcome, but your team was in this game every step of the way. I totally admire how the Wings are playing. They just relentlessly play their game. And their game is solid. Kipper was a huge deciding factor again today and Hasek continues to look out of touch. He makes a lot of great saves, but then he does stupid stuff which has to be getting in the Wings heads. I mean he left the net with Iggy in the corner with the puck - WTF

It may not be the best I've seen, but it has at least been bad both ways. You may not agree as to what is a penalty, but they make the same marginal calls on each team. The difference is that the Flames pp has been killer and the Wings pp has been inexplicably bad.

yippie ya hoo. Now we got us a series.

It's amazing where Wings fans have gotten to on the topic of Bertuzzi. The amount of disrespect and disdain this board showed for him back in 2004 and pretty much right up to when the Wings acquired him this year. There's a word for that, let's see, what was it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oh ya - hypocrits

Blech - I was wrong. The Wings may actually win this series in 3 games if the league steps in with a mercy rule like a TKO in boxing.

Could be - I just keep reading all of this crap that the Wings are a grittier team because of Calder and Bert. Iggy's gonna fight someone, we both know that. Lilja it is then.

I predict that the only time Dats goes through the slot in the Flames end is after the whistle. I predict that Bert never plays until game 4 and is not an important part of this series. I predict that Zetterberg's back will be killing him 3/10ths of a second after he touches the puck in Game 1. I predict that none of the Wing's Europeans will accept a pass anywhere in the vicinity of Dion Phaneuf. I predict that Calder and Iginla will fight. I predict that Regehr will not play until game 3. I predict that Iginla will not dominate this series and we will find out later that his knee is still a problem. I predict that Hasek will be his frustrating best. I predict that Kipper will be his frustrating best. I predict the role players will win this series. I predict the Wings in 6.

It's very easy to take things out of context and get all fussed about them. That seems to be what this thread is all about. Flames fans not knowledgable? Hardly. Flames papers only homeristic rantings? Hardly. Flames players overconfident? Hardly. All too often this year the Calgary papers have referred to the Wings as an elite team and the Flames as not an elite team. Other things from today's paper: "Pavel Datsyuk, undeniably among the game's most galvanizing talents." "The very excellent Henrik Zetterberg" "Forwards - slight edge, Calgary, Defense - edge Detroit, Goaltending - even, special teams - edge Detroit, coachin - edge Detroit, intangibles - edge Calgary. The pick, Wings in Six." As for the Herald's ratings after a game - many's the time this year that they said the other team's goaltending was better. The Oilers were truly horrible in the game FAF referred to. They didn't deserve to get any credit. The Flames to a man know they will have to be at their absolute best as a team to win this series. They aren't taking the Wings likely. But at the same time, they aren't about to kneel down and bow before them. Make no mistake, the Flames can win this series. It's just not likely that they can find the consistency to do so. And if they do, they'll probably piss all of you off by losing in 4 straight in the next series.

Great article. They had a full page article on the game in the Calgary Herald on the anniversary and McCarty said it was the greatest game he ever played in because beyond the fights it was a fast physical game with both teams going all out to win. He also laughed about the fact that the whole thing got started by Larionov starting a fight with Forsberg. I may have this quote wrong but I believe Joe Sakic said the Wings won the Stanley Cup that night because from then on they were a better team - they came together as a team and believed in each other from then on. Certainly a defining moment in Red Wings history.

Only on the road

Right as usual as I'm going to finally jump into this one. Nice to see Pavel "on fire", to bad the rest of the team is "on vacation". He managed to score the only goals for the Wings in a span of 207 minutes and 42 seconds, all losses for the Wings despite 2 goals from players not named Datsyuk in one of those games. He's now on a span of 67 minutes and 17 seconds as the only goal scorer for the Wings. Good thing your goalie finally threw in a shutout or it would be five losses in a row for the mighty Wings. I'm not sure I like the way the Wings are preparing for the playoffs, putting all their goalscoring eggs in the basket of a guy who can't score in the playoffs . Of course the flip side of this is by bowing out of the run for the top spot in the conference, the Wings can play the Stars in the first round and have a decent chance of actually making the second round of the playoffs - provided someone will be able to fill the goalscoring void left by Dats once the playoffs start.

Wings Fans want to play the Flames in the first round of the playoffs? I can see the Preds wanting the Flames because they have absolutely owned Calgary, home and away. I don't recall exactly, but I'm pretty sure the Wings haven't won in Calgary since Game 4 of the 04 playoffs. The Wings have never had a good playoff record against Alberta teams - this year is unlikely to be any different.

The Masters is my co-favorite tournament together with the Open Championship. Please use this thread for all things Masters related. I'm hoping for Tiger not to win. Not that I dislike Tiger, I just want to see someone else win.

FRIDAY FRIDAY FFFRRRRIIIIIIDDDAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phhhht

On that topic - doesn't it annoy the crap out of you that people with PDA's have them set to notify them each time they get a freakin email? I have better things to do with my life than jump everytime my Blackberry gets an email

Got caught looking. Hi there, my name is calfan. I live in Calgary, Alberta Canada. I like hockey and golf. I travel for work a lot and I like the colour blue. I'm an aquarius. (Written in blonde airhead tones)

I'm twice the player I was in my Younger Days (at least that's what they told me when I showed up for th 05-06 training camp) - Keith Tkachuk

My Ass - Your Face: The art of screening goalies - Tomas Holmstrom

And I'm the troll - at least I used Andreachuk for my post Here's some for Stevie: Knowing when to duck - Steve Yzerman The Olympics on $50 and one leg - Steve Yzerman OUCH - That Hurt - Steve Yzerman Dude, Where's my Knee - Steve Yzerman