thegerkin

ARE YOU SATISIFIED NHL???? YOU CAN PLAY ANOTHER ROUND IN A DIFFERENT MARKET THIS TIME OF YEAR. YOU ******* CROOKS. YOU MAKE A MOCKERY OF HOCKEY. EAT s*** EACH REFEREE, LINESMAN, AND ESPECIALLY YOU BETTMAN.

So we have attempt to injure Filp and Mule, free powerplays left and right for the Sharks, free face offs, free no-icing calls, and more. Ok, I just needed to write that down, because this is a professional sport, not the WWE.

It's official, the game is AGAINST the Red Wings.

Murphs Fired UP!!!! GO WINGS!!!

Let's come out strong in the 3rd. We need to keep putting pressure on Nabokov. He's good, but not invincible.

Good kill boys. Now let's get fired up and realize your backs are against the wall! GO WINGS!!!

Amen. I remember when hockey players used to get to play hockey. Ahhh the good ol' days

Looks like Kenny Daniel's has been spending time in sun with that tan

My stomach is in knots waiting for the puck drop. Let's Go Wings!!!

Get well soon, Matt! Game 4 should help

I almost chose Forwards, but as I posted about the defense, the forwards really couldn't get much going because they spent 90% of their shift backchecking. To name names, Datsyuk was MVP at forward. Hank was hit or miss. Bert, Flip, and the rest (especially a vet like Drapes) were terrible. Abby was ok. But, because our defense was so terrible (especially Ericsson, and in my opinion Rafalski), backchecking sapped all the energy from forwards to set up anything remotely respectable in the offensive zone. And some credit has to go to the Sharks for the work they did on the forwards.

Defense. The forwards spent more time backchecking because the defense could not get the puck out of the defensive zone to save their lives. WAY too many defensive zone turnovers. Howard did okay for a rookie, but I think we relied too much on him during the regular season (where he was lights out). By the time the playoffs rolled around, I think he was just mentally spent. A 7 game first round, and the first 3 games of the second round with an approximate GAA of 4.00 or higher, I just think we ran our regular season lucky horse into the ground. I do think he deserves the Calder nod he got, although I don't think he deserves to win it.

To beat the Sharks and avoid being swept, we need to be on our best behaviour. I wasn't able to watch the first period, but what I saw in the 2nd and 3rd were 3 legit penalties that shouldn't have been taken (another was garbage, but I'm happy if we only have 1 garbage call per game). We have been undiciplined, and yes I know there are 7 games in a series, but if we don't stop the senseless penalties, we're not going to see that 7th game.

About my only complaint about Babcock is his timing/use of timeouts. During that 3 goal outbreak the other game, he should have called time out after the 2nd goal. It was painfully obvious, just to kill SOME momentum. Maybe that 3rd goal doesn't happen and we have a different game. I understand the importance of having it when you pull your goalie and want to rest your best players to get a tying goal at the end of a game, but come on Babs, you're one of the best damn coaches in the league. You know we have offensive issues. That timeout needed to happen at that moment.

PENALTY KILL An immediate change I would make would be on the Penalty Kill. I would take the front PK'er and get on top of Pavelski. The guy is single handedly killing us on the PK. I know the forward's job in a diamond/square PK is to try to take away passing lanes, but all the Sharks are doing is throwing the puck back to Pavelski for a hard slapper from the blue line. I would want the forward to be more aggresive (yes, I know it opens up the center of the ice if Pavelski is able to make the pass, but it's a calculated risk. The 3 PK'ers down low are doing fine. Someone needs to rush Pavelski, make him a second or third choice instead of the default power play shooting option. BLOCKING SHOTS Detroit needs to be careful blocking shots, especially fakes. If they get duped, that entire quadrant is free for the power play shooter to skate in to the slot. Some may disagree about being agressive at the point, but we have to change it up. Maybe a hard press half the time, keep Pavelski on his toes. If not, I have a feeling he'll break the 2-goals a game in a row record that he currently shares with Super Mario. POSITIONING They need to focus on positioning and getting beat to the puck. I know it's a vicious cycle: Take a penalty, have to PK, too tired to attack, rinse and repeat. They need to keep moving their legs and beating the Sharks to the puck. I know that's Hockey 101, but it's AS CRUCIAL as winning face offs.

I saw that earlier (I think it was a link from Yahoo). As the caption said, guess he didn't feeling like playing in that game. The goalie just laughed it off. Some of the comments about Archibald, the dumbass who ran the goalie, were pretty damn funny. Archibald appears to be African-Canadian (bear with me and my PC-ness ugh) with one ugly ass blonde afro-hawk. A comment left was: Man, normally a hair cut like that says "I make good decisions" On his way off the ice, he was chirping with some fans and tugged at his name-plate like he's a tough guy. Real tough, bowling over the Michelin tire man haha

Sorry pal, not buying that load of bulls***. I've been to San Jose during this time of year. Yes, you're a Southern/warmer climate team and it's harder to have great ice (I know the Joe gets high marks, but we have the advantage of being in a Northern climate), but the Eagles concert the night before wouldn't make Nabby and the rest of the Sharks team fall at the slightest breeze. The ONLY way I would buy your excuse is if the entire Sharks club was actually AT the Eagles concert toking it up with the rest of the fans

Z definitely doesn't look his normal self. And as someone mentioned, neither does Mule. Somethings up, hopefully not much I'll give you Flip but come on, Bert? I admit he's been a bit ineffective this playoff run, but he's not to blame for Z's terrible faceoff record.

When I play outdoors, I usually use a very hard plastic ball. I'm lucky my old neighborhood has a professional outdoor roller hockey rink (benches, nets, doors, boards, smooth, hard concrete), so when I'm there and don't want to use the ball, I've switched up between a roller-ballbearing disk and the hard plastic ball. I can't remember the brand of the balls we use, but in my opinion you want the hardest plastic as possible. WARNING: We play with SOME protective gear (shin guards, cup, gloves, helmet. That plastic ball or ballbearing disk stings like hell (I play defense so blocking shots SUCKS).

The only player they have that's really clicking is Pavalski. As much as the refs are killing us by calling penalties on Shark dives, but in those situations, the refs aren't bring 1 of each to the box when it happens. The diving turns into a Shark power play, which turns into them feeding Pavalski pucks at the point, which results in a goal more than half the time. (I'm not going to get into the 5-on-3, someone already pointed out that Kronner took a legit hook to make it a 2-man advantage.) I honestly really thought diving was 95% out of hockey. Yes, a goalie may flop. Yes, some hooks are embellished. BUT THAT IS EVERY TEAM IN THE LEAGUE. Sorry for the caps, trying to make a point. Until we played this round (I can't remember too much of the regular season meetings between the Sharks and us, so I can say anything about diving there) I thought the refs had a decent season (yuck, I can taste the bile coming up from the beer on that sentence). This serious is an abomination. Atrocious even. The Sharks have being diving continuously and they call Darren Helm in Game 1 on a dive? At least they took both (obstruction/diving). This year's playoff Sharks are sickening to watch (not just as a Red Wings fan, but a hockey purist as well).

I like the Pierre one, had to laugh. But the Dats/Zetta/5th round one gave me chills. Z's outlet pass hits Dats stick dead-center on the tape right on the blue line. Those two are just amazing!

BULLs*** CALL

Certainly. It's s***ty sportsmanship.

Injured Wings and the fans keep cheering. Ah, refreshing........

Cleary taken one for the team