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I laughed my ass off at that one as well -- I literally could not believe I was seeing a multi-angle replay of a player exchanging his stick, and how amazingly awesome he was at it. Earlier in the series they did the same thing once when Crosby crossed the blue line without tripping. That's it, he crossed the blue line - no goal, no great move or pass, he crosses the blue line. 3 replays.

If the Wings lose their #2 and #3 defenders to injury again, I think the Ducks would have a chance to beat them again, but other than that the Wings should steamroll them. Moen and Pahlsson were beasts in the Ducks' playoff run in '07. Both are gone now. McDonald and Kunitz are gone now as well, and there is no doubt in my mind the Wings can handle any one-line team in the league -- even if it was a line of Ovechkin, Crosby and Malkin. The Wings defense, playing to its potential, is still a hell of a lot better than San Jose's and especially when you factor in the defense of Detroit's forwards. The only teams I feel are capable of beating this current Wings team are teams like Boston and San Jose - that can roll line after line of offensive players, still have a capable defense and have a hot goalie - all at the same time. Obviously I think any team is going to have their hands full with the Wings this year.

I've posted those numbers here and on Hfboards -- The big 3 all get significant even strength minutes over Datsyuk, but even more significantly, they get over 2 minutes of power play time a game. If you simply matched that, making no other alowances (still assuming Datsyuk is playing Selk-level defense) he comes out ahead of all of them. Datsyuk produces a point every 7 minutes on the PP and those guys get over 30 games' worth of extra PP than Datsyuk. While I do think he is more talented than them offensively, this hypothetical situation allows you to at least make the case Datsyuk is just as talented offensively as the the Big 3 -- and we all know he is on a complete other level than them defensively.

Despite Konstantinov's style of play, he was rarely injured -- Stevens, also, enjoyed a long career. I wouldn't be suprised if he would have still been playing today.

What amazed me about Konstantinov's devastating hits is that he rarely went out of position to deliver them. Just a really smart player who was also capable of beautiful passes - his overall game was a little underrated because he did not see as much power play time.

Wow 'TheCaptain' was never claimed as a handle until now? I don't remember that shirt, it sounds cool. I do remember all the "Give blood, fight Probert" shirts, and I still see those every once in a while.

Would you mind takng a picture of yourself at a strip club, passed out with a ciggy hanging off your lip, your hand down your pants, and two-dozen empty beer bottles surrounding you? Oh, and be sure to include a newspaper with the date on it somewhere in the photo. No reason...

"Ken Hitchcock weighs 400 pounds" - Mickey Redmond

Kiss of Death. I can't remember the last time a bitching coach has advanced in a round - most of them wait until at least the 2nd or 3rd game to start making excuses.

Micah is just going to get more and more pissed as this postseason goes on as every Red Wings win further solidifies management's choice of going after skilled players who will thrive under a puck-possession system.

Of course the 90s Flyers were "The Legion of Doom" built by Bobby Clarke of the 70s "Broadstreet Bullies". Injuries kept LeClair, Lindros and Renberg from playing together too often but that did not prevent Clarke from trying to build almost an entire team of power forwards. Lidstrom was just unbelievable in the 97 series.

Heh, good point. Though at least they presented their reports to the entire team, it would seem more beneficial for Commodore to be studying Datsyuk at this time, as opposed to Lidstrom.

I was curious if there was a study done to examine any correlation between fighting and winning, and luckily there was already one done: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1135225# I have not had much time to look at it, but they came to the conclusion that there is a direct relatinship between not only fighting and winning, but also fighting and wages in the NHL. Just putting it out there if anyone is interested in taking a look - obviously the Wings have proven you can be successful while trailing the league in fighting majors.

As always with these arguments, I think everyone is on completey seperate pages. Is there really anyone who would not love to see another McCarty circa 1997 on this team? I have to think those fans are few and far between. I still think there is a big difference between McCarty and someone I view as a more pure "enforcer" like George Parros (Godard, Downey, Cote, Boogard, Orr, Shelly, etc), for instance. I'm not even against having more of a pure enforcer like Downey again for next year, but I would still prefer someone like McCarty. I'm hoping Abdelkader and Ericsson give us a taste as they start to really break into the league. How about the Detroit team of the 50s A lot of Original 6 teams did not have enforcers.

Absolutely correct. The original 6 teams did not carry what we think of as enforcers because the skill level needed to actually make one of only 6 professional teams back then was so high. Enforcers did not really become a part of the game until the 70s and 80s with expansion and the watering down of the league. The league is deeper and more skilled now than it was in the 70s and 80s, and coupled with the new rules, teams do not need a full-time enforcer in order to win. Before Downey last year, I can not even think of the last true enforcer the Wings have had. Do we really have to go all the way back to Kocur... and was he even an 'enforcer' his last few years?

The other advantage to this philosophy, is that the Wings were drafting small, skilled euros during the clutch & grab era, while other teams across the NHL were wasting drafts on 6'5 pylons. That strategy especially paid off when the game opened up following the lockout. I have a strong feeling if you were to calculate the days lost to injury during the regular season, you would see the Wings as one of the healthiest teams - which ultimately is one of the most decisive key to a good playoff run: being healthy.

Although that 31% is the best odds of any seed to win the Cup.

I think we can accept the Wings have "another level" of play inside of them. We saw it in the playoffs the past two years and we had glimpses of it during the regular season. I'll be curious how much more a team like Columbus, who has busting their ass all season to make the playoffs, will have left in the tank. Not sure if it has been posted here, but Osgood's stats for the last month of the season are virtually identical to Mason's. Hopefully that trend continues (Osgood improving and Mason coming back down to earth).

I'm thinking Montreal in the East and Calgary in the West have the best chance. Montreal is just begging to be killed off for good, and if the Flames' defense does not get healthy, they are toast.

I agree... while the hard-core hockey fan might feel more compelled to watch a heated rivalry, that fan is still a minority for the NHL. Fact is, most viewership comes from the respective teams' demographics, and the Red Wings can compete with the canadian teams in demographics, and in continent-dispersed fans, even more so.

Too great of a pic to limit to only one...

Mike Commodore: "Babcock never respected me!"

Current Red Wings players have 41 rings vs. the Blue Jakets' 3. This is the only way Columbus will match them.