Yemack

well i wished Wings played with more focus.. but a good win tonight.

alright let's kill this one

news flash. Avs already suck

I hope that was a good omen

hope that's the case. It will be an epic western showdown. :beerbuddy:

I was reading some of quotes from Avs players and it is quite clear they are going to start something to shift the momentum. Smyth will be out looking for heads of our D men, I hope our D plays headup and execute little bit faster. Also we shouldn't be too cautious so that we are limiting our own abilities and empowers Avs that much. For us, this is just a matter of execution. If we do what we need to do and stay confident and poised, we will win this game. We also need luck but you gotta be good to be lucky so we have that taken care of.

I like the Red/Black Mule design. In fact, I think Wings should merchandise more Red/Black colour items. (which should be done tastefully of course)

yeah like Turco could have single handidly won some games agaisnt Wings in past season. I understand Wings shouldn't get overconfident but at the same time we don't need to give too much respect to an opponent so that he becomes a monster even before the fight begins.

I agree with Matt. He went to LA because he wanted to but now that LA threw him out, I'm sure he feels like a guy cheated by his gf. Ducks will not have money to throw at Stuart. So I think San Jose is his number 1 choice. Althought Detroit isn't as glamorous as California, Holland should do everything possible to convince him that while San Jose might be a pretty girl, looks aren't all there is to it. Detroit might be less attractive but Detroit will take care of everything for him and he will have a good career with Kronwall at his side. Need a house? find the best available real estate agent and catalogue ones that would fit his salary. His kids need to go kindergarden? find the best available in the area. hm.. now that I think about it, it might be a good idea to create Wings concierge service for the Wings players. :idea: you know like Limo service... after the game and what not. That would be cool enough to draw few free agents and sweeten the deal to our favour don't you think? (unless they have their owns already) Anyway in the end, it comes down to number and I think 3.5 is a good number.

haha I think Ron Wilson has been thinking himself that he couldn't get much out of player and somehow it has been somewhat of his complex. So when a reporter asked 'if more is needed out of your captain' at wrong time... well let's just say I think he read too much between the lines. IMO Ron Wilson is one of the best assistant coach in business. I think he is pretty good with X and O. However, as we know already, he is not a good head coach. Hantayo? give me a break oh and by the way thanks for the Cup in 98. As for TSN, I don't know if they are negative but I can tell you they are bias for sure, Especially against Red Wings. If you've been watching TSN this is nothing new but this is getting worse to an unreasonable level. For example, I was watching the intermission show of game 2 against Avs and they were talking about whether the poor ice condition has been a factor in playoff so far. They played 2 clips and they were Nick's bounce in Nashvile series and Ozzie's clutch save in game 1 against Avs (they were saying how Avs couldn't tie the game because of poor ice ) One of the panel member (I believe it was Pang) said 'you really don't like Wings do you' and host Duthie replied to a tune of 'will you let me do what I do' or something like that. (no I'm not making this up)

I was watching second period of Sharks Stars game last night and it reminded me how Stars are like us last year. The way I see it they are playing on a some kind of mission. (what is it? I dont know) and they used up quite a bit of intensity just to get here. (kinda like us playing calgary and then sharks) I think they are slowly running out of gas and that's why I want this series to go long more than anything. When you play out of your comfort zone injuries occur quite often and I want Sharks to sap more mental strength from Stars if possible. (or we may get Sharks IF we do advance) Strangely we have been somewhat similar to Ducks run last year. Ducks played Wild who played against Ducks quite well and then they pretty much dessimated Canucks in second round and faced resilient but toughest yet Red Wings. Because we went through fire, we were very determined but little bit out of gas and out of bodies. (plus they had refs in their pocket) Is this sign of things to come? I sure hope so. (but then again that means Stars will be an unstoppable force next season)

I hope Sharks players slap each other and wake up for game 3. I want this series to go long.

For us, I think it's more mental than anything actually. You know things like 'Don't get too high because Avs are actually better than what they seem.' 'be relentless' 'score the first goal' etc I don't know Dives well so I don't know what they are going to do but I can only imagine what we would do if we were down 2-0 and getting outplayed badly by a superior team (lets say someone like Ducks on steroid). We would be ready to play the game of our lives and would come out very very determined.

double post

It was interesting to see all these faces behind their screen name and avatar, so I thought I would drop mine as well. I bet you've never seen a Korean Wing supporter. (I'm a canadian citizen btw)

I was out for entire 2nd period (had to) and when I came back I was in for a mild surprise. If he keeps holding the puck and works hard, we will have NHL's first swedish power forward. God I'm sorta glad that Vancouver took Edler now.

C'mon those guys need to sell the game and they can't just say, 'hey don't even bother watching the game because Avs shouldn't even be in the same league as Detroit Red Red Wings'

The way they are playing they may very well win the Cup. Yes I think they are playing better than us right now.

Just like old times huh? man this is gonna be fun. Can't wait to hate those pukes' gut again.

So having dipatched the pesky Preds, Wings are on course for greater success this season. It took a while to switch from regular season to playoff mentality but when we had to execute, I think Wings did a pretty good job. I'm generally pleased with Wings performance. I'm sure everyone has their own opinion on who played well and who underperformed (or sucked). I would like to hear you views and share mine at the same time. So here are the grades for the players Nicklas Lidstrom A+ : probably wasn't fully confident about his game in game 1, but got his confidence back and never looked back. The shot will go down in history as one of the most amazing shot ever. Kronwall A : wow does Wings future look ever so bright with this guy firing on all cylinders. Elevated his game to elite status. He is not Lidstrom .. well nobody is Lidstrom but I think I wll sleep little sounder at night with a thought that junior will be there when Lidstrom retires. Datsyuk A- : Always dangerous. He was watched very carefully but will play better against non central division teams. Osgood A- : Brought his A game when he was called upon. Zetterberg A-/B+ : I know some people here didn't like his game but I thought he played very well overall. However, he has got to finish the play. I think it is due to inexperience. Rafalski B+ : He does what he does very well. Other than that... he is ok. Holmstrom B+ : Gave his all. Another veteran playoff warrior in our roster. He does what coach tells him to do, and do it very well without asking any questions. Draper B : It looks like he was playing at about 70% during the season and he competely turned it on for playoff. He sure knows what the Stanley Cup playoff is all about. A good Leader Franzen B : Although he scored a very important goal, I think he can do much better by having a mean streak. Cleary B- : He was so so in game 1 but the fealess Dan is slowly coming back. Filppula B- : He also played better as the series went on but his immaturity as a player showed. He will play better. Drake B- : Another player who reborned in playoff. I wish he was 5 year younger. but then again we got Abdelkader for future. Stuart B-/C+ : Our team is asking him to play a role where he isn't most effective so I give him some credit. With time, he will get better. Hudler C : He was pretty ineffective for qutie a while. I used to think the only way he is going to utilize his potential is to become a brett Hull type of player but I think playing with McCarty, Helm will get him going. At least, he did earn some points during the series. Helm C : He is getting better and better as he plays more game. I thought he was ok during regular season and in game 5. Now he is developing into our Andy McDonald. Chelios C : He knows how to play but looked like he was having mental lapses from time to time. Still important part of our team. Lebda C/C- : Once upon a time, he was a promising rookie with a fire burning inside him. His game is improving at slow pace and the fire is gone. McCarty C- : A good compliment to Helm + Huds line. Hartigan C- : I thought he did well but Helm took his job and ran with it. Lilja D+ : I think he did better than what some people might think. I mean.. what did you expect? At least he was good at PK. Hasek D : Well I mean... everything about his perfomance has been probably said already in this forum twice. So I'll pass. I give him credit for turning best of 7 sereis into best of 3. Samuelsson F : He can pin players in offensive zone. Other than that, when he is holding the puck, bad things usually happen. Sammy fails

ah.. didn't mean to comment on Helm's look or anything. Just thought that it was VERY impressive you follow him religiously after seeing you go all out in HF board. Do you know Helm in person? or does he know you are his biggest fan? I'm not an expert but I think most people will agree that Helm will be a Red Wing for life. So you might want to switch being a Red Wings fan?

I agree 100% with you about the Preds pushing us around the board. In fact I was thinking about opening a new thread about it. It seemed to me that every time Wings player were trying to create something in Preds' zone they were right on us and pinned our players to the board. Whereas when Preds were in our zone we just kinda stood behind them and let them make all kinds of play they want and were content being reactionary. We did better job in game 5 and 6 and maybe it is part of our system where every player has to be ready to move at any time. However I would like to see Wings outman oppositions at point to prevent any kind of play develops in our zone when nothing is going our way. It is a risk to commit more men but sometimes we have to take some risk to get out of funk and we gotta trust Ozzie can keep us out of trouble.

I live in Toronto and it would be Toronto media's dream if Burke comes here. Although I don't know if Duthie in TSN would welcome it. oh man there is going to be a quite firework

good job diggin this out althought I was confused as hell when I was reading original TSN article. It took me half way to the article before I looked up to see the dates. bam 2007 Ducks are going to be worse going on next year no doubt but it isn't Ducks that's going to problem but some other teams like Dallas, Colorado and our Central division neighbors. I sure as hell hope Howard is ready next year.

No I don't mind people disagree with my idea. In fact, I welcome it. The reason I made opened this thread was to see different views from mine. So thanks for you input. I enjoyed reading it like few others. I don't care if people want to criticize mine but like I said, Noone can't satisfy everyone by posting the grade. If you want to ***** about how Hudler or Sammy played well, there are already threads about it. I'm sure me or anyone else aren't really keen to hear same verbal war being repeated here. I knew this was going to happen and I took the risk but maybe I have underestimated how people would react Or maybe I made the matters worse by engaging to those comments. So what is your grade?