aMonster

Not even a remote chance...

Lou got the third star for staying awake

yawn... I think I'll skip any early starts in this series.. get some afternoon bike rides in.

Sorry Calimari, I'd say every analyst and their sister disagrees with you and the letter of the NHL rule on clipping does too

Wrong...! Clipping rule states you cannot hit below the knees, anything above is open. P.S. what a sleeper of a game, save that perfectly clean hit!

I like this, while not as offensively dangerous as Chicago, Detroit will finally begin the NHL playoffs against an actual NHL opponent in San Jose. This series goes six deep minimum

#14 Tomas Plekanec...!

case in point, those who cant spell whale and still think a hockey sweater is called a jersey

The Wings have no more and no fewer Canuck hating fans than any other organization. That said, there are massive numbers of Canuck haters in the NHL world of fans, why I've never understood but why sweat that? The funniest aspect of those who complain on this forum about Canuck fans is that they are themselves what they claim to hate most, excessively obnoxious. On other hand, if you ignore those who routinely resort to the most childish rhetoric this fan forum does have some of the best informed fans in the league... at least I think so.

Ignoring the regular season series split between these two teams Vancouver has more guns up front and a MUCH deeper D. On the other hand, and note to Kesler and Burrows, Weber can hospitalize players who drop to stop pucks Lopsided talent advantage to Vancouver so my gut says Canucks in 5, six if they absolutely must take a siesta game.

Ok I'll bite on this for you land lubbers out there in Motown. You see, BC killer wales eat salmon and are referred to as "resident" orcas as opposed to their cousins known as "transients". Unlike their American counterparts, these two groups never intermarry. Transient orcas will hunt seals, penguins and other wales where as resident orcas have abundant supplies high protean salmon to feed on and consequently get much larger, but also stay in smaller pods. Let me introduce my Red Winged friends to one of our resident orca pods.. I took these pics while seated in mu canoe and let me say, it is quite a scary experience to photograph these fast and spirited animals this close to your canoe when your staring at them at eye level. Awesome and amazingly smart animals, and all of you should get a chance to see them up close in their natural environment at least once in your lives!

Thanks Vlad, as much as I'd love to plug the Canucks fan forum, I can safely say after lurking around here for year that it is only second best next to Detroit's.

Well ummm.. if you knew anything about how the Canucks have played this season you'd know that they've never lost a game they've taken a 2-0 lead in by end of the 1st

It's not very complicated. Orca wales eat salmon, so during a game the Canucks won 5-0 the fan was obviously punctuating a feeding frenzy by throwing orca food out onto the ice.

I think a quick five game dispatching of the Hawks in round 1 would be a very tasty prospect for the Canucks, and definitely the players want that chance. From Detroits perspective, they has already clinched and winning both games against the Hawks wouldn't change anything for them. On the other hand, letting up a little on Chicago could sure put Detroit's Vancouver rivals through some emotional challenges if Chicago held on to 8th spot. What happened unfortunately is Chicago was hugely motivated to get a ticket to the dance and by the time Detroit realized they didn't have to start the game a little relaxed, it was too late to pick up their pace and they got spanked by Chicago. Like I said, Detroit is NOT going to lose their last game to Chicago!

Mark my words, Detroit will win their last game against Chicago! Tonight's loss went farther than the Wings are happy with but they let up to keep Chicago in 8th place so the Hawks would face the Canucks in round #1.

I tend to agree, Detroit has been guilty of simply skating towards the end of the season the past two years. They are certainly good enough that they can get away with this as long as they are healthy going into the playoffs. Not to take away from the Canucks, they are a great team and tough to beat for everyone this season but, the Wings have to pick it up and now!

That was already ours long before tonights game. Personally I hope we dont see Detroit in the playoffs till after they face Chicago, with Dats is back in the lineup of course.

hahaa.. no but after you mention it, I can see what you mean

That seems to be the case in almost every building they play in these days, I think it's the run and gun, pinching defencemen style they play, much like Detroit, it makes for exciting hockey.

Loven all the action so far... lets leave it at 1-0

Of course every playoff bound team wants to win the cup but in the immortal words of Christopher Lambert... "There can be only one". I don't think most fans around the league consider a deep playoff run to be a complete disappointment, which is mostly reserved for 1st or 2nd round departures. I want a cup and therefor Detroit cant have one however, neither of us are going to crucify our teams as chokers for losing in the conference final, well perhaps some but not many.

I'll second that, 3-2 OT win for Wings. Canucks love losing in OT to Detroit this year for whatever reason.

I have always thought the P trophy was a curse too so I did some digging and found this Great article analyzing Presidents Trophy winners and playoff performance and it suggests that finishing 1st overall in the regular season isn't quite the playoff curse we all tend to believe. I think the reality is just that we all tend to remember train wrecks by top teams than we do their deep runs. Lost in first round: FIVE (25 percent) -- 1991 Chicago Blackhawks, 2000 St. Louis Blues, 2004 Detroit Red wings, 2009 San Jose Sharks, 2010 Washington Capitals Lost in second round: THREE (15 percent) 1992 New York Rangers, 1993 Pittsburgh Penguins, 2006 Detroit Red Wings Lost in third round: FIVE (25 percent) 1996 Detroit Red Wings, 1997 Colorado Avalanche, 1998 Dallas Stars, 2003 Ottawa Senators, 2007 Buffalo Sabres Lost in Stanley Cup Final: TWO (10 percent) 1990 Boston Bruins, 1995 Detroit Red Wings Won Stanley Cup: FIVE (25 percent) 1994 New York Rangers, 1999 Dallas Stars, 2001 Colorado Avalanche, 2002 Detroit Red Wings, 2008 Detroit Red Wings

This... is not good for either team benchmarking their playoff readiness, too many bodies on both sides missing to get an accurate reading. Lets just all agree now to not watch this game and ignore what ever result might come to pass OK?