Chairman Maouth

Seriously? That was bad? And Calgary and Edmonton media are worse than Vancouver's -- at least when it comes to the Canucks. The rise of the Canucks the last couple of years and the fall of the Oilers and Flames during the same time period has fueled incredible hatred in Alberta.

You guys get worked up way too easily over a sports column. Columnists often use a hook the same way songwriters do. It's something to centre everything else around. McIntyre is using food, and he's not doing it all that well. I don't ever want to go to a restaurant that has fish in display cases. But having said that the rest of his article isn't bad the way he examines match-ups. Yes even the "gruelling seven-game series" part. The Canucks have 5 days off between games after a 6 game series. Either the Wings or Sharks will have 2 days off after a 7 game series. I don't know how anyone can have a problem with that statement. I also think the Sharks will need a miracle tomorrow night. The Wings are clearly in the driver's seat.

Rooting for Detroit tonight. Wanna see this series go as long as possible. Can't make up my mind on who I want the Canucks to face though. Both Detroit and San Jose would be tough in the conference finals. I think with either team the series with the Canucks is going to go seven games. Good luck tonight. If any team can pull off four straight it's the Wings.

In all honesty, that's an impression I've never seen taken to that extreme before. The arrogance part is true and comes with the territory, but the rest I don't agree with at all. I think you're taking the frustration of Canadians having to see struggling teams in Atlanta and Phoenix when those teams could be supported in Canada and really exaggerating the Canadian mindset. The vast majority of us simply want the best for the NHL as a whole; to see as many as full buildings and well-supported franchises as possible. You think we only care about and/or respect three American teams? Totally untrue. Again, a strong NHL is important. The location of the franchise is secondary in my opinion and this is not a Canada vs. America thing and never has been. For example, how could anyone not be impressed with Nashville fans after last night's game? The whackos were cheering "Go Preds go" after they were eliminated for God's sakes. They were freaking fantastic and deserve that team and better. And no, I do not believe I am in the minority of Canadians here.

My logic is clear in my above quote of yours. The quote points out a problem with your logic. Additionally, definitions of everything from "superstar" to "suckerpunch" are routinely stretched nowadays. The original definitions of the terms erode into something nearly unrecognizable from what they once were because people don't have a clear understanding of what the terms meant in the first place. Or, people attempt to stretch "superstar" to include their favourite player who is good but not great, or in the case of "suckerpunch", an opponent whom they want to demonize. The result is that others read it and go on to perpetuate the mistake and somewhere an English teacher cries alone in the dark.

"Not Clowe's fault" and "text book sucker" does not compute.

I would have loved to have seen that too. But it's hard for me to hate Clowe because he's so clueless that he's just as often a detriment to his team as he is an asset. I think he should have probably got an instigator penalty though.

If you didn't want to make a mountain out of a molehill you never would have chosen the title you did. Either that or you clearly don't know what a sucker punch is. Now don't get me wrong, I think Clowe is a stupid player and a stupid sucker punch isn't beyond the realm of his intellect, but it didn't happen in this case. Just because one guy gets the gloves off first in a face-to-face situation - that doesn't make him a sucker puncher. A sucker punch is one that comes from a blind side and usually drops you (Bertuzzi/Moore being a prime example). You're trying your best to make it sound like Abdelkader got his clock cleaned in an unfair manner by a guy who jumped him from behind, but that just didn't happen. They were face to face and Abdelkader is fine.

Lids has two quality, high performance years left in him - minimum.

Incredible goal by Lidstrom. He should NOT retire. On the other hand, perhaps Howard should.

Oh my God.

The Canucks are outplaying the Preds at their own game - defense. Plus the Canucks offense is overwhelming the Preds defense quite often. If it weren't for Rinne, this series would already be over -- although I did some cracks in his armour last game. Should be over tomorrow. If not, the Canucks learned nothing in the previous series against the Hawks.

I disagree, but I'll talk about that if and when we get past Nashville.

Canucks Green Men in the Nashville house hitting on Nicole Kidman. I am fine with that. Dude, We are both Canucks fans, but saying crap like that on a Wings forum will not make your life easier. The Red Wings are probably the most respected NHL franchise in the last 15 years or so.

Fine from the west coast.

I don't see any reason why Lidstrom doesn't have two more excellent years in him - minimum.

As a neutral observer (Canucks fan), it's difficult for me to agree that San Jose is better than Detroit, even with the Wings being down by two games. Looking at the quarter finals, a depleted LA Kings took the Sharks to six games. Are The Wings of today (who swept the dogs) worse than a badly depleted Kings team? Not in my opinion. I think the Wings will come alive tonight.

As I'm watching that play I'm thinking -- Weber better be careful here. He's going to get a penalty. About two seconds later. Hughson -- "Weber is getting a penalty." Sure, after watching the replay, Kesler played it smart and locked his elbow down on Weber's stick. But as I said, smart play. Tough call for the refs who couldn't get a clear look at it because it was against the boards. Canucks get a break after being on the s***ty end of the stick so many times and capitalize on a PP. My world is fine today.

Bonehead play by Ralf.

Cool. Then turn the TV off and go on holiday. There's clearly no hope.

Holy ******* crap at all the doom and gloom in here. The next two games are in Detroit and in about five days the series could be tied 2-2. Jesus people. Doesn't anyone remember Vancouver in 2002?

Elvis Costello does "Pump it Up" after the anthems. He's married to Victoria, B.C. girl Dianna Krall

Me in a good mood.

I don't have the stats available at the moment, but Luongo's playoff stats against opposition other than Chicago are amazing. Does that mean anything now? Probably not, but it does lead me to believe he's just one of those guys who has a team he has a tough time dealing with. Khabibulin used to be the same with the Canucks. He hadn't won against the Canucks in something like 14 years prior to the 2009 series. As for Rinne, I doubt like hell he's going to make it easy for us. If he does it could be a short series. I have to admit I'm pretty confident at this point though that we can get it done, but then I do a reality check and realize there's only been one game played. Forty years of crashing and burning has taught me not to get too high on this stuff.