Gizmo

Let's hope that Monday's game puts some fire back in the Wings' bellies. It's interesting to note that except for the Pens, every other team this year leading their series 2-0 has lost the third game.

My son and I wore ours to watch the Caps play the Canes at the Verizon Center when we were in DC for Spring Break in 2006. We rooted for the home team and had a good time. The only negative comment we heard was after the game when an imaginative fan yelled "The Red Wings suck!" as he walked past us. The second unusual place was on pit lane over the wall at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during practice for the Indy 500 last year (I work as a photographer down there). My 14 year old son had a funny "jersey" story at the CCHA Finals last month. We had seats on the glass and he decided to have some fun, be different, and wore this ref jersey and pants (he wanted to take his helmet too, but I said "that's enough"). It was a real hoot watching people constantly do double-takes as we walked around the JLA concourse. It was also funny when during the consolation game the refs didn't react to what we thought was a goal at our end. Some of the fans behind us called out to my son and said "Hey, you saw it! Tell them!", also after a bad call somebody told him "I'm sure you guys could do a better job out there than those guys!"

I only saw the last 11 minutes of the game. During that time: 1) The Wings looked like they had concrete in their boots. 2) 80% of the time the puck was in our end. 3) On the tying goal, it looked like Hasek was screened by Stuart. 4) On the go-ahead goal our D left Hasek out to dry and the shot was perfectly fired over Hasek's shoulder. You can't pin that loss on Dom.

I love that clip... and I'm "in it". We had 3rd row seats right behind the Wings goal for that one. IIRC, the next line out of Mickey after the end of that clip was "Somebody better tell Tootoo that the trade deadline has passed!" Here's the photo I took of one of the shootout goals from my seat:

I agree... but as I stated with my first post, I think within 24 hours both actions will be explicitly forbidden by the league... and I think rightly so. Avery's "show" was certainly entertaining and was a creative use of the rules, but I think that'll be his one and only performance.

That was the reason for my "other than" qualification. I agree that distracting Marty offered some sort of advantage to the Rangers... just like if Avery would have tackled him and pushed him clear of the mouth of the goal. But I don't think either action should be kosher in the game of hockey.

This site has some potential:

I agree with the analysts that this tatic will have a life of about 24 hours in the NHL before it's ruled illegal... and I think that it'll be a good call. Like MacKenzie said in the clip, it's one thing to act like Homer and screen the goalie and also try and set yourself up for a tip-in in the process and acting like Avery and do something has absolutely no offensive value other than to try and screw with the goalie.

However, you have to balance the calls that went our way against that bogus "holding the stick" call against Hasek that was the genesis of the Preds 1st goal on the PP. And with regard to NBC, in the first period they couldn't stop gushing all over the Preds.

Broken thumb per Trotz at JLA presser. Legwand day-to-day.

Ah, the photo on the site is misleading. Caption: "LIVE EVENT: Watch Nashville coach Barry Trotz's afternoon press conference live online at approx. 3:15 p.m. EDT"

That was it??? No Babs??? Surreal... A Preds presser hosted by the Redwings site!

Yep

This priest, rabbi, and minister walk into bar... The bartender looks up and says "What, is this some kind of joke?!?!?!"

Number 9.... Number 9.... Number 9.... Number 9.... Number 9.... Number 9.... Number 9.... Number 9....

Sound check and setting camera white balances.

I think it's perfectly possible to support the "no-call" without being a homer. What matters isn't what's "fair" or "unfair" to one team or another, it boils down to what the rules say and the basic concepts of officiating. Pucks often take bad/good bounces off of officials. If the lineman had been one foot inside the line when he got hit Trotz wouldn't have been upset and this thread wouldn't even exist. The only question is if the puck hit the guy inside or outside of the zone. There's no definitive shot that answers this question. This issue boils down to inches. So if no camera can deduce the right call, and none of the four guys with whistles could tell for sure, what should have happened? One of the worst things any official can do in any sport is interject themselves into the game based on a guess. You'll hear this in officiating schools and clinics. Don't call it unless you see it and have a good look at it. It's better to error on the side of discretion and let the game play itself out than to guess a call, get it wrong, and then alter the game as a result. A prime example of this was the Wings' second game against Chicago this season. Late in the game, away from the puck, Lilja put this stick on top of a Blackhawk's stick to pin it down. The Chicago player's stick must have been unknowingly cracked on its shaft because the second Lilja pinned it, the stick literally fell in two pieces. The Chicago player dropped the stub of a shaft, raised his hands and tried to sell the call. One of the refs looked over, saw the stick lying in two, the Blackhawk acting indignant, and called Lilja for "slashing". On the resulting PP, Lang scored the game winner. The ref "guessed" the call wrong and affected the outcome of the game because it appears he "thought" it was a slash. While I certainly agree that we were the beneficiary of some bad calls last night (the Bonk phantom hook is Exhibit A), I don't agree that Z's first goal was one of them.

Go ahead and let him do that.... it also has the effect of letting your team off of the hook for the loss. In the end, blaming the officials doesn't help your team. Even with obvious blown calls like the infamous SJ-puck-in-the-netting play, the players bare final responsibility (they broke one of the cardinal rules of hockey: Play until you hear a whistle).

While I'm sure that Babcock would have mentioned it, having heard him in the past, I also can envision him ending with a fatalistic comment like "...but hey, that's how the game of hockey works. You can't dwell on it and you need to move on."

Of course, Barry is overlooking the fact that that goal wouldn't have counted if his goalie had stopped the shot! The bottom line is that at worst it was an "iffy" call, but the replays that I saw show that the linesman was likely on the line when the puck made contact. In officiating, unless there's clear evidence, you don't blow the whistle. You shouldn't blow the whistle because you think it might have been outside the zone.

Apple Fritter

Just got back from the game after taking the scenic route back to Kalamazoo (through Troy and Cheli's in Dearborn for supper). My impressions: - As noted, great way to end the regular season and it was nice to see the natural order between the Wings and Blackhawks restored! - Outstanding play by Hasek, Homer looked really "hungry" out there, and Abdelkader had another nice outing. - It was great to see McCarty get the point and Hudler the first goal to get that monkey off his back. - Clearly getting hit in the face was a real heart stopper. They didn't show any replays on the Jumbotron and I feared the worst. I was a relief to see him return to the game with "only" stitches under his eye. - I don't know if they showed it on TV, but the President's Trophy presentation was pretty funny. Nick rightly treated it like it was radioactive. He skated over for the obligatory photo shoot with the trophy as it sat on its table. He didn't touch it and acted like he didn't even want to get too close to it. After a couple of photos, he skated away quickly.

I recall reading on another thread that the league maximum for rookies is 850K, if true you can use that as a "worst case".

True, I thought that would be a good "silver lining" if they blew it this week!!!

Seeing as I have tickets for Sunday.... That would certainly work for me!!!! Seeing as the game is on national TV, that probably won't hurt the chances of them doing it then either!