Icteria virens

If Kronwall leaves his feet it's literally just a split second before he makes contact with the player. Concentrate on the lower right hand corner of the vid watching just his feet in slow mo. His elbow was flush with his body while Bonk was lower than him. Therefore I don't feel this was an elbow either. I've seen guys completely jump off their feet way before a hit on other guys this PO's and in other games much, much worse than this. I've also seen guys hit a player with their elbow extended and also to a players head with their elbow from behind. I don't feel this was dirty at all. We've been the reciepient of many hits for many a playoff game over the last several years whereby the opp. player clearly leaves his feet to make the hit or intentionally uses his elbow as a weapon, this is really pale by comparison.

I live in the West Bend, WI area which is about 30miles north of Milwaukee, the game was blacked out (they showed some tatooed guys fighting in a cage instead, whatever!) and I did check FSN and the game wasn't on there either. I too occationally get Wild games on FSN but not too many. The funny thing is unlike the OP from Milw. who must have Time Warner cable and like Never Forget Mac who must have Time Warner in GB I have Charter cable here outside the Milwaukee market and it's still blacked out. I was bummed to not see the hockey on as my digital cable said it'd be on. Not sure why we are considered Minn. market and not Chicago, at least in SE WI. That'd make more sense. To the OP: did you check FSN? I did and it still wasn't on.

you've just described Barry Melrose as well. They're both twats.

but on the flip side they don't have TV time outs and there's flow to the game.

carefull now!!!! that's Le Professor you're talking about. of course, nobody else on these boards knows who Wenger is... or are you just mad b/c he let Freddie Ljungberg (spelling?) go to West Ham????

I understand the OP's point totally. It's getting rediculous how much crap is all over the ice. I'm against any more. Anybody else notice the NHL is doing things to mimick the NFL? First it was the ref with the mic to call penalties, just like the NFL and now reminding us it's the playoffs? Hey, I'm a fan, I know it's the f-ing playoffs! You don't have to remind me. I hate the reminder on NFL fields too. I didn't like the whole inner circle of the basketball court being taken up by the NCAA logo during the tournement either, I just think it's overkill. Some of the players were slipping on it as well. I really think this is just a way for them to get the casual channel surfer, "oh, this is the PO's, I should watch this now" Anybody switch over to the Frozen Four coverage? the NCAA doesn't allow advertising like the NHL but instead of leaving the boards realatively plain they went and covered them with dark blue most of the length. Result: you can easily loose the puck along the boards. Why not just leave them plain? And by the way, it does effect viewing as when the puck if over a dark surface it's easy to lose sight of it. Some areas are worse than others simply due to the type of products that are being advertised and their color patterns. and as long as we're bitching, how about seeing a team skate the cup or celebrate a trophy in sports without wearing the stupid t-shirts and caps? You know, like old time hockey?

don't get me wrong, I like Feds but doesn't it seem like alot of players (not just Feds) turn it on when they're about to become UFA's? just my thought, again, not an inditement on Feds alone.

they should call sportscenter "Baseball,Football & Basketball Center" and be done with it!

you mean you get your hockey news from ESPN? just kidding

Perhaps this has been discussed already but I've never found out why VS only has games on Mondays and Tuesdays. There's clearly games on other nights, in fact, I believe Monday is the night of fewest games if I remember correctly from my NHL Center Ice days. Does anybody here know the reasoning for this?

they did that for awhile and near the end they had something like Hockey night in America which was on Wesnesdays. I guess I'd like to be able to watch a game later in the week but am happy overall with Versus.

a kid sitting behind a computer screen telling Chris Chelios to 'man up" , are you kidding me??? How many shifts have you played in the NHL?

ah, we've been through this many times already. Who on the Wings (besides he's lazy and he sucks Lang) produced offensivley in the PO's??? NObody. How was Cujo or any goalie supposed to win with little goal support? Did you not even notice his great backchecking and checking, his physicality???

actually I wouldn't care at all. One less clutch and grad "norris caliber" defenseman to shake hands with.

I really don't care, I think he's earned the right to do this once in a while. We have absolutely no idea what really went on out there, there was a lot of trash talking going on, he was the receiver of a very dirty hit in open ice and in general the series was chippy and dirty, all coming form one team. I didin't watch all of VS post game but I did notice him go over to the coaches right away and shake their hands, I thought that was strange and wondered right then and there if he was going to shake the teams hands. Am I the only Wing fan that cringed when I saw Homer shake the hand of Pronger??? Homer kind of nodded to Pronger like it was all ok. To me it just symbolized how he were beat up and there was no real response. I would've loved to see us run Giguere once in the last game to get some momentum going.

4 and maybe 5 Too Many Men not called along with numerous obstruction non-calls on our forwards forechecking, a goalie pushed into the net for an illegal goal that even CBC anouncers said wasn't a goal. Ticky tacky calls on plays on the Wings like the Lilja check along the boards as interferrence, it was a complete joke as far as the reffing goes. I"m truly am not the sort who usually complains about the reffing but I've never, and I mean never seen a PO series reffed so poorly in my life (one sided). It's like there were 2 sets of rules for each team. The Eastern Finals were not reffed like this. And the biggest problem is that the lack of enforcing obstruction like penalties in this series really cost the Wings as we were the more skilled team. The 'new' rules benefitted the Wings but it was old time clutch and grab hockey out there. I loved watching our players get cross-checked over and over and over again with no call. This was a call in the regualar season. They let it go simply because we had the best in the biz Homer.

he should've put his body in front of the shot not his stick from 15 feet away. Anybody knows tipping a shot with your stick that close to the goalie is asking for trouble.

cheers from an old-school, older than 25 years, no short term memory problems fan who understands what you're talking "aboot". this league has rally become a farce. Bettman clearly is following the small market, socialist, everybody can win model (with help from officiating) and I really think they've intentionally let the West. Conf. Finals be called loosely to give Anaheim the edge. I've watched the East and strangly it's been called much tighter. What professional sport besides hockey is there where the calls that are penalties in the beginning of the game are not at the end? What sport has a certain set of calls for the regular season and a second set for the playoffs? I agree totally about the lack of consistency in officiating in the NHL. I too have seen what you're talking about evening the score late in the game - this with teams other than Detroit and at times other than the playoffs. The evening out of the calls late in the game has occured in this series but people fail to see it. What about the "interference" call on Lilja last game? when he simply checked a guy along the boards. It's just rediculous and I can't believe they let this go on in the playoffs when everything is on the line.

we loose one game and Hasek sucks, wow, how typical. Why don't they just merge this thread with the "frozen snow angel" thread from last week posted after we lost one game.

That Fil takes???? What about Datsyuk or Sammy as well or pretty much any Red Wing???? This has been going on all series but was esp. bad in Games 1 and 2 , thus the reason everyone has already forgotten the major obstruction going on out there. Short term memory is a real proplem here. Whatever happened to the NHL's crackdown on obstruction and slashing and cross checking??? How many times have I seen our players get slashed or cross checked in front of the cage? Don't you remember this was a PENALTY in the beginning of the season? And the rediculous excuse that this is "playoff hockey" is just sad, esp. coming from DRW "fans" We are the skilled team, we are the ones that benefit from the crackdown in obstruction and clutch and grab hockey. Have you guys ever bothered to ask yourselves why we almost had a second Presidents trophy but are laughed at b/c of our recent early PO losses? Any red wing fan would realize that "playoff hockey" should be officiated the same way reg. season hockey is and when it's not WE suffer. What a way to run a league , what constitues a penalty changes depending on the time in the game and whether it's the PO's or not. We had two 5/3's so don't blame the refs??? are you kidding me??? Time to take some Ginko biloba b/c the Ducks had two 5/3's at the Joe, again Short Term Memory problems. Half you ppl don't even sound like red wing fans to me.

finally they're calling the stuff the way it should be called

the amount of bad calls that have gone the Ducks way this series is astronomical, the missed TMM on the ice in the first game, numerous interference calls on our skilled forwards, how about near the end of the second period of this game when Datsyuk got hooked down to the ice and no call? This stuff has gone on all series, if not for that we'd be looking at a sweep.

I remember when he was talking about the best sweaters in the league and he said Detroit's was the best and then not even a week later right before they were going to broadcast a Leafs game he said the Leafs sweater was the best one in all of hockey. What a tool

Upheld??? it was never called a goal in the first place, that's the problem. Niedermeyer shoved Hasek in the net

I simply can't believe the refs in this game!!!! The opening shift of Datsyuk he goes to the net and Niedermeyer completely obstructs him for like 5 secs. Where is the F*&^^%^^$#@ Call??? Did anyone notice at the 4.50 mark of the 2nd period R. Niedermeyer attempt to trip and then kick one of our players? I think it was Datsyuk he kicked but am not sure. I didn't notice this in real time but they were showing a replay and I noticed it then. Sorry if this was already discussed. Bertuzzi gets called for a cross check when Niedermeyer hacked Datsyuk 4 times in a row in game #1 and no call. I love their 2 Norris candidates : trip, tackle and cross check. what talents, if Lidstrom doesn't win the Norris it'll be a crying shame. He's just showing his class right now.