Probert 5 For Fighting

Agreed. It was a stomach punch to see Talbot/Sykora score and all that...but watching Nashville shallack us 5-3 was the only time I ever felt hopeless watching the Wings this postseason. Pitt was outplayed every game. Many might say Nashville outplayed us when we went up 2-0. We had the Stanley Cup breaks going for us, though.

The difference between Malts/Drapes and Shanny is that Malts/Drapes could still skate and forecheck to Babcock's liking, and Shanny was lackadaiscal in almost every area of the game outside of the PP - when he didn't have to skate and could just set up shop by the circle. I'll never forget how dreadful he was against Edmonton. This coaching staff and management team deserves a ton of credit for enabling this diaspora of slow, plodding offense-only guys like Lang, Shanny, Shneider and Bert...in favor of the fresh and speedy young legs of Flip, Franzen, Helm, etc - and a far better true Dman in Rafalski than Shneids. They may not score as much, but they're certainly more effective on every shift.

Remember the Dave Lewis era?

As long as "Never gonne give you up" plays in the background, I'm on board. Best.Song.Ever.

I just want to see Hasek, Chelios and Maltby gone, and the youngsters like Howard and Ericsson moving up fulltime. If we have enough money leftover to keep Stuart around, that's enough for me. Maybe another guy with a decent shot on the wing.

And I'd take a #1 pick over any of them.

Maxim Kuznetsov? Jesse Wallin? Yan Golubovsky? Give me the #1 pick, please.

You're absolutely right. What Crosby NEEDS to do is learn how to stop racking up nice stats, and learn how to win. What he SHOULD do is sign with us as a 4th liner, rack up 0 points, but help us win a Cup. THEN Crosby is a true WINNER. Who cares about anything else? Zetterberg is the reason where we are, and Crosby is the reason Pitt is the worst thing in human history. Scoreboard, Zeta! (/sarcasm)

What are you talking about? What do you mean "before?" He's been in the league 3 years and it's the first time his team has made it out of the first round. What do you want from him? Pitt NBC games are a big draw. Pittsburgh has the highest local ratings of any team in the US. They embarrass us with their TV ratings. I don't know how much more of an impact you can make in 3 years. The irrational hatred some of you display is astounding.

It's not about being in their prime. The whole point is that Pittsburgh will be in an impossible situation in a year or two with all 3 of Crosby, Malkin and Staal on the roster. Crosby will make the max, Malkin will demand it as well, and Staal could be north of 5 million. If they pay all 3 of them, they'll have little to donate to their wingers and defenders. They have to be savvy about it, and the savviest move might be to keep Staal and retain Malone, trade Malkin for anything they want, and manage to replenish the rest of their roster with quality talent.

Oh my god. What a f***butt! He said Crosby is better than Z and Dats. Cruicify the heretic!

No, no, no. Granted, I agree in part and think Lindros was an excellent player, but he was a loafer defensively and hardly ever was on the PK for Philly. There was nothing that complete about him. I have an irrational love for Sergei still to this day, and I maintain that the 1994-1996 version of Sergei Fedorov was the best player in NHL history. Only the stacked roster he played on prevented him from reaching the sort of stats that would have sealed the deal.

John Buccigross, late in the season, suggested that maybe Pitt should explore the option of trading Malkin right now. They want to keep Malone and Staal around longterm, and Malkin could fetch an obscene amount of young, inexpensive talent and draft picks for them in return.

"I fart in your general direction and your mother reeks of elderberries" *Therrien walks by* Go to your room, kid. "BUT I DONT WANNA!"

Everyone in the comments section did a terrific job of lambasting the guy, so I wont bother. But I will say this: Huh, wha? Have you watched a football or basketball game? Hell, for a recent example, did you even watch the no-call in the Spurs/Lakers series everyone is talking about? Refs, no matter what the sport, swallow the whistles - often at the end of games. They also make a lot of makeup calls, for the sake of saving face. These are human beings who err time and time again. And his whole argument is jibberish based on factual evidence to the contrary, so I have nothing more to say on this matter.

The random people who haven't been exposed to a game in 10 years still know far more about Crosby than the Wings. There was the Crosby draft sweepstakes on ESPN, ESPN quoting Gretzky when he said Crosby's the next big thing, Crosby being labeled the savior of the league, news outlets always zooming in on Crosby and all that he does. Meanwhile, that random fan who watches the Wings has no idea how to pronounce anyones name, and they quickly turn it off.

I don't know if you're joking, or if you seriously don't know what "cusp" means.

Europeans are masters of obstruction? When did this become finalized? Why didn't anybody send us the memo? And what is this "defense" you talk about? Signed, Evgeni Malkin Sergei Gonchar Petr Sykora

You know what I'm done with? I'm done with people who are done with anything that remotely dents the embodiment of perfection known as our Detroit Redwings. f*** those guys!

Brain cell count reaching critically low levels. Must. Have. Cookies.

And if the Redwings faced any other team, the ratings wouldn't be as improved as they are now either. There is a new generation of fans now, and hardly any of them care about Detroit's success in 2002. Considering how our hometown fanbase has dwindled since the lockout and all that, Detroit's national fanbase may not be as big as it once was. In fact, it's certainly not. A lot of casual fans abandoned ship after the early exits and their N. American heroes left. As for the 2002 Finals: No crap they were the highest. Who were the last few champs? NJ? TB? CAR? ANA? We damn well better beat out those markets. All I'm saying is, the causal fan that the NHL is desperately trying to bring in - the one who doesn't know who Mikael Samuellson or Max Talbot is - knows a helluva lot more about Crosby than the Redwings right now. The playoffs were going to get a boost regardless thanks to some big market teams advancing past round 1. Detroit and Pitt both contributed to that, but it's pretty apparent the point they were hammering home in marketing was "Crosby, Crosby, Crosby"

There's no point in arguing them. It's a bit mind-boggling that they're more concerned about the "entertainment" value and "appearence" of the league than the actual hockey strategy taking place every moment on the ice. Babcock has coached these guys into perfect defensive positions that they get used to over the course of an entire game, and it's somehow the fault of the "trap" and mythical "trash hockey" that the leagues darlings in Pittsburgh can't get anything going. Bah, whatever. Sore losers will be sore losers. I respect and admire the Penguins organization and their fans. The reality is, Detroit was simply the best team - by far - in the NHL this season. And they're finding out that the Eastern Conference did nothing to prepare them for this. The Penguins will be back, they'll be better, more experiences, and most importantly - they'll learn to play much better defense that'll allow their sour grapes opponents to yell "trap!" every time they shut them out.

Sorry, but to suggest the ratings are up because of the Redwings and not Crosby's presence is naive and uber-homer. Crosby is the reason the ratings are the way that they are. He's the one NHL player everyone knows, he's the one with the hilariously bad Gatorade commercial, and he's the face of the NHL. There's no battle to be lost by admitting that.

Living down here near Tampa, hockey is surprisingly a hot topic most afternoons on the radio waves. I always listen to Steve Duemig from 3-7, and he finally got into talking about the Finals in the 3rd hour. Amazingly, he goes on a rant about Detroit sucking the life out of this series, how we've failed the NHLs hope of a great Finals and Sid being featured, agreeing with Michelle BSerrien about "obstruction" and how Detroit's reverted to the dead puck style we all hated. Of course, I called in. I made it pretty simple: It's kind of difficult to accuse the Redwings of obstruction when they haven't let the puck go the entire series. And really, after Nashville, Colorado, and a very good Dallas team went by the wayside without a peep about us obstructing - you're suddenly going to accuse us now because Pitt is getting its ass handed to them against a superior Western Conference team? Accusing the Red Wings of playing like those Devils teams is an insult - and another excuse for why Pitt has sucked. How about the fact that we've assembled the best top 4 defense the NHL has seen in at least a decade? Pitt saw nothing to prepare them for this, and they're going to have to regroup to make anything of this series. As for Detroit shattering all the hopes and dreams of a great finals....sorry, I couldn't have scripted it any better. My condolences to all the average Joes who thought they were watching two goliaths play. There can only be one, kids. WE ARE THE HIGHLANDER!

Christ NBC is a commercial *****. 10 minutes after 8 is the usual. 22 after is ridulous.