Probert 5 For Fighting

Welcome. Like Dallas before them, Pitt will be taken aback by the talent disparity between the Redwings and their previous opponents. Philly is missing it's top 2 defensemen. We'll be waiting with the best top 6 the league has seen in years.

I'm guessing it was all against Colorado?

Steve Ott is no more a prick to opposing fans than Maltby - and Maltby has gotten away with a lot more cheap s*** and always runs away from a fight. Take away the rose-colored glasses and you'd see that. Everyone that tests the Wings are a bunch of crybabies. blah blah blah. Get off that horse. When this series concludes, all those guys will shake hands and shoot the s***. It's playoff hockey, not roll over and let the Wings walk on you time.

Hank looking like Jim Carrey>>>>Pavel looking like a frightening, anal probing alien. That's the deal breaker for me.

Damn dude. Do you live on the stadium premises or what? I guess it was that easy getting out of the arena late? Thanks for the props, brother. I've got a lot of respect for Dallas, unlike some shortsighted homers whining around here. Glad that you knocked out those rating and gametime-killers out West.

Ah, I still remember his days as the unknown dangler on the 2 Kids and a Goat line. When he made those moves his rookie year, everybody was amazed. And he still keeps finding new ways to impress amidst all the expectations. Boyd Devereaux, where are thou?

It's disappointing to see so many whining ******* in our fanbase. Both were fined. Perfect end result. Ribby and Ozzie were both cowardly with their moves, and this would have all been nothing if Ozzie didn't flop like noone has ever flopped before. Moving on. Quit bitching about the injustices against our Wings. You do realize we're the most agitating team in the league? We've perfected the art of instigating people into retaliation, making it seem like our poor Wings are under "attack." It goes both ways. Grow the hell up and just watch some hockey.

I like your explanation. It's too bad nobody but Ozzie can say what the deal was with his buttend. As an opposing player, I would absolutely be furious about that. Especially after Ozzie had gotten chippy with Ott and co. earlier in the game.

Every square inch of his torso is fortified in padding. No thanks, I'm not that much of a homer to buy it. Ozzie's doing his job to sell it. Looks like its carried on into the locker room. He just got done turning aside 90 mph shots to his chest, and you're buying that he was hurt by a weak slash. Puhleeze.

How is Ozzie stepping away from his position to buttend Ribiero NOT an intent to injure? The only difference was that Ribiero(whose a reknowned diver himself) didn't actually dive and make it seem like he died on the play.

This thread went from incredibly biased and annoying to pretty level headed. Ozzie should have won an Oscar for that dive. And yes, maybe if every moon of Jupiter aligned and his stick somehow pulled a Lee Harvey Oswald and sliced Ozzie's neck it would have been horrible - but he controlled that stick and swung right at Ozzie's pads. It may lodged one thread loose on his chestpad. That dive was embarrassing to the Wings. I was genuinely concerned at first, but laughed when I saw the replay. C'mon, man. If he intended to hurt Ozzie, than Ozzie intended to kill him. Hitting someone with the buttend of your stick is even more dangerous. I'm just glad some bad blood will be going back to Dallas. I was a bit annoyed with how controlling we've been the first two games. Let those little Stars make us earn it.

I'll ignore the regular season. I really don't care about packed houses in an 82 game season. At most, there are 16 home games for the Wings in the playoffs. Usually 11 or 12 in a successful playoff year. Sounds comparable to me. And what fanbase are we talking about? I haven't lived in Michigan in 3 years - you're telling me all the Lions fans AREN'T Wings fans? That was never the case, last I checked. Football will always be #1, but there's enough people in the metro Detroit area to pack the Joe in April/May/June based on their willingness to punish themselves watching the Lions every fall.

Don't read any crappy mainstream journalism anymore, but his thinking is right. Turning on the game to see scatters of empty seats right by the glass is embarrassing for Hockeytown. And don't complain too much about the economy - most Michiganders would rather ***** and moan and pay to watch the ******* Lions play in a 105% full stadium than to go root for the best-run team in professional sports.

I like our chances against Dallas simply because they try to play the same game we do - and it's impossible to beat us at that game. That said, they're far deeper and healthier than the Avs(who also tried to play that game...miserably). They have 3 solid scoring lines centered by studs like Modano, Richards and Ribiero. Morrow and Lehtinen are the gunners, and they've got a whole bunch of Finnish players rounding out all those lines. The Stars are to Finland as we are to Sweden. Those guys can skate. Zubov is back and playing well. They're not too imposing beyond him, though, no matter how well Robidas has played. This will be exploited against our puck movers. Turco is a mental caca. He wont be anymore imposing than Dan Ellis was.

2probert4: What on earth are you talking about? NHL fans have no clue how to judge hockey fights anymore. They think falling down on top of a guy on the ice grants you a victory. It does nothing but confirm that you want the refs to step and end it - it is in no way indicative of your performance in the fight. It's about punches, not wrestling. McCarty handled him well. He landed some blows and ducked his swings. Once the punches stopped, so did the fight. I could care less who lands on top of the other guy. I wish more fans would be less like you when it came to judging fights. It's disappointing to see such an integral part of the sport get demoted to insipid judgements like who took who down.

Just curious, have we? Because after 4 'victories' against Nashville and 1 'victory' against Colorado, I have yet to see the Wings credited with actually winning the game by any media source - local or otherwise. Let's talk about how the Wings escaped and forget about how quickly they chased Theodore outta the net. Let's talk about how Nashville swept us in 6 games, not the conspiracy about us winning 4-2. Let's talk about anything but giving the Redwings their due for any victory. The media shrugged off the game 6 win "puh, they were supposed to do that," but they were ready to pounce if we blew it. The Wings winning a one-goal game is evidently a win for the team facing us. I like how this is all shaping up for the Wings. It's amazing how the transgressions of years like 06 and 03 are held against the current squad. These guys are a totally different group from previous Redwings installements. Anyhoo, let's get ready to go down 0-2 to Colorado on Saturday...wait, what?

I don't really mind Sammy. It'd be nice if stick handled less and deferred to his linemates more. His pass to Franzen last night was a beauty and he's capable of more than that. I think this is hilarious, though: He had 11 goals on 249 shots this year. His shooting percentage was 4.4%(!!!!!!) That, my friends, is terrible. Bates Battaglia is jealous of that sort of ineptitude.

"Ice cold Avs plow over Redwings" "Scrappy penguins peck out Rangers eyeballs" "Sharks fly high above the stars"(this one made no sense) Metaphor titles are creepy.

I see tittays! Thanks, Cristine Simpson. You saucy flirt.

I can see it now... "Wings defeat Avs 9-0 in game one, fail to score 10 goals for the 126286098th consecutive game"

The Avs were smacked around to the tune of 4-1 not too long ago with Griffins making up the majority of our blueline. I'm not arrogant or brash and I fully understand the recent history Detroit has fallen to, but considering how handily we have kicked Colorado's ass since...damn, 2002?...I'd feel very confident going against them. We look like a bunch of preteens up front compared to the dinosaurs manning the Avs top 6 forwards. And they're not quite as physical as San Jose or Dallas. I welcome them.

I accept your application into the (non)fan club. You will start out as a junior partner, and you can eventually work your way up to regional manager if you show enough venomous hatred for that cockmungrel. Welcome, brother.

This thread is kind of an allegory for Lidstrom's career, aint it? Completely ignored in the present, but respected and lauded more than any other in retrospect. Lidstrom was my MVP, and he'll have to be MVP every series for us to win. He's so sound positionally and made so many simple plays to break up Nashville rushes, it's easy to take what he does for granted. I thought Franzen had a fantastic series as well, and although he's mocked for some of his missed opportunities, I thought Filppula was great in transition all series long and left Nashville defenders in the dust in the neutral zone. I love Ozzie, but he cannot be considered the MVP. Our team defense has been absolutely incredible, and unlike Dom, he put himself in a good position to face the very few shots he was going to get in the first place. All our goalie has to do is not screw up, and Ozzie has done that.

As much as it angers me, the sad fact is that this golf crap DOES draw better ratings than hockey. Such is life for us hockey fans nowadays.

We blew out Calgary in Game 5 last year. He put them away at CAL in Game 6. They were both in 1-1 games, though!