b.shanafan14

I agree with some points, I guess. But bounce back REALLY WELL so far?? By that do you mean letting in 4 goals, 2 of which came right after Wings goals to kill momentum in the womb?? If Bryzgalov had played to half of his potential, this series would be 3-0 'Yotes with a chance to sweep. I said it after Game 2, if the Wings need to get 6 goals passed Bryzgalov to win, they are screwed.

As far as I'm concerned, I really understand that Howard is green in the playoffs and he was going to get some lumps. I'm more pissed off that Babcock bet the farm on Howard since December and now we have the best playoff goaltender in the last two seasons rusted pass the point of no return. Babcock doesn't seem to inspire the team, he plays favorites constantly, and now he has a rookie goaltender that is looking pretty sad between the pipes while the one he owns a ring to is taking stats.

Osgood does bad with no help and it's "his job to stop pucks". Howard lets in a few stinkers and does the Hasek thing letting in goals right after Wings goals and all of a sudden its not his fault "he had no help". We all need to call a spade, a spade and bad goaltending, bad goaltending. It's literally gotten to the point where the Wings score and my first thought is "how quick til the 'Yotes get that one back?"

Flashes of "No OsSuck, screw him" over the last 4 months are running in my head... To the OP's question, I wish I could say 'yes', I honestly don't think Howard could have a worse go his first playoffs, but Babcock "retired" Osgood in January and there is literally no chance Osgood would be able to shake off that much rust in order to turn it around.

Team played like s***, period. Top to bottom. Played like a bunch of *******. And Howard hasn't given the Wings they saves they need. Either there is a huge shift in the series in Game 4 where the real Red Wings show up or this series is over in 5. That's not being negative, that's being honest.

This. Now is everyone happy we have rusted Osgood the whole season? Could Osgood play any worse than Howard? He hasn't given the Wings saves they need. This series should probably be 3-0 'Yotes after this game if the Wings offense didn't steal game two. I'm sick of the play of the whole team, but Howard has given no confidence and has done exactly what got Hasek benched in 2008, letting goals back to back or right after a Wings goal.

So you would turn down 3 or 4 times your salary elsewhere to stay with your current employer? What if those numbers factored in the millions instead of hundreds or thousands? I don't think so. Everyone who is pissy about Hudler leaving for money should get off the high horse. This isn't Fedorov stringing the organization along for more money. Hudler had his intentions known to Holland, got the organization's blessing to go get a paycheck that really no one in Hudler's position could turn down, and both worked out keeping Hudler's rights for his eventual return with a damn good cap hit. I'd welcome that slow skating, traitor, money hungry midget back in a heartbeat and every Red Wings fan should feel the same. EDIT: spelling

That has kinda been my diagnosis for this last stretch of the season heading into the playoffs. Datsyuk is still dominant but Mule has hit a little funk which is understandable after missing so much time. They just seem to be trying too much out there, as opposed to watching Filppula and Zetterberg the other night, they just hounded pucks and got them to the net. Mule needs to keep it simple, get some ugly goals, then when he is rolling the hot hand again he can try the "me vs. the world" stuff we love him for.

Thank god! All good news. Babcock better have tore into the PK too.

Talbot is flopping all over the place, and they buy it again. I guess he learned more than shooting a puck in the dryer in Sid/Mario's basement

Booya, Regin! 1-1

Wow, only 3 minutes before a soft Penguins PP... 1-0 Pittsburgh Crosbies

This has to be a joke right??

Enjoy! http://redwings.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=-6&id=65973 http://redwings.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=-6&id=65974

Exactly. The letter of the law should be consistent enough that we don't need warnings about the enforcement of rules from one day to the next. More and more, these warnings are extremely thinly veiled warnings to specific individuals, in this case Holmstrom. It might as well have said "Colin Campbell has said refs will be cracking down on Holmstrom's style of play". My bulls*** meter is already in the yellow and the puck hasn't even dropped on Game 1. I'm predicting at least 1-2 disallowed goals per round for Holmstrom and the Wings. The most frustrating thing of all this time of year, is that it always happens and it always happens on goals in which Holmstrom is completely playing within the rules and perfectly screening outside of the crease. Holmstrom does get in there on occasion, but I don't think I've ever seen a disallowed goal on a legit interference with Holmstrom, just knee jerk refereeing. Hooray for NHL consistency!

HA this. I'm surprised there are like 4 or 5 threads at this point basically saying "Ugh, why I've never.... Hmmp!" Is it really so shocking? Let them talk s*** on theirs and we'll talk on ours, its called preaching to the choir. Plus, the whole "classless" thing is getting a bit old, at least with regards to fans. Fans by nature are irrational, hate spewing masses of zealotry, calling others "classless" makes the forum seem like some black tie gala. Crosby, Pronger, Cooke = Classless Fans of opposite teams = Morons entitled to their Opinions

That was my exact first thought, right after "awwwwwwwwww "

Thought this was hilariously awkward and worth a post. I know there was some controversy about the actual number of times they said "Zetterberg" and I had guessed there would be, but this is just priceless. Hank calls the winner of the contest and what ensues is a very awkward conversation in which Hank tries hard to congratulate the girl and instead of her being "ZOMG HANK!" she is all "Is this a joke?" which is probably how I would treat it. Anyways, enjoy! http://redwings.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=-6&id=65506

To me Bertuzzi's hot streak earlier in the season was based on him finally doing what he had before and since been unwilling to: playing a Holmstrom role. Everything Holmstrom does every shift is what Bertuzzi has to do, but doesn't. When he was on a hot streak he was parked near the net and even retrieved a puck here and there and banged. But then he looked the stat sheet and said to himself "Wait, I have more than 12 goals, it must be 2003! Hooray I'm a superstar, here I come!".... FAIL. Bertuzzi has to learn that he isn't helping the team by floating around the face-off circles watching the smaller and more skilled Filppula and Zetterberg go get him the puck so he can turn it over. It needs to be the other way around like it is with Homer: get to the net, leave to retrieve pucks in the corner and get it to skilled guys, return to the net, leave to provide a passing outlet down-low, give it back to the skilled players, return to the net.

This is where I lost the OP too. I agree that Draper has looked plain awful lately and on this team his position is becoming a little redundant with several players able to do it better, but over Williams? Williams has looked the worst on the team and DEFINITELY is not fourth line material. Scratch Williams for Abdelkader before scratching Draper, but Draper needs to pick up his game a lot.

Bertuzzi and Williams are both frustrating in the same way. They are absolute crap most of the time and then they have little flickers of brilliance and score and all of a sudden "hail Bert/Willy". But at the end of the day, both are consistently pathetic out there, turn over pucks endlessly, and most frustrating of all, both have the tools to get the job done and don't use them. Bertuzzi is rarely going to the net and never digging pucks (I don't know how many times yesterday alone Flip was in the corner trying to get the puck away from 3 Hawks and Bertuzzi was parked 8 feet away watching) and Williams has a great shot and good maneuverability but he gets blocked or shoots wide more than any player on the team and fumbled the puck on the simplest plays. Bertuzzi gets some slack because of his production compared to his paycheck, but lets face it, every time he sits there and watches our smaller players dig in the corners and go to the net and subsequently turns over the puck when he gets it, I feel the little brain tumor called "Todd" grow a little bit in my head.

So beautiful I could cry! Incredible! Evander is welcome to dinner at my house any time.

Well, somehow the Oilers pulled that out. So I got what I wanted: a two birds, one stone scenario in which the Wings need to step up with a statement game in Chicago and if they win they also clinch 5th. The Wings from here til June (hopefully) now have to rely on no one but themselves. Fun times to be had!

All signs point to Williams sitting in the post-season. He has been bumped down to the fourth line with Draper and Miller, and he looked to be the worst one on it. The one thing keeping him around, as others have said, is Babcock's inability to accept two left-handed shots on the same PP unit. He would much rather see Williams look completely impotent out there then put anyone else back there. As someone else stated: Samuelsson >>>> Williams, Williams is Samuelsson's understudy, that's why he left in the first place.

Based on? Can Crosby just give and take away goals now? The league reviews goals and they are changed after the fact. Sid didn't tell them to do jack. Funny tho.