b.shanafan14

This was my problem all season too. Everyone underachieved because we were forcing things with Pavel and Hossa. Hossa got 40 goals, but when he wasn't scoring goals, he looked like Shanahan in his last season as a Wing (much as I love him). Pavel seemed to look that much better because he seemed to have to do a little more to compensate for the lack of chemistry. We moved Zetterberg's line around so much, it became hard for him to find a rhythm without Pavel. The only players I felt ever showed they could play well on a line with Hossa was Filppula and Franzen, seemingly the no-brainer line since Hossa's acquisition, and yet we only saw them together in one or two game instances. Sign Hossa, you'll probably have to lose either a 2nd line center coming into his own in Filppula (could play on the first line in probably 10 clubs) and/or a character guy and younger/faster/better Holmstrom replacement in Cleary who is starting to find a scoring-groove with the team (this also means increased/same role for Holmstrom who after seeing this post-season, I believe is too banged up to play hard, good minutes on the top-two lines anymore) I just hate the idea of moving players and changing the formula that won us a Cup to put us in worse shape than we are this year when we lost the Cup.

Hossa is a great guy and a great player, but I see signing him long-term as team suicide. Not only will we be flush with the cap, but we'll lose guys like Hudler and have to move at least one of Cleary or Filppula, both who are only getting better it seems and who have both been huge character guys for the club. Our depth and experience will take a huge hit, messing with a winning formula, and if the cap drops the season after, we'll be even worse off. I don't want to wake up two years from now and realize that Wings have become the Senators, losing depth and character to pay big names. And I don't think there is a person on this board who can honestly say that his post-season disappearance didn't make them a little shy about handing the increased role to him. That said, if he is signed, I'll support him. He'll be a Red Wing, and that makes you swell in my book. I do think he deserves a place to settle.

The Ducks are terrible to lose to, and probably my most hated team still. But the Penguins are definitely worse to lose to. The nauseating amount of media love they get is frustrating. The fact that their fanbase is made up entirely of novices who have seen too many Gatorade, Verizon, RBK, Center Ice, Versus, NBC, etc. commercials with only ONE player in all of them to not speak so confidently and uninformed on the subject is frustrating. The fact that the Red Wings won last season, decidingly and we saw more Penguins commercials than ever, most which showed them beating the Red Wings. We all know we won't be given similar advertisements this season, in fact, the league might as well recycle them adding Sid holding the Cup at the end. I hate the Ducks, but we won't have to watch any advertisements of them beating the Red Wings when they didn't. Unfortunately, the NHL media covers will most likely be even more lopsided now. Lets face it, the Penguins have been marketed as a dynasty since before they even won a playoff round, and that to me is disgusting. The Ducks are the hardass, tough guy who only his friends like and everyone else hates to deal with. The Penguins are the entitled, rich kid who has been told how great he is since he was a baby, and now is a s***-talking mama's boy. And NOBODY likes that guy....

I'm not going to say that Hossa is the sole reason for the loss, but it doesn't look good for him. I think he is a great guy, and I think any UFA who spurns more lucrative, long-term deals to come to our team and risk it all deserves the respect of everyone in the hockey world. That said, I don't want Hossa resigned, especially with the salary commitments we already have and disappearing act he pulled in the playoffs, specifically the later rounds. We are too close to the cap as it is, and I think signing another salary like his for as long as we'll have to is team suicide.

They played terrible for 20-40 minutes nearly every game. In hindsight, I think its incredible that they got to Game 7 of the cup final, only playing 2 or 3 complete games the whole run and their best players offensively not showing up. There were a lot of things wrong with this run that we as fans have seen very rarely from the Wings, something that has been there all season: the sense that they were just phoning it in. You don't win Stanley Cups by phoning it in.

Stuart was one of our best defensemen all spring, but he was completely to blame for the two goals. As soon as he took the puck behind the net and had two guys closing on him, I knew what was going to happen. Before he even passed the puck, I had seen this boneheaded play committed by the Wings before, I said "don't" and thats all I could get out before he did exactly what I know he would. That goes up the boards, Wings recover the puck, Pens maybe don't score first, etc. etc.

Still can't believe the Wings couldn't must more than 23 shots on goal and one in the back of the net. Ozzy got them through series after series of mediocre play, and when the chips we down, we couldn't pot more than 1 goal for him. So depressed..... Thanks Ozzy, you're a real gamer, and 4th cup ring asside, if you're not in the HOF in the end, no one deserves to be.

I'm ill..... remember when we won the Cup last season and instead of receiving deserved advertisement, we suffered through ad after ad of Pro-Penguins, Pro-Crosby bulls***? Now the league has finally gotten what it wanted, a legion of the novice fans, claiming after-the-fact allegiances to a team that they see on their Gatorade bottles and TV commercials. Its so frustrating to watch a team that was in Pheniox Coyotes like trouble and earned nothing before the NHL decided that by marketing alone, it would CREATE a franchise worth a damn. Welcome to the NBA....

Thank you, Ozzy. You deserved better.... Welcome to the age of the marketing fan. A guy from my college who was bandwagoning the Penguins last season, bandwagoned (very arrogantly) the Blackhawks this season, AFTER the Penguins won tonite, he thought worth rubbing in the loss made him in the right.... I fear for the future of hockey, THE ONE SPORT YET TO BE RUINED by the introduction of the casual fan.

Me and a pitcher of Labatt Blue, one frosted mug.

GO WINGS! WE DON'T WANT THE CUP, WE NEED THE CUP! ITS MY BIRTHDAY, GIVE ME SOMETHING HEAVY AND SILVER! GO WINGS!

Like the Sid = Luke, Malkin = Han blurb. "The Messiah, the Anointed One, the whiny brat who thinks he's a great leader at age 20." = Crosby "He might not get all the publicity, but he's the guy you really wanted to be when you grew up. At the end of the day, you can thank this cool cat for blasting Vader's ass and gifting the Golden Child his moment of glory." = Malkin Except, to me, no one on the Penguins is worthy of being Han Solo. Hank as Vader is awesome. Spot on their description of the Emperor, Babs even looks like him

The Illitchs have lowered ticket prices constantly over the last couple seasons, but as a business, as great as they are, they can't afford to just give away a lot of tickets. Glad there are more trolls....

hahaha

I will vomit, literally and figuratively, for the next year straight. There were about 10 Penguins commercial this year, and they weren't even the Champions, could you even fathom the disgusting Bettman money-shot advertising we'd have to endure? The endless tooting of Crosby's horn as the "captain" *small amount of vomit* who steered the ship to a cup..... Thankfully, the Wings are going to give me a great birthday present in the form of a second consecutive Stanley Cup and spare me the avoidence of all sports media for a whole calendar year.

I don't think there has been a single game the Red Wings played well before the 10 minute mark of the 1st period. Last night, they waited to the 10 minute mark of the 2nd period. Wings have had one or two games where they played to their potential, thats about it. Hopefully after Game 7 we can say they've played at least 3 games to potential. GO WINGS.

How exactly do you quantify his greater amount of desire to win the Cup? EVERYONE has a huge desire to win the Cup, whether you've won it before or not. Sidney (which is how its spelled, some fan you are) has done exactly nothing this whole series, unless you count his tantrums as greater desire to win. I would consider Hossa's decision last summer as a pretty tangible desire to win the Cup, but he hasn't done a damn thing so far. Everyone wants the Cup, but right now, Crosby and Hossa are both providing nothing to their teams. Desire isn't tangible enough, effort is.

right now, more than anyone on the team, Hossa is a passenger. If he came here thinking the Wings would win a cup for him, he is sorely mistaken. I've liked the guy during the regular season, but still, been underwelmed with him. To this point, he's only scored goals in 3 games, and has looked terrible everyother game. Tonight, he was our worst player. I thank god for Ozzy, otherwise this game was as much of an embarrassment on the scoresheet as it was on the ice. Yay, I get to avoid sports radio/tv/internet for the next two days. (How many times did they show Crosby during and after the game? the guy has done NOTHING)

I predict Ozzy finishes out the remaining years of this contract and then settles for a one-year deal before joining Jim Bedard as a goalie coach.

Who would honestly want to lose a SCF game, for any reason? Dumb thread....

It really makes you think: what if Sid was in the Western Conference all year? Zetterberg takes Bettman's RBK selling-machine and makes him look awful pedestrian. God, I love watching Zetterberg and Crosby battle, entertaining, hard-fought hockey, that Sid then turns from a mutual battle to a outright Zetterberg victory by showing childish frustration.

Adorable isn't it? They don't remember how close the Kansas City Penguins were because they didn't know what hockey was before Bettman began to shine every media light on Sid the Kid and the Pittsburgh Crosbies. It is cute tho.

How fitting would it be for Hossa to score A goal, still waiting for that to happen. But yes, it would be a wonderful twist of fate.

I had absolutely no problem with the lines as is, but we'll probably want to put Datsyuk on Malkin, so he can own him some more. Long as Hossa starts playing in Game 6, they'll be fine.

Dear Hockey Gods, Please let the Wings finish at least one series this spring with a full roster, 2-3 games to go. Thanks. Sincerely, ME