b.shanafan14

I hope you're right, but I don't think so. The Wings will win if they play like they are capable, something we have rarely seen this whole playoff run. If the Red Wings, play to potential, starting with the big guns of Hossa, Franzen, Rafalski, and now Datsyuk, all the way down the lineup, Wings win easy. They honestly haven't come out swinging in a single playoff game this spring, and between slow starts and stretches where the look uninterested, they have played very few, if any, complete games. If the Red Wings respond to the wake up call of Game 4, and round into form, Wings in 6, otherwise, I don't like their chances. Your best players have to play like it, we haven't seen that out of anyone but Zetterberg.... yet.

1) The Wings are losing because of disgusting turnovers. The short-hander last night was the 2nd or 3rd break on that same PP the Wings allowed. 2) The trailing player has stopped skating countless times and there is zero puck support in the corners. 3) Our best players haven't stepped it up offensively yet and its finally starting to hurt us. 4) The lack of our best shutdown forward/offensive threat for the past 6 games or so is very evident. I think if any of us were asked before the playoffs if the Wings would win the cup with Datsyuk out, many of us would say probably not, even though the young kids have stepped in admirably. Overall, the Red Wings are losing because the Detroit Red Wings we know haven't showed up for a single game this series, or really even the whole playoffs. Something has to give soon, I can't watch anymore hockey like this, riddled with mistakes, laziness, and poor decision making.

Or everytime Edzo mentions his theory of "subtle interference" that apparently ONLY the Wings do and he didn't notice it until his Blackhawks were losing in the Conference Finals. Seriously, Penguins/Hawks do whatever and its good stuff, see how many times he is waiting to call this phantom interference. Edzo: "right....... THERE! Subtle interference!"

I would kill to have CBC

hahaha Great read! Thats every Penguins fan I've met in summation. Thanks for a smile today. GO WINGS!

haha yeah, saw that earlier. Pav is hamming it up for the press and Ozzy is just smiling and nodding the whole time, checking his watch and s***. Gotta love the Pasha and Ozzy presser combo. "Its not fun to watch, takes a lot of beer." - I hear that Pavel

OR if I keep riding Samuelsson for poor play, he's due to pot two goals to shut me up, then we get the Mikael Samuelsson post-game drinking game: Take a shot everytime he says "yeah" inappropriately loud or says "I should say".

Drink every time they mention Crosby when he is neither handling the puck, or even on the ice. Take a shot every time they replay Crosby's movement during a play he wasn't directly involved in or replay his reaction to something on the bench in lieu of showing the actual "something".

Was the Ericsson penalty interference in the regular season? Probably. The problem isn't the penalty vs. regular season, or even vs. the rest of the series, if the NHL is going to achieve any kind of consistency, at least make it period to period in a single game. The refs let go so much interference from Gill and Orpik it was ridiculous, but I didn't care because they were setting a standard of officiating, and as long as flow wasn't continually broken by PP time, I can live with it as long as its consistent. The second they called the Ericsson interference, they grossly changed the standard set in the previous two periods. That is the real problem: calling a legit penalty after setting a standard for looking the other way, especially since Ericsson's was much less blatant the those committed by others earlier in the game. Its the same as football, interference and holding can be called every play, but when you decide to call one over another not based on severity but more based on whimsy, the refs take the game out of the players' hands and have officially swayed the balance. The reason why there are so many "whiners" is the fact that before the game the league said they were going to call it closer, they didn't, UNTIL Ericsson in the 3rd period. Also, this same league that wanted their rules called to the letter, decided to overturn one of their own that said the Pens best player EARNED an AUTOMATIC suspension. On top of that, the hilariously missed/dismissed 6 on 5 for 20+ seconds (I've never even heard of such things) coupled with the Penguins non-stop media love and Bettman's transparent need to prolong the series. In the end, things looked awful fishy when the dust settled on Game 3. Wings will hopefully feed off of it. GO WINGS

pretty obvious if PTI is picking up on it.

I sighted the same incident in an earlier post. When I was watching the game, that was the one that stuck out most in my mind: turned to a friend and said "that was as much as any two players could interfere with the opposition on a dump in, and no call. I will guarantee you that come third period, the Wings get a much softer interference call against them, just you wait." Sure enough, laughable interference call ruins a good 5 on 5 game. My problem is with the inconsistent, whimsical way penalties are assessed. Calls/non-calls in the first should be the same in the third. They changed the standard of officiating that saw crosscutcks to the head and Super Hal Gill interference all game, and by doing so tilted the advantage of the game. Bettman got exactly what he wanted, a series. Just makes me sick how he gets it.

wow! I was in a noisy bar tonite so missed hearing about the 6 on 5 for 21 effin' seconds!? And the refs just say "hey get off". On top of the endless Gill interference that goes uncalled when the soft, SOFT interference on Ericsson. The standard is obviously not only inconsistent, but apparently cartoonishly one-sided... Definitely watching the archived stream of the game, much more pissed now. Anything Pens fans could ever ***** about is officially trumped before they even present it.

Wings didn't capitalize on chances and turned it over in their own zone WAY too much. I thought the officiating wasn't as bad as I expected, but the Ericsson interference that led to the game winning PP goal was a classic example of the kind of a play that happened much worse the whole game on both sides that went uncalled, but the second you call that, you change the standard of officiating, which is the kind of reffing that decides games, and that ain't right. I can think of an incident in the 1st I think when either Hossa or Filppula dumped it in, got held up much worse than the Ericsson incident, shook that player and was then similarly held up by a second player, which even at the standard set in Games 1 and 2, should have been a penalty and wasn't. This is all fine, so long as the standard remains. Because the refs changed the standard at times during the game, the officiating swayed advantage in an otherwise even game. Oh well, Wings in 5!

Good story, that would be one hell of a night! I expected the Wings to lose tonite, so no huge deal, they definitely need to split in Pittsburgh tho.

Please and Thanks. Or Abdelkader on the 3rd line.

This. Bylsma seems like a great guy too. About time a Pittsburgh coach made it about the team instead of the Kid. Good on ya, Dan. But you'll have to get your rings some other way.

I'm really liking this guy.

This is being fed by sour-puss Olcyk, who since Game X of the WCF has talked about nothing other than the way the Red Wings "interfere better than any team in the league". Games 1 and 2 vs. the Penguins, Edzo has carried over his conspiracy theory that occupying ice that the other team wants is interference, instead of the old hockey mantra thats "that ice is as much yours as it is theirs".

I admit the timing of that octopus hitting the ice was stupid. But you can't fault the team for their fans. Stupid.

hahaha I was just about to post about this, wait til they archive it later and throw up a link, others need to hear this. What a moron, sour-grapes Avs fan. hahaha hilarious start to finish.

Z in his infinite mercy granted Malkin the first punches and stick strikes along with the pre-existing 4" of goonness, and after brief restraint by Satan, Z provided light fist-blows of knowledge to the youthful and stupid Malkin, not wanting to sully his glorious fists on the swollen inner tube lips of his beat opponent. Z is a benevolent golden-god, preferring to glance at a victorious score-board than the whimpering baby-face of a beaten child. "No, no! Look at his face! He's got the mind of a child. It's not his fault." *insert ending of fight in Beyond Thunderdome, when Blaster is revealed as a dim-wit*

Here is the official rule for instigator within the final 5 minutes of a game, which was assessed to Malkin rightfully so last night, and just and quickly, waffled on by the NHL:

I agree, but game misconduct is ejection from the current game, nothing in the rule that says one game suspension, and definitely not automatic. Instigator in the final five minutes does include the automatic one game suspension wording. Either way, we are all in agreement, if you have a rule, enforce it, or don't have the rule.

Great article, my point exactly in the previous threads. If you have a rule, enforce it, without discrimination or favoritism. Instigator rule is a joke in every situation EXCEPT message sending at the end of the game, which whether Campbell admits it or not, was undeniably the case. If you are going to rescind any part of the AUTOMATIC, CUT, and DRY rule that it was, rescind the $10,000 fine to the coach. There is no question Malkin was attempting to send a message in a losing effort, and it definitely shouldn't have helped that he started with a sucker punch, then moved into swinging his stick at Zetterberg's head, then continuing with the gloves for a bit, all with 19 second left in the game on a player who not only has never fought before, but who is giving better than 4 inches and 20lbs. NHL is laughable in the interpretation and enforcement of its own rules and really, would have seemed plenty more legitimate had they not waffled for the umpteenth time this post-season. Also, I know its regular season, but nothing stopped the league from suspending two of the classiest and best players in the league each one game for simply missing Bettman's tea party (the All-Star game) to rest injuries on a much less cut and dry, much newer rule.

I expect to lose Game 3, but hopefully the Wings will split in Pittsburgh. If the Wings split in Pittsburgh, its over.