b.shanafan14

The point I took away from this is Semin saying essentially: "Crosby has talent and can rack up points, but nothing to justify ignoring a league of superstars, some of which are much more fun to watch (*cough*Ovechkin*cough*) and focus solely on a single young player for 90% of all advertisements." I really don't see how anyone can argue with that. Datsyuk might not be 21 or lead the league in scoring, but he is a blast to watch because of pure skill. Ovechkin has been Crosby's more exciting, harder hitting, better goal scoring equivalent for years and he hasn't gotten an iota near as much press as Crosby. Is Crosby a great player? Yes. So great that he should be 90% of the NHL's face? Hell no. He's been force fed to us hardcore fans, and fair or not fair, some of us resent him for it. (In the first video below, tell me who the NHL portrays as the cup winner and franchise with the most wide-spread fanbase, the Wings or the Pens? And how many times do you see Crosby and 87 in a minute?)

If Lidstrom keeps up his play, his 7th Norris is a lock.

the Wings have been absolute garbage this season, tonite was the worst effort yet. Anyone else sick of endless turn overs and a team GAA of around 4?

Our defense is terrible and our offense can't get through the neutral zone. How many give aways have we got this year already? Is it as much as all last season yet, cause it sure seems that way. And did the Lilja family kidnap Lidstrom and replace him with Andreas' twin brother? Seriously, I'm gonna go on record saying the Nick has sucked this year, along with the rest of the defense. Hossa and Pav are both trying to be too cute tonite.

Sucks, gotta feel for the kid.

Pretty sad, eh

Not to jump into this or take sides or anything, but Dom was a veteran of 42 years old who rarely ever was told he played badly or cost them the game, and I doubt highly he cared enough to come to LGW and see what the fans were thinking. On the other hand, good ol' "fortunate" Ozzie was never the could-do-no-wrong superstar Dom was and I remember a 20 something kid blaming himself for every loss, deserved or not, and trying so hard to get ready for a game that he would exhaust himself before the puck drop and still play pretty damn good. That same kid was called the "worst goalie to ever win the Stanley Cup". I know you feel like Dom had to deal with some s***, but Ozzie has been far from without that same s*** for his whole career.

Something has to give and someone has to go, Mac and Maltby are making it so we can't have a 4th line that you want to ice, and they are bumping Kopecky to the 3rd line. At the very least, Mac has to go and its time to bring up Helm. We really have two 4th liners in Draper and Kopecky and two alternates in Mac and Malts, and they are taking up the last 4 forward slots. Something has to give...

This fight was pathetic. Nuff said. Mac has outstayed his welcome, love him, but its really time to go.

7-1-2 record playing against a turnover prone defense and at least a 5 on 3 every night apparently? No, you're right, he hasn't stolen anything, he's terrible, bench him, better yet, waive him. Lets take the Bulin Wall off Chicago's cap. [/sarcasm] Osgood hasn't played All-Star worthy, but he has been solid compared to the defense in front of him at times playing like Gretzky, dickin' around behind their own net and then centering for a nice helper (for the opposition). And there is a huge difference between Dom playing poorly with an incredible defense playing in front of him last season with Ozzy splitting the games and playing great with the same defense and this season Ozzy playing slightly off-solid SOME nights behind a defense that has played awful at best to date and his back-up Conklin not doing any better in front of said defense. That and as far as I remember, we let Dom play subpar all season as 1A never benching him even when he really earned it, which went on until he let in goals in spans of 33, 11 and 9 seconds apart in consecutive games in the playoffs.

Its not a purely anti-Wings thing thats going on. We have been penalized an absurd amount this season right? The days of counting a teams 5 on 3 situations on two-hands is out in the first month of the season. As bad as the Wings have had it, they are still (at least going into last nights game) the LEAST penalized team in the league. Take the time to watch NHL games in which the Wings aren't playing, and count the penalties and 5 on 3s, its ridiculous. The problem with last night in particular isn't that the Wings were getting called for phantom penalties, its this: - The refs seem to lock eyes on the team that's leading and ignore the trailing team. - The severity of the offense to go to a 5 on 3 has dropped considerably. - The game was decided on a high-stick that was reviewed shortly and awarded to the home team. All these are trends throughout the NHL this season and reared their ugly heads prominently last night. The Wings deserved 90% of the penalties they got last night, but Anaheim deserved at least 5 more than they got. Compare the chinsy hook Pavel got, to the Interference/Elbow/Blow to the head Pronger preformed on Datsyuk wasn't called, or the boarding calls let go when preformed by the Ducks, but awarded when preformed by the Wings once. The refs have also awarded at least one 5 on 3 in every game I've watched in the last week (Wings or non-Wings). And for the most part they are penalties that are weak by 5 on 5 standards, especially when you look at some penalties that are "missed" by the trailing team. And the high-stick goal last night was just icing on cake.

Ozzy has been shaky at times but he is still adjusting from playing in front of the best, most disciplined defense in the NHL to whoever these guys playing in front of him are. Ozzy has had a few softies but really not many when you look at them. How many have been on the PP and more to the point, how many have been on a 5 on 3? Last night Osgood played great and lost 5-4, huh? Well, lets look at the goals against last night: 5 on 3 goal, 5 on 2 goal (Pav lost his stick), PPG, defensive breakdown centered in the low slot, and the game-winner was a obvious high-stick, but lacking a camera angle right in line with the crossbar, it counted. The real issue this season is penalty trouble, for the Wings especially, but as bad as its been, they are still one of the LEAST penalized teams in the league?! Watch a non-Wings game anywhere around the NHL and count the penalties, its been disgusting. Does anyone else find that awarding 5 on 3s to the trailing team until they victimize the opposition for a tying goal and then putting the whistles away boring? The game is meant to be played 5 on 5 and I feel like I haven't seen a solid 5 minutes of that for weeks.

I don't doubt the presence of Wings penalties, I find it funny how some penalties aren't seen these days, all around the league, not just this game, when they are committed by the trailing team. And that the severity once needed to put a team on a lengthy two-man advantage as slipped to nothing. And if its intentional, which I don't doubt in the least that it is because its happened plenty before, I hate it. To me, 5 on 5 hockey is the entertaining stuff, PP not bad, but 5 on 3 are boring as sin. Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass...... pass, shot, no one moving, rinse, repeat. Lucky us we have a tie game. I think if Bettman had his way, every game would go to a shootout tied 6-6 and it would take 5 shooters and the home team would win every time.

This game was disgusting. The officiating was the worst I've seen all year, and that is saying a LOT. How many 5 on 3's are Bettman's zebras going to award to team thats down. Between the last 3 games, I don't think I've seen a solid 5 minutes of 5 on 5 hockey. Its getting old and it always seems to be a disputed ending when we play the Ducks in Cali especially. Gary Bettman and his refs are ruining this year for me so far. Explain to me how they think a team earning a lead and the opposition gets awarded 5 on 3 after another to run a passing drill until the inevitably score. Its disgusting.

sad to see him go out like this

Ozzie has always been my favorite, he's proven clutch throughout his career and even his failings have done more to endear him to me and I think its true with a lot of fans. There are the goaltenders who are just plain sick good, and then there are the rare players who aren't perfect but they make you want to pull for them. I think this is rarest with goaltenders because when they aren't perfect, they draw the wrath of the fan heavily. Ozzie grew up with the Wings and we as fans have gotten to see so many highs and a few lows.

I still don't understand why they are doing it at Wrigley, when any football stadium is going to have better seating. Like someone else said, that seating chart just looks scary.

I was actually watching the replays from the FSN West feed or whatever they have on NHL.com, and I thought it was difficult to watch that much behind the net cam and other weird angles, and I always hated whenever other stations would use those for primary cams because it makes it hard to see the action. Save those fancy angles for the replay, then show me 11 different camera angles at 4 different speeds.

If we go with forwards as they are now, we have Draper centering two of Kopecky, Maltby, and Mac, three players who have much to be made about any of them in the roster at all. I personally don't have a problem with Kopecky, but Maltby and Mac are both interchangeable now subpar checking forwards, either way, one is plenty on the team and it bumps one of those three to the 3rd line. We lost a scoring forward, we should replace him with someone with that potential and we get the added bonus of testing Leino in the big leagues and boosting his confidence. Whats to gain by keeping a player in Mac who would have been sent down to begin the season if he wasn't on IR? I think its simple math: Lose offense, add offense.

I think the hit was good and clean, but it was devastating and to a young player. I understand I'm in a minority, but I think thats a hit you pass on. Lets face it, in the big picture what happened was one highlight for the Islanders this year at the price of an old player injuring a young player. It could be nothing, or it could be a hiccup or worse in a young players career. I think as clean as the hit is, its ugly. Taking hits like this out of the game doesn't "pussify" it as much as many on these boards seem to think. Would hockey not be hockey if I hadn't seen a team sans upside like the Islanders and a player sans future like Weight destroy some young kid? I understand he had his head down and blah blah blah. You can have clean, monstrous hits without the kind of contact we saw on that on. (see Kronwall's hits from last years playoffs, Phaneuf's hit on Hudler, Cleary's hit on Phaneuf, or the two huge hits from the Bruins-Leafs game the other day)

I think either way, we're better served to call up Leino. Right now we do have 12 forwards, but we have 4 fourth line checkers and we just lost a big offensive threat in Franzen. As unfortunate as it is, this is the perfect time to give Leino a shot at the NHL, much like Filppula a few years back. We all know what we are going to get with Mac (not much), but if we call up Leino and give him 3rd line minutes with Huds (or Sammy) and Val, it'll give him a chance to prove himself during regular season play (start him off easy against the Kings and a struggling Ducks team, before heading to San Jose) and we show him this organization didn't sign him to play in the minors, confidence boost all around, make him hungrier. The lineup is more skilled and balanced if you add Leino and send down one of our 4 checkers (Mac).

I'm assuming you mean active players, right?

Probably going to be 90% kick saves and when they play the Wings, Samuelsson might actually get a shot on goal with one of those high, hard, useless shots of his.

Mac and Cheli were both signed for nostalgia and have nothing to offer the team on the ice anymore, which is where the games are played (according to wikipedia). Both are SPECTACULAR locker room presences, but so is the equipment guy. We shouldn't have either of them filling a roster spot that we could use for Helm, Leino, or Ericsson, which even saying it just now makes me think 'wow, Babs is right, those are the best 3 players I think I've ever seen sent to the minors'. Thanks for the memories Mac, good luck elsewhere. Which brings me to this point too, if no other team in the league wants the guy for next to nothing of waivers, why should he be on the defending Stanley Cup champion for nothing?

Samuelsson on the point during PP continues to be the worst idea I've seen linger. The guy has an uncontrolable shot, half the time can't hold the zone and all this is better than the instances when he all of a sudden believes he is Gretzky and can just walk around the opposition on his way to the net like a kid playing NHL 09, thus vacating the point for an easy clear or short-handed chance when he inevitably coughs up the puck. I personally don't think there is a forward I would want on the point that wouldn't be better served to work the puck down low.