Cruiser008

Oh ya baby!! This is the way it was MEANT to be!

Well there were a few tense moments *cough* OT in game 5 *cough* but it all worked out well. The Preds (and their fans) brought plenty of playoff intensity and it was great to see the Wings respond in Games 5 and 6. While the series lasted longer then some of us would have liked I was really glad that Nashville forced us to switch to Ozzie as I felt he should have been the starter all along based on his superior regular season form. We've successfully passed the first hurdle, and now it's on to round two! P.S. Props to the Preds fans for being civil; I've a feeling it's gonna get a little nastier agains our next opponents (either the goons from Cowtown or Floppa and his Dives)

Norris Nick comes through again, top shelf no less. No more breakaways please.

The Wings need to tighten up their team defense, especially on the road. They're better than this.

Thank god for CBC. Arnott's out with a concussion; if we don't have any defensive lapses/brain cramps we should be able to take this.

What? I know he's on the other team but I find it hard to hate a 27 year old guy who's waiting his whole career to be a starting goalie and now is playing out of his mind on hockey's biggest stage. Tootoo needs to be taught a lesson from Kronwall though.

Wooooooooooooooo!!!! Alright my thoughts on the game: I know some of you are saying oh here we go again, but I'm gonna chalk up our not scoring more than 1 goal in regulation today as more luck then anything. The flow of the game was awfully familiar but in our past 1st round losses we had way fewer quality scoring chances than we've had this series. Zetterberg and Cleary have been snakebit but these are two of the hardest working wings so I'm not too worried. Me-thinks this team has more confidence and simply plays harder for Ozzie, and it was great to be that the fans showed him some love. Assuming the Wings learned something from Game 3 (good GOD I hope they learned from that game) I fully expect them to finish the series on Sunday

This thread is absolutely rediculous.

Datsyuk's certainly been a beast in this series so far.

Just heard the news; I think he deserves it after the excellent season he's had and the demeanor he has shown on the ice. Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie!

See my last post.

4 Things: The officials really lost their balls in the 3rd when Rafalski (?) was brought down and there was no call. Stuart has got to improve his positioning; the 2nd Nashville goal was 100% his fault Hasek needs to stop that 3rd goal next time if we are to go deep into the playoffs, pure and simple. We tried to sit on one goal lead for 19 1/2 min so the tying goal wasn't totally unexpected, but the GWG.... well that sucked and I don't wanna talk about it.

Great game; Detroit weathered the 1st period storm, found a way to re-group (Babcock showed why he's an elite coach and Trotz could do nothing about his teams lack of focus in the 3rd) after the Preds scored twice in 16 second and won going away. Now they just need to find a way to come back home up 3-1, 'cause we haven't won a short series in 5 years.

That period was WILD!

edit (wrong thread)

Loved the Kronnic hit..... it was dirty, but it was also dirrrrty! Besides, Nashville did NOTHING on that, or any of their PPs.

Good first game by the Wings. We outskated them badly spent a good chunk of the game in the Nashville zone. The Nashville goal was a fluke and besides that Dom had a solid game. We need to cut down on the turnovers but aside form that we looked fairly good.

Excellent article! Thanks for posting it!

Kira you know how badly I've ripped on Datsyuk in the past... but his progression into an elite two-way forward has been amazing and what he did last year in the playoffs was something else. Now that he's an alternate captain Datsyuk has taken his game to another level, and I'm sure glad he'll be our franchise pivot for years to come.

x2 x3 As for the matchup itself, less travel (which is HUGE in the long run) and a team that isn't super-physical but plays hard make an ideal first round opponent. I know that Detroit has had problems in the 1st round in the past but IMO this team is gritty and passionate enough to avoid any notion of an upset. Babcock said this is the best team he's ever coached and I believe him.

FINALLY!! The season was awesome but we've waited all year for the playoffs and now it's here at last. Wings vs. Preds, boy am I pumped! Bring on the playoffs baby!! :starwars: :octo:

I would totally prefer the Preds... make it happen Kipper!

Damn Matt it was only for a minute but you got me.

It would have been better if Jonathan went up to papa Wah and demanded a trade.

Wings win, wings win!! omg we needed this baaaad.