MabusIncarnate

Great first, this is what we needed.

I missed Helm on the PK so much

Total Wings domination. Lets GO boys, keep it up.

Suddenly the PP looks incredible.. keep it up!

KRONWALLED!!!!!

Please be 4.. our 3rd period PPs looked solid last game, short of scoring. Let's start the night with a PP goal and build off it.

Look at Abby our little firecracker.. do some damage you FlashyG perceived chick.

This might be a good justification game for that "Should we re-sign monster" thread posted up. Huge test for Monster here, lot of early energy. I'm hoping for good things this game.

I'm going to go ahead and update the GDT under the assumption that Z plays with the lines as they are currently projected. I'm assuming they already know but the game time decision is an effort to scramble the Bruins counteractive line combinations based around him playing or not. Let's hope he's here for us.

I'd take one of the previous 4 you mentioned over Reimer. Remember toward the end of the season when we were neck and neck with Toronto for a playoff spot? Then Bernier gets injured and Reimer helped them along magnificently during their crash and burn losing skid. He was flat out awful during that desperate situation, no thanks on him.

I'm fine with Monster for one more season, He came up big for us when Howard was injured and got valuable wins. Mrazek hasn't proven anything to me yet, he needs more time under his belt. He had two wins in six starts this season and nothing about that screams to me "trusted backup". If Howard went down for an extended period of time, as it sits right now, I have more confidence in Monster carrying the load for a few weeks over Mrazek.

Oh I remember it all vividly, I wasn't much of an Ozzie supporter and i'm not now, but he does have a few championships under his belt regardless. I can see Howard having a similar career with the same kind of reactions going forward regardless of success or failure.

If this team is falling apart after one goal being allowed then they have no business even playing in the playoffs to begin with. If they go into the game with the logic that they must score the first goal or they are going to just not play anymore and lose the game then there is no hope for any kind of advancement this season. Regardless, he doesn't let that one in, we still lose 1-0. There was no energy out of the Wings prior to that first goal anyway, they came out lazy like they didn't care. It's not like they came out flying, were putting up scoring chances, and suddenly a weak goal was let in and it changed the entire pace of the game. They were bad from the puck drop until late in the 2nd period. It was a matter of when Boston was going to score, not if, and that is the fault of the skaters and defense. I still don't declare the first goal as weak as everyone is saying it is, in my book, weak means no excuse why it wasn't stopped. The red line slapper against Osgood, the wrap around against Fleury in last year's playoffs. Soderberg ripped it over Howard's glove, he was given plenty of room to do so and he tucked it in right under the crossbar. It could have been stopped, but it wasn't a bad, weak shot that some kind of half assed effort caused to go in, Howard just didn't react in time to stop the shot that picked the corner. It was stoppable, but not weak. What Howard did in Game 2 was a mistake and weak. I won't deny that. They are two very different situations.

I can agree with that logic, although Osgood after a cup under his belt continued to receive the same blame and grief for the rest of his career regardless of what he was doing. I'm just calling it as I see it, I can live with allowing 2 goals a game as long as we can match or put up more. Averaging less than a goal scored per game will doom us even if howard allows one goal per game in the next three games, chances are they will still win a game or two 1-0 and take the series. Must find a way to score goals.

I didn't post that with the intention of arguing that Howard is better than Quick, because I won't. It is more a point that yes, a goaltender can be responsible for losing games in the playoffs. Quick has solely been responsible for them being down 2-0 and having the series in a losing position right now. There is no denying that, he has been terrible. Howard has been responsible for dropping one game. Holding him responsible for this game is illogical. His numbers have been excellent, he stole us a game, yet he's still getting the most heat. That's my point. Even the most elite can be awful at times and cause you to lose games. Howard has been solid, not stellar, but not bad either. The blame needs to be pointed at the offense and lack of effort and energy in the first half of tonight's game.

I know, if only we had a clutch goaltender like Quick shutting down the opposition with insanely strong efforts every night during the playoffs. Howard - 2.02 GAA .931 SV% Quick - 7.20 GAA .824 SV%

Its a ridiculous snipe when Nyquist or Datsyuk does it, but when it happens against us it's obviously all Howard's fault. It was a perfect, heavy shot to the top corner, not many goalies stop it. The way people are calling weak goals is like going back to the good ol' Osgood blue and red liners. It's unrealistic goalie performance expectations when the offense is clearly the problem to be complaining about right now.

Shutout or nothing is an arrogant expectation of any fan towards a goalie. Considering the odd man rushes, the scoring chances, and Howard making over 30 saves he played damn well and it could have been a lot worse. He's among the last I blame for the loss, scoring 2 goals in 3 games so far and blaming the goalie is ridiculous. Howard is the only reason why we won game 1 or we would be facing a 0-3 series right now. Howard is the only reason why we still had some kind of chance in the 3rd period this game, if it was Monster, we are down 4-0 going into the 3rd.

Howard has been excellent since the first goal, he's given us a chance to get back in this. Doesn't matter if it's 1-0 or 10-0, it's still a loss if we can't score a goal.

Best PP of the series, unfortunately there wasn't a goal scored.

Okay boys, massive opportunity here..

Quincey shoot that damn puck. In the rare instance this series when an open lane to the net is there, SHOOT IT.

Here we go.. please no SHUTOUT.

Yeah pretty much been about as good as we were in game 2. If not a bit worse.

Some good chances at least, PP looked a bit better than it has the rest of the series.