Drake_Marcus

Haha- perfect comeback. (and a great story if anyone has the link to that legends dinner where it was told recently)

Indeed. As Grapes gets older his rants get decidedly crazier and less related to strong hockey principles. At this point he just likes to rip on Russians (not that he's ever had nice things to say about them in the last decade!) and question the testicular fortitude of persons wearing visors He's got a big heart... his passion is just misplaced sometimes.

The Montreal media. They're blatant rumour mongers and proud of it You know as well as I how many big names were definitely coming to Montreal over the years. Last year we were told they had a pair of Montreal gloves sent in with Hossa's name on them right before the trade deadline! Turns out it was the wrong Hossa (apparently someone mistook gloves laying around from the 02/03 season as newly ordered gloves).

Brutal. Hopefully he makes a full recovery. Man his eye looked effed up when he got up off the ice.

Teams that score 16 and give up 96 don't win the Stanley Cup. The old adage about defense winning championships wasn't written in jest. The Wings won last year against the Penguins because they were a far, far, far superior defensive team, not because they could score more goals in a gun-running game.

Legionnaire was a great poster, and in his time he was appreciated by persons on this board who possessed even a modicum of intelligence.

I'm just honest. It's too easy to lump people into the groups of "homer" and "chicken little". Anyone who watches their team get molested like the Wings were tonight and is unmoved by it possesses far less passion for this game and team than I. Interesting note- right after the 7th goal was scored I angrily closed the window on my computer with the stream playing in it and went down to blockbuster to get a movie. The movie: There Will Be Blood. I'm hoping that's a fitting title for Tuesday's game.

I'm the one who made the thread about that... and I'm not satisfied at all. It hurt too much to watch. Kinda like having a horrible condition and they only way they can save you is for the doctor to reach both their hands in your rectum and kinda poke around for an hour without anesthesia. You know it's necessary but damn it if it ain't brutal at the same time.

Thanks man I'm glad there are some people who won't call me a doomsayer

f*** this s***. I turned the game off after the 7th goal went in but before the red light turned off. If this blow out doesn't embarass our defense into playing somewhere in the top ******* 5 D's in the league it's going to be a short playoffs. And for all the 'happy go lucky' motherf***ers who are about to call me chicken little- this team has one of the WORST GAA in the entire league and one of the WORST penalty kills in the entire league. Those are two of the single most important factors in winning the cup. Dear Red Wings: Get your ******* defensive s*** together or start booking your tee times.

Holy crap! Lids played 27mins last night? You're right- I just checked and he played a full 4 mins more than any other player. To be honest it felt like he was never on the ice last night when I was watching the game f*** it. Lidstrom should play 60 mins a night!

It's true. Only five Red Wings have a non-negative plus/minus: ->Lidstrom ->Rafalski ->Filppula ->Kopecky ->Franzen

I may loathe your foolish signature but I've got to give you props of a very clever response to TheOwl's comment

Just a little update here kids: Pairing 1: Nick and Rafalski: 4mins played Pairing 2: Kroner and Stuart: 4:30 and 4 mins played --> -2 each Pairing 3: Lilja and Meech: 5:30 played --> -3 each Why are the defensive pairings playing times in reverse order? Throw ******* Lidstrom out after all the ******* unanswered goals. He's a steadying influence. Why did Filppula just blindly throw the puck infront of the net instead of throwing it to the point? God damn it. *sigh* Edit: fixed a typo in the times.

Christ. I struggle to feel anything but loathing for a team that plays a country song after they score.

Agree. Again, fair enough. I was just overjoyed that Filppula had a great opperuntity to cash in on a scoring chance and made the right play. I've lost count of the number of times he's failed to shoot when he should have, passed too late, didn't one-time a puck, held onto a puck and cycled back instead of passing it to the open man, etc in this sort of situation. This time he made the perfect play in the situation and he did it without thinking too much about it. If Fil would just act more on instinct instead of holding onto the puck for the extra second he'd be the kind of finisher/top-sixer we know he can be. Here I have to disagree. Leino was masterful behind the net, really great along the boards, he was skating back to help in his own zone with more enthusiasm and he made himself dangerous the entire game. That's damn impressive considering he did it on the fourth line the majority of the time. Kopecky had a great game too, I just think Leino was more dangerous offensively while Kopecky played a more well rounded game. I suppose saying that about a guy who had a goal vs one with an assist kinda supports your argument more than mine, but whatever- I'm still really pumped the Leino hasn't hit the proverbial wall yet. I really hope he got over the European to North American transition "wall" back in GR when he hit it in Dec/Jan.

Lots of us have been or currently are involved in athletics. Stop projecting your own inadequacies on others.

I agree some of this. But you're selling Osgood short. Here's my summary: 1. Osgood had his best game since the cup finals. Tonight he looked like 2007-2008 Osgood. His saves on the PK were brilliant, it's just a shame his D couldn't clear the puck out after Frolov had his 10th fricking chance to shoot it. 2. Datsyuk looked injured out there. His skating was out of step and his hands were clunky. 3. Filppula made a great play to hand Kopecky that goal. Fil should've had the game's third star just for that 4. Leino was the best Red Wing forward on the ice. 5. Lidstrom seemed to be taking shorter and fewer shifts... his shot out in front of the net that hit Quick in the chest (on the play where he dropped right in to sit in front of the net) should've gone in. Normally he'd pick a corner and bury it given such a great chance... but this time it looked rather uninspired. Defensively he was just fine, however. 6. Zetterberg looked a bit zombie like out there. I'm sure he'll be better tomorrow... everyone not named Leino or Ozzy must feel like the phoned this game in. Overall it was a good game because the Wings won and Ozzy played his best game since the playoffs.

Regular posters here on LGW are definitely accustomed to irrational posts after a loss! Hell, we read enough irrational BS whenever anyone posts a thread with Crosby in the title. Of course that BS comes from the polarization of this community into two large groups- "Crosby Haters" and "Crosby Lovers", with the small group of "Crosby Neutrals" adding some spice to the mix.

You haven't seen many hits from behind have you? 95% of the boarding calls made in this league are for hits worse than Cleary's hit on Joe. It was a fair 2 minute minor, but certainly didn't deserve anything worse than a 5 minute major.

I thought he turned a bit earlier, but even so- Cleary is still in the wrong. He may not be able to avoid the hit, but he still deserves the penalty(s) that come of it. Kind of like when you rear end someone- they might have caused the accident by pulling out in front of you without leaving you room to stop, but you're still at fault in the eyes of the law because you hit their rear end (well at least that's the way they fault accidents here in Atlantic Canada).

This is how great he looked in GR for the first few months... then he hit a wall in the New Year. Leino is going to be a great player who scores lots of goals, but he'll have to get used to the constant grind of NA hockey first. This is what happens to nearly every European player that comes over after playing a few seasons of professional hockey over there... they just aren't used to playing so much hockey in such a small time frame at such a high intensity. I'm hoping that the time in GR got Leino acclimated to the grind because he looks over it at this point. It's also worth mentioning that the travel accomedations are pretty fatiguing in the AHL and he also likely had some motivation issues when it became apparent that the Wings couldn't call him up earlier in the season (due to cap issues) regardless of how well he played. I'm a huge Leino supporter, I just don't want people to expect him to keep up his goal every other game pace for the rest of the year and into the playoffs. I wouldn't be too surprised to see him get even better as the season closes but I'm not going to expect him to walk into the playoffs as one of the top six forwards either.

Best wishes to him and his family. Hopefully he pulls through it and is no worse for wear.

Everyone you listed has a tiny salary. Lebda- not going to find a cheaper d-man. Maltby- again, dirt cheap. Draper- best face off man in the league, he's not going anywhere. Sammy- best deal on the team aside from Z. You seem to forget that everyone in your list needs to be replaced by another player if they're traded (aside from Lebda who can be filled in for by Meech?!? Definitely a downgrade there). There's a reason why everyone talks about Filppula as a salary dump target- he's the only replaceable player with a huge contract.

Sold!