Drake_Marcus

Playing 25+ mins a game, Volchenkov had one more point than Ericsson did this year. He won't even come close to making up for Lidstrom. Sure he would do a world of difference defensively (although he still can't touch Lids there) but he can't even put up 20pts a season. In his prime Lidstrom was putting at least 70pts a season up.

Ohlund was a big disappointment for Tampa. They'd gladly trade him away but Holland definitely wouldn't want him at his price/performance. Holland won't move Kindl/Ericsson yet unless he receives an offer he can't refuse. Right now he needs to get them both playing lots of games so he can evaluate them before Lidstrom/Rafalski is a thing of the past.

Are you high? Howard had a shut out in game 4 and only 1 goal against in game 5. How is a collective GAA of 0.5 over two games 'just ok'? The attending media voted Howard as the 1st star in both of those games (one being a home game and one being an away game). You could argue that Howard wasn't fantastic in game 7 but he did keep the Wings in the game until they were able to get a choke hold on the 'yotes. His play in game 7 wasn't nearly as impressive as games 4 and 5, but damn man-- you must be smoking something. Howard was the best player on the ice in games 4 and 5.

Another important point is that Ritola looks like he'll be the 13th forward next season. I'm sure Holland would love to see how Ritola reacts to being thrown into the thick of things tomorrow. I'm sure the Wings are a bit hesitant to throw Ritola in as a spare part since they don't want to stall his development.

All great points. If anything makes me hopeful it's that Nabokov hasn't been a game changer so far. He's let 3 goals in each game so it's not like the Sharks are shutting the Wings down completely. I believe they can score enough on Nabby to win. But can the Wings shut down the Sharks? I'm not so sure. Howard has to come out and play with the swagger and confidence he played with in Games 4 and 5 of the Phoenix series. That kid was good enough to carry the Wings in the playoffs. The Howard we've seen in this series simply can't carry a team to a Cup. The Wings' only hope is that the dominant Howard shows up tomorrow. Let's be honest-- it's virtually impossible for the Wings to win this series. There's a better chance of me finding a bag of hundreds sitting in the parking lot tomorrow morning. What we have to hope for is that the Wings manage to take the series to at least 6 games if only to salvage their dignity. I do think it's very doable for the Wings to take the Sharks to 6 games. Remember the Dallas series in 08? They came in after a game 7 that went to 3rd OT and got dominated for 3 games. So, even though they were down 0-3 going into game 4 they managed to win games 4 and 5. They even looked like they could have taken us to a 7th game. Why? The Wings took their foot off the gas once they were up 3-0 in the series. If a team of playoff veterans could fall into that trap then you'd have to expect a team like San Jose is even more likely to take their foot off the gas tomorrow. They definitely won't let us come back and win 4 games unless there's some kind of miracle, but I can see us taking this series to 6 games.

Damn yo-- Kane be gangsta!

May isn't an upgrade over Williams offensively or in terms of speed. May's grit would be great to have around but right now the Wings desperately need speed and scoring so they can push this to a fifth game. May just isn't going to help much in that department. Now, if this were the other way around and the Wings were up 3-0 I could see putting May in.

Huh? Everyone knows it was Crosby and Bettman who did 9/11. The Sharks are the ones reading our thoughts at night.

"Damn. They're in good shape. I wish I had a body like that."

Yeah, all that screen cap did was make me face-palm at Rafalski's play during that sequence. Man I wish it would've been Lidstrom back on that play.

You might as well blame the guy who plays 12 mins a night and not the guy who's let 4 goals in every game this series. It's pretty damn funny that your s*** list ranks the least significant cogs in the machine highest up. Basically, you're blaming the tellers at AIG instead of the management.

Hall Gill skates like Chelios did at age 48. No one should be shocked that he's getting those penalties.

I'll be watching baseball. The worst part? I'll be watching Blue Jays games. He just put a Calder worthy season together. He played well enough to get us through the 1st round as a rookie (including stealing games 4 and 5 of the 1st round). He's been crap this round, sure, but he's still a rookie. I never expected him to pull a Roy and win us a Cup as a rookie. I expect him to be better next year and the year after that. Right now we should be happy that he's getting playoff experience and learning these lessons early in his career.

Going into OT I still couldn't figure out how I watched that entire game without noticing Williams. Of course when I did notice him it was too late. But this year you can stick around here for more than just the Wings-Sharks games, right?

Says the Howard fan. Howard has 800 times more to do with our being down 0-3 than Ericsson. Hows about he limits his soft goals to one a game? He's got a GAA of 4 this series. Not. Good. Enough.

Little known fact: Sidney Crosby personally vetoed Bettman's last minute decision to concede the cap to the NHLPA.

It's pretty tough to win when you've let in 4 goals every game in the series. We'd have to be scoring at a 5 goal per game pace. That's a bit much to ask. You can blame the inconsistent PK but tonight they were a perfect 6 for 6. That really only leaves our rookie goaltender who was over-worked coming into the playoffs (although I understand that that was unavoidable given the team's record at the Olympic break.

In Ericsson's last call-up to the NHL he played his way onto the top pairing in the Cup Finals. And now people are ready to trade him for a cup of coffee and a VHS player. Kindl's never enjoyed consistent success in his entire pro career. Right now all he has going for him is potential. Can Kindl be better than E? Sure, if he lives up to his potential. But, unlike Ericsson, Kindl's never had a full season in the AHL where he lived up to expectations or even exceeded them. Kindl's never even been the best d-man in GR over a period longer than half a season. Go check out the monthly and season reviews they write up on griffinscentral.com Those guys complain about his wild inconsistency and lack of defensive polish in the AHL. What makes you think he'll come up and blow our minds in the NHL? Is it his 3 came call-up where he played ok? I'll have to defer to his body of work in the AHL and compare him to his peers there. I really want Kindl to be a success. But I'm not a fool-- I won't label Kindl as being likely to fulfill his potential.

It would've been nice if a forward covered for a pinching d-man like they're supposed to. Ericsson s*** the bed on his pinch. Williams did f*** all to get back on the play and help. Rafalski chose to do nothing instead of blocking the pass or challenging the shooter (nothing being the most retarded option when you're playing a 2-on-1). Why the hell was Abdelkader-Filppula-Williams out with Rafalski-Ericsson?!? Ericsson is the 5th d-man and as such I'd expect better defensive forwards out when he's on the ice. When you're last pairing is out against Thornton-Marleau nothing good can happen. Still, I can't help but be pissed at Howard. He let 2 soft goals in tonight. TWO. The Wings played very well in front of him aside from letting their urgency die in the 3rd. They killed, what, 50 penalties tonight? The Wings had 2 mins of PP time, so hey, I can't fault the PP for not getting it done. But the PK was excellent tonight. But whatever, if you're convinced Ericsson's tapped out his potential after one season you're welcome to believe it. From the good games it looks like Big Rig can still be a 2nd pairing d-man some day. People seem to forget that it takes a few hundred NHL games for most d-men to really understand the defensive game.

I'm not sure you can say he's going to stay at his rookie level for the remainder of his career. Especially since he's a defenseman. Sure he's 26 but this was his first full season. It's not like he's a 30 year old rookie. I'm actually excited to watch people s*** their pants about Kindl's defensive play next season. Ericsson was dominant in the AHL and played about 40 excellent games in the NHL before this season started. Now you're essentially ready to write him off. Kindl's never had a consistent year in the AHL. He's failed to advance his skill set significantly-- since arriving in the AHL his progression has been gradual to say the least. Worst of all, Kindl is frighteningly inconsistent. He'll go 3 months playing his worst hockey then have 2 excellent months. And his consistency hasn't gotten better (at all) since turning pro. If people can't take the defensive lapses of a prospect who came in highly touted defensively they're going to lose their s*** over a guy like Kindl who's had defense as his weakness from day one. The worst part is that Ericsson was the last pick of his draft year. If he pans out as a 3rd pairing d-man the Wings will be happy with getting that out of their last pick. Kindl was the highest 1st round pick they've had in the last 15 years.

If you're going to look into the future why do you assume that other dominant players aren't in the pipeline? Nyquist, Tatar and Smith could all be all-stars. McCollum has an excellent case for being considered an elite prospect (despite an abysmal rookie season in the AHL). Mursak could be a great 2nd line player who might even have the chops to play 1st line quality hockey. If you're going to try and project this team forward and subtract the old guys you have to assume young talent is coming back in. Why assume that young talent is going to be sub-par? Agreed-- he did very well in that regard. But in the end he was a -2 and had 0 pts in a must win game. It's sad because he looked like a genuine threat all game and made some brilliant defensive plays. Unfortunately, he just didn't get it done on the score sheet.

Watching that game, how did you come to the conclusion that Dats wasn't good? Edit: Insert sarcasm.

They did earn some of their PP oppertunities by being the superior team. But the Refs blew an amazing number of calls.

What a retarded statement to make right now. Name all the rookie goalies who lead their team to a Cup in their rookie year. Now name the top 10 goaltenders all time. Did any of the elite goalies in the league right now lead their team far in the playoffs as a rookie? Also sit down and think about how Ozzie's postseason career started (hint: it was against the Sharks). Back then did you think he could never lead the Wings to the promised land because we lost in the 1st round?

You didn't notice that Lilja only played 7 or 8 mins in the last game and Ericsson played 14? Lilja was really huffing in the 3rd period of game 2. I think that has something to do with the choice to sit him.