Echolalia

so two guys walk into a bar

Draper and Franzen played amazing last night. Everyone keeps saying that Hasek or McCarty will be the X factor, but if Franzen can keep this up, he could really give us the extra push to get the cup.

Whoever wins, I just hope it goes to seven games

There was definitely an elbow and his skates definitely left the ice. Theres no question the hit was dirty (no matter how sweet it was to see), and if he got a suspension, I wouldn't be surprised, as its borderline in my opinion. But if they're going to suspend Kronwall for that, then the need to be handing out suspensions to many other players for similar acts, and its not even worth the effort at that point; especially because there would be no physicality left in the game.

They got progressively better throughout the game, so the third period was their best imo. They did an amazing job of keeping the preds to the outside (hence their only goal resulted from a tipped shot from the point). One thing I was worried about, though, was our breaking out. The Preds really made it a priority to stop our puck possession style where it usually begins.

The entire play was never offsides. The ref was standing with both feet on either side of the blue line when it hit him in the side. That part of his body was still in the zone. Also, the puck has to leave the blue paint to be offsides- not just entering it, so the puck would've had to be closer to the other side of his body if it were actually to be offsides. Trotz arguing the call is something any coach would do. At the very least that way he can still keep his team's composure in thinking they are still good enough to beat us.

Haha versus invited Legace on to help them analyze, and he started joking about how during the All-star break, they were talking about pads being reduced, and since then he's been getting his pad sizes checked three times a day, and his GAA and S% have gone down

Its Echolalia off the start, running on all cylinders!! Can anyone catch him??

The only people who can afford tickets anymore are the upper-class people who are above such immature things as chanting.

Does my sig answer your question

Actually as far as enforcers go, I think Downey is one of the more in-control-of-himself types in the entire league. Whenever the Wings are up by a couple goals he never gets into fights (the one exception to this the entire year was when Lidstrom was hit by Laperierre), and he picks his battles well. The only reason I would not want Downey dressed is because aside from his physicality, he is a dismal hockey player.

Ottawa over Pittsburgh, Philly over Washington, Avs over Minnesota, Dallas over Anaheim

Western Conference Detroit vs Nasville (4-1) San Jose vs Calgary (4-0) Minnesota vs Colorado (4-2) Anaheim vs Dallas (4-3) Eastern Conference Montreal vs Boston (4-1) Pittsburgh vs Ottawa (4-3) Washington vs Philadelphia (4-2) New Jersey vs New York (4-3)

Only one "upset", huh?

terminator

He's definitely got potential. In his debut game, he earned a couple penalty minutes, and although he didn't get any points, he was inches away from a goal and an assist, showing at the very least that he has a good hockey sense about him. He's also about as energetic as you would expect a college hockey player to be, which is also a plus.

Crap! Sammy didn't play in this game I don't have my go-to man!

I think he's saying that because Sutter was at the game, the Wings lost on purpose so he couldn't scout us and exploit all our weaknesses, but the Wings just got their butts kicked.

That is so sick. Even with Trevor not being an nhl player thats sick.

It may have affected us; like you said, we'll never be able to gauge how exhausted our players were compared to them, and how much physicality contributes to that. But I think the fact that we didn't have two of our top three defensemen (neither injury came from physical domination in the playoffs), and the Ducks scored key goals at perfect moments to shift the momentum in their advantage was the key to that series, not the check count and the intensity thereof. We were minutes away from taking a commanding lead in the series and putting the Ducks up against the ropes (even with their dominant physical play), and they took a shot that took a timely deflection off Lidstrom's stick and into the back of the net to stay alive when they needed it the most. Then, Lilja (who may not have even been playing had we had our entire defensive lineup) lost the puck on a fluke play to none other than Selanne right in front of Hasek, to further gain momentum. I'm not taking anything away from the Ducks, but a deflection and a give away to die for from a 7th defensman in a relatively low pressure situation (and the momentum that build up from the resulting goals) cost us the series, and I think physical domination had little to do with either. But who knows, that may be where we differ. Oh, and trust me, I'm not blinded by the Wings awesome prowess. I also said we won the Shark's series off timely goals and momentum alone, the same way we lost to the Ducks. And even though I said that we have the physicality to win the cup this year, I still don't think we're going to make it, because I don't think our team is as hungry for it as San Jose may be.

Physicality doesn't win a cup. Good offense and good defense win a cup. The only thing physicality does is intimidate, and we've proven that we aren't able to be intimidated away from playing our top hockey. We didn't loose the conference finals last year because the Ducks were a more physical team. They gained momentum at the right time on a couple lucky breaks (much like how we beat the Sharks in the previous round). Well... that and Lilja. Are we Liljaless enough to win the cup? Thats what I would be asking right now

whos trevor?

The boards of Joe Louis have been quiet without Sammy playing

I think Franzen has been hotter this past month than Holmstrom ever has, regardless of what lines either of them are on.

Would you rather the Wings verse the Predators in the first round, or the Canucks? The result of this game may very well determine who we end up versing.