Echolalia

ya know, in that Nyquist goal its pretty fun watching Crawford collide with the post and fall over after he scores. Also, I am dumbfounded that he has been able to score on that move as often as he has. I gotta give props to him because I was convinced that goalies were gonna catch on and keep an eye out for it (and I think they do) but Nyquist has been really good at disguising it and striking really quickly. But goalies are gonna catch on and keep an eye out for that lol

I laughed out loud at my screen after that. How awesome for Tats to get the game winner using Kane's stupid move after Kane f***ed it up.

bahahahahahahah Tatar after Kane

I only came in for the start of the third, so that may be true

You don't have to be young or even fast to show hustle

Datsyuk's lack of hustle has been costing the Wings....

stupid play by Marchenko there trying to go up the middle. 10 seconds left shorthanded just dump the puck down.

Pulkinen all you had to do was have your stick on the ice

Well don't worry all. Now that I'm here the Wings will turn it on

just getting in, how have they looked?

I maintain that Datsyuk has the best backhander I've ever seen.

I had some standing room only tickets and went with a few of my friends a couple years back. We were all proudly wearing our Wings gear and to our delight when we got to the standing room section it was all Wings fans, and they greeted us like we were all best friends. My friends actually thought I knew these guys and planned to meet them there. Very cool. The standing room section is as far up in the arena as you can get, though, on either end of the rink, so literally the worst place to watch the game. Unfortunately the Wings lost, and even more unfortunately, the Wings fans that were in my section got pretty belligerent and obnoxious as the night went on. I didn't have any problems with any Hawks fans or anything, but if this is the group that people use to represent Wings fans, I can understand why so many fan bases hate us. Anyway, I'm hoping to see another solid game tonight. The Montreal game, despite the outcome, I think was well played. It would have been nicer to get some more inside looks and rebounds at Price, but Montreal's defensive system is better than Chicago's IMO, so I expect to see more opportunities tonight. As for Pulkkinen, if he's actually playing in the top six, I don't expect him to be there for very long. My biggest gripe with his game the last time he was up wasn't that he wasn't adapting to less time and space to shoot pucks, but rather he wasn't very involved in the cycle or supporting the puck carrier, or protecting the puck in the offensive zone. He played high, weak side a lot, getting lost in coverage, but at the wrong times. Then all of a sudden the other team would get the puck and initiate a breakout. It's all fine and dandy if he can hide in coverage and put the puck in the net when he gets the pass, but in the NHL those opportunities aren't going to arise very often unless he's more proactive in helping his linemates set the play up. I'm hoping to see more of that tonight, then, when the Wings have clean possession and have a little time or space to see who's open, that's when it's time for Pulkinen to find his shooting lane.

I took it as more Kenny joking around because there was such a long period with no whistles. Or maybe Mickey wanted to say chime in and something but couldn't because of the ongoing action and Kenny knew that (after all, they can see each other and their body language whereas we only have their voices to go off of). Anyway I don't think there's any animosity between them because they typically have excellent chemistry and often joke around. I want to say that Kenny and Mickey celebrated Thanksgiving or Christmas or something recently, but I might be misremembering. I also love all that Mickey has to offer as a color commentator. He is an entertaining individual, not the cookie-cutter type of boring, safe personality that you see so often in sports. The guy is passionate, and what I love the most about him is that he comes off as a fan of the game of hockey moreso than a fan of the Red Wings. Sure he loves the Wings, and it's his job to pass out praise to our team, but he doesn't shy away from passing out praise to players or coaches from other teams, hates weak penalties regardless of who gets the power play, and hates dangerous plays and dives regardless of who's doing them. It's good to have that kind of voice on tv, I think, instead of the mindless homer who puts his team above all others regardless of the situation as well as the game of hockey itself.

Aside from the obvious of finding the time and space to get his shot off, I'd like to see Pulks more involved in supporting the puck carrier. He did a lot of standing around waiting for the puck to come to him during his last call up, and that's fine and dandy if our team is in position to find him. It's not so fine when Sheahan is pinned to the wall in the corner with his back to the ice and Weiss is boxed out. I understand that this kid is a goal scorer and in order to do that sometimes he needs to get lost in the play, but more offense will be generated if he's more proactive in the cycle, then when possession is well established, he sneaks off to the weakside to find his shooting lane.

Can you really say that? The Wings lost but that was a hell of a game. Really tightly played on both sides, not many flaws or weaknesses from either team.

Who says shutouts are boring? This is excellent goaltending by Price!

Who says 0-0 games are boring? This is some excellent hockey

ehhhh i mean they've definitely both been solid, but I think the biggest reason why this one is still 0-0 is that both teams have been absolutely stellar defensively. We haven't exactly had a ton of clean looks at Price, likewise with Montreal against Jimmy.

I know the sexy thing to point out on that play was that ugly giveaway, but Ericsson had some of the s***tiest gap control I've seen all night when Montreal was carrying the puck into our zone earlier that shift

I don't know how they didn't call Markov for hooking Nyquist right before he took that penalty, but oh well.

is it just me or does Jimmy look like he's trying to be more active in the puck-handling department this game?

Its so awesome having a healthy Helm

That's some solid praise. Dekeyser actually reminds me quite a bit of Lidstrom in that he plays the game with his brain above all else. He's not overly physical, he doesn't have that booming shot, he's not particularly flashy in any aspect of his game. But when he's on the ice, the puck doesn't go in the back of the net. Dekeyser is so solid at shutting down plays, particularly for it only being his second year. I (like most of us) have high hopes for his future. He could definitely become a piece to build around if he continues to grow at the rate he's been going at.

Just a side note because I'm so passionate about Calvin and Hobbes, but those logos frustrate me, because they were all illegal use of Calvin and Hobbes. Watterson intentionally avoided marketing Calvin and Hobbes memoribia because he thought the whole concept was completely against the whole idea behind his comic, and Calvin and Hobbes as characters. Somebody, somehwere made the Calvin pissing logo and before long it was everywhere, with Calvin peeling on all sorts of different logos and what not. Pursuing a ceast and desist or lawsuit was difficult due to how many different companies were involved and how widespread it got. So it persisted, and Calvin peeing became an iconic image, with everyone pretty much using the image freely. Watterson got nothing for anyone using the image, and frankly he didn't want anything (or the image to even be out there in the first place). Anyway, it has nothing to do with hockey. I'm just a diehard Calvin and Hobbes fan and saw the opportunity to vent. Carry on!

I share the same view as most of the folks here in that the Original Six was meant to distinguish Boston, Detroit, Montreal, Toronto, NY, and Chicago from the first expansion era teams. Having said that, the original six was around for what, 25 years before the league grew? That's a long time to play the same small group of teams over and over again (I think the math comes out to teams playing one another about 10 times a season), and as such, I think the rivalries went quite deep, even after the expansion. 25 years is also a long time to establish history before other teams permanently joined in, so by the time the expansion came around, the original six already had two and a half decades of wins, losses, Stanley Cup victories, stories of overcoming odds, injuries, animosity, etc; two and a half decades of history was well established at that point. Back then, if I'm a casual fan just getting started with the game of hockey, I'm taking an interest to the original six because of that history and because of those aleady well-established rivalries. If I'm trying to market the game, I'm utilizing the original six to sell tickets and merchendise, again, because of those rivalries and history that the expansion era teams had initially lacked. Today, obviously there's a good deal of history for most clubs, and rivalries all across the board. I don't think the Wings have a rivalry with any particular team, and most of the history and rivalries our fans are most passionate about are those which they can remember and were a part of. So games against Chicago are special. Games against Anaheim are special. Games against Pittsburgh are special. Games against Toronto, Montreal, NY? Not so much these days, other than Toronto's fanbase invading the Joe and making the crowds louder. Of course media is still going to market the original six, and I think these days its more of a cultural thing to put them up on a pedestal, and if you truly are passionate about the history that's there, then awesome! But there's a lot of other teams out there with a lot of stories to tell also.