Should Downey Play in the first game

[Greatness=PavelDatsyuk 65]

I DO NOT think Downey should play in the first game, he is to explosive and could take a bad penalty and loose the game

[OsGOD 3]

Sure thing... take tootoo out for the series... it would be nice

well either he or McCarty can terminate TooToo until next season... only after a lot of blood shed.... i wanna see some action tomorrow.. no boring hockey dammit!!!

[WhiteLightning91 105]

I DO NOT think Downey should play in the first game, he is to explosive and could take a bad penalty and loose the game

Well. golly gee. Bin Laden could blow up the Joe once the puck is dropped as well. We probably shouldn't even play in the playoffs because someone like Datsyuk could get a career ending injury. How about that logic?

Edited April 9, 2008 by WhiteLightning91

[Zion 93]

It's horrible "logic", if it can be called that. Nashville should lose this series, so they'd be smart to push our guys around and get chippy.

Here's to a calm, and quiet four-game sweep of the Preds...

[Greatness=PavelDatsyuk 65]

McCarty can handle Tootoo, thats what Ken picked him up for, his strength and his playoff experience. Downey might be able to hit well or have a good fight, but we don't need that happening at the wrong time

[OsGOD 3]

I hardly remember seeing downey in the penalty box this season.... how often did he end up in there?

[Chase 0]

I DO NOT think Downey should play in the first game, he is to explosive and could take a bad penalty and loose the game

Well theres a lot of things that COULD happen.

Terrible logic...

[WhiteLightning91 105]

McCarty can handle Tootoo, thats what Ken picked him up for, his strength and his playoff experience. Downey might be able to hit well or have a good fight, but we don't need that happening at the wrong time

Obviously you haven't seen 1 game Downey has played in all year so I will totally disregard your postings.

I would also like to know what you've seen from Mac that makes you so sure he can handle Tootoo. McCarty hasn't been physical at all yet so I'm assuming you're just looking through Red Wings glasses circa 1998.

Edited April 9, 2008 by WhiteLightning91

[Greatness=PavelDatsyuk 65]

A couple key times is all it takes ,and the refs don't have the best track record of making good calls against the wings, only real iffy ones

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

I DO NOT think Downey should play in the first game, he is to explosive and could take a bad penalty and loose the game

I don't see any basis for your thinking this way. For 95% of the season all we did was rave about Downey's ability to keep his composure and pick the correct times to get involved. He proved he was not a loose cannon. Only in the most recent, final weeks of the season did we see him start taking some penalties and many I would say were him coming to the defense of teammates being roughed up by teams not making the playoffs. I had zero problem with him getting extra PIM's on these occassions.

I think for the playoffs he understands the need to pick your spots and at least make certain you take somebody to the box with you. If he didn't he'd surely hear about it from Babcock and likely get benched.

He'll be fine.

[Greatness=PavelDatsyuk 65]

what you see is the right reason for the penalty, not the timing. During the season, with a playoff spot almost guarantied, we had no worries, but bad calls or stupid penalties have killed us before

[WhiteLightning91 105]

A couple key times is all it takes ,and the refs don't have the best track record of making good calls against the wings, only real iffy ones

Everything you have said so far in this topic is all hypothetical and what ifs. Bring up some concrete evidence to back up why you don't think Downey should play and maybe you will get some support.

EDIT - If Babcock and Holland did not think Downey knew how to pick his spots when it came to fighting he would've been put on waivers back in October.

Edited April 9, 2008 by WhiteLightning91

[Greatness=PavelDatsyuk 65]

the proof is in the past. One bad call has lost us the game before and i haven't seen anything to prove it won't happen again

[WhiteLightning91 105]

the proof is in the past. One bad call has lost us the game before and i haven't seen anything to prove it won't happen again

In the past??? This is Downey's first playoff series with us. There is NO PAST PROOF with him.

Edited April 9, 2008 by WhiteLightning91

[Greatness=PavelDatsyuk 65]

Can you show me that he won't, but we don't need a bad start to the playoffs.

Play Downey away, to even the field, and play McCarty at home, were we can control the lines

[Echolalia 2,961]

the proof is in the past. One bad call has lost us the game before and i haven't seen anything to prove it won't happen again

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.

[OsGOD 3]

the proof is in the past. One bad call has lost us the game before and i haven't seen anything to prove it won't happen again

I agree That really was a bad call on Liljas part...but that has no indication that Downey would be that DUMB to given it up to Selanne.... i don't think Downey swings that way anyways.

Actually i would be more inclinded to bench your boy Dats... cause his HISTORY does indicate he can possibly disappear in the playoffs

Edited April 9, 2008 by OsGOD

[uk_redwing 495]

What IF Zetterberg plays and he becomes a terrorist target, resulting in a bomb being thrown at him during a game, resulting in a 2-min delay-of-game penalty against us.

I dont know about the rest of you, but Im not prepared to take that chance.

[Greatness=PavelDatsyuk 65]

This is Downey's first playoff series with us. There is NO PAST PROOF with him.

He has very little playoff experience(5 Games), were McCarty has won 3 Cups with the wings and has played 157 games

Im not saying don't play him at all, just play him carefully

[GMRwings1983 8,803]

This is what happens when you have the pussiest team in the league year after year. Our fans have become so conditioned to having a soft team with no fighters, that the moment one fighter joins the team, he's being accused of being a talentless goon who takes stupid penalties, even though he's done nothing of the sort.

Downey is a regular on this team. He has been all season, and definitely should be now with the injuries. It's tiring to keep explaining what the need for an enforcer is over and over, so I'm not even going to bother. Someone else will do it on my behalf.

[OsGOD 3]

He has very little playoff experience(5 Games), were McCarty has won 3 Cups with the wings and has played 157 games

Im not saying don't play him at all, just play him carefully

Downey earned his spot this season moreso than D-mac has... D-mac hasn't played a playoff game since he left here (or at least very limited too) and he barely made it onto this team after missing all season and then some...

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

the proof is in the past. One bad call has lost us the game before and i haven't seen anything to prove it won't happen again

You're really not supporting your argument very well. Not trying to be a ****** that's just my opinion.

#1. Downey displayed his ability to pick his spots all year long. You have no evidence to the contrary. You just say that untimely penalties in the playoffs are crucial. Well no s***. But that doesn't change anything about Downey's play or his ability to play smart.

#2. It seems you are blindly picking Downey as the potential culprit of a bad or dumb penalty. Why is that? In my mind i'd be more worried about Samuellsson and Hudler as they take terrible, lazy hooking penalties and the like far more than Downey takes foolish, aggressive penalties.

#3. If any type of calls should concern us, I'd think Holmstrom getting shafted on interference calls would be #1 on our list, not Downey.

You brought this up so the burden of proof is on you to show evidence to suggest Downey would be a complete dips*** in the playoffs. That burden does not lie with us. So provide supporting evidence on why Downey shouldn't play and maybe you'll get somebody to agree with you.

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

This is what happens when you have the pussiest team in the league year after year. Our fans have become so conditioned to having a soft team with no fighters, that the moment one fighter joins the team, he's being accused of being a talentless goon who takes stupid penalties, even though he's done nothing of the sort.

Downey is a regular on this team. He has been all season, and definitely should be now with the injuries. It's tiring to keep explaining what the need for an enforcer is over and over, so I'm not even going to bother. Someone else will do it on my behalf.

Your point is well taken by Brian Burke and the Ducks.

They played Travis Moen, Shawn Thornton AND Brad May in the playoffs last year. Moen gets a pass as he's a pretty solid player but May and Thornton? If the Ducks can dress to complete hacks like that and win the cup there's no reason we should be worried about Downey losing playoff games for us.

[Greatness=PavelDatsyuk 65]

What the wings don't need is one of their Key players hurt, and Downey rushing in, taking a penalty, and the wings be down a man without a key player

In Colorado, we got lucky, if it happens again we could lose eaisly, and thats not we need

[WhiteLightning91 105]

He has very little playoff experience(5 Games), were McCarty has won 3 Cups with the wings and has played 157 games

Im not saying don't play him at all, just play him carefully

That's 5x the amount of playoff experience Dan Ellis has. Should Nashville not play him in game 1 as well?

And when was the last time McCarty was relevent in a playoff game? I love Mac, but there is no way he deserves to be in before Downey at this point.