Who scares you the most...DAL or SJ?

[kylee 727]

okay people seem to be divided about the idea of facing the Stars.

anyone's opinion id really like to hear on this:

why or why not are you afraid of the Stars?

to me, yes they bounced the Ducks, BUT the ducks had absolutely no scoring power.

theyre most likely about the take out the Sharks, kudos to them for that, but as we know Nabokov/Sharks cant seem to win the big game.

im not taking away from the Stars, but to be 100% honest im not seeing the scare factor in them.

i mean whose scoring for them? ive been watching quite a few of them games and i couldnt tell you. who, Lehtinen? Modano?

YES i do think it will be a longer series, but that should be expected at this time of the playoffs, but i feel i have confidence in saying i think the Wings can and most likely will take out the Stars. The way the Wings played last night, their transition game was just.... downright incredible. yes i know the Avs were depleted, yes i know apprently Theo is a choker, but you have to give that credit to the Wings team.

should be fun to watch.

[kylee 727]

SHARKS!!!

When they play to there ability they can dominate. If you've watched every game this series game 1 and 2 the sharks actually outplayed them and lost. Except for the 3rd in game 2 when they blew it.

I think the Sharks are a better team then the Stars!

very good point.

[Taylorov 37]

I'd rather play Dallas. (time zone, Turco, same style)

A "comeback" Sharks team could be very dangerous.

*sidenote: What's with not having a poll?

[Wings_Dynasty 267]

Honestly, I think we would beat either option. But I think that a "down and out and ended up winning" Sharks team with momentum would be more dangerous.

We have Dallas figured out, the Sharks not so much.

[CSAVS08 0]

Warning to Wings fans..hope you guys arent too overconfident going into DAll/SJ series. Imagine going into this next series without Franzen, Zetterberg, Holmstrom and Datsyuk..you wouldnt have a prayer. That is exactly what the AVS had to do so you swept us...just dont go into the next series thinking you guys are that good..you basically beat a minor league hockey team on tues & thur....Dallas or SJ will be much better.

[Wings_Dynasty 267]

Warning to Wings fans..hope you guys arent too overconfident going into DAll/SJ series. Imagine going into this next series without Franzen, Zetterberg, Holmstrom and Datsyuk..you wouldnt have a prayer. That is exactly what the AVS had to do so you swept us...just dont go into the next series thinking you guys are that good..you basically beat a minor league hockey team on tues & thur....Dallas or SJ will be much better.

No offense, but your team wasn't a matchup when you were healthy. Wolski, Hannan, Floppa, Smyth, Statsny, Clark, and the other forward whose name I cant think of is not Homer, Mule, Z, and Dats. Foote is a shadow of his old self and wouldn't have helped you during the season (neither would have Floppa), and Sakic was invisible in the series. Plus, the "best goalie in the playoffs" was pulled 3 times in 4 games. None of our key players are injured AND they are ALL on hot streaks.

So, yeah, we are that good.

Turco can't beat us 4 times, and SJ had better be at 100% for every game.

[CSAVS08 0]

No offense, but your team wasn't a matchup when you were healthy. Wolski, Hannan, Floppa, Smyth, Statsny, Clark, and the other forward whose name I cant think of is not Homer, Mule, Z, and Dats. Foote is a shadow of his old self and wouldn't have helped you during the season (neither would have Floppa), and Sakic was invisible in the series. Plus, the "best goalie in the playoffs" was pulled 3 times in 4 games. None of our key players are injured AND they are ALL on hot streaks.

So, yeah, we are that good.

Turco can't beat us 4 times, and SJ had better be at 100% for every game.

So you are honestly with a straight face telling me that if you were missing 90% of your offensive production you would still have a prayer against a team such as SJ or Dallas? Yes, Wings are good team..but ANY team losing that much production and world class star talent would not be able to win a playoff series...

[Guest drwings1]

im not scared of either, we beat the sharks last year by playing confident and smart, forcing them to take crucial penalties. i think our discipline goes a long way, and is very underrated. we rarely take "dumb" penalties, and have been very good at capitalizing on the PP recently. that said, im not scared of dallas because i think they essentially play the same game as us, but not as good. we've gotten scoring from all four lines (did you see how well they played last night?? i think babcock gave them more time because of the staggering lead, i could be wrong) we have superior puck possession, and play a great game of keep away. the defense needs to keep their amazing preemptive sense of where the play will be like theyve doing, and the front lines need to keep putting em in the net. it doesnt matter if they are pretty or not, a goal is a goal. (ive been getting rants from fans of other teams about how some of our goals are garbage goals, but we simply just grinded harder and tried harder, and the puck found the net) keep it up boys!! its only going to get harder

[Wings_Dynasty 267]

So you are honestly with a straight face telling me that if you were missing 90% of your offensive production you would still have a prayer against a team such as SJ or Dallas? Yes, Wings are good team..but ANY team losing that much production and world class star talent would not be able to win a playoff series...

No, I am saying that the Wings are not missing 90% of their offense and your argument is moot. And, I am saying that even with your missing players you would have lost against the Wings, because their roster is better.

[Rice 42]

So you are honestly with a straight face telling me that if you were missing 90% of your offensive production you would still have a prayer against a team such as SJ or Dallas? Yes, Wings are good team..but ANY team losing that much production and world class star talent would not be able to win a playoff series...

No s***.

Injuries are a part of the game. It sucks but it's the truth.

Colorado's forwards weren't the problem anyway; it was the defense full of pylons and subpar goaltending from Jose "the best goalie in the playoffs" Theodore.

Edited May 2, 2008 by ARice89

[dallas27 7]

I'll take the Wings track record against Dallas and Turco and his hideous pads. SJ is more capable of explosive scoring thus more scary to me.

[Rice 42]

I like the way the Wings match up against Dallas. Dallas plays a similar game but the Wings are better at it.

If you look at top end talent, it's going to be Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Lidstrom, Rafalski, and Kronwall versus Modano (not so "top end" anymore), Ribeiro, Richards, Zubov, Boucher, and Robidas. I think the Wings have the edge there pretty easily.

Depth wise, I think Dallas may have the edge on defense as Detroit's third pairing has been pretty weak. I'll take Detroit's depth up front though.

The x-factor for Dallas is Turco. Hopefully he plays like he usually does against the Wings.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

So you are honestly with a straight face telling me that if you were missing 90% of your offensive production you would still have a prayer against a team such as SJ or Dallas? Yes, Wings are good team..but ANY team losing that much production and world class star talent would not be able to win a playoff series...

90% of your offensive production. Floppa wasn't even on the team until March, and isn't even a real member of it. That's like saying the Wings played the whole series without Gordie Howe.

Hejduk, Sakic and Brunette played the entire series, and Stastny played at least 2 of the 4 games. With the exception of Brunette, those players sucked ass.

Also, your great hero Floppa did jack s*** in the one game that he played, in fact helping the Wings more than hurting us. Stop making excuses for your sorry, pathetic team. We dominated you in the regular season, and dominated you in the playoffs. What more do you want?

You want to beat the Wings, take this piece of advice. Fire Joel Quenneville. That should do the trick for starters. The Blues did it, and now they're successful against the Wings the last few seasons.

[captainsteviey 0]

you knew it had to happen. The hangover wore off for some AVs troll and he would need to come in talk crap, crying about the injuries. Whatever, yes, the injuries probably contributed to the game 4 blowout and sweep. But even with a healthy lineup, We probably split in Denver and finish it in game 5 at the Joe.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

No s***.

Injuries are a part of the game. It sucks but it's the truth.

Colorado's forwards weren't the problem anyway; it was the defense full of pylons and subpar goaltending from Jose "the best goalie in the playoffs" Theodore.

It's no use mentioning that. Their fans are too dumb to realize that their defense is a joke compared to our defense.

Oh wait, the great Scott Hannan was injured, so that greatly ruined their immensely talented defense.

[Gizmo 21]

I'll take the Wings track record against Dallas and Turco and his hideous pads. SJ is more capable of explosive scoring thus more scary to me.

There's always a first.... but isn't it still true that Turco has never won a game at JLA in regulation in his career?

[Rice 42]

There's always a first.... but isn't it still true that Turco has never won a game at JLA in regulation in his career?

He's 2-10-5 lifetime against Detroit and has never won a game at JLA.

Edited May 2, 2008 by ARice89

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Before the playoffs, San Jose was the clear cut choice, and they still do concern me. Dallas has obviously come out of nowhere after struggling late in the season.

Funny how the roles can be reversed. San Jose just dominating late in the reg. season and struggling a bit in the playoffs, and vice versa for Dallas.

With all that being said, the Wings have played good against both teams this year. Not much sense in losing too much sleep over worrying who they play from a matchup standpoint I think because of this. San Jose is the more "physical" team but the Wings have shown last playoff season and this season that they are more than capable of matching up to this type of game. Dallas I think has a bit more skill, plus the Wings play fairly well against Turco for the most part.

I highly doubt it'll be a walk in the park though like this past series vs. Colorado.

I selfishly want to play Dallas from a travel standpoint though. Earlier start times, and if scheduling works out and it isn't TOO expensive, it's only a managable 8 hour drive from where I live to downtown Dallas, I might make it to a game there over the weekend assuming Dallas advances and they play each other on Saturday/Sunday.

I flew up to the Detroit area for game 2 of the Avs series though which cost me a fair chunk of cash, so I don't know of the possiblity/probability of a 3rd round spur-of-the-moment trip.

[sinbin 3]

Typical SJ......Dallas will be out of gas!......NEITHER!

[betterREDthandead 58]

Typical SJ......Dallas will be out of gas!......NEITHER!

I'd actually prefer that Dallas hurries up and finishes off the Sharks tonight. Want to crank up the next series quickly before the Wings have a chance to get rusty. It's not like that Avs series really took it out of them and they need the rest. That was about as grueling as an Easter egg hunt.

[Frozen-Man 144]

okay people seem to be divided about the idea of facing the Stars.

anyone's opinion id really like to hear on this:

why or why not are you afraid of the Stars?

to me, yes they bounced the Ducks, BUT the ducks had absolutely no scoring power.

theyre most likely about the take out the Sharks, kudos to them for that, but as we know Nabokov/Sharks cant seem to win the big game.

im not taking away from the Stars, but to be 100% honest im not seeing the scare factor in them.

i mean whose scoring for them? ive been watching quite a few of them games and i couldnt tell you. who, Lehtinen? Modano?

YES i do think it will be a longer series, but that should be expected at this time of the playoffs, but i feel i have confidence in saying i think the Wings can and most likely will take out the Stars. The way the Wings played last night, their transition game was just.... downright incredible. yes i know the Avs were depleted, yes i know apprently Theo is a choker, but you have to give that credit to the Wings team.

should be fun to watch.

I agree to an extent with what you said but if you asked most people, either here or around the league, who would be the two teams that would produce the biggest challenge to the Wings it would have been the Ducks and the Sharks and Dallas has bounced one of them and is on the cusp of bouncing the other. In my opinion if there was any concern about playing one of those two teams then there should be some concern about playing the team that beat them.

As to the original question in this post, I think it would be an incredible amount of momentum for the Sharks to win 4 games in a row and take the series. If you combine that with the fact that because the series went 7 games Detroit will have been off for a really long time that scenario seems like the perfect storm for the Sharks to steal game 1 which is a really bad way for the series to start out. I think that fatigue might be a problem as the series went on but that first game could be a really hard game for the Wings and would give the Sharks a 5 game winning streak which will build up their confidence (which really seems to help Nabokov - like it does most goalies).

I think that the Stars, if they win the series, will not have the momentum that the Sharks would. Once a team goes up 3-0 it just seems inevitable that they will win and there will not be the big surge in emotion that their would be after the Sharks won 4 elimination games.

So to answer your question I think that under your scenario the benefit would have to go to the Sharks as far as momentum goes but I think the Stars are better and would still rather play the Sharks.

[miller76 463]

After watching the Wings play the Avs, I dont fear either one of those teams. They are both good teams that could beat any team at any given time. I think SJ still plays us tighter though.

[VM1138 1,921]

I'm not concerned about Dallas finishing off San Jose. It'll happen and probably tonight. But we're going to have to wait for that Montreal-Philly series to end, and I have a feeling that's going to go 7 games....

So like it or not, the Wings are going to get a loooong break. I just hope they know how to keep their edge and momentum going.

[theman19 47]

Dallas is kinda scary, they're letting SJ back in this series. SJ doesn't scary me at all, We'd destroy Nabkov the way i've seen him play this series.