RedRockit

Oy vey, please may my hockey BFF, a Sabre fanatic and a Winghata to boot, NEVER see this. She's already giving me s***e re: the octopus...she sez we need a "new tradition." One which apparently won't "delay the game." I have patiently explained to her the definition of "tradition" but she refuses to grok it (totally gelus about our O6 status, IMHO). Yarite, Wings need a new tradition like Christmas needs a new tree, or the Star of David needs another point, or Buddha needs another donut... (I better stop before I offend someone... whoa too late).

Wish that I could have seen the game, am at a friend's house who has every other channel but FSD or Center Ice. It's been great to "watch" the game through your comments-- thank you. Economical considerations have kept me netless at home, but I do follow the forum thru the library when I can. I miss not being here for games, but I do hope to actually attend a game this year (!!!)... hope to see you there. Always there in spirit... RWR

Any thread in which the OP makes refs to Kocur and Mac....

I find this thread extremely odd. The Wings have not won the Cup yet. There are games to play, goals to be made, trash to be talked, and a true hockey fan sez "Never ever say die." The Penguins fans I met locally during the 3rd round, and am still in some contact with, aren't rolling over and playing dead. (too bad their team is! heh, couldn't resist. Told yez there was still trash to be talked)

For good or ill, Crosby really IS The Poster Boy for the NHL. If there's a reason viewing stats are higher this year, it's because of the relentless "Crosby the next Gretzky" promo by the NHL and incidental talk by announcers.

I watched a couple of games down here in Walleye Country during con finals with Penguin fans, and they were sooo fun. Yeah, we trash-talked, but we all agreed that a Wings-Pens finals would be awesome. I have large respect for Penguins fans (and I have large respect for Steelers fans: they mourned the loss of the Browns from Cleveland nearly as much as OH did. No rivalry= no fun) Go Wings! Go Pens (if you CAN go, other tha pressers

Ozzie. No doubt in my mind, the Cup (if and when, I'm superstitious) will be handed off to the man who backstopped us (again) to the Final proving ground.

Yaa, don't mess with the octopus. Ask MacLeod about THAT bit of hockey superstition. ha! I'm so proud to be a Wings fan. Tradition = best fans in the world. (and yeah, that guy DOES deserve a seat w/ the Illich's for Game 5) (best thing: he bought the stinky fishy thing at Superior and hauled it to PA. Dedication, dudes)

That story has made my day. Thank you so much. My fav bit? This: "I'm glad they threw him out," Gelorme said. "You can't come in here and throw the octopus." Ehmm, obviously, you CAN. Because he DID. :octo:

The amazing, and to me, very special, thing about this year's PO run has been how our role-players and grinders and lesser stars have stepped up (for one thing, reminds me strongly of '97: Murphy, nufsed). Huds, Helm, Flip, and *gasp* Sammy (of all freekin' peeps) have been showing up ready and willing to battle, and it's obvious how hard they are working for it. It's not that the Pens are SO bad, it's that the Wings are working SO hard. Much of that goes back to the coaching staff, IMHO. Another thing I'll say about Huds et al shining: there's a certain syndrome that occurs when everyone around you is playing outta-their-minds great.... Success feels wonderful, and makes everyone hungry for their own piece of the action. Saw it happen on Tinkson's run to state HSFB champs a season ago... while we had our quote unquote stars routinely making things happen, it seemed that every Friday night, someone unexpected would come up huge, and that was key to that team being the most successful ever in school history. Success breeds success. [afterthought: I'll also lay some of it at the Mule's doorstep. He has shown what hard work, patience, and humility can do for a career. That has HAD to fire up players like Sammy and Huds and Helm]

FD, what was the Santa Claus incident?

Umm, hello? I was broke this past season, couldn't afford cable, only had broadcast, couldn't afford to go to the pub to watch FSD (thank the hockey gods that CBC did come in, so at least I got to watch Canadian teams). The only other team I was able to watch on broadcast was (yep, you guessed it) the Pittsburgh Penguins and whatever team they were playing that Saturday. And we all know THAT wasn't the Wings....

Well-said. I missed the game (work), but from what I've been told it was a reasonably fairly-officiated one. One more thing: There are missed calls on infractions committed against Homer ALL. THE. TIME. It's the result of the inherent nature of his aggressive style, and guess what? the zebras miss calls AGAINST him as well. I've always felt it's a wash, and from comments Homer himself has made, I think he feels the same.

FWIW: http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=36452...mp;service=page Q. Nick, given what you guys have been able to accomplish the last two games, especially last night holding them without a shot for the first 12 minutes of the game, where does this team rank in all of your years since you've been in Detroit from a defensive standpoint? NICKLAS LIDSTROM: It's tough to compare teams to what we have. Previous championship teams are back in the '90s. I thought we -- the team we have right now is tough to play against, where the forwards are coming back hard. We're playing tight as a group. We very seldom have a big gap where you give the other team a lot of room to skate through the neutral zone. And we try to push teams on the outer side. Under Scotty Bowman, when he was our coach, we played a similar style, but we had left wing lock, we call it. We had three guys that could stand up at the red or blue line and prevent teams from coming at us with speed. That's one of the similarities that we used to play under with Scotty and the way we play right now.

That quote is from Ian Fleming's James Bond book 'Goldfinger'. "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, third time it's enemy action." And you're very right to use it here. Still, I tend to believe that there's less of an intent-to-injure on Mule than an attempt to get under our lads' skins and make them commit a retaliatory action that draws a pen. Remember, that's what the Penguins own captain has posited as a winning stategy.... refs calling pens on the Wings...