Taosuntzu

You guys are all saying that these are the line changes you have been waiting for. But no one ever said these line changes. Everyone wanted Zetts, Homer, Dats. Me, I wanted Zetts, Dats, Mule. Actual line was Dats, Cleary, Zetts. No one ever thought of Hossa, Mule, and Filppula. If you would have told me that was the change he was going to make, I woulda said this series is over; Anaheim in 6. Holy cow, did that line rock. 4 goals together, and just barely failed to convert on 2 more golden opertunities. Who would of thought. The weirdest thing from tonight is the fact that Osgood let in a goal in the 1st minute, and it was Hiller that was pulled by the end of the night. Ozzie also had 3 nice steals. He was the difference maker tonight, and belies his less than .900 sv% for the night. I really feel that with any other goalie the Wings would not even be in this series. Another thankless allstar performance for him.

Wait! This is only game 4? Why does it feel like game 7? Time to show up boys!!!

I was actually an anti-Red Wing fan for a year. I used to call Bertuzzi Ogie Oglethorpe, and cheered as loud as I could every time he was on the ice when the other team scored. The funny thing was no one really paid me any attention. Most seemed not to care 1 way other the other.

You think he's that mature?

Let's win this one boy's!!! C'mon play all the way to where you THINK there should be a whistle. Just like old time hockey, boy's!!!

My quetion for Bettman would have been, "Why wasn't Hossa called for a penalty for shooting the puck after the play was obviously dead?" I don't tink that even Bettman would have been stupid enough to answer that question, since the only possible answer points out how stupid the rule is in the first place. "Play till you think there should be a whistle boys, all the way to where you think there should be a whistle. Just like old time hockey boy's, just like the old times."

I haven't seen a bunch of goons cry foul so much since 1938.

I totally agree with this. But, let me add to this: In the nineties when the RW's became dominate, it was a huge boon for the NHL. There was more attendance and more merchandising sold. Hockey was cool again, until you saw what was actually going on. When the Wings played all these new expansion teams, they sold out. Great, until you saw the Wings score their first goal of the season, or made iffy call against the Wings. Other franchises were chearing for Detroit. No matter how good it is for the bottom line overall, it is bad for all the other teams. This is where the media comes in. They consistently tell you how great everyone else is, and how the Wings get away with murder. You read stories about how they cheat at face-offs, and how Hossa (hailed as Mr. Honorable while on Penguins) is consistently dissed as diving. No mention of goalie interference on great *ucks goals, but Franzen is replayed again and again as interference. Then later a Wing white washes a goalie, and Pang complains about it. (So, if you can't run him over at the top of the crease, and you can't stop, WTF are you supposed to do. Then comes the refs. In this case it is totally benign 'oops, I made the wrong call.' You see, they are asked to call every little penalty that happens, but that is immpossible. So they find a little technicallity in the rules. Just like the players watch tape of their opponents, they watch tape of their performance. They find what the players tendicies are. And that is what they watch each player for. Pronger gets watched for cross checks and elbows, not interference. Neidermeyer gets watched for tripping and slashing. Not for interference. The Wings are simply the victims of their own success. The same thing happened once before. I would hope some one reminds Bettman of what happened with one of his predessors in Montreal. Maurice Richard snapped. Literally! He snapped his stick over a Bruins head a' la Bertuzzi. He just could not stand the bad calls any more. His actions rightfully saw him fined and suspended for the remainder of the season. The Montreal fans took it a little to personally. One of the largest most destructive riots of all time happened, and some unkown sabatore placed a home made bomb under Campbell's seat. I defenitely hope it never goes this far again. I would rather see Mr. Holland take over GM in PHX rather than see this story played out again. I mean really! Octopus poo!!!! Are you serious!? Really!? I hope hockey becomes as popular as I think it can be. With a little more tweaking and an unemployed Bettman, I can see hockey as the number one sport in North America and the world.

How about: How about despite being out playes 15 mins. of every period, through all 3 games, they are only down by 1 game. How about if the ducks were called off side like they originally were, they would not have gotten that scoring opertunity in (3)OT How about if the ref positioned himself where he should of been, he would not have blown the play dead, and OT would be on. How about player for player, no team can match up well against the Wings, therefore their destiny lies in their hands, not in Anaheim's.

You're missing the point, as the poster immediatly after you said, "2:1 is hardly over." This was completely a disposable game. By losing it, it changes nothing. You still have split in Anaheim to have a reasonable chance to win, and even then like another poster said, even if your down 3:1 there is still hope. I don't think any game left is disposable. All I'm really saying is I would have much rather lost this game 6-0 and saw every possible line combination then lose this game 1-0 in (3)OT. I want to know, what will work in game #4 against this team!? *NOTEWORTHY The last time Chris Osgood played the *ucks in a play-off series (while on the St. Louis Blues) he had the *ucks down 3-1 gonig back to ANA for game 5. The *ucks never gave up and won that series in the next 3 games. Other than an ENer the score never seperated more than 1 goal. I say "IT'S OUR ******* TURN *UCKS!!!!!" Let's go Wings!!!

3 - 4 That is what you have to do. If you go down 3-1 going back to Detroit, you cannot expect to win 3 in a row. Hindsight is always 20/20, and I told you all, that the time to make changes was this game. We have now used our last freebie to make changes, and made.... none. This is what I warned against. If you make changes now it is out of desperation. The changes I proposed last time are now untested. You cannot expect them to work. So what do you do? Blaming the stupid refs accomplishes nothing. Mixing up your llines is dangerous. I'm outa ideas! How about you!? So let's hear all of your untested line changes for game #4 Last chance!!! Let's go Wings!!!!!

Anaheim skates for 15 mins, a period. Detroit skates for 5 mins. It's amazing that this series is so close. Imagine if we could skate with them for 11 mins a period!?

Getzlaf's line has been on the ice for every single regulation time goal. That's 5 *ucks goals to 6 Wings goals. Imagine that! That would make them -1. The Z line is having success against them. The Dats, Hossa, and Holmstrom line is being torn apart by them. Now the Wings are going into Anaheim's house Where they have to stick with their choice of face-off, and if the 3rd or (god forbid) the 4th line goes out for the draw, Carlyle can get his top line out against him. My concern is Holmstrom is not jumping on loose pucks in the DET zone. Let's face it, he is more known for his hard play in the offensive zone than his great skating ability in the defensive zone. Besides, I'm not really breaking up the Z line. Cleary is playing well in the defensive zone, I wouls like to switch him for Dats, and as for Holmstrom and Helm, you'll have to follow my thinking. I saw Helm start a shift in the defensive zone. (I didn't look at the time of play sry) the forward with the puck was down low to the right of Osgood. He passed the puck back up to the point. Helm did not glide up to him he sprinted all out, (I caught my breath because I thought Helm was going to get caught high and Ana was got to get a great low slot oppertunity) The point man settled the puck and hurried to go back down low (which was what I expected) But Helm did a 2 foot hockey stop from top speed and sprung back to position. Just in time to break up the cross ice feed for the 1 timer. He shoved the puck to the boards and in the ensuing scrum got the puck in firm control of the defensemen. Later on the same shift he stood at the offensive blue line waiting to enter the zone. The puck came to him and he was promply surrounded by 3 *ucks, he banked the puck off the boards and reverse spun to center ice to try and catch his own pass a' la Ovie, the *ucks got lucky and intercepted the pass. The DET D where caught at center ice, and were about to recieve an odd man rush. Helm dove for the puck slapped it to the boards and bought the D just enough time to get back to their own blue line and nullify the odd man rush. I'm sorry but that type of play is way out of Holmstrom's skill set. Samuelson is going to take any shot he even gets a chance at, regardless of anything else that happens on the ice. I often here him criticized for it, even though there is no such thing as a bad shot on goal. I propose you put your goalie blind fold on the same line as Sammy. What's the worst that could happen!? Holmstrom gets a goal!? *NOTEWORTHY* Every since our first cup in 40 some years, the Wings have stummbled on to an underlying fabric of hockey. Herb Brooks once said "I don't need the best players, I need the right players." What does this mean? Most already know, but bear with me for those that don't. McCarty, Yzerman, and Federov. (aka Rock, paper, scissors. ) It is the same reason that every incredible superstar has another hall of famer sidekick; Mario had Jagr, Gretsky had Messier, and on and on. Rock: plays well down low, scores well off rebounds, irritates goalies. Paper: blankets the ice, always ready to dish a gorgeous pass, or shoot, goalies never know which. Scissors: cuts in to the net, always looking for some open ice to shoot the puck, always ready for the pass. This is why Holland resigned Franzen, and seems willing to let Hossa (a far better player) go. Too many scissors not enough rocks. Zetts, Dats, Homer line. It's your favorite line because Z and D are essentially both paper and scissors at the same time. Although Zetts is tad more scissors, and Dats tad more paper.

Yeah, but somebody forgot to tell Helm that he isn't #8 or his first name isn't Alex. I love his intensity, speed, and hockey sense. Did you see that imitation of Ovies off the board, and reverse spin and drive to the net. My jaw dropped. Plus I think Babs knows to reward those who play with more ice time, and those that don't.... If I want a slightly injured Drapes back, I think I might sit either Kopecky or Maltby, depending on what he wants for a 4th line. No fault of Maltby, how can you do good things if you don't get any ice time, but I deffently wouldn't sit Helm for Drapes, fully recovered or not.