DirtyD

He had a hell of a game tonight, even if he did miss on that breakaway.

Despite what that Stinky Fish **** guy said, Cleary did have a great game and, IMO, has been having a great series, I remember, back in 2007 against the Flames, identifying him as the type of player that you need in the playoffs. He always goes hard into every battle and plays with that special edge.There is a short list of guys that I wouldn't mind being traded, but Cleary isn;t one of them. He just has that heart and determination that - if we're at a loss (which we never should be) - can carry us forward. Look to him in Game 7, much like in Game 7 of the '09 Western Conference semis. It won't necessarily be pretty, but we know that he'll be there to do something special if the situation does arise.

I accidentally punched my ceiling fan celebrating. My hands hurt.

Speaking for your ceiling fan - it forgives you.Ceiling fan knows that it was totally worth it.

Not much else to say except thank you all for your hospitality and class, as always.

Matt, fellow LGW'ers, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

I absolutely love LETSGOWINGS.COM

You've been a class act as well as a number of other Sharks posters throughout the series.

Good luck in the coming weeks as, I'll admit, I've suddenly lost all interest in following the NHL playoffs. I am now off to cheer on Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns as they make an inprobable run to the NBA Finals.

Cheers.

Okay gang,

I've been reading a lot of comments about how the Wings truly lost this series through their inability to win faceoffs, their terrible defensive zone turnovers, and their inability to get to the dirty areas to score goals. I agree 100% with this assessment. The Wings were not even near their best for 4 of the 5 games in this series and, as such, their losses COULD simply be chalked up to that.

However, to nullify the refs of any responsibility in the outcome of this series because of the fact that the Wings were not playing as well as they should seems to me to be simply insufficient. In fact, I would say that such a claim does a disservice to the game of hockey in general. The fact of the matter is that the Wings lost all four of their games in this series by one goal, and in three of the four games the refereeing had a direct influence on the end results.

For me, tonight was the most painful example of this. A disgustingly obvious interference penalty on Murray was missed about 20 seconds prior to the eventual game winning goal. We can all argue that it was Rafalski's fault for coughing the puck up behind the net as he seemed to do far too often throughout the year; AND IT WAS. However, that does not excuse the FACT that the faceoff should have been at the other end of the rink and that the Wings should have had a man advantage.

Do I think that the Wings would have scored on that powerplay? Probably not. The powerplay was incredibly weak tonight and that was another reason that we lost. But this game, like the entire series, was decided by inches and, like every other close game in this series, the opportunities that the Sharks capitalized upon were provided to them by the referees. The Wings sloppy play was the killer, but I will am infuriated that the refs gave the Sharks far too much to run on.

Now, at this point I realize that I sound like a sore loser, and I'm sure that there are some on this board who will write me off as just that. By no means am I a conspiracy theorist; I am not deluded enough to think that the league was hellbent on keeping the Wings out of their fourth straight conference finals. I have watched enough hockey this season to realize that the refereeing in this entire league is pathetic. Standards change from game to game (or period to period) and calls are made and missed on the excuse that, "It's such a fast game". Refs are never held accountable for their terrible calls and no improvements are made for the betterment of the NHL experience. This phenomenon is not confined to a single team or conference, but rather serves to degrade the reputation of the league as a whole.

Unfortunately, in this series, the NHL's terrible refereeing was against the Wings far more than it was for them. While I realize that it is simply an unfortunate coincidence, I think that it is reasonable for us to be disappointed/mad. I have known a number of die-hard hockey fans to stop watching games because the refereeing simply reduced the sport to near-WWE levels, and I am now on the verge of doing so myself. I sincerely hope that this is a series that is watched over and over again as a tutorial of how NOT to ref in the playoffs so that a series like this is never duplicated in the future.

PS - I know that there have been a number of awesome, insightful Sharks fans posting on this board throughout the series, and I would really appreciate hearing your input. In the end, the Sharks certainly played well; as much as it pains me to say it, guys like Thornton and Marleau actually carried their weight. I try to be as unbiased as I can in looking at such issues, and I hope that was reflected in this post.

congratulations sherwood... your reputation is now "retard" for 99% of this forum

if you honestly think ozzie is gonna be better then howard then... then, well... f*** it

I'm just pissed that he's soiling the good name of Stepbrothers in the process.

I don't think that Stuart is gettin' enough love in this thread. Despite putting up an absolute stinker in game 6, Stuart was overall pretty consistent throughout the series and it really paid off in his stats.

2g 4a 6p +6

He tied tied with Lids for the series for top scoring D-men on the team and tied with Hank for best +/- for the series. I can't help but feel like this series was pretty much a mirror image of his entire season; overall very solid and consistent, but he is prone to make some big mistakes that people tend to remember more than all the solid minutes he eats out there.

Nonetheless, I think that I'd still give #2 to Datsyuk because he had, I think, his best playoff series since Dallas in the Western Conference Finals in '08.

From Datsyuk to Draper & Lidstrom to Lilja that was an absolutely dominant performance. One of those games where no one had a bad game. It is games like that which make me realize that this team is capable of winning the Cup.

What pisses me off the most is when the boys start flying with about two minutes left and they're down 2 goals. It's really a slap in the face to the fans as we are given a brief glimpse of everything that they are not doing for the other 58 minutes of the game.

To me, this was essentially game 1 just set in Detroit. Decent first 20 minutes, followed by an embarrassing 2nd and 3rd periods in which the team is unable to manage any sustained pressure and simply gets outworked by a much less talented, hungrier team.

Howie was a big reason we lost this game, too, of course. There is really no way that we can go to Ozzy anymore, so Howie has to play better or we are done, simple as that.

In all, though, I have faith. One game at a time, boys. Whatever it takes.

To the best of my knowledge, Williams only uses professional hockey as a source of income to support his primary career, professional D-Bag.



Though I'll happily admit that I know absolutely nothing about Williams personal, non-hockey ventures, from what little tid-bits I've gathered, I can only assume that he meets at least half of the above criteria.

Well, I mean, who here thinks he's decently effective? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

...effectively lowering the value of professional hockey players in general due to his complete lack of effort or heart. Does that count?

...effectively pissing me right the f*ck off. Does that count?

...effectively making me s*** my pants on a bi-nightly basis. That one doesn't count, because its just not true.

Alright, so I pretty much took the old pictures of Tippett with his porn-stache and just ran with it; a little too far? Perhaps.....

I'll admit that this one didn't turn out quite the way I envisioned. But here it is nonetheless.....

My first little attempt. Apologies to anyone overly sensitive about the animal violence.