puckbags

Hammer meet nail...blah blah blah

After all the bad mojo we had all year I feel like the hockey gods are on our side..we are playing our asses off and getting the breaks we need and deserve...lets dust these guys off on Saturday 

He's not another Gretzky. He's had a lot of success with the Quebec Ramparts and shown that he deserves the job regardless of his playing career.

Big difference between 16-18 year old kids and 30-40 year old men. 

Now do we believe?

I have never stopped..this is fun. 

I would take some liberties on Toews right now. This is complete bull s***t

Bickell is such a dumpster fire..so funny

Toews complaning about the refs already.

Great game by the Wings!

 

Zetterberg was in full beast mode today.  He made everyone around him better while shutting down Mr. Intangibles.

If he plays that way against Toews and puts up some points we will be hard to beat.  Hell I would be happy if he didn't score and just took care of Toews all series. 

I guess we belong in the same rink? What a great effort.  Game on now !

i know shot stats don't always tell the story but 30-20 looks fantastic.

 

Unfortunately, no one has the balls on this team to do that.

Oh we have a guy, but he's in the press box.

We don't have a chance..we don't even belong in the same rink as these guys    Wings win 3-2

Hopefully we only have to be in the SAME RINK as them 2 more times.  We win tomorrow, take 2 at home and return to the Mutthouse on Madison to wrap up the series.

Feeling okay today.  Expecting a game 1 victory on away ice (and to that degree...Chicago in the UC) against the President's Trophy winners was a very, very tall order.  Our job is to split and get back to the Joe. 

 

For my captain obvious statement of the day: Not the single reason we lost last night, but I do believe we lost our legs in the late 2nd and 3rd.  IMO..there is no doubt the boys went out in Anaheim and have a few "pops" after the game 7 win.  Jimmy even eluded to this fact (with a wry smile) in post game interview.  Next day, long flight back to the D.  Players go home and scramble to make up quality time with family/friends for a half day since they've virtually been preoccupied for the last two weeks with beating the Ducks.  Next day, onto Chicago and flight to windy city and back in a hotel room.  Players bodies probably still adjusting to not being on PST time.  It got to them.  Ran on adrenaline for the first half of the game, then nothing.  It happens.  That's why playing the in West has/had been such a disadvantage to us.

 

One other observation: I can't stand the light feather chip pass/shot when we are trying desperately to clear our own zone.  We do this A LOT!  When guys have been on the ice for 50 seconds and are dead tired, and the other team is all over us (I mean hornets nest ALL OVER US!) , we go for the soft chip up the boards.  I don't get it??  In those situations, you have to hard around or hard out, and take the icing if it happens.  I know we can't change lines in that case, but at the very least you'll get a 30 second breather to regroup.  Last night the Hawks had two forwards standing atop at blue line, just waiting to intercept these attempts.  They'd prevent our clearing attempt, long pass along blue line to other side of ice, and their in business with a good set up.  It drives me crazy!!!! 

 

Lastly, Quincy needs to sit.  His transition game in our own zone is slow, predictable, and pathetic.  Just bad.

 

Our job is to split and get back home.  Let's do this.

100% agree, we are not skilled enough at the back end anymore to finesse the puck out of our own end every time.  We are removed from the days of Lids, Rafalski and even Stuart had a good first pass.  We need to suck it up and hack it out a lot more.  As soon as Chicago saw that we were going to wimp it up the boards every time they just started pinching their d almost every time.  It's not rocket science. 

I am not at all suprised how Chicago played, they were fast, made great passes, put the pressure on our d and made us look bad, this is exactly how they played for 48 games. They are a very good squad. They played good, did the things they wanted and we played pretty bad.  Bad combo.  We will get better...Need to limit turnovers and shoot the puck alot more. We need 4 of our best games to beat these guys.  

Smith is a +1 right now, while Kronwall and Ericsson are -2.

That's why sometimes stats don't mean s***.  E and Kronner have been fine tonight...Smith has been a complete abortion.