bjh14

At least bleed so we get a 4 min PP

I was really devastated as soon as the clocked ticked over to 0. Now i'm kinda like a father whose child has done something wrong, I'm not upset. Just disappointed. Its gonna be hard walking around and seeing all of the Penguins Stanley Cup merchandise. Constant reminders everywhere of how disappointing it is that such a talented team couldn't bring enough effort in the 2 games that mattered most. Having said all that at least i won't be walking around getting progressively more nervous as the next game approaches. In a way its like a huge weight has been lifted. Offseason will be interesting, thats for sure.

Considering the mediocre play of various parts of the Wings game so far this year i think we can thank our lucky stars we are in such a good spot in the standings. I can't wait to see what this team will do when the pieces finally all fall into place. They will simply tear teams apart and man will it be glorious to watch

I don't know enough about Hossa's personality to know whether or not he is likely to take a pay cut to stay with the Wings but i'm betting he is going to be looking at at least the same kind of money as Z just got but for a shorter term contract. If the Wings have to lost anyone on top of Franzen to keep Hossa then its definitely not worth keeping Hossa around. For example if it meant losing Hudler and Franzen to keep Hossa then production wise it doesn't make sense to keep Hossa around. With Hudler and Franzen putting up the kind of numbers they are this season, and its not unreasonable to expect them to keep putting up at least those kind of numbers over the next few seasons, then Hossa would need to be contributing close to 60-70 goals and 120-140 points to even out their loss. Hossa is good but isn't quite up to that level of production.

Phoenix had heaps of holding the stick, hooking and tripping penalties that they didn't get called for throughout the game. Its funny how you only remember what you want to. They also didn't seem to be complaining when the refs called a mystery icing against the wings with only 1 min to go in the 3rd which gave Phoenix an offensive zone faceoff. Just cause Phoenix couldn't capitalize doesn't mean they didn't get a huge advantage out of that.

"But if its Franzen and Hudler vs Hossa and Sammy, I'm going with Franzen and Hudler. " Agreed. I think as a pairing there is more upside for those two despite the massive upside for Hossa. Sammy is okay but his skills are only going to decline over the next few seasons whilst Hudler and Franzen should both improve and the way Hudler is going this season his upside is looking quite large.

Franzen. I would love for them to be able to keep Hossa but unless he is willing to take a hometown discount like so many of his teammates have then i just don't see it happening. Then again with the economy going the way it is at the moment teams may not be willing to throw around big money per season they way they have the last couple of years. In a perfect Red Wings world both take hometown discounts and they squeak in under the cap but realistically i think Franzen will be the one who stays.

An ugly win is still a win! I was at the game and a few guys really stood out for various reasons. Osgood - Was brilliant in the last 30 or so mins of the game and made some huge saves especially during OT. Hossa - was good and able to capitalize on a couple of half chances to turn them into goals. Datsyuk - his puck control was a little off tonight and he just couldn't seem to get make the passes he normally pulls off, just put it down to a bad game. Leino - showed some good skill in the limited time he had. Chelios - was solid defensively and helped the Wings out of some tough spots. Overall the team seemed just a fraction off with all of their passing and attempts at entering the zone. With all the changes due to inury though thats hardly a big surprise. If Leino and Abdelkader stay up for a couple more games i think we should see them settle in nicely. This game for me really epitomized the Wings first half performance but everyone knows what they need to do to improve for the stretch run. Maybe this was obvious on the Broadcast, cause it certainly wasn't in the arena, but what did Tkachuk do to earn one of the 3 stars. Didn't see him do anything noteworthy during the game yet his name popped up at the end. WTF???

I'm going to this game and it will be my first Wings game so i really hope they win. I'm hoping it will be 4-2 Wings. The friend i'm going with is a Blues fan so that should make for an interesting game