SoupGuru

What can you do when you're spending half the game shorthanded? You want to roll 4 PK lines? You don't like Flip out there, what are you going to do? Put Zetterberg out there for the whole game? People need to breath, man! Even when you're off the PK, what are you supposed to do, put your #1 and #2 lines out there or give the #3 and #4 lines a chance to buy time to rest your main guys? But then you're back on the PK with all your top guys again anyway.

The NHL needs to embrace its position as the rejects of the American sports world. They need to stop trying to make it a clean, family fun, 'aw geez shucks' sport... Start playing up how rough it is. The NHL is badass and these people play with injuries and hardly have any teeth, that's how rough it is. Become the rebels. Bring back fighting. The NHL is the only "major league" sport that tolerates fighting to a certain regard. Embrace that, use it to sell the game. Realize you're never going to get the number of viewers that the other sports get so cultivate your hardcore fans - don't sell them out.

He plays a reckless and risky game. This latest injury to his sacrum/hip/pelvis/whatever happened because when the puck is dumped in by the other team, he thinks he can retrieve it, spin off the boards away from the forechecker, and maintain possession of the puck. How many dmen do that? Not many. How many chip the puck one way or the other and protect themselves from the high flying forechecker? Most of them. And now we know why. Because it's only a matter of time before the forechecker guess which way you're going to spin and BOOM you into the boards with a 100 feet of momentum while you're focused on trying to keep the puck on your stick. That's just one example of how the way he plays allows himself more opportunities to get "freak" injuries.

I don't think we need to spend on defense. Just make sure we have a little to rent someone if it looks like we need to, come post-season.

Perhaps I used a bad example. My original point still stands. You have to be effective NOW to play on an NHL team. Potential is great but it doesn't win any games.

I'm sorry, but all the potential in the world doesn't win any games. Strong defensive decision making does. So does making good passes. And a lot of other things. You see, that's my problem with Kronwall: he is not improving while we wait for him to capitalize on all this potential. Look at someone like Quincey who played solid defense when we needed him to. He's got great potential too but he's not a liability out there while he tries to grow into a great player. Kronwall is.

He should've shaken hands. Respect the game. Respect your opponents. Hate them during the game but once that last whistle blows, you're all part of the same great sport.

You know what I've seen from the Red Wings this year that makes me giddy? They're confident in their game. They've shown that they are committed to their game. They don't care what the other team is doing. The times they've gotten into trouble these playoffs have been when they were reacting to the team they were playing. I think that's the reason Holmstrom came back out to play in the third period last game. Because they don't care if Pronger gets suspended or not. It makes no difference. They'll come out and try to execute their plan regardless.

It wasn't dirty at all. Maltby was trying to lift Getz' stick and it slipped off and popped him under the eye. And, as far as I've heard, no one in the Duck's camp sees it any other way either.

Remember when Claude hit Draper? No one went after him after he did it until the next season. These games are important and you can be thinking about how to get revenge - you have to be thinking about winning games. Looking for retaliation only plays into our opponents hands anyway. Why give them the satisfaction of it? Why not let them stew over their idiocy? Let them wonder when they're going to get theirs... But above all, don't give them anything they can use as a turning point, like a brawl.

You're damned right he should have come back out. It's part of the Wings' attitude this year that I absolutely love. It goes kind of like this: "f*** you. I'm going to play the best goddamned hockey I can. I'm not looking for the refs to win any games for us. We're not going to be baited into any bulls***. You want some of this? Come and get it. I'm going to get right back up and get right back at it. Hit me in the head, you useless piece of s***, I don't care because I'm going to win this ******* game." Sorry for the profanity. This is an attitude that the Wings haven't had for a while so it's good to see.

I'd prefer he didn't come back until the start of next season. Let me explain why I feel better about Quincey in there. We have expectations of Kronwall. We expect him to hit people. We expect him to make neat passes out of the zone. We expect him to be mobile. We expect him to score goals. We expect him to set up goals. We expect a lot out of him. We don't have any expectations of Quincey. So while Kronwall is out there, he's thinking "OK, make that pass, no wait... skate with it first, squeeze it through there. Hit that guy. Can I make that pass? Is this a good shot to take? OK, I'll take this shot instead." You know what Quincey is thinking? "Don't f*** up. Don't f*** up. Don't f*** up." And because we have no expectations of Quincey, I think we've all been pleasantly surprised that he's been as solid as he has. Sure, I can recall a few mistakes here and there but everyone else makes mistakes too. No, I'd much rather have someone out there trying to play solid defense than someone who thinks they have to do it all and ends up doing everything sub par. During the playoffs I want risk-free defense being played. We have a long way to go to get there but bringing Kronwall back is a step in the other direction, in my not-so-humble opinion.

I love your avatar. Do you have a full sized version or know where I can find it?

Lang needs to sit. We can't have someone out there that's not committed to defense. Lang is great in the offensive zone along the boards but anywhere else and he's a fish out of water. I can't tell how many times I've screamed at him as he only has one more foot to go to bring the puck outside the zone and instead the puck is going towards our net with our defensemen surprised and in bad position. Not to mention his version of defense is to give the guy a ten foot buffer or hook the guy as he blows by. Hudler's shown he can back backcheck.

If it was late on a guy without the puck, it would have been illegal. I'm sorry I keep pestering everyone on this issue but it's starting to grate on me. I may be off but this is what I saw: Grier straddled the red line. There were only a few seconds left on the clock and San Jose was looking to clear their zone and kill the rest of the clock. The SJ D fired it up the boards, Grier tipped it into the Wings' zone, and Lilja hit him.