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Lidstrom is one of my favorite Wings, but I have to agree with you about tonights game. Lidstrom's mistakes were ugly and both of them directly led to the game tying and game winning goals, but EVERY player is entitled to one bad playoff game in his career and the rest of the Wings (except Draper and Cleary) didn't seem to be at the top of their game tonight either. Tonights game simply means that Lidstrom is human afterall. Given his dominant play over the years, I give him the full benefit of the doubt and look forward to him playing a much better game 4. Plus, I blame the CBC guys. They kept repeating how Lidstrom NEVER makes a mistake and they also kept talking about how Iginla needed to have a huge game and what do you know: Lidstrom made two big mistakes and Iginla got the game winning goal. I think CBC has voodoo dolls of all the American players and they have been using those dolls to help the Canadian teams advance deep in the playoffs for the past 3 seasons.

Obviously game 3 is pivotal. If the Wings can win that game, they can hopefully wrap it up in 4 or 5 games and guys like Zetterberg (he's looked good so far, but I don't think he looks 100% yet) and Bertuzzi can rest and get healthy before the next series. If the Flames win game 3, they are right back in the series. Hopefully Bert will play in game 3 and if he does, that should make the 2nd line much stronger and the whole team much more dangerous. I saw a Calgary fan saying that the Flames have handled Bert before and his return might not be such a big positive to the Wings. I can see why Calgary fans have that hope, but I strongly disagree that it will happen like that in this series. When Bert played for Vancouver, he was on the top line with Naslund and Morrison. Calgary put their best defenders on the ice vs that line and were able to successfully shut that line down and in the process, they shut down a good portion of Vancouvers offence. In this series, if Calgary uses it's best defenders to shut down Bert's line, who is left to defend against the Wings top line of Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Holmstrom? Or the line with Flip, Hudler and Franzen? Especially with one of their top d-men (Regehr) missing so much time in this series due to injury.

Keep Hudler, Franzen and Filppula together and sit Samuelsson! In the second period of game 2, that line of Calder, Lang and Samuelsson was absolutely brutal in terms of coughing the puck up. Adding Bert to that line might be just what Lang and Calder need to get themselves going.

I was born, raised and lived the first 25 years of my life in the Detroit area before moving to California. Being a Wings fan is in my blood. My mom and a group of her friends had season tickets when they played at Olympia in the early 1970's (back when the team was pretty sucky). My mom also has told me of how she and my grandpa (who died when I was about 2 years old) use to watch HNIC on CBC back when my mom was a young child in the 1950's. Watching Stevie lift the Cup and especially watching that moment on CBC with my mom is one of my favorite memories, I only wish my grandpa had been alive to see it, too. Pretty much everyone here in the central valley is a football fan (and not just football - college football - ugh). Unfortunately, most of the people around here couldn't even name the 3 NHL teams which play in this state if their life depended on it. I am always surprised though because when I see a stranger around here with a NHL t-shirt or a hat or a bumper sticker, 8 out of 10 times it's a Wings shirt/hat/bumper sticker.

I hate making predictions because I don't want to jinx the Wings. Seriously, if Zetterberg and Bertuzzi can get healthy and stay healthy, I think the Wings have a good chance to win the Cup, but there are just too many variables at this point and with the playoffs just starting it's too tough to call. I want the Wings to win the Cup, but if they don't - I'm hoping for San Jose.

You are incorrect, at least in terms of the contract Roenick signed with Philadelphia. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2001/10/19/roenick011019.html He signed a 5 year contract with the Flyers for 37.5 million dollars. That averages out to roughly 7 million each season, NOT 11.5 million dollars a season. Also, here is an article regarding Roenick and the Wings goaltending back in 2001 (days before the Wings traded for Hasek): http://web.archive.org/web/20020616040446/...k4_20011004.htm "Later in the summer, Osgood was, according to a team source, the reason coveted free agent Jeremy Roenick turned down the Wings' offer". I wasn't using this as an excuse to bash Osgood either, I was simply stating what I rememberd hearing about Roenick at the time.

JR's probably still bitter about his poor choice to sign with Philadelphia prior to the 2001-02 season instead of signing with the Wings who went on to win the Cup that season. I vaguely remember him saying something about choosing Philly over Detroit because Philly had better goaltending (granted, this was before the Wings made the deal to get Hasek).

Datsyuk. Probably would have been Zetterberg if he hadn't gotten hurt. Lidstrom would be a very close second.

Chances are slim of either team sweeping the series. On the other hand, I thought the chances of the Devils sweeping the 95 series vs the Wings were slim and I thought the chances of the Wings sweeping the Flyers in 97 was also slim, so you just never know until the games are actually played.

Chelios in 1999 would be my pick. It took 3 years, but Chelios accomplished what he was brought here to do: help the team win another Stanley Cup.

I just hope that when the Wings finally get a new arena they can find someone to design the thing so that it does not end up being a carbon copy of the majority of other new arenas. A few years ago my husband and I were trying to see a game in all 30 NHL arenas and I was surprised by how similar (and downright ugly) most of the new arenas are. For example, the only major difference I saw between the design of the arena in Boston and the design of the arena in Chicago was the color of the seats. As far as parking goes, what the city of Detroit desperately needs is some REAL public transportation, but of course that's a whole other problem entirely.

Sadly, I think this is the end of Maltby's days with the Wings. My gut tells me that some team will be stupid enough to offer him way more money than he is worth. Hopefully I'm wrong and the Wings will sign him for under a million.

Really? Haven't heard that before! No wait...I HAVE heard that before...that's what fans of rival teams (and hockey "experts") have been saying about the Wings since about 1996. When healthy, Nashville has 4 deep lines. When healthy, so do the Wings. Hasek and Osgood have both been the starting goaltenders for Stanley Cup winning teams. Floppa hasn't been on the winning end of a playoff handshake against the Wings in almost 7 years (2000) You are half right. Pavel, to this point, HAS been a playoff disapointment. Zetterberg, on the other hand, had 6 goals in 6 games last year vs the Oilers which isn't too shabby.

One of the (many) things I hate the Avs for was the way they treated Adam Deadmarsh. While his newborn premature twins were still in the ICU of a Denver hospital, the Avs traded him to a team 1000 miles away. I know hockey is a business, but it is nice to see the Coyotes have enough respect for a person that they would consider his personal situation before they just dump him.