Red Wings

[Malto Marko]

No, I wasn't agreeing with you.

I was chalking the game one DET win up to a simple home ice advantage of creating a mismatch with the final line change.

ANA learned from it and didn't let it happen again despite it almost happening again. Hopefully ANA carries that beyond just this series and into the next.

In ANA, I foresee the Ducks not only doing the same (chg advantages) but exposing the Wings even further on their home ice.

Hmmmmm. Then you are saying that the Quackers #1 line is a poor choice to put on the ice in the final moments of a close game and they are likely to put out the #2 line and replace them with the #1 line when they see the Wings #1 line on the ice?

......or are you saying that the Quackers #2 or 3 line is much better than the #1 line when it comes to crunch time?

I am not sure what kind of exposure you are looking for with home ice advantage but am willing to bet that the depth of the wings, even though you may not have seen it, will be able to come up against anything thrown at them.

.......time will tell.......especially the time in OT as there will be a few more of these before this series is over.

[Malto Marko]

I am also predicting the winner of this series, wins the Cup.

[Sharkbait]

Nice call Mark. The Ducks look every bit as confident as thr Wings do. How did they ever get the #8 seed?

[chemiclord]

Because for as well as the Ducks are playing now, they were playing like absolute shit the first half of the season.

[Newbomb Turk]

no, it was their plan to be the 8th seed, nothing happens in Anahamster that is not part of the plan.....

for fucks sake, pay attention.

[SnowMeiser]

Are the Ducks and Red Wings still in the playoffs? You wouldn't know it from the East Coast bias that is going on with the Ovechkin Crosby show. You have a number 8 seed in the West playing better, a steady Red Wing team, a little surprising and a bit unknown Vancouver team and a young scrappy quick team in Chicago.

Any of these four teams will do well in the Stanley Cup finals.

[maxw3ll]

Zetterburg, Datsuk, and Hossa are not even rolling. Wings can split games without them. With them, Ducks can't hang.

[jaadam4]

We really need Rafalski back. Chelly shouldnt be playing right now. He's 47 and really showing it. I like his experience but it really hurt us in the 3OT game. We werent able to roll out 3 pairing since Chelly wasnt being played in any of the OTs.

[Malto Marko]

We really need Rafalski back. Chelly shouldnt be playing right now. He's 47 and really showing it. I like his experience but it really hurt us in the 3OT game. We werent able to roll out 3 pairing since Chelly wasnt being played in any of the OTs.

I am not sure his time on the pine is due to inability to hang.

Yes, he has lost a step but, he is not a liability on the ice and should have been used more than he was during that OT game. If you are not going to use him, why dress him? Bring up one of the kids from Grand Rapids.

Are the Ducks and Red Wings still in the playoffs? You wouldn't know it from the East Coast bias that is going on with the Ovechkin Crosby show. You have a number 8 seed in the West playing better, a steady Red Wing team, a little surprising and a bit unknown Vancouver team and a young scrappy quick team in Chicago.

Any of these four teams will do well in the Stanley Cup finals.

I find the coverage to be curious also.

When watching games on CBC or Versus, they show highlights of Eastern Conference games ad nausium and very little of Western Conference teams particularly, the wings. It is not clear to me if this is the result of a North American/European player bias or that individual teams like the Wings have individual broadcasting contracts with other networks.

Most likely the latter but you would think a network like Versus would want to ride as many horses as they can and get as much unbiased coverage as possible to gain credibility to become the premier NHL network.

[FCRhodes]

"the premier NHL network". Good for them. Enjoy the high ratings.

[FCRhodes]

"the premier NHL network". Good for them. Enjoy the high ratings.

[Rocky Bleier]

The Wings have never been a team that gets in the face of the other team. They always try to make them pay on the power play. The Wings have won four Cups in the last 12 seasons playing this way. It works.

I wouldn't say they've never been that way. Probert and Kocur? And even their Cup winning teams could count on guys like Shanahan and McCarty. Whether it "works" or not, I like to see teammates stick up for each other. Someone could have gotten in Brown's face and still preserved the precious power play.

[Rocky Bleier]

Are the Ducks and Red Wings still in the playoffs? You wouldn't know it from the East Coast bias that is going on with the Ovechkin Crosby show. You have a number 8 seed in the West playing better, a steady Red Wing team, a little surprising and a bit unknown Vancouver team and a young scrappy quick team in Chicago.

Any of these four teams will do well in the Stanley Cup finals.

But that was a hell of a Pittsburgh/Washington game yesterday. Ovechkin was on fire. His third goal was the kind only an elite player can score.

[froot loops]

The Wings were famous in the early 90's for getting off of their game when an opponent would do something suspect to them. It found them a lot of first round exits. But it impressed the likes of Don Cherry.

When Kocur came back in the late 90's he didn't really fight or instigate many things. He was more of a checking forward that played pretty good defense. Cherry or Rocky Bleier might not like that nobody retaliated right away, but Cherry complained about this as the Wings were winning the cup. It seems to me if you are arguing in that line of thinking, winning the cup isn't priority #1.

Maybe they should have had someone up in the face right after the play, but people are saying this with hindsight of seeing the replay 35 times and plotting what they would do in their head 45 times. In fact it was a split second play that wasn't totally obvious what happened. Clearly it was a cheap shot to injure, those type of checks always are with the intention to injure someone. If you knock Jiri Hudler out of the series, its one less guy to worry about. Brown was sent out of the game pretty quickly, hard to exact revenge when he's in the shower.

The Wings did have Darren McCarty back in 1996 when Claude Lemieux shoved Draper from behind. It was the third player he did it to that series, Larionov and Yzerman also suffered the same fate. McCarty didn't fight him. McCarty didn't do anything in the first game the next year against Colorado, nor did he do anything the second game. It happened in the third game agsinst them in 1997 to exact the revenge. This is what happens in hockey, Cherry should know this, but he's bigoted against European players. So even if they win another cup he has this alleged meekness he can harp on. Thats his schtick. That doesn't mean he's right, he's out to lunch on the subject.

Agree with Mark on the 4th line, the 4th line was making a lot of things happen in that game. He shouldn't have gotten away from it, the problem created was twofold. It was taking a line away that was doing a lot of puck possessing and it was gassing the 1st and 2nd line. The Ducks had a couple long segments where they posessed the puck in the Wings zone for at least two minutes and Zetterberg was the one out of gas trying to get to the puck. They really miss Draper right now.

[Rocky Bleier]

The Wings were famous in the early 90's for getting off of their game when an opponent would do something suspect to them. It found them a lot of first round exits. But it impressed the likes of Don Cherry.

Fail. That was not the reason they lost in the playoffs.


Cherry or Rocky Bleier might not like that nobody retaliated right away, but Cherry complained about this as the Wings were winning the cup. It seems to me if you are arguing in that line of thinking, winning the cup isn't priority #1.

Yes, because tough teams don't win the Stanley Cup. Well, except the Ducks in 2007. And the New Jersey Devils in 1995, 2000 and 2003.

Cherry should know this, but he's bigoted against European playes.

Hudler's European. He was hit by a North American. Cherry said someone should have stuck up for Hudler.


The Wings did have Darren McCarty back in 1996 when Claude Lemieux shoved Draper from behind. McCarty didn't do anything in the first game the next year against Colorado, nor did he do anything the second game. It happened in the third game agsinst them in 1997 to exact the revenge.

I'm all for exacting revenge next year too. If you watch the video of the Lemieux hit on Draper, you'll see that Chicken Claude skated away quickly. Lapointe (another guy who stuck up for teammates) comes in and shoves someone, but Claude is already gone. Did doing nothing gain victory for the Wings? Nope.