Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[Hannibal]

A shame hearing about guys like that. Guys who probably reflect on their careers nowadays and contemplate how badly they fucked up.

[WingsFan]

Red Wings up 1-0 going into the 3rd ...

[Optimus Prime]

Hawks are screwed . What do you think about Howard's play now Packy?

[WingsFan]

Unbelievable!!!

Howard, Drew Miller, Dan Cleary these guys are playing out of their minds!!

Can't believe were up 3-1 now

[lineygoblue]

Wow... in a year when you'd expect the Wings to head to the golf course after the first round, .. they're poised to move on to the conference finals.

[DennisT]

Fire Stan Makita!

[Mike]

WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

[madootra]

Toews looks like a lost child out there. 3 straight penalties.....should have been called for a dive earlier. The Wings are carrying the play to them.

[madootra]

[Rob F]

Which one is Toews?

[Optimus Prime]

The good news, it appears G4 broke Chicago's back, the Blackhawks have come apart and Wings should wrap up the series in 6 IMO. Wouldn't surprise me if Wings' countless turnovers may catch up with them in G5.

The bad news is having to face LA, another playoff shutout by Quick, 51 hits against SJ, they are a Big, Fast & Punishing Team.

Kings up 3-2 against SJ, best series of the playoffs this year.

Rangers/Bruins, Pens/Sens......series duds compared to the Western Conference matches.

[lineygoblue]

Yeah, I think the Wings will probably have a bit of a letdown in Game 5, and Chicago will probably get a multiple goal win.

But, that will be the last gasp for the Hawks. The octopus bites them in the butt in Game 6 back at the Joe.

[Tony G]

They need to kick them in the head while they're on the ground. Don't let them back up, close it in Chicago.

[lineygoblue]

I agree, Tony. A final beatdown on their own ice is what is called for here.

[Rob F]

This series needs to end in Chicago. Nothing (other than beating ohio in Columbus and state in E. Lansing) is as sweet as beating a Chicago team on their home ice/turf/court.

I'd have to look up the year (it has to have been back in the mid-80's), my brother and I decided to drive to Chicago and try to pick up a pair of Stanley Cup Playoff tickets for the Red Wings at old Chicago Stadium. The Blackhawks, as I recall, were a mediocre team that season that barely made it into the playoffs; the Wings, featuring Probert and Kocur back then, were a decent but not-quite-great team. Got the tickets for slightly over face (good fortune there and also due to the fact that we were just one section over from where a good number of Red Wings fans were seated---more on this later).

Anyway, the place wasn't even sold out, my guess is that it may have been, at most, 90% full. Chicago was looking for their first win of that series, while a Detroit win meant sweep and on to the next round, so that may have been a reason for a less-than-full house.

As expected, there was plenty of hockey played in between fights (what else could you expect when one team features Probie and Joey and the other doesn't have enough talent and has to resort to trying to out-goon us?), so the crowd got pretty agitated as the game went on, we saw more than a few drunken fans get involved in fisticuffs and get taken out in cuffs . Ended up as a win and sweep for the Wings, then things really got nasty! No bench-clearing brawl, but the gloves were definitely flying at games end, which in turn, got the by now half-emptied stands even more riled up.

We hadn't been hassled too much by the BlackHawks fans early on, but by the middle of the 3rd period, thought better of continuing to sit where we were and moved one section over to join a large group wearing our colors. good thing we did, because even before the game ended, a few Red Wings fans were pulling out their wisk brooms to celebrate and ended up having to use them to protect themselves from thrown debris, which brought out a large contingent of security and cops to put a stop to it.

As the game ended, our entire section was surrounded by those cops and security, who told us all to quickly gather our things so that we could be safely escorted out of there. Even then, cups and other crap continued to be thrown at us, but we got out safely and quickly found our car.

Like I said, nothing like winning on the road and seeing those home fans suffer extreme butthurt, when they are a rival you especially despise. Good times!