Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[Prime2]

Those are you seats? Right on the glass wow, only thing wrong is that ridiculous rat throwing.

That's how I roll Packy, 3 rows off the glass, rightside of Islanders bench.

I think the tradition is kinda cool.
Wikki:
The rat trick is a celebration popularized by fans of the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL) during their 1995?96 season and trip to the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals. The term, a play on hat trick, was coined by Panthers goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck after teammate Scott Mellanby killed a rat in the locker room prior to the team's home opener with his stick, then scored two goals with the same stick. Fans immediately picked up on the idea and began throwing plastic rats on the ice to celebrate goals. By the time the Panthers reached the 1996 playoffs, thousands of rats hit the ice after every Panthers goal, resulting in an off-season rule change by the NHL that allowed for referees to penalize the home team if fans disrupt the game by throwing objects onto the ice.

The 1995?96 season was the third in the NHL for the Panthers, who had been awarded as an expansion franchise in 1992. The team was composed of journeymen veterans and rookies and led by all-star goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck.[1] As the team prepared for its home opener against the Calgary Flames on October 8, 1995, a rat entered the dressing room, startling several players. Scott Mellanby reacted by shooting the rat across the locker room with his stick, killing it. He then went out and scored two goals in a 4?3 victory over the Flames, leading the Panthers to their first win of the season.[2] Vanbiesbrouck described the incident to reporters after the game, stating that while Mellanby failed to score a hat trick (three goals in one game), he did manage a "rat trick".[2]
During the next game, a fan threw a plastic rat onto the ice following a Panthers goal. The following game, a few more rats hit the ice.[1] Eventually, over 100 rats were tossed to the ice following Panthers goals,[3] as the Panthers emerged as the top team in the league by mid-November.[2] Eventually, Florida finished the regular season in third place in the Atlantic Division,[4] and qualified for the playoffs for the first time.[5]
Additionally, this Panthers' playoff appearance coincided with the Year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac. This led fans to believe that the Panthers would have great luck in the playoffs.

[WingsFan]

Turnabout is fair play in Chicago today as the Blackhawks blew a 2-1 lead late and lose 3-2 St Louis blee game 2 thr same way

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk

[Hannibal]

Bob Cole is doing the Wings game on NHL network!

[WingsFan]

Must say the Joe is definitely rocken tonight! 1-0 Red Wings

[WingsFan]

Tampa looks tired, Wings look much better with Mrazek in goal. Smith has been seller on D, no 3rd meltdown 2 goal lead.

[Mike]

That was a fantastic effort by the Wings! And yes, the Joe was on fire. Fun to watch and Ken and Mickey are the best in the biz, IMO.

[WingsFan]

Florida totally dominated the Islanders in OT The Islanders get maybe one good chance and the smallest guy on the ice scores. 4-3 New York

[WingsFan]

Chris Cuthbert is calling this series, he is definitely the best on NBC Sports (by far) . Former Red Wing announcer Dave Strader left NBC to go to Dallas is also very good. Mike Doc Erick is the number one guy and is nails on the chalkboard!!

[Hannibal]

Bob Cole -- at age 82, still possibly the best PxP guy in the game. I agree about Emrick -- he is getting annoying. I love Chris Cuthbert too.

Last night's game was great. The CBC guys were openly rooting for the Red Wings.

[froot loops]

Emrick would be fine if he didn't add all the superfluous commentary into his PBP. Sometimes he calls a game like Lynn Henning writes columns. Too much flowery exposition, get to the point.

[Hannibal]

Emrick's most annoying trait is that he embellishes ordinary, boring plays, like when a player fires a weak shot into the goalie's chest or a slap shot misses the net by five feet. He yells at the top of his lungs and then runs out of breath in the middle of his sentence like he has emphysema or something. And IMHO he's getting worse with age. As a general rule though, NBC and NBCSN have pretty good announcers. Way better than ESPN.

[WingsFan]

Right, stories are alright once in a while, but who needs Edith Bunker in the booth. Get to the point, figures that he's paired with another suck up story teller Pierre Mcguire.

He also seemed a bit rattled after mistakenly call a goal by Hossa yesterday that hit the post. Not a big deal, but he apologized like 3 times when he didn't need to. Cleary shaken a bit, I just don't think he good at all, it's not about him it the game.

[Hannibal]

Last night was feasibly the last playoff game at the Joe and Datsyuk's last home game.

[froot loops]

Did Datsyuk play?

[Prime2]

Datsyuk - Zero points in 4 playoff games
Captain Zetterberg -1 playoff goal in 4 games

To add insult to injury, they both will likely play for Russia and Sweden in Canada/World Cup next fall in Toronto.

"Hoo-hoo-hoo, go on, take the money and run"....

How about them Panthers!?