Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[madootra]

Wings win 3-2 over the Ducks! Goals by Zetterberg, Filpula, and Abdelkader.......shorthanded! Howard gave up one soft goal, and they had to hang on in the end.......but it's a huge series win. Should give the young D some much needed confidence.

Bring on the Blackhawks!!! I think we match-up with them pretty good. they're much more talented than Anaheim, but not as physical.

[lineygoblue]

Got to hand it to the Wings. I thought they were done when they gave up the home ice advantage, but they pulled it off.

[Hannibal]

Man, Bruce Boudreaux sucks as a playoff coach.

I'm glad that I lived to see the day where the Wings beat what was pretty clearly a better team. God knows it has happened to them over and over again.

Holland still needs some off season upgrades though.

[Tony G]

Give credit to Babcock for beating a clearly better team also

[Mike]

Thanks for the welcome back, guys.

As for the Wings, this was one of the more satisfying playoff series wins in a long time. I really, really, hate Anaheim. It was great to see whiny bitches like Perry and Getzlaf silent and humbled at the end of the game. The Ducks had the 3rd most points in the NHL this season but I thought the Wings were the better team for larger stretches of the series than the Ducks. The better team in this series won. Hell, I think the Wings D scored half of Anaheim's goals. I'm sure the Hawks will make quick work of Detroit in the second round,l though. That defense is the worst I've ever seen from a Red Wing team. Every shift can be a catastrophe with this crew.

At the start of the season I was just hoping they keep the playoff streak intact. To actually win a playoff series with this roster is very impressive. Might be Babcock's best coaching job since he's been in Detroit. Most of our D has no business even playing in the league. Howard was very good most of the series but he has a terrible habit of giving up short-side goals. Still, he robbed more than a few great chances for the Ducks. Just ask Corey Perry.

[Mike]

And what was the problem with the TV broadcasts? Fox Sports Detroit had all 7 games. I don't understand what the issue is/was.

[Hannibal]

The League has grown from 1/2 billion to 3.5-4.0 billion a year in revenue under Bettman's stewardship.

Every sport has seen hyperinflation. Bettman has had nothing to do with this, and, if anything, has badly hindered the growth of the sport. Hockey is lower on the popularity scale in the USA than it was 20 years ago. 20 years ago it was at least fourth, and it was improving, thanks to superstars like Gretzky and Lemieux. Now, I would say that NASCAR has easily passed it, and the soccer World Cup has become a more popular event in the USA than the Stanley Cup. The XFL had higher ratings than the NHL in its one year of existence and I remember seeing at one point that televised poker was getting higher ratings than the NHL playoffs. Professional hockey has now been in the sun belt for an entire generation, and it has completely failed to take root in the culture in that time.

[Hannibal]

Thanks for the welcome back, guys.

As for the Wings, this was one of the more satisfying playoff series wins in a long time. I really, really, hate Anaheim. It was great to see whiny bitches like Perry and Getzlaf silent and humbled at the end of the game. The Ducks had the 3rd most points in the NHL this season but I thought the Wings were the better team for larger stretches of the series than the Ducks. The better team in this series won. Hell, I think the Wings D scored half of Anaheim's goals. I'm sure the Hawks will make quick work of Detroit in the second round,l though. That defense is the worst I've ever seen from a Red Wing team. Every shift can be a catastrophe with this crew.

I'd have to disagree. The ice was tilted towards Detroit's end for most of each game. Even last night, after the first five minutes, Anaheim pretty much dominated. But Detroit made the most of their limited opportunities. The shoe has been on the other foot more times than I care to remember.

I expect that the series with Chicago will play out a lot like our 2008 series with Colorado.

[Hannibal]

Babcock now has 15 playoff series wins in 10 seasons, vs 8 losses. I don't know how much longer he will be with Detroit, but if he ever gets fired, there will be a line of teams out the door waiting to hire him.

[Mike]

Has it been 10 seasons with Babcock? I thought his first year was the 2006 first round loss to Edmonton. Dave Lewis coached in 2003-4, lockout in 2005. So, this is Babcock's 8th season in Detroit and has 15 series victories against what should be 6 losses (won Cup in 2008 and haven't lost yet this year. If that is correct, 15-6 is pretty damn good and I'm sure it's light years ahead of anyone else in the league. I've been meaning for a while to sit down one day and run the numbers for playoff wins since the Wings made the Cup Final in 1995. I bet Detroit has somewhere around 3-4X the number of playoff games and series wins over the 2nd best team over that time-frame.

[lineygoblue]

I don't think Babcock is going anywhere, even if the Wings get swept by the Blackhawks.

[Hannibal]

Has it been 10 seasons with Babcock? I thought his first year was the 2006 first round loss to Edmonton. Dave Lewis coached in 2003-4, lockout in 2005. So, this is Babcock's 8th season in Detroit and has 15 series victories against what should be 6 losses (won Cup in 2008 and haven't lost yet this year. If that is correct, 15-6 is pretty damn good and I'm sure it's light years ahead of anyone else in the league. I've been meaning for a while to sit down one day and run the numbers for playoff wins since the Wings made the Cup Final in 1995. I bet Detroit has somewhere around 3-4X the number of playoff games and series wins over the 2nd best team over that time-frame.

I was including his first Cup run with Anaheim too. 15 series wins in 10 seasons (although he missed the playoffs in 2004). I sometimes wonder if he isn't able to motivate the players like he was able to do five years ago, but there's no question, the guy can coach.

Wings are 32-14 since 1995, by my count.

[Hannibal]

I just read that the #2 seed has won 44% of the playoff series since 1994. That's a pretty amazing stat. I think that the 4 has beaten the 5 significantly more often.

[Mike]

Other way around. The #7 seed has beaten the #2 44% of the time (slightly higher now with our win last night). It is the most prevelent "upset" of any first round matchup.

[Tom W]

Nice little role reversal in this series. After years of watching the Red Wings bring more talented and experienced teams that ended up fatigued, bored and beaten, it's nice to see them stick it to one of Bettman's projects. That it happened in spite of Anaheim getting at least 3 gift goals in the last two games is even more impressive.