Wow...definitely wasn't expecting the Sharks to take it to the Wings like this!

We got a game for the 3rd.

What was Sj's defense thinking on the Cleary goal?? :-)

This, and the regular season is these guys day job. Like every job it's easy to get caught up and being putting in just enough effort to do a good enough job to earn the pay cheque and not the full 110% required for a phenomenal job. The playoffs on the other hand are why they choose to pursue careers as pro-hockey players so the extra effort is a given.

Never been a Sharks fan but boy howdy I sure am for the next 2 weeks or less!

Sharks hold on and draw first blood.

I really like Joe Pavelski...he sure would look good in Blackhawks red.

That was so bad. I am hoping for no more WTF goals like that in this series.

Hell no. I am loving Pavs. From his clutch play for team USA to his clutch goals so far. Hoping Micah can wear number 8 next year. :-)

Nice to see the Sharks special teams step up and in both scoring goals on the PP and holding the Wings off the board on 7 PP's. 15 Penalties tonight and the teams clearly have their hate on early. I think by the end this may rival the Hawks Knuckleheads. Well maybe not, but its already chippy.

That said the Wings showed why they are a great franchise. Down 3 goals they didnt panic, they kept their heads and got right back in the game. To me this series has the potential to go 7. Howard impressed me a lot with his play tonight as to keeping his head and staying in the game. His interview after the game also showed a lot of poise.

Babcock crying in the press conf saying Settogucghi dove after getting high sticked in the face. He did get sticked in the face and he admits that, but he didnt like the way he reacted after getting sticked in the mouth. Seriously? He's already going to start lobbying the refs? It was a friggin penalty and he's complaining. I saw some embelishment the other way guess hes not concearned about his teams embelishing. :-)


As to the win. AWESOME!!!!!:-)

Number #8 is great...although #3 is pretty cool too. :-)

At least Babcock admitted Setoguchi got hit in the face...idiot color man said that "He got hit in the wrist and his legs stopped working". What the Hell play was he watching??

Congrats on a good Game 1 win...I agree, this one might be headed to 7. But I also disagree, Mike...I see no way this is going to get near as nasty as the Hawks and Canuckleheads series will be.

I will probably miss a couple games, as I don't think the hospital I am going into has Versus...luckily the first3 Hawks games are on ComCast, and I will be able to catch the NBC games too.

Hmmmmm #3 sounds like some plugs defense number. :-) Thought about it because he was 3 when he played his first hockey game. See I am already teaching him to stand infront of the net though, so I just dont think 3 would work. :-) Hell maybe I will go 96 for the modern day king of standing infront of the net and getting dirty goals.

As to the no games, uhhhhh you have heard of justin.tv and dailyfun4u.com right? just take your laptop with you and bang instant hockey. thought u had an iphone, there is even a justin.tv app. Its not bad I sometimes use it on my ipod touch using my phone as wifi hotspot. There is no excuse to miss any hockey. Where there is a will there is a way.

Life is good sitting on the front porch with my last PSP#2, laptop and a rootbeer(non drinker) life is good. :-) Wife didnt want to wrestle because I have a cold. :-) Hope your stint in the hospital will be over before the end of the second round. I am ueber superstitious so I wont speak further as to 3rd round.

Thanks Mike, my stay will be over long before Round 2 ends. But while I am there, I will miss some games...I don't own a laptop. :-) :-)

That tripping penalty on Franzen after getting high sticked really bothers me. Lead to a Pavalski PPG on a 5-3. Probably what sealed the game. Wings did keep going at it. Resting a few days and getting back to it on Sunday will definitely help the Wings. They looked a little slow in the game.

That penalty was fricken crap. Hard to control your stick when you are trying to cover your face from the high stick that just cut you below the eye. You could see the amazement on his face that he got called for that penalty while he was wiping up his own blood. :-)

Leaving the house in a few, my son has a baseball tournament that gets under way tonight. Gonna miss Game 1 tonight of the Pens vs Habs.

Go Pens!

Looked to me like the High Stick came as a result of being tripped. You cant control your stick while being tripped.

Wow how about we go to the video shall we. lets watch 3:04 to say 3:10 and watch it a few times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRTxpZxzCUA

Tripping after getting high sticked. The incidences at best occurred at exactly the same moment. I would give the nod to Franzens stick touching settos skates prior to the settos stick touching his face. The way you two are talking you are making it sound like he was highsticked and then he tripped him. These incidences occurred at the exact same instance and one did not cause the other. But hey you guys break out that crutch so you can blame the game on that.

"got the penalty while wiping blood from his face" that is absolutely false sir. :-)

So.....how bout them Pens!!!!!!!

micah loves cindy and the pens. He was happy tonight. Jumping up and down on the couch. Pretty dominating performance tonigt that's for sure.

Tonight I am a Blackhawks fan.

Tomorrow I am a Sharks fan.

ALWAYS a Penguins fan.

Don't give a crap about who wins the flyers/bruins series fan!

In the end, its gonna be Hawks/Pens in the finals. Can't wait!

It's interesting how much you read into my posts. Look back at what I put.. All I said is that it bothered me and because of that penalty that pretty much sealed the game. I can't conclusively say which came first after looking at it again.

You might want to check yourself on the "crutch" part. I never made any comments on how the refs stole the game from us. In fact I feel we got some calls because of a bit of acting which I hate to see. Nothing worse than players taking dives or acting to get a call. Terrible for the game.

I honestly expected the Sharks to win. They were at home, after a week of rest and the Wings coming off a big emotional win less than 48 hours before the game. The Sharks would have really dropped the ball if they lost that first game. I'm encouraged by the Wings effort and I'm not at all worried that we won't win this series. The effort the Wings gave after that early deficit is a great sign of things to come.

I dont read to much into your post and I quoted two posts both of which had false statements in them.
You stated the tripping penalty came "after" the high sticking. The video shows different. You said it lead to the 5-3 goal. No what lead to the 5-3 goal was Filppula's stick in Settoguchi's mouth. You said the penalty probablly sealed the game.

I also quoted a second person who said the trip occurred after the highstick and while he was wiping blood of his face.

I dont think I need to "check" myself when I am attempting to correct what appear to be false statements, or statements that are very open to debate. To me anytime you say a whole game was sealed or controled by one single call or non call is a crutch. It negates the other 55+ minutes of the game.

I just want to make sure anyone who did not see the game would clearly see what we were discussing and how it was not how it was being portrayed in the 2 posts I quoted.

This series is far from over and the Wings have a better chance then the Sharks to win the Series given experience and what they have shown so far. That said this thread will go a lot further if people dont start calling out individual penalties or non penalties implying they sealed the game. It takes 60 minutes to seal a game. So lets all just sit back and get ready for a long one. In the end the Wings will likely prevail anyway so settle down.

The goal after the penalty pretty much did seal the game. That was the game winner for the Sharks. Pretty simple.

I'm still looking for how I'm using that as a crutch.. In all my statements I never said that play sealed the game. Probably and pretty much were used. That means there were other aspects to the game that helped win it for the Sharks. I'm not looking for any crutch or any excuses as to why the Wings lost.

Definitely looking forward to the next game tomorrow. And looking forward to Monday's dissection of the game between the 2 of us.