He is very lucky.
That was scary moment when he went down. If you noticed he lifted his head to get up then went right back down.
It also looked like when he moved to make the hit he caught an edge which caused him to go down.

this post its hilarious. Maybe the Wings should put in Modano their big off season addition he would fix things or maybe slow the team down more. Hows that working out. :-) As I tell the kids on the ice move your feet not your lips and when you get beat you get beat don't use your stick. Your blaming the refs for game one is just sad and the ultimate Homer move. Wings had more PPs in game 2 and guess what. They had fewer shots then the Sharks and less TOP. The Wings are taking penalties because their slower then the Sharks. They are getting beat to all pucks. All that speed they have must be why their taking stick penalties. What we saw in game 2 was a frustrated Wings team trying to play physical with the Sharks. So break out your crutches and your wheelchair and blame someone else for the fact that your team is once again to slow and small to play against a bigger faster skilled team. You keep wanting to say age isnt a factor. I say it is. Hope the Wings get it together for game 3 and make this a series. I think they will have their best effort.

Like I have been saying for a while the salary caps going to kill you. Heard the farm ream didn't make the playoffs. Better hope you guys can entice more then modano in this offseason or next year will be worse.

Sorry I try to be humble when our team wins, but when faced with a post that lacks in my opinion a true understanding of what's going happening on the ice I just get frustrated. Don't blame the refs. Good teams get it done.

That was scary. I was very glad to see him skate off.

Thomas was definitely the game changer. Amazing saves. Seems to have a real handle on how to block the entire bottom of the net off. Completely. Wow. Don't root for either team, but would like to see Philly get back in it just to see more fun games like last nights!

Come on Mike, you completely skipped over me giving the Sharks credit for outworking the Wings. I even said they are skilled and wanted it more. I disagree that there is some huge gap in talent in either team's favor. If they Wings lose they're old. If they win they're experience carried them through, or they still are hanging on to that pre-cap talent due to hometown discounts. :-)
:-)


By the way I didn't hear you deny that the penalty call in the third period of game 1, that resulted in a game tying goal, was due to a flop. Trying harder is great, but when you rub some Hollywood on it, don't expect me to go out of my way to congratulate you. What do you want, Pavelski to be nominated for an Oscar? Sorry, but I'm not a member of the Academy.

What else is annoying, besides the dives/flops, is the cheapshots. Holmstrom taks 5-10 a game, elbows, crosschecks, and numerous slashes. I know some of that comes with the territory of playing in front of the net, but it is happening when he's not in front of the net where it is easier to hide. I guess if you can't move him out of there it's OK to take cheapshots until he gets hurt. Ben Eager went after Bert and should have gotten an instigating penalty, or at least been given a penalty that shorthanded the Sharks. Don't forget about the snow... (from a non-"Homer blog").

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/dregerreport/

Thornton's was 3-5 seconds after the puck was frozen. That was no accident, and IMO it's Bush-League.

Here's another non-Detroit hockey blog citing the same thing.

http://www.fearthefin.com/2011/5/2/2...howard-in-snow

This one makes note of Thornton doing it last year to Howard too.
I know you'll dismiss it as whining, but I am the first to admit if my favorite team got away with what should have been a penalty. You hit someone cleanly and outwork a team, great. I'll give you props. I did give the Sharks credit for outplaying the Wings, but I don't like cheapshots or Hollywood flops.

Okay in all honesty. Holy crap man that may be the most epic QQ post I have seen. I will try to answer some of your stuff.

I didn't say the Wings were not skilled. I said they are slower and smaller. Both teams have similar skill. The wings have the Dats xfactor who is due to go off. The wings need to find away to overcome the Sharks size and speed. I don't see them doing it enough over the next few games as the Sharks are treating them like their *****& and you don't have any tough guys who are going to change that. They need to find away to gain a psych advantage because they are not bigger, not faster, not stronger, and not more skilled. If they cannot they will continue to take stick and frustration penalties. One things for sure they cannot sustain a 7 game physical series against them. They start to fold as the game progresses. I think the Wings will still take a game or two. Did you forget last year and this year? Looks like much of the same.

I addressed the Bert boarding call that resulted in the goal after that first game one post. Yup it was boarding yup they scored. Are you arguing it was not boarding? Again I have only seen clips of that game so can't offer much more. Bertuzzi is a piece of $hit who shouldn't even be in this league. More importantly check his ice time.

Hollywood diving? Sorry not worth addressing. Again I question how much you have played or understand. The wings are taking stick penalties from getting beat and being careless. You are the only person I see arguing diving. I see some analysts addressing the wings getting beat and using their sticks too much. Again LET GAME 1 GO. Why did they lose game 2? Same reason they lost game 1.

Holmstrom. The fact you are bringing up abuse when you stand infront of the net is comedy. My 5.5 year old son who camps the net and screens goalies takes abuse infront. He did it this weekend in a tourney and has some bruises. If he understands that's how the game works then so should you given your knowledge. You stand there you take sticks and get knocked down. He knows not to cry about it. Its the price you pay.

If you think the Wings are not giving players questionable hits behind the play also then I got a unicorn for sale.

Snow shares? You think the series is 2-0 because of snow shares? You spent that much effort finding things discussing snow showers? Yeah you got them. That's the reason they are winning. Not the fact they are out shooting, out working, out skating, out everything them.

Mike I don't care what happens in this series, but reading some of the wings fans blogs and reading your posts is so strikingly similar. Like I said you better hope this off season the Wings can entice better then the likes of Modano and Bertuzzi because looks like that farm system isn't producing anything.

Yes indeed.

I'm just waiting for Al to go phenuf on me after the last post. :-)

I can only hope that he lifts that cup again this year. That would be cool.

Snow Showers can be called as a penalty? I saw all the wings fans whining, and even more people making fun of it on HFboards, but I didn't know it could be called in the NHL...


Last year my kid snow showered an opposing goalie and he got a 'talking to' from the Ref, he told me that the Red said "Next time you get an unsportsmanlike for that". I just thought it was a Ref trying to keep the kids in line.

I love the Snow Shower. Goalies should expect it, and skaters should be prepared to get flattened when they do it. Let them police themselves!

Not me buddy I'm staying out of this scrum. :-)

I'll let you big boys duke it out. :-)

I'm just an average fan with limited knowledge of the game that I dearly love. :-)

Nice to see Carlson get a goal! He's a local boy done good. I got to watch him growing up and my boys played with him back in the day.


Carry on, it's great reading!

About damn time. I thought you were going to just let me skate through the middle with my head down.

At the rink. Weeeeeeeee.

lol @ Nashville with the "Orange Out"

:-)


I hope it works for them! One shorty already, one PK...go Preds :-)

I hope Nashville takes this one. If they do this bad boy might just go seven. I don't think whoever survives the Sharks Wings will survive the winner of the Canucks Preds. Cannucks have to much firepower and goaltending. Preds play a damn amazing blue collar defensive shut down game and Rinne is just a thief.

Caps are done again.

That OT call in the Preds game has got to be the absolute worst job of officiating I have ever seen. How on earth do you call hooking in OT when the canuck was OBVIOUSLY holding the stick.

I'm just sick of the bad officiating, and really really tired of players who 'buy' calls. Like luongo and his call earlier in the game, snapping his head back when the stick was nowhere near his mask.

The canucks bought 2 PP goals tonight, and the last one cost the Preds the game. The NHL should be embarrassed. But I got the feeling they aren't. What a joke.

That last call was tough. Given they were letting so much go to call that when he clearly hooked his stick in tight was odd. They took off Weber which added to it. That said the non call a little earlier where he bieksa was upended may have been the reason they made that call. The series is far from over though and I am hoping Nashville takes game 4 and given how close every game has been its very possible. Yeah there was a whole bunch of mugging both ways though and it was surprising to see that call. Earlier in that ot period a pred was tackled in front of the net and no call so it was an odd call.


Watching the Can Sui game. Goalie just got showered, he's okay though.

Go Red Wings!!!

After getting to see most of the last Wings/Sharks game the Wings are getting outplayed, and at their own game. What's making the difference is lines 2,3 and 4. Against the Coyotes our other lines really put a lot of pressure on them. In this series the top lines are playing pretty even, while the Sharks other lines are dominating the Wings.

The snow showers really bother me but they won't stop. The Wings need to step up and send a message to the Sharks with their play. Can someone invite Franzen to the 2nd round please? He looks like he is hurt but who knows the guy is streaky.

Bah, officiating comes and goes in waves. Sometimes it's in your favour like it was for the Canucks last night, other times it's against you like it was for the Canucks in Game 2 and for much of the Chicago series. The had ref's arsed up badly on the Bieska hit a couple shifts before, that hit should have been called. The Weber hook on Kesler was partially a makeup call and partially a smart play by an experienced player to earn his team an advantage. All Weber had to do to prevent that from being called was let go of his stick, he held on an got called on a valid (albeit weak) penalty. Welcome to sports (and yes, I would have said exactly the same thing if the sides were reversed and the call had been against the Canucks).


As for Luongo, he's well known to be a prima dona who has a tendency to act and embellish the significance of contact. That doesn't make it right, but if the ref's bought it that's their fault not his. They could have always given him an unsportsmanlike call for the embellishment if they felt it was warranted. That said, the stick did hit his mask and the replays clearly showed it. That makes it high sticking just as much as any other accident contact against a skating player. Given that all the ref's are under instructions to reduce and prevent goaltender contact/interence in these playoffs that was simply a stupid mistake by the Predators player.

For one who has been so critical of refs your opening sentence is a bit funny :-). I will make sure to quote it later in the series.

I can't let that Hawks comment you tried to slip in go. I didn't see this officiating in the Hawks Canucks series. I don't think anyone else did either. I saw Luongo and some of the team $hit their pants repeatedly in front of the world. To blame that series on the officiating is disrespectful to the Hawks. I hope I am misreading that, but it seems clear. The Hawks showed more heart and character then I have seen in a while. I can say I don't think the Canucks would have had the same comeback. That was a team of Champions showing a lot of heart and not bad officiating. The Canucks are lucky to still be playing hockey.

Christos nice to see some people post after wins and losses. I think the Wings will have their biggest best push.

I'm not blaming anyone but the Canucks for letting Chicago come back to within a hair of taking that series. Nor am I saying that the Canucks did anything other than meltdown in Games 4 and 5. However the reffing in that series was atrocious and it did, for the most part, benefit the Hawks. You can quote anything back to me that you want, unlike many fans (of any team in any sport) I don't think the sun rises and sets out the arse of the team I'm supporting and I'm usually the first to recognize and call them on their weaknesses :-) The biggest weaknesses currently on the Canucks are a pair of Swedish Sisters than can't seem to figure out how to either pass or shoot the puck with any degree of competence :-)

Fair enough I suppose. I don't mind bad or loose officiating as long as its across the board. I think there has been consistency in the playoffs largely. By that I mean the refs are letting a lot of physical play go while calling other stuff. As Scott commented, letting them police themselves.


I agree on the Weber penalty. Watching that unfold I was thinking drop the stick.