Awesome series. Phoenix brought it this game but the Wings never sat back and waited or played with an on/off switch. Loved how we got great contributions from lots of players. Helm is a fucking beast. And now we get to rest.
Hey, get yer car flags out!
Find a new slant.
Got to love the sweep! Here's to hoping they don't come out flat in the next series after a long layoff. It'll be great to have Hank back and hopefully Franzen at full strength. Helm is a monster, he's my favorite guy to watch at this point. He always works hard and makes things happen.
Howard hasn't been perfect but he's head and shoulders above where he was last year. The biggest thing is the rebounds, like DE said. Not worrying about where the puck's going every single time the Coyotes took a shot was a relief. Wings need to step it up a bit on the defensive end. San Jose isn't going to let them get away with some of the things they could against the future-Jets.
Is it just me, or did it seem like they started strong then faded in games 2 and 3? Much improved from the slow starts and having to battle back into things that we've seen all season, but it had me worried that they were starting a new trend. Definitely didn't see it in game 4, though.
I've got a buddy that's a huge Buffalo fan. I keep telling him it's only a matter of time before they trade Ryan Miller to the Wings for Filppula and a first round pick. Spend every Sabres game saying how great Miller's going to look in a Wings jersey next year. Is this wrong? Is he already tormented enough being a Sabres fan?
_
It was hard for me to get any backing that Howard was even the slightest bit of the problem last year. But how quickly he fixed himself from those problems he wasn't having last year.
Players meeting my ASS!
You were pretty hard on him last year, I didn't think he was perfect but he wasn't the goddamned antichrist. Most of his bad playoff goals were against all those poorly officiated power plays and 5 on 3s that kept going against us. Motherfucker. (Bitch.)
No he wan't all that...just the reason we lost in the playoffs.
Players meeting my ASS!
You're taking something to an unnecessary extreme here (well jokingly in this last post). That was the issue last year. I'll stick to the same opinion I had last year when we disagreed on this issue: he did not play like a playoff goalie. He did not do anything to keep the Wings from being bounced. That said, he was not the reason they did get bounced. San Jose beat them. The Wings were too damn tired from having to play playoff hockey the entire second half of the season and then going 7 against the Coyotes. They tried to play a purely finesse game against the Sharks and couldn't get production from more than one line. They were left with chasing the Sharks, taking lots of penalties (a lot of them shitty calls but you get those a lot when you're chasing a team) and letting their second line own us. If Howard had played like a playoff caliber goalie it would have helped, but the Wings as a team got deservedly beaten by the Sharks.
I'd love to take on the Sharks again. I loved how the Wings (for spurts anyways) played hard checking hockey against the Coyotes. I'd love to see them do that to the Sharks, check them and take the game to them. With Pav playing at a huge level and seeing lots of contributions from other players, Helm the beast especially, we could roll four lines on them. We've had some much needed rest as well. AND Howard has not been giving up those rebounds and looks like he can carry them for some minutes.
All that said, I would much rather argue with a Wings fan over Howard than read lame bandwagon threads about other teams in the NHL thread.
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