yave1964 Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Unbelievable. Jimmy Howard played out of his mind, team toughness on every shift, a disciplined defense. Zetterberg OWNS Toews. I believe we can close it out, the Wings need one win, the Hawks are a mess, Z as our captain has the team firing on all cylinders and Toews has fingers pointing and dumb frustrated penalties. How big of an upset would this be historically? A seven seed has knocked off a number one before but the Hawks looked like a lock to sail through the West, certainly this would be a quick easy series for them. If the Wings finish this off, where does it rank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polaris922 Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 @yave1964I'd have to think pretty high. The Hawks were on on helluva roll early this season, and with it being half a season I don't think there was a single second they weren't the favorites in the west. Quite the upset indeed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojo1917 Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 @yave1964Three straight frustration penalties by Toews in the second confirms your assertion about Z, The young fella is having a hard time staying disciplined. Howard has been pretty lights out too, I'm impressed with the Wings commitment to team D vs the Hawks, I think I've seen maybe three odd man chances by Chicago in the games I've watched of this series. The Wings always seem to have more guys around the puck at all times, they look fast and disciplined. Kudos to Babs for getting everyone to buy in.Plus I just have to say this, Pavel Datsyuk makes about 5 wizard plays a game, what a pleasure it is to watch him play hockey. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeDDS Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 (edited) @yave1964Howie is playing fantastic, and he deserves the shutout. So don't let my next statement detract from that previous one. But we must also acknowledge that Chicago has really caught their share of iron in this series. Wide pipes have been Howie's best friend.What is interesting to me is how your team responds AFTER they clang a few off the iron. Last series against Anaheim, we were catching a bunch of iron too. We caught our share in games 1 & 2 of this series. But we didn't give up. We kept playing our game. We didn't slump the shoulders for long. We got after it and stayed disciplined. We didn't let frustration ruin our game.I am watching Chicago become unglued a bit, and part of it has gotta be the iron messing with their heads. Toews is obviously frustrated by his minimized opportunities, and we've had a lot to do with that. But so has the iron.The truth is all teams go through times like this, and how they are determined to play after the clang has a lot to do with success. In my opinion, the difference in how the Wings and Hawks have responded to those stretches is why not only are we in the 2nd round, but leading Chicago 3-1. Edited May 24, 2013 by SpikeDDS 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 @yave1964Bowie is playing fantastic, and he deserves the shutout. So don't let my next statement detract from that previous one. But we must also acknowledge that Chicago has really caught their share of iron in this series. Wide pipes have been Howie's best friend.What is interesting to me is how your team responds AFTER they clang a few off the iron. Last series against Anaheim, we were catching a bunch of iron too. We caught our share in games 1 & 2 of this series. But we didn't give up. We kept playing our game. We didn't slump the shoulders for long. We got after it and stayed disciplined. We didn't let frustration ruin our game.I am watching Chicago become unglued a bit, and part of it has gotta be the iron messing with their heads. Toews is obviously frustrated by his minimized opportunities, and we've had a lot to do with that. But so has the iron.The truth is all teams go through times like this, and how they are determined to play after the clang has a lot to do with success. In my opinion, the difference in how the Wings and Hawks have responded to those stretches is why not only are we in the 2nd round, but leading Chicago 3-1.Still not ready to write Chicago off in this series, but wow, the Wings are playing with house money, having fun, frustrating the best team in hockey this season, and looking dangerous and hard and nasty. This is not the same team that played for the majority of the regular season. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hf101 Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Toews is obviously frustrated by his minimized opportunities, and we've had a lot to do with that. But so has the iron.Found this gif @ SBNation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 Found this gif @ SBNationToews needs to buy a Zetterberg jersey because he has been wearing one through the whole series..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polaris922 Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 Not taking anything away from Zetterberg, but your best defense against Toews has been Howard. He's really been standing out in your games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeDDS Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 Not taking anything away from Zetterberg, but your best defense against Toews has been Howard. He's really been standing out in your games.It's been both Zetterberg, Howie and Kronwall as well. The idea is to limit his opportunities, which Kronner and Z have done pretty well, and then Howie has stopped the few chances that Toews has had. Even his assist production is down. It's not just one guy. Yes, Toews IS Z's focus, but it has really been a team thing, particularly those 3 guys though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polaris922 Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 Tonight the Hawks broke through... But can they win two more?? Could prove an interesting series yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted May 26, 2013 Author Share Posted May 26, 2013 The last tw games, Bickell, Shaw, Toews, Keith and Crawford were called out as off their game and/or owned by my Wings. Tonight, they were the Hawks best players by far, and this is what happens. The big thing the Hawksdid was jump a d-man up in to the offense with consistency tonight, something they had not been doing. Babs will adjust, of course, but the Hawks played a complete game tonight. If the Hawks play their best game, the Wings cannot hang with them. It is a matter of keeping the Hawks from doing so, of the five players mentioned above, three need to be neutralized for the wings to win AND the Wings have to play their best game. We did it a few times, we need to only do it once more. Still a series. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeDDS Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 (edited) @yave1964Agree on all points. Last night's game showed that Toews wasn't about to lay down. This last victory will be the hardest to get for the Red Wings.Babs is, of course, going to say that last night's loss was about us not skating, and to a degree that is true. But I agree with you: If Chicago plays their best, we can't stop 'em, at least not without a BUNCH of breaks in our favor. I think last night's game was a lot about Chicago really starting to skate, and the D pressing, and the Wings not being able to respond to it.They will respond better in G6, but if Chicago plays their best game and we play ours, we still lose more than we win. But we CAN still win ONE! (Makes me think of that line in Herb Brooks' speech to the 1980 US team before their game with the Red Army team: "If we played them 10 times, they'd probably win 9...but not THIS game! Not tonight!")I just want us to play with purpose, discipline, and fervor. If we do that and still lose this series, we will have NOTHING to hang our heads about. NOTHING! But if we can influence Chicago to not play their game...ooohh what a sweet victory this would be. It's about will for our Wings. Edited May 27, 2013 by SpikeDDS 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polaris922 Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 @SpikeDDSI had no idea Herb's distant cousin Al gave that speech! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeDDS Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 @SpikeDDSI had no idea Herb's distant cousin Al gave that speech! Whoopsie! Thanks for the catch. Corrected. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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