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It's been a great season


SpikeDDS

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And once again, Iginla is the Red Wing killer. The predicted X-factor for the Bruins comes through. At least our supposed-predicted X-factor didn't look too bad. Smith and Quincey made several fine plays tonight.

This game was all about watching both the game and the series slip away. Man did we look good in the first. And yet, it easily could have been 3-2 Wings but for missed opportunities by both teams. And then the bear decided it was time to eat. He could certainly have finished us off quicker, as several open net looks were wasted by Boston, but in the end, the better team won both this game and eventually will win the series.

It was good seeing Z on the ice, but it's not enough. We are good. Boston is great. That's all there is to it.

The notable silence from both the kid line which Babs had to break up and from Franzen were undeniable. I credit Boston more than these players, but Nyquist sure has gone cold. Can't buy one. Franzen actually didn't look bad at the beginning of th game, but like everybody, as the game went on you could see that it wasn't gonna be enough.

Monster was solid. Again, with nobody scoring for us, eventually Boston's gonna score.

Credit Boston's defense for keeping us off the scoreboard like they have. It's hard to see anyone matching up with these guys if they continue to stay healthy and play like this. It should be another Cup for Boston.

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And once again, Iginla is the Red Wing killer.

 

Your road is hard, but not impossible. I thought it was an excellent game (though Marchand could have put you out of your misery with a gaping net in the 3rd). Opportunities abounded for both teams. One big bright spot is I thought the Monster had an excellent game. 

 

The wings, with all the injuries, were / are significant underdogs. Winning another game or two should be considered a moral victory (even this game). 

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@Vanflyer

 

I don't disagree that one more victory would douse good. But what is obvious is that where we are weak is where you need to be strong in the playoffs--defense. We were darn lucky to even have this go into OT. Sure we missed opportunities too, but Boston had 3 or 4 GOLDEN opportunities to change the game, and for whatever reason just...didn't.

 

Monster was excellent, as he has been all season. Howie--other than the gaffe--was also very good and excellent at times this series. Goaltending is not the problem for the Red Wings. People like to point at Howie. It's easy. It's wrong much of the time. I don't LOVE Jimmy Howard, but I try to give him a fair shake. We are playing a better team, and our D has broken down numerous times in front of both of these guys. No goaltender can be a wall when there are consistent breakdowns

 

But looking at the big picture, looking at the whole league that is in the playoffs, look at our goal scoring. We have 4 goals in 4 games. Offense and quickness is our strength. It is obvious to me that we are seeing Exhibit Z that good offense is no match for good defense in playoff hockey. The reality is that this team, as valiant as they have played and as well as it has been coached this year, has NO chance to win 3 in a row against this Bruins team short of the flu taking down half of their team.

 

The good news for the Wings is that we've got a couple of spots which will open up this off-season allowing an opportunity for upgrading our D. There's more good news: This really has been a good season for this franchise. They can be proud of what they've done, continuing the streak. The next few years are going to be very interesting for our franchise. We've got some legitimate talent coming up which gives us opportunity to either bring them up or acquire the pieces we need in trades to make our team a Cup contender once again. They were not this year. I believe we will be again soon. When I titled this thread "It's been a good season," it was not all resignation. It HAS been good. And good things are coming...but not until this series is finished.

 

I hope we win one more game, but I'm not going to lie, I'm not counting on it. The way we lost this game--despite it being a good game--the fat lady is warming up.

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@SpikeDDS

 Kronwall played not only his best game of the series but quite possibly all year. He was magnificent. Essentially we played 3 1/2 forwards when   he was on the ice, he pinched in and took risks and was marvelous. The fact that Babs was willing to risk it all with Smith hanging back sometimes alone on defense speaks volumes as to how far Smith has come.

 

  Moral victories sound shallow but as the season is drawing to a close i can think of dozens of platitudes and things to say. The kids came a long way, Cleary, Bert, Sammy and possibly Quincey have their salaries off the books for next year. The kids in Grand Rapids on the blue line are almost as good as the forwards we saw break through this year. The future is bright. The present, not so much as the Bruins show us how far we need to come to be a contender in the rugged East but it is a great lesson for the kids. Hang in there. We arent that far away.

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I wouldn't give up the ghost just yet. This series may be hanging in the balance but from outside-lookin-in I haven't seen a whole lot of the supposedly unbeatable Bruins in this series and the credit for that goes to the Wings (unless I'm just missing it). It was on display in OT last night though.

 

To me the fact that they are a world-class team yet you guys have managed to play them even (in the 2 games I saw) says you must match-up with them pretty well. Correct me if I'm wrong but Iggy's GWer last night was their top line's first goal...not much of a factor so far...

 

The OT just killed you guys though. What the heck happened? Fatigue? Did the Bruins play in a gear they hadn't shown up until then? So many soft plays, the whole range of mistakes that weren't happening before OT. Naturally the Bs pounced. I doubt anyone was surprised when Iginla ended it.

 

Can the Wings duplicate that effort tomorrow afternoon - in Boston? Goaltending is solid, Z is in, Kronwall's hits dent steel and Datsyuk is still the coolest SOB in the NHL...Rask is difficult to solve...then there's the Chara factor... Lucic plays the game like an a-hole, the Bs scorers *may* have woken up and Boston has a great record at home ... It'll be incredibly tough, probably too tough but if the Wings are still alive after G5 they'll win the series.

 

[edit: when Rux predicted "Wings in 7" I laughed at him. He may very well have the last laugh and I hope he does. I would love to see Boston get booted out in R1! :) ]

Edited by canoli
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This isn't very fun to watch right now!

I'm going to make my Howard point and move on. It's painfully obvious he's not the guy to take this team to the next level. With the cap you can no longer hide mediocre goaltending! IMO his 5m is wasted of cap space for what he brings.

Now on the others. The future is very bright. Man these kids are better than great.

Lidstrom retiring has hurt this team more than other player in my 40 years of watching this team. When they couldn't sign Suter the fall started. I truly feel the fall isn't too far but a fall none the less it's still a fall. The Lidstrom retirement looks so much like Barry Sanders when he retired. Neither were prepared for the retirement. Not sure Lions have yet recovered from Sanders retiring. The Wings are in the recovery mode right now.

So with all of that said a few lucky bounces tomorrow brings it back to Detroit.

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