That Leonore thing there in the middle there - that’s nice.

Of course the Wings belong in the West, eh?  #@! *#%@ Little Gary

Haha don’t ever change the way you post...that brand of pepper is the sort of spice we love (to soun babcock-esq)

I finally get to watch a game, but um, what’s up with all the penalties?

FSD didn’t show why Homer got a unsportsmanlike penalty; can someone tell me what happened there?

Is Lilja schizo?  He officially has my vote for goat-of-the-year.

oh my god...in the time it took me to write this brief post, Lilja got himself a permanent seat on the goat seat.

wtf; what did Flip do?

Then a giveaway from LILJA ... Meech. Soon.

I’m a Hoser, and I approve this message.

I’m wondering if we can get Lilja deported.

He doesn’t have to go back to Sweden; we could send him to Hawaii for a long vacation and not let him on a plane or boat back to the continent.

I second the motion to make Lilja the Goat Of The Year.  He makes me yell “DAMMIT!” more than anyone else.

I would rather see Hasek play the puck outside of the crease than see Lilja play the puck.  DAMMIT!

Anybody who can’t get excited about watching Zetterberg should just stop watching hockey.

Oh, wait, I guess they did.

Screw them.

Z-berg for “C"… when he grows up of course.

Okay, it’s 3-1 when I flip over to see what Arizona is doing in Colorado, and now it’s 3-3?

This might be one of those games when they only score when I’m not watching.

Any notice that stick to the face on Z? Right, of course you did. Something of a wonder how the guy in stripes standing two feet away didn’t.

I’ve started just thinking of the refs as zebra-striped random power-play generators.  It keeps my blood pressure from spiking quite as much.

Does it make me a bad person to be rooting against the Colorado Rockies simply because I assume there are Dive fans at that game tonite and I want them to feel pain?

No.  I like Gaborik, but root against the Wild because I will never forgive the stupid Twinkies for 1987.

If Chris Pronger were Andreas Lilja, he’d get called for all that diving.  What a difference a name makes.

Pronger looks like Pinnochio with that long pointed nose of his.

And the Ducks uniforms are ug-ly.

Just a statistical oddity I thought I’d point out.

The Ducks scored a 6-on-5, a 5-on-3, a 5-on-4, a 4-on-4, a 4-on-5, and a 4-on-6 goal tonight.  Six different manpower goals, and not one of them a 5-on-5.

That sort of game, I guess, but we needed those points.  Sharks are starting to wake up.

These refs can’t possibly call another NHL game in their lives!  How did they get a game of this caliber? Go do the bjs and who-the-f-ever…

Umm… Wings post game show just had a “story” that Left handed shooters do everything else with their right hands...do tell...WTF??? How stupid/ desperate are these people…

Weirdly, John Keeting interviews Babbles and he says that there were a lot of things to be pleased about tonight. He actually cracked a smile, or the closest thing he comes to such.

Is Lilja schizo?

He very well may be.  It’s amazing that one player can play solidly one game, then look like a completely useless meatbag the next.  Any idea when Quincey will un-break his hand?

Otherwise, that was a horrid game.  Zetterberg was dy-no-mite as usual, but it was really, really, really hard to watch this game with all the penalties—on both sides.  When did they start giving blind monkeys whistles, skates, and striped jerseys?

Wait, you mean those were the officials?!

“The NHL should pay fans to watch crap like this....”

The Post is up
Thanks for the mention IWO

Not that I have to emphasize this much more, but just casting my second vote for Lilja as this year’s whipping boy.  If not Meech, didn’t Kindl want a chance this year?  Ericsson’s looking good for the Griffs too.  Just anyone but ol’ DP Lilja.

(Yes, I AM venturing into filthy stories about his personal life.  If you’ve got the hate like I do, you’ll be doing the same.)

Yup, with the first two penalties called in that game (which were pretty lame calls), the refs were making a statement that this will not get out of hand.  That the game will be controlled by the refs.  No kiddin!  That is exactly what happened.  The refs controlled the game.  Stupid, stupid calls on both sides of the fence.  It wasn’t worth staying up that late to watch it. A bad product by the refs last night for sure.

Cheli did look tired.  Pissed.  Must’ve missed a nap.  I get that way. It’s okay bud.  Take a nap and forget about the day. 

Drapes and the super line looked damn good. 
Hasek looked okay.  He, with the rest of the team, are probably going to enjoy the extra day off.

Gary… Ass!

Two things:

1. It’s time for Lilja to go back to the 7th defenseman role. At this stage, Meech can’t possibly play worse than Lilja has through the first 7 games. Lilja alone has probably cost this team 3 out of the 5 points they’ve dropped.

2. This game was embarassing for the league. The officiating (for both teams, no excuses here) was among the worst we’ve seen since the lockout. It seems like every time the Wings and Ducks faceoff in Anaheim that an extremely poor job of officiating goes down. I don’t know why that is. Do the refs have a tough time properly calling the Ducks’ games because of their physical play (kind of like Shaq in the NBA)? And (yes, I mean this seriously) does the poor ice play a factor in this because it causes guys to fall more, even with the smallest amount of contact? Detroit must have been sent to the box on phantom “tripping” calls five times, and the Ducks must have gone for phantom “holding” calls just as much. To me, these types of games are an embarassment for the league. To top it all off, the penalty that was supposed to be a focus by the league coming out of the lockout—interference—was being committed every 15 seconds by both teams, with no attention from the officials.

The inconsistency is baffling. Professional sports leagues should have a higher standard of officiating. As the players get better, the stakes on the games become higher, and the officiating needs to adjust as well. I know it’s a tough job, but games like last night’s happen all too often in the “new” NHL.

Couldn’t agree more RE: the comments thus far on officiating, Pronger and Lilja (my new official nominee as 2007-08 Scapegoat®). Here are my two cents on those and a few other topics:

Officiating -- little gary has successfully transformed the NHL into the NIHL (No Integrity Hockey League), where phantom penalties rule the day and actual infractions are largely ignored...unless, of course, the coin lands on tails and the league decides to make a “statement” by dishing out suspensions.

Chrissy -- While his and the rest of the Ducks diving techniques were quite impressive (I didn’t remember Mowers being so weak on his skates!), I would be remiss if I didn’t state my admiration for his amazing cross-checking abilities. Heck, he sent Datsyuk flying at least 15 feet on one! And best of all, he didn’t get called for a single cross-check. BTW, that Holmstrom sure must be a dirty player...five penalties to just one for “clean-livin’ Chris.” I bet they enjoyed that down at the NIHL office!

Lilja -- One sequence says it all: Lilja tries to set up the play behind the net. He looks confused, and waits. Still looking confused, he passes directly to a Duck at center ice. Play comes back into the Red Wing zone and, somehow, the puck ends up back on Lilja’s stick behind the net. Now clear about his mission, he sets up the offense...and passes directly to a Duck just inside the blue line. GOAL...ANAHEIM! Maybe he needs glasses...maybe he’s a double agent...maybe when people said he played good in the playoffs except for the turnover in Game 5, he misunderstood and thought the turnover was the “good” part. The only thing I know for sure is that Lilja must be stopped NOW!

Getzlaf -- Does this guy have a “C” on his sweater? No? Well then he must have an “A,” right? Nope. Then what the f@#& is he doing jawwing at the refs during every stop in play? And, at least twice, he fired the puck down the ice after a whistle. If the refs want to “control” the game, it starts with putting a leash on jackasses like this.

Chelios -- Perhaps he was tired. More likely, he was wondering why the hell the NIHL commissioner and (former) NIHLPA executive director had nothing better to do than email each other jokes about sending him to Russia on a one-way ticket? Now that’s what I call professionalism.

®Scapegoat is a registered trademark of YzermanZetterberg®

®YzermanZetterberg is a registered trademark of YzermanZetterberg

Good point about Getzlaf. He’s a talented player but I almost forgot how much of an a*& he was being last night.

I think we can attribute Cheli’s exhaustion to all the PK duty. That will run anyone ragged.

Yeah, I don’t single out Chelly as being tired. I think the entire defense (Nick included) looked winded because they’ve spend the better part of the last 48 hours killing penalties.

I’m actually going to side with Getzlaf here… he certainly does jaw to the refs when he shouldn’t, but c’mon, as Wings fans we know what it’s like to have a team with only one Captain, but a half dozen “captains”. So I’ll be fair on that one.

Again, I say this in seriousness—I truly wonder if the poor ice played a role in this, and if it wasn’t really that much diving. Because both Ducks and Wings were falling unprovoked, hitting divits in the ice and such.

YZ
“Lilja tries to set up the play behind the net. He looks confused, and waits. Still looking confused, he passes directly....”
I will give Lilja a pass on this one..there are 4 other wing skaters that are supposed to give him something to do with the puck.  Did you ever coach?

Nathan:
“I think the entire defense (Nick included) looked winded because they’ve spend the better part of the last 48 hours killing penalties.”

There is no question that you know your hockey, but you are maybe just stating the obvious--3 games in 4 nights?
and
have you ever tried to skate on slush?
There are deep ruts, and the better skater you are, the more it affects you.
and
Oh yeah--from Hockeytowntodd
“*Outplayed:  Randy Carlyle vs Mike Babcock appears to be a mismatch”

Oh man, if only I could edit my comment.
My apologies to Nathan, I just realized he mentioned the ice.

Haha, no worries, Todd.

I agree with you, I was stating the obvious, my point was just that I wouldn’t freak out about Chelios being old and not being able to handle it, when Lebda and Kronwall didn’t exactly play that well with their youthful legs.

And yes, the ice was awful. I used to live on a lake and skate into late March when I was growing up. It probably wasn’t safe, but I have experience skating in slush, and it is tough!

that was an entertaining read. =] i wish i was that funny.  it was a good, hard-fought game.  and lest you think i’m saying that to rub it in, i’m not. i enjoyed it… but I always enjoy games against Detroit.

=] there will be a re-match.

I have to disagree. If a team other than Detroit had been in the game, I’d have turned it off after the first period. In terms of just plain good hockey, it was far off. The officiating was poor for both sides, and neither side showed much discipline once they knew the game was going to be called like garbage.

perhaps I should clarify: by “good, hard fought game”, maybe I could’ve said, “entertaining… despite the multitude of penalties.”