What the hell is “devine intervention?”  Perhaps he means divine intervention, with an I, you moron!!  He must be a Flyers fan, can’t spell, dumb as a rock.  Or should I just say dum as a rok…

Posted by Puckhead from Jersey!!! on 04/30/09 at 09:05 PM ET

I hate to say this publicly, but yeah, a really hard forecheck is the way to kill the Wings in the playoffs.  It happend with Anaheim the first time they beat us.  It happened with Edmonton when the swept us.  It happened with Calgary.  I’ve done my best to drink hard enough to remember who the other teams were.  But I remember this - it was all about the forecheck.  That and a goaltender who stood on their head.

And what has me drinking hard tonight, my friends, is that.  A goaltender that may have walked on his hands before he realized his legs had any use.

And a team with a bitch of a forecheck.  Oh, and a bitch of a backcheck.

I’m going off the rails of the stress train.

I blaim the Chief.

Posted by Hippy Dave from Portland by way of Detroit on 04/30/09 at 09:19 PM ET

Corrections and Omissions:

“Edmonton when the swept us”:  they
“blaim” : “blame”

Darn no edit function.

There I blaim Paul.

Posted by Hippy Dave from Portland by way of Detroit on 04/30/09 at 09:22 PM ET

What the hell is “devine intervention?”

They clearly want the ex-Notre Dame coach to step in….

Posted by Primis on 04/30/09 at 10:30 PM ET

If the Ducks are aggressive and balance their aggression in a manner that limits the number of penalties they take…

I never get tired of reading silly things like that. The Duckies simply can’t stop themselves from taking YES dumb penalties because they are dumb.

And that aggressive forecheck stuff? Have at it, Duckies. But get lots of sleep the night before because you’re going to spend YES a lot of time chasing the puck up the ice and into your own zone.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 04/30/09 at 11:12 PM ET

I think this is a Wings team that’s well-versed in beating a relentless forecheck. They countered the Ducks’ forecheck in ‘07 pretty effectively—but the Ducks wore out Detroit’s defense corps over the first four games and finally took advantage of it. This season, the Wings defense corps isn’t necessarily deeper, but all that depth is healthy going into game one, which was not the case in ‘07. The top six are also younger, bigger, and more physical than they were in ‘07, with Stuart replacing Schneider on the second pair, and Ericsson replacing Chelios on the bottom pair. Kronwall being healthy this time around is a real x-factor (and I hate that term, but it seems appropriate). It gives the Detroit defense added offense when compared to ‘07, and between the hitting of Kronwall, Stuart, and the size of Ericsson, a much more difficult defense for the Ducks’ forecheck to play against than they did in ‘07.

With that said, this series is still an open book… I think either team can win it. I think the Red Wings should be favored for a good number of reasons, “but the games aren’t played on paper,” so we’ll see what happens. The game plan for Anaheim is very clear. Whether or not they can execute it is another story. The Wings job is primarily to make it as difficult as possible for the Ducks to execute their game plan—if Detroit does that, the wins will fall into place.

Posted by Nathan from the scoresheet! on 05/01/09 at 07:38 AM ET