Good game fellas. We were down a dman playing in a tough place like DET and I was proud with our teams effort. Wish we got at least a point out of it but it didn't happen.
Tough loss for us. BTW, we had Colton Orr on the bench all game...he didn't play a second. Lmao. Anyway, our defense is weak...and our 3rd and 4th lines didn't play great today.
Poti, who isn't a defensive specialist, played pretty well. No Kasparaitis hurt a lot. Strudwick mishandled that faceoff win by Moore which led to a goal. Malik made a few mistakes. Not a stellar game by the Rangers' blueline.
I thought the Wings had a strong game as a whole. They carried the play throughout but a couple of posts and some unlucky deflections kept it close instead of the runaway rout it could have become. That's not taking anything from NYR, they played a strong game, especially with Kasparitis going down in the pre-game, but the Wings should have had the lead throughout. Lundquist played a very good game, though.
I found Piere Mcguire (sp?) to be annoying as hell and unnecessarily interupting the flow between JD and Emrick. When they switched over to the Boston-Dallas game, I thought Cammie Granato was worked in better for comments so it's probably just Mcguire being an attention *****.
And I didn't stick around for the intermission stuff. I caught bits and pieces but it just seemed like typical fluff.
As a whole, I think the Wings put in a strong game and appear to be turning the corner back into playing hard, complete games and that they'll get better rewarded for it the more they play it.
I found Piere Mcguire (sp?) to be annoying as hell and unnecessarily interupting the flow between JD and Emrick. When they switched over to the Boston-Dallas game, I thought Cammie Granato was worked in better for comments so it's probably just Mcguire being an attention *****.
He talked maybe a little too much but he was giving information you don't usually get from a broadcast. Most posters here seem to think Cammi was terrible. McGuire is an abrasive member of the hockey media but he's also good at what he does. I thought he brought a lot to the broadcast. Davidson seems to be lost unless he's talking about the Rangers...who he spends every living moment with them. Emrick is always a pro but he was forgetting names and stumbling through some parts...which is very un-Emrick of him. He's always been a smooth and well-spoken announcer. To me, McGuire was the star of the broadcast.
He talked maybe a little too much but he was giving information you don't usually get from a broadcast. Most posters here seem to think Cammi was terrible. McGuire is an abrasive member of the hockey media but he's also good at what he does. I thought he brought a lot to the broadcast. Davidson seems to be lost unless he's talking about the Rangers...who he spends every living moment with them. Emrick is always a pro but he was forgetting names and stumbling through some parts...which is very un-Emrick of him. He's always been a smooth and well-spoken announcer. To me, McGuire was the star of the broadcast.
All I got of Cammi was the bit I heard when the game switched over. She talked once, maybe twice, was game related, and they stuck with doing the play-by-play. In other words, they kept her out of the way.
Which is what I wish they'd have done with McGuire. I just didn't find anything he said to be important and he talked at inopportune times. He reminded me of all of the times they've miced players. I'd have rather had just Emrick and Davidson calling the game, even when they're not in top form.
With McGuire, stick him in the tunnel for injury updates and intermission player interviews and that's it. If he wants more exposure, do a hotstove ripoff in one of the intermissions and use him there.
I know those guys are primarily New York announcers, but they didn't have to make it a complete homer broadcast. I didn't like it at all...I should have turned the sound off and put the radio broadcast on.
I must say you put a scare into us, but we did prevail in the end. Good game, fellas....
Wow. Great game. It's been a long time since the Wings put together an all-around effort like that for 60 minutes - though they did pretty well vs the Flyers too. Two games like this back to back against two of the best teams in the East is a VERY good sign.
Lang might be feeling better, if that's what his problem was. He's played two solid games in a row now, and he looks more like his old self. That's absolutely crucial if the Wings are going to make a run. He was around the net much more vs NY than he has been lately - I think that's the main difference in his game. He's been floating around the corners too much, but this game he was right around the net a lot.
Great game by Shanny. Ditto the comments about Lang - he was in traffic mucking it up where he does his best work. Outstanding effort, and about .3 seconds away from a hat trick.
Manny played pretty well. I wasn't thrilled with the first goal - it looked like Jagr whiffed on a roofer and it fooled Manny and squeaked through the wickets. But the other two were in no way his fault - he's basically getting facewashed by Nieminen on the second and the third bounced off 11 different guys on the way in. He got good support on offense and good help from the D for the most part, but he did his job.
Williams has fallen off his scoring pace but he's still playing well. He makes one or two big hits a game and has been very good in the corners. With his style of play, I suspect he might be a dark horse candidate for a big postseason if the Wings can make a run.
Chelios has picked it up. My concern with that is that it's still January and, like Stevie, I don't want him to peak too soon and run out of gas before the playoffs. But you can't complain about his play lately. Also, I didn't know this until Davidson said it SIX BILLION TIMES, but Chelios is really old! Who would have guessed?
If they play like this every night, they would be damn near impossible to stop. It's up to Babcock to get efforts like this out of them as often as possible. When Kronwall gets back they'll be that much deeper. It would be nice if they could add a 2nd pair D or a 2nd line scoring winger before the deadline, but I wouldn't say it's a must.
Chelios has picked it up. My concern with that is that it's still January and, like Stevie, I don't want him to peak too soon and run out of gas before the playoffs. But you can't complain about his play lately. Also, I didn't know this until Davidson said it SIX BILLION TIMES, but Chelios is really old! Who would have guessed?
Cheli played an excellent game! I've been surprised by how much time he can put it- despite the fact that he is Father Time. Hey, I'd take Cheli and this kind of play over most of the Rangers' defensive core. I'm not even a huge Cheli fan.
I love hearing fans on other boards talk about how they are hurting on D or something, blah blah blah... Anyone notice we lost 2 of our top 4 this year?
I've decide after this latest series of Eastern vs. Western conference teams that the East is a bit weaker. I'm not 100% certain, but I think the West has older cores and the experience does show in adjusting to different playing conditions. Ottawa is the really true exception as the talent level there is incredible.
And we aren't even to the Olympic break yet. This schedule is horrific. Let's just toss nearly 80 years of tradition out the window.
I still don't mind the schedule. The only team I miss playing more often is Toronto and I don't think we'd have half the complaints about the schedule if the majority of our division was stronger than they are. If Chicago had been as strong as advertised and Columbus had stayed healthy, I think we'd have had quite a few more strongly contested games and the scheduling wouldn't look as bad.
I still don't mind the schedule. The only team I miss playing more often is Toronto and I don't think we'd have half the complaints about the schedule if the majority of our division was stronger than they are. If Chicago had been as strong as advertised and Columbus had stayed healthy, I think we'd have had quite a few more strongly contested games and the scheduling wouldn't look as bad.
Agreed. Sorta.
But who wants to get on the Mickey Redmond Tours train ride to Columbus or Nashville.
I still don't mind the schedule. The only team I miss playing more often is Toronto and I don't think we'd have half the complaints about the schedule if the majority of our division was stronger than they are. If Chicago had been as strong as advertised and Columbus had stayed healthy, I think we'd have had quite a few more strongly contested games and the scheduling wouldn't look as bad.
See, this is only part of the problem for me. Even if we had a tougher division, I'd still want to see every team in the league at least once. Ideally, I like a home and an away game too. Part of it is just seeing how your guys stack up against the rest of the league. I know other sports do it differently, BUT the NHL has not done it differently. You grow up watching a league where everyone gets to play everyone else. I feel like Bettman stole my candy.
You could also argue - like the Northwest division fans - that if you are in a tough division, you get much more beat up than the rest of the league. A more balanced schedule takes out the anomolies in scoring and other stats if most teams have to face a relatively similar schedule.
they could lose the divisions altogether and just have two conference tables competing. would solve a few problems. 15 teams each. 8 top teams in conf go to playoffs.
Face own conference twice at home, twice away = 56 games
Face other conference once @ home, one away = 30 games
Sum: 86 game schedule.
See, this is only part of the problem for me. Even if we had a tougher division, I'd still want to see every team in the league at least once. Ideally, I like a home and an away game too. Part of it is just seeing how your guys stack up against the rest of the league. I know other sports do it differently, BUT the NHL has not done it differently. You grow up watching a league where everyone gets to play everyone else. I feel like Bettman stole my candy.
You could also argue - like the Northwest division fans - that if you are in a tough division, you get much more beat up than the rest of the league. A more balanced schedule takes out the anomolies in scoring and other stats if most teams have to face a relatively similar schedule.
When I think of watching the game when I was younger, though, I think of inter-division battles against St. Louis, Chicago, Toronto and Minnisota and not so much about games against NYI and Washington. When the league was smaller, we could have both because the schedule had room for it. With expansion, though, the schedule got a lot tighter and I think we're left with a choice: trying to foster those divisional battles of the past or allowing everyone to play eachother at some point.
I'd like to see Ovechkin some more or Kovalchuk or Ottawa, too. But, personally, I'll sacrifice it if we can better rivalries with our division rivals. Also, it'll help convince me to take the plunge and get center ice if I want to see the eastern conference bad enough
