Second, I watched the season finale on Saturday between the Wings and the Hawks and I saw a WHOLE lot of empty seats at the Joe. We all know the Wings have a passionate fan base. But say what you will, Bridgestone Arena will be the loudest it has ever been on Weds. DO we have a smaller fanbase? Yes. But I think we have a more passionate fanbase. We set Franchise records with sellouts this year. We sold out 25 of 41 home games. That is amazing for our small fanbase. And you can bet that every game from here on out at BSA will be soldout, a sea of gold, and absolutely rockin
There are empty seats at the regular season. Those are the lower level corporate seats and nobody lives near the Joe. At wintertime it's hard to travel every game because of the weather etc.
At playoff-time those are sold to REAL fans and the situation changes totally different. No winter anymore make travel harder. The freaking HOCKEYTOWN wakes up. You know that it will wake up. There was 1.2 million fans in the last Stanley Cup parade. The house is full and as passionate as yours or even better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by predwings
You're saying Detroit is the best road team? Have you even watched hockey this year? Detroit is FAR from the best on the road this year.
I'd like to see a team that is good on road with Ty Conklin in net.
Jimmy Howard had 13 wins in 25 road games. +0.500 record.
I would be more than fine splitting those road games against Nashville. If Wings win 2/3 at home, they will advance to 2nd round.
I am seeing some wings fans spout off at the mouth about how dominant they were in February. Well guess what wings fans, it's April. And you've limped to the finish. You had a chance to gain home ice on your own home ice and you blew it. Youre not the same team you were in February
I am seeing some wings fans spout off at the mouth about how dominant they were in February. Well guess what wings fans, it's April. And you've limped to the finish. You had a chance to gain home ice on your own home ice and you blew it. Youre not the same team you were in February
Dude, don't be like that. For the most part, this thread has been pretty civil. There's been a couple of cocky Wings fans, but for the most part, they, like us, are expecting a close series either way. Do you even realize that Kivairejo, whom you were arguing with earlier, is a Preds fan?
Going to be an intense set of games. Nashville is hot as of the last month after their trades as well as getting Radulov. The Wings are recovering and trying to get back into their mid-season form.
Nashville has a strong squad, but I don't think they'll be able to translate their regular season play into playoff play, which is something the Wings do with ease. While the Wings are going to have trouble trying to get healthy, and perform consistently.
I also don't think home ice advantage is as heavily favored as everyone says it is. It's going to be a close series
Game 1: Nashville
Game 2: Detroit
Game 3: Detroit
Game 4: Detroit
Game 5: Nashville
Game 6: Nashville
Game 7: Detroit
No, the point is, saying, "we were the most dominant team" a month ago makes as much sense for the Red Wings as it does for Wild.
They may have been. However, they're not now. The injuries have taken their toll and the Red Wings have been pretty pedestrian since getting their injured players back.
Going to be an intense set of games. Nashville is hot as of the last month after their trades as well as getting Radulov. The Wings are recovering and trying to get back into their mid-season form.
Nashville has a strong squad, but I don't think they'll be able to translate their regular season play into playoff play, which is something the Wings do with ease. While the Wings are going to have trouble trying to get healthy, and perform consistently.
I also don't think home ice advantage is as heavily favored as everyone says it is. It's going to be a close series
Game 1: Nashville
Game 2: Detroit
Game 3: Detroit
Game 4: Detroit
Game 5: Nashville
Game 6: Nashville
Game 7: Detroit
The only thing about home ice is that Detroit's last road win over a playoff team was December 26(ironically against Nashville). Meanwhile, Nashville has the second best road record among playoff teams and one of the best home records. It may not be a huge advantage for Nashville, but certainly Nashville's demonstrated ability to win at the Joe is noteworthy.
i agree, i dont see how nashville is suddenly such a powerful team. i dont know if i agree with wings in 4, but people forget that injuries are the only reason the wings fell in the standings. the only guy they are missing now is helm and that is not nearly the end of the world for the wings. everybody else should be 100%.
You do realize that Nashville finished the season AHEAD of Detroit, right?
I understand that doesn't affect the playoffs, but it's pretty ridiculous to dismiss Nashville when they finished ahead of Detroit.
I can guarantee you Mike Babcock isn't telling his players, "No worries guys, Nashville just isn't worthy competition."
One further note...the injury issue is one that every team has had problems with at some point. Ryan Suter, Shea Weber, Mike Fisher, Martin Erat, Sergei Kostitsyn, Roman Josi, David Legwand, Patric Hornqvist, Kevin Klein all missed significant chunks of time, at times in an overlapping manner. Nashville's a good team, so they overcame it...just like Detroit did. It's kind of silly to say, "without injuries, Detroit would have finished number one," because without injuries, St Louis would have had even MORE points. Without injuries, Vancouver would have had MORE points. Same for Nashville. Same for everyone. No one has some charmed season without injuries. It's part of the game.
And Conklin started such a minute portion of the season...it's a little crazy to blame a bad skid solely on him...for a lot of the time Howard was out, MacDonald was in and dominating.
The only thing about home ice is that Detroit's last road win over a playoff team was December 26(ironically against Nashville). Meanwhile, Nashville has the second best road record among playoff teams and one of the best home records. It may not be a huge advantage for Nashville, but certainly Nashville's demonstrated ability to win at the Joe is noteworthy.
Did the St. Louis Blues find a way to drop out of the playoffs?
You do realize that Nashville finished the season AHEAD of Detroit, right?
I understand that doesn't affect the playoffs, but it's pretty ridiculous to dismiss Nashville when they finished ahead of Detroit.
I can guarantee you Mike Babcock isn't telling his players, "No worries guys, Nashville just isn't worthy competition."
Yeah, but Nashville has only won one playoff series(last year.) The fact that they lost in the first round to various, much better teams years ago is what we should be focusing on. Not that they played a strong series vs the eventual West winner just last year after dispatching a favored "offensive juggernaut" in the Ducks.
Detroit has beaten St Louis, Vancouver, Chicago, and Phoenix all on the road since their win over Nashville on 26 December. All of them were won in OT or a SO, but they were still road wins against play off teams.
No, the point is, saying, "we were the most dominant team" a month ago makes as much sense for the Red Wings as it does for Wild.
They may have been. However, they're not now. The injuries have taken their toll and the Red Wings have been pretty pedestrian since getting their injured players back.
It doesn't, because the Wild had many more issues which caused their demise.
The Wings aren't comparable, and can easily get back to the ability they were at a month earlier.
While it is certainly more realistic to think the Wings have a better shot at bouncing back into strong form than the Wild ever had at maintaining their level of play from earlier in the season, let's not forget that Nashville was 11-2-0 in January, outscoring their opponents 45-26. Six of the 13 games were on the road.
Nashville is 28-12-4 since the beginning of 2012. Both teams are equally capable of playing some excellent hockey.
While it is certainly more realistic to think the Wings have a better shot at bouncing back into strong form than the Wild ever had at maintaining their level of play from earlier in the season, let's not forget that Nashville was 11-2-0 in January, outscoring their opponents 45-26. Six of the 13 games were on the road.
Nashville is 28-12-4 since the beginning of 2012. Both teams are equally capable of playing some excellent hockey.
I think everyone sensible would agree with that. One product of the NHL's seeding policy is that this year, in both conferences, it has created 4/5 matchups that are even more competitive and evenly matched that one would expect from those two being the middle seeds, due to matching up the 2nd and 3rd best teams in the two strongest divisions, while inferior teams slotted into the 3 seeds (and in the case of the East, both the 2 and 3 seeds).
While it is certainly more realistic to think the Wings have a better shot at bouncing back into strong form than the Wild ever had at maintaining their level of play from earlier in the season, let's not forget that Nashville was 11-2-0 in January, outscoring their opponents 45-26. Six of the 13 games were on the road.
Nashville is 28-12-4 since the beginning of 2012. Both teams are equally capable of playing some excellent hockey.
That's the point I'm making. People are just making up really silly reasons to rationalize their team winning it, when the fact remains it all will depend on a few factors (the factors will vary from person to person but these seem like the most important ones to me).
For Nashville:
Will Rinne stand tall as he did two weeks ago?
Will Radulov make the impact Nashville fans expect?
Will Suter and Weber shut down Detroit's high-powered offensive tools and allow their balanced scoring to take the series?
For Detroit:
Will Detroit's 5 on 5 play make up for their poor special teams?
Will Franzen/Datsyuk perform up to expectations?
Will Detroit be able to take away Nashville's home ice advantage?
Nobody can answer these questions until they play the games.
That's the point I'm making. People are just making up really silly reasons to rationalize their team winning it, when the fact remains it all will depend on a few factors (the factors will vary from person to person but these seem like the most important ones to me).
For Nashville:
Will Rinne stand tall as he did two weeks ago?
Will Radulov make the impact Nashville fans expect?
Will Suter and Weber shut down Detroit's high-powered offensive tools and allow their balanced scoring to take the series?
For Detroit:
Will Detroit's 5 on 5 play make up for their poor special teams?
Will Franzen/Datsyuk perform up to expectations?
Will Detroit be able to take away Nashville's home ice advantage?
Nobody can answer these questions until they play the games.
To add to this, a lot of how this series plays out is going to depend on how the officials call the game. No I'm not making preemptive excuses. I'm saying that fewer penalties called will benefit Detroit. Keeping Nashville's PP off of the ice is going to HUGE for Detroit, and Babcock is probably already stressing it.
If the refs swallow their whistles and let the teams play Nashville is going to have to rely on continued success with the balanced scoring you mentioned. The games will be tighter, and we'll probably see a lot of OT hockey (fine by me). It goes to 7 games, and it's anyone's series. I'd even give the edge to Detroit.
If they call every ticky-tacky thing then I think Nashville takes it in 6.
I am seeing some wings fans spout off at the mouth about how dominant they were in February. Well guess what wings fans, it's April. And you've limped to the finish. You had a chance to gain home ice on your own home ice and you blew it. Youre not the same team you were in February
Embarassing...
The Wings limped to the finish because many of the Wings were literally limping...
Quote:
Originally Posted by barrytrotzsneck
Hal Gill is our answer to Danny Cleary.
Shea Weber and Ryan Suter are the answer to Datsyuk and Zetterberg.
Well let's hope Filppula and Franzen can be their normal playoff selves then.
Seriously though, Gill does provide more to the team than is credited here. He isn't a top pairing defenseman or anything, but he is a solid third pairing guy with a ton of size and he kills penalties with the best of them. Having Gill allows us to save Suter and Weber for more ES and PP situations, further bolstering the balanced attack that has been so successful for Nashville this year.
