In Case You Didn't Get Enough...

...about free agency and the Red Wings in my last post, I also guested on the I'm Not a Puckbunny Podcast again this week to discuss the Wings and the Kings with Connie of A Queen Among Kings this week, which you can listen to here. I also touch on the Wings' draft picks and the various adventures with the Stanley Cup so far.

The podcast just underwent a shift in operations, and I'll now be appearing as a guest the first week of every month (other regular guests include Finny from Girl with a Puck, Sherry from Scarlett Ice, and Cat from Untypical Girls as well as a rotating guest to fill out the last week of the month) to talk about updates both for the Wings and the rest of the league, so be sure to check it out! You can download each episode from the website above or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and I've added the convenient little embeddable player to the sidebar as well - so you have no excuse!

Here we go again

The Wings took a day off yesterday to putz around on a mini golf course and try fly-fishing (your available entertainment in Pittsburgh, folks). I took a day off yesterday to celebrate a friend's birthday, but I see Elly managed to sum up Wednesday's game rather eloquently without me (although my sentiments differ slightly).

Tonight, however, all bets are off. Trash talking will be out in full force - both teams need this victory; the Penguins to keep hope alive and continue turning the series in their favor, and the Wings to rub them out at home and take the series back to the Joe in hopes of finishing it off on Monday night.

The Detroit Zoo has gotten in on it - for the duration of this series, the Penguinarium is no more:


Other fun facts:

• Penguins forward Adam Hall, responsible for the game winning goal Wednesday evening, is a native of Kalamazoo, the town I currently reside in. By scoring that goal he has accomplished quite a feat - he's temporarily overtaken Yankee Derek Jeter as the most hated athlete hailing from Kzoo by the people of the city.
  

• Tomas Holmstrom, despite all the buzz about his leg injury, skated this morning and expects to play tonight.
  

• Elly and I both guested on the INAPB Podcast yesterday evening - we were both busy and were only able to record sound clips, which might actually be a good thing, as it spares everyone having to hear us snipe at each other. Here is the link to listen, if you're interested!

T-minus 6 1/2 hours until Game 4 - GO WINGS.

The Curse of 10 (Stars 3, Wings 1)

How many times in the past few years have the Wings gotten to a 9 game winning streak? And yet 10 always seems to be inexplicably out of our reach. So maybe we should have expected it.

In general, the Stars outplayed the Red Wings last night. They the game for good reason - unfortunately for them there's going to be no one talking about the effort they finally mustered up and the hockey they finally got it in their heads to play. Because everyone is talking about Tomas' Holmstrom's rear end.

In an absolute debacle of a call, Kelly Sutherland, the center ice official, waved off a Pavel Datsyuk goal - which would have been the first of the game - on an interference call, claiming that Holmstrom was in the crease.

You tell me where the interference is.

When pressed to explain, the league conceded that his skates were outside of the blue paint, but that the call had been made because his backside was "hanging over the crease." ("I don't think that's a rule," says Henrik Zetterberg. Me either.) As if that weren't bad enough, the other excuse floating around is that it was a makeup call for a missed interference call on Homer in Game 1. Completely embarrassing. The idea of a perfectly legit goal being called off as basically an "oops we got it wrong" is disgusting. (Matt Saler [On the Wings] has a great post about this.) Congratulations, NHL, after making me think you had it in you to do something right (the fines assessed to Mike Ribeiro and Chris Osgood after Game 2) you go and spoil it with nonsense like this.

It's true you can't say that goal was the gamebreaker, but scoring the first goal in four straight games is quite the demoralizer. The Dallas Stars were playing great hockey last night, but there's no doubt in my mind that that call energized them, that they took something from it and went on to play better hockey, while it seemed to stick with the Wings in a much more negative manner. In some ways you can't blame them, but in others, things like this happen, and you can't use it as an excuse for not playing up to the necessary level.

Still, I have to say, most of last night's game is summed up by Datsyuk's reaction to his goal being waved off - "That's bullshit." (How great is his reaction there, actually? Not just the words, but the exasperated "whatever" screw-you hand wave? You can almost see him rolling his eyes despite the grainy Youtube quality. Pavel knows how inane that call was.)

And that's really unfortunate, because the Stars did play the better game, and they should be recognized for it - it's very unfortunate that they (hopefully!) won't have a win that isn't sullied by shoddy officiating and bush league "makeup" calls.

Podcasting again!

I once again guested on Finny (Girl with a Puck) and Connie's (A Queen Among Kings) "I'm Not a Puck Bunny" podcast, with Sherry (Scarlett Ice) and Cat (Untypical Girls). This week we spent a good portion of the time talking about this Dallas/Detroit series with reactions from both sides as well as the recent Fabian Brunnstrom sweepstakes, so plenty of things of interest for Detroit fans! As always you can check out this and every week's episode at http://imnotapuckbunny.podbean.com.

"I'm Not a Puck Bunny" Podcast

For those of you who haven't heard it yet, Finny at Girl With a Puck and Connie of A Queen Among Kings put together a podcast called "I'm Not a Puck Bunny" every week. During this playoff season they've opened it up from their respective California teams and have been inviting guests on to speak about their own teams' performances. This week I joined them along with Cat from Untypical Girls to discuss current league news, this past round of the playoffs and make predictions for the next.

You can check the podcast out at imnotapuckbunny.podbean.com, if you're interested (and you should be!). Thanks ladies, for having me on - it was a great time, and I look forward to coming back if we make it through this round.



(I also want to correct a couple mistakes I noticed, listening to it again - first of all I was remiss in not mentioning Johan Franzen when Connie asked me who our clutch performers from Round 1 were - his OT breakaway goal that won game 5 for us was one of the hugest moments of the Wings' playoffs so far. Second, at the end I slipped up and mentioned seeing Ryan Smyth at a Dallas/Detroit game - obviously I meant Colorado. I also jump the gun on Nick Lidstrom's birthday - he won't be 38 until Monday! You didn't think I'd get through this whole thing without a couple grievous errors, did you?)