GDT: WCSF Game 6 | Chicago @ Detroit | 5/27 | 8:00 PM EST | CBC / NBCSN

[Laser Rayzor]

Worst Birthday Ever.

Need Z and D to go god mode, Mule to think it's 2008, Filp to become relevant again, and Smith to be glued to the bench for a win on Wednesday.

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

I'm getting tired of seeing this all over the boards. 52 looked GREAT his first stint here, then he struggled for quite a while. 2 looked GREAT his first stint here, now he's struggling. Dekeyser looked great for a short period of time, like all of our recent young d-men have, it's not that telling of a sample size.

no no dekeyser is lidstrom-lite dont you know

 

[TKB]

Datsyuk was terrible tonight, Smith also played a bad game.

When your star player plays that poorly though you are likely to lose in a big game. Defend him all you want, credit his assist, but this team needs more from him, he has been bad and tonight was awful.

Say what you want about 13, but 93's two strides and a stickwave of a forecheck on Seabrook just prior to Chicago's 3rd goal was about as a pathetic effort as one can give. With the possible exception of his 1st row seat on Oduya's goal in Game 1.

 

[GoAwayDanCleary]

Worst Birthday Ever.

Need Z and D to go god mode, Mule to think it's 2008, Filp to become relevant again, and Smith to be glued to the bench for a win on Wednesday.

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

hahaha that dumb and dumber clip is pretty good

 

[Sentinel]

Babcock cost us the game, really. In crunch time, your top two defensemen don't leave the ice, and your weak link (Smith) don't leave the bench. After a second goal, Smith should not have stepped on the ice. But Babcock is a big believer in him, so he sends him out again to be destroyed. Stubbornness kills.

 

[GoAwayDanCleary]

At least I can go back to expecting the team to fail, it was much nicer watching games when my heart wasn't pounding out of my chest.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Smith played awful, so I know even as a defender of his why he is going to get a ton of blame. Rookie or not he needs to be better.

I would like to point out I was screaming at Filppula to turn and make an aggressive play on the puck from the moment that puck was rimmed towards him. His total lack of compete level or quick twitch response deserves some blame. He is getting off pretty free tonight on a play that if he is even remotely aggressive at least winds up with him jammed up in the corner and the double team working. Smith shouldn't be going for the double team anyway, but Filppula needs to compete for that puck not wait and saunter over to make almost no effort.

 

[RedWinger10]

Refs screwed us BAD in the 3rd!!!
-Right before the 1st goal high stick on Smith (righ in front of the ********ng ref) NO CALL!
-Second goal Chicago was OFFISIDES
-Third goal iffy penalty shot call.

The most powerful people on the ice aren't the stars like Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Toews,or Kane. Its the guys with the whistles!!! We got screwed. Remove any of these goals and we went into OT tonight.

 

[irishock]

At least I can go back to expecting the team to fail, it was much nicer watching games when my heart wasn't pounding out of my chest.

LOL giving up already? Christ.

 

[Unfriendly Ghost]

I figure, worst case scenario, the young guys got a taste of playoff action, we got entertained, the Hawks got humbled a bit (who thought it would go 7 games?), and the Wings still get the 18th overall pick.

If that's how it has to end, it's not all that bad. I still hope it doesn't, though, obviously.

 

[sarcastro]

At least I can go back to expecting the team to fail, it was much nicer watching games when my heart wasn't pounding out of my chest.

They were winning when you were expecting them to fail.

 

[Vladdy84]

Refs screwed us BAD in the 3rd!!!
-Right before the 1st goal high stick on Smith (righ in front of the ********ng ref) NO CALL!
-Second goal Chicago was OFFISIDES
-Third goal iffy penalty shot call. The stick touched his glove so they called it a slash.

The most powerful people on the ice aren't the stars like Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Toews,or Kane. Its the guys with the whistles!!! We got screwed. Remove any of these goals and we went into OT tonight.

Let it go. The Hawks were the better team in the 3rd. No point in blaming the refs when the later was true.

 

[GoAwayDanCleary]

LOL giving up already? Christ.

Having low expectations isn't giving up.

 

[KJoe88]

I'm so pissed right now...

Gotta let this simmer and die off. I hope the Wings can rejuvenate themselves and refocus. They have to play the same way they did in games 2, 3 and 4, and as long as they do that we can win in Chicago. No one expected us to beat the Ducks in 7 yet they did. I know the Ducks aren't the Hawks, but we beat them in Chicago once and we can do it again...it all comes down to effort.

I'm worried Howard may not be at his best next game, though. The big guys gotta show up big if we have any chance of winning.

 

[Spitfire11]

Again... DeKeyser came straight from college and fit right in.... why does Smith need this grand old padded landing?

You're judging on a 13 game sample. And he wasn't playing the #1 team in the league in the playoffs. Smith looked like a world beater in his 14 game stint last year too....

 

[vladdy16]

Wake up, dude. Franzen raised his stick and hit the head.

Whatever. Maybe it's video quality on my end, all I saw was Franzen gliding into a check, and a guy ducking his head down.

Gonna be called every time. Cocacola hooked the guy and denied him a scoring chance. Gonna be called every time. Don't know what league were you watching.

He didn't hook him. He checked his stick. It wasn't called for 100 years. Don't know what sport you're watching.

Refs didn't cost us the game. Smith did. And Datsyuk didn't do much to save it either.

Never said the refs cost us the game. How bout blaming Franzen for the lazy play bringing the puck offside that put Smith in that position in the first place?

2 bad plays by Smith. 2 or 3 bad calls by the refs. Veteran refs calling a penalty shot on a non penalty with 10 minutes to go in a one goal game is a lot more offensive to me than a rookie losing coverage on a couple plays.

 

[YostisHome]

LOL giving up already? Christ.

I don't think he's giving up.... it was nice watching the 3-1 unfold with no expectation.... I agree Nose I'm back in the same spot I was when it started.

 

[GoAwayDanCleary]

They were winning when you were expecting them to fail.

I blame Frk It for his avatars

 

[sarcastro]

Refs screwed us BAD in the 3rd!!!
-Right before the 1st goal high stick on Smith (righ in front of the ********ng ref) NO CALL!
-Second goal Chicago was OFFISIDES
-Third goal iffy penalty shot call.

The most powerful people on the ice aren't the stars like Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Toews,or Kane. Its the guys with the whistles!!! We got screwed. Remove any of these goals and we went into OT tonight.

Assuming Franzen kicked the puck back into his own zone like an idiot (and I haven't seen any replays that show otherwise), it wasn't offside. If that puck went back into the zone off a Hawk and not off of Franzen, then you'd have a point. But I don't think it did.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

The Smith situation to me shows the schizophrenia of this whole approach on part of management. Of course, Smith is going to make plenty of mistakes, he's young and inexperienced. A good team like Chicago will show him up from time to time. End of story.

That would be fine if you were actually rebuilding. But is being a liability fine in situations like this if you actually want to make playoff runs? A team that wants to win generally tries to remove mistake factories like Smith. We aren't going to win the Cup with this roster but we're also not going all out with a youth policy.

So here we were with a real chance to make the WCF but ultimately brought down by the lack of quality on the roster.

 

[irishock]

Having low expectations isn't giving up.

"At least I can go back to expecting the team to fail"

If that isn't giving up then I don't know what the **** is. Own up, son.

 

[GoAwayDanCleary]

"At least I can go back to expecting the team to fail"

If that isn't giving up then I don't know what the **** is. Own up, son.

I'm not the one playing so how could I possibly give up? I don't expect the Wings to win on Wednesday.

I'm off to try to get some rest, don't know if I can calm down enough

 

[Yemack]

no no dekeyser is lidstrom-lite dont you know

he may get to be

unlike a defenceman number 2 who was responsible for 2 goals tonight

 

[sarcastro]

The Smith situation to me shows the schizophrenia of this whole approach on part of management. Of course, Smith is going to make plenty of mistakes, he's young and inexperienced. A good team like Chicago will show him up from time to time. End of story.

That would be fine if you were actually rebuilding. But is being a liability fine in situations like this if you actually want to make playoff runs? A team that wants to win generally tries to remove mistake factories like Smith. We aren't going to win the Cup with this roster but we're also not going all out with a youth policy.

So here we were with a real chance to make the WCF but ultimately brought down by the lack of quality on the roster.

When it comes to Smith, I really think this is Babcock's approach:

He wants Smith to become good enough so that he can win a Cup with him. He's pretty sure that's not this year, but now that DK is out he has nobody else to play and so he has to go ahead and roll Smith out there and let him make his mistakes.

If he learns his lessons quickly, they might have a crack at the Cup this year. If he doesn't, well, the hope is that he will play better next year and so on, to the degree that maybe he helps take them to the Cup some day.

I don't know how wise that plan is, but I really do think that's the plan. It's not like Babcock has a whole bunker full of ninja assassins to throw out there, so I suppose it's as good a plan as any. They won more games this playoff than I ever thought possible.