Misconduct

The Grand Rapids Griffins being in the American Hockey League's Calder Cup Finals has inspired a couple different small discussions on Twitter about the differences between that league's two conferences.

Early last week I had an exchange with Matt Saler of On the Wings when he asked "How do the Crunch get away with such a small arena?" upon seeing that War Memorial in Syracuse doesn't have regulation-sized ice.

Since I wrote in January about the then-upcoming new logos and jerseys for the Dallas Stars, I figured I'd put something together now that they've been revealed.

Something about this year’s Detroit Red Wings team and what they accomplished will never really add up.

This Red Wings team was not constructed to make a long playoff run. I’m not certain that they were constructed to make the playoffs at all.

This is a team that lost Nicklas Lidstrom and Jiri Hudler and replaced them with Carlo Colaiacovo and Mikael Samuelsson.

Alright, I've got a bunch of stuff I expect to be writing over the next day or so and I'm going to kick things off with a bit of a gripe.

After Game Six, Puck Daddy himself Greg Wyshynski penned a piece on how the penalty shot awarded to Michael Frolik was the correct call and that it was "refreshing" to see such a call made at such a crucial point in a game.

Should the Red Wings lose tonight, expect to see a lot of comments along the lines of "For a rebuilding year, just taking the Blackhawks to Game Seven should be considered a success."

Yes, that this Red Wings team has come this far is something to take as a small victory. For large portions of the season, including the last two games, Detroit has not been a good team.

With Detroit having blown two consecutive chances to close out the Blackhawks after taking a 3-1 series lead, it's on to Game Seven tied 3-3.

The Wings are still looking to get their power play going, having scored only once with the man-advantage all series. No lineup changes are expected, however.

The Red Wings visit Chicago tonight with a chance to eliminate the Blackhawks, carrying a 3-1 series lead into Game Five of their Western Conference Semifinal matchup.

Having scored only twice in the last three games, the 'Hawks will once again shake up their lines to stack the top line with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp.

The Detroit Red Wings carry a 2-1 series lead into tonight's matchup as they host the Chicago Blackhawks in Game Four of their Western Conference Semifinal matchup.

The Wings can take a stranglehold on the series with a win while the 'Hawks can regain home-ice advantage in the series with a split of the Detroit games.

With the Grand Rapids Griffins in the third round of the American Hockey League playoffs for the first time since 2006, I went back and took a look at the makeup of that year's roster compared to this season's edition.

My first thoughts were posted to Twitter this afternoon:

The 2006 @griffinshockey team that made AHL semis had 25 players who played 10+ games, 9 were DRW draft picks.

Not surprisingly, there's already been a lot of talk about Patrick Kane's goal (or, more precisely, the uncalled penalty immediately prior to it) and the apparent Chicago goal immediately following it that was called back due to goalie interference.

We've seen the "Two wrongs make a right" theory (a penalty should have been called which would have negated Kane's goal so the wrong call was made on the Shaw interference to make up for it), the "Holmstrom Interpretation" (what Shaw did was cause for many negated goals when Tomas Holmstrom did it) and the "What if a Blackhawk had been boarded and a Wings' goal disallowed" scenario.