With the Red Wings' matchup against Philadelphia about to wrap up, I've decided not to do a game recap.
The Wings blew a chance to take over the Western Conference lead. Nashville will have a game in hand on them until this Saturday. That's the cost of this loss.
Would starting goalie-of-the-future Jim Howard have made a difference? Who knows. Last week it was expected that Chris Osgood would start tonight but his finger injury continues to keep him out of the lineup.
I do wonder about Joey MacDonald's confidence. Somehow, teams seem to have the tendency to play better in front of their backup netminders but that simply hasn't been the case for Detroit and MacDonald. The Red Wings simply play awfully with him in net.
At least Detroit should be getting healthier. Osgood and Dominik Hasek will be back. Mikael Samuelsson will be back. An insane number of their remaining games are at home, where they have a twelve-game winning streak.
Things to look forward to, since this game is nothing to look back on.
Jimmy Howard gets the start in net with the Red Wings looking to take over first place in the West. A win puts them one point up on Nashville, who's inactive tonight, and ties them with Buffalo for the league's top spot.
TSN is wrong, MacDonald gets the start on the heels of his first career win.
After Homer gets the Wings on the board on the PP, Forsberg reminds me of why I wouldn't want him in Detroit. Schneider reaches for the puck, "Floppa" uses his stick to push Schneider's stick into his own leg and falls down. Cheap play.
Ugh, Homer with his head up his ass, forgets to cover Richards on the SHG.
Penaties in the Third are killing us! Thank God for the wave off! Whoops spoke too soon! Even Philly can score on the PP when they have a quarter of the period to do it! 
Even Philly can score on the PP when they have a quarter of the period to do it!
With a full two-minute five-on-three. Have the Wings had one of those yet? Even if they have, their offense hasn't clicked at all so it's not like it would have mattered.
Ugh, Lidstrom's not allowed to touch Umberger and MacDonald can't be counted on to make the stop.
Oh hell we look like ass! Why is Babcock laughing on the bench? Ugh! Our one chance to tie Buffalo and it looks like we are going to blow it!
I'm turning it off, can't handle it when the Wings play like Rosanne Barr in a two-piece! To hell with Philly!
Second chance in a week that the Wings have had to pass Nashville and they're playing just as poorly as the first time.
Throw in the towel!
Flyers keep running MacDonald even with the game in hand. No wonder Eastern Conference teams hate these guys, what trash. Since running Leighton doesn't do anything as a response, start running Forsberg and ruin their trade chances, cost them an extra first-rounder.
Get a whistle!
Not that the skaters have done much good but I'm wondering if Howard should have started tonight.
and everyone wonders why detroit blows in the playoffs? its cuz of games like this and a coaches like babcock. When you get a chance to play the worst team in the league for first place in the conference over a team in your division, you dont lose, you especially dont get blown out...in one period. Put Howard in next time rather than laughing on the bench after your team falls behind by 4
Fire Babcock
I must say the wings did play pretty bad much like my habs of late. But.. firing Babcock isn't the answer.
I can see if your struggling for the last playoff spot but the Wings are in a pretty comfortable position.
Yeah, as much as I disagree with the way Babcock has done things at times (specifically, of course, never bitching about anything), lets see how this team does in one more playoff year before calling for his head.
Wings Vs. Flyers is the classic Wing meltdown. Hopefully they will learn something from this. To the Wings credit, however, I think the Flyers played a determined game, lots of checking, maybe even getting away with stuff that should have been called. But, all in all, if the Wings can learn something from this, I'll take the loss and move on. If they can't or won't learn anything -- SHAME ON THEM! Lets look ahead, not back, and hope that ifcoaching from Babcock is suspect, then HE learns something as well. I can't bear to think of another 1st round elimination. The only thing good about being eliminated in the first round like last year, is that the Eliminator, was the Oilers who went on to play a damn decent playoff series, only to lose in the Finals. GO WINGS! Learn from it, move on, and get determined!
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