Time of the Season

I'm sick of discussing the Game Three loss. We played like crap, we deserved to lose, let's move on.

Let's look ahead to tonight's game. Just like before Game Two, I have a good feeling about this one. I'll list my reasons:

1. Dropping both at home is the most un-Red Wings thing there is. I told someone at work before Game Three that I couldn't see Phoenix taking a single game from us at home. Obviously, I was wrong, but that was because only Henrik Zetterberg showed up for that game. We won't lose Game Four. The whole team knows that this city, their fans are relying on them and they know they can't let us down.

2. Babcock obviously had to rip the Wings a new one. When they get yelled at, they play a hell of a lot better. Remember back in December when Draper got up in the locker room and said that being a Red Wings meant playing with pride, and they weren't playing with enough pride? It straightened us out for a little while and maybe Babs' yelling will help that, at least for Game Four. And maybe it'll carry over for Game Five.

3. Babcock hasn't used the line of, "I think we played well, but _____." And has instead opted for the, "We played like shit." But, you know, in more of a PR-friendly way.

4. Speaking of Babcock, when I was walking into my brother's house today, my parents were watching Local 4 news and they were showing his postgame press conference. He said something along the lines of, "We're here to win. That's what we do in this city." When he has that mentality, he can get through to anyone. He should just pretend he's trying to win a gold medal...

5. Nicklas Lidstrom is pissed at himself, at the team, at everything that happened to his team on Sunday. This is the six-time Norris trophy winner [six times in the past nine years, plus a couple nominations in there] who was a -3 on Sunday, which like the Free Press said today, is like a -14 for a human. He will not take that lightly and he will vent his frustration on the ice tonight for the better.

My list of things that we need to do to win:

1. Tighter defense. If I say that, the Wings' defense will think it's opposite day. So I'll just think it and send it telepatically to you. Also, keep up the good penalty-killing. That's always helpful.

2. Shoot high on Bryzgalov. I noticed in Game Three that there was literally nothing open from the pads down. Look at where Franzen's goal went in: up above his shoulders. So they should pretend like they're shooting on Roberto Luongo and aim for the glove or pretend like they're shooting on Cristobal Huet and shoot everywhere because there's a good chance that it will go in. Also, pounce on rebounds. Look at how much that helped us in Game Two - we got free curly fries because of it.

3. Be more physical. Dear Kronwall, where is your patented Kronwalling? Dear Bertuzzi, where the fuck has your physical play been all season? Dear Datsyuk, play like you want a form of checking known forevermore as "the Datsyukian check." Dear Mule, throw your weight around a little. Dear Howard, jump out to cover the puck and take out another Phoenix player.

4. Get Homer into his office [yes i drew that]. Hell, have Datsyuk break his stick and instead of going to the bench, just stand in front of the net like the end of Game Three. Get Bryz moving around the giant body in front of him, trying to nudge Homer away while Lidstrom takes a shot from the point and the puck goes right past him into the back of the net.

This series is far from being over. Let's not lose all hope just yet, people.

[PS - A re-drawing of that comic will be coming sometime soon since I have a tablet now and can make it pretty like this one.]