Since no one has started one yet, I thought that I would. Of course, the Wings easily won game 1 against the Flames 4-1. But what was surprising was the way that they did it. They beat Calgary at their own game by out-hitting them. Whenever the Flames tried to hit the Wings, Detroit got the puck to the open man for an easy scoring chance. When the Wings did the same thing, it usually resulted in a turnover for Calgary. I hope they can keep this up, but I don't know. Wings in 6 since Calgary plays very well at home.

Just seen on ESPN news that Bertuzzi is out for game 2. I hope he gets well soon I think he could be a HUGE key for the Wings chances this year.

Mickey Redmond had a great point about how the Wings were intiating contact, so when they did make contact, it really didn't mess with the Wings too much.

When Bertuzzi comes back, who would you want the Wings to sit?

The favorites to go are Jiri Hudler and Valterri Filpulla(sp?). Out of those two I think I would sit Filpulla, because Hudler can really do it all(score, pass, PK) while Filpulla is more just a goal scorer IMO.

I would like to see Hudler stay in the lineup, I think Samuuleson has a chance to ride the pine when Bert comes back.

The Wings are off to a great start in Game 2. They're taking it to the Flames and forcing them to make all kinds of stupid penalties. After the 1st, it's 2-0, but it easily could have been 4-0 at this point.

Well, the Wings ended up winning 3-1, but it got kinda scary in the 2nd period. What's up with Filppula? He's now tied for the team lead with 2 goals in the playoffs. Now, if they can only get the 2nd line going.

Even though the Wings have a 2-0 game advantage, the Flames goalie Krippusoff scares the daylights out of me. He is a terrific goalie, and is gonna steal a game or two for the Flames before this series is over. I just hope I am wrong about that.

The Wings have dominated this series. They've out-hit the Flames and controlled the speed of the game. Babcock did one hell of a scouting report on the Flames. Allowing them to only get off 12 shots on Hasek is awesome. The Wings have out-shot the Flames by 62 SOG!!! I believe that's a playoff record for the first two games in the playoffs.

Does anybody else have a problem with this exclusive rights contract Versus has for playoff games? They have Games 1 and 4 for this series against the Sharks as well as the exclusive rights to their choices for games in the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals (not sure how many though). In the paper today it said that 39% of Metro Detroit does not have the stupid network, meaning the NHL basically alienated almost half of a dedicated market (myself included). This and the little hooking penalties are driving me nuts.

How many games are on cbc?

Man, they played like crap last night and they deserved to lose. Here's to hoping we show up and play like the Red Wings we know on Saturday.

King Dave, I think Versus should have exclusive rights for the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals, but not for games in the 1st and 2nd rounds. That's the way it was back when ESPN had the NHL rights. Luckily, I get the station unlike some people.

As for the CBC question, they will televise every game of the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals, like always. Last night, they didn't air the Wings-Sharks game because a Canadian team was playing at the same time (Sens-Devils).

I'm really not very upset about Game 1. Other than the first ten minutes when the Sharks took a 2-0 lead, the Wings out-played them the rest of the way. Unfortunately, they couldn't put the puck in the net, but they had more shots and many more quality scoring chances. Eventually, Nabokov is going to cave in (like he always does). In addition, San Jose really isn't a very good home team, so home ice doesn't mean very much. It's going to be a long, tough series, but the Wings should prevail in 6 or 7.

We must have watched a different game sly, lol.

The Wings got owned during the first period. The 2nd and 3rd periods were good play by the Wings, but they couldn't capitalize on PPs or get any quality shots.

They ended up having to settle for slappers from the blue line with guys out of position for rebounds. They had a half dozen rebounds that should have been for and pushed in during the 2nd and 3rd periods. Unfortunately, it seemed like all the bounces went the other way. The Wings always looked out of position on rebounds.

The Sharks defense was very impressive. They went into defensive mode for the 2nd and 3rd periods for the most part, kept their lines fresh, and look to be in better physical shape for a 7 game series, if necessary. They did an excellent job at clearing the puck after shots and limiting rebounds.

They didn't out-hit the Sharks, but played to their intensity, rather than taking it to them.

Hasek is overrated and got good defensive help.

Hats off to the Sharks for playing a great game, even though I was pissed the whole night, but the Stones owned the Magic, so I was less pissed.

C02, what I was trying to say is that the Wings controlled the puck for the majority of the game. This started shortly after the Sharks took a 2-0 lead, but I agree that they got totally owned for the first half of the 1st period. I know that San Jose went into defensive mode after that, but it was nice to see the Wings getting as many chances as they did. Unfortunately, there were too many blocked shots and they had trouble getting to the rebounds, but that should change. I didn't come away from that game thinking that the Wings didn't have a chance in the series.