I sure hope we went with the 6th attacker at the START of the Ducks penalty.
Needed to go for it all........no holding back......

Wings almost pulled it out, but "almost" doesn't count.

imagine if they played as hard all game as they did the last few minutes...

Maybe it was all due to "preventive defense" by Anaheim? I think we all agree that the series was lost in the last minute of the game 5 in Detroit. Just like Pistons lost to Spurs on 3 by Horry.

Talkin bout a heart pounder...good effort in the final 3 minutes but once again, JS ends the Red Wings season.

That dang Barry Melrose said that the Ducks would win this series before the first puck was dropped.

The Wings blew some opportunites in this series losing games that they should have won, 2, 4 and 5. Heck that shorthanded goal given up tonight and the 4th goal were killers.

Now I guess I will pull for the local Ducks to win the Cup,
Next year...the wings get older and the window is shutting.....

I don't think it was necessarily JS that ended the season. He didn't score that goal in the game 5 and he didn't come out flat in the elimination game. But besides that, maybe Wings watched too much Pistons ball and picked the bad habits?
As far as finals, I don't have particular interest, but I hate Pronger and will be rooting for Ottawa to win it all. Give Canada at least something to cheer about in sports.

It's difficult to watch hockey here in the Virgin Islands, where I live. I saw a couple of games this series (games 1 and 4) at a sports bar that has a satellite dish. Tonight, I could not get to that sports bar, and was not even able pick up the radio feed (with Ken and Paul) on nhl.com. I was reduced to just watching the 30 second updates on yahoo sports, which is an awful way to "watch" a hockey game.

What happened on the short-handed goal? Was it a breakaway? Soft goal? That had to be an enormous downer on the team.

And what happened on the Ducks' fourth goal, which came a minute or so after the Wings scored their second?

I also wondered about the Datsyuk penalty in game 5, which can really be regarded as the turning point in the series. Reading about it reminded me of Marty Lapointe's third period interference penalties that cost us a playoff series we were supposed to have won six years ago or so. I did not see any replays of the contact that led to the interference call. Many have criticized it as a bad call, but a few have also described it a a "bad" penalty on Datsyuk's part. He is a great player, and has been a big part of the Wings' success this season, so it would be bad form to harp on one mistake (if it was a mistake). But what exactly transpired? Was he trying to tie up a player who might have gotten loose for a breakaway? Or was it purely incidental contact?

He nudged a guy while coming back during Anaheim's players going towards Wings zone. There wasn't much contact, but nowadays they can call anything. Just a minute before that Anaheim interfered with Samuellson but since Anaheim was already short-handed they didn't call a penalty. You have to be aware of the situation and it wasn't just Datsyuk's penalty. It was also going 0 for 8 on powerplay, not clearing the puck out of the zone in the last minute, and turning the puck over near your own goal in the overtime.

Great job wings. I'm very proud of you!

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Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

Roscoe, we are proud. But there is some sense of underachieving. Although I have to admit that Wings managed to pull the same trick on SJ Anaheim pulled on Wings with a last minute goal and overtime win. I think this team was capable of going all the way, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.