NO EASY ANSWERS

Ed note: Thucks= Thug + Ducks. I’m thinking of organizing a petition drive to get the team’s name officially changed…right after I finish my campaign/petition drive to force Manny Ramirez to stop wearing the No. 99….

Wings-Ducks: Western Semis. Game 4 on deck.

I wrote two different blogs after Tuesday night’s loss to the Thucks and trashed them both. I ranted about Hossa’s “no goal” goal, and the ridiculous officiating and the brutality of the Thucks constant barrage of dirty hits, crushing boards and blatant elbows, high sticks and whining lies about Homer.

I saw it all from the cheap seats in the Honda Center: Section 414, Row G, Last Tuesday. Saw more than I wanted to. Didn’t see Hossa’s goal though. There were 8-10 security guards blocking my view as they forced escorted three Thuck fans from the stadium for throwing cups and other garbage at Wings fans and fighting.

Oh I had it all laid out in perfect narrative Elizabethan prose: the injustice, the robbery, the Somalian piracy.

But in the end, even I was more annoyed than swayed by my whining…and still left wondering how to combat the issues Wings have dealt with in these last two games.

Simply put, there is no end to the injustices suffered by the Wings and Red Wings fans in Anaheim on Tuesday night, and in the end there is only one thing that matters:

Finding a way to overcome all the obstacles. Because that is what a true champion does.

A True Champion Finds A Way To Persevere, Keeps Fighting And Wins In The Face Of All Injustice, Bad Luck, Adversity and Somali Piracy.

That is what the Wings have to do tonight. That is what they can do. That is what I believe they will do. The question is "how?".

Here are the things I think the Wings have to accomplish tonight in order to win:

Quality Shots, Not Quantity

Everyone is making a stink about the number of shots Jonas Hiller is facing, but I was there, I saw it for myself, 87% of the Wings shots on net were ABSOLUTE GARBAGE.

Sorry. It had to be said. My brother and I watched Hiller almost scoff at some of the “saves” he had to "make". I believe we saw him laugh as he kicked one away... laugh at the Red Wings? Someone better make him pay.

A few garbage shots a period are fine, btu we need quality chances. To be fair, part of it is a function of the Wings' style of play. Wings are not a "dump and run" team, they prefer to “dump” on net rather than the boards, because you never know when one might just sneak in. So some of their dumps are counted in the excessive SOGs Hiller seems to be facing. But actual scoring chances versus SOGs? Entirely different numbers indeed.

What was disconcerting to me in Game 2, Triple OT and Game 3 is that the Wings had breakaways and scoring chances and they should have lit Hiller up. He’s just NOT that good. I’m sorry, its true. Some of their best chances looked half hearted surprises. We did not take good shots. Plain and simple.

We have to expect to put the biscuit in the basket and try harder for better scoring opportunities. And we must:

Get A Frickin’ Rebound

Please please please, someone find a way to get a frickin’ rebound. I don’t know if this is a function of the Thucks defense or not. It’s been a repetitive lament of mine over the course of the season. Wings have not fought for the rebound this year except on a rare occasions.

But I am telling you this- When the Wings get their own rebounds, they win games. And Hiller is not prepared to fight a one-two punch. Which leads me to my next concern:

Babs: Won’t You Please Just Try A Eurotwin Line, Just Once Or Twice?

Oh pretty please with don cherry on top? I mean, what can it hurt? You have tried every other line combo possible in these last two games, why not give us Z and D when we need a go ahead goal? You know as well as I, that when Z and D are on a line together they produce. That's just. The way. It is.

And while I am on it:

Does Anyone Besides Me Worry That Continual Line Change Ups Disrupts The Team And They Never Get A Good Flow Going?

With the Wings I see that they settle and take control of their games when they can settle into their own style of play. I see the ability to do this disrupted when the lines are constantly being juggled. I understand I am NOT a NHL coach, nor am I Mike Babcock’s alter ego, and its highly presumptuous of me to second guess him, but here is the thing. In the beginning of the season Babs played with the lines, and we never got a hustle or a flow going. We lost a lot of the games where Babs played with lines.

And finally, the one observation for which I have no solution is:

The Wings Must Find A Way To Avoid The Ducks Strategy Of Crushing Our Boys Off The Puck And Must Avoid The Box

What kind of thucking loser team is so lacking in talent that when it can’t keep up with speed or skill it decides to resort to nothing other than brutal hits to take their opponent off the puck? Only one team that I can think of: the Mighty Mighties.

Games 2 and 3 both started out with the Thucks playing the only style they have available to them: chase the faster Wing with the puck down the ice and then crush him, brutally and often illegally OFF the puck. It must just be brutal to suffer this.

“Randy lay there like a slug, it was his only defense.”

While it might be tempting to take a “Christmas Story” route in dealing with the brutality of the Thucks, it won’t win games. Neither will stooping to their thuckery or taking stoopid penalties.

But I understand the urge. To fight, not lay like a slug. Of course, I am feisty.

I have sat for two games wondering: How the hell do you overcome that style of play???? The Wings tried a few things: they avoided the check/boarding in order to keep the puck behind the boards. If they were lucky there wasn’t a second Thuck coming from the other side of the net to finish the job Thuck No. 1 failed at. Is there any other team in the League that double teams checks with such immunity? Its sickening.

Wings also tried completely revamped their game driving only past the blue line into Duck territory and working in the center of the zone, and to some degree that worked in game 3, but damn, it never got us in a position to take a good shot.

Other than these things, I don’t know what works against this Thuck team. Neither did SJ….Oh wait…one more thing:

Ozzie was brilliant for keeping the puck moving behind his own net so that we could get something generated down ice. Keep it up Oz, Nobody Beast the Wiz! Heck, most of the time I feel like you are the only thing keeping us in this series. (THIS IS NOT A CRITICISM OF ANY WING- TO REPEAT THIS IS NOT A CRITICISM. I think the entire Wings team is working as hard as they can and trying to find a way to play an entirely different game than their own and I see each player working his heart out on the ice.)

Do or Die Game 4?

Some would indeed say. I do think this is a crucial game. And I think my Wings will come out with a game plan and win. I know it. I believe in it. I believe in them. How do I think they can do it? Better shots, grab the rebounds, settle into productive lines, the reunion of the Eurotwins, find a way not to get pummeled off the puck and stay out of the box.

Piece of cake. Right? I think Homer said it best:

"It's the playoffs, it's supposed to be tough, It's supposed to hurt."

Post mortem:

Speaking of Homer… Greg Whine-inski and Coach Crylyle have been making the media rounds with allegations that they “know” Tomas Holmstrom intentionally elbowed Whiney as he fell after being struck with the puck. Curious though, since this is Whine-inski’s actual quote:

"I was kind of out of it the whole time I was skating around. I looked back and I see it was a blatant elbow when I was hunched over coughing up blood, not even battling,'' Wisniewski said. "So it shows a little bit of a gutless play by one of their players.''

So what he has said is that although the young lying scumbag was “out of it the whole time” the one thing he vividly, clearly recalls is “looking back” and seeing a “blatant elbow”…

Of course you did you pansy-assed lily-livered mealy-mouthed deucebag.

Amazing that you could gather your wits about you while “out of it the whole time” to “look back” at a guy who was in front of you and see a “blatant elbow”.

Let’s try the whiner’s credibility in a court of law shall we? If it looks like a thuck and smells like a thuck its exaggerating and lying like a Thuck.