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I would think all Preds fans feel that way. Dats has made the Preds his ***** for more than a decade now.

Ericsson's playstyle:

everyone pounds on Franzen in the regular season, and then come playoff time everybody is ready to bow down to him. Kinda laughable. With that said, I HATE HUDLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i like nyquist

franzen has to be a difference maker and he just isnt

Mmmmm Carrie Underwood.

Him coming off the bench last night was like a heat seeking missile to the Kings. Just BAM MOTHAf***A!!!

Janik. You have two tasks. Play solid defense and don't take penalties. Time for a shorty?

Can we call Zata, Flip, and Huddie the "two-and-a-half men line"?

I guess I missed it, but Mickey is making road games now?

the day that he retires from the nhl,will be the day that i start celebrating everytime i see a wings fan i go

Hopefully not Joey Mac.

Any chance that the reason you think the defense looks better is not necessarily that Ericsson is out, but rather that Quincey and Smith are in? Quincey and Smith is a better pair than Ericsson and Kindl, or Ericsson and Commodore. Not because there's a problem with Ericsson, Kindl, or Commodore, but that Quincey is just better than all of them?

So the defense looks better overall without Lidstrom and Ericsson in the lineup? Because both have been out the same games. you'd think the defense would be better with Lidstrom in the lineup. Weird.

Was there ever really a doubt that he would. Though some were heralding the demise of Henrik Zetterberg, in the not too distant past (one season ago) there was a guy who scored 80 pts. and was top ten or fifteen in the league in scoring. But have one slow season and the past is forgotten and all the "fans" hold you over the fire. Good on Zetterberg, but again, was there ever really a doubt?

While I agree with the premise of this post, the execution has been hilariously horrific.

going to man up and eat my crow on fil, i thought he would put up his usual numbers but he has really broken out offensively this year and has been simply outstanding.

He's good, but clearly not good enough to have his name spelt correctly. Which, in fairness, is no small request.

there you go. a few too many words in your original post.

Cleary has been damn near worthless the last 2 years. He just skates into the zone and then loses the puck in the corner, or takes a shot from below the face off circle, making any rush pointless. Mule is lazy and it's really annoying, but like everyone else has said, depending on his playoffs will mold more defining opinion. Bert I think looks decent, wish it was a 1 year contract instead of 2, but he's alright. I'm not sure all the Hudler hate, he looks like he is always working his ass off, but physically gets owned, and takes bad penalties, I just don't think it's for a lack of effort.

Don't like Hudler much anymore. He should be shooting more than passing and floating. Franzen IS lazy. He may have the most goals (?), but the point is, he could do more and play harder. He has the talent for it. I like Bert but he plays with one hand more than two (and just kind of pokes at the puck too often) and doesn't drive down the ice and/or toward the net often enough. As for Cleary, I don't agree with seemingly lots of you. I think for whatever reason he's snake-bit, as Mickey might say. He plays hard, drives the net, screens, hits on the boards and fights for the puck. But his timing just seems way off. It shows the most when he shoots at the net. Methinks if anything, he's trying too hard. Then again, I've always liked him.

I could really see this being Howard's year for the playoffs.

I think you're right. It's obviously hard to ***** about the guy's production over the past couple of years, especially given how much we pay for it. I think the real *****, at least for me anyway, is that except in rare circumstances, I've never believed that Franzen was the kind of guy who could take a game over and completely dominate. Obviously he's had a boat load of multiple point games, but that's not what I mean. I mean a guy that works so hard every shift, that opposition defenses have to match against him, have to spend time and effort to slow him down, or have to eat s*** if they don't. What's frustrating is that it's not that he doesn't have the skill set to do it, but rather, he's just kind of lazy. To me, what makes Pav, Z, and more and more often Filppula, so dangerous is that they are skilled enough to beat you themselves, but also because you have to take them seriously on every shift, they open the ice up for their linemates. I think Franzen could play that way, but sadly doesn't. I think he's the beneficiary of a lot of hard work from the other guys. And again, you could say this about a lot of people, but in most cases they're limited by a lack of pure skill. A limit Franzen doesn't have. Don't get me wrong, 25-30 goals a year is nice, and for the money it's wonderful. But 25-30 goals a year that commands a defensive response, and makes everyone around him better would be much nicer. And the only thing stopping Franzen from being a guy like that, is Franzen himself...which is just sort of, frustrating. Basically, I see a guy who is already effective, but with a more consistent effort could be a Cory Perry or Shane Doan type guy. Somebody who's an absolutely beast to play against every night. Lord knows I'd love to see that.

Now he's a classic case of getting the big contract and turning in performances. As soon as he reached the top 6 and got his 11 year contract or whatever it was, he hit the off switch on his effort. So what he got a goal and an assist last night, that doesn't make up for his complete lack of effort the past 15 games or so. I'd rather see Franzen be a consistant player that shows his talents on a regualar basis like Datsyuk. It pisses me off that he doesn't care about the regular season cause that's how you get a better spot in the playoffs. Do any of you really want to see the Wings make it to the WCF to face probably the Canucks and lose on the road as they love to do and with all the hometown calls for the Canucks as well? Didn't think so. That's why we need Franzen to put in a little more ******* effort on a regular basis to get the Presidents Trophy and take home ice through the playoffs to the SCF. The Wings will not win a series in which they do not have home ice advantage, mark my words.

He was certainly nice to the Islanders tonight by not scoring on any of his golden chances against them.