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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:

Can't be mad with the effort. These guys are a good hockey team. Keep plugging and get one in the third.

Imagine if Franzen actually played in the regular season. You know, like everyone else on the team? He's paid to play them all. Last year he clocked out during the regular season and got injured in the playoffs, so he wasn't worth jack.

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.

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

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?

I'd really like to go out and watch the game but i have to spend a quiet evening at home with the (sighs) wife. http://download.lardlad.com/sounds/season10/mayor21.mp3

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.

Do you really think he'd have a regular spot in the lineup if every other play he was making a mistake? He doesn't make mistakes anywhere near that percentage of the time because if he did he'd be out of the NHL. So the pretty clear answer is it has something to do with your perception of things, not Ericsson's actual play. But then I guess we all baselessly bash players sometimes.

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?

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.

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.

We signed Franzen early in 2009 if I recall correctly. Hossa signed with Chicago July 1st. It took one day for Chicago to deal with Hossa. I guarantee that we could have come to terms with Hossa had we not signed Franzen. And even if we didn't, we would have had plenty of time to sign Franzen if talks broke down with Hossa. There was zero chance of losing both. There was no reason to sign Franzen so early. It was a complete blunder by Holland, and I'm no Holland basher. And yes, I forgot about his off season shoulder surgery. You're still not going to not sign elite talent just because they're going to miss a few months in the beginning of the season. And we got to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals with an injured team with much less motivation than Pittsburgh after winning the cup the year before. Hossa, while maybe not scoring as many goals as expected had some key goals and played well. People need to stop blaming him. Our entire team broke down after winning the first two games of the finals.

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