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I've seen a few of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoff commercials they have started playing, but I had not seen this one yet. I saw it on NHL.com today. Pretty cool they are singling Dats out...he deserves it. Even though we're stuck in a rut, slumping beyond belief, and guys are dropping like flies...watching this commercial gave me that feeling. You know, THAT feeling that even though all this is going on...you never know what's going to happen and it still feels like this should be our year. I for one am ready for the post season tournament to start. There is no hockey like playoff hockey. http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?hcatid=1083&id=166165

im not coming on here anymore, always some bad news.

Yeah bring up Mrazek.

With all the injuries, someone should call Osgood and Rafalski to know how they are feeling.

Homer is a warrior, but his game is playing off of players like Z or Dats. He's not a 4th liner, hence the lack of identity. Cleary could be a beast down there and give his brand of gritty game on the 4th line, plus I think he'd be man enough to accept that role as well. The analogy of the car, whilst quaint and eloquent, is misleading. It suggests that when we lose one piece the others fall apart. It's more like taking the four wheels to be Dats, Lids, Z, Howie (say for arguments sake) then when they're injured replacing them with a milk crate, a corner section of Scalextric track, an overused VHS of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, and a Fast Break. I know I'm being flippant, but the current situation isn't like we're a crap team who utterly, completely must have them to function whilst other teams can deal with it, it's simply that we're stacked with injuries at the moment and the players who are being asked to come in and replace them either haven't developed yet or are severely inexperienced. In short, they're just DIFFERENT pieces. Whoever it was that said teams like the Pens don't fail like this, I'd like to see them without star centre Crosby AND top scorer Malkin... AND starting goaltender Fleury for that matter........ AND a top-line defencemen like Orpik. Because that's what we've been going through. Not to mention we had players like Bert out (so say, take out Staal there), Helm now.... We're simply injured. It's a bit of a kick in the face to say that without a few certain parts this team isn't worth jack. I miss Aaron Downey

This is nuts.

I'm gonna skip the car analogies and get to my point lol The wings are built in a way that when a top guy or 2 gets hurt they completely suck. They dont have the personel in the bottom 6 to switch up the system a bit and play a more rugged style of game necessary when youre using bottom guys to win. Look at the pens, whenever they have top guys hurt they rally and seem to do just as good as they did before because they play a pretty rugged dump and chase style of game outside of the top few guys. I dont think Babcock has the guys to start playing that way when you only have one good scoring line. A Gaustad or Moen in the bottom would be a good start. People always comment when I complain about the bottom 6 saing if thats the worst thing than who cares and think I make a big deal about it, but its true. The wings have 2 good puck possession lines and than 2 lines with no identity. If we had a couple more Helm and Abdelkaders it would make the bottom 6 more effective on the forecheck/ grind it out game and when top guys go down a little tweak away from the skille puck possession game would be possible

I had too

All of this Homer hate in here is just pathetic. You are all sad people.

Being a shop owner and mechanic I tend to see life through the guise of cars in very odd ways. Ive noticed that our team has been assembled as a well oil machine with each player providing a very focused action to the overall machine. Each player is a small gear in a very complex watch and if one gear fails, the machine ceases to function. I have noticed that certain car makes are built the same way. Some companies build the Ultimate driving machine, much like the Wings. In good repair there is little that can stop such a well defined and sorted mechanism. Each piece is in place to support every other piece with little leeway for failure. German cars are built like this. They work awesome until there is a small problem. At this point things go south quickly and repairs take a long time and are typically very costly. A Chevy on the other hand has its share of failures but you can typically drive for a while until there is a bit of time to get it fixed. When its in for repair, most of the time its not going to break the bank and even expensive repairs are fairly rare. I tend to look at the team in a way that we have a hard to repair and very expensive team when parts need replacing. Instead of having a robust system that can interchange parts and are easy to fix or replace, we have custom pieces that take months or years to obtain. If we were in a car we would hate what we are driving. Theres a fine line between exotic performance and heavy duty horsepower but when you compare it to hockey it becomes clear that heavy duty trumps high end precision every day of the week, especially when we are in an endurance race. Corvettes have won the 24hr of LeMans not because they are on the cutting edge of technology but because they use a well know system and hone them to compete while also being bullet proof at hour 23. I think our team needs more honed yet traditional engineering instead of a highly strung and very fragile powertrain that fails in horrific succession once a main part breaks. I appologise for the car analogies but like I said, I see most things as a comparison to them. So, do we need to build a more traditional engine with some hop up parts or is F1 performance the only way to a championship?

They should put Mrazek in and see what he can do. I know he's young, but he's the team's best goalie prospect. Giving him a small taste of NHL action would let him know what level he needs to reach. It worked pretty well for Howard during a similar injury crisis back in 2005.

Can the Wings just get healthy please

homer is done guys. lets be honest. he doesn't have the effect he used to. his reputation gets him in trouble and his ailing body can't handle the pace of the game.

A truly new perspective on the phrase "March Madness."

Do these types of comments feel as silly coming out as they sound to those of us reading them. Holland doesn't know how to win? Babcock is a lap dog? Geesh...lighten up already, the team has a few little problems to fix in the off season when they don't have to over spend. All their other problems are injury related. Nuff said.

Call up my boy McCollum! Then I can buy a new bottle of scotch and enjoy watching our first round matchup against Vancouver.

You see, this is the problem: Too many naive fans give Holland WAY too much credit. He actually deserves very little. He's an overrated, pretty incompetent GM, if you ask me. Tell me why he deserves so much credit? Because he was able to fleece other teams in the pre-cap era, and even then his trades were hit and miss. Maybe because he inherited a Scotty Bowman coached team and promptly reaped the benefits..and glory. Ken Holland has done very little for this team, but they win so he gets a lot of the credit. The good decisions he makes are ones any competent GM would make, but the bad ones, and there are many, he gets a pass on. The big problem with Holland, besides his insistence on turning the NHL into a no-contact sport, is that he was a goalie; he has no real understanding of what it takes to win a physical sport. After Bowman retired and he was eventually able to get his loyal lap dog(Mike Babcock) in place, he promptly started to reshape the Red Wings in his image --- soft! The only reason we saw the acquisitions of Drake and Downey in '08 was because of all the negative reaction and feedback from fans of the season before. Remember that team? Possibly the softest team I have ever seen in my life. This team has a ton of skill, but no heart or grit. That will not get it done in the NHL. Our coach is also an overrated buffoon, but boy do fans love him. I don't understand it? It's easy to with a talented team when they are healthy, but a coaches true worth is measured in how he handles adversity. We have all seen how Mike Babcock handles adversity, haven't we?

See, it's not about which car breaks down and how many parts it takes for the car to break down, it's about who's willing to get out and push when it breaks down and right now there aren't very many "parts" to this team that are willing to get out and push until we can get all of our parts back in place.

One thing about Homer is that he is on the 4th line, which is not a good 4th line to begin with. After thinking about it last night, I think Homer would still be effective playing on the top line with Pavs and Hank. On the 4th line he has to skate a lot more and try to play plays with the puck a lot more... that is not his game at all. Playing with Pavs and Hank on the top line would allow him to play his game... which is retrieving pucks (he is still very good at this) and pass it right off to Pavs or Z and then go to the front of the net... that is his game and he is still good at that. Overall I just feel that Babcock is not using his players properly enough this year... usually he is a lot better at making line decisions but not this year. The 4th line is bad because Homer is on it and Homer is bad because he is on the 4th line. There is no reason that, the lines should look like this: Zetterberg- Datsyuk- Homer Franzen- Filpulla- Hudler/ Bertuzzi Miller- Abdelkaor- Hudler/ Bertuzzi Cleray- Emmerton- Mursak I think the top 2 lines would be able to both produce and control play, the 3rd line would be able to do hard work and chip in some offence, and the small addition to Cleary on the 4th line makes it a little more defensively responsible. I feel that these lines would provide the best chance for the Wings.

Just can't agree. Homer gives to this team what he is asked. Terrible skater? Not in his role. Clutch and grab? Not in his role (anymore). Penalties (In everyone's role, but way down this year as to previous seasons - 60, 62, 32 so far this year). Provides the distraction in front of the net that Detroit needs. Like it or not, he's not a sniper, grinder, hitter, fighter, etc... he's a wall meant to be in front of the goalie and tip shots. That is Tomas Holmstom's role.

17 pts, +12 in 10 games. Pretty impressive after all the time he's missed. What he showed before getting hurt last year and in the small sample size this year, no one is even close offensively. He's good defensively as well, just not the best. Why do so many people try to argue defensive ability is so much more important than offensive when you are talking about best all-around forward? I can understand when you are talking about a one-dimensional player, but he's not. Another point of reference....the players voted him the best a few weeks ago even though he had only played 8 games a few months before the poll.

yep, pretty much.

The ONLY point is that by no means do I think they moved Commodore for the purpose of signing Danny. They didn't need to do it, and therefore by that logic alone you should not infer that Commodore was moved for him. Plus all the evidence that the Wings were talking to teams about adding players after the Commodore trade also negates it. I have no problem with the article for talking about adding Danny. If you read my postings at all you'd know that. I am simply saying there is no reason to make Holland out to be some sort of genius for this. If Commodore was still on the team, Holland would still be trying to sign Danny. You have to admit that, and everyone has to see that. I have no high horses, but I do have some common sense.

same coach, same system, and a lot of the same players. how long would it take, really?

Anyone remember when Crosby won the cup and how NHL.com went crazy?