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I thought the Wings played well considering what they had. Conklin played very well.

Then Piss off and stop watching.

and here come the trolls lol

It looks like Datsyuk was brought back too soon. They better rest him if it means getting him healthier for the playoff round.

We are an injury depleted team with a 2nd/3rd string goalie and we played a heck of a game against the best in the East. I'm happy and proud of our guys!

People here trash Franzen, then suggest Alexander freaking Semin? Really? Semin is softer, has fewer points, and makes way more money. I'll pass. Suter would be great. As would Parise. It should be easy to make one work, but would be hard to make both work. However, as has been mentioned, there's a fair amount of uncertainty with regards to the CBA, so who knows.

Cleary is so freakin useless it makes me sick.

Yes please. I'm tired of Babs putting the laziest players with Dats in the hopes that he will magically turn it into a good line, which often he does. Z and Flip and Nyquist look really good though. Nyquist needs to keep playing.

What about now? Any positive feelings? Hey, just asking since so many people, including the OP, were so down about the game.

I disagree, this is the time he should be up. You have no idea if Lidstrom is returning. This time I don't feel a player should rot in the AHL.

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.

Guys you dont get it... it isn't that the Wings brought Pavs back too early... he is fully recovered... the problem is that it takes 4-5 games for a returning player to get into game form. Sitting him wont help at all... he needs to play so that he can get his legs going where they should be along with his confidence. Having said that, it would help if Babs would give him some SUPPORT.

Yeah, it's pretty poor when a veteran like Kronwall gets burned so easily by Richards. With Lidstrom out, he has to step up and prove he can be a number one defenseman who can lead a team. Instead, he pulls that s***.

Great game by Conklin - better solid effort all around. Must say, thats the worst game Ive ever seen Pavel Datsyuk play. Mishandling pucks, losing races, errant passes - and missing assignments on the backcheck (most notably the GWG). Ah well, its to be expected - even of a superfreak like Pav, a month off with put some rust on ya. 2 or 3 games Im sure hell be flying again. Bert looked absolutley awful tonight too - just no chemistry on that line at all. That said, Zetterberg looked absolutely great and Nyquist performed well also.

Cleary needs to be on the 4th line the rest of the season. Get Mursak up one line and stop playing him with two useless players.

Even though it was a loss, it still was a heck of a game. Here's to the Wings carrying that same energy for the next few games and the playoffs!

Conkblocker standing tall on that sequence. Let's Go Wings!

What do you expect from a Sparty

FIFY Richards had all day and the whole ice to make it happen. Look at all that space he had.

Would you rather talk about the teams awesome play as of late?

That's simply your opinion. Logic would dictate that if a forward spent more time in the offensive zone and less time in the neutral zone or his own zone, he would see an increase in points. Someone scoring 130-150 points a year would see a pretty strong increase in offensive numbers if they played a more offensive minded game. Nice snarky answer. For all the big offensive numbers Crosby puts up, he hasn't finished with more than a +20. In fact, when he won the Art Ross in '07 he finished with one of the lowest +/- totals in the history of the NHL for a recipient of that award. In '09 he had 103 points and was just a +3. Even the year he scored 109 points and led the league in goals, he finished with just a +15. Seems to me, if he's good defensively, with all the points he accumulates, shouldn't his +/- be much higher? Datsyuk was able to finish with a +41 in a year he scored 97 points. A +36 in a year when he got 87 points. Now comes the part where you say "plus minus doesn't matter", but those 20 seconds Crosby plays at the end of a penalty kill against a teams 2nd PP unit means more. Datsyuk has 3 Selke trophies, good for 2nd all time. Crosby hasn't even been close to a nomination.

Yes! 6th place is within reach, Chicago is just 2 pts behind woohoo ...

I did mean the 2009 2010 stats and the entire premise was simply to dispel the notion that Crosby can't hold Datsyuk's jock defensively. He is a center and to be successful at the position he has to have some amount of defensive awareness and ability. He wouldn't, because even with abandoning defensive play he couldn't touch either of their single season records in points. There is a reason nobody has. Points aren't everything, but they do mean a lot. I came up with them by looking at the stats.

Why does Datsyuk have to have more points than Crosby in order to be considered to be the best player in the league? Datsyuk gives up points to play defense. Crosby does not. This an old argument. One that used to involve Yzerman and Lemieux and Gretzky. Who's better? A player with 199 points and doesn't play defense? Or a player that gets 155 points and helps prevent the puck from going into his own net? I don't necessarily know if there's a right answer to this, it really comes down to preference. The people that think Datsyuk is better believe that if he played Crosby's kind of game, he would have more points, while if Crosby played Datsyuk's style, he wouldn't do as well as Datsyuk is now. Personally, I think Datsyuk is better because he's more valuable when going for a championship. Defense plays a huge part in the playoffs and scoring machines typically get slowed down in the postseason.

I am glad that Theo is man enough to come forward and publically deal with this. Some men would not be strong enough to do so.